How it used to be in the old days

Yes I’m a resident of this country and proudly live in gods own county Yorkshire.
As for divorce made easy, yes and good, broken down relationships happen, i think this staying together for the sake of the kids can be more damaging than a split, than them seeing both parents happy and living separate lives.
I cannot comment on the sixties and seventies, but in my talking to family they found the social services side less caring, the treatment of young mothers ,the removal of kids from so called unfit parents and placed into less unfit care homes,uncaring social workers and midwives.
Im not one for dwelling too much on the past, a life is for living and to be lived for the now and the future,may be people always see the decades they grew up in of spent there youth in the best,may be in future years ill say the my grand kids ,you don’t know you’re born when i were young we only had one plasma TV and two cars.:D
dave:D

Interesting,but whats traditional values,i was born in the sixties dad worked shifts ,mum also worked at the age of 10 i had a house key and picked my younger brother up from school ,started tea and lit the coal fire for the return of mum at early evening.
As for reversing roles, if the memsaab earned the same as me, i would readily swap roles, looking after the kids and doing the house work, a job which i think is more suited to a man.
Wasent the wind-rush days in the fifties and sixties? when people from Asia and the caribbean were invited to come and live and work ,here wasn’t that a baby boom era too?

I assume you are a resident of this country, or probably not. But there used to be a traditional way of life here, mum and dad were in fashion in those days. Very few single parent families, and divorce was not easy. Because we now live in this so called age of liberation, it’s created more problems than it solved.
I am not saying things in the 60s were perfect, but society was more stable.
I guess if you were tempted to have a relationship with someone outside of marriage then, you kept it a secret, and kept the family unit together.
Not so now sadly, divorce is easy, and this has a damaging effect on the kids.
Marriage isn’t a perfect solution for relationships, but it does create stability and security.
Yes the fifties and sixties was the time, when people came from other countries, they were needed to boost the population after the war.
Yes that’s right, life was much harder then, and the family cemented it all together.
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Interesting,but whats traditional values,i was born in the sixties dad worked shifts ,mum also worked at the age of 10 i had a house key and picked my younger brother up from school ,started tea and lit the coal fire for the return of mum at early evening.
As for reversing roles, if the memsaab earned the same as me, i would readily swap roles, looking after the kids and doing the house work, a job which i think is more suited to a man.
Wasent the wind-rush days in the fifties and sixties? when people from Asia and the caribbean were invited to come and live and work ,here wasn’t that a baby boom era too?

I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Womens lib and family life .

Right then, now for a hard hitting subject, that’s made men into wimps. Back in the 60s, men were men and ladies were ladies. This meant the lady of the house would stay at home and look after the kids and other general house stuff. The men would go to work, looking after that side of things. However some mothers did have part time jobs, so they could get out of the house, and earn some money.
Now that situation has changed, and in my opinion not to the benefit of ladies or men. These days ladies are more like men used to be, and vice versa. Womens liberation has destroyed the family life we once had, less children have been born to the indigenous population. In fact the shortfall of children is so serious, the only way to reverse this trend is to invite people from other countries to come here and work.
So much for womens liberation, it’s left us all in a mess.
These days there are many single women without a man in their lives. So much for family life, in the 21st century. Thanks to womens lib, there are now more lonely people in this country than ever before.
Fortunately, there are still some communities that have kept this ideal family way of life, such as the Asian community. They don’t seem to be doing to bad, from keeping traditional family values.
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Ahh the good old days. I remember them. In the late 50’s the local education wallahs stopped our school bus as they reckoned we lived less than three miles from school. They must have measured it as the crow flies to come to that conclusion as the shortest (only) route by road was 3.1 miles. My father was also a farm worker and we had a tied house ( for those too young to remember tied housing it was provided by the employerfor as long as he employed you. If you left the job you had to leave the house.) My folks had been on the council housing list for 10 years and were no closer to a council house than they were on day one. The only reason they got a council house in the end was because dad fell out with his boss. He’d told the boss weeks before that he would not be available for overtime this particular weekend ( in harvest time) and had worked shed loads of overtime in the previous weeks. So when the boss asked to him work at the week end dad pointed out that he’d made it clear weeks ago he wasn’t available as he had made arrangements. The upshot was that the boss told him that either he worked the Saturday or he could take a week’s notice and dad told him to find a new hand. Dad worked his notice, finished on the Friday and started a new job on the Monday. We weren’t rich but were never broke either and that story was the only cloud on the sky of my first 20 years on this earth.

