Those were the days

I walked to school and back for 13 years.
Five different schools in four different towns. We moved about with dad's job.
I knew one lad at secondary school who we reckoned had done more miles than me over the same 13 years.
 
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Born 1965
My mum and dad were very hard working,my dad with 3 sometimes 4 jobs.
Mum 5 kids under 8
If we went to school and got holes in our trousers we got a smack and had to wear the same trousers.
I bought my daughter a pair of jeans for £55 the only stipulation was they had to have holes in the knees and rips.
 
Doon frae Troon said:
Early 1960's my brother and I, whilst being driven between grouse beating drives, would sit on the front bonnet of a battered old Land Rover tightly holding onto the one handhold each side [put there for that purpose]
Probably about 6 adult beaters crammed into the back and three in the front.
Bouncy rough tracks, fantastic fun.
All for 7/6d [35p] a day
Same period of time I once earned £1/2/6p for caddying three rounds in one day.
The three rounds probably accumulated 7 and a half hours work.
Click to expand...

My mum had a Citroen 2CV with the roll back roof. Me and my brother used to stand on the back seat holding on to the middle support bar and wave to other drivers as we went past. Back in those days you'd even get a wave back from the police as you past them. Can't imagine the same happening today if I tried it with my kids.
 
williamalex1 said:
We got our first fridge in 1965 after moving from our 1 bed, room and kitchen to a brand new 2- bed council house, milk went sour very quickly in warm weather, we were told sour milk is very good for making pancakes.
I had always shared a bedroom with my older sister until I was 13 then thankfully she got married and I finally had my own room.
Mum and Dad slept in the living room in a fold-down bed settee.
Our kitchen was only 4-foot wide by 12 feet long. Our toilet was actually in the kitchen at the back r/h side, it was 3-foot square and only contained a toilet pan and cistern, no sink.
The only hot water was a gas Geyser over the kitchen sink, no central heating or double glazing, just a large cast iron coal fire range in the living room. No heating in the bedroom except for a paraffin heater.
Recall the four of us sitting terrified listening to The Man In Black [ not you Bill ] horror crime stories on our wireless, a radio that was powered by an accumulator acid-filled glass battery that had to be charged up by the local garage.
Eventually, around 1953 we got a Black and white 12-inch TV, only the 1 channel to start, we were soo excited.
Only one electric wall socket additional power was taken from adaptors plugged into the big centre light '
We still had gas lamp posts outside and lanterns in closes/passageways.
We walked to school by ourselves, rain hail or snow at play times and lunch breaks we were sent outside no matter the weather, we had covered shelters to play in.
I think we had 35 in my class, we used ink, pens with nibs, Inkpots on our desks and blotting paper.
1958ish me top row centre and 1952ish me bottom row far right.
Click to expand...
How did we ever learn anything with being taught in classes of these size. Maybe we didn’t…maybe we learnt everything we needed from doing our homework.
 
williamalex1 said:
We got our first fridge in 1965 after moving from our 1 bed, room and kitchen to a brand new 2- bed council house, milk went sour very quickly in warm weather, we were told sour milk is very good for making pancakes.
I had always shared a bedroom with my older sister until I was 13 then thankfully she got married and I finally had my own room.
Mum and Dad slept in the living room in a fold-down bed settee.
Our kitchen was only 4-foot wide by 12 feet long. Our toilet was actually in the kitchen at the back r/h side, it was 3-foot square and only contained a toilet pan and cistern, no sink.
The only hot water was a gas Geyser over the kitchen sink, no central heating or double glazing, just a large cast iron coal fire range in the living room. No heating in the bedroom except for a paraffin heater.
Recall the four of us sitting terrified listening to The Man In Black [ not you Bill ] horror crime stories on our wireless, a radio that was powered by an accumulator acid-filled glass battery that had to be charged up by the local garage.
Eventually, around 1953 we got a Black and white 12-inch TV, only the 1 channel to start, we were soo excited.
Only one electric wall socket additional power was taken from adaptors plugged into the big centre light '
We still had gas lamp posts outside and lanterns in closes/passageways.
We walked to school by ourselves, rain hail or snow at play times and lunch breaks we were sent outside no matter the weather, we had covered shelters to play in.
I think we had 35 in my class, we used ink, pens with nibs, Inkpots on our desks and blotting paper.
1958ish me top row centre and 1952ish me bottom row far right.
Click to expand...
Great post, your painting a picture..
love stories like this ,how it was in the old days.
born 1957 we had no phones,laptops,internet.
I had a great childhood, footy all day ,Jumpers for goalposts ,cricket in summer three twigs for stumps.

with all they have now a lot of kids are miserable
give me the simple life anyway.
 
Did anyone else have to rent a TV? Putting 50p in the box was always a pleasure as a child. Pretty sure that, unlike some neighbours, my parents didn’t even swindle the box.
 
TimShady said:
Did anyone else have to rent a TV? Putting 50p in the box was always a pleasure as a child. Pretty sure that, unlike some neighbours, my parents didn’t even swindle the box.
Click to expand...
As a child, I think ours was always a rented telly.
Dad really splashed out though and rented a colour for the 1970 world cup.
The colour was dreadful - would fade in and out and was often too gaudy. The outside broadcasts were always too bright or too dark. BUT IT WAS COLOUR.
I think the first set they bought was one they had already rented for three years by the late 1970s, so got a huge discount.
 
TimShady said:
Did anyone else have to rent a TV? Putting 50p in the box was always a pleasure as a child. Pretty sure that, unlike some neighbours, my parents didn’t even swindle the box.
Click to expand...
I seem to remember the firm we used was called Telebank, it took 2 shilling coins [ 2 bob ].
We use to watch the guy very carefully when he came to empty it and count out the money.
He was like a card shark or the street magician with the 3 shell trick, only faster using both hands sliding the money from the table into a box.
The rumour was these guys made a great skim, but we always got some money back after the rental [ plus ] was taken lol
 

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williamalex1 said:
I seem to remember the firm we used was called Telebank, it took 2 shilling coins [ 2 bob ].
We use to watch the guy very carefully when he came to empty it and count out the money.
He was like a card shark or the street magician with the 3 shell trick, only faster using both hands sliding the money from the table into a box.
The rumour was these guys made a great skim, but we always got some money back after the rental [ plus ] was taken lol
Click to expand...
Telebank became part of Granada group in the early 80s.

I worked PT sales for Granada in the mid 90s whilst serving my mechanic’s apprenticeship to give me some extra money and spent a year doing the Telebank admin for West Fife.

Bit of an eye opener into, I suppose what was then, prepayment meter ripoffs.
 
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