# Back in the days



## Hepato-pancreato (Mar 1, 2021)




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## trophywench (Mar 1, 2021)

But there again - who wants to have to go down the yard to the toilet, or only have the coal fire in the living room, to wash under the cold tap cos there was no running hot water, scrub the quarry tiles in the kitchen and pantry or polish the lino?

Or be a dad who had to have a bonfire whenever necessary to dispose of his wife and daughters' used sanpro, neatly encased in sheets of The People, News of the World, or West Bromwich Chronicle as necessary.

Things were simpler it's true but then everything is anyway when we're little !


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## Hepato-pancreato (Mar 5, 2021)

point taken ha! ha!


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## mikeyB (Mar 9, 2021)

When I first watched TV in my nappies, there was only one channel. I can distinctly remember when ITV started. It had good stuff like Robin Hood, starring Richard Greene, and later Ivanhoe starring Roger Moore.


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## Ditto (Mar 9, 2021)

> Back in the days of tanners and bobs,
> When Mothers had patience and Fathers had jobs.
> When football team families wore hand me down shoes,
> And T.V gave only two channels to chose.
> ...


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## nonethewiser (Mar 9, 2021)

trophywench said:


> But there again - who wants to have to go down the yard to the toilet, or only have the coal fire in the living room, to wash under the cold tap cos there was no running hot water, scrub the quarry tiles in the kitchen and pantry or polish the lino?



Scrape ice off inside window of bedroom, did that many times in winter as boy, good days in some ways not others.


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## Chris Hobson (Mar 10, 2021)

I'm just old enough to remember pre decimal coins. On Monday a Wall's ice cream van would visit the school and we would be provided with a sixpence by our mums. A threepenny bit would get you a 3D lolly, sixpence got you a rectangular cornet with a foil wrapped lump of ice cream shaped like a brick.


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## trophywench (Mar 10, 2021)

...... and the law regarded married ladies as being mere chattels belonging to their husbands.


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## Chris Hobson (Mar 10, 2021)

People just dealt with life, things that we would now regard as totally terrible, were just regarded as being normal. My ice cream stories represent happy memories from that time, I attended primary school from 1962 to 1970 and, back then, they used the cane to keep us in line. It hurt and it made you cry, but it was just a part of life. You certainly didn't do whatever it was again. I just want to emphasise that I don't approve of the practice of beating children, my point is that,  although life was tougher, everyone just dealt with it.


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## Ljc (Mar 11, 2021)

nonethewiser said:


> Scrape ice off inside window of bedroom, did that many times in winter as boy, good days in some ways not others.


Me too, me too.


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## C&E Guy (Mar 11, 2021)

And folk didn't talk about Mental health issues. They just got on with it.

Or their anxieties. There was no mention of dyslexia, bi-polar or autism. If there was bullying, it was accepted.

You didn't have to "keep up with the Joneses". If they had a better car, tv or holiday - so what?

And, of course, we went out to play. For hours, all over the place.

And there was no such thing as obesity.


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## Ditto (Mar 11, 2021)

C&E Guy said:


> And there was no such thing as obesity.


I beg to differ. Fat then fat now always fat!


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## C&E Guy (Mar 12, 2021)

Ditto said:


> I beg to differ. Fat then fat now always fat!


Perhaps, but it certainly wasn't called "obesity".

And it wasn't so prevalent.


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## Ditto (Mar 12, 2021)

C&E Guy said:


> Perhaps, but it certainly wasn't called "obesity".
> 
> And it wasn't so prevalent.


You're quite right, I was the only fatty in my village.  I could have put it down to my 'glands' though. 

I miss coal fires though we now know they give us dementia. I don't miss flat irons and going to the garage for Esso Blue.


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## Chris Hobson (Mar 12, 2021)

According to PHE and the discredited BMI , you can be classified as obese without being fat.

I remember frosty windows with beautiful fern patterns on. The bedroom was cold but the bed was cosy.

My mum still has an open fire and burns coal and logs.


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## Chris Hobson (Mar 14, 2021)

I can remember having only two TV channels, BBC and ITV. BBC 2 arrived soon, some of the output was regional and, at some point we upgraded our aerial and could then get Anglia and Tyne Tees as well as Yorkshire. They weren't broadcasting all the time and you used to turn on the test card and wait for the programmes to start. Anglia's theme music was a piece from Handel's water music that I grew to really like.


