Misconception of the Fifties in the Famous Five Books

[Anita Bensoussane]

I suppose it's easy to comment as such on the 'cons' of an era you have never experienced. However, if you have lived in those times and experienced them first hand, not knowing what lays ahead in the years to come, you would just accept them as having been a part of a changing world, whether they were good, bad or indifferent.

Very true. I had a very happy childhood in the 1950s and early 1960s. I certainly didn't regret that the internet hadn't been invented yet! Happy days playing in the fields and Gypsy Lane near where I lived. Gypsy Lane was where my own 'hollow tree' was situated. I could even get inside it! A vast chalkpit with an old tractor in which we all played. Fishing for minnows with a jam-jar, listening to Listen With Mother on the wireless and of course, reading the new Blyton!

That sounds lovely, Nigel.

I didn't have as much freedom to roam in my 1970s childhood, but I remember the era with great fondness. As far as I'm concerned, it consisted of all sorts of imaginative games with friends (mainly in our gardens), listening to cassettes (of ABBA, Blondie, ELO, Fleetwood Mac and Meat Loaf), watching programmes like Top of the Pops, Doctor Who (with Tom Baker) and The Famous Five, plenty of board games and jigsaws, arts and crafts, playing with Sindy dolls, reading loads of books (and collecting paperbacks by authors like Enid Blyton, Noel Streatfeild and E. Nesbit) and going regularly to the beach, the woods and the library. One highlight was a street party for Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977, and another was a New Year's Eve party at a neighbour's house (with two cakes - one for 1979 and the other for 1980!)

My parents may remember the 1970s differently as they were having to cope with high inflation, regular power cuts, disruption caused by various strikes, and other adult worries that didn't bother me as a child. Of course, those things are now plaguing us again - and this time I can't so blithely ignore them!

[Katharine]

Yes Anita, that's true, they are having to pay back a little bit of their loans, although I'm not sure if either/both will ever earn enough to pay it all back. The promise of fantastic salaries for all graduates is in our experience somewhat of a myth.

Regarding the happy childhoods of others, I would say the same of my experience of the 70s and 80s. With hindsight, I grew up in a pretty poor household, and yet I didn't really feel as though I was missing out on anything.

My brother and I were allowed to go into our elderly neighbour's garden which was rather overgrown and make a den underneath some bushes growing there, we made mud towns on the allotment while our parents were digging to grow veggies for dinner. All great fun, and free!

I was lucky that paperbacks were in print during my childhood, so I was able to own far more books that my parents could afford during their childhoods. I also had the advantage of being able to read their childhood books too.

I did grow up in a house which had ice on the windows as a child, I can't say I particularly liked having to get dressed under the bedclothes as a child on very cold days, but didn't really question it. I wouldn't necessarily want to go back to those days from that point of view, but then I'm that much older now. I guess it's a case of selective memory, but mostly when I think back to my childhood, I remember the good times such as playing sandcastles on the local beach with my cousins, the treat of an ice cream at my aunt's as they were 'well off' and had a freezer, the thrill of opening presents on Christmas morning, knowing they were books, but not knowing which of the many Enid Blyton's I'd requested they would be. For some reason, The Circus of Adventure is one that I particularly remember opening.

Perhaps my biggest dilemma as a child was deciding which book to read first.

[Katharine]

Anita, I'd forgotten about the power cuts - I think as a child I treated them as something of an adventure, although it must have been a nightmare for my mother trying to feed the family.

As I grew up in a house with an open fire, and was used to the rest of the house being cold (no central heating), we didn't have the of being too cold.

[Anita Bensoussane]

We only had one source of heating and that was a gas fire in the living room, but we were allowed to put it on and get dressed in front of it if the weather was very bitter.

[Boodi 2]

I loved the occasional power cuts as I found candles and torches most exciting and a special treat was getting fish and chips from a chipper when my mother was unable to cook (we had an electric cooker). I had a very happy and carefree childhood in the 1960s and early 1970s, with probably more freedom to go out and explore than my son had in the 1990s and early 2000s. We did not have a hollow tree but we had a hollow bush which we made into a house and had fun sweeping the earthen "floor"! As mentioned in another post, my friends and I imitated the Five Find-Outers and searched for mysteries, which of course we never found. However, we had a lovely time going for picnics (I always brought ginger ale with me!!!), exploring derelict houses(!!) and on one occasion when my parents rented a bungalow in a seaside town for the summer holidays my cousin (who was staying with us) and I climbed out of the bedroom window one night and wandered down to the seafront, where among other things we visited the amusement arcades, something that was normally "out of bounds" for us!!!

[Anita Bensoussane]

Sounds as though you had a lot of fun, Boodi. My children enjoyed the occasional power cuts we had when they were little. We would read stories aloud by candlelight, or flash messages in Morse code using torches.

