Those were the Days! I copied this from a recent Probus mag. ( author unknown) So very true.

Prozac is antidepressant. It isn’t a tranquilliser.
Antidepressants don’t ‘get you out of it’.
Prozac is one type of a group of antidepressants that increase serotonin production

Never heard of Prozac but maybe they take it wherever the writer came from . I assume it is a tranquilliser. It was in a mag from a bush group that is fairly remote .Doubt they would get much in the way of medical help there, I don’t know.

Well said, Maw.. At the age of six, I was carted off by ambulance with pneumonia. No penicillin, no parental visits, red hot poultices on my chest. Three weeks later, I emerged three weeks later, still alive, but not allowed out to play in the snow, dosed on Virol which I'm sure made me fat!
A year later, the NHS was founded.

Parsley3

^Quote from OP^
My mum used to cut chicken, chop eggs, and^spread butter,
lard, dripping etc., or bread on the same cutting board with
the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get
food poisoning.

I bet you did, author, and running to the outside toilet with your square of newspaper must have taught you something about food hygiene.

We only had chicken occasionally, at Christmas or other celebrations, because it was an expensive meal unless you raised them yourself, so my mother never cut one up, it was always roasted whole with all the trimmings.

I don't remember ever having food poisoning. There was no fridge, so food hygeine was up to the cook. Food in the larder was always covered, and fresh meat cooked soon after it was bought. Cooked meat was covered, or wrapped in greaseproof or the waxed paper that had been round the bread, and leftovers were eaten cold or minced for rissoles or cottage pie next day.

Milk was delivered from a churn on a horse-drawn van, from a farm. It was scooped out with a dipper, into a jug left outside the front door, with a cloth draped over it. Once it was brought in. the jug stood in a bowl of cold water, and a damp cloth hung over it, dipping into the water. The butter joined the milk in a hot summer.

The larder was on the north side of the house for coolness, so was the kitchen.

The coming of refrigerators meant that people didn't need to take these precautions, so they have gradually been forgotten. They weren't the "good old days" when no-one got ill, they were the days when prudent housewives took care of their families by following the old rules. The families of the ones who didn't know or care about hygeine were the ones who got the food poisoning (often just known as "bilious attacks")

Maybe those who remember the chicken cutting followed by butter-spreading were the ones with cast-iron stomachs. More likely, the mass production of chickens in crowded factories to provide cheap meals has also increased the amount of stomach bugs in the ubiquitous chicken portions that fill supermarket shelves?

Rose coloured specs seem to be the in-thing with so many posts similar to the one that started thsi thread on places like facebook, etc.

Maw summed it up as to what total nonsense they usually all are.

For me it is rear view mirror. If I had known then what I know now, I would have acted differently to the people who put me down for being too thin, not sporty, bad at Maths and all the other rubbish you are told. Looking back it was other people's opinion's that affected my life. In one way I am glad women now stand up to abuse and report it and also glad that so many strides have been made in modern healthcare with cancer, dementia etc and also a focus on mental health. In the old days that was your lot and you put up and shut up with so much going under the radar and your luck being that you came from a strong and supportive family or your misfortune that your family was splintered. My greatest fear though nowadays is that Great Britain has become too tolerant and in some ways slapdash to the extent that I can see many threads in the country unravelling unless some of the old ways are restored i.e. respect, responsibility, co-operation, In no way should we return to the old days but life is always a combination of the good of the old and the innovation of the new. Let's hope this country finds the right balance before it is too late.

I agree Kate1949 and I expect it was a shock for nanna8 to receive some of the responses to her light hearted message, which seemed harmless enough and much of it I remember well.

I'm pushing 80, and although I can relate to most of the points in the article, the author certainly had their rose-coloured specs on when they wrote it. Some of the "good old days" were balanced by "the bad old days" too. I'm sure that I could pen an equally long article listing all the negatives, but those who, like me, are of "a certain age|", don't need me to remind them of hard times. All of us have had different experiences, certainly, but I would not wish my own childhood on anyone. Some of the reasons are individual, and perhaps family-based, but others are societal, and will be familiar to many.

