Thread: What is new since 1948

er indoors · 08-09-2007, 10:50 AM

My grandsons school project is how has life changed since 1948 and what new inventions. As you can imagine this has brought up quite a lot of memories from th past, no electric. Gas light, we had electric put in in 1950 s
tin bath on a nail in the back yard, outside toilet with squares of newspaper on string as toilet paper.

The list is huge, what memories do you have? what games did you play? what inventions do you think have changed our world for the good or bad.

I know I did not have a toothbrush early 50 s and no bathroom only one cold tap in the kitchen did not wash my hands after the loo or before eating no sounds disgusting but normal at the time. However, the doorstep was washed and whitened and door brass cleaned regular, net curtains washed every two weeks, summer and winter curtains housework done daily, I think the doorstep was cleaner than me. I had a bath on a friday luckily I was the eldest of three so I had the clean water by the time no 3 got in it looked a bit grotty.

I would love to hear how life was with you, I lived in Tuebrook Liverpool
The Vaughan family had the fish and chip shop early 50 s anybody remember them also Metcalf pet shop. They pulled down the cinema and built a supermarket. The first film I ever saw was there, Moby Dick.

Hated winter mornings, you would wake up and it was freezing, no slippers so
ran accross the cold lino to get dressed, inside of the widow often frozen over. How life has changed.

petal · 08-09-2007, 02:38 PM

Certain things were still on ration as far as I can recall........I know sweets were........I remember the bus conductor on the way back from my grans giving me his quota.
I-spy we used to play when I was about 10 (I think about then......that would be 1953). We all had different I spy books and went off in pairs up the fields or wherever to see who could 'spy' the most by tea-time..............that was before they built houses opposite my Mums.
Saturday morning cinema.............didn't really matter what the film was......seemed to be a 'meet up place'.
Fashions were limited due to it being soon after the war and Mum used to make mine from any old ones she could get hold of and re-vamp, or she'd buy material and make them from a pattern -both for me and big brother.
Swimming bath was always freezing cold..........no such thing as heated poolsand swimsuits were that crinkly elastic type of material............horrible I thought.
Nit nurse used to come to the school regularly as well..........everyone dreaded that in case they had nits !
No tele............just the radio..............Light Programme we usually had on until we discovered Radio Luxemburg..........Sunday nights were bliss then. Before that we had the comedy shows on Light Programme.........Rays a Laugh with Ted Ray, Life with the Lyons (The Lyon family) Meet the Huggetts.........oh eck......now I feel old............................lol
And the loo roll...............'Medicated with Izal Germicide' and made good tracing paper................lol At Grans it was newspaper !

er indoors · 08-09-2007, 06:03 PM

Wow you were posh Izal toilet paper, It was years before we had that. Green paper wrapper. I remember it well.

petal · 08-09-2007, 06:29 PM

Dont remember that sort but I now the Izal was wrapped in green paper..........but posh ? My backside didn't think so...................lol
And it was an outside loo...........bit dodgy on an icy night going down the path. Oh the bliss when we got an indoor one

lookingback · 08-09-2007, 06:31 PM

Like you I was brought up in Liverpool. I have lots of the same memories ....but you musta been posher than us Er indoors? 'cos our tap was in the yard!!lol We hadnt a kitchen to speak of and by the time mam got electricity put in, the houses were being demolished.
We lived in the south of the city near the docks and those FOG's we had back then, always stick in my memory. In a way it was quite comforting to be tucked up safely in bed listening to the fog horns coming from the ships on the river.
Getting a TV set was the biggest thrill!!!... even though it was the size of a house with hudge knobs that you had to turn when you wanted to change channel. ....Moving to a new flat in the late 50's that had a bathroom and indoor toilet was great.

