Reflections written on my 80th birthday
By Jabo
@jaboUK (64354)
United Kingdom
December 5, 2019 9:26am CST
Looking back oin my long life I can't help reflecting on how different my childhood was compared to how things are today.
Todays children have access to every kind of gadget but the only gadget in our home was my mother's sewing machine - she used this to make all our clothes.
There was no indoor plumbing, no bathroom even. We had to wash in the kitchen sink, and had a bath just once a week in a tin tub in front of the fire in the living room.
Washing machines were unheard of, and we didn't have a hoover or central heating. The toilet was outside and we used cut up newspapers as toilet paper.
And of course we had no TV or telephone and no-one in our neighbourhood possessed a car. I remember when my sister and I got scalded at home (my fault), Mum and Dad wrapped us in blankets and ran with us in their arms to the hospital.
At school we used chalk and slate because paper and writing materials were scarce. We held our teachers in awe and wouldn't dream of disrespecting them.
The only entertainment that we didn't make ourselves were our nightly gatherings round the radio to listen to 'Childrens Hour' and a weekly trip to the 'pictures' (movie theater) on Saturday mornings.
Other than that we played outside - skipping ropes, ball games, hopscotch, marbles, hide and seek, tag, leapfrog and singing games. We'd go to the local recreation ground for the swings, slide, seesaw and roundabout.
If the weather was too bad we played card games inside, dressed up our homemade dolls, drew with our crayons, or played ludo or snakes and ladders.
We got a comic once a week and when my sisters and I had read them we swapped with the neighbours, who'd bought a different comic. We had to go to the library for proper books.
Quite a contrast to childrens' lives today.
Picture from Pixabay.
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54 responses
@WorDazza (15830)
• Manchester, England
5 Dec 19
Happy 80th Birthday! If it is actually your birthday today!! If not, Happy 80th for whenever it is/was!!
I can definitely relate to the making your own entertainment bit. I grew up in quite a poor neighbourhood and although there was more in the way of entertainment for my generation we couldn't afford much so the local recreation ground became the location of the FA Cup final, World War II and the Wild West etc. All in our heads of course.
And were we happier than today's kids? I reckon so.
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@jaboUK (64354)
• United Kingdom
5 Dec 19
Thanks Dazza - my birthday was actually yesterday (the 4th) but I was out having fun and didn't have time to post this. I did write it then though.
I know what you mean about it all being inside your heads - that's where imagination comes from and we sure had to use that, didn't we?
3 people like this
I do wonder where the next generation of great authors and screenwriters is coming from. Imagination seems to be in short supply these days.
@bunnybon7 (50973)
• Holiday, Florida
5 Dec 19
Happy birthday sweetheart and many more returns. I remember all that before I turned 5 yrs. and lived on a farm with my aunts family. I remember crazy medical things people would not do today. Like uses of turpintine etc. Yet we survived and and have many happy memories from it.
2 people like this
@bunnybon7 (50973)
• Holiday, Florida
8 Dec 19
@jaboUK yes and when I got a gash on my leg from barbed wire fence mishap my aunt slapped a bandage on it with turpintine and I went my whole life with this big scar that when I was a teen people would say "you got a run in your nylon stocking " when I had none on 
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@jaboUK (64354)
• United Kingdom
8 Dec 19
@bunnybon7 Oh goodness, what a thing to do to you.
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@LadyDuck (471421)
• Switzerland
6 Dec 19
I missed your post yesterday Janet, belated Happy Birthday. I remember everything you are mentioning. I am 10 years younger, but things were slow to change back in time. I think that our days were finally better, we learnt to be happy with very little and to love the others.
2 people like this
. I completely agree with your final sentence.
@crazyhorseladycx (39509)
• United States
5 Dec 19
happiest 'f birthday wishes, sweet lady! 'tis no wonder there's so much mental issues with young'uns these days, eh? no playin' outdoors, usin' their imaginations 'n jest local young'uns they'd grown'p with 's playmates. i find 't most sad, this 'ttachment to gadgets. i gave'p speakin' with my eldest grands'n the phone - they're 'lways playin' a game'n put me'n speaker. i can't hear/understand a word they're sayin', when they say anythin' 't all. most depressin'.
we didn't 've much durin' our growin' years material wise. but, we'd a childhood filled with lots 'f memories. seems we were healthier back then, too. mentally 'n physically.
2 people like this
@crazyhorseladycx (39509)
• United States
5 Dec 19
@jaboUK thanks, hon. 'tis not their fault 'ntirely. their step-dad 'tis big'n gadgets 'n happily pushed that obsession 'pon 'em. the daughter 'tis 'lso 'ddicted to her phone 'n 's been all their lives :(
yepperz, o'erweight, can't read/comprehend, can't think out problems fer 'emselves, eye troubles, neck 'n spine troubles - the list jest goes on'n on. i'm thankful there's still some parents out there who don't 'llow but very limited time'n these devices.
ya add to that all the 'nline bullyin' 'n body shamin'. 'tis a huge mess!
