Children of the 50s,teens of the 60s,did we have a better childhood

[slotter47]

Children of the 50s,teens of the 60s,did we have a better childhood.

[cuttsie]

Children of the 50s,teens of the 60s,did we have a better childhood.

I wun't have swopped being a kid in the fourty's and fifty's for any other time in history.

Although we didn't have material things we were all in the same boat,

, playing out in the Streets until it was dark no Teli or computers to keep us glued to the settee,No trecking across the City to get to school which meant that we all grew up together as close neighbours and friends.

 

If we were lucky enough to get a tanner so as to go to the Saturday Rush at the local pictures and then a bag of chips on the way home we thought that we were millionares which we were at the time.

 

We had chillblanes in winter and sun burn in Summer as we were always playing out no matter what the weather was like so we were fit as fiddles.

 

And then! came the sixties! A time that will never be surpassed and us lot born in the 40's and mid 50's were in heaven, The music scene at that time will never be surpassed with The Beatles,The Stones,Bill Hayley,Chuck Berry, Freddy and the Dreamers,Joe Cocker and hundreds more fantastic groups [not forgetting Elvis of course].

We even managed to win the World cup and had matches played in Sheffield with all the foreign supporters singing and dancing with the locals in the Black Swan on Snigg Hill every night.

 

Then along came the night clubs with International artists appearing week after week and all us lot dressed up to the nines with not a shirt lap or pair of traners in sight, No bad language in front of the lasses and no tatoos on those same lasses who apreciated being treat like ladies in fact men were men and women were glad of em!

[Bypassblade]

I wun't have swopped being a kid in the fourty's and fifty's for any other time in history.

Although we didn't have material things we were all in the same boat,

, playing out in the Streets until it was dark no Teli or computers to keep us glued to the settee,No trecking across the City to get to school which meant that we all grew up together as close neighbours and friends.

 

If we were lucky enough to get a tanner so as to go to the Saturday Rush at the local pictures and then a bag of chips on the way home we thought that we were millionares which we were at the time.

 

We had chillblanes in winter and sun burn in Summer as we were always playing out no matter what the weather was like so we were fit as fiddles.

 

And then! came the sixties! A time that will never be surpassed and us lot born in the 40's and mid 50's were in heaven, The music scene at that time will never be surpassed with The Beatles,The Stones,Bill Hayley,Chuck Berry, Freddy and the Dreamers,Joe Cocker and hundreds more fantastic groups [not forgetting Elvis of course].

We even managed to win the World cup and had matches played in Sheffield with all the foreign supporters singing and dancing with the locals in the Black Swan on Snigg Hill every night.

 

Then along came the night clubs with International artists appearing week after week and all us lot dressed up to the nines with not a shirt lap or pair of traners in sight, No bad language in front of the lasses and no tatoos on those same lasses who apreciated being treat like ladies in fact men were men and women were glad of em!

 

Hi Cuttsie, don't agree with you on footy but agree with all you've put here, you are older than me I grew up in the 60's as a kid and loved it. We had no phones, computers, we went out and were not contactable (but safe), we were fit as fleas as we had mates and used to just do things. I remember going to Saturday pictures at the Classic, and at half time interval all the kids ran round like crazy then Flash Gordon would come on, and we'd sit bolt upright waiting to see if he'd escaped the evil robots, or the Little Rascals, Spanky & Buckwheat and friends.

 

Tiggy, building dens, building carts and going down hills as the front wheels came off , either we'd call for mates or they'd call for us.

 

Kids nowadays can in no way relate to how we grew up and the immense fun we had, every day was a different adventure. We didn't need or have expensive gadgets, we made our own entertainment.

[truman]

Hi Cuttsie, don't agree with you on footy but agree with all you've put here, you are older than me I grew up in the 60's as a kid and loved it. We had no phones, computers, we went out and were not contactable (but safe), we were fit as fleas as we had mates and used to just do things. I remember going to Saturday pictures at the Classic, and at half time interval all the kids ran round like crazy then Flash Gordon would come on, and we'd sit bolt upright waiting to see if he'd escaped the evil robots, or the Little Rascals, Spanky & Buckwheat and friends.

 

Tiggy, building dens, building carts and going down hills as the front wheels came off , either we'd call for mates or they'd call for us.

 

Kids nowadays can in no way relate to how we grew up and the immense fun we had, every day was a different adventure. We didn't need or have expensive gadgets, we made our own entertainment.

