Bread, meat, milk, groceries and fish being delivered on the front of a push bike to our front door. (Now I can can the same service by ordering online and it's delivered in a cooled delivery van)
Being one of only two girls in my class going on holiday abroad.
Only two rooms in the house being warm in winter (the sitting room and the kitchen).
Sleeping under very heavy wool blankets with an eiderdown quilt on top and a hot water bottle.
Getting a new television (or any other household appliance)was a big event.
Rotary cutters hadn't been invented.
Going to jumble sales to buy old clothes to cut up for patchwork (no cotton fabric available).
When being an air hostess was desirable and glamorous.
When the lights faded as everyone got up to make a cup of tea during the commercial break.
Going to a Chinese restaurant when they only existed in central London and asking to take home the chopsticks.
Drinking milk everyday at school and having to swallow a cod liver oil tablet. (and of course that was exceptionally good for us)
The dentist giving me sweets for not crying.
The 'rag and bone' man on his horse and cart taking away unwanted household items (now I use Freecycle).
Carnaby Street just when it was the 'in' place. (And Kings Road)
When seeing someone in a sari was exotic.
Beers delivered by a team of shire horses to pubs.
Taking our car loaded up with our camping stuff on the plane to France.
The very first tasting of salad dressing in France (when olive oil could only be bought from the pharmacy for the purpose of cleaning out wax from your ears)
Butter being shaped into 'bricks' with a wooden pair of hands in Sainsburys
My friends thinking it very odd that my mother cooked rice as a savory dish.
Spaghetti was only sold dried.
I can remember pea soup fogs in London. (I had to walk to school holding onto garden walls to find my way there and nearly loosing my way crossing driveways) and having a mask of tissues to breathe through.
Traffic jams which meant although we spent each summer weekend by the sea, we'd leave at about 2pm on Sunday to 'beat' the traffic.
Only ever having one light on in the house.
Never using the telephone for a chat, it wasn't there for socialising.
Ice making beautiful patterns between the leaded lights of the windows (on the inside!) (my DH remembers ice forming on the glass of water on his bedside table)
Air hostesses cooking proper food, real cutlery and china on flights.
Furniture being bought and made to last a lifetime.
No one did their own decorating.
Cars cost nearly as much as a house.
The first day I saw underwear which wasn't white or black (or heaven forbid skin tone pink)
Wearing stockings, not from choice but pantyhose didn't arrive until I was about 14.
Just a few musings, I'm sure there are many more odd things which will come to mind over the next day or so.
Would I want to go back, no way.
BTW I am not old.
Gosh, the list sounds quite romantic - but then it's a little sad, too.
ReplyDeleteProbably because the Christmas items have been in the stores here for almost a month already, I am yearning for a simpler time.
Thanks for the trip down your memory lane. Somehow I found some perspective there.
I'm even less old, but I remember a fair number of them, and supermarkest where a man geve you your shopping over a big counter. I was admittedly very young and I loved the tiles with cows and fish on that were on the walls.
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