Do you remember...your childhood and how it was in pictures

hollydolly

hollydolly

SF VIP
Location
London England
When I was born...our country had only been out of the war 10 years, and had been destroyed to such an extent, that it took a very long time to be rebuilt . We were lucky as a family we lived from the time I was bornin good areas.. but mostly our city had been destroyed , and we as kids would often go to visit our cousins and relatives who lived in areas which had been devastated, and we'd play in those areas very happily.

My childhood surrounding , were probably very different to those of you in the USA, or Canada or Australia... but I remember it all with affection.. and those Brits here who are older will remember far more than me.. :D

Today I was remembering that every birthday my granny would send me a birthday card with a postal order inserted inside worth 2/6d..more money than I ever got from anyone ......and I would save it and use it to go to the carnival when it came to town .. and sometimes I'd get a pennyworth of sweets from the always patient sweet shop owner who would make a little poke (of paper) to hold my little jewels

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My granny lived near a park where she lived in a badly damaged area of the city and we'd visit her most weeks... and almost as soon as we got to Grannies house and after she'd given us kids a sugar piece ( sandwich) , we siblings would run out to play on the variety of swings and slides.. no H&S in those days and never once did we see anyone fall off and die or get seriously injured..

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My childhood was far from halcyonic.... but these memories are all dear to me...

Please add yours , whatever topic it may be , surrounding your childhood memories
 

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East London was devastated by the bombing. One lasting memory that I do have is the prefab. This was a prefabricated structure that could be put up quickly. They housed many a bombed out family. My family's home had survived, but it didn't have any of the amenities that we take for granted today. These are prefabs, many lasted much longer than their shelf life. Some are still around today.
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Taking up on Holly's reminisce of the postal order, my granny always tucked a pound note inside my birthday card. Today a coin has replaced the pound note, but when the note was the legal tender it was worth a lot, in that much could be bought with it.
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Every schoolboy had a bike, or so it seemed. My father simply couldn't afford the fifteen pounds for a new bike, but I found one, second hand, for just two pounds. I had bought it from the pawnbrokers shop, who remembers the pawnbroker? Many a housewife would trade some beloved chattel for ten shillings or the family wouldn't eat.
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That's not me on the bike, but I do remember our wired haired terrier called Lassie. She would go everywhere that the kids went, running alongside us as we pedalled furiously to wherever the day's adventure took us.

There seemed to be an obsession with small boys and trains, back in the 1950's. It probably explains why so many baby-boomers love nothing more than to dine out on a steam hauled train, up and down a few miles of track, on a preserved heritage line. Did I collect those train numbers? Of course I did. (Great thread Holly.)
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Great stuff, H&C... we lived in a prefab for quite a few years until I was about 10 years old....I have the pictures of it somewhere....I'll see if I can find them for later in the thread.. . It was the home my mother loved the most, the one and only time she lived in a detached house...
 
Some of the cities up and down the UK have fairly new tram systems, but I used to go on trams in the late 40s and early 50s. Rattley and noisy beggars they were too, they shook the ground as they passed. Kids used to put nails on the tracks and as the tram run over them, the nails were flattened out, then the kids sat on the kerbsides sharpening their new knives. When it was raining, the overhead tram wires used to flash with big blue sparks. We used to swarm up the masts that held the overhead wires and hang ropes so we could swing around the masts. And, if you were posh, you'd have a metal ring at the end of your rope.
People used to put their 'Sunday Best' clothes on, jump a tram to a park where the whole family spent the day. Those big glass lemonade bottles with the metal clips and stopper were always filled with water to last the day.
We used to go to the greengrocer and buy a penneth of fades which was fruit that was over-ripe, we'd get a big bag off him. Then back at home our mums would cut off the bruised parts of apples and bake pies with them, we got to eat the good part of the apple and the apple cores were taken to a lady that kept chickens.
I smile when I hear people going on about 'recycling', anyone living through those years just after WW2 knew all about recycling, and more.
Have I put you off your dinner? :)
 
Great story Timoc... reminds me of being sent with a pillowcase to the bakers to get the second day Tea-bread they would otherwise throw out.. ( for non Brits that's scones, and currant buns etc ).. for about 6d..

I remember those water filled lemonade bottles well. We as kids would take ourselves off with a bottle of water & a Jam piece ( sandwich).. and find a field usually where peas or blackberries were growing and play all day, filling ourselves full, and unable to eat our dinners when we got home due to belly ache :LOL:
 
This looked like fun. I grew up Cupertino, Ca. One of the several suburbs south of San Francisco. I found our house on Google Earth. Sure has changed.

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These are pics of Me and my Mom and Dad in front of that house in 1956.

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Here are a few of my favorite things I did .

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We went camping in the Sierra Nevada Mountains every summer. I loved to trout fish, hunt for snakes and lizards, roast marshmallow S'mores, and hiking.

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Growing up in a small town in New York state (USA) was much like the television shows, The Donna Reed Show or Leave It To Beaver for me. It was just the four of us, my parents and my brother and me.
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My parents drove across the country with my brother and me to move to California. I barely remember the trip but my mother did not like it there and after a couple of months we came back to NY. They bought our house and land on both sides of the main road just outside the small town of Harpursville.

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My father built a gas station across the road from the house.

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It turned out to be very successful. My father loved cars. Our gas station became the hang out for teenage boys who liked to work on cars. My father shared his knowledge with the boys. Their parents would stop in to ask him if he minded that their son was always there and he said not at all. He enjoyed them.

