Calling all Older (than me) folks

[CandiCame]

I've noticed that the demographics on lit tend to lean on the older (than me and posters on other sites I visit) side.

I'm incredibly interested in domestic history- I've actually been thinking about going back to school to study it. I always have been, ever since I was a kid. I didn't realize how much older the userbase here skewed until one of the posters mentioned that he had been born in the 30s. The oldest person I can talk to on a daily basis was born in 1944, and I LOVE hearing about his childhood. Seeing how much things have changed and how "cushy" and "spoilt" I am actually does make me really grateful. I'm not one of those people who ignores those stories as pointless bitching and trying to drag me, because it is genuinely true. Overall quality of life for most people is steadily increasing.

So I would be really, really interested to hear anything you guys have to say about the past, even if formatted as, "You kids today have never had it rough, back in my day we had to shit outside, we didn't have none of your fancy running water." You can drag my lazy, spoiled, tech-obsessed generation all you want, because your past and your stories are genuinely interesting.

Even if you weren't born in the 30s, times have changed a lot even between one generation.

Basically I'd love to hear about the past no matter where you fall on the timescale.

It's pretty rare that you get to hear about the past from normal people. When you learn about history it's all famous shit, and famous people are usually rich, which gives a really unrealistic idea of what things were actually like. Domestic historians like Ruth Goodman make me really happy because they actually dive into what it was like for common people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUsU5s0ofYo

 

[CandiCame]

I am sincerely interest in the past so I'm posting this thread here because I tried to post it on the GB and instead of fun stories and recounting from people's times growing up it just kind of... I found that that maybe wasn't the place for it.

So I'm posting here too, hoping I'll get more actual replies about the past.

 

[butters]

I am sincerely interest in the past so I'm posting this thread here because I tried to post it on the GB and instead of fun stories and recounting from people's times growing up it just kind of... I found that that maybe wasn't the place for it.

So I'm posting here too, hoping I'll get more actual replies about the past.

okay, i'll repaste my reply here

 

[butters]

hi, Candi - well i'm 60 and there are a few things that may be of little interest other than a laugh.

english currency was 12 pennies to a shilling, twenty shillings to a pound, and there were farthings (quarter-pennies with a wren on)), half-pennies (self-explanatory and with a sal ship on), threepenny pieces (or thrup'ney bits as we called them with a portcullis on or sometimes clover flowers i think) which were 12-sided, sixpences, shillings, florins (2 bob bits=2 shillings), half-crowns (2shillings and sixpence), crowns, ten 'bob' notes, pound notes, (guineas went out of circulation in 1813). five pound notes and more paper monies. this all changed with decimalisation in 1971 when adding money became a whole lot easier for kids with 100 pennies to the pound instead of 144!

pre-decimalisation, you could buy 1 lb of potatoes for 2d (2 pennies), sixpence could buy you a bag of chips (fries), 3d a jamboree bag (an assortment of hard candy and shit like 'tattos' you put on your arm/hand/whatever and made wet with saliva then peeled off, leaving behind the picture), and the ice-cream van used to call every day in the summertime... mr whippy and, the better icecreams from 'nelson'. no idea if nelson was the guy's name, a comapany, or what, but i think his van played 'greensleeves' - a song written by (it is claimed) king henry the 8th i shit you not.

after decimalisation, prices virtually doubled overnight, just replacing the 'd's with 'p's, so what had cost 2d the day before now cost 2p and so on. some people made a killing, and people weren't familiar enough with the currency to realise what was happening till too late.

if you had a phone in the house, it was usually just the one, in one set place, limited by the spiralled wire, so getting privacy to speak on the phone (and this was in the 70's in my particular household), you had to make sure doors were closed and you spoke quietly. you answered a call to your house with your phone number and 'may i help you' spoken very politely not 'yeah?' as is more common today.

you'd have breakfast, maybe elevensies if you were home, lunch (or dinner, as we called it), four o'clocksies (post school snack time), tea-time (6-ish) and supper time (if you wanted) at around 8. little kids went to bed around 7pm, and bed-time was bed-time, though you might be allowed to read or did with a torch under the covers or sat at a window making use of the street light outside.

summer holidays lasted FOREVER, and christmas was a blast.

 

[CandiCame]

What the hell even is England?

