Re: Help! What do you remember about the 1950s?

You could be my brother - I remember exactly the same things. I also remember that mum put a thing called a "dolly blue bag" into the boiler to ensure the whites came out really white. We must have been posh though as we had our own mangle.
I remember that sweets came in 2oz bags, Mars Bars were enormous and you could get a huge bag of sherbert for next to nothing.
One of my abiding 50's memories was the pain experienced when a large, heavy, wet leather football smacked you full force on your naked thigh (I only got my first pair of long trousers in 1959 when I went to senior school).
I remember dogs roaming free in the streets and leaving mysterious piles of chalky white pooh. I remember helping my Uncle Ted with his carthorse as he did his Rag & Bone round. For years I assumed my Uncle Billy was black - he was a coalman and a bit anti-social, so I only ever saw him on his way home from work, or when he was working on the coal lorry. My other Uncle Billy was the posh one in the family. He worked on the railway and had his own cottage.
I remember reading all of Richmal Crompton's "William" books and regretting that I was not quite old enough to have experienced the excitement of catching spies and collecting bits of shrapnel.
I remember climbing trees, building camps, collecting frogs, playing conkers and street games (Giant strides, Kingie etc) and, although we were pretty poor , I didn't realise it or resent it as I was surrounded by love and affection within a very supportive family.
We lived in Slough and I remember standing in Eton High Street dressed in my Sunday best waving a flag as the queen's carriage came down the road towards Windsor (this was about 20 years before Eton Bridge became pedestrianised) some time around the coronation in 1953. We were also invited into our next door neighbours house to watch the coronation on their TV (the only one in the street). The next time I saw TV was 5 years later when our neighbour called my dad and I into his house to watch the news reports of the Manchester United Munich aircrash in 1958. My footballing heroes at the time were Billy Wright of Wolves and Duncan Edwards of United and, although I am a southerner, my lifelong support of United began that night.

Mick

Re: Help! What do you remember about the 1950s?

I was born in 1953. I remember milk in glass bottles and cottage cheese being delivered to the house, and that we could put one of my brothers through the milk box if locked out. The cottage cheese sometimes came in a thermal plastic mug that was great for hot chocolate.

I had roller skates that clipped on to my Keds sneakers and tightened with a key. We rode our bikes everywhere (without helmets of course). With a clothespin we clipped a bit of cardboard on the bike so it made a rattling noise hitting the spokes.

You could always round up enough kids for football or baseball in the back yard or schoolyard. If you fell and scraped your knees the bottle of Iodine came out.

We bought and ate unwrapped penny candy from bins that other kids had sorted through yet we never got sick.

You could hear the bells of the ice cream truck from blocks away - plenty of time to beg for a treat.

We had a wringer washer (is that the same as a mangle?) and the clothes went out on the line to dry in the sun. They smelled so good! Better than a clothes dryer.

Summer days were for tree climbing, catching tadpoles in the creek, swimming, picnics in the back yard, building forts, flying kites, inventing games of chasing and catching.

Great thread! Lots of good memories coming back.

Re: Help! What do you remember about the 1950s?

Yes children, all this I too remember. We lived in an estate between two parks, used to play 'in the woods', pick wild Blackberries which my mother then stewed and/or made blackberry jam or blackberry pie. We also had strawberries and gooseberries growing in the back garden which were equally delicious straight off the bush. Day trips 'out' and a train ride to London and wandering around the museums was a 'special treat'. We travelled on the underground, and rides up and down the escalators was an added 'thrill'. My Dad worked in an engineering factory and the hooter announcing lunch-break or end of day could be heard many miles away. I remember some days going to meet him on his way home and 'hitching a lift on his bike by sitting on the cross-bar.

Re: Help! What do you remember about the 1950s?

I also remember that the bus fare to school (about three miles) was a halfpenny and that I usually walked so that I could spend the money on sweets.
We played in the streets all the time because there were no cars - all our dads had bikes which they rode to work. The only vehicles which came down our road were the milkman, the baker and Uncle Ted - the rag & bone man, although we did have a regular tinker who came round on his tricycle mending pots and pans.
All our pavements were covered in chalk-marked hopscotch games - one of our favourite past-times when we weren't in the woods playing "war" or "cowboys and Indians"

Re: Help! What do you remember about the 1950s?

We used to be given the bus money for Sunday School-about 2-3 miles - we used to spend it in the garage on the way there so we walked home.

Re: Help! What do you remember about the 1950s?

British motorcycles . . . Triumph, BSA, Norton, AJS, Velocette, Ariel, Matchless . . . . ahh, the sweet throb of those engines . . . alas, it was long ago.