Plus ca change, plus c’est le meme chose, n’est ce pas? 😎

Spot on Grey Area, history repeats itself again and again.
What we are seeing is an evolutionary change in society, and there always has been change. However this time, the changes we are experiencing in the 21st century, have not come about before. This is a whole new ball game, a very dangerous one. The question is , will the human race survive this change, or will it bring about it’s own destruction ( in time ). Never before has mankind faced such a powerful technological change, will the computer become the controller of mankind
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Sorry to disagree with you, but things are much worse now than in the old days.

The world is passing through troublous times. The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they knew everything, and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for the girls, they are forward, immodest and unladylike in speech, behavior and dress.

Plus ca change, plus c’est le meme chose, n’est ce pas? 😎

Time of change.

I am lucky to have seen over the last 30 years remarkable changes in consumer electronics. Having worked in a radio and tv shop, and then for the big tv rental company Granada. I have experienced the early reel to reel tape recorders, Radios, televisions, Hi Fi , VHS tape recorders, satellite receivers. Not many people can say that they had to repair this stuff in the good old days, and in peoples homes. Looking back on it all is pure nostalgia, and happy memories of a rapidly changing consumer market. Repairing things in those days was the norm, unlike our throwaway society today. No worries about being mugged, it just didn’t happen like it does now. Very few cameras in towns, or anywhere for that matter, a lot has changed in the last 30 years.
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You may be interested to know about this. Peaodaphilia seems to have developed as a new thing, but it isn’t. Back in the late 50’s and 60’s the area where we lived, on the edge of the city was rife with odd blokes attempting to obtain sexual favours from us kids, using blackmail. We were actually pretty wise and fought back. My mate and I had a large dog which we trained to attack these scum, of course we never told our parents as they would never have let us play out in the woods.
A great incident, now bearing in mind we were only about 12 at the time, my mate and I spotted a suspicious looking character lurking on our railway bridge, he dissapeared into the woods so we followed him, at a safe distance of course, and we knew all the secret paths so he had no chance.
We came across some quite young kids in a clearing and asked if anything had happened, yes, said this little kid who was about 6, ‘he got his willy out’
what did you do, I fired my catapult straight into his B######, he ran.
So we followed him.
We caught him hiding behind a bush watching a young couple snogging, we warned them and he turned on us and produced a mallet from under his coat, the dog did the rest and locked his jaws round the b###### wrist, he then legged it down the canal. Oh joy, a group of Teddy Boys were coming the other way firing indiscrimently into the canal with airguns, ‘Whats up Boys’.
‘That mans a perv trying to assault little kids’
He was last seen running down the bank, trousers down his ankles being peppared with airgun pellets and persude by some really nasty looking guys, I presume he’s now under a landfill site.
Never saw him again.
Signing off for a while now as I’m moving house, merry Xmas.

I think I am the only young person to express an opinion on this subject.

The highlighted text from your post roscoria is exactly what annoys me and the people I work with.

I am the vice-chairperson of my local youth parliament. Today ‘the older generation’, as we call it, along with the media, appear to portray all young as badly behaved. I agree, some young people are often badly behaved, but not all.

The media has a strong influence on people, and I believe this why shops are now concerned when a bunch of young people enter a shop, or when a person feels threatened by a young people paying around the streets. People think the usual – ‘yobs’. :rolleyes:

I and the organisation I am part of have recently launched a new project in which we are attempting to raise awareness of the issue. We are collecting articles from newspapers over a period of 6 months, which we are then going to pin up around the council chamber and show newspapers not all young people are like this. Hardly ever is the good side to young person shown in the media, mostly the bad e.g. robbery. Why is it that the youth parliament of my area can’t get anything published in papers locally? Simple – papers don’t want good news. Bad news sells papers and good news is boring. Please look in your paper and compare the amount of bad to good news. 🙁

I suggest you look to see if your council has a youth parliament, and if so, consider asking to visit it. You need to spend some time with young people and you will learn that they aren’t the way you think they are. Hopefully this will show you not all young people are badly behaved or don’t have social contact. We are a fantastic bunch of people and it really does show you if young people are presented with the opportunities they can achieve a lot.

Like you, I have great parents. They even gave up their home to move area to get me into a better school. They were even faced with court as they weren’t prepared to send me to a bad school. There are still a lot of supportive parents in modern day society.

I haven’t experienced ‘the good all days’ as you put it, but I find it hard to believe that society has changed for the bad.

Please, look at day to day life from a young person’s perspective. You will be surprised. 😉

Sorry to disagree with you, but things are much worse now than in the old days.
These days kids experience internet pornography, swearing on TV, Music that encourages bad behaviour, the only heroes that kids see these days are the bad ones, Sex on TV. Kids are also exposed to scenes of extreme violence from War zones. Shops sell extreme sexual media, so censorship has gone.
All this stuff was not available back in the 60s, so we didn’t have to experience it. Life now is a high tech Rat race, with bad influences thrown in.
Computer games are available that show violence and killing, and these are much more graphic, than the ones I new back in the 80s.
No discipline in schools, no respect for teachers,etc etc.
Britain now has an underclass unlike any in the past, so what is going to be done to stop the rot. You guessed it, NOTHING.
The human rights law, was the start of the rot, and it will continue to do us no favors.Agreed, not all youngsters are yobs and criminals, but there is a lot of Graffeti and vandalism where I live, it was never this bad in the old days.
There is now this American hood culture, which some young people like to follow. If only they could see how silly they are, and the error of their ways.

