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

What were you doing in 1973 biglouis?

Living in Devon on the edge of Dartmoor. We have a movie of us on Banthum beach along with our daughter with DH giving her milk out of a milk bottle and her pointing to me (filming them) asking “what is mama doing?” I was hugely pregnant at the time with our son who would be born in a months time.

Happy birthday AskAlice

That's a dreadful story Cattery girl

I was 23. We had 2 little boys. We were living in a nice new house, we had bought in Kent, and had great neighbours. I turned a downstairs room into a pottery studio.
That year we holidayed in Galloway.

I had just returned home from a school trip to Paris. It was my first time abroad.

Early 1960s. I was part way through my professional qualifications and therefore having to remain with my parents because I could not yet afford my own place. I hated it and spent as little time at home as possible. When I wasnt working I was out studying in the library or clubbing. I still look back on the 1960s with a great deal of nostalgia. They were wonderful years.

It was a very different world when older men still touched their hats to young ladies and opened the door for them.

I had married in 1972. He beat me up on the honeymoon in Torremolinos and we persevered with a coach trip to the Alhambra and I didn’t speak to him. Do you blame me? Later, he explained to me, after I divorced him, that he was brought up to treat women like that. Somehow we became friends and he made me furniture for my single persons house. Sadly he remarried and emigrated to South Africa with this lady and her son and he died in a terrible accident.

I was 23. Married for four years we’d bought a do-er upper of a house a year previously and also acquired our first dog. That year we were building a dining room with the help of a friends husband who was a master builder. He taught Mr C to bricklay and a very patient building inspector made sure the outcome was legal. I helped dig foundations, a huge soak away, carried bricks, mixed cement and generally laboured. My Dad looked on in some horror when he wasn’t helping out, Mum tried to keep us all sane and made sure the dog and wet cement were kept apart. It took ages as we only had weekends and evenings but was more than worth it. We had roofers, otherwise it was all our own if supervised work. We loved the process and the outcome. A good year for us.

I was eight and had just finished my first year in the juniors. I had recently passed my grade 1 exam and spent a lot of time at the piano - ten years later l would be setting off for music college and an eventual career in music - when I wasn’t playing out with my friends or reading. Happy days.

Preparing for my wedding in September.

Working full-time and pregnant with Baby No.1

32 with 6 month-old baby and 2 year-old toddler. Quite a handful! Lots of healthy exercise walking to the Co-op with the pram and in the opposite direction to the Mums and Toddlers' Club. Used my contacts there to create a local group of NHR.

I'd been married for a month and we were living in the house we'd bought for £6,000

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.

Married for five years, nearly three year old daughter & new baby son. Happy!

Married one year just had first baby girl & mostly a very happy time too

Married 3 years, 1 year old son.

I would have been 11, on summer break at home. I have a terrible memory for details, but I don't think my mother had started working full time yet. We may have been home watching younger siblings while Mum picked cherries on a nearby farm, or we may have been picking with her for part of the day.

We picked raspberries from our yard and sold them by the roadside. I read a ton of books, listened to the top hits on the radio, walked to the nearby store when we could scrounge money for a popsicle, all with the girls next door. In the afternoons we would sometimes walk a mile to the public swimming pool (outdoors), but the walk home was all uphill, so you ended up hot and needing another swim! Most mums didn't drive in those days, or the dads had the car at work.

I was 8....my first holiday abroad in 1973....to Malta

Oooh I was 12 and madly in love with him too Louella and still listen to his music. Did you ever go to one of his concerts?

'Happy Birthday' AskAlice .

I was 12 and madly in love with David Cassidy

Just got married; we celebrated our Golden Wedding on 13 June. We honeymooned in Paris.

I was 17 and in my second year of working. I started work as a Junior Clerk in the Town Clerk's Office and had just been promoted to the heady heights of shorthand typist. Had money for the first time in my life and was happily spending it on clothes, LPs and going out. Loved every minute of it.

Happy Birthday 🎂 AskAlice

We had just bought our first house. I had a two year old and a seven year old. My parents were alive and lived near. We were happy.

I turned 16 on this day 50 years ago! I'd had my O Level results (which were very good) and wanted to leave school as I'd had enough and knew exactly what I wanted to do! My parents insisted that I go into the 6th form and study for A Levels so I was a miserable girl over the summer holidays...I finally managed to leave school part way through the Lower Sixth and have never regretted it.