Y'all are on some Harry Potter shit. That's... that's an insane monetary system.

That phone thing reminded me of Bitesize. I didn't realize this, but for the first like... three and a half years of her life she had never ended a phone conversation on a landline. Ever. She had never had a reason to. So she didn't know how to do that. We went to my mamaws and somebody called, my dad I think, and she talked to him last. I heard her say, "Goodbye". Then she stared at the phone. Just stared at it. Like the receiver part.

So my gf goes, "Hang up the phone, sweety."

And BS just stares at the receiver- and then just starts pushing buttons like she's trying to call someone else.

And my gf is like, "Hang up the phone!"

And BS pushes more buttons.

Then we realize what she's doing. She's trying to find the 'end call' button.

We had to hang it up for her and explain how phones work.

It was adorable but good lord.

 

[butters]

What the hell even is England?

Y'all are on some Harry Potter shit. That's... that's an insane monetary system.

That phone thing reminded me of Bitesize. I didn't realize this, but for the first like... three and a half years of her life she had never ended a phone conversation on a landline. Ever. She had never had a reason to. So she didn't know how to do that. We went to my mamaws and somebody called, my dad I think, and she talked to him last. I heard her say, "Goodbye". Then she stared at the phone. Just stared at it. Like the receiver part.

So my gf goes, "Hang up the phone, sweety."

And BS just stares at the receiver- and then just starts pushing buttons like she's trying to call someone else.

And my gf is like, "Hang up the phone!"

And BS pushes more buttons.

Then we realize what she's doing. She's trying to find the 'end call' button.

We had to hang it up for her and explain how phones work.

It was adorable but good lord.

things changed in '71 and now england uses something pretty much like the us system except we still have more coins over there - a penny, a five-pence piece, a 10 pence, a 20, a fifty, a pound, 2 pounds... and then we move onto notes. i had to get used to pennies/cents, 5 cents, dimes and dollars

it's not very harry potter nowadays, but that early 'feel' to the HP films? wasn't weird to me

 

[glynndah]

A little older than butters and I grew up in the US. What would you like to know, sweetie?

 

[Aglaopheme]

FYI that is Ish since you asked. Well, Ish after multiple bannings.

Just ain't goin' they way you planned you little cunt..........is it?

Y9ou aren't nearly as smart as you think you're.

Still all about you huh?

Beew speaks for herself. I was merely stating a fact, not an admonition. OK?

You started this thread, stay with it. It's not about you, capiche?

 

[scrymettet]

A little older than butters and I grew up in the US. What would you like to know, sweetie?

lies,all lies I tell you.
you cannot be that experienced

 

[oggbashan]

UK change to decimal currency

The UK changed to decimal currency on the 15 February 1971 BUT two coins had been issued in 1968 - the ten pence equivalent to two shillings and the five pence equivalent to one shilling.

I got some ten pence coins from my bank on the first day. I bought a pint with one and got two old pennies change. Even in 1968 that was a cheap pint. The bar staff and the customers all wanted to look at the ten pence piece because it was new.

The two shilling coin, the florin, had been issued in the 19th Century as a first step towards decimal currency but the UK waited 100 years before actually doing it.

The government and many major shop chains issued guides to using the new currency. The traders were supposed to change prices to the nearest new coin, up or down. Of course they didn't. Every conversion was up.

I used to play cards in the pub. We had a limit for 3 card brag. The largest bet could be a third of a guinea (seven shillings) despite the guinea having been abolished early in the 19th Century. Goods such as expensive fashion, furniture, and high tech equipment like TVs, were still priced in guineas because 499 guineas seemed less than £500 on a sale ticket when it was actually 523 pounds and 19 shillings.

 

[Jada59]

I was born in 59. I remember being told that we'd go to the metric system. Nope. I also remember being told that money as we know it would be obsolete. Instead it would be all electronic. That is sort of happening.

I also fondly remember vending machines. Yes, they're still around but not like they once were.

The coffee machine. Would it dispense the cup? Or would it be flung on the floor while you watched your hot beverage pee itself down the drain. You could get coffee, hot chocolate or chicken broth. Whatever you got, tasted slightly of whatever was dispensed before.

