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I was a child in the 50s and 60s and looking back they seem to me the best years to be a child.
I lived near lots of greenery and it seemed all summer we would build dens, play cowboys and indians etc. Making go karts and swings, first bike, roller skates and scooters. My home life was not too good but our brain seems to concentrate on the good times. There were bad memories of course, the doc coming out to lance my infected chilblains, (no central heating) having an outside loo, never enough money but never hungry, school milk (nice if it had been cold!).
So many more but what are your memories of childhood?
You are from the same era as my parents, and they frequently mention what you just mentioned. 
As a child of the 90s, here's a few of my memories:
- Having to rewind the video tape before watching it again.
- Not being able to use the landline and the internet at the same time.
- The only way to record a programme on TV was to use a VHS tape.
- The TV on a trolly in school that everyone got excited about when it appeared in their classroom.
- Teletext.
RegularComper91 last two a real blast from the past. When I first married it was betamax and then vhs tapes. I remember when the mini skirt came in and my parents would not allow me to wear one, so how many girls rolled up the waistband like I did lol.
RegularComper91 don't forget it video didn't work properly using pencil to tighten it up
RegularComper91 When I was at school I remember a video recorder that was a reel to reel machine and only played black and white. Something like this but this one is colour.
There were cassette based video recorders at the time but the school was still using this old reel to reel machine.
It was absolute rubbish quality with lots of noise bars on the images as we watched and the picture might disappear for a few seconds. However I remember it as I was really interested in technology at the time.
Also remember bulletin boards which came before the internet and had teletext style images. One service was Prestel which I think was by BT although not sure. This was about the mid-80s.
I remember my first games console with separate cartridges which was an Atari VCS although before that had preprogrammed games consoles like a Binatone pong type console.
My very first new bike was a Raleigh Arena I remember receiving that as it was such a huge present at the time that my mother paid for in instalments she recently told me.
We went out to play all day at the weekend with a bicycle basket containing sandwiches (I can't remember what I drank, perhaps water from a tupperware container?). We would cycle to the nearest villages about 3 miles away in any given direction so we were very fit! No-one worried where we were and we always got back home at teatime. So, far more freedom than these days.
We had a record player on which to play our 45s.
Looking forward to Crackerjack on the tv (It Friday, it's 5 to 5 and it's CRACKERJACK!)
Listening to radio Luxembourg on my little transistor radio.
Making dens in the bedroom out of blankets between the single beds.
Making dens in the park out of the grass when it had been cut.
Feeling safe in the neighbourhood.
tumblespots I had a little portable record player! On the ship home from Australia I was very popular because of it with the other teens, which was nice as I was never a popular child, just ordinary and thankfully not bullied.
Crackerjack! I went to the studio with my class and had to keep yelling 'crackerjack'.
Lynibis It must be you I heard then, i hope you enjoyed the experience.
I once worked with a chap who had been picked up by his ears (as they were then!) on Tiswas.
tumblespots it's funny how once you start reminiscing the memories come flooding back. I don't remember much of that day but remember Leslie Crowther urging us on.
Lynibis I was thinking about this thread when peeling the potatoes and remembered that years ago it took longer as you used to have to dig out all the bad bits - potatoes are perfect these days so we are probably all eating a lot of GM foods?!
I remember my granddad having a B&W TV, no fridge but a larder Instead. He would put the milk down on the cold floor. He had a coal fire too. Not sure of the name of It but It was big and black with an oven to the left of It where you heat food up from the heat of the fire. My childhood days were great. 4 TV channels, proper food, homemade. Summers were summers then and the seasons were seasons. Not like they are today. School holidays, we was always out building tree houses. Making go carts out of wood and whatever wheels we could find to make It go. Owning a three wheel trike too (Kiddies Trike). No Internet, It was lovely. Leave your doors open, the list Is endless. Best years of my life. This was the early 70`s. Oh how things have changed. For the worse I think too.
I was born in 1970 and my core memories we seemed to have proper seasons.
Summer of ‘77 was boiling we would run around and then flop under a shaded shrub or tree. Also recall good thunder storms too.
Record player and to repeat the song once it dropped you’d pull the lever back and it would play again and again.
Taping songs from the radio and trying to stop before the spoke.
My first Walkman was red and very big this was early ‘80s.
Out on bikes, playing hide and seek. Returning when we got hungry and before it got dark.
Cars didn’t have seatbelts and babies had no car seats, they would be in a pram which wasn’t strapped down.
I can tick all the boxes you have mentioned, we had proper childhoods not like today
martinlufc5637 and all the better for it. Those kids of yesteryear grew up, in the main, without all the mental health issues and identity crises so many kids seem to have today. Maybe I am looking through rose tinted glasses but with hindsight it seemed a bit like an Enid Blyton book.
Lynibis it's social media that is to blame, it's teaching them to be grown up instead of enjoying being a child, I'm glad I had the childhood that I had, it's wasn't perfect for me, I wouldn't have changed most of it
martinlufc5637 ....My partner & I are lucky that our 25 year old daughter has NEVER been interested in Social Media only WhatsApp for keeping in touch with her family, friends & fellow Radiography Students..
Daughter was far more interested in learning about the world & now gets to travel it once her degree is finished in a few weeks..
Lynibis. I would rather have an Enid Blyton outlook than today's, sooo many people suffering from Mental Health problems, life seemed simpler in the old days, we didn't have a lot but we were happy..
We were only talking about our childhood on Saturday at my sister & brother in law's joint surprise 60th party their daughter & son in law did them, we had some lovely times with our life long friends...
We stayed out playing in the streets til the street lights came on.
We played games together on the green on our council estate, no fancy equipment needed.
My 5 siblings & I walked to Mass & back ,Dad gave us the choice of catching the bus or walking the 2.5 miles,, by walking we saved the 4p bus fare & were allowed to spend it on sweets.
janphoenix51 we no longer allow social media for our children, tiktok is banned, WhatsApp and messenger are allowed and that's it
martinlufc5637 well done you, I wish other parents had the courage to parent instead of letting their kids rule the roost. Many seem unable to impose discipline and seem frightened of their kids.
I have the worse memory going. Luckily my husband was around when we were kids and he remembers loads. We did have a fantastic back garden, really long and I would play outside for hours.
eyeballkerry we didn't have a big garden but we did have lots of greenery, fields and woods when we lived in Suffolk. The best place I lived as a kid.
On the goodside, were my friends and anything away from my home. The bad side were alcoholic parents, fighting, arguments, childrens home, abuse, and surviving. Having said that I only retell the negative ones in detail when I feel it might be of use to someone to help them feel it was not only them that went through a bad situation.
EmmaWright762 sadly, abuse, alcoholism, addiction etc have been with us in every generation that ever lived, and will probably continue well into the future.
I think we all think the oast was better. I do worry about kids. Some have a fantastic childhood. Some don't. Some are dumped in front of a screen. There's always been kids that have been abused not abuse is physical Some is emotional or neglect. As kids we may not have noticed it ir understood it. Looking back there were kids I was at school with that were neglected and it was obvious. I think we are more aware of things that go in homes that weren't spoken about previously. There's always been bad parenting and great parenting
I grew up with a coal fire as my dad was a coal miner we had a outside toilet and no central heating until the early 80s and me and my friends used to be outside on the fells were we used to pick wild bill berries, and spend all day building camps, I also used to go potato picking on the local farm definitely the best years of my life
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