Generation changes

[Happy Lady]

I love reminiscing about how people used to live in comparison to what we tend to take for granted these days, so thought I'd start this thread for us to share our experiences.

For me, I've seen many changes, from my grandparents, then parents, my own generation, passing through my children's lives to my grandchildren.

Comparing my grandparents two up, two down, no bathroom with an outside toilet, and a very small kitchen that only had a little sink with cold water, a two ring cooker, and only room for one person at a time. Men would work down the pit, and their sons would follow in their footsteps. Women didn't enter inside a pub and only went out dancing in church halls.

These days houses are built with umpteen bathrooms, and families use their huge kitchen/diner/snug as the hub of the home. Pits are shut, and pubs welcome not only women, but children as well.

So with this in mind, what can you remember that's changed over the years?

One strange thing I remember is how my mum would wash tin foil, leave it on the drainer to dry, then fold it up and put it in a drawer to reuse - over and again. I thought this was the norm, so used to do it too until I saw my sister in law chuck her foil in the bin . I thought she was being wasteful.

 

[Catfan2]

I remember going to the greengrocers with my mum and the fruit and veg would be weighed, put in paper bags and the ends twisted. We had an outside toilet - well, it was in our ‘lean to’ and was bloody freezing . Tried not to use it if possible!
Dustmen - the bins were metal and they’d come into our garden, hoist the bin on their shoulders and take it to the lorry. And bring it back to the garden afterwards, no dumping it on the pavement like they do now. We had a coal bunker in our garden, and the coal man would deliver every so often. This would be the early 70’s. I’m sure I’ll remember more things, these are a few off the top of my head .

 

[Happy Lady]

I'm loving reading your experiences.

Back in the day, babies were put in beautiful large Silver Cross coach prams, that they could use for many months. These days prams seem very small so babies grow out of them by four or five months old. Also mums would "park" prams outside shops without a worry in the world, or in the back garden no matter what the weather. If it was summer they'd use a fly net, and when it was winter up went the hood and lots of blankets. Never seen that these days.

Shall I carry on?

TVs only had two channels that could only be changed by physically walking up to the TV to turn over. They'd have an aerial on top attached by a cable, and we'd spend ages moving it all over trying to get a good picture.

 

[Milliemoo99]

In my lifetime....things that have changed that I always assumed would be forever, are things like public telephone boxes. As a child they were everywhere, and as I got older, I learnt how to phone home and reverse charges . Now phone boxes dont really exist!

Oh and I never had a mobile phone. So arrangements had to be made in advance, and you had to use a watch to make sure you werent' late to meet up with friends etc. Whereas now, my children are used to changing plans at a moments notice, which I find tricky to get used to!
We also had a lot more freedom as a child to go out roaming during school holidays etc.....we used to go into the fields behind us to build dens, and play.

I also still cant get my head around the idea of not carrying any money. As a teenager, I always was told to have emergency money for the phone, or for a taxi home etc. So Id need a purse and a bag of some sort, Now my adult children just carry a phone and a bank card slotted into the case, and thats it.

 

[Lalla]

I'm 51, life before mobile phones is clear in my memory (I remember when I was in my early 20s in the pre mobile era one of my friends was getting the train to meet her parents on holiday in the West Country. She missed her connection and the next one was 3 hours later, so she had to ask someone at Paddington station to call the station she was going to, to pass a message to her parents when they arrived!).

We had a house phone from when I was about 6 or 7 but before that anyone needing to contact us phoned our neighbours and they'd knock to pass on a message.

Shop opening is one I was talking to my kids about recently. The fact that shops were only open Mon - Sat (plus one day early closing in the week) and closed by 6 every day My dad worked until 6 on weekdays plus Sat mornings and my mum didn't drive, so every Sat afternoon was set aside for grocery shopping. We also only had a small under counter fridge with freezer compartment so shopping had to be done weekly without fail.

People smoking everywhere...on trains, top deck of the bus, in pubs, restaurants and clubs. I don't miss waking up on a Sat morning with my hair reeking of smoke, or getting holes burnt in my clothes because of some tit waving a fag around on the dancefloor

Photos too. My mum was born in 1939, and all her childhood photos (less than 5 in total) were all taken by professional photographers as people didn't have their own cameras. Even when I was growing up, although we did have a camera it was used for occasions, not daily because photos cost money to develop. Plus you'd take pictures and never really know how they'd come out til you got them back from Boots weeks or months later. Crazy to think now everyone can take photos and record video on their phones!