The penny gum machines. Would we get a gumball or a toy? They were all mixed together. For a little more money you could get a bigger gumball, jaw breaker or a better toy.

Chiclets. Little rectangles of gum with a candy coating. Two in a box, all stacked up in a dispenser that spun around so you could select your flavor. Loved the peppermint ones.

Seemed everyone had machines that dispensed peanuts, candied peanuts or other nuts. Some were even heated. Would the nuts be fresh? You never knew.

Condom machines in men's restrooms. Are those still in there?

Machines that had almost everything from rain bonnets, sewing kits, paper panties and asst. cosmetics.

Machines that dispensed a spray of perfume.

My grandpa had a Coke machine in his store. It was like a big cooler. The lid opened. You'd put your coin in and select your bottle then move it around the maze to the part where you could pull it out. Glass bottle with metal top that had to be popped off on the opener on the front.

Popcorn machines. Used to be a store called Wigwam. It was a step of from the 5 and dime. Had a popcorn vending machine as you entered. You could buy a tiny bag of the most stale and awful tasting popcorn ever. But damn did it smell good!

The 5 and dime which was later called a dime store sold cheap stuff. At first everything cost 5 or 10 cents. You could get anything in there, but stuff like shoes were total crap. They had a candy counter and a lunch counter. When prices went up, they were called dime stores. For a time, everything was 10 cents. Eventually those prices went higher too. Most sold birds and fish. The lunch counter food was yummy. They had a variety of ice cream treats and some had balloons by the register. If you ordered a banana split, you got to choose a balloon. You'd pop it and inside, there would be a piece of paper stating the price of your banana split. Sometimes they were free but they were always less than the menu price.

Freebies at the service station. This was not just a gas station but a place that offered full service including tires for sale at some. And a mechanic on duty. You'd park at the pump. A smartly dressed man would attend to you and ask, "Regular or Ethyl?" Ethyl gas was more expensive and some cars required that. My dad's Buick did. If you got a fill up, you were often offered a free gift. Could be a drinking glass, bath towel, sunglasses or a toy. I think some had punch cards so you could save up for a bigger prize.

Party Lines. We didn't have one but I knew people that did. It was a cheaper landine phone service. Up to 5 different houses could be on the same line. Each house had a different ring tone. You were supposed to respect people's privacy and not listen in to their calls but everyone did. If you weren't careful, the people having the conversation would hear a click as you picked up the phone or hung up, or could hear you breathing or background noises. You learned how to pick it up quietly and after the other person answered and to clamp your hand over the mouth piece and hope you didn't get caught. This was a good way to get gossip!

 

[EdEc]

I was born in mid-1943, at the height of WWII. In the year I was born, pennies were made of zinc, not copper. Copper was needed for the war effort. Rationing of goods was essential to the war effort. When I was older, my parents told me that Dad would use my brother's (older than me by 3 years) sugar ration stamps and Dad's shoe stamps were used for my brother.
In kindergarten, at age 5, we had a rhythm band which was made up of things such as triangles, wood blocks and sticks to hit the blocks with. Kindergarten was 1/2 day either morning or afternoon. Our telephone had no push buttons, not even a dial. You simply picked up the receiver and told the operator the number you wanted. We were on a four-party line, so when you picked up the phone, you listened to learn if one of the other 3 parties were talking. If someone was talking, you replaced the receiver and tried again later.
Mom had a Maytag washing machine in the basement. The machine had a tub with an agitator in it and attached to the machine was a wringer. Was the clothes with detergent in the tub, wring out the soapy water in the wringer, drain the tum, re-fill with clear water for rinsing, run the rinsed clothes through the wringer, put them all to the laundry basket, made of woven wood, and carry it upstairs and outdoors to hang the clothes on the line to dry in the sun. I had a pair of Levi's jeans that were bleached to a very pale light blue from being hung to dry in the sun. I hated to stop wearing them when I outgrew them.
When I was in 8th grade, the RIT dye company came up with an idea. Buy a pair of white duck pants and a package of RIT dye and have pants the color you chose. Of course, I chose chartreuse. My dad was bewildered but Mom went along with it. The first time I wore them to school, the principal heard about my pants and called me to his office. It was the second time I had been in his office. This time he only said that he had seen me on the playground before school started and he wanted to know why I was wearing pants of that color. I told him that they were different from any other pants that the boys in the school were wearing. The first time I went to the Principal's office was the day after General MacArthur's parade which was televised. Students who wanted to stay home from school to watch the parade were to bring in a note from their parents the day before the parade. My brother and I didn't want to watch the parade...until the day of the parade. Then my brother told me that we could just stay home that day and go to school the next day. The next day, I was sent to the Principal's office and he sat behind his desk and called me over to him. He had me lay across his lap and told me to look out the window from his 2nd floor office. I looked out the window, waiting to be spanked. He asked me if I saw that gray car out there on the street. I said I did. He told me that was his new car. That was it. I stood up and went back to class.
The first car I remember our family having was a 1948 Oldsmobile. It had a hydramatic transmission. We kept that car until 1953 when Dad bought a new Buick Special with a two-tone paint job.Dark gray on top and light gray on the bottom. That massive car also had a straight 8 engine (not a V8) and a standard transmission. In a few years, my brother and I both learned to drive a "stick shift".