Playing 2 balls against the wall and the songs we sang as we threw. Skipping games that a whole streetful of children could join in...Sunday school outings. Christmas parties and Harvest festivals.... Freedom to walk to and fro school ...(No 4x4s or cars waiting bumper to bumper, outside the school gates in those days lol!....So it wasn't all bad

) Actually I dont thinkl it was bad atall...we just lived with what we had didn't we?..... However, I wonder how many of us would return to those days...No central heating... no indoor loo... no washing machine!...... I would have to think about it

petal · 08-09-2007, 06:58 PM

At grans we had a tap outside - courtesy of neighbour. Otherwise it was from the well in the garden or the pump up the lane, always careful to boil before use. Grans 'sink' was a bowl and a tray on a table in the scullery......cooked on an old range and washed in the old copper boiler. The loo was a wooden affair in a little barn down the yard. All very basic but we loved it.
First tele..............oh...........lol............when I saw the aerial on out chimney I hunter all over the house for the tele...................felt it had to be there. How could we have an aeriel and no tele ? It came a week later............very small and we all sat watching some black and white programme........can't remember what now............whatever it was it was adult and boring to us then. Watched the coronation on my grandads tele (mums side of the family). Grandad had a pools win and moved house and got a tele.............mum missed it all. Hangover from the night before. We all sat around the box with sandwiches so we wouldn't miss anything.
Sunday school outings.............oh where did we go ? Blessed if I can remember except that we went.
Working mens club outings were better........trips to the seaside, hoping it wouldn't rain..........enough blue sky to make a sailor a pair of trousers and we were told it would be fine.................seldom was..........lol Stopped halfway there at a pub and out came the crates of lemonade and crisps to keep us all quiet while the adults fell in and out of the nearest pub.....................oh, those were the days.................lol

Starlight · 08-09-2007, 08:06 PM

I wasn't born by 1948 but I do remember we didn't have a fridge for a while. In the winter the milk bottles were put in a wooden box to stop them freezing. In the summer they were taken indoors but left in a bowl of cold water. Our first fridge was run by gas.
In the winter when the coal ran out we spent most of out time in the kitchen with the oven door open. We loved the day that the snow went enough to let the coal lorries through with a new supply.
Every Easter we went to my Mum's mum. I thought that she was living in the dark ages. She had gas light, cable radio, a tin bath filled up from the kettle, pots under the beds. There was a chemical toilet down the garden in a drafty hut. We used to rip up old newspapers and put on a butchers hook ready to go down the garden.

slizzy · 08-09-2007, 08:20 PM

The outdoor games I remember playing were ........ tin can squat (a hide and seek type game) what time is it Mr Wolf, leapfrog, jacks, and there were seasonal games such as whip and top, hopscotch, bubble pipe, skipping, and trolley carting - made from planks of wood and old pram wheels. Indoor games were - jigsaw puzzles, pick-up sticks, board games, playing cards, painting by numbers, bayko (made in Liverpool) dressing-up, in the 50's we had a tape recorder and had great fun with it - singing, and playing it back.

As for inventions since 1948 - as a child my favourite was the hula hoop, as a teenager the jukebox. Inventions which have changed our world are - oral contraception, bar-codes, the world wide web, the hovercraft, micro chips, non-stick pans, mobile phones, heart transplants. Fibre tip pens, and calculators are taken for granted by kids today, but weren't around when I was a gal.

My choices of bad inventions are - the hydrogen bomb, and fast food.

Our holidays were always spent in the UK and usually in Yorkshire where we lived. My Dad's philosophy was "why would I want to go on holiday to Wales or the South of England when I've not yet seen all of Yorkshire" So for years we took the train to Whitby for our annual bucket and spade week. The only times I went out of Yorkshire pre 1960's was our annual family away day, when all the family - aunties, uncles, and cousins would be whisked off to the sea-side on a coach and we sometimes went into Lancashire how daring was that! It wasn't until I was grown-up enough to be independent that I went abroad - first time was 1966, 1965 I went to Jersey with my friends and thought it was such a long way. We holidayed at Butlins in Filey (had to be Yorkshire) and I thought it was the ultimate in holidays - so much freedom - I learnt later that my parent's hated it but put up with it for us kids. Now you've got me going on memories I could go on forever, I love nostalgia.

er indoors · 08-09-2007, 10:03 PM

Fantastic, I used to sit in the outside loo and listen to the courting couples.