[Fiona1986]

I suppose it's easy to comment as such on the 'cons' of an era you have never experienced. However, if you have lived in those times and experienced them first hand, not knowing what lays ahead in the years to come, you would just accept them as having been a part of a changing world, whether they were good, bad or indifferent. I wonder what you'll say in another 40 years time when you are my age, looking back on 'now'?... We are now seeing increasing numbers of Group A Strep being reported in children with higher numbers than what has been the norm dying. So let's face it, things aren't much different as far as diseases/illness are concerned. They will always happen.

Everyone makes the best of whatever time they live in - all I was saying is that the 4os and 50s weren't some sort of paradise all-round when compared to today.

Things are significantly different today as far as diseases and illness are concerned. New ones will develop all the time but we have far more ways of treating them now than we ever have done in the past. The simple fact that we have antibiotics and vaccinations means countless lives are saved. New therapies are being developed all the time so even people with genetic illnesses are faring far, far better. I read last week that they are hopeful to have a cure for epidermolysis bullosa by 2030 which is pretty incredible.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I don't regard ice on the inside of the window as a big problem though. It only happens on very cold days and it gradually melts. I had that all through my childhood - and even in my twenties, in a flat I was living in in the mid 1990s. Even now I don't have central heating, and most of my flat is single glazed. The fact that I only seem to get condensation forming, rather than ice, might not actually be a good thing as it's possibly a sign of climate change!

I spoke too soon as both windows in the spare room are clad with ice on the inside this morning! It's the first time I've seen that in over three and a half years of living here.

[Fiona1986]

Our flat is colder this week than we've experienced in the 7 years we've been here - and we've got external cladding now. Our heating is never off but usually it's set to 15 degrees ensuring it won't actually turn on. Normally if we want it running outside the set times we just adjust it up from 15 and it rarely kicks in much below 20. Lately it's been coming on as soon as it gets to 17 or 17.5. Our downstairs neighbour is in hospital at the moment and I am wondering if her son has turned her heating down as normally she has it on high all day, as I suspect we get a lot of heat coming up from her flat normally. That and the fact that it hasn't gone above zero outside for a few days. It's set to be the same for the rest of the week, regularly being -4 or -5 and feeling like -7 or lower...

[Boatbuilder]

Our downstairs neighbour is in hospital at the moment and I am wondering if her son has turned her heating down as normally she has it on high all day, as I suspect we get a lot of heat coming up from her flat normally.

I would think that if the flat is likely to be empty for some time, (I assume the son doesn't live there) then surely that is the sensible thing for him to do, especially with the current fuel prices. However, if I were you I wouldn't mention about the possibility that they may also be helping to heat your flat as you might get a bill.

The temperature here dropped to -5.8C last night, the lowest in the past 12 months according to my weather station, and I had to extend my heating time today by a couple of hours from what I have had it set at for a couple of weeks. However, at the moment the outside temperature here is +2.1C so hopefully tomorrow I can have the heating time reduced by at least a couple of hours.

Just looking ahead, this afternoon I noticed that the weather forecast for the week up until Christmas is likely to be much milder here in Suffolk, and the temperature for the Tuesday (20th) was forecast to reach +9C. Tonight that has even gone up to +10C. I hope it's right.

[Fiona1986]

Ten degrees? That’s sheer luxury. It’s forecast for a high of -1 here today and currently it is -3.

So glad of my central heating, double glazing, external cladding and also for my yaktrax! (https://www.yaktrax.co.uk/)

[pete9012S]

Our flat is colder this week than we've experienced in the 7 years we've been here - and we've got external cladding now.

Sorry to hear that Fiona.

Our place is old, high ceilinged, draughty and very hard to heat even with the double glazing and central heating.
We have an old coal fire kitchen range in the kitchen.

It's the only room we can get really warm and cosy.
We had some big trees cut down outside lately.

I made the men milky coffee and fed them umpteen mince pies.
I asked if I could have any wood from the tree removals.
They chopped up a sixty foot tree for me and left it stacked behind the wall in my front drive.

They have saved me literally hundreds of pounds in buying firewood for the next year or two.
I think I have had a very good return on my coffee and cream with mince pies for the men!

[Anita Bensoussane]

That's great about the firewood, Pete! I hope you supplied the men with an assortment of mince pies and got them to fill in a tick chart rating each pie for its crumbliness, moistness, tanginess, etc!

[pete9012S]

Ha Ha - yes of course!

I did ask them after making their first cup of coffee how long they wanted to wait before I brought their next cup of coffee and plate of mince pies out to them, thinking they would say in an hour or two... but they said in about twenty minutes please!!!

[Katharine]

Fiona, I can sympathise with your heating. My first winter at my old house was the coldest one, and I'm sure it was because the house next door was empty that year. It was a terrace house, and I suspect what little heat we did have was going through the walls!

Pete, your house sounds lovely, especially the range in the kitchen. Well done on exchanging a few mince pies for a good supply of wood.

My parents have always had an open fire, and word has got around the neighbourhood - just last week one of my neighbours came and told me they'd just cut down a tree, and would I like to send Dad down the road with a wheelbarrow to fetch it!