 

[Noor]

I miss the sexuality of the 70's

 

[Touch_type]

I am sincerely interest in the past so I'm posting this thread here because I tried to post it on the GB and instead of fun stories and recounting from people's times growing up it just kind of... I found that that maybe wasn't the place for it.

So I'm posting here too, hoping I'll get more actual replies about the past.

Just come across this, so don't know if you're still interested. I'll make this as brief as I can, you can message me if you want more.

I'm from '53. I was therefore lucky enough to have a youth dominated by the 'invention' of sex, drugs and rock and roll. I find the ephemera approach to domestic history a little irritating. Of course, childhood memories of consumer goods, clothes, money atc invoke a pleasant nostalgia. But the post-facto rewriting of the social and cultural upheaval we lived through gives a distorted picture of a time when to be young was very heaven.

My parents' and grandparents' generations had been dominated by war, poverty and deprivation. So the post WWII society they were building was inspirational to them. We, their children, were looked on as a generation who would have doors opened and life chances which they never had. In the UK, the creation of the welfare state, the investment in public housing and infrastructure and most of all the NHS meant that new world was being created before their eyes.

By the time the sixties came along, we teenagers looked to take up the challenge and start forging our own path. The generational divide became more and more pronounced as we dressed different, looked different, rejected many of the old social values - work, marriage etc. Recreational drugs - particularly cannabis and LSD - created a sub-culture which was totally divorced from what had come before. The invention of the contraceptive pill began to remove the fear of pregnancy and change sexual mores and dynamics. More importantly IMO gender and race equality legislation and the decriminalisation of homosexuality struck at long-established taboos. It worried our parents, but excited us.

I think in many ways rock and roll was more important. It became the cultural expression of the changes which were going on around us. Modern eyes tend to analyse it as merely a phenomenon which was superceded by others. But for a few years in the late sixties and early seventies, music industry executives were no longer calling the shots. Each new album by what were to become the supergroups opened up new ideas and possibilities for my generation in history - the importance of US black music - sexuality, politics and art. It was a whirlwind.

Personally, it was exciting, scary - sometimes even frightening - confusing, but most of all, fun. We hoped and expected that the changes we were witnessing and participating in would go on for ever. We could not envisage things ever regressing. More fools us, of course. The complete pig's ear we eventually made of society is an embarrassment.

Good luck with your researches and discoveries. Let us all know when your thesis is published.

 

[hedonisatlurist]

Memories

I'm old, but that doesn't mean I don't want what I wanted when I was 30, in fact after many experiences I still enjoy the chase and the seduction, before the submission. There is nothing more that arouses me then the words she says in my ear as she begs for more

 

[pink]

Here!!!

 

[RedAllan]

Born 1960,

I remember the valve radios and television that you turned on and had to wait a couple of minutes for them to warm up and start playing. Two tv channels that shut down at night, I remember the already mentioned currency change, and being convinced that the comic publishers used the change over to sneak a price increase in.

Our first radio gram was the size of a sideboard. the first colour tv came into my house in the mid 70's. Tuesday lunchtimes listening to an illicit transistor radio at school to hear the latest music chart.

School teachers who thought nothing of dealing a clip round the ear for the slightest misdemeanours, or public canings in front of an assembly for more serious offences.

