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Birmingham in 1950s

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Interesting thread and some truly meaningful answers. My Mother went back to work in the early 1950's after being at home for 12 years. It was difficult in her line of work for married women to find jobs. Mom worked from 10 until 2 at the Sun Cycles in Newtown and eventually became full time. She managed a house, three children, laundry old style, boilers, mangle, tubs, rope lines that broke, frozen clothes, clothes horses and props that gave you splinters in your hands, full meals and keeping the fire going. She shopped most days in New Town and carried home food for the evening meal which she cooked within half an hour of coming home. Loved it when she bought home faggots and peas from the shop in Potter's Hill...Yum. Sometimes she didn't take her coat off before starting to cook. My father worked shifts and Mom had to make enough food to keep warm for him. People often forget that these families had literally been through hell for years suffering the disasterous effects of WW2, losing husbands and main breadwinners and not much of a social network I often think about this when I see people taking their children to fast food places so that they don't have to cook or complain they have no time. There were no fitted kitchens and small electrical kitchen appliances back then. I certainly don't consider the l950's a lost decade. Sweets came off ration in 1954, Co-op opened their first Supermarket style shop on Stockland Green with wire baskets and cashiers. Petrol came off rationing. A lot of people bought their first TV set. I started to think about other things that happened in the l950's but here is a better link we can relate to: https://www.fashion-era.com/1950s/1950s_9_timeline_chart.htm#1950
 
The 50's for me are not forgotten. I look back to a time when I was young and fit, had fun, first hols without parents. I left school and walked straight into a job and apprenticeship. I did 2 years National Service, but even that was mostly good, the comradeship etc as we coped with service life. At the end of the 50's the PM said 'We had never had it so good'!
 
The 50s were the first decade of my adult life and I think it was a wonderful decade, I left school, got my first job at Atkinsons Brewery, met my ex husband there, married in 1957 and had my son in 1959. During this period it was a happy peaceful place on the whole, as JennyAnn wrote rationing finished, people were able to improve their homes with "modern" grates, hardboard panelling on interior doors, got their first TV and many people got their first cars often secondhand, we could walk around in safety even very late at night. Certainly memorable for me.

With regard to women not working, my mother worked all her life, when my older siblings were young it was part time menial jobs, but it helped the family, my father was extremely ill in 1927 and not expected to live, and with 3 young children under four years old, it was a necessity to keep the wolf from the door, later when I was only a toddler the war broke out and she worked full time at Hercules on war work, then later in the 50s at Charles Harris where Astonian's dad worked, she stayed there until she retired at 60. She always cooked a proper dinner for the six of us during the war, and later it was easier as from 1949 I was the only one left at home. I can tell you the women in my family always held strong opinions, and politics were often discussed, a tradition I still maintain. My father always worked and was a great family man and he used to do his share to help mom, he always made the beds and washed up as he worked nights, a fortnight about, and always scrubbed the kitchen, outside toilet and kept the fire going always leaving a full bucket of coal and chopped wood on the cellar head so we didn't have to go down the cellar unless we had to put money in the meter when he was at work.
 
I am so glad of your responses,because i certainly remember the latter half of the 50s (because of my age) being a very busy time women working, sometimes doing evening shifts in factory's when their husbands got home,and as was mentioned shopping daily no fridges or freezers then,no washing machines,and all the women i knew certainly had plenty of opinions,, surely it was a time of rebuilding after the war,Rock and Roll, Teddy boys, national service , lots going on, and yet it was refereed to as the forgotten decade.
 
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the 50s was a great decade for me too, returned from Africa in Aug 51 whilst in RAF met my future Wife in Dec 51 whist on leave at a Xmas dance (Masque Ballroom) married by special licence 12 months later Dec 52 as I Had just been posted to Far East, left for Hong Kong Jan 53 my Wife joined me in Hong Kong in April 53, we moved to Singapore in Aug 54, daughter Jayne born born, back to UK late 55, demobbed June 56 and joined PO Telephones, now BT, yes the 50s was a great era for me. Eric
 
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Like a lot of members on the Forum I've been lucky enough to have been born in the 30s and seen the 40,50,60,70,80, 90 & the first 10 years almost of the 00s and a lot of memories which I'm grateful for and not had many bad memories, sadly my younger Sister didn't make it.
 