Yes you are right, ordinary people are scared of todays kids, can you blame them. The Hoods relish in this climate of fear, knowing they are protected by the human rights law. Asbos are a waste of time, what we need to stop the rot is good old fashioned discipline and responsibility. But the higher beings in government are so out of touch with ordinary people, they have no idea how to put things right.
Oh and don’t forget the booze and drug culture, who’s going to sort this out.
You guessed it, NO ONE.
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my uncle used to take me to watch trains when i was little, though they where diesels by then, it was still facinating, they where all blue then and really noisey. my farther became a signal man on the railway, which he still does today, and i can remember going with him to work, when i was about 10, it was great fun. the drivers would always wave and sound there horn for me as they went by.
i can also remember when we had our first video recorder, it was a huge top-loading contraption, but we was still amazed by it. 😀

Interesting stories from Joey and Pete, yes life certainly was different then. I think technology has influenced the way we behave these days, it’s made us more independent,so we have lost that friendly social behaviour we once had.
My father, god bless him had a love of steam trains, and he loved to take me along to the local station to see the trains. You certainly new when a steam train was coming towards the station, the rails would start vibrating, then you would see the smoke. When it arrived the noise was incredible, with all that steam and breaking noise, and the smoke smell was something else. The carriages had slam shut doors, and the guard had a whistle which he blew when all was clear for the train to leave. Then came another thunderous noise as the steam pistons started to turn the wheels, which initially started to spin until there was enough momentum for the train to start moving. Loads of smoke , and steam and wow what an experience. When the train finally left the station peace returned, and all you could hear were the twittering birds.
Diesel trains eventually replaced those old steam trains, but my father didn’t take me to see them, I wonder why.:D :Oh I forgot to mention the trains steam whistle, quite an ear piercing sound.:D 😀
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I think there are quite a few old boys and girls out there, that may find this thread interesting. Even the young ones might be amused at life as it was then, back in the old days.
I can still remember my younger days, back in the 60s. I lived in a council house, which had a very large garden, spent many a happy day and evening playing with my toy cars, and soldiers. My friends also enjoyed this imaginative experience. Neighbours were more friendly in those days, so we had a good relationship with them. Although we as a family didn’t have much money, that didn’t matter. We didn’t have a TV set, but we had an old Valve Cossor Radio, and I spent many a happy hour listening to shortwave Radio transmissions. These stations were from all around the world, Europe, America ,Asia etc.
So lets see what you can say about your early life experience.:)
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holy wow striking similarity 😮
my dad sometimes tells me the same.

peoples were much warm and the neighbours were friendly.
teenagers were afraid of their parents/seniors more than now.
they actually cared for you and stuffs..
knwoledge wasnt so bookcentric less competition more creative space.
though my father was very well off.

though my dad is more of 70’s product when he was in college…

TV was here black and white ofcourse then telephone where you need to dial those numbers by hand not press buttons.
and stuffs like that..

but heh i do love ww2 life dunno why[based on stories] but i do love life now due to technology :p
life has been better now, if someone can take it the way and match the way it progresses.

Back in the 60s my father played the Violin as a hobby,

I love violin and my moms dad was a AMAZing violin player!! 🙂 moms family is all music family :p

That’s interesting, my old man used to play the Trombone, something he learnt to do with the Boys Brigade during the 30’s. He played in a brass band at the Crystal Palace the night before it burnt down, then on joining the army in 1940 they formed a Glen Miller type band with the Royal Artillery.
He used to go to his bedroom every Sunday morning during the 50’s and practice for an hour, then he gave it up, the trombone got passed on to a local youth with learnig difficulties in the 70’s, it was a Boosey and Hawks and must have been worth a fortune.
Our parents were creatures of habit, every Saturday morning my father took my brother and I on the bus into Nottingham, it was always the 9;30 bus, Midland General, either the E1 or B2 whichever got there first.
On being dropped off next to the Carlton Cinema we would head for the Pork Farms shop on Parliament Street where the bacon, pork pies and pork scratchings would be purchased, next along the road to the wall overlooking Victoria Station where we would scoff the scratchings and do a bit of trainspotting. Next to the Central Market where we go to the Meccano/Hornby kiosk and see what was new, then the fish market where plates of whelks would be consumed. Sneinton market if something cheap was required, Gee Dees and Beecrofts model shops, Victoria art gallery then a bit of time on the steps at Weekday Cross watching the trains, followed by a trip to Woolies and back to Mount Street bus station.
If we were lucky we would get back in time to go out on the tandem ride to Stanton Gate station followed by a drink at the Stanhope Arms.
Every other week we were forced to go to the Regent hair salon for our short back and sides, all the blokes who worked there were ancient and we had pet names for them, The Boss, Sweaty Feet, Hunchback, The Pole and worst of all and to be avoided at all costs, The Queer, they were all lovely blokes really, we just hated going there.

