Don't you wish you were around in the 50's when England was a great place to live?

Answer 1

Yes, there was still rationing, yes, teachers at school could make your life a misery, yes, there was snobbery and yes, we didn't have a lot of money to spend. The pubs closed at 1030 during the week and at 1400 hrs at lunchtime and didn't open again until 1800 hrs. This was seriously annoying if you were in the mood to party. That's the down side.
The best thing about it was that life was so innocent. There were no lads and ladettes, women were not foul mouthed and drunk (nor were decent men) and nobody thought that they had to shock to get attention. There was almost nobody living on welfare (very hard to come by so you had to work) if you wanted money to spend.

Criminals were punished and sent to prison, some of them doing hard labour. No TV sets in cells (or most homes come to that).

We had Pete Murray on Radio Caroline every Friday, we had Lonnie Donnegan, Bill Bailey, Elvis and Cliff Richard (who was good in those days).

The roads weren't full of traffic, the shops closed on Sundays so that people could actually get a break after a long week at work. I used to hate Sundays but aftter experiencing what they are like nowadays I positively yearn for them! I wasn't scared to go out after dark, you went into hospital to be cured, not get MRSA or any other killer bug.

I can almost hear people shuddering with horror, but to those I say, you don't know any different. I'm just glad that I was young in those days and had so much fun.

Answer 2

I too was around in the 1950s and, no, it wasn't a great place to live. At the beginning of the decade we still had a lot of food rationing and it was difficult still to get somewhere to live as houses were still in short supply following the destruction of so many by wartime bombing. School was awful - I went to a grammar school in 1953 - it was terrible. All learning boring subjects by rote. No sympathetic 'pastoral care' teachers to cry on. No computers, no calculators. Entertainment. One, later two, black and white TV channels, only broadcasting for a few hours a day. Holidays - by the sea in England. Freezing cold - I hated going away with my parents. Either hours sitting in a train that went very slowly because the lines were all busy because it was holiday time, or sitting in traffic jams on main roads that were still in many cases little more than country lanes. No motorways in 1950s Britain. But - on the other hand. I could cycle to school without my mother panicking that I would be killed by a mad driver - cars were still the exception. My father had one, merely because it was provided by his employers. I was one of the only kids ever to be taken to school by car (very occasionally - the school run hadn't been invented). We could play without much fear of paedophiles as well - I don't think the word had been invented. The country was still class ridden - just listen to some old newsreels of the time and the cut glass accents. I just missed national Service, but had I not I wouldn't have been more than a squaddy as a grammar school boy. And if you deviated from the norm - were gay for example - then you would have been locked up.

Answer 3

I was though I did not appreciate what a great place it was to live in then.

We had it all........made possible by all those who laid down their life's for us in two wars.

I think no matter how many layed down their life's for us now it would make no difference as we have been taken over good and proper and it did not take a war to achieve this. Just progressively incompetent governments.

We all thought it would be war whereby we would lose our identity but it was not.

I suppose it is the start of building this country all over again and I am sure that if we all work together it will be possible for Britain to be great nation again. But it will take tenacity, hard work and love and understanding to achieve this Goal.

And not half wits like Alex Salmond to convince voters that an independant Scotland is the way forward. The man is an idiot who is tangling a fat juicy carrot.

Answer 4

I was born in 1948 and would like to record that I don't have very many happy memories of growing up and going to school in England during the '50s
We made do with a lot less, teachers were short tempered and violent, and if you dared complain about anything you would be labelled a cissy or just smacked.
Not that I think the present system is better!!

Answer 5

I was around in the 50's. We still had rationing, bloody awful dentistry, poor health care, no money and miserable food. Virtually nobody had cars and very few people had television. The streets were dark and dismal and the only thing that made us think we were enjoying ourselves was the fact that we didn't know any better and that anything was better than being at war.
The world that we live in now has its problems, God knows, but it's brilliant compared to the reality of the fifties.

Answer 6

I admit that things are particularly bad now, but I don't think they were necessarily better in the fifties. From what I've read, those were times of austerity after the war and food rationing was still in force until, I think, 1954. I think that each decade has its own problems.

Answer 7

England was a great place to live??? that's a new one on me.

Answer 8

This question came up in the pub when we were there with an old fellow who had worked in the railway yards. His response:
"Fifties - load of s.hit! There were no fork lift trucks in those days - we had to load everything by hand!"

Answer 9

i was at school in the 50`s i saw pop change 2 rock & roll suits came in imnstead of blazers & flannels women dressed as women. then came the 60`s.long hair teddy boy suits and women were as adventurous as me with their new style gear. what memories.

Answer 10

Yeah. I would have loved to have been around when we had rationing, poverty and the remains of the class system. Distance lends enchantment to the view. The 1950s had its fair share of problems too we need to be careful not to view those times through rose coloured specs.