I was born in 1950, my mother did not work when we were young, I have two sisters, but she did part time when we got into our teens but that was much later in the 60s However I do remember quite a few of my pals mothers did work ,certianly in the mid/late 50s, in fact come to think about it they well may have been in the majority.
 
My first memory of the 50s was seeing all the flags and bunting all down watery lane where i was born Coronation day i was four years old. I remember having a party in our yard. To me it was a great time, although a lot of people did not have a lot, our neighbours always helped each other. My mother always went to work she worked till she was seventy, After my father died in 1956 things were a bit harder,but we managed as most families did. I cant see how the 50s can be forgotten. I remember the council taking all our gas lights out and putting in electric, it was like magic, me and my brothers running round the house turning all the lights on and off as soon as the electrician had shut the door, and a few years later getting a telly, bloomin magic. I for one will never foget. All the best formula t.
 
Quite true Liz, my mom went out Part time did clippying from Harborne bus station, did cleaning in a house near the Green Man Harborne, and worked Saturdays in Woolworths Harborne, right through the 50's.
paul
 
I wasn't born untill the late 50's so I don't really remember it but I still have a great love for the era. One of my hobbies is collecting 50's records , and i also love the aesthetics of 50's cars and aircraft. Lets face it, they had style back then, but what we have to look at it the legacy the 1950's has left us.

Popular music or more specifically Rock & Roll started with Bill Haley and that has developed in 50 odd years into so many different forms it's hard to keep track. There was also the invention (and it was an invention) of the "Teenager" we did have such a thing before then, they were just older children or young adults. The only downside was that they brought with them the "Juvenile Delinquent"
We also had the birth of the commercial Jet Aircraft which opened the world up to everyone for business and pleasure. Now one of the biggest enterprises on the planet. Oh yes, there was also the launch of the first satelite which not only started the space race, it's development gave us satelite TV amongst many other scientific inventions used by us all every day.

And finally the worlds most populer spectator sport, "The F1" motor racing started in the 50's.

I could go on all day but I shall stop now by answering your question. Of course the 1950's are forgotten. But only by the media. They all seem to think the world started with the "Beatles" in the 60's
but lets face it, most of them are too stupid or ignorant to realise that the "Beatles" were formed in the 50's.

As Chuck Berry said "HAIL HAIL ROCK 'n' ROLL"

Chocks:)
 
1950: first episode of The Archers goes on air.
1951:film, African Queen.
1952:George V1 dies.
1953:Elizabeth II is crowned.
1954:Roger Bannister runs the 3 min mile
1955:American blue jeans craze sweeps Britain.
1956:Blue suede shoes Elvis.
1957:Ernie picks out first £1000 premium bond winners.
1958:Manchester Uniteds plane crashes at Munich Airport.
1959:Duty free drinks become available at British Airports.
JUST A FEW OTHER HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 50S IN THE FIRST 10 YRS OF MY LIFE.
 
I certainly will never forget the Fifties, since I was born in 1949, so it is the first decade of my (remembered) life, albeit seen through the prism of childhood.

Here is the publisher's "blurb" from Peter Lewis's The Fifties (London: Heinemann, 1978):
It seems unbelievable that as recently as the Fifties few people were familiar with such words as "teenager", "automation", "computer" or "transistor". Although the fifties are near enough to be remembered by more than half the population today, that decade now seems strangely remote.

Life at the outset of the Fifties was real and earnest, with Nuclear War an ever-present dread. With food rationing even more severe than it had been in 1945, an appalling shortage of houses, coal, even tobacco, and that austere vegetarian Sir Stafford Cripps exhorting the country to still greater sacrifices, life was bleaker than in wartime.

Then came the Festival of Britain, promising "fun, fantasy and colour". And suddenly things began to move. "Angry Young Men" like John Osborne and John Braine attacked "the Establishment". What Peter Lewis calls a "Youthquake" occurred, to the raucous beat of Bill Haley and Rock 'n' roll; Teddy Boys began to strut through the streets, whilst Lady Docker drove by in her gold-plated Daimler; the Affluent Society arrived via the United States; and at the end of the decade Harold Macmillan was saying "You've never had it so good".

