Growing up we had never heard of or seen duvets. Beds had a bottom sheet, top sheet, a few blankets, and in winter an eiderdown.
We didn’t have mugs, just cups and saucers. TV programmes started in the evening apart from an hour in the middle of the day when there were programmes for pre-school children. Not everyone had a TV.
Nobody had washing machines, tumble dryers, microwaves or freezers. Many people didn’t even have fridges, phones or cars.
Gay meant happy, jolly, carefree. Mobile only meant able to move, not a phone. Remote only meant far away, not a TV control.
Most men wore hats outside and took them off indoors. Women usually wore hat and gloves to go out shopping, visiting or to church. They had winter gloves and summer gloves.
Toilet paper was hard and crunchy like baking parchment or greaseproof paper., which had to be crushed in your hands and even then you dreaded that first "wipe."
Dustbins (that's trash cans to our US cousins) were metal and everything went in. There was no recycling apart from glass jars and bottles, which were returned for the three pennies deposit. A great way to enhance pocket money.
There were no charity shops but communities held jumble sales. Children’s birthday parties involved presents, party games, sandwiches, jelly, birthday cake, and your friends were not given a party bag to take home.
For most of us, to make a phone call you needed four of these:
One of these:
In which you would find one of these:
You put your four pennies here, before dialing.