I knew all the gossip, who was going out with who and who was preganant.

Quite nice in the summer, light nights but horrible in the winter, wet seat, cold, really terrible.

Can not quite imagine my children or grandchldren having to endure this but to me it was just life ,the way it was I thought, for everybody.

slizzy · 08-09-2007, 10:45 PM

More memories..........dolly blues used to whiten washing, companion sets next to the fire, a bag of cocoa and sugar or rhubarb and sugar when sweets were on ration, broken biscuits, hen runs in the garden, or allotment so fresh eggs daily, Mum telling me when she was young she used soot to clean her teeth! My parent's warming their Guiness on the fire, we kids taking empty bottles back to the shop for a few pence, buying 5 cigs in a sweet bag, walking, walking, and more walking - we walked almost everywhere and most men walked to work, Dad telling me he was operated on, on the kitchen table, as his parents couldn't afford the extra cost of a hospital stay, accidents, yes we had accidents - if we fell from a tree or tripped on the causeway it was our fault or an accident, no-one looked to blame others, or applied for compensation, cold school classrooms, teachers we respected, school milk, national orange, cod liver oil............oh I could go on and on.

08-09-2007, 10:50 AM	#1 (permalink)
er indoors Committed Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Lincolnshire Posts: 69	What is new since 1948 My grandsons school project is how has life changed since 1948 and what new inventions. As you can imagine this has brought up quite a lot of memories from th past, no electric. Gas light, we had electric put in in 1950 s tin bath on a nail in the back yard, outside toilet with squares of newspaper on string as toilet paper. The list is huge, what memories do you have? what games did you play? what inventions do you think have changed our world for the good or bad. I know I did not have a toothbrush early 50 s and no bathroom only one cold tap in the kitchen did not wash my hands after the loo or before eating no sounds disgusting but normal at the time. However, the doorstep was washed and whitened and door brass cleaned regular, net curtains washed every two weeks, summer and winter curtains housework done daily, I think the doorstep was cleaner than me. I had a bath on a friday luckily I was the eldest of three so I had the clean water by the time no 3 got in it looked a bit grotty. I would love to hear how life was with you, I lived in Tuebrook Liverpool The Vaughan family had the fish and chip shop early 50 s anybody remember them also Metcalf pet shop. They pulled down the cinema and built a supermarket. The first film I ever saw was there, Moby Dick. Hated winter mornings, you would wake up and it was freezing, no slippers so ran accross the cold lino to get dressed, inside of the widow often frozen over. How life has changed.

08-09-2007, 02:38 PM	#2 (permalink)
petal Super Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Horncastle, Lincolnshire Posts: 8,637 Total Awards: 5	Re: What is new since 1948 Certain things were still on ration as far as I can recall........I know sweets were........I remember the bus conductor on the way back from my grans giving me his quota. I-spy we used to play when I was about 10 (I think about then......that would be 1953). We all had different I spy books and went off in pairs up the fields or wherever to see who could 'spy' the most by tea-time..............that was before they built houses opposite my Mums. Saturday morning cinema.............didn't really matter what the film was......seemed to be a 'meet up place'. Fashions were limited due to it being soon after the war and Mum used to make mine from any old ones she could get hold of and re-vamp, or she'd buy material and make them from a pattern -both for me and big brother. Swimming bath was always freezing cold..........no such thing as heated poolsand swimsuits were that crinkly elastic type of material............horrible I thought. Nit nurse used to come to the school regularly as well..........everyone dreaded that in case they had nits ! No tele............just the radio..............Light Programme we usually had on until we discovered Radio Luxemburg..........Sunday nights were bliss then. Before that we had the comedy shows on Light Programme.........Rays a Laugh with Ted Ray, Life with the Lyons (The Lyon family) Meet the Huggetts.........oh eck......now I feel old............................lol And the loo roll...............'Medicated with Izal Germicide' and made good tracing paper................lol At Grans it was newspaper !
	(AKA Mary) How beautiful it is to do nothing and rest afterwards...

