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

LRavenscroft

Dancing to Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple and madly in love with Richard Gillan who I still think is the most handsomest man to walk the planet.

Do you mean Ian Gillan? I was a big Deep Purple fan too!

I was 14 obviously still in school . And going to West Wittering in Sussex for the summer . My mums boss had a second home there and we spent the whole summer there. My dad used to drive down at the weekends .

I'd just left school and got my first job as a trainee typist, typing out the orders for the production department in a factory - and earned the grand sum of £10/week. After 6 months I got a pay rise of 50p. I was 17, got up at 4.30 am and walked nearly a mile to the bus stop to catch the bus to town at 5.30. From the bus stop in town I walked another half a mile or so to the factory to be ready to start at 7 am. I had a really horrible boss who took her bad temper out on me but stuck it out for a year until I got another job in a lovely office with really nice people, a job I remember with a lot of affection. I had a group of friends I am still in touch with on and off. In another six months I would be getting engaged to someone I absolutely adored and in a year I would be getting my heart broken by my fiance. Good times, eh 😁

I was 28, married a year and living in a poky flat; saving up for our first house.
Teaching full time.
But most of all enjoying life with my lovely husband! Sadly he died 5 years ago, but so many happy memories.....

I was celebrating my twenty first birthday thank you . Seventy one is pretty good when you have finished with education and teaching and divorced the husband...

I had just finished my final year of primary school. I was excited to be starting my summer holidays but nervous to be going to senior school. We moved house in the summer holidays as well to a different part of the town.

Pregnant with my first child!

I'd just got my first teaching job, having finished the 3yr course a month ago.

Looking after DD, who was 14 months, pregnant with DS!

I had two babies and we were about to emigrate to Australia because we were sick of the cold and the politics.

Married too young in 1972,had made my bed and had to lay in it.
July 1973 would have seen my ex,leaving me,for him in to work in a holiday camp in Filey,we lived in East London,he came back a few weeks later,he had had his hands in the till,very turbulent marriage,divorced in 1975 aged 23.
I met my 2nd husband working a second job in a bar to pay for the divorce,and debts I had been left with.
Life got better in 1976.

Dancing to Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple and madly in love with Richard Gillan who I still think is the most handsomest man to walk the planet.

I was 36 and still a stay-at-home mum with my two sons who were now 9 and 13. We took in foreign students throughout the summer months so that I need not go back to work yet.
The following year was much more interesting. I started work again, in a sub post office just around the corner from home, took driving lessons, passed my test and bought a car. And I began to grow up. 1974 was a turning point in my life as I claimed back some independence.

I was 16 and had just left a job working in a furriers in the then posh street in Liverpool. It was an interesting varied job which included making brooches with ermine tails assisting the furrier in the cellar and some window dressing. I learnt a lot about furs and the fur trade I was the junior and never had anything to do with customers. Ladies who only entered the shop by appointment and had one to one attention from the owner and his assistant. It was poor pay and cost me a lot just to travel there. I asked for a pay rise and was refused so I handed in my notice. I was rather shy but I was very forward when it came to work it was the way I was brought up to speak up for myself.
I enrolled at hairdressing college and started an apprenticeship in a salon. The pay was still meagre but it was only a mile away from where I lived. So I walked and had no bus fare to lay out apart from college one day a week. I thought at the time hairdressing was my future but it changed before I completed my apprenticeship.

Started full time Secretarial course in September’73 and Dad died October 73- awful time…
had my first crush on one of the ‘brickies’ at the college on day release which made the whole year just bearable..started going to Top Rank with fake id as u had to look/prove u were 18 and wore fake eyelashes🤩

I was a stay at home mum with a four year old and a toddler of 18 months living on a new estate. Where we lived there was only a school, no shops, no telephone box so life involved a lot of walking and carrying. We did not get a car for another seven years.
DH worked long hours and in any spare time he worked as a special constable in the police force.

I had just finished my probationary year as a teacher in a school near my parents. Moving back home had come as quite a shock after 3 years of freedom.
I visited my fiance every other weekend, he was still a student.
This weekend I had just been to a friend's wedding,
Life was hectic but I enjoyed it.

13 still at school looking forward to a bright future!

It’s strange isn’t it? although I was happy with the toddler and expecting our second, we had no money and lived 13 floors up in a Tower block, MrOops worked all hours so that we could save up and buy our own home, although we didn’t manage that until a few years later.

So, no money, no car, twin tub, fridge and a second hand cooker were all the appliances we had, but we were happy.

I was 33 and had two children. I had undertaken a teacher training course for mature students and designed to fit in with school times and holidays. Was at the college for 4 years which included a degree course.

Salti

50 years ago I was 15 and utterly miserable. I was the oldest of five children and lived in a Yorkshire pit village. I went to Grammar school about ten miles away. My life seemed to consist of school, looking after younger siblings, trying to do homework and working to try and earn a bit of money. To make matters worse my parents were splitting up.

Salti hope your life improved. My 15th year was also MY unhappiest, but quite a long time before 1973.

That year was a pretty enjoyable time, Having been told several years earlier that we would not be able tohave children due to hubbies MS, by 1973 our youngest was getting ready to celebrate her firstbirthday, with her two older siblings. I would goon a couple of years later tohave twins!!!

The previous year we had moved into a new build house, which after eight years in a victorian end of terrace was absolutely wonderful. Lovely nieghbours, really enjoying being a SAHM, and my lovely new house.

The 70's were a good time, it was the 80's whidh were a total disaster.

We remember, and write of the happy times.

I could also have added that DS was worried by appearance of a sister, he liked the idea in theory but worried, he is a worrier still, that he was going to be supplanted by her. This meant long sleepless nights because he didn't sleep, DH's work took him away from home a lot, so I was almost a single mother. DH's father was beginning to show signs of the health problems that were to increasingly disable him over the next 9 years.

Yes, all was not sweetness and light 50 years ago, but I prefer to remember it as an idyllic hot summer, with my two little ones.

Reading through this thread, so many saying what happy days they were, (not everyone sadly).

Why? Was it because it was a much simpler time, mainly at home with babies and little ones, or doing up first homes?

Life just seemed easier somehow.

The joys of youth.

Second child was 2 months old, first still not 2. (our decision).

No 2 slept so much it worried me, she only opened her eyes when she opened her mouth for food, and once satisfied closed them again.

The weather was glorious, so eacch morning I put her in the pram, pushed it to the shady end of the garden and brought her in in the evening.

I did not know this was a deep and devious plan by said baby, at six weeks laid on her tummy she rolledd onto her back, a few weeks later, she rolled from back to front and then there was no stopping her, she stopped sleeping as much and was only happy when rolling round the room. How I longed for the long sleeps oftnhe early weeks of her life.

I was married with a four year old daughter and about to be pregnant again. Happy days