I didn't know we were poor.................

I was born just after the war, the 2nd world war that is. My Father being a prisoner in Japan for the most part of that war. He came home in 1945 and I was born in 46, and original baby boomer. My husband is an American and so life for him was totally different. We have been watching "Call the Midwife" for me it was a wonderful experience of reminiscing. For him more of an awaking. His folks were certainly not wealthy, he was one of 18 children but his life could not have been more different from mine. So many things in that show reminded me of how life was for post war Britain. I certainly would not have traded my life in those times that's for sure.There were certainly hardships but I didn't see it that way. I never knew we were poor, we didn't feel poor. Only when in my teens when I met more people did I realize that many people owned their homes while we had a council house. That our furniture was ragged and amenities rather behind the times.





While my husband grew up with cars, washing machines and central heating we had none of those. I remember my nan doing her washing in a boiler in the kitchen and hanging clothes outside. In the conservatory was a very large table and mangle attached and after running things through they were hung outside. Mum had a boiler but no mangle had to wring out with her hands. Nan rented her house too but it was a better one than ours, hers was owned by a wealthy person who Nan worked for as housekeeper. Ours was a council house struggling to get out of its Victorian beginnings. It had just converted to electricity when we moved in. The old gas lights left behind the remnants in the walls. Our toilet was outside next to the shed/coal barn. We used a "potty" under the bed if we had to go at night which my Dad was in charge of emptying. He chose most embarrassing times to do that too. When I had friends there for instance. My husband and I had many a laugh as he tried to figure out how to use it. He hated the cold nights.




Where he was always used to a warm house, ours was not. Many a night was sleepless because of bone chilling cold. We slept with coat, gloves and hats on and for me a very cold poodle to snuggle into the down mattress with a hot water bottle that did little to warm us. By morning it was cold and ice was on the window panes and window ledges. I can't say we were healthier for it mostly because everyone caught the childhood diseases that are now vaccinated against. I don't remember too many actual colds though, just the flu when it came each winter from other places. The Swine Flu, Hong Kong flu among others. Many deadly. Scarlet Fever and diphtheria. Not long after the war came the National Health service and what a God send that was. Doctors came to the house as did the District nurse and midwives. The best in the world. America may have been more advanced but the NHS was a pioneer in health care and still is. One by one the answers came to many diseases and conditions that had stumped doctors for years, where there was no cure for some the care for patients at home was unprecedented. As was child care as I was to find out myself.





England may have struggled out of Victorian times but I was unaware of that. I had an ideal childhood in my memory at least. We were so free and could roam without adults at will. Gone all day over fields or in towns with no adult supervision. We didn't need cars, there were buses. We were fit because we walked everywhere. There were fields, woods and hills to explore. I went so many places alone and loved it.
While our house may not have been ideal, looking back there were worse. In our village there were still Victorian homes built with a central courtyard and water tap with outside shared toilets up the back. Many were not flushing ones but the old wooden seats over a hole. No idea who or when those were emptied but have used them myself when playing with friends.


We stayed warm with coal fires and living rooms were full of clothes drying by fires in winter. Floors were scrubbed on hands and knees along with front steps and pathways.



There is nothing so good as toast over an open fire and heavy butter spread and melting on it.
Along with coal fires came smog, dense pea soup fogs. Even so they brought with them funny stories to be told around the fire at night. Places like London had it worse than we did out in the countryside.


Call the midwife reminded me of times when winter was so cold that the pipes would freeze under the roads, so people would have to haul in water. My aunt and uncle would come to our house and bathe and take home buckets of water till Spring came and they could dig up the roads to fix broken pipes. It seemed that every winter would bring strikes, the gas or electricity would go out for weeks sometimes due to strikes but we learned to cook over the fire and make do. Maybe an inconvenience but people helped each other and took things in stride. Neighbours helped each other, were there for each other. The district nurse helped the old folks manage and so did neighbours. People no longer had to go to work houses or institutions. Some say Socialism is a bad thing but to me it meant kindness and help for those who could not help themselves, the sick and poor mainly. The labour unions brought in the 8 hour week after 10 to 12 hours had been normal for even children back in Victorian times.They also brought reform for factory workers who were often mutilated on the jobs they did because of unsafe machines. Life in the 50s and 60s got better but certainly not up to American standards of the time. Still I would not have changed a thing because of what I have learned.


Life before health and safety and weight and measures










Dad would go down the pub and had his own tankard weights and measures stopped all that. He was indignant. When the government became more concerned about a mouthful short on the beer or maybe the bar keeper cheating. Things changed slowly so that the English pub (Public house) gradually changed from being England family room to just a pub like any other "bar" some changes are not good. The social life in villages were built around the pub, England's living room. The hub of village life where kids could be left in the garden to eat a bag of crisps and sip a pop and play with friends until way after dark. Americans can't understand that they just cant make an version of an English pub, its not possible.




So many things I remember after watching Call the Midwife. Women could not open a bank account on their own. Women could not get birth control without husbands permission and it was not available to single women. Abortion was a back street affair and although I am against abortion I remember and so I know it has to be legal.........as with most things progress takes things too far. Some things better but people and morals have changed. Not for the better.
I remember the end of rationing............the end of the Iron Lung when Polio vac's came....... Policemen were our friends.........so many things my husband never experienced. I could go on...........