Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Was it really better ?

Corneed beef and Goblin Hamburgers in a tin...they were vile.

Can't remember us having coffee at home in the 50's. I used to go on errands for my aunty to get it from the corner shop. Gosh that was scary! It was Miss Wadsworth's shop and it had a tall counter which I didn't even reach the top of .
She was like a giant and would peer over the top with her white hair whih with was yellow, not blonde..yellow. It was that very strong white hair that sat on her head like a hat.It must have been nicotine as she had matching set of teeth and fingers- and a pair of glasses like bottle ends. Timidly and with knees knocking,I would ask for what I wanted and she would shout down at me "SPEAK UP GIRL, I CAN'T HEAR YOU"... she couldn't see me either! Then she'd slam down the coffee which I stretched to reach. Two more people in the shop by this time and the place was full. Panic to get out of the door and crack my head on it as it opened inwards. In sheer relief at getting out I would start to skip home in those clumping brown lace-up school shoes made by Clarkes...... mission complete but no pennies for going!

Does anyone remember the doctor's waiting rooms in the 50's ? I am sure the patients used to smoke in them and also the doctor's in their practice rooms! It may be a foggy memory, I don't know. They were sinister places!
And the dentist's waiting room........smell the ether! Dentist's..they still fill me full of fear.

One of my doctors used to ask if I smoked and when I admitted to it, he asked for one.

Strangely the system in those days seemed to work. One doctor, no receptionists, nurses etc and you just turned up and waited until it was your go. Can't remember if people smoked in the waiting room though.

Dentists were terrifying places and with good reason. The worst being the school butchers. That bloody awful mask they used to gas us with.

The only time we had coffee was when my mother bought some real stuff i.e. from a place like the coffee roast and she made it with milk in a pan somehow. It was very rare though. My nan always had Camp. Later on we would buy those little Nescafe sachets for about 2d each?

At least in the old doctor waiting rooms you waited an hour and got seen, now you make an appointment and still have to wait an hour to get seen. What's that all about?
In Exmouth St there was another shop O'Kells, got reminded of it last night.
What about getting the stick at school too, hold your hand out straight to the side, "Straighen it and get your thumb out of the way" you were told and then thwack, three on each hand. The thing was not to yell or cry but it didn't half sting. Usually for next to nothing as well.

oh yeah---the clothes pulley,we had one of those in the kitchen,and i have one now! would'nt be without it,gets the clothes dry just as well as a tumble dryer and you don't use up your electric like with a tumble dryer!!
ice on the windows---remember that too! had some lovely patterns didn't we!!! oh and the coal fires! got more heat from them than these gas and electric ones now! i remember the council putting central heating into our house and there was a flue at the back of the fire which mum had to clean out with a brush on a wire, and i seem to remember you had to light the fire to get hot water and for the radiators to get hot!! but we were posh--we had an immersion heater as well!lol----how easy it is now---instant hot water,gas central heating-----still get condensation on the windows tho,but no ice-----how 'did' we manage without??

Talking about local shops and children running errands reminds me how you used to be able to go into your corner shop and buy things "loose", like asking for just one Oxo cube from a box, or just a couple of Woodbines from a pack! Mind you, if you were skint, I seem to remember some cigarettes were sold in packs as small as five in those days anyway. And funny, isn't it, how perfectly happy most shop keepers were to sell things like cigarettes to children. I'm sure that most people would agree that our stricter controls on selling products like cigarettes now, has been a change for the better.

As Helles says, you could also buy individual sachets of coffee but not so many people seemed to drink coffee at home, not like now anyhow.

used to love sundays listening to the wireless, round the horne, the jimmy clitheroe show, the hit parade 'til 7pm then aaaarghhhh
SING SOMETHING SIMPLE

Bet you can still remember many of the songs though!

Like - "My mommy said not to put beans in my ears"

http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Beans_in_My_Ears.htm

BBC Radio7 or Radio 4+ I think the names change, tuck in and enjoy or
http://goons.fabcat.org

not wrong there geekus, in fact, listening to rik stone on 7waves radio 92.1 ,sundays between 12 and 3, brings back loads of memories.

nostalgia aint what it used to be

on the subject of been able to buy things loose from the shops. who remember how biscuits where sold loose from large tins. there where always a certain amount of biscuits got broken and you could go into the shop and ask for a bag of broken biscuits which where weighed and sold to you at a lot less that the full price of biscuits.
Then at the chipy as a kid you could ask for any batter and the bits of batter that had come off the fish was put in newspaper and given to you for FREE.

your all making me jealous, my childhood was the 80's i can remember the golden goose, were the mad building is now opposite the chelsea.

i used to also catch weavers out of the old marine lake were only stones remain, there was a little pipe that they used to come out of and we would catch them with crabbing line

Ah, yes, batter bits. Used to get them with my 2d. worth of chips at the chippy on Church Rd. near the top of Downham Rd. on my way back from choir practice at St. Cath's.

Sorry to butt in but we couldn't do this in the 50's and 60's. Just unbelievable really.

http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Ear...;ew=West&alt=985&img=learth.evif

Now we can go all around the world in our armchairs.

"Continue" as the teachers used to say.

broken biscuits----i remember them in big tins, or did the tins look big cos i was small!! and chips were 6d a portion
back then a chippy tea was a cheap meal, i bought chips yesterday and they were £1.10p! incase the younger ones don't know 6d is 2/1/2p now!
and your chips were wrapped in newspaper, we used to take our old newspapers to the chippy.
who remembers taking the pop bottles back to the shop and getting 3d back on them?
in years to come what will the kids of today reminise about! unemployment,riots,drinking in the parks,hanging around street corners?????