Spot of nostalgia

I feel I’ve turned the corner. Quite why is as much a mystery as why I started to sink. The day is every bit as grey. Saturday was only brightened by the flashes of lightning as the thunder rumbled overhead. It’s still wet now. I’m still stuck in “Wolf Hall” though the end is in sight. I’ve had a change of jigsaw but I can’t believe that’s made much difference. I’ve not slept particularly well. Indeed I have to resort to more painkillers than usual over the weekend.

Whatever the reason I’m grateful. I’m learning to accept that these grey/black days will pass & to hold on to the knowledge of the love of the Fox & of good friends with their cyberhugs.

The jigsaw I’ve just completed is entitled “1950s Advertising Jigsaw. It brought back memories. I remember well “Spangles” but I can’t remember peppermint ones. Equally I was reminded of the golden cellophane that used to wrap “Lucozade”. And in my family it was regarded as a drink to be given to you medicinally to help you recover from illness. I also remember that mystery tin “Andrews liver salt” that stayed high up on the shelf for my gran’s exclusive use. (My mother’s mother lived with us in the mid-50s.)

The world portrayed in the ads is idealised, rather americanised, designed to confirm the words of the then Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan - “most of our people have never had it so good.” Everything looks so bright & fresh. However, England at that time was still just coming out of rationing, with many things in short supply. My memory is of a world all painted in cream & brown – I sometimes think they must have been the only colours available then. The Fox has similar memories. The “Scott’s Oats” ad shows schoolchildren merrily playing. I remember the smogs in winter – the real pea-soupers in which you were hard pushed to see your hand in front of your face.

In one ad for tea a young girl is on a bicycle, a sit-up-and-beg design, of course. It seems strange to see the old fashioned handlebars these days.

I am surprised by the ad for “Marmite”. In this ad, marmite is sown as a drink for all ages. I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone to drink marmite. I’ve had, & hated, marmite spread on toast or as a flavouring in something, but never as a drink.

The fashions too are quite striking. A lady sits sipping her Ovaltine. Her dress has a very fitted bodice & a very full skirt, very 50s. As for the glasses worn by the lady in the Daz ad, they are so sharp & pointed I feel they belong to someone out of a Hitchcock movie. Little boys wear serge shorts to school. (My brother was allowed special permission to wear long trousers to school due to the need for him to keep warm due to his congenital heart problem. He hated it as it meant he stood out from the others & so got picked on.)  Men wore braces. Their trousers always came with buttons at the waistline to attach the braces to. The gender stereotypes are all there. The nice little woman at home in her pinny making tea for the hard working husband, the male doctor, the male delivery man & chef, not to be mistaken from the lesser female home cook.

The Fox pointed out that all the images were still drawn. Colour photography was still rare & very expensive in those days, too expensive for mere advertising. A lot of graphic artists must have lost jobs as photography later took over.

I also can’t help feeling nostalgic for some of the prices – Munchmallows 2½d, Scott’s Oats 1/9½d, Spangles 3d & only one point (presumably on the ration book). Those were pre-decimalisation days. Weights were still imperial so the box of Scott’s Oats is a 2lb size. Although I long ago adjusted to the change of currency I am struck by how little you seem to get for it today. As for weights, I still prefer imperial ones. Grams & kilos have little meaning for me. And we still live in a world where both forms are used with the result there is little inclination to move over to the new, for Britain, ones.

No, much as the jigsaw encourages a certain nostalgia, I have no desire to go back to then. The 50s were the time of my childhood. I recognise just how idealistic the world portrayed in these ads is. England was very much coming out of the Second World War. As children we had much more freedom than children today, as we were let loose to explore the rubble of buildings bombed years before but still not cleared up. Materially things were nowhere near as good. The range of foods available was much smaller. We were posh enough to have an inside loo & a plumbed in bath; most people still had to venture out in the middle of the night to go to the loo, and a bath was in a tin bath in front of the coal fire, filled with buckets of hot water. Oh, and the cold.  Houses had no central heating & only single glazing. Bedrooms decorated by Jack Frost in the night. Hot water bottles the only thing to help you get warm as you got into icy beds, having changed in unheated bedrooms. Mind you, with the way things are going in austerity Britain I’m not sure if we’re not going back to those days as people can’t afford to feed themselves, let alone warm their homes. Oh dear.

Maybe that’s what’s been getting me down – the news of late. Last week we heard of people returning food to food banks as they couldn’t afford to pay for the fuel to cook it. And then, as the week progressed, the utility providers announced swinging increases in prices for gas & electricity, far higher than inflation. And our government tells us things are getting better! I can’t help thinking that only applies for the super-rich & those who live in the south of the country. It certainly doesn’t apply to the majority of people in this country. Fortunately we don’t need to worry too much about ourselves, but my heart goes out to those who do need to. We spent far too many years in that situation to not understand the problems & distress it can cause.