1 person likes this
@crazyhorseladycx (39509)
• United States
6 Dec 19
@jaboUK yes ma'am. i fear that one day someone's gonna crash their net, not power, etc. these folks're not e'en gonna know how to navigate a library, nor 've the knowledge to know how to look anythin' 'p.
commonsense 'lso seems to be gettin' lost'n the shuffle. the granddaughter (jest turned 18, honor student) called me a few days 'fore our thanksgivin' to 'nquire 'bout a recipe. she 'twas makin' brownies from a box (ick) 'n decided to make 2 batches 't once. her query? if'n the recipe calls fer 1/3 cup 'f oil, how many do ya use fer 2 boxes? i'd the need to stifle my laughter, thinkin' she 'twas jokin'. alas, such 'twas not the case....
she didn't trust my answer, so asked siri - who told her the same, 2/3's. sigh.
1 person likes this
@Marilynda1225 (82789)
• United States
5 Dec 19
Children these days have no idea what life was like back then. I can relate to a good portion of your childhood especially playing outside and using our imagination.
Happy Birthday Janet
4 people like this
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
5 Dec 19
My friends and I used to play outside a lot. There was no internet in my childhood and we had to find other kinds of entertainment. Things are very different today. My friend's children don't want to play outside, they want to stay inside and play computer games.
2 people like this
@Fleura (30402)
• United Kingdom
5 Dec 19
Funny isn't it? You don't really notice until you stop to think about it. I've not reached 80 yet but even so things are very different, and especially for the children. And I suspect it's not a coincidence that mental health is getting worse and worse.
2 people like this
@jaboUK (64354)
• United Kingdom
5 Dec 19
It is a different world now, and you're right about the mental health, and probably physical health too. Have you noticed the amount of children and teenagers who need glasses? That's most likely down to staring at their devices for so long. And there are a lot of fat young people around too.
1 person likes this
. I don't feel that old.
Kids today would get a real shock if they had to live like we did, wouldn't they? But we were happy.
@amitkokiladitya (171927)
• Agra, India
5 Dec 19
Very true. Sometimes I wonder how the future would be
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@amitkokiladitya (171927)
• Agra, India
6 Dec 19
@jaboUK so.what comes.next excites me more.
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@marguicha (223077)
• Chile
6 Dec 19
I always lived in the capital so we had indoor bathroom. Besides that, my childhood was very similar to yours. Our parents bought us children´s books (for Christmas) but I only had one doll. My mother made clothes for her with the scraps of the material and wool from the dresses and sweater she sewed and knit for us.
I am sure that I had a happier childhood than my grandchildren.
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@marguicha (223077)
• Chile
6 Dec 19
@jaboUK Yes. And she made beautiful clothes. I later learned to knit and sew but I never was as good.
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@responsiveme (22926)
• India
9 Dec 19
@jaboUK mine too...And she made me a raggedy Ann doll too..With real hair. My folks would get outfits made of scrapsof cloth from my dresses
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@lovinangelsinstead21 (36850)
• Pamplona, Spain
11 Dec 19
Wishing you a very Happy Birthday although its a bit late.
We grew up too much like you say had to wash in the kitchen sink.
No carpet on the floors or stairs for a long while.
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@lovinangelsinstead21 (36850)
• Pamplona, Spain
12 Dec 19
@jaboUK
Our Mom worked very long hours and did not have enough time to make meals so from a very early age I was making them for her.
For years there was not enough to put carpet on the floors.
They both got a very poor wage between them.
Yours was a resourceful Mom too.
Just imagine putting that kind of carpet down now the faces would drop a mile for sure.
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@jaboUK (64354)
• United Kingdom
13 Dec 19
@lovinangelsinstead21 It's such a different world now isn't it?
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@rebelann (112875)
• El Paso, Texas
7 Dec 19
I'm lucky as by the time I was a young child we lived in Army base quarters that had indoor plumbing. We didn't have a lot of gadgets but luckily the bases we lived on all had laundromats where mom could wash the clothes. We had radios and also went to the base school on saturdays to watch old movies.
How old were you the first time you saw a TV? I was 11 yrs old and boy was I mesmerized by our neighbors TV.
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@sunrisefan (28524)
• Philippines
6 Dec 19
Hi Janet! We probably belong to the same era because we are almost all similar in childhood experience. Our only "appliance" was an Avegon radio too. At noontime children would hurry home to listen to their favorite cowboy-like radio series under the homes of neighbors. Refrigerators were non-existent then and we placed our bottled softdrinks inside earthen jar which holds the water cool. To buy meat and vegetables, we had to walk a few kilometers with our father. When summer break from school came, we enjoyed going through a small forest and crossing a little stream (on which we enjoyed dipping our feet) to go to a piece of land mortgage to my father. We'd pick avocadoes and bring it home for dessert. We had no electricity and we used kerosene to fuel our lamp which had to be pumped. A bicycle was a treasure then. Clothes, shirts, blouses and pants were almost all hand-me-downs from older siblings. Ah the generation of today must be luckier but I have no regrets for the experience of my youth and I'm sure you do too, Janet :)
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@jaboUK (64354)
• United Kingdom
6 Dec 19
Hi Nando. Even though we're on other sides of the world our experiences are similar. My clothes were all hand-me-downs too and when we eventually got a bicycle we three sisters had to share it. We were happy though, weren't we? I loved reading about your childhood.
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@sunrisefan (28524)
• Philippines
6 Dec 19
@jaboUK Yes, you and I were not as "lucky" as the present generation with all their perks but we did enjoy life. We had simple joys but they were joys just the same, right?
BTW, wishing you the best of health not only on your birthday but for many, many years Janet.
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