08-09-2007, 06:03 PM	#3 (permalink)
er indoors Committed Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Lincolnshire Posts: 69	Re: What is new since 1948 Wow you were posh Izal toilet paper, It was years before we had that. Green paper wrapper. I remember it well.

08-09-2007, 06:29 PM	#4 (permalink)
petal Super Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Horncastle, Lincolnshire Posts: 8,637 Total Awards: 5	Re: What is new since 1948 Dont remember that sort but I now the Izal was wrapped in green paper..........but posh ? My backside didn't think so...................lol And it was an outside loo...........bit dodgy on an icy night going down the path. Oh the bliss when we got an indoor one
	(AKA Mary) How beautiful it is to do nothing and rest afterwards...

08-09-2007, 06:31 PM	#5 (permalink)
lookingback New Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 22	Re: What is new since 1948 Like you I was brought up in Liverpool. I have lots of the same memories ....but you musta been posher than us Er indoors? 'cos our tap was in the yard!!lol We hadnt a kitchen to speak of and by the time mam got electricity put in, the houses were being demolished. We lived in the south of the city near the docks and those FOG's we had back then, always stick in my memory. In a way it was quite comforting to be tucked up safely in bed listening to the fog horns coming from the ships on the river. Getting a TV set was the biggest thrill!!!... even though it was the size of a house with hudge knobs that you had to turn when you wanted to change channel. ....Moving to a new flat in the late 50's that had a bathroom and indoor toilet was great. Playing 2 balls against the wall and the songs we sang as we threw. Skipping games that a whole streetful of children could join in...Sunday school outings. Christmas parties and Harvest festivals.... Freedom to walk to and fro school ...(No 4x4s or cars waiting bumper to bumper, outside the school gates in those days lol!....So it wasn't all bad) Actually I dont thinkl it was bad atall...we just lived with what we had didn't we?..... However, I wonder how many of us would return to those days...No central heating... no indoor loo... no washing machine!...... I would have to think about it
lookingback New Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 22

08-09-2007, 06:58 PM	#6 (permalink)
petal Super Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Horncastle, Lincolnshire Posts: 8,637 Total Awards: 5	Re: What is new since 1948 At grans we had a tap outside - courtesy of neighbour. Otherwise it was from the well in the garden or the pump up the lane, always careful to boil before use. Grans 'sink' was a bowl and a tray on a table in the scullery......cooked on an old range and washed in the old copper boiler. The loo was a wooden affair in a little barn down the yard. All very basic but we loved it. First tele..............oh...........lol............when I saw the aerial on out chimney I hunter all over the house for the tele...................felt it had to be there. How could we have an aeriel and no tele ? It came a week later............very small and we all sat watching some black and white programme........can't remember what now............whatever it was it was adult and boring to us then. Watched the coronation on my grandads tele (mums side of the family). Grandad had a pools win and moved house and got a tele.............mum missed it all. Hangover from the night before. We all sat around the box with sandwiches so we wouldn't miss anything. Sunday school outings.............oh where did we go ? Blessed if I can remember except that we went. Working mens club outings were better........trips to the seaside, hoping it wouldn't rain..........enough blue sky to make a sailor a pair of trousers and we were told it would be fine.................seldom was..........lol Stopped halfway there at a pub and out came the crates of lemonade and crisps to keep us all quiet while the adults fell in and out of the nearest pub.....................oh, those were the days.................lol
	(AKA Mary) How beautiful it is to do nothing and rest afterwards...

