How we were . .

[Mups]

Anyone see the programme on telly tonight about how we shopped 50 years ago?

I found it surprisingly nostalgic.

Do you remember when the Mums had big prams instead of buggies?   They had to leave them outside shops because most shops wouldn't let them in.
I can remember seeing prams outside shops,  but no one in their right mind would dare leave a baby in the street today!

They also showed all the lovely old shops we used to have, like -  Woolworths, Dorothy Perkins, BHS,  The Body Shop,  Radio Rentals,  C & A,  Fine Fare, etc.

It made me smile when one lady went in her local corner shop with her shopping list,  and she  read her list out, one item at a time,  and the shop keeper  fetched them for her and even put it in her shopping bag.

I can vaguely remember them adding up on a scrap of paper too,  no calculators or posh tills on those days.
Some people can't add 2 + 2  without the calculator on their mobile's nowadays!
They can't even buy a pint of milk without using their mobile phone to  pay now.

Oh . . .   is there any such thing as a pint of milk  today?   

[Silver Tabby]

Yes, Mups, there were 2 x pints of milk - in proper glass bottles - sitting on my doorstep this morning!

[dextrous63]

The scary thing is that the idea of "50 years ago" is increasingly just like yesterday to us!

[Mups]

The scary thing is that the idea of "50 years ago" is increasingly just like yesterday to us!

True. 

[dextrous63]

True. 

I just happened to decide to watch some of an Elvis show on youtube tonight.  It's approaching 50 years since he died.  Plus, he died at the age of 42.  Scary to think that when he did, we thought that was a short but reasonable innings, but that now we realise he was little more than a child at that age

[GrannyMac]

When my older child hit fifty, it dawned on me that I was old! 

I think one of the reasons some people left children in prams outside, there was less movement, my parents lived all their lives in the area where they grew up. My mum knew the shopkeepers, and shopping was almost daily before the advent of supermarkets.  I miss Woollies and BHS. 

[Scrumpy]

Way, way back I remember mum giving us girls (3) a shopping list to take to the local shop.
We could barely see over the counter.. The shop assistant would slice the bacon rashers and weigh the butter.. She would put our coins inside a little screw top container attach it to some device that shot across the ceiling ending up in the hands of a cashier who sat up high in a cubicle.. Any change would be sent back using the same method.. Counter assistants didn't deal with the money..

[klondike]

We lived in a quiet road. There was a traditional greengrocer shop on the corner. 

My daughter was pretty young maybe 4 or 5 and felt a really big girl when she set off with a bag and a purse with coins in to buy a lettuce. My wife saw her across the road and she was watched to and from the shop and waited to be brought back across the road. She came back with a cabbage.

[Alex]

I remember Liptons and the Maypole were around the corner, everything was nearby, the Chemist, Greengrocer, Bakery and didn't the bread taste good !  We also had a Pawnbroker shop where I was told by an elderly aunt, my Grannie used to take Grandad's suit in on a Monday and get it back Friday in time for the weekend. I'm not sure if that story was true, she said it was, even down to describing the brown paper and string of the parcel ......or was she pulling my leg ?  😁

[dextrous63]

I miss Wimpy (on Chiswick High Road) and its knickerbocker glory.  There also used to be a dept store Goodbans, which was lovely to browse in.

In the autumn, we used to have endless fun throwing sticks up to try and get conkers down, and then playing them.  Never see anyone do that nowadays, more's the pity.

Also, next to the Catholic Church on the high street there was an ice cream shop, and we were convinced that the fella who ran it was a kiddy fiddler.  No truth in it, but 'Twas fun having childhood fears.

[Scrumpy]

I remember seeing the REAL Father Christmas in a big store.. 
And I sat on his lap.. He was the real McCoy...
I have never seen him since.. 

[dextrous63]

Think I saw the real Santa in Debenhams (or was it Selfridges) on Oxford Street.  

Used to love walking round the Christmas areas of dept stores (especially with the model railway layout), and occasionally going to Hamleys.

When a bit older, and looking specifically for the answer books for textbooks so I could cheat, er, check my answers 😬, we'd stroll up to Tottenham Court Road and nip into Foyle's.

[Mups]

Aah,  happy memories ey.

What about the old singers we had too,  like  -  Andy Williams, Tony Bennett, Paul Anka, Roy Orbison,  Dean Martin, Diana Ross,  Elvis,  Brenda Lee,  and many more.

So much nicer than some of the screeching idiots we have now.   And we had songs with meaningful lyrics too.

I loved many of the old film stars too,  and films without guns and car chases throughout.



*  Incidentally Dex,  I still always collect conkers every autumn,  it feels lucky somehow.  But I pick up fallen ones,  I don't throw sticks up trees nowadays!  

[dextrous63]

Alas Mups, I no longer live close to conker trees.

[Raven]

Those were the days when the singers and musicians actually had talent AND, wore clothes.