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## Ditto (Mar 15, 2021)

It was exciting when you went to Talacre Beach and you couldn't understand the telly coz it was in foreign.


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## grovesy (Mar 15, 2021)

Ditto said:


> It was exciting when you went to Talacre Beach and you couldn't understand the telly coz it was in foreign.


Where is that never heard of it?


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## Ditto (Mar 15, 2021)

Wales somewhere! I don't remember seeing the sea.  Probably a bit like Southport.


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## grovesy (Mar 15, 2021)

Oh!


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## Ljc (Mar 15, 2021)

I remember having to clean out the grate every morning and lay the fire, I learned that task at the tender age of 6.
At the age of 7 I could cook dinner and clean the house from top to bottom , I thought it was great fun sitting out on the windowsill cleaning the outside of the windows .
No telly.
Outside loo.
Till we got an Ascot having to boil the kettle if we wanted hot water.
Listening to Armchair theatre on the radio
Once my chores were done, going out to play and only going home when I was hungry .
Sitting on the front step eating a jam sandwich.
When I was a little older say 8 or 9 letting mum know I was going over the common with my mates, ok luv she’d say , if you hang on I’ll do you up a drink and some sarnies,can you see that happening now.

Just remembered this.
Traumatising the odd flasher .


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## Ditto (Mar 17, 2021)

Flashers were a hoot! @Ljc why did you have to do all that work if you had a Mum? I used to have to do a lot but ours had cleared off.


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## Ljc (Mar 17, 2021)

Ditto said:


> Flashers were a hoot! @Ljc why did you have to do all that work if you had a Mum? I used to have to do a lot but ours had cleared off.


Yes the flashers were a hoot, you could alway tell as they wore the same style of mac lol, we’ll they did in tooting .  

It was because mum worked part time and also so I knew how to do everything when I was older


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## trophywench (Mar 17, 2021)

Gosh! - I missed so much apparently as a child with only a sister ...... undesirable men in macs we saw out and about usually had a suitcase trying to flog cheap whatever along the high street - and the beat coppers used to clear them orf pretty smartish as a rule.  In any event whenever my mom spotted one she'd clamp my hand in hers in a vice-like grip and rush me past them asap.  Never did get to see what was in the suitcases ........

Also always rushed through the market and out the other side, for as you are all well aware they only EVER sell cheap tatty things on markets - NEVER things 'we' would wish to buy.  Heaven forfend.


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## Ljc (Mar 19, 2021)

trophywench said:


> Gosh! - I missed so much apparently as a child with only a sister ...... undesirable men in macs we saw out and about usually had a suitcase trying to flog cheap whatever along the high street - and the beat coppers used to clear them orf pretty smartish as a rule.  In any event whenever my mom spotted one she'd clamp my hand in hers in a vice-like grip and rush me past them asap.  Never did get to see what was in the suitcases ........
> 
> Also always rushed through the market and out the other side, for as you are all well aware they only EVER sell cheap tatty things on markets - NEVER things 'we' would wish to buy.  Heaven forfend.


Oh You have made me rotfpmsl

We didn’t have those sort of men when I lived in Walworth , instead we had a bookies  lookout who would stand on our front step for hours and hours . Can you tell we were posh lol.
I’m not sure what your Mum would have thought  about what locals call The Lane it’s a huge street market otherwise  called East street market.


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## Chris Hobson (Mar 19, 2021)

This is turning into a really fun thread. We need to be careful not to start to sound like the Monty Python Four Yorkshireman Sketch. Old cars that needed constant attention to keep them running were a thing. The old side valve Ford Prefect was thought to have good fuel economy at 30mpg. Considering that it was a tiny car that was too slow to get out of its own way that is pretty unimpressive by modern standards. We have a Hyundai i10 that is wonderfully nippy and has similar fuel economy to a moped.


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## Ljc (Mar 19, 2021)

My dad had a Prefect.  Rather dodgy when it rained, if you went too fast the wipers slowed down lol


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## trophywench (Mar 19, 2021)

Gosh you must have been rich, Lin!  A CAR !


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## Chris Hobson (Mar 20, 2021)

The wipers on the old Prefects were driven by the vacuum in the inlet manifold rather than being electric. This meant that they would slow down as the car went faster but would suddenly speed up when you took your foot of the throttle. I recall that one model had a speedo that had a coloured strip that went horizontally instead of a clock with a pointer. The three bearing crankshaft was very weak and not able to cope with even the very modest power output.


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