baby boomers memories

HildySmith


Joined: 02/07/2009
Posts: 1708

Message Posted:
30/10/2011 14:59

Having been born just at the end of WW2 I can remember a lot about when the british people were bombed, and screwed up by the Germans.

I am one of 13 children (no 11) and I lived in the biggest shipbuilding town in the world. It was actively bombed by the Germans as a result of its shipbuilding and sea faring industries.

I remember at around 4 - 5 years old

- Going around 'bomb sites' where stalls were set up, to beg for 'brusied fruit' and scraps to take home

- Going around back lanes and streets after the rag man had been with his horse and cart and picking up any clothes which fell off

- Going to our local beach with sacks to pick up coal and fill sacks

- Walking a mile through bombed out streets and waiting in a queue with a raffle ticket to get a meal

- Visiting the Nit Nurse as their was no control over health matters

- Having to use coats on the beds as blankets

We had nothing - NOTHING.

Now again I HAVE NOTHING thanks to Hasan Sungur, Mustafa Sener & Cafer Yucelgaz

HildySmith


Joined: 02/07/2009
Posts: 1708

Message Posted:
30/10/2011 15:34

these memories do not go away

and I sympathise with anyone who has to live/exist in a conflict zone.

philbailey


Joined: 17/01/2011
Posts: 3534

Message Posted:
30/10/2011 16:26

Technically you live in a conflict zone

it is still occupied in the worlds eyes

spider


Joined: 03/01/2009
Posts: 5527

Message Posted:
30/10/2011 16:54

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2055303/Halesowen-Santa-tramps-Brothers-gain-thousands-Facebook-friends.html



I remain grateful for all I have and for who I am...





Spider X

ang1706


Joined: 28/01/2009
Posts: 570

Message Posted:
30/10/2011 17:32

Hildy,



Stop becoming paranoid!!



You will be the loser, there is more to life than being vitriolic all the time!

fosterscan


Joined: 27/02/2010
Posts: 541

Message Posted:
30/10/2011 18:22

Hildy

You need to move on with your life, make friends with Hasan sungar he is the only one who can help you.He is a victim of the builder (a victim very low on the list) even though he could sell the land again.Self pity helps noone.

mcstyler


Joined: 15/08/2011
Posts: 205

Message Posted:
30/10/2011 18:36

songs to cheer us up please join inn



we all live in a fake country a fake country a fake country we all live in a pretend country a pretendcountry al together now....

philbailey


Joined: 17/01/2011
Posts: 3534

Message Posted:
30/10/2011 18:51

Msg 8, cheap property ?

HildySmith


Joined: 02/07/2009
Posts: 1708

Message Posted:
30/10/2011 18:53

These are happy memories - we had nothing but we had support of those around us.

I still won't throw fruit away because it has a bruise on it.

I still collect my pig swill but now I cook it up and make food for my street dogs

I still make-do and mend - I have sewn more here in 2 years than I have in 40 years

I am proud of how I have coped and my Mum would be proud of me too.

HildySmith


Joined: 02/07/2009
Posts: 1708

Message Posted:
30/10/2011 18:58

Message 4

Thats great!

It is great to know that there are still people around who are prepared to help

Having worked with the unemployed, disadvantaged (ex offenders, suffering from Menal illnesses etc) excluded pupils, long term unemployed Disabled I have met many such people and their spirit is wonderful to see.

mcstyler


Joined: 15/08/2011
Posts: 205

Message Posted:
30/10/2011 19:09

dutch crusader



uk rule ok and big up jamica where i was born we are the kings of europe and you are racist man no way you get in my taxi from wednesday

BizziLizzi


Joined: 02/08/2011
Posts: 855

Message Posted:
30/10/2011 19:13

Hildy: I was born toward the end of WW2 (though I dont remember the bombing!) and spent part of my childhood in industrial South Yorkshire so share some of your memories - not quite such poverty but certainly no money to spare in a country devastated and virtually destroyed by war, and rationing.



When I read your heading and start of post my reaction was nice toshare memories.



Your last para my reaction was "oh no not again". You are not helping your case by vitriol. Most of us sympathise, but please try to remember that many of us have had dreams shattered and facing an uncertain future either direct loss somtimes caused by uscrupulous people (I lost the security of a house in England) and the direct or indirect consequences of the current fianancial situation, also brought about by chicanery. Not hlepful to wallow



I again witnessed the devastation and suffering hostility can bring to an innocent peopl when I was old enough to understand it more - l963 -65 Limasso

Pipie


Joined: 05/01/2008
Posts: 5499

Message Posted:
30/10/2011 19:15

Dutch.



Carefull !! no need for that post .

HildySmith


Joined: 02/07/2009
Posts: 1708

Message Posted:
30/10/2011 20:09

What I remember most were the support we got from the people around us.

Mrs Kingsley worked in the bakers shop and she would sell broken biscuits and cakes fo 3d and 1d and there was lots in them for everyone.

Mrs McCarthy she was a milk woman who arranged for buses to come and take us away from the bombed out town to the countryside

Mrs Barry who could not read and brought her letters to my Mam cos she said that she knew that no-one else would get to know their contents.

