Back in Time for the Weekend -50s misrepresented?

Growing up in the 50's in England, Sunday was ok, yes,we went to church in the morning for an hour, but then the day was our own.A cooked breakfast, and a roast lunch about 2 and tea at 7pm.The local grocer always opened up shop on Sunday, but was restricted in what he could sell.The radio was always on! In fact, it was a good day for programmes,all sorts of things on,
Songs, comedy shows.We could play outside to our hearts content.

We only spent two years in England during the fifties but we went to church every Sunday morning, home for a roast lunch then spent Sunday afternoons (in the summer) watching Dad play cricket.

Once a month my brother had an exeat from boarding school so we had picnics in Windsor Great Park or Burnham Beeches.

I can't remember what we did in the winter but I probably had my head stuck in a book.

Didn't see the first one last week but I hope to be able to watch it tonight.

J52 I can't help wondering where your g'parents lived as that doesn't ring a bell with me at all.
Sunday School yes and a leisurely day with only small local shops open.
In most of the bigger towns and cities of Scotland things were not so puritanical!
By 1957 my mother was studying to be a teacher, certainly had a washing-machine and shared household chores with my very open-minded dad - in fact he was the better cook.

We certainly never smashed up the piano, Nobody played it and it was never tuned. It had suffered bomb damage in 1945 and my parents sold it when they moved in the late 80s.

Smashing up playable pianos this week! That can't be right, surely.

Ordinary families never did that. Piano smashing was a stunt and not a very funny one.

Groovy - it's 1963! But the voiceover just added a 7s 9d and a 4p copy of 'Popstar' together to cost 8s 3d.
Ooh look, a Dansette record player, happy memories ...

I just loved the 50,s and60,s! In 1963 I was crazy about ice skating and I and my brother and sister packed the tiny concrete yard with snow, put water on it and when it froze we had our own ice rink! We didn't have central heating but that winter was such fun! (For us children)

In the 1960s I do remember piano smashing competitions by some of the male students at college - I remember being horrified at the time, but it did happen!

I wore knickers under my tights!

Yes, we wore knickers. Either under tights or over them (superman style)

Sunday school in the 1950s - we got a stamp every week to fill in our books, then in the 1960s we did go to church - does anyone remember that Lonnie Donergan song 'Sweet Sixteen, goes to church just to see the Boys' - DM used to tease me that was the reason, but in fact none of them were worth seeing!
We had a church drama group and helped make breakfasts (egg sandwiches) for after the communion service.
In about 1960 there was a 'Christian Crusade' led by Father Trevor Huddlestone and he came to our church with some theology students from Oxford University; they had a skittle band and we all enjoyed their visit so much.

DM did work part-time and I did have to do some washing-up and help with the Sunday dinner, or perhaps cut up the home-grown runner beans. But generally I was outside playing or had my head in the latest Famous Five mystery.
We always had the radio on too Deedaa, even when I was tiny I used to stand at the bottom of the stairs and shout for my brother to tell him Dick 'Arton was on.

In the 60s you couldn't give pianos away. I remember the desperation of an aunt downsizing who had no space for the piano in her new home but couldn't find anyone to take her piano away, even if she paid them. That is why piano smashing competitions were so popular.

In 1959 DP bought DS and I each one of the first transistor radios on the market for Christmas. DP were living in Malaya and the radios were only a fraction of the price there that they were in the UK. As DM frequently reminded us, those radios were the most expensive presents they ever bought us.

It didn't take us long to find Radio Luxembourg on them! I can remember lying in bed at night, headphones plugged in listening to Adam Faith, who I much preferred to Cliff Richard.

I used to sit under the dining table Jalima (why?) and listen to Dick Bartoo Petal Agent

I can still remember the exciting theme tune Deedaa - I can't seem to link it but it's 'The Devil's Gallop' by Charles Williams, you can find it on youtube.

M0nica - oh yes, Adam Faith every time!
A schoolfriend in the merchant navy brought me a transistor radio smaller than my hand from Singapore. Leaving the docks he showed it to a policeman who said one would fit nicely under his helmet. He was on the Shaw Savill line and that picture at the beginning of Call the Midwife of the terraced street dwarfed by the huge ship always reminds me of several of us going on the Woolwich free ferry to see him whe he was in port. How that area has changed.

Dick Barton - I was a little scared but completely enthralled by it. Nothing compared, not The Red Planet with Andrew Faulds MP as Jet Morgan and certainly not an everyday story of country folk!! Those nightly cliff hangers were brilliant, however could Dick, Jock and Snowy survive until the next evening?!

