Do you have memories of real 'history'?

I can remember a lamp lighter coming round each evening to light a street gas lamp . I think he would have been called a leerie . He had a long pole to light it .
I remember being in the playground and our headmaster notice a flag at half mast on the local factory. We later discovered it was because of the death of Kinf George V1 .
I used a slate and a slate pencil when I went to school at first. We took a wet bit of sponge in a Ponds cold cream jar for rubbing out .
When I first started work at 17 in a bank we sat at high desks like Bob Cratchet. All passbooks were hand written as were all the ledgers . One of the older men could write beautifully in these ledgers. Cheques had no names on them we had to recognise the signatures . This was 1960s.
I remember the cranes all dipping down as Churchill's cofin was taken down the Thames.
I can remember Eisenhower being president of the USA we called him Ike.

The end of sweet rationing. I bought a bar of Fry's chocolate on the way to school.

I remember most historical events fairly clearly from 1950s , but what sticks in my mind I'd my father building a television set and a radio with the aid of a book .
Whenever my mother wanted anything done -he did it with his handy tool box and DIY books .
There was never any question that he couldn't fix or make anything .
And my mother could make evening dresses or curtains on her sewing machine ,which used to give me electric shocks !
My Grandma was a great cook and grew fruit , salad and vegetables .
What I really remember us absolutely nothing was wasted .
Nothing was bought on credit .

I was born in 1940 so I have the usual memories of wartime rationing, gas masks, and hearing about Spitfires, which I thought were enemy planes because it was such a nasty name! Oddly I don’t remember the end of the war at all, but it must surely have been a day of great joy which might have impressed a young child. The death of King George VI when I was 12, and subsequent coronation of our late queen. The assassination of JFK, the dreadful tragedy of Aberfan.

It can hardly be called important history, but I have very vivid memories of the day sweet rationing ended permanently. I was about twelve, and I ran down to Mr Mattingley’s shop by the station and bought as many sweets as my pocket money savings would allow. I went to him instead of Mr Bridger’s in the village because he always gave me a few extra sweets. He may have done this for all children, but I thought I was special.

I watching the Queen’s coronation on a tiny black and white tv. I was seven and a half. Then the first man into space in 1961. I was talking to GS recently about the Cuban missile crisis and telling him how scary it was to be seemingly on the brink of Armageddon. It seems almost commonplace to be on the brink of something or other now. The day of Winston Churchill’s funeral I was in uniform on route lining duty on Ludgate Hill. It was an incredibly moving occasion but it was so bitterly cold and we’d been in position for so long that we wondered if our legs would move again when the order came. More recent history that I will never forget was 9/11. We had been cycling round a couple of the Peak District reservoirs and stopped for a drink at the cafe. We thought what we were seeing on the little tv was some sort of disaster movie. When we realised it was real everybody gathered there was crying. DH and I were in shock all the way home, and for the rest of the day.

I was born in the 60’s so no memories like the ones on here that are fascinating.
I guess we are all living history, as time goes on 2024 will seem very quaint.

Our first fridge was in the late 1960s and it was gas fuelled. Not sure of the facts but it was thought be cheaper to run than the more common electric variety. It was connected to the main gas supply just like the cooker. We also had a gas fire fitted in the living room around the same time in what was previously the coal fireplace. Heat at the touch of a button. Luxury!

Having read these posts I am remembering more things, like the milkman coming with a horse and cart to deliver the milk - no refrigeration. And we didn't have a fridge till the 1960s I think - i remember my aunt had a thing called a 'food safe' which stood in a shaded porch and had netting for sides to let air circulate. It is interesting to read others' memories.

In the 1950s if we took rags to the rag and bone man, he would give us a live chick 🐣 Can you imagine? Later it was a goldfish.

I think the Suez crisis was the first bit of "real" history I remember. JFK. Martin Luther King. Bobby Kennedy. Churchill's funeral - I was at my best friend's house and they had a TV in their kitchen - the height of luxury! I remember her Mum shedding a tear. I remember watching Princess Margaret's wedding with my Mum.