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I remember he made a pit to work on cars in one side of the work area. You had to use a ladder to go up and down in it. Inside the office part there was a refrigerator for the glass bottles of soda he sold. On one wall was long shelves with auto parts he sold.......but one shelf was boxes of candy bars! My favorite part! Except I did have an older girl on the school bus blackmail me for candy bars every day.
 
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Woolworths luncheon counter
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I was living the dream when mom had the means (money) for us to drop-in at Woolworths department store and sit down at the luncheon counter.

I always ordered a vanilla milkshake that came in an ice cold stainless tumbler, and on real special days mom and I would split a plate of french fries, and no trip to Woolworths was complete without a visit to the toy department and pet department to look at the budgie birds.
 
katlupe said:
Growing up in a small town in New York state (USA) was much like the television shows, The Donna Reed Show or Leave It To Beaver for me. It was just the four of us, my parents and my brother and me.
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My parents drove across the country with my brother and me to move to California. I barely remember the trip but my mother did not like it there and after a couple of months we came back to NY. They bought our house and land on both sides of the main road just outside the small town of Harpursville.

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My father built a gas station across the road from the house.

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It turned out to be very successful. My father loved cars. Our gas station became the hang out for teenage boys who liked to work on cars. My father shared his knowledge with the boys. Their parents would stop in to ask him if he minded that their son was always there and he said not at all. He enjoyed them.

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I remember he made a pit to work on cars in one side of the work area. You had to use a ladder to go up and down in it. Inside the office part there was a refrigerator for the glass bottles of soda he sold. On one wall was long shelves with auto parts he sold.......but one shelf was boxes of candy bars! My favorite part! Except I did have an older girl on the school bus blackmail me for candy bars every day.
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Aw, katlupe, I grew up just 15 miles or so from you! My family lived in Oneonta, then Sidney when I was a girl. You are right in saying it was like the TV shows of the 50s and 60s. Small towns are the best for raising kids. My family moved to Tampa, FL and I graduated high school there, but after marriage and having my first child, I asked my hubby if we could raise our own family in that same small town. I am still residing there, and yes, it is still a small village. I have made lifetime friends, and wouldn't change a thing.
 
Right Now said:
Aw, katlupe, I grew up just 15 miles or so from you! My family lived in Oneonta, then Sidney when I was a girl. You are right in saying it was like the TV shows of the 50s and 60s. Small towns are the best for raising kids. My family moved to Tampa, FL and I graduated high school there, but after marriage and having my first child, I asked my hubby if we could raise our own family in that same small town. I am still residing there, and yes, it is still a small village. I have made lifetime friends, and wouldn't change a thing.
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I second that, Right Now!
 
Right Now said:
Aw, katlupe, I grew up just 15 miles or so from you! My family lived in Oneonta, then Sidney when I was a girl. You are right in saying it was like the TV shows of the 50s and 60s. Small towns are the best for raising kids. My family moved to Tampa, FL and I graduated high school there, but after marriage and having my first child, I asked my hubby if we could raise our own family in that same small town. I am still residing there, and yes, it is still a small village. I have made lifetime friends, and wouldn't change a thing.
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We have so much in common! My family moved in 1962 to Crescent City, FL. Then moved back in 1969. I moved to St. Petersburg in 1994 but moved back in 1996. I could not take the heat any longer.

I live in Norwich now. Are you in Sidney? My boyfriend and I go to a restaurant there sometimes.
 
Aunt Marg said:
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Woolworths luncheon counter
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I was living the dream when mom had the means (money) for us to drop-in at Woolworths department store and sit down at the luncheon counter.

I always ordered a vanilla milkshake that came in an ice cold stainless tumbler, and on real special days mom and I would split a plate of french fries, and no trip to Woolworths was complete without a visit to the toy department and pet department to look at the budgie birds.
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I still love those milkshakes if you can get one. Usually at a diner. Something about those tumblers!
 
katlupe said:
We have so much in common! My family moved in 1962 to Crescent City, FL. Then moved back in 1969. I moved to St. Petersburg in 1994 but moved back in 1996. I could not take the heat any longer.

I live in Norwich now. Are you in Sidney? My boyfriend and I go to a restaurant there sometimes.
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Yes, I am still here. I would love to meet with you for coffee sometime. I do get to Norwich about once a month or so myself. The new restaurant in town on Main St. holds a Trivia night, so three friends and myself go to try our best. The emcee is a classmate of mine, and he's very friendly. It's a good time, but Hwy 7 restaurant is my favorite near my villlage.
 
Right Now said:
Yes, I am still here. I would love to meet with you for coffee sometime. I do get to Norwich about once a month or so myself. The new restaurant in town on Main St. holds a Trivia night, so three friends and myself go to try our best. The emcee is a classmate of mine, and he's very friendly. It's a good time, but Hwy 7 restaurant is my favorite near my villlage.
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We go to this one for breakfast.

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I am not sure I have been to Hwy 7.
 
I remember visiting the park, and the stainless slide and spinning globe were two of my favourite things!

Our spinning globe stood upright, and I see many-a child fly off and get hurt while hanging on for dear life to the outer ring while several boys would spin the ride wildly! Some kids bodies would be straight out before their arms gave way to the pull.

As for the stainless steel slides, I felt the sizzling burn a few times on the backs of my legs at the height of summer when slide was hot as a frying pan.

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Lovely pictures, Gary!

That's what big sisters are for, keeping a watchful eye on you and helping keep you out of trouble.

That was me with my baby siblings.
 
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