Watched this on iplayer in the early hours today. Warmed much more to the family in last night's episode. Maybe I was just missing the Robshaws!

Felt so guilty because when we moved last year, we did have the task of smashing up a piano! We couldn't take it with us, had advertised and then tried to give it away for free, but to have it taken away would have cost £100. The backboard had gone some years earlier and repairs would have cost £1,000 - so it had just been a decorative item for some time. Even so, I was really sad to see my DH and SIL take sledge hammers to it - they enjoyed the challenge though and we used the wood on our open fire.

Sandy Shaw didn't wear knickers !!! Well everyone I knew did. The discussion about over or under the tights went on and on, and there were those who wore 2 pairs- one ordinary underneath and an elasticated pair (pantie girdle) on top!
The mother is still a pain. And in the early sixties I remember my mum and dad going to a lot of formal dances in full evening gear and partying at friends' houses. I also remember my uncle taking us all to the first gambling club I ever visited. Lots of older men playing cards whilst the women sat and chatted. about 1965 I think.

The shops in the fifties could only sell certain "necessities" on a Sunday. Our corner one ignored the rules and would sell anything to my mum, or to me if I were sent round for something illegal, but when my Dad went in one Sunday he was refused - he was 6ft and straight-backed and and an unfamiliar face, and looked a bit like a snooping policeman.

He came back empty-handed. I was sent round at once and was served.

I was the other side of the counter elegran, we regularly sold 'illegal' goods wrapped up to look like something else just in case there was a shop inspector wandering around. And a tall chap we didn't know would have been given nothing, with many apologies of course!

I thought Sandie Shaw looked very good - lovely jacket. We all wore knickers except occasionally when it would have spoiled the line of a dress (Or was that just me?)

By the 60's my mother had a part time job. I suppose my parents were fairly bohemian and my mother wasn't that fussed about housework. Certainly wasn't chained to the kitchen all day. My father often used to take the bags of washing down to the Laundrette on a Saturday morning and would run the Hoover over the living room for her.

I was born in the 50s........but rural life in the English shires must have lagged behind a bit.

In the 60s

I think everyone who went to school with me also went to Sunday school. Lots went to church/chapel/RC in the morning and then to the associated Sunday school in the afternoon. We were packed off to Sunday school as soon as we could walk. Older girls used to call and take the little ones and I certainly took my little sister in the pushchair........the only chance mum and dad got to be alone. I think it was my grandma who really insisted on chapel and Sunday school. Mum and dad were just grateful for a bit of peace and quiet. Dad was a hatched/matched/dispatched church goer but Mum did go sometimes and she always took us at Christmas etc. Lots of people were regular at church in the 1960s and lots of social stuff was church centred. The choir, bellringers, mothers union, men's society and youth groups all arranged lots of events for the village. The girls carried on going to church until they left school and as they got older they became teachers for the little ones. Boys tended to stop going at 12/13 unless they were from families that were very involved with church.

I remember the newsagents opening for 2 or 3 hours on a Sunday morning. Other than that everything closed. All the corner shops closed for the day. I think holiday resorts may have been different. I'm sure the shops on the sea fronts were all open and you could buy ice cream and a bucket and spade.

Most women did work. Lots started at 9 and finished at 3 or 4 but they did go out to work. Mothers with small children often worked the factory twilight shift from 6 til 10 so Dads did child care too. There was a small group of 'better off' and slightly older ladies who didn't work but I would say those that were 'housewives' were a minority.

I've not seen the programme but will look for it on catch up.

We must've lagged behind too. And although I remember wearing hotpants and generally being a fashion victim in our end-of-junior-school disco, I didn't get the impression that we were "swinging" at all.

We had a Dansette but as to the other mod cons-no. Yes to almost-comoulsory attendance at church/chapel too: complete with Sunday Best.

That phone box looked awfully modern!

We didn't have a phone at home until 1983.

I knew this would be wrong right at the beginning. In the very early 50s big net petticoats were not worn. They came later , around 1958 I think as I remember dipping them in sugar water to make them stiff.
These tiny inconsistencies in these programmes are annoying. Why don' t they ask the people who lived then rather than ' researchers'?

BB - absolutely, those net petticoats were in the later '50s. I remember stiffening them and the 'paper nylon' ones with sugar water to hold out calf length full cotton skirts. I had a 3 tier green and white striped skirt which I loved and wore for several summers, usually with a little white broderie anglaise sleeveless blouse from Dorothy Perkins.