One of my grandsons goes to a very, very posh private school and is always set, at aged 6, some very interesting homework projects. This half term he has to find people who lived in the 1950s and find out what life was like.
Well he found them. But we found it hard to explain TV.
1. Grandma did not have one till 1963. Grandad had one before that (he came from a posh family)
2. TV did not turn on till late afternoon and stopped for an hour for the country to sit down for evening meal.
3. TV was black and white in the early part of the 1950s. In fact we did not have a colour TV till 1971 (after we were married 3 years)
4. You went to the cinema or local church hall to watch cartoons on a Saturday morning. Followed by a "cowboy" film or Lone Ranger type for the older kids.
Other things we did not have?
No washing machine. We had a boiler and a mangle.
Clothes did not stretch. They were cotton or wool. There was no denim.
No central heating. We kept the clothes near the bed, dressed under the blankets and ran like hell down stairs to where the paraffin heater might be on if we were lucky.
We did not go on holiday. Went on days out on the train. Grandad had holidays taken all over in a car (they WERE posh).
What did you do after school? School ended at 4pm none of this barely 3pm nonsense.
We read books. Hundreds and hundreds. We went to the library or had books from school library.
We played board games. Grandad listened to Dick Barton on the radio.
We played out till the sun set. Summers were long and hot and the winters cold and frosty and it often snowed. We rode our bikes everywhere.
We made things. Sewing, woodwork, anything we could find. Trollies were made one summer for racing down the hills. We took part in concerts. Some did a lot of sport (not me).
We walked every other Sunday 5 miles to my Aunt's house for tea and 5 miles back in the evening as a family, talking, laughing, looking at things. Winter we went less often and it depended if we had spare money for the train or buses to bring us half way back.
Grandson has gone off the conference call to have a think about that. It was all a bit too much for his imagination!!
You are so right when you say too much for their imagination because I believe that's what is missing. Our playtime was mostly imaginative, we didn't have all the contraptions of modernity. A bit of dirt, water and a stick became lots of different things for hours and hours. The art of imagination disappeared somewhere along the road.
ReplyDeleteAh sticks. We had 3 boys and always had a car boot full of valuable , must be kept, sticks from every walk!
DeleteA fascinating project. My grandaughter had to interview me as to what it was like to emigrate to another country. That was in the 60's. Made me think about the whole process from her perspective!
ReplyDeleteThat must have been interesting trying to explain what you left behind and what you missed most.
DeleteI can just see the look on his face as you explained things to him. I know we had a TV when I was young, and when coloured TV's came out Dad bought a sheet of plastic that was green on the bottom, red in the middle and blue on top (green for grass, red to colour people, and the blue for the sky). It really was a very different world back then.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
You explained the 50s very well. When we got a TV in about 1952 it was tiny (10 inch screen?) and of course black and white, and neighbors came over to watch with us.
ReplyDeleteThank you for some lovely memories from your childhood. I remember black and white Tv and loved the childrens programmes that were on in the 60's (my era)! I do remember having a happy childhood, simple and imaginative play and riding my blue bike. Hope your grandson manages to get to grips with all your wonderful social history.
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