Misconception of the Fifties in the Famous Five Books

[Kirrin]

Yersterday I watched five on a treasure island (1995) and while I was doing so my mum said 'they didnt have much then' and they had to be content with one holiday per year! well that is wrong (sorry mummy!)
but one could say they had much more like freedom there was not much traffic on the roads then so you could ride a bike almost anywhere,
plus you didnt have the usual modern distractions and electrical goods that people get bored with in five minutes!
I thought my mum knew this as she iss from that era(ish) and she should know the stories now ! oh well I will have to explain (without sounding like a lauren catherine tate show patronising am I bovvered teenager)

[Moonraker]

Yersterday I watched five on a treasure island (1995) and while I was doing so my mum said 'they didnt have much then' and they had to be content with one holiday per year! well that is wrong (sorry mummy!)
but one could say they had much more like freedom there was not much traffic on the roads then so you could ride a bike almost anywhere,
plus you didnt have the usual modern distractions and electrical goods that people get bored with in five minutes!

The fifities was a great decade. Yes, we didn't have much money and, by today's standards, there was very little in the way of the then modern amenitites. We didn't even have a fridge, just a meat-safe to keep meat fresh for a day. The butcher, baker, greengrocer and milkman called daily; there was no weekly shop, my mother bought the day's needs every morning. We listened to the wireless, walked, talked, rode our bikes, but - hey: not a mystery in site! By the way, we didn't have a holiday (that is, to go away) until I was 14! (Then it was to an aunt on the Isle of Wight!)

[Kirrin]

That sounds so quaint and famous fivish!
I know times could be hard but at least people had respect!

[Rob Houghton]

Even in the 1970's when I was growing up I can remember the milkman, coalman and baker calling round, and my mom giving tips to the milkman and postman at Christmas.

We used to go on long bike rides and build tree houses etc, and no one ever gave a thought to 'stranger danger'. I think the one thing children miss out on nowadays is the freedom we knew, when we could go pretty much anywhere without being scared of being abducted. We found it easier to relate to Enid's characters because we still shared most of that freedom which is all too sadly lacking today.

[Kirrin]

even though I've never had the joy of having a coal man coming round selling us coal (we have a gas fire) or the endearing innocence of the fifties I can still relate to it because my parents are from that generation and they can recall it,
(even though none of them read ff (mum read noddy!) they missed out on them poor thing!) I can still relate to it well!
I would have loved to have been a reader waiting for the next ff book coming out -rather like a lady Who I chatted to who worked in a bookshop at the time and she loved the anticipation of the next famous five book coming out! Rather like todays enthusiasm with Harry Potter.

[Miranda]

I grew up in the 1960's in an east London suburb. From the age of about 10 I was allowed to go to the local park with my friends, but we were all under strict instructions never to talk to strangers, and to stick together and not wander off on our own. I think our parents accepted the fact that there WAS a risk (remember the Moors murderers?), but the difference between then and today is that they were prepared to accept that risk for the sake of our enjoyment and independence.

I have seen crime statistics that show there are NOT significantly more child abductions and murders than there were in the 1950's. It is a complete myth that kids could run around in perfect safety and freedom - horrible things DID happen then, too! My theory is that these days our toleration of risk has fallen, but the actual risk has in fact remained constant.

[Moonraker]

Even in the 1970's when I was growing up I can remember the milkman, coalman and baker calling round, and my mom giving tips to the milkman and postman at Christmas.

From 1981 - 1987 I was a milkman! I never referred to kids as "Master George" though! We still have a milk delivery system in Britain, although the vast majority of people now buy milk at supermarkets.

With regards to children being abducted/safety on the streets, I think the big difference now is the publicity given. It just seems a lot more dangerous. In the 50s/early60s newspapers and radio/tv news focused on political news. There were no "celeb" news then.

[Kirrin]

Why does no one use 'master' or 'miss' these days its such a nice title I sometimes get master on letters which plaeses me, when I am old enough I will call people master etc.

[Rob Houghton]

I must admit I used to hate having letters addressed to 'Master R Houghton' when I was younger. I resented the fact that I was a 'Master' and not a 'Mr' ! It seems very old-fashioned nowadays to call boys 'Master' - I didnt even know the title was still used!

[Kirrin]

I like it because of 'master george' she sttmed to get more respect than julian and dick and they were boys!
I love georges caracter!

[pete9012S]

When I was little we had the milkman calling daily-he also used to deliver fresh orange juice in glass bottles.
There was also a lemonaid man who delivered every variety of 'pop' you could think of...remember sasperella and dandelion & burdock anyone....

We had an account with the greengrocer...he didnt mind if we went in for sweets and drinks and asked him to put it on 'mums account'......
The local butcher was great...old fashioned scales with balancing weights....

There was a 'catalogue shop' where many paid a small amount all the year round and then at Xmas were able to provide bikes,dolls and toys for all the children.....

Games and playing out were much more innocent...we took delight in giving each other 'seaters' on our bikes.

A favourite pastime was to ride alongside someone and ask 'Have you got the right time?'....if they said no,they had no idea,we'd say 'I think you will find its 3.30pm!!!'.....

