Tin baths, Park Drive Tips and Dog Poo

I'm currently waiting for my hubby to arrive back from a business trip to Sri Lanka.  He's been away for 3 days but it feels longer (I've missed him loads).  It's strange, when I go away on business, obviously I miss him but I'm busy with work and time seems to fly by.  But, I hate it when he's not here, the house just isn't the same and I seem to wonder around it aimlessly.  Anyway, he's on the way back and should be here early hours of the morning.

Before my hubby went away we were watching a BBC period drama called, Call the Midwife.  It's set in the poverty stricken East end of London in the 1950s  and is based on the memories of a midwife called Jennifer Worth.  It hosts a number of well known British actors (young and old) in it including, Pam Ferris (Darling Buds of May), Jenny Agutter (The Railway Children), Jessica Raine and Miranda Hart (her of the comedy fame).  Apparently its the most successful new BBC drama since 2001.

Anyway, we loved the storyline but we more importantly loved the step back in time to the 1950s (not that either of us were born in the 50s, lol).  But just loads of things reminded us of our childhood.  But it's amazing how the West has developed over the past 50 or 60 years or so and here are just 10 things that caught our eye whilst watching the programme which took us back down memory lane.  Do you remember them?

1. Remember the age before the IPhone and Blackberry, when we had to leave our homes and walk to the 'bottom of our street' to a make a call in a 'Red Telephone Box
2. Bicycles that had rounded handlebars and half shaded lamps (I had one of those)
3. Flannelette bedsheets with candy stripes and eiderdowns (containing 'duck feathers') which have been replaced with satin sheets and duvets
4. Terry towelling nappies with those massive safety pins - Give me Pampers any day!  Just think of all time saved on washing and drying.
5. For the smokers amongst you, remember 'Park Drive Tips?' (for some reason they always remind me of my late auntie Pat), not sure if she smoked them but seem to think she did.
6. Lino flooring - OMG the thought of it just makes me cringe.  Nowadays its all parquet or laminate  (or in our case tiles or marble lol).
7. Latchkey kids - Good god, its not safe to let our kids out of our sight anymore
8. Tin baths, ours was kept on the wall outside in the 'yard'.  My mum would put it in front of the real fire and it would take ages to fill up before we could get in it (needless to say all the kids had to share the same bath).  Thank god for central heating!
9. The big old 'Silvercross' prams, they were actually fabulous!
10. And last but no means least 'dog poo!'  Yes, I know, not very nice, but OMG, how often when you were a kid, did you step in dog poo?  Honestly, when I think back, I think I spent half my childhood, trying to scrap dog poo off the bottom of my shoes with one instrument or another (and it never helped having shoes that had a lot of tread in them). Sorry, but it's true!
     

So there you go a little step back in time to hopefully make you smile.  And if you're reading this and you don't have a clue about these things, think yourself lucky, you're still YOUNG!