Mrs Temperley who would tell us off if she thought we were being naughty in the street.

Wonderful people who surrounded us with love in bad times.

HildySmith


Joined: 02/07/2009
Posts: 1708

Message Posted:
30/10/2011 21:32

Five of my siblings were evacuated to Yorkshire.

One sister went to a good home where she went to church, played the piano and had a wonderful home. 2 sisters aged 5 & 3, were not so lucky when they were evacuated. The five year old was beaten frequently, they were starved so she stole food to feed her little sister. Eventually Mam was alerted and had them brought home and the 5 years old one was suffering from malnutrican - she had stolen food for baby sister but did not feed herself - she spent several months in hospital as a result of the malnutritian.

The little one was 3 when she was evacuated and 8 when she returned home (a childhood lost) by which time the family had moved to another address and there were 6 more babies. So nothing was familiar to her other than the sister who she was evacuated with. The 2 sisters never married and spent their old age living together looking after each other.

HildySmith


Joined: 02/07/2009
Posts: 1708

Message Posted:
30/10/2011 21:34

THE BABY BOOMERS are all pensioners this year.

65 years since the end of the war - Living with the afteraffects of conflict is never easy for anyone.

HildySmith


Joined: 02/07/2009
Posts: 1708

Message Posted:
30/10/2011 21:35

Christmas was Great!!!

Mam and Dad were very enterprising and made us toys from scraps of materials, wood etc.

BizziLizzi


Joined: 02/08/2011
Posts: 855

Message Posted:
30/10/2011 22:04

I remember my father making me a doll's house, even painting roses round the door, and mother and grandmother helping me make the furniture from matchesboxes and scraps of material.



My grandmother could do anything with her needle and knitting needles and I had the best dressed dolls in the street! I still have a doll in a crocheted dress she made, and a pair of shoes painstakingly cut and sewn from an old pair of gloves.



One year my father made a farmhouse, complete with stables, barn etc. All the relatives gave an animal for my birthday and Christmas and I saved up pocket money to add to my stock.



What a far cry it is from the children of today with dolls complete with wardrobes, computers, play stations etc.

HildySmith


Joined: 02/07/2009
Posts: 1708

Message Posted:
31/10/2011 04:47

My Dad was a joiner so my baby sister had a dolls house which we played with. My brothers got forts. He also used to make a monkey on sticks. You had 2 sticks joined at the top with string and a money (or other animal) fastened in the string and when you squeezed the sticks together the monkey did somersaults on the string - I loved them.

She once got some old heavy brown velvet curtains which someone had thrown out. My sisters were good at sewing so they made the curtains into school pinafores. I hated them and still have a photo of me wearing one. Being no 11 these were handed down too.

My Mam also crocheted and knit Dolls clothes etc. She used to gather up all the old jumpers and pull the knitting out and retrieve the wool. She washed and stretched it again to make it straight and then re-knit them into new clothes for us and dolls clothes out of the small bits. I did the same stretching old wool for my Children's clothes in the 60's and 70's to keep them clothed.

HildySmith


Joined: 02/07/2009
Posts: 1708

Message Posted:
31/10/2011 05:59

I made my daughter's baby nighties out of flannelette sheets.

Since moving here I have made beds for my cypriot street dogs using old materials and stuff found in the street.

I still have the nasty habit of cutting all the buttons and zips off old clothes that have to be thrown out. I keep them in a box and hardly ever use them - but you never know???

HildySmith


Joined: 02/07/2009
Posts: 1708

Message Posted:
31/10/2011 14:25

I wonder if anyone can remember

- Virol

It was a malt paste which came in a jar/tin and we used to spread it on our bread, eat it out of the jar/tin, put some in our porrided.

We were told that as there was not much food around this would provide us with the vitimins and minerals we needed.

WE LOVED IT!!!!!

philbailey


Joined: 17/01/2011
Posts: 3534

Message Posted:
31/10/2011 14:32

Msg21



try here

http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Virol

bondi


Joined: 12/07/2007
Posts: 116

Message Posted:
31/10/2011 18:49

I was born just after WW2 - we were born into austerity and rationing but there was a feeling of things getting better in the 1950s. Although the school classes were over 30 in some cases over 40 pupils we did alright as there was discipline and respect and you learnt.



My real beef nowadays is the media and younger commentators stating that many of todays ills are the fault of us baby boomers. Just because we were taught to be thrifty, not to borrow more than we can could afford and to save, we are now resented because of this, we bought our own houses and lived within our means so that our retirement years would not be overburdened by debt - now we are seen as living in oversized houses, having plenty stashed away and that our free and liberal behaviour in the 1960s has significantly influenced the behaviour of todays youngsters. History has shown us, that at various times, certain groups are used as scapegoats unfortunately our generation is held up as the I'm all right Jacks

BizziLizzi


Joined: 02/08/2011
Posts: 855

Message Posted:
31/10/2011 20:08

Yes Hildi : I have a "button box" inherited frommy mother too. Since buttons on new clothes are so fragile and often break or are badly sewn on and get lost I sometimes even use it!



