The Forties

Sat in