I was born in Bolton just over a year after WW2 had ended. I had one older brother. Life was very different then.
You could buy milk in bottles, but we had ours delivered. It came via pony & trap, served out of a large churn. Only later was it discovered that we had an acquired immunity to TB!
The NHS was in its infancy then and our GP also happened to be a surgeon. After my brother’s bad experience in the Infirmary having his tonsils out, my mother paid the doctor (£5) to take mine out at home. She was a theatre-trained nurse and so the operation was carried out at home on the kitchen table. I remember the ether mask being placed over my face but not much else. Everything went perfectly and I never had any adverse after-effects. Wouldn’t be allowed these days – well at least not at that price!
Those were the days when all eggs were free-range. But you had to break them onto a saucer first – to make sure they weren’t addled!
We didn’t come to much harm from the occasional smack or clipped ear – not necessarily administered by our own parents either.
Everyone walked to school or, in the case of secondary school, caught the bus or went on our bikes; and in all weathers.
“Homework” was doing the washing up.
Entertainment comprised: playing outdoors, reading, cards, board games and the wireless: the last three essentially family entertainment.
Anyone remember Spangles? Acid Drops were my favourite. And a time when Weetabix packets had cut-out pictures of cars and vans on the back. With a tube of Tenacitin glue and a pair of scissors, we had hours of fun making them before ramming into them with our heavyweight, die-cast Dinky toys.
We got our first television set when I was 9, when a second channel (ITV) became newly available. (And everyone on out street knew we had the new channel, because we had one of the new-fangled aerials on our chimney.) Its arrival sounded the death-knell to family entertainment in our house.
Another one from the old scrapbook in the attic: frozen “Jubblies” – remember these? These were a staple item while waiting for the next “peg” – the signal that another steam train was approaching. Yes, I was one of those trainspotting nerds that used to spend the day on a station platform with my notebook and pack of sandwiches. Thought nothing of travelling to Preston, Wigan or Crewe for the day to visit the engine sheds. 12-year olds travelling around the country unaccompanied – people would have a fit nowadays wouldn’t they?
Remember the ginger beer plant (a yeast culture) craze? Everyone was feeding theirs with ginger and sugar in an old jam jar each day and drawing off home-made ginger beer. Ours lasted about six months before the novelty eventually wore off.
Another craze was Scoubidou. Anyone remember that? It was resurrected in the early 2000’s, I believe. A knotting idea using plastic straws that could be made up into various shapes and objects. I must admit that I abandoned it when the pack of straws ran out. (As the name suggests, it was a French thing anyway!)