Writing about going shopping with my Mother made me think about my early childhood. Most children seventy years ago spent their lives at home with mum. Later on, children would go playgroups and pre school, but not those of us who are now top side of seventy. I was nearly nine years younger than my only sister so most days it was just mummy and me at home.
Housework was hard work. We had open fires which created mess. When I was small we had no fridge so Mother had to go to the butcher's and greengrocer's very frequently. She sewed or knitted all my clothes (other than the hand-me-downs). She did quite a lot of gardening and we had a very large garden. There were few convenience foods and she made both the bread and the jam to go on it.
Unusually, we had a TV from before I was born. There was just one channel which had very limited hours of broadcasting but early each afternoon there was a fifteen minute programme called "Watch with Mother". We watched "Picture Book" on Mondays, "Andy Pandy" on Tuesdays, "The Flowerpot men on Wednesdays, "Rag, Tag and Bobtail" on Thursdays and "The Woodentops" on Fridays. "The Woodentops" was my favourite!
It sounds like I'm a bit older than you 79 and I remember getting a television in 1953 in time to watch the coronation of the Queen, it had an 11inch screen set in a cabinet that was a freestanding piece of furniture in the corner of the room. From Shirley.
ReplyDeleteI'm almost 74, so yes to the age difference. My family got a TV about three months before I was born and yes, it was a freestanding cabinet.
DeleteNo Television when I was young (even more of an age difference!), but I raced home each day waiting for Childrens Hour on the radio.
ReplyDeleteListen with Mother was great too! But if you were at school you would Be Too Grown up for such baby things, maybe!
DeleteI loved children's hour. We got a tiny, elderly TV when I was 5. I liked Picture Book. Hated Andy Pandy.
ReplyDeleteI hated AP too! Picture book was my second favourite. then Bill and Ben. Sobbadob!
DeleteI too remember the Watch with Mother and which days of the week they were on and The Woodentops were my favourite too. I rarely got to see Rag Tag and Bobtail as that was the day we went to Stowmarket - market day -on the bus to visit Grandma and for shopping and the bank for Mum to get out the money for the wages for the men - Dad was a builder and had at least two or three, sometimes more men working for him.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine todays children being entertained by wooden string puppets in black and white! Sad that they wouldn't .
Probably when they grow up they will be issued with rose coloured spectacles too!
DeleteThe wooden tops! I loved SpottyDog. At university (yes, university in the seventies!) we would all to SpottyDog walking going 'Rrrrr Rrrrr' while other students KNEW we'd gone mad. Andy Pandy was wet. Naughty Ted was more fun.
ReplyDeleteIt would appear that Andy Pandy was the least lied charcter for quite a few of us. But I loved The Biggest Spotty Dog You Ever Did See as well.
DeleteI was always helping my mum do jobs around the house, my sister 2 years younger always played separately, living in a village we always walked to the shops meeting loads of different people along the way.
ReplyDeleteGreat memories all round of being with mum
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