Thats all for now.

HEAVY METAL..

Please lets hear some more of your life story Pete, it’s not at all boring.
Back in the 60s my father played the Violin as a hobby, and I had to suffer that noise most evenings, when he returned from work. Once a week, he would take his violin around his friends house who also played the Violin, and spend the evening making a racket, well to my ears anyway.
One evening I had the misfortune, if you want to call it that, to be passing the local methodist church hall. Even before I got there I could hear this new sound I hadn’t heard before. But standing there next to the front door, I was amazed that the windows were vibrating ‘ This was a bass guitar, and hearing that sound along with the rest of the band just blew me away. Here was a sound far better than that old fiddle , much more exciting and very loud. They must have been using some very powerful valve amps, because it was quite a big hall. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to go in and see them playing, as the door was locked. Here I am at 51 years of age, and still love the heavy metal sound, much better than that classical stuff.:D 😀
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I’m going to start researching the history of my family. I know that a few were killed in action during both the great war and the second world war 🙁 🙁 🙁 Mark 🙂

Further Observations.
Life in the 50’s was interesting, my mother and father were not well off, but we never seemed to lack for anything. We couldn’t afford a car and the old man used to cycle to work every day to Blacks printworks in Nottingham where he was a compositor, that was a round trip of 8 miles every day, he must have been fit. My mother got a cleaning job at a local school and also used to cycle to work. Life was very routine and organised, but not unpleasant.
Mother would get up every morning at 6:00 as she had to be at the school for 7:00, the old man would get up shortly after and bring my brother and I a cup of tea in bed every morning, on Tuesdays and Thursdays the comics would come through the door and we would sit in bed and read those till we heard him go off to work on his bike then we would get up and do ourselves some breakfast, my brother had a long trip to school, he had to catch the Midland General bus into Nottingham then a trolleybus to school, I don’t know how he managed it.
Just before I had to go to school my mother would arrive to check I was decently dressed, yes, we were very independant.
When I was at infant school I was supposed to go and stay with a neighbour till mother got home, but I hated going round there, their dog was a pain for a start, so I had my own key and went home, would anyone allow this now.
I would get home, put on the telly and my mother would have left a snack for me to warm up, black pudding was my favourite, I used to have it on toast which I did myself, even at the tender age of 7.
My brother would get back from school about half an hour after I did, he must have hijacked the trolleybus, then the old man at about 5:30 and mother just after 6 when she had to cook tea, but not on Fridays, that was steak day and I used to start the ball rolling carried on by the others till mother got home and she could put her feet up.
My old man bought a telly for the Coronation in 1953, he always reckoned it would be a good educational tool for us, one thing we never had till my brother bought a Dansette in the early 60’s was a record player.
The telly was a gem and when ITV came out in 56 he had this wierd tuning device put on the side, what a pain that was, I could never get it right and had to desperately wait for him to come home so he could tune it into Popeye cartoons for me on a Monday night.
More later, or are you all bored.

I would rather have lived in the old days. Particularly around the time of the second world war (don’t ask why)……..I”m just fascinated by those times!!!!!

Freezing…

Interesting how things have changed over the years. I can remember as a child having a bath in one of those old galvanised metal bath tubs. In the winter we had a coal fire, and the bath tub was put near it every Sunday night. I can remember my bedroom was very cold, so cold in fact, that there was a build up of frost inside one of the windows on a few occasions. It’s surprising I didn’t get pneumonia considering the room temp must have been about 5 Celsius.:D 😀 Outside temp must have been below freezing Brrrrrrrr.
The toilet or should I say lavatory, as it was called, was outside. Unfortunately the door faced towards the north, and those cold North winds in the winter certainly blew a cold draught into there. One didn’t spend to long in there, that’s for sure, as there wasn’t any heating. The toilet paper left a lot to be desired, torn up newspaper.:eek:
On one occasion the lead water pipe inside the lavatory froze up, and I can remember my dad using a paraffin blow torch to melt the ice inside the pipe.
Quite funny, thinking about it really, certainly seems primitive looking back on it all.:D 😀 😀 😀
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