Poverty

[commoner]

Born in 1934 and this is how I lived my first 10 or so years....Today you need £17,500 per annum or you are in poverty....so they say..

Here is a list of things which would be taken for granted today and which I did without....was I brought up in poverty..I never thought so at the time....

There was NO:-
TV.
Video Recorders.
DVD/CD.
Pop groups.
Mobile phones.
Video Games.
Computers.
Cameras were forbidden.(wartime).
Hot water.
Bathroom.
Inside toilet.
Electricity.
Washing machine.
Spin drier.
Hoover.
Electric kettle.
Central Heating.millions of coal fires in use.

Food rationed.(0ne egg a week etc)
Clothing /shoes on coupons.
Furniture on dockets.
No exotic fruit.oranges bananas et.
Sweets/chocolate on points system.
Cars..petrol for war work or business only.
Seaside or foreign holidays.
Fast food exepting Chip shops(often no fish)

No NHS (1948)
No benefit system as we know it.
No family allowance.
Hanging was allowed.
Flogging allowed (in schools too)
No Uni. education for the masses.
Teenage mums looked after by parents or Shotgun marriages.

No mass immigration ergo no Asian/WI etc communities...

I could go on and on but sure I've bored you all to sleep by now, sure you oldies could think of more things that are taken for granted today. :-))

[mccfluff]

mass immigrations started waaaaaaaay back commoner although they called it invading

plus i thought you could get oranges at least

i can'tt figure out how i survived without the internet and a phone

[Booldawg]

but you did have George Formby.

[McMouse]

The reason you didn't have all those essential items was because you didn't have a credit card. Poor you.

[commoner]

McF....you obviously don't know about the rationbook system...Buff for Grown ups...Blue for kids and green for babies ..green ration books only for the few times that oranges were available...I was 12 before I saw my first banana....

Yes George was special I grant you that Boo LOL

[excelsior-1]

there is one thing that youngsters take for granted these days ...
..... us .....

[mccfluff]

i didn't mean rationing, i just thought oranges, lemons etc were available in the uk,

[mccfluff]

i was 7 before i saw a blancmange

[Hopkirk]

I bet you weren't happy with your freezing cold outside toilet, or the choking smog from the millions of coal fires.

[B00]

With all due respect commoner, 99% of those products weren't available to your generation at the time simply because they hadn't been invented.

[guilliebrougues]

No central heating at all I know that their was no electricity but there was oil and gas but no form of heating apart from you coal fire. But on a plus sign we did have a pantry (larder) which had a marble slab for keeping things cool since there were no fridges. And for a while vegetables were sold loosly and put into paper bags, not like these days, pre-packs or put into plastic thus ending up having wet veg.

[ummmm]

Exactly, B00.

[ummmm]

You can still buy loose veg in the greengrocers.

[Graham-W]

You were LUCKY!!
http://www.davidpbrow...our-yorkshiremen.html

[guilliebrougues]

yes, but even then, they are put into plastic bags. I can count on one hand and stll have fingers to spare as to how many paper bags I see. Come on folks let us bring back the brown paper carrier bag and free of charge.

[B00]

Why do you even need bags at all? If you're hankering after the old days, take your own shopping bags with you as people did back then.

[ummmm]

The only things I put in bags are spuds.

[guilliebrougues]

yes, they did and everything was weighed and put into paper bags as i have said before , not plastic.

[B00]

Same here ummmm, I take a bag of bags with me if shopping.

[guilliebrougues]

yes, but are your spuds put into plastic bags, before you take them home.

[ummmm]

I rarely buy them from the grocers as they don't sell the ones I prefer. All my veg goes straight into a basket. You don't need a bag to weigh 5 carrots and there are no rules stating you need to use bags.