There is some medical justification for the view that small children are overprotected nowadays from dirt which may not enable them to develop immunities. But I agree that there is too much harking back to a golden age that never existed. It happened even in ancient Egypt some 2000 years BC(E).

Also loathe this kind of sentimental ‘oh, the good old days’ revisionism.

Quote from OP
My mum used to cut chicken, chop eggs, and^spread butter,
lard, dripping etc., or bread on the same cutting board with
the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get
food poisoning.

I bet you did, author, and running to the outside toilet with your square of newspaper must have taught you something about food hygiene.

Gosh nanna8 I bet you didn't expect those responses to your light-hearted post!
I think it's swings and roundabouts. Some things were better then, some are better now. I certainly wouldn't want to be a teenager now with all those perfect looking Love Island types making them feel as if they don't measure up.

In response, my inner city, bulging classes of postwar babies education was utter c*ap. My generation knew the meaning of the word humiliation at school and at home and I wouldn’t wish my childhood on anyone.

Nostalgic nonsense.

I had what would be described now as a difficult childhood with a mentally ill mother but, tell you what, at least she didn’t hover over me like a helicopter and I learnt so much by being ‘unprotected’ and ranging round the streets with my mates. I think they are more ‘deprived’ today but in a different way

Agree 100%

Born 1944. Well into my 20s and 30s I respected older people especially in the workplace, even if I didnt particularly like them. It was not so much about the people but what they had contributed to the community and the profession. They were in a place where I hoped to go one day. I would not have dreamed of asking personal questions of someone senior such as how much they earned or about their religious or political views.

When my best friend emigrated to Australia I did consider going too. Then I found out that women were paid less than men and it put me off massively.

My attitudes only began to change when I went to uni as a mature student (1980s). Then I began to question many things I had previously accepted.

Does everyone take Prozac in Australia? This post is from Australia and I'm thinking it's composed by a man for whom life is probably not as idyllic as there is now gender equality and a female's voice is not ignored. Thank goodness.

I grew up in a 3 bedroom terrace with 2 other families, no bathroom and an outside loo. True, I was allowed to our local park, by myself, and walked to school by myself. Was also groped by what we called” dirty old men”.
My Primary school was lovely, though, and our Infant teacher in particular, was wonderful although there were 50 in the class.

I had what would be described now as a difficult childhood with a mentally ill mother but, tell you what, at least she didn’t hover over me like a helicopter and I learnt so much by being ‘unprotected’ and ranging round the streets with my mates. I think they are more ‘deprived’ today but in a different way.

I hate it when people sigh about the days when we respected teachers and other adults. No, we didn't - we were frightened of them much of the time.

Very good op.

I am a bit younger than some on GN.
I do remember some poorer families who were rather roughing it.

Sadly I do remember special needs children and their families, not getting proper and adequate help and support.

Cancer arrived or whatever it did, and it was called the c word and talked about in hushed tones.

nanna8 loved your post and did most if not all of those things. Admittedly there was a harsh side to the life then, but that is not what your post was about was it.? I remember my childhood with fondness. Yes I went to college with two people who wore callipers because of polio. And my best friends brother died of TB. Some look on the bright side but also do not discount the other,

It’s not being a misery not to hark back to mythical and dubious “good old days” which for most were far from good.
Yes, we used to swim in our local river, until an outbreak of polio put paid to it. Children in iron lungs - remember the pictures?
It’s like saying “my grandad smoked 60 a day, never did him any harm” - no he died at 73 and in any case try telling that anecdote to someone with lung cancer.
Nothing quite identifies the writer in the magazine as “sad old duffer” as the sort of article you describe - no wonder he stayed anonymous.

Very apt indeed the bath time memories are so vivid four of us at once and yes only once a week!

In the Maw camp.

What a bunch of miseries. No sense of humour, glad I don’t live there !