Enjoy The Fabulous 50s
21st September 2008
A lot of people feel that they were born in the wrong time and look back with nostalgia to the way things were in the 1950's. But were things actually that much better back then, in the days before mobile phones, laptops, surround sound, e-mail, satellite dishes, microwave ovens, DVD players and electric toothbrushes? Life was definitely simpler, slower and a lot more family-orientated, but what else has changed?
According to a recent Government survey, we are healthier now than ever before. The dangers of smoking were starting to become public knowledge in the late 1950's when 80% of men and 40% of women smoked compared to just 25% today. In addition to all the tobacco smoke, our grandparents were also forced to inhale a blanket of smog caused by soot and ashes streaming from thousands of chimneys and factories and until the 1960's being able to breathe clean air was considered a luxury.
Personal hygiene was quite low down the list of priorities in those days. Visitors to England would complain that the British were smelly which could very well have been the case as most people during the 1950's were forced to wear the same clothes for days on end. But before you wrinkle your nose in disgust, just remember that, unlike modern houses with fully functional utility rooms, washing machines meant that you still had to do most of the work by hand, families had to bath in a tub on the kitchen floor and unless you were extremely wealthy - toilets were little sheds in the backyard.
Charming, original fireplaces that we treasure so much today as quirky, romantic features in our homes, would have been lifesavers for our grandparents who had to get by without the luxuries of central heating and radiators. Bedrooms were only heated when you were ill and the rest of the time you had to scrape ice off the inside of the bedroom windows! Not surprisingly, many people ended up in hospital with colds and fevers and were allowed to smoke to their heart's content in spotlessly clean wards treated by beautifully groomed staff. Clean as hospitals were in the 1950's though, there were no organ transplants, heart-bypass surgeries or hip replacements and if you had suffered a stroke or had heart disease or cancer, there wasn't much hope of recovery.
People in the 1950's ate a lot more vegetables, but the variety was limited compared to what we can buy in the supermarket today. Ready meals were just a twinkle in a Bird's Eye back then and mothers actually had to cook meals for their kids instead of stuffing them with mini-pizzas, fish fingers, chicken nuggets and chips. Tantrums had to be dealt with by discipline instead of chocolate, so it's actually quite surprising that hardly anyone back then over 65 had their own teeth.
So next time you start feeling nostalgic in your lovely, warm home with en-suite bathroom - make yourself a bowl of microwave popcorn, put on your favourite DVD and give thanks that we write the year 2008.