Bin lids were used as pretend Roman shields,swords were home made out of wood and any old prams that where found abandoned were quickly turned into go-carts......some of which were precisely engineered works of art with handbreaks,steering wheels and even proper seats!!

The dark nights were made exciting by bonfire night and the search for 'bommie wood' and then the need to protect your bonfire from having its precious wood stolen-or even worse,set on fire early by nasty saboteurs!

Summer days were cooled by playing with the hose pipe-or filling water into a paddling pool.....home made iced lollies were made by diluting orange squash with water and putting an old lolly pop stick in the middle of a plastic cup......some of those home made lollies coulsd last for hours......

Sometimes when money was tight you would scour the area for pop bottles to take back...or beer bottles if you were feeling brave.....the sweets and drinks bought as a result of all that hard work seemed somehow to taste so much better! (maybe due to the fact that you had worked for them!)

The local park was pristine-with immaculate clipped bowling greens that were kept looking well by the ever so proud (and strict) park-keeper...

A drinking fountain just outside the park provided ice cold refreshing water to quench even the worst thirst on a hot summer day...

Yes times have changed.......

[Moonraker]

A wonderful nostalgic look at out past times, Pete. Thanks so much for that post. It reminds me of the delights we used to discover all the time on these very same forums!



When We Were Young

[Julie2owlsdene]

Nice photo of yesteryear, Pete. I remember those days well. What we called a 'trasher' made from pram wheels.

I used to love sasperella, it had a fantastic smell, similar to Dandelion and Burdock, but nicer. I used to love collecting the bottles for the money back and buying an ice cream cornet off the ice-cream van and it was only 2d. I also used to love the teddy bear milk ice lollies he used to sell, in a two tone colour which I guess was vanilla and strawberry.

The corner shop used to have a penny tray, and we'd choose anything for a penny. The arrow bars in those days were huge! I think you can still buy them but these days they are very small, and a lot dearer!!

Bring back the 50's that's what I say, and innocent childhood where we played out all day, and nobody worried about you.

[Dick Kirrin]

Being way too young to post any memories of anything before the 1980s and nothing about Britain at all, only about a rural and as most people would say boring part of Germany, maybe I shouldn't add to the discussion at all. But there were some points that triggered a reaction...

Thanks to Pete and all the others for his account of a happy childhood. Sad to think of all that we have lost by "modernizing" all aspects of "life".
I do agree that children should be allowed to be children and to use their fantasy instead of taking over stereotypes created by a media interested in selling the stuff that goes with that lifestyle. Someone once said that kids were lucky to grow up without TV and internet, as they had the chance to live their own life and have their own adventures - as small as they may be. Nowadays you compare what you watch on the internet and TV with what you can experience for yourself. By comparison, you either find the real world boring or too dramatic, if something bad happens to you. With books things were different, I think as you had to use your imagination.
From the background I outlined in my first sentence, I feel qualified to tell that we were happier in the days I was younger and that's not more than 15-20 years ago. At least we had ideas of what to do with our free time, and these only occasionally included watching TV.
I also second Miranda in her point that the actual danger may not have changed that much for the worse - even so, one murdered child is one too much - but our perception of it. Watching films and even the news, you sometimes think that you can't leave your home without someone pounching on you. Maybe that's true in some areas and at some times, but can you use it as rule of thumb?
We were told not to go with any strangers or friends of friends, but my mother wouldn't fetch me in the car when the boy scouts meeting was over and darkness had fallen. There were torches for such cases and a pair of feet or a bike. Nowadays, none of the parents of the kids I train would dream of asking them to walk home from the club house. It's either us to take them home or their parents fetching them.
Speaking of it, I used to organize sleepovers or a bit of camping out at the clubhouse, as it's a bit out of town and off a main road. Nothing special, just a good long training which gave me time to find some advice for anyone wanting it, a bit of cooking together, some games, a DVD or a nightly walk.
I gave it up a while ago for two reasons, first many didn't think it "cool" enough to be worth their while and second their ideas of what else we could do instead involved things like tasting "a bit of alcohol", which for kids thirteen and older was nothing that could ever get my permission.
There you go, it's cool to drink and anyone who hasn't been drunk at the ago of, say, 12-13 is a "baby". Nigel, I'm sure you'd have a lorryload of incidents how these things often end sooner or later. Anyway, I will not be used for anything like that - even if parents would agree.

Cheers

Dick Kirrin

[chloe1]

I have really enjoyed reading through this thread and it does make me wish I had been a child in the 50s. People seemed more decent, life more simple...

My parents were kids in the 50s growing up in south wales and I know they remember spotting numbers of steam trains, days out to Barry Island etc When I used to visit my grandparents in the 80s they still had a "pop man" who came round and I have a deep rooted love for dandelion and burdock which has never quite tasted the same as when freshly filled by the pop man, drank sat on the steps of my grandmothers house over looking Newport docks.

I find it interesting how so many people who never knew that era are trying to emulate it today. Look at Cath Kidstons popularity - our shop always have old Blytons on display in their shop. And in my shop anything traditional and retro for children is snapped up. There are parents desperatly trying to steer their kids away for computer games and commercialism but I have a feeling once the children start school properly their parents are fighting a losing battle.