The Fifties were a major watershed in modern history, which changed the facts of life for all to see — an era of fear and iconoclasm, novelty and confusion, Suez and sputniks, Pop Art and James Bond, Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot, new ideas, new dilemmas, new faces, new sounds.​
Pictured below: [1] the Docker Daimler; [2] Diana Dors; [3] Eisenhower and Khrushchev; [4] a Teddy Boy; [5] The Goons.
 
I grew up in the 50s and 60s

I think at the time we would have been called 'latch key kids' couldnt see why, no latch on our door, hardly ever locked in those days anyway.

Our mom worked, mainly part time jobs, so from around 8 or 9, I used to come home and get my own dinner, probably get home from school at about half 3 and have the house to myself for an hour or so as well.

Didnt do me any harm, helped make me independant and more self sufficient than some of my mates were anyway.

Having said that, I wouldnt have wanted my own kids to do it, but what we were used to at the time didnt bother us did it ? I's sure mom would rather have been at home if she could, not work all day and then do the housework at night. But I never went cold or hungry and had decent clothes on my back.
 
During the war years women had become the breadwinner, the head of the household and the dission maker. younger girls of that era grew up thinking that was the norm. They were not the little lady at home any more.( rightly so) The fifties was one of the most important decades of the 20th century for shaping our future. The image of the 50s that Eliabeth seen was a figment of the BBC's imagination.
 
No one who lived through the fifties could forget it, it was great because as children we all went to school and accepted that we should do so. All our food was fresh and home cooked, almost every adult went to work, muggings, gun and knife crime was unheard of. Black and white television was always interesting or funny as it was meant to be. Almost all the radio programmes were worth a listen. Everyone knew their neighbours and helped each other in times of need. Everybody was well mannered and polite and almost every shop-keeper knew all the customers by first names. I will never forget the fifties because I enjoyed them.
I have said all this before but many members disagreed with me.
 
And lets not forget that old walrus, McMillan telling us that "we had never had it so good" from many aspects he may well have been right!
 
What a great thread. It has brought back many memories.

How about a few quirky items :-

1950 : First live TV broadcast by the BBC from overseas

1951 : Govt report concluded that Mrs Average Housewife worked a 15 hour day, went shopping on Fridays and spent between 10s and 2 pounds

1952 : Agatha Christie's play "The Mousetrap" opens

1953 : The new Ford Popular was 390 pounds

1954 : All rationing finally ended

1955 : Joe Davies makes the first televised maximum break

1955 : Skin tight denim jeans become all the rage

1956 : Traffic Wardens make their first appearence

1958 : Trial of parking meters in London

1958 : Stereo sound launched

1959 : Duty free allowed

All this passed me by, I was too busy being a liitle boy.........
 
Just seen this thread and being a 30s born like Alf and others, I seem to think that the fifties decade were years when we started to realise that the notion of Empire were no longer valid. Had not been since the first world war really; but as children we were still taught about 'sun never setting' and Britania ruling the waves vis. 'The Proms' today. It had to happen...you can't fight forever and independencies had started even before the fifties and the Commonwealth had replaced the Empire as a notion and then favoured trading practices started to change perhaps. Suez was the full stop. It all was the natural run of things I think but the fifties years were when reality might have struck home, for adults then anyway. As youngsters, we did not think much about it all but I seem to think that the H bomb and the USSR was a dark cloud hanging over it all. The kitchens that one saw in movies were bigger than our whole house...still we won the war. Dare I say it...I could not have cared less about Rock and Roll and was not interested in The Beatles...but looking back now I find these phenomina more interesting. Still prefer Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Shirley Bassey though.
 
I was born in 1942 and I had a great 50s went to Grammar school,got a great job,had great parents.
Don't forget the other side of the 50s,thousands of women working hard to bring up families alone because their husbands had not returned in 1945.
 
everything that stricher said was true about the fifty's, there was an air of optimisum and things were going to be better, and that for the first time in working class history in Brum you could get ahead, the sun is always shinning in the 50's summers in my memory and the winters were always snow white and cold , but this may be just my memory, one thing stricher says everyone was friendly and helpful, where did we go wrong?????????
paul
 
Robert said:
During the war years women had become the breadwinner, the head of the household and the dission maker. younger girls of that era grew up thinking that was the norm. They were not the little lady at home any more.( rightly so) The fifties was one of the most important decades of the 20th century for shaping our future. The image of the 50s that Eliabeth seen was a figment of the BBC's imagination.
Click to expand...

