Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Was it really better ?

Yep, how is it we all remember that chips were 6d a portion? Because the price stayed the same for donkey's years. Everything stayed the same price, that's why we can quote prices and our parents could manage the housekeeping so well. No wonder the youngsters are suffering from depression these days, they just can't get out of that hole. God love them.

Just had a thought..... Elizabeth is keeping very quiet! Conspicuous by her absence but probably keeping her eye on this thread.
Are you out there Elizabeth.... or are you writing a book or a film?
If so, it's hoped you put all our names in the credit section for contributions. Only joking. How are you ?

talking about pop bottles..

i cleared a shed out for a freind last week and there was a box of old pop bottles with lids showing returns of 2p and 10p, came to the value of £1.24 pence worth. Quite a bit then , wouldnt have minded finding them when i was a kid !

"Cresta" and "Barr" were the makers

Perhaps Elizabeth in her quest to find out if it really was better, ripped up her wall to wall carpeting , ripped out her double glazing and central heating, took to doing her daily ablutions outside in a draughty brick building and has now taken to her sick bed suffering from Polio, small pox and TB, not to worry, she can save up and get the doctor to call.

things like that promoted recycling, not sure if they do stuff like that anymore as all seems to be plastic bottles now!

We used to be able to get a four of chips i.e. 4d. 6d was a much bigger bag and you only got them if flush. As I remember it, 4d was plenty.

Biscuit tins with glass lids so you could see the biscuits inside. Butter being patted in the Maypole. Bacon sliced to order. Cheese coming in massive (can't think what to call them) chunks and cut to size with a cheese wire. Sugar weighed in little blue bags. Fascinating stuff but as Bert says, wouldn't want to go back. I remember polio, TB etc but thankfully steered clear of them.

The overhead wire cash system in the co-op. Money paid goes into a metal pot, onto the carrier and hurtled down the wire to a central cash desk. Came wizzing back with your change and divi ticket.

A couple of stores in Grange Road has the pneumatic tube system. Fascinating as a kid.

Quite forgotten about those thick blue paper bags for the sugar Helles. Thanks.

Lovely! It was all fresh food I think. The bacon wasn't full of water either.

I can also remember those overhead wire cash systems Pinzgauer. They had them in Woolworth's. A real fascination watching the woman in the cash desk high up dealing with it.

I suppose we all remember the 'Bobbies' on the beat. The bike would be leant up against a neighbours hedge whilst he went off on his rounds.No doubt back for a cuppa and homemade cake later. He didn't always go to the same house tho' so maybe different treats in different places!
All of a sudden it seemed that didn't happen anymore and we'd see 'Bobbies' on Vester scooters. I don't know if that was progress, or for the more serious stuff! It all semmed relatively quiet where we lived, it probably was in most places then.

Talking about fish and chips meal being so cheap. I was taken for lunch the other day and I had two pieces of grilled Snapper about the size of the palm of your hand, two pieces of Brocolini(skinny brocoli)three mushroom heads and some olives cut in half. That cost $AUD42.70 which is about GBP27.70. Any sides salad, chips etc were an extra $10.50 about GBP6.83. Glad I wasn't paying. Bring back the good old days

Good grief! I just came back to this thread and saw how many replies there are....I had no idea the question "was it really better" would stir up sooo many memories for folk I wasn't planning on writing a book, but what a good idea Granny, there's certainly enough material to go on here!

hahahaha bert1, no I haven't ripped up the carpet nor central heating in my quest to see if it was better because I remember how it was without them! From what I can gather from the replies I may not be not as 'mature'( I'm trying to be polite here:)) as some folk who responded.
I was born in 1962 at home in Hawthorne Rd Hr Tranmere the last house on the left if you're coming down from Greenway Rd. Our kitchen had a pulley which always had some washing drying on it. There was a coke burning stove in the kitchen which would make the water so hot you could hear it bubbling and gurgling in the pipes, and as someone mentioned before, would make the water browny orange it was so hot, we never seemed to run out of hot water though. Our bedrooms were so cold we'd be able to see our breath.
We had Watch with Mother ( Andy Pandy, the woodentops, camberwick green, trumpton and later on Mary Mungo & Midge etc etc ) all of which were so entertaining and not a politically correct or educational subliminal message amongst them, yet we all knew what was right and wrong because our parents told us and more importantly we did as we were told.
We didn't know about sex as children other than maybe reading some article in your mother's "SHE" magazine which was very tame...in fact I was so naive ( at around age 8) about the whole sex thing that I once wore a pair of my dad's pyjama pants and was terrified I'd become pregnant because all I knew was a mans bottom and a lady's bottom had to touch and that could make a baby Unlike today's kids who can reel off a whole list of such explicit vulgarity it makes your hair curl.
We only had pop at birthday parties which would be bright green cream Soda and fizzy corona orange.
We'd buy fish and chips from Baileys on Borough rd which was the best around, you'd never get many as they were quite stingey with the portions but it was ample.
We'd get a bath once a week on Sunday evening while listening to the Top 20 on the radio and wash our hair with Durbac soap that helped prevent either nits, dandruff or both. There were no hairdryers and we'd sit in front of the fire to help it dry. You'd end up so close that you'd get corned beef legs too!
Walking to school was the norm no matter the weather and when it snowed, the old radiators in the corridors would have ton of steaming socks drying on them, schools didn't close for an inch of snow.

I honestly don't know if it was better back then, it just seemed so, but no, I don't think I'd like to revert back to no central heating, freezing bedrooms or outside toilets.

It's been wonderful reading all the posts on the thread and I'm glad I started it as it seems everyone who's commented has had a laugh reminiscing about yesteryear

Bottom touching bottom? So that's where I have been going wrong. You're only a sprog Elizabeth. I was out earning money when you were born albeit as child slave labour. Well it felt like that at times. Mother needed the cash though, just like lots of mothers in those dark and dismal (sometimes happy) days.

Oo Elizabeth, youve just given me a flash back of school radiators!-They seemed HUGE to me an were always on full throttle! Red hot used to burn your hand on it -but still do it again!! there was no covering round them to stop you touchin them like now..we used to pray that the boiler would break down so as we would be sent home but it hardly ever did!
which school did you go to?

Bottom touching Bottom, hehe, the things you're told as a kid, one thing that has stuck in my mind as if I heard it yesterday was I cut the fat off a chop and left it, probably the first chop I ever had, my mother said "Your father didn't fight a war for you to leave the fat" WTF, I grew up thinking D-Day, the bombing of Dresden and two Atom bombs was done so I could eat the fat.

No wonder I'm deranged.

Woodchurch Rd Primary from 1967-1971 ish then Devonshire Park until 1974. Secondary school was Prenton High School for girls. Did you go to any of them?