children of the 1950's

Let me tell you about ‘little’ me first. I was a very shy and insecure child, not exactly a wimp but not very confident, often scared of retribution from adults and authority figures - more of a follower than a leader. That resulted in a lifelong, internal rebellion against those authoritarian types who are basically just control freaks and bullies. You have to realise that we were a different species then. Not only were children supposed to be ‘seen and not heard’ but also adults would probably have preferred us to be ‘not seen or heard’. We could have been forgiven for thinking we were some type of inferior race that adults just had to tolerate. We were scolded for the slightest thing, often not even genuine demeanours.

For example, my grandparents had an upright piano in their front room. This was the room that was never used but kept ‘for best’. Apparently grandma could knock out the odd hymn or two but we never ever heard her play it. It was simply a piece of furniture she polished and presumably some sort of working classes status symbol. My sister and I often spent an afternoon there while our parents were working or busy.

There were few toys to entertain us so inevitably we would explore the house and eventually find, to me, the most exciting and interesting thing in it - the piano. We would carefully lift the lid and press a key or two. Wow, the lovely resonance of the strings was so enchanting even though I couldn’t play a tune. The bass notes in particular sounded so good. There were the two pedals, which I thought were for driving it, as if it was a car. They were a complete mystery but nevertheless worth a few presses. Within minutes grandma would come storming in and chastise us, swiftly shutting the lid and banning us for life from touching the thing. End of fun and musical exploration for us!

Ordinary children of the 50s had few treats. They were mainly the reserve of Christmas, Easter and birthdays. Toys were relatively simple and we made our own fun and games from everyday things and imagination. We lived and believed our games. Boys played at ‘cops and robbers’, ‘cowboys and Indians’ and mimicked our comic heroes such as Dan Dare and Davey Crocket (king of the wild frontier). WW2 was not far behind us, so playing war games was popular. The enemy ‘Japs’ and ‘Nazi’ soldiers, so often featured in our politically incorrect comic-books, seemed like real threats to a young lad with a good imagination. They were no doubt still lurking in the bushes at the back of the laundry. Girls played soft sissy games like ‘mummies and daddies’, pretending to feed and dress babies and wash clothes. We were basically mimicking adults but with an innocent childish twist. That innocence seems to disappear much quicker in children of today, yet their parents also tend to over-protect them. I’m sure our parents did care but they didn’t worry about us coming to any real harm. We had lots of freedom to roam the neighbourhood and as long as we arrived back in time for ‘tea’ or bath time, then all was well. Life was a big adventure and we explored it every day. TV wasn’t available 24/7 and we didn’t even own one until I was 10 years old.