More just what TV producers and other BBC middle class types remember from their own experience. Wasnt till the late 60s that working class people were even recognised was it ? Who else grew up reading about William, or the Famous 5 and watching TV programs where everybodys dad worked in an office, they all ate 'lunch' and spoke their H's etc ? Didnt seem real even at the time did it ?
 
There is an element of Rose Tinted Specs in all this. My geography schoolbooks in the 50's showed workers slaving away picking tea in India and sugar cane in the West Indies, saying " Here are these happy people providing for your breakfast" . It never said we had to pay for it, the Empire was still with us. Most of the world map was still pink. Remember it was still The Empire Games and we still celebrated Empire Day at my school.
I don't think that "The Bomb" hung over us kids until the 60's as we grew into our teens and CND started to grab the headlines. You are dead right Paul Stacey, the sun always shined in the school holidays and it never rained in Weston or Torquay during the Birmingham fortnight.
 
Women certainly did work and worked hard in the fifties. Opinion's were something they had plenty of too. In my opnion they worked harder then than women do today. All housework and washing was a lot harder than it is these day's and they did this as well as going out to work. I believe they were fitter and slimmer than we see today. Like JohnO, I rather liked the fifties too, as he said it was a time before the word went mad.
 
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Without stating the obvious, memory is subjective,those of us who had a rough time in the 50s will vividly recall that side of it, unfortunately we lived in a deeply divided, class-driven society, that still exists in isolated pockets today. How many kids nowadays or for that matter, adults, would pay the level of deference to the royals that was expected in the 40s and 50s? When the national anthem was played you daren't move until it finished.
 
It's strange how threads like this revive old memories buried for years. I did post earlier, but can now picture a lovely sunny day maybe 1954 with three of us going to Southampton in an open top Triumph Roadster which had 3 front seats and two 'dickey' seats in the boot. We drove across Salisbury Plains listening to Guy Mitchell singing 'with a whoop and a holler and a dime and a dollar' ... no cares, no worries ...
:)
 
Hello oldMowhawk, thats exactly how I remember the era. As a child it was great, we used to make our own bow and arrows, Kites and trolley carts. We went fishing for tiddlers or swam in the canal. once a year we went to the Fair at Hay Mills or a circus but I cant remember where that was. We went to the Xmas party at Lucas's where mom worked part time evenings, and we laughed more often than we cried. We never had tantrums and were happy and grateful at Christmas time. As I said before I will never forget the fifties.
 
Ahhh...............the 50's

In 1955 I left school to start my training in Bearwood to be a GPO telephonist. I enjoyed going to dances in Erdington. I was able to buy my first record, my first coat and my first bike(I had saved my pocket money & paper round money for a couple of years)

Putting money in the bank and having your bank book stamped and seeing exactly HOW much you had there.

Chatting on the bus going to and from work to complete strangers and not fearing them at all.

Those lovely skirts over layers of sugar stiffened underskirts worn with jumpers as tight as tight can be (like Jane Russell :rolleyes: ) and stillettos.

Being able to walk down Sutton Parade in the dark without fear.

Men who were "Gentlemen" raising their hats to the women as they passed by.

People smiled more dispite having to work so very hard.

I married in 1958 and had my first born son in 1959.

Yes, I look back to the 50s and remember a gentle time when most people didn't have very much so there was no envy and neighbours helped each other because that was the way they lived.

I sometimes think that we had the best times...................material things didn't matter but living did.

Rose coloured glasses???..................... maybe but I like having them on :)
 
Every era has its upside and its downside and it is good that we recall both. To me , born in 1950, the decade was was only marred by having to go to school. The sun always shone in the summer and snow fell in winter, or so it seemed. Only later did I learn of overt racialism, poor living conditions, colonial wars , inequalities on many walks of life. But Great Britain was not the only country to suffer these ills. This country was still a great producer and innovator. It still had colonies to protect and war debts to pay. There was a large standing army in Germany and the Royal Navy prominent on the Seas.It all took a lot of money to keep up.
The 1950s were vibrant despite the constraints of the time . Any one who says they are a forgotten decade really should visit a library and read a few history books
 
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