Getting my first acoustic guitar from Woolworths for my 10th birthday.
Sitting in a local park strumming guitars with a group of the "cool" people.

There's more but I must leave some for my biography.

'

 

[oggbashan]

My parents had a large wind-up gramophone with louvre doors at the front. You had to open or close the doors to adjust the volume.

One Christmas my parents bought a 78 rpm record of Tubby the Tuba for me. It didn't last the whole of Christmas Day because my brother accidentally sat on it and it broke in half.

A few years later my parents had their gramophone adapted with an electric pick-up, an amplifier and a loudspeaker. We still had to wind up the gramophone to play the records.

I still have a portable wind-up gramophone (and several copies of Tubby the Tuba on 78s) but I generally use a modern record player that will play 78s, 45s and 33s.

 

[jeff_is_smiling]

Born in 1959. Some of the differences from growing up today include:

- TV's were black and white and there were about 10 active channels to watch.

- With a new TV, changing channels was easy. MANY people didn't have new TVs, so we often changed our channels using pliers because the channel knob was plastic and had stripped.

- Record players were often furniture - consoles - and the cabinet inside was where you stored your 33's and 78's, along with some 45's.

- I was often told to go outside and play...and wandered all over the neighborhood without any parent asking where I was going. When it was time for dinner, your mom just went to the front screen door and screamed your name to get your attention.

- I walked to and from school a few miles each way. Then, when my folks had saved enough money, they got me a bike - stingray with a banana seat - so I could ride to/from school.

- There was no after school program to speak of. You just left school. Few took the bus. And no one was home when you got there. You had your own "method" of getting inside that you never told your family about - for later use.

- Going grocery shopping meant getting "green stamps" after you paid - that you could turn in for products later on. Everyone had a green stamp book to paste the stamps into for ease of use.

- Bikes were made to sound like motorcycles by using a laundry pin to clip a baseball card of playing card to the frame and position it so the card hit the spokes of your tire as you moved.

- Donut and ice cream trucks made weekend visits to your block. Each had a distinctive jingle so you had time to rob your mom's purse for quarters to get some.

 

[sigh]

I miss the sexuality of the 70's

I'm one result of the sexuality of the 70's

 

[Noor]

I'm one result of the sexuality of the 70's

Love child?

 

[torchthebitch]

english currency was 12 pennies to a shilling, twelve shillings to a pound, and there were farthings (quarter-pennies with a wren on)), half-pennies (self-explanatory and with a sal ship on), threepenny pieces (or thrup'ney bits as we called them with a portcullis on or sometimes clover flowers i think) which were 12-sided, sixpences, shillings, florins (2 bob bits=2 shillings), half-crowns (2shillings and sixpence), crowns, ten 'bob' notes, pound notes, (guineas went out of circulation in 1813). five pound notes and more paper monies. this all changed with decimalisation in 1971 when adding money became a whole lot easier for kids with 100 pennies to the pound instead of 144!

Twenty shillings actually.

Irish coinage was accepted north of the border and vice versa at parity. The heads side was a Harp and the reverse was an animal. We used to tell the English that the Horse was put on the half crown to commemorate Shergar. The Irish threepenny bit was silver and round.

 

[butters]

Twenty shillings actually.

Irish coinage was accepted north of the border and vice versa at parity. The heads side was a Harp and the reverse was an animal. We used to tell the English that the Horse was put on the half crown to commemorate Shergar. The Irish threepenny bit was silver and round.

i cannot believe i typed that! i know it was 20, and 21 made a guinea! i need to go edit that for reals

and HI, torchy!

 

[waratah]

Im a relative youngster

Born in '66

But see a massive difference between childhood now, compared to '70s

We were self-entertaining, exploring, being bruised and broken boned, and a few killed ( drownings, traffic accidents etc). Less risk averse. More social. More interested and wondrous. A typical afternoon after school for me was a swim in dam, a fake battle in the tea tree plantation, and some fun with friends and our air guns.

I remember dad coming home with our first tv, i was 10, and mum worried about how it would ruin our childhood. I think she was kind of right.

 

[CandiCame]

My parents had a large wind-up gramophone with louvre doors at the front. You had to open or close the doors to adjust the volume.

