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Half a century ago... what were you up to?

(242 Posts)
Riverwalk Sat 22-Jul-23 14:57:15

This time in 1973 I was 18 and waiting to start nurse training, having left school three years earlier at the tender age of 15.

I don't know were the time went but would like to re-visit and make a few changes! smile

SparklyGrandma Mon 24-Jul-23 19:18:06

Only age 14, living in Wales with grandparents, learning to sew with my grandmother.

By coincidence, will be holidaying with a friend and her hubby, we were at school together from age 12.

grannybuy Mon 24-Jul-23 18:58:50

Married with a thirteen month old, and just about to become pregnant again!

Summerfly Mon 24-Jul-23 18:50:12

I was aged 23, 7 months pregnant and living in Sussex. A really happy time for me. Lots of water under the bridge since then!

Mollie3 Mon 24-Jul-23 18:22:51

Same here, I would change so many things. I wouldn't have married an alcoholic for one - I had no idea.

Cherylrov Mon 24-Jul-23 18:15:28

I was just married aged 18 (mad or what) luckily turned out well and still together with less hair (him) much wider (me) but happily plodding along with 2 AC and 4 GC

mabon1 Mon 24-Jul-23 18:10:40

I was a wife and mother to three boys aged 8,6 nd 5. Happy days stay at home mum, little spare cash but wouldn't change it for anything. All of my sons have told me that they had
wonderful childhood, that means the world to me.

2420mags Mon 24-Jul-23 18:06:59

Every time my father got a promotion we moved to where his new office would be. Whitley Bay to High Wycombe and everyone at school would make fun of my accent, which was not pronounced, but obvious. Moving about ever two to three years ,as we did, and not be in the military was not so common in those days.My sister was 7 years younger than me so it was like being an only child. l was also catholic so never went to the local school. All holidays were spent with one or other set of grandparents, who always lived 3 to 4 hundred miles away, so would not be around to go out to play, which my mother never encouraged. However it made me resilient and self contained.

nipsmum Mon 24-Jul-23 18:04:37

My second daughter was 2 years old. My husband had just started a new job working offshore on the North Sea. We had moved to Livingston which was a new town then. With 2 small girls I was busy on my own with them.

MadeInYorkshire Mon 24-Jul-23 17:52:42

Riverwalk

This time in 1973 I was 18 and waiting to start nurse training, having left school three years earlier at the tender age of 15.

I don't know were the time went but would like to re-visit and make a few changes! smile

1998 was the year my health problems began sadly ... it's been a downhill trend ever since.

Saetana Mon 24-Jul-23 17:51:29

Given I was only 4 years old, not a lot grin

KaazaK Mon 24-Jul-23 17:35:56

I was engaged at the tender age of 18
and due to be married in November!
Must have been bonkers!

MrsKen33 Mon 24-Jul-23 17:24:19

polly123. me too.

heath480 Mon 24-Jul-23 17:16:15

I was a Nursing Officer in the Army,stationed in Aldershot at that time.

polly123 Mon 24-Jul-23 17:05:35

Just starting out in my first job as an Art teacher.

dumdum Mon 24-Jul-23 16:27:12

Had one child in 72, preggie with no.2 on holiday in Margate.

Bluesmum Mon 24-Jul-23 15:59:23

My marriage was going through a difficult patch, my husband decided he needed to sow some wild oats - and boy! Do I mean wild lol!!!! We survived and went on to build a very firm and happy marriage until he died four years ago, but I could and should have handled it better at the time and not caused so much anguish all round! Really black period I have not revisited for a long, long time and don’t intend to dwell there, much prefer the happy years that followed, both older and wiser!

win Mon 24-Jul-23 15:58:13

I too was happily married with 2 sons one of 5 years and one of 18 month,. I was working evenings in the local pub to earn some extra money. I loved my life and my home in country never having lived out of a city before

JudeMD Mon 24-Jul-23 15:56:25

I had been married for two years. Suddenly my husband had a job in South Wales and we had to move from Sheffield where we had grown up. I was a big change. We managed to put a deposit on our first home and are still in it, it is a little larger than when we bought it! 50 years on and we have three Welsh children and 4 Welsh grandchildren.
Hwyl Fawr
(Goodbye)

essjay Mon 24-Jul-23 15:55:06

just finished my first year of a two year training course to be a nursery nurse and had stupidly got engaged! saw sense and broke it off a few months later

twiglet77 Mon 24-Jul-23 15:42:00

I’d just turned 17, working full time as an insurance clerk, and fairly miffed at no longer having six weeks off in the summer! Taking weekly driving lessons in a Ford Escort, saving diligently, and having to pay my mother 1/4 of my wages for my “keep”. I couldn’t wait to leave home but it was another two years before I moved into a bedsit.

I was already engaged to the boy I married in 1979 and divorced 10 years later, it was so silly but of course we knew best!

jenpax Mon 24-Jul-23 15:38:00

Nothing exciting, I was still at primary school. But probably looking forward to the Summer holidays and camping in France with my parents

Gwenisgreat Mon 24-Jul-23 15:36:41

I had a nearly one year old baby, who loved to run and climb over everything. she was walking and running by the time she was ten months old! I was the slimmest I'd ever been through running after her. She's still very active but now has a 7 year old daughter.

Neilspurgeon0 Mon 24-Jul-23 15:22:42

I was in Japan having just completed Exercise Green Light, a joint U.S./U.K./Japanese/Thai naval exercise showing the flag in the South China Sea to counter Chinese aggression.
Truly nothing changes

Jzpap Mon 24-Jul-23 15:20:17

I love these type of posts.
I was 16 and had just left the 5th form. Spent most of the Summer working in Woolworths and swapping boyfriends on a regular basis. Wish I could go back and change things, I probably would have never joined the sixth form and subsequently wasted a year.

catwoman Mon 24-Jul-23 15:18:10

I went to HongKong to live as husband was in the Royal Navy. Two children age 6 months & three & a half. Wonderful experience.