Last one - TVs. I remember there only being 3 channels, and then the launch of Channel 4 (I raced home from school that day). We had a rented TV for many years. When I was in my teens we got our first TV with remote control, that felt like such a luxury, ditto when i got a TV (just a little portable) in my bedroom which none of my friends had. In my house now I've got 6 tvs and a projector, that would have been unimaginably fancy to teenage me

 

[Rosie glow]

I remember spending days with my aunt and she had one of those old twin tub washing machines and you would use a huge pair of wooden tongs to move the clothes from one side of the machine to the other to spin and she would give us Bernard Matthews turkey burgers for dinner followed by those raspberry ripple mousses you kept in the freezer and jelly with tinned fruit and tinned milk for Sunday tea

when me and my mum moved in to our first home we had a small portable black and white TV that you rented electric meters you feed money in to money no heating just a small oil filled electric radiator in the bedrooms single glazed windows that would freeze on the inside in winter brushed cotton sheets and blankets instead of duvets no house phone we had to walk up the road to a phone box and I remember how posh I thought we were when we got out own very player

On school days stopping at the corner shop for a copy of smash hits and a lucky bag
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On school trips we all had these large plastic tube things that screwed up in the middle on a string round your neck that you put your money in for the gift shop
And we all had I think they were called swatch watches it was a big watch face that you threaded on to a large patterned elastic wrist bands that were interchangeable

 

[Milliemoo99]

I like this thread!!!
I remember my Grandma's rented house from when I was small, early 60s. Coal fires, a tiny kitchen, a bathhouse just outside the backdoor, and the only toilet was half way down the garden.

She would always make do and mend, and I especially remember wrapping paper, being reused...parcels tied up with string, and always saving food, scraping the mould off the top of the jam, so we could use it again.

Our house had an indoor bathroom and toilet, but no fitted kitchen, and no central heating. And my mum couldnt work full time if she had children. So her job opportunities were limited.

 

[Piff paff puff]

I miss the vending machines with little sweets on the streets and chocolate bar vending machines in bus stations.

 

[princessmaire80]

We didn’t have a home phone until I was about 14 (I’m only in my 40’s so this wasn’t too long ago) I got my first mobile when I was 17 when they were just starting to become commercially popular. I also got my first debit card when I was 16, and very few places took it (it was a Visa Electron) So cash was always king and I would go out or go shopping with actual notes and coins in my purse.

That feels like a lifetime ago, when now we haven’t had a home phone in years as both of us have mobiles; mine has unlimited free minutes which covers any call we should need to make; and my life is on my phone. I carry my debit card (a Mastercard) but it’s extremely rare I ever use it as I pay for everything through my phone. On the very rare occasion I might need cash to pay for something it’s absolutely the exception to have to go to the cashpoint, rather than the rule. And I can use any cash machine I like, rather than having to use the machine attached to my bank. Ironically now, my bank is a virtual operation, something I could only dream of when I was 16 and opened my first current account with one of the ‘big 4’ as that was all that was available.

Our house did have central heating, but even when we moved house when I was 17 I couldn’t operate it. Only my mum or dad could as it was old, cranky and complicated. Now if I want the heating on, I just tap the screen on my Hive app and on it comes. Back then the radiators used to take forever to heat up, now I can constantly check and see how warm the house is on the app.

I had no access to a computer until I went to college at 17. I didn’t have an email address until then. I could only check it a couple of times a week at college, I now have 3 which I use for varying different reasons, and I can flip easily between apps and get instant notifications when I receive an email.

My husband is 10 years older than me, in his early 50’s, and he tells me stories of when he was a child that I can’t possibly imagine. My sister is the same age and she agrees. I think I was lucky in the age I grew up in that things were starting to develop, particularly in the age of technology. However I would not like to go back to that time now!

 

[Sunflower91]

I miss sitting down as a family for the nightly TV schedule. Simpsons then buffy etc. I also miss not having Social Media involved for every social occasion- that when you went on holiday or for a meal or to a concert it was for the experience and not about posting about it for clout. If you had a picture it was for a family album not for the internet to see what you were doing.

 

[Booington]

I’ll sound like an old codger now but I’ve started realising how some of the younger generation, even some of those who are 15 years younger than me (I’m in my 50’s) have no idea how I/other people used to live in really recent times, I’m talking about having no home phone, no central heating, no access to higher education etc

housing wise, one of my first flats was a 1 bed and fairly small, my neighbour had lived in her 2 bed for over 40 years and she had bought up a family of 2 there and had to apply to rent the flat, it would be seen as overcrowded now.

 

[chickhicks86]

I think it's noticeable how our consumption of media has changed. Waiting each week for the next episode of a series, even going to the cinema isn't so much of a thing now as films are streaming at nearly the same time as they were at the cinema. Especially since Covid. Watching the 6 o'clock news.

 

[Milliemoo99]

Its odd looking back.....some things have changed for the better and some things have changed for the worse!!! What is odd to me, is the lack of certainty I feel now, things have changed so drastically and so quickly....

Id never want to go back to outdoor toilets and freezing cold houses! Or homelessness, overcrowded homes, and children living in poverty!