One Christmas my parents bought a 78 rpm record of Tubby the Tuba for me. It didn't last the whole of Christmas Day because my brother accidentally sat on it and it broke in half.

A few years later my parents had their gramophone adapted with an electric pick-up, an amplifier and a loudspeaker. We still had to wind up the gramophone to play the records.

I still have a portable wind-up gramophone (and several copies of Tubby the Tuba on 78s) but I generally use a modern record player that will play 78s, 45s and 33s.

Those record players are coming back!

Born in 1959. Some of the differences from growing up today include:

- TV's were black and white and there were about 10 active channels to watch.

- With a new TV, changing channels was easy. MANY people didn't have new TVs, so we often changed our channels using pliers because the channel knob was plastic and had stripped.

- Record players were often furniture - consoles - and the cabinet inside was where you stored your 33's and 78's, along with some 45's.

- I was often told to go outside and play...and wandered all over the neighborhood without any parent asking where I was going. When it was time for dinner, your mom just went to the front screen door and screamed your name to get your attention.

- I walked to and from school a few miles each way. Then, when my folks had saved enough money, they got me a bike - stingray with a banana seat - so I could ride to/from school.

- There was no after school program to speak of. You just left school. Few took the bus. And no one was home when you got there. You had your own "method" of getting inside that you never told your family about - for later use.

- Going grocery shopping meant getting "green stamps" after you paid - that you could turn in for products later on. Everyone had a green stamp book to paste the stamps into for ease of use.

- Bikes were made to sound like motorcycles by using a laundry pin to clip a baseball card of playing card to the frame and position it so the card hit the spokes of your tire as you moved.

- Donut and ice cream trucks made weekend visits to your block. Each had a distinctive jingle so you had time to rob your mom's purse for quarters to get some.

I saw that in IT and wondered what the hell that was about. No one in my family knew even people who would have been alive when that was a thing. But apparently, most folks around here didn't have bikes because they were expensive and unless it's an actual expensive mountain bike they don't ride well on our terrain.

I can't imagine walking to school. It's a 45 minute car ride, like an hour and a half on the bus (if you're taking the bus you just sleep on the bus. Everybody sleeps on the bus.) I think that would be impossible, to walk there. I know in my area, because it is so rural, a lot of people home-school even today because they don't have a way to get their kids to school. The busses won't go up certain areas unless there's a set number of kids that would need the bus, because of expense, so some people home-school and some people have to hike a good ways to get to bus stops, and some kids' parents will drive them to the bus stop, which is a pain in the ass. The bus doesn't come up my holler, so we take turns walking Bitesize out now that my brother's out of school. She can walk home by herself, but it's dark and shit in the morning and I don't trust that. If it's cold I'll drive down there and sit in the car with the heater on because NOPE.

I think during that time period of the late 50s/early 60s a lot of people here just didn't go to school, because of the distance. I know a lot of people in that age range who went to grade school and then decided not to go to high school, because apparently you could just DO that and no one would make you, and instead started working in the mines because the logic was, "If I'm going out that far I ought to be getting paid" which is buckwild to me. All those same people who made that life choice made this huge deal about what a shitty choice it was, too. Every one of them had the same talk with me which was essentially, "Go get yourself an education so you don't have to work in the mines. Education is important. We fucked up but you don't have to."

I don't know, the concept of walking to school is just really weird to me, because of how it's just not an option in rural areas. It really created an educational divide. Only people who had the money to get to school, or lived in a relatively wealthy area (Ie, not in the middle of nowhere) had a ghost of a chance at even a high-school education. I know a lot of older people who I see potential in. I talk to them, interact with them, and I think about what they could have done if they had been given a chance, and when they tell me to take advantage of the chances I get, I... really feel like shit when I don't. It really instilled in my, to be raised by folks like that, to be thankful for the things I have. That's why I love stuff like this. I know a lot of people are annoyed by the, "You kids today don't know how good you got it" thing, and I was too when I was younger, but now that I'm an adult that lesson has sunk in and I really am thankful. That's why I like stories like this. You folks have a right to say that.

I'm not doing research or writing some kind of domestic history thesis as one poster suggested, I just am interested, I guess as an amateur, about what the world was like in the past, how people lived. And I appreciate all you guys sharing these things.