The moon landing. Winning the World Cup in 1966 - my Dad bought a colour TV. It seems it hasn't come home since

I'm lucky to come from a family, and community that talked a great deal about their lives. I have family memories that stretch back to the mid 19C. We also have an active local history society that collects oral histories. I am interested in how this gives a different perspective to that of official histories!

Some of the things I remember from 1950's London. The rag'n'bone man ringing a bell, with 'Smokey' the horse pulling the cart. the scissor and knife sharpener, the weekly rent man with a big pink card to sign, the Hearts of Oak and 'Pru' men, the baker with a basket of bread and cakes over his arm, butter in a wooden barrel, mum used to 'pat' her wanted amount, the little kiosk at the end of the shop to pay at, sawdust on the floor...and Mars bars were at least a foot long

I was born in 1937 so I remember being fitted for a gas mask, taking a packed lunch to school everyday in case we had to go in the air raid shelter, we never did.
We had an evacuee ftom London billeted on us, a girl my age, sbout 6 I think.
I remember the end of the war and the street parties with very litte nice food but welcome all the same.
We welcomed the end of rationing .
I remember with distress my uncle coming home from a prisoner of war camp.
He was a broken man and he never recovered.
I think he took his own life but not sure , he maybe died from his incarceration.

I remember my parents being worried about suez canal situation. I remember a friend of my dad's being sent Burma while he was in the army

I remember the news of JFKs assassination being announced and watching the March on Washington. I also remember Churchill’s funeral. It was on a Saturday and the streets were deserted as everyone was watching on tv. I also remember Queen Mary dying. I saw her photo in the paper.

I worked for the BBC when it went from black and white to colour, not exactly a majorly historical item but long enough ago to make me feel like a dinosaur!

My memories start in the fifties. I can remember one day at school writing the date in my jotter of 5/5/55 and wondering where I would be at 6/6/66. In 1955 I was 10 and in 6/6/66 I had been married for 1 month!

Yes indeed chestnut. Writing some of your memories down will prove interesting in years to come. The young ones nowadays have certain aspects of life so easy compared to the memories I have of my parents life. My husband is amazed at the fascinating tools our grandson has and in that respect, he wishes he was younger now to use them!

Suez being closed in 1956. Aberfan. The Six days' war, Yom Kippur war. The Prague Spring,

And I know precisely where I was and what I was doing (teaching a evening class in business English) the evening the Berlin Wall came down.

One of the women had gone to her office to check her calendar on her computer, and we honestly thought she was having us on when she came back and told us the news!

There we were, ten people jostling for space round a single computer to watch something we had genuinely never believed we would see.

I was born after the war so my memories are 1950's onwards but how it has changed. You only have to read some of these threads, the dentist thread even shocked me.

I think you should write up your life story with memories like that Applegran. It will be fascinating for your (great) grandchildren to read. If you can do it on a computer then you can save or print or both. Add photos if you can. If writing is all is too much then do a voice recording, just depends what suits you. I am writing up my story, it's like taking a trip down memory lane.

I remember JFK being assassinated, the Cuban missile crisis with everyone believing a nuclear attack was imminent. We thought ducking under our desks at school would save us. The disaster at Aberfan, when my old mum cried and even my dad wiped away a tear. And of course the moon landing, hippies/the sexual revolution - though we didn’t get much of that in Lancashire, Vietnam, natural gas putting an end to coal fires, and textile mills near us going from full production, keeping the community alive, to nothing.

In my lifetime, the television, men going to the moon and walking on it, Concorde, the world opening up for air travel anywhere, so much, women getting equal pay, 8 never did, I feel that I have lived in the best of times although with little money. Glad I am not being born now, if I were young now I wouldn't have children although mine have been the best thing in my life and they had opportunities I never had.