But things like customer service were so so much better when I was younger. The mantra ''The Customer is always right'' was always being said. If you had a problem with your electric or your phone, or a council thing, you would phone up and the phone would be answered instantly, by a person, who could direct you to someone to sort your problem out.
Now you are on the phone for what feels like hours, repeating your problem again and again to a computer, before 20 minutes later being transferred to someone who issues apologies and yet is unable to help. This isnt customer service, its a tick sheet operation!

NHS services, Ie Drs and Dentists were much easier to access, and although we have improved with some medical services, particularly emergency medicine, now its so hard to get appointments, and so many people are ending up going privately!

 

[klarakluckbag]

I'm 59 and I grew up in a house with no central heating, so making the bed meant loads of horrible sheets and blankets to tuck in under the mattress. We couldn't afford electric blankets, so we all had our own hot water bottle to take to bed at night. My mum used to get up early every morning, to put the gas burners on to warm up the kitchen, we also used to have paraffin heaters, which smelled horrible!

We didn't have a landline until I was a teenager, I can remember when my mum went into labour with my sister, me and my dad took a stack of 2p pieces to the phonebox around the corner, to call the midwife!

We got our first colour tv when I was 10 years old, me and my brother thought it was a wonderous thing, we got up early the next morning (a Sunday) to watch the church services in colour. (We weren't religious, but there was literally nothing else to watch! ) There were only 3 channels, kids tv was only late afternoons and Saturday mornings, and you were either Blue Peter (BBC, middle-class), or Magpie (ITV, not so middle-class). Saturday afternoon on the telly was mostly sports, either football, horse-racing or wrestling.

Summer were hot, we rode our bikes everywhere ( in reality, just round the local streets), we didn't have water in bottles, but no-one died of thirst. All kids read comics, collected acorns and conkers, played with yoyos, marbles and balsa wood model aeroplanes. There were lots of caterpillars and ladybirds and daisies and buttercups. My friend had a kids' record player, she only had one record (Sugar Sugar by the Archies, it belonged to her mum) but that song is the sound of my 8 year-old summer. Records were expensive, kids are so lucky now to have so much music at their fingertips. Having said that, album covers were works of art, one of my cousins had lots of prog rock albums, the covers almost always had that hippie, dream-like quality, with beautiful illustrations or photographs. You don't get the same effect with a Spotify thumbnail.

Sweets and chocolates were so much nicer. Bar Six, Terrys Wafer, Galaxy counters, and best of all...Pink Panther pink candy bars!

 

[missymunch]

I’m 55 and can I just say I love the technological advances and don’t miss pre internet times at all ! I love my mobile phone and just leaving the house with my phone and keys . I love on demand TV 24/7 . Apparently I was a telly addict from a toddler ! I even watched the news and could say Reginald Bosanquets name when I saw him on the box !
like many no landline until I was 12. Reverse charges from a phone box to my dad when I needed picking up . Getting the electronic game Simon and thinking it was the most advanced piece of tech ever.
having to walk to friends houses to see if they wanted to come out I love a text now as an introvert ! I do not miss stinking of smoke after a night out . At school girls HAD to do needlework and cooking whilst boys did metalwork and DT. My mum eventually giving up her twin tub when I was 15 in 1983. My best friends parents getting a Betamax VCR ( I was so jealous ) .

 

[brinnle]

Saturday mornings, a bowl of cereal and endless cartoons and not a care in the world. My kids dont watch any TV now

 

[Lalla]

We had a twin tub for years, ours was a massive old AEG one. It wasn't plumbed in, you had to hook the hose over the sink to empty it. Eventually when I was about 16 my parents finally bought a washing machine. We'd always had a tumble dryer though.

We moved into our housing association house as a new build in 1976, it had central heating but only downstairs. When the washing machine was installed (we had to get a plumber as there were no pipes or anything to connect it to) my parents also got him to put a radiator in the bathroom, first time we'd had any heating upstairs!

 

[Ilovemusic]

@Millie Moo you are so right about doctors appointments. I always remember the days when appointments to see a GP weren't needed. We just turned up. Patients needing surgery only waited a few weeks during which time they'd been referred to the hospital, attended an initial consultation and had any tests carried out that were required.

Plus we didn't have to go through an inqisition from the surgery receptionist on why we wanted to see a GP!

 

[Griftygardener]

I am 58 and our council house didn't have central heating put in until I was 17. We had a gas fire in the living room but the rest of the house was freezing in winter. I remember being under four wool blankets in bed hardly able to move because they were so heavy.
My nan's house had an outside loo and she used a mangle in the back yard after she did her washing. We didn't have a washing machine at home but we had a spin dryer that used to dance around the kitchen if you didn't load it right

 

[Dragon100]

I'm a 70's child but we didn't get a colour TV untill the mid 80's. I remember my grandparents having a colour TV (grandad loved watching football and snooker- so a colour TV was a game changer). As a small child I remember watching Bagpus at home, but it really blew my mind watching it at my grandparents house and finding out Bagpuss was pink!