Life in the 1950s

[Monika]

Life was certainly different then! I was born long before the war, so the 50s covered my teenage years - "New Look" long dresses which my mother created by sewing a strip of completely different (second hand) material to lengthen hem!
I think food was quite different for us behind the iron curtain than even here: I had not seen or eaten an orange or banana until I came to the west as an 18-year-old in the mid 1950s. Luckily, we grew our own vegetables and especially top fruit at home, but there was no "real" coffee or white bread.
it makes you appreciate things much more in later life - which I certainly do.

[Elaine]

I work in a school Kitchen and the choices they have today is amazing....too much choice in my opinion. Some of the children are so picky it makes me despair.
The child will choose exactly what they want to eat, say, roast beef and roast potatoes, two veg and gravy. You see the same child scraping everything but the potatoes into the waste and it all goes down the waste disposal unit. They then have several choices for pudding. Pudding and custard, buns, jelly, mousse, fresh fruit, yoghurt. They will choose a bun, or an apple,take a bite out of it and bin it.

They obviously get away with it at home, knowing their Mam will pander to their hearts desire and give them something else, instead of telling them, "There's nowt else till tea time and you'll get that again, hotted up for your tea."

As MW said, when I was a lass, waste was virtually unheard of and food certainly didn't get thrown away like it does today.

[Beryl]

I didn't see the whole prog. but being a young teenager in the 50's, we always had school lunch and if we didn't eat what was put in front of us we went without. It was bread and butter tea when we got home. I never remember having pilchards and mash or cold liver, as for dripping - Mum just never had the joints to cook. Never short of fruit and veg though, plenty of fish, offal and rabbit. Our Sugar allowance was swopped for cheese with Gran, probably other things as well.
Whoever did the research for the prog, didn't look properly.

Beryl.

[Johnboy]

I'm afraid that I didn't see the programme but I come from the same generation as Monika and Beryl and I have yet to see a programme depicting the privations endured by this nation during WWII.
Being brought up on a farm you would think that things would be fine and dandy for us.
We grew our own vegetables we kept Hens and Cockerels and we incubated our own replacements and many spare to swap for a multitude of things.
Rabbits were on the menu virtually every day with a Rabbit Stew on The hob continuously. I had a pint mug of that every day when I got home from school and if I was really lucky a slice of bread without butter or dripping or margarine.
Programme makers are like this last government. They are simply unable to comprehend how people live!
JB.

[Beryl]

Nice to have your input JB. It's been a long time. Hope you are well.

Regards
Beryl.

[Elaine]

Hello JB. Missed you.

[robo]

We where that poor we could not afford the food to feed a cat, at 5 years old it was my job to catch the mice i would sit all day on all fours usually in the coal bunker waiting to pounce i got really good at mousing ,at 6 oclock each evening i would get made to wash in the yard in a bucket of cold water then me and my brother would share the top of my dads boiled egg for our tea, it was good times even now it somebody scratches the back of my neck it starts me off purring

[Shallot Man]

robo. Ah the good old days. If you was lippy to a copper. You got his cape around your head. And if you was daft enough to tell your father, you got a clip round the ears.

[Pa Snip]

There were times when there was a shortage of bread but the mother in this series seems one slice short of a sandwich to me. Can anybody really make that much of a botch up using tin openers !!

And as for the ability, or lack of, to fry eggs !!

only thing she seems able to do well is whinge