 

I grew up in the 60's..in the summer holidays we'd go up the playing fields to play football/cricket, then maybe go down to Tommy Wards and do some fishing then over the meadows to Bedgrave and the Horseshoe pond.... we'd set off in the morning and not go back home 'til 7 or 8 o'clock at night..it was a lot simpler then it seems to be today..

[Bypassblade]

I grew up in the 60's..in the summer holidays we'd go up the playing fields to play football/cricket, then maybe go down to Tommy Wards and do some fishing then over the meadows to Bedgrave and the Horseshoe pond.... we'd set off in the morning and not go back home 'til 7 or 8 o'clock at night..it was a lot simpler then it seems to be today..

 

As you say Truman it was brilliant & a lot less complicated, I remember if we didn't have a football we'd used the bladder out of an old casey (cue the scratching heads lol), we'd play cricket by drawing stumps in chalk on walls, all in all it was brilliant.

 

When we lived at Gleadless we'd go down the drains just at bottom of the hill, brilliant we knew no fear I've posted this next thing before but it sums up what we are talking about so i feel it's appropriate.

 

 

WE WAS BRUNG UP PROPER !!

 

"And we never had a whole Mars bar until 1993"!!!

 

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE

1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70’s

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank Sherry while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos...

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, bread and dripping, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.

 

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds , KFC, Subway or Nandos.

Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open on a Sunday, somehow we didn't starve to death!

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Toffees, Gobstoppers and Bubble Gum.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter, milk from the cow, and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O..K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with matchbox cars.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii , X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on SKY ,

no video/dvd films, or colour TV

no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

 

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no

Lawsuits from these accidents.

 

Only girls had pierced ears!

 

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

 

You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time....

 

We were given air guns and catapults for our 10th birthdays,

 

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Mum didn't have to go to work to help dad make ends meet because we didn't need to keep up with the Jones's!

 

Not everyone made the rugby/football/cricket/netball team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on

MERIT

 

Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and throw the blackboard rubber at us if they thought we weren't concentrating ..

We can string sentences together and spell and have proper conversations because of a good, solid three R's education..

Our parents would tell us to ask a stranger to help us cross the road.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.

They actually sided with the law!

 

Our parents didn't invent stupid names for their kids like 'Kiora' and 'Blade' and 'Ridge' and 'Vanilla'

 

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO

DEAL WITH IT ALL !

 

 

And YOU are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

[truman]

As you say Truman it was brilliant & a lot less complicated, I remember if we didn't have a football we'd used the bladder out of an old casey (cue the scratching heads lol), we'd play cricket by drawing stumps in chalk on walls, all in all it was brilliant.

 

.

 

Those old caseys didn't half hurt if you headed the lace part..

[Bypassblade]

Those old caseys didn't half hurt if you headed the lace part..

 

Oh yes, and try kicking them when wet, like medicine balls

[denlin]

and the music. how many of todays bands will still be filling the city hall 50 years after they started as the likes of the Tremeloes etc still do. There was never and never will be a better time to be a child/teenager than the 1960s. And I've seen Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa

[Janner]

Apart from being bombed the 40s were my childhood days. We played football in the winter & cricket in the summer. Wonderful day watching Australia play Yorkshire at Bramall Lane. Going camping without a tent, cycling to Chapletown, swimming in an old quarry. We were carefree & had lots of freedom to play & explore. I am 80 now but those memories are still with me.

[hillsbro]

I was born in 1948. This post from another thread seems appropriate here:

 

Sunday afternoons at the allotment. My cat Tony. Sweet shops. Susan Lindley. Paddling at Malin Bridge. Playing all day on Wadsley Common with nobody worrying about us. Whitsuntide clothes and Whit walks. Norton air show. The Star Walk. Going all round the Outer Circle on the top deck of a bus for 10d. My wonderful mum and dad, and going to the seaside by motorbike & sidecar. And then later, my own B.S.A.. Propping up the bar, aged 12, with a pint of sarsparilla at Jack's on Langsett Road. The annual Dial House children's trip to Skeggy or Brid. (complete with half a crown spending money, a fish & chip dinner at Woolies and a label attached to our lapels in case we got lost) and singing "One Man Went to Mow" on the coach coming back. The No 14 bus, complete with conductor. Rowing boats in Hillsborough Park.

 

I'm the little one in the 1949 family photo. Of course, I personally think that we had a better childhood, but time marches on; customs, norms and attitudes change. All the same, our childhood is something that can never be take from us, and there's no harm in looking back, perhaps with fond nostalgia, to a different age...

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