And I buy old mats and cushions and blankets and curtain material etc. for my dogs bedding from Charity shops. Old habits die hard.]]



And Oh those hand me downs! I was an only child so it was cousin's who provided them. Even my first bike was a cousin's outgrown and repainted. Fancy todays children accepting that.



And what about today's Government money markets, bondi, which penalise people who have been thrify and saved for old age while those who didnt get hand outs.

bondi


Joined: 12/07/2007
Posts: 116

Message Posted:
01/11/2011 09:14

Yes we are being penalised for being thrifty - the governments want us to spend our money now to keep retail industry and everyone else going. When you consider some of the hard times we went through from austerity, the 1960s periods of wagesfreeze, prices and incomes policies, spiralling inflation and the beginning of the 1980s when people were losing their jobs hand over fist - we come out the other end of the sausage machine having managed all that only to be envied and resented for what we have managed to hold on to.



I worked in DSS for a few years and there was always a core of claimants that worked the system back in 60s and 70s it seems that that is now the growth industry.



I too was an only child, my father was obsessed by the second hand notices in shop windows - I think we got everything second hand including my bike, some furniture items and many others. I remember the rubber buttons on liberty vests horrible things but kept you warm.

pollymarples


Joined: 08/08/2010
Posts: 1778

Message Posted:
01/11/2011 09:35

Born in 1945, product of the 'over paid over sexed and over here' my Dad being one of the few Yanks that married my mom but I was born in June and he left England in March, so he never saw me till I was 23 and I went to the States to find him, saw him in August, he died on Boxinf Day the same year.



I was granny reared with 2 brothers and two sisters (product of other relationships) We didn't feel under privilleged because it was our normal. Hand me downs yes, bit hard on me cos I was youngest but one and bigger than my older sisters, especially my feet. Christmas time, the one doll we had each disappeard a few weeks before and reappeared Xmas morning in a new outfite knitted by our aunt. The sock with the apple, orange and 6 nuts. That was our Christmas, in the post war years Rabbit for Xmas then later chicken. I can tell you in those days no one needed to diet.

bondi


Joined: 12/07/2007
Posts: 116

Message Posted:
02/11/2011 08:09

Do you remember your parents talking about post war credits? My mother was always going on about them and when would they be paid out - I think it was many years later. The ground nut scheme and the television newsreels of when sweets came off rationing - people with piles of boxes of chocolates just buying them for the sake of it as they couldnt for a decade or more.

I was born in the snowy cold winter of 1947, hardly any coal and my father was sent out to get fish for the cat - says a lot about my birth!

pollymarples


Joined: 08/08/2010
Posts: 1778

Message Posted:
02/11/2011 09:45

bondi, we had coke works just on the edge of town and we fetched bags of coke for the fire in an old pram or on our trolleys, strangely my moeories of those times and fond memories, it is your life experiences that make you who you are, with a few genes thrown in., Trollies made from old pram wheels and planks of wood.

MY friends children are always asking me about the olden days. I love telling the stories.



Sweet coupons, rationing all part of life as we knew it then.

bondi


Joined: 12/07/2007
Posts: 116

Message Posted:
03/11/2011 08:01

Memories are precious even if they are of harder times. We managed and we got to school and work when the weather was snowy - remember the smog of the fifties and the oil can lamps on the corner of the road? Scarves around your face so as not to inhale all that 'orrible stuff? The Clean Air Act sorted all that out Thank God.



I was watching the TV the other night and there was some archive footage of women, in rollers, headscarf on top, shopping on a saturday afternoon because they were going to the local Palais, that evening. 1950s and 1960s appear naive and simple now, harder perhaps, but not so much red tape and regulations. Halcyon days - I have enjoyed waxing lyrical on this thread, gentle, warming nostalgia - Can't beat it.

pollymarples


Joined: 08/08/2010
Posts: 1778

Message Posted:
03/11/2011 09:30

me too bondi, what a lovely thread.



Remember the advent of teddy boys and how the older generation thought the world was going to hell in hand cart, brothel creepers and skirts with layers and layers of net underneath to make them stand out more, and that was just the felllas!! Beehive hairdos and an abundance of hair lacquer. I am really indulging in nostalgia, remember years ago but cannot remember what I did yesterday, hey ho the penalties of age.

bondi


Joined: 12/07/2007
Posts: 116

Message Posted:
03/11/2011 14:49

The bouffant petticoat or the hooped one - I remember using up my mother's sugar on a sugar starch, hanging the petticoat out for days to dry - complete with wasps! then wearing it and getting on a bus, sat down and there was a crunch and film of sugar coming from under my skirt or the hooped petticoat that you had a plastic sort of bone arrangement - it was quite successful only the plastic kept coming loose - I was shouted at "Oy Miss yer mudguard's loose" when I walked down the High Street. Wearing leggings now stops all of that but those skirts were feminine.



Yes the beehive and bouffant days - masses of backcombing, tail combs and motor bike strength hairspray - the modernists latterly mods and those teddy boys with their aircraft carrier hair dos or DAs - drape jackets soon to be superceded by the bumfreezer italian jacket and winklepickers - now wearing those should spawn some threads - how many bunions did those cause I wonder?