08-09-2007, 08:06 PM	#7 (permalink)
Starlight Ancestry Aid Manager Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: South Essex Posts: 16,351 Total Awards: 8	Re: What is new since 1948 I wasn't born by 1948 but I do remember we didn't have a fridge for a while. In the winter the milk bottles were put in a wooden box to stop them freezing. In the summer they were taken indoors but left in a bowl of cold water. Our first fridge was run by gas. In the winter when the coal ran out we spent most of out time in the kitchen with the oven door open. We loved the day that the snow went enough to let the coal lorries through with a new supply. Every Easter we went to my Mum's mum. I thought that she was living in the dark ages. She had gas light, cable radio, a tin bath filled up from the kettle, pots under the beds. There was a chemical toilet down the garden in a drafty hut. We used to rip up old newspapers and put on a butchers hook ready to go down the garden.
	Starlight Ancestry Aid Manager Hampshire:- Barks, Bartholomew, Carpenter, Cousens, Cousins, Dumper, Gallagher, Goodchild, Glasspool, Hoskins, Light, Mason, Monday, Mundy, Pearce, Pitt, Shepherd, Spreadbury, Staniford, Terrill, Thornton, Warne, Webb, Woodford & many more. Top Tip: Use the forum search engine

08-09-2007, 08:20 PM	#8 (permalink)
slizzy Ancestry Aid Staff Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 16,200 Total Awards: 8	Re: What is new since 1948 The outdoor games I remember playing were ........ tin can squat (a hide and seek type game) what time is it Mr Wolf, leapfrog, jacks, and there were seasonal games such as whip and top, hopscotch, bubble pipe, skipping, and trolley carting - made from planks of wood and old pram wheels. Indoor games were - jigsaw puzzles, pick-up sticks, board games, playing cards, painting by numbers, bayko (made in Liverpool) dressing-up, in the 50's we had a tape recorder and had great fun with it - singing, and playing it back. As for inventions since 1948 - as a child my favourite was the hula hoop, as a teenager the jukebox. Inventions which have changed our world are - oral contraception, bar-codes, the world wide web, the hovercraft, micro chips, non-stick pans, mobile phones, heart transplants. Fibre tip pens, and calculators are taken for granted by kids today, but weren't around when I was a gal. My choices of bad inventions are - the hydrogen bomb, and fast food. Our holidays were always spent in the UK and usually in Yorkshire where we lived. My Dad's philosophy was "why would I want to go on holiday to Wales or the South of England when I've not yet seen all of Yorkshire" So for years we took the train to Whitby for our annual bucket and spade week. The only times I went out of Yorkshire pre 1960's was our annual family away day, when all the family - aunties, uncles, and cousins would be whisked off to the sea-side on a coach and we sometimes went into Lancashire how daring was that! It wasn't until I was grown-up enough to be independent that I went abroad - first time was 1966, 1965 I went to Jersey with my friends and thought it was such a long way. We holidayed at Butlins in Filey (had to be Yorkshire) and I thought it was the ultimate in holidays - so much freedom - I learnt later that my parent's hated it but put up with it for us kids. Now you've got me going on memories I could go on forever, I love nostalgia.

08-09-2007, 10:03 PM	#9 (permalink)
er indoors Committed Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Lincolnshire Posts: 69	Re: What is new since 1948 Fantastic, I used to sit in the outside loo and listen to the courting couples. I knew all the gossip, who was going out with who and who was preganant. Quite nice in the summer, light nights but horrible in the winter, wet seat, cold, really terrible. Can not quite imagine my children or grandchldren having to endure this but to me it was just life ,the way it was I thought, for everybody.

08-09-2007, 10:45 PM	#10 (permalink)
slizzy Ancestry Aid Staff Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 16,200 Total Awards: 8	Re: What is new since 1948 More memories..........dolly blues used to whiten washing, companion sets next to the fire, a bag of cocoa and sugar or rhubarb and sugar when sweets were on ration, broken biscuits, hen runs in the garden, or allotment so fresh eggs daily, Mum telling me when she was young she used soot to clean her teeth! My parent's warming their Guiness on the fire, we kids taking empty bottles back to the shop for a few pence, buying 5 cigs in a sweet bag, walking, walking, and more walking - we walked almost everywhere and most men walked to work, Dad telling me he was operated on, on the kitchen table, as his parents couldn't afford the extra cost of a hospital stay, accidents, yes we had accidents - if we fell from a tree or tripped on the causeway it was our fault or an accident, no-one looked to blame others, or applied for compensation, cold school classrooms, teachers we respected, school milk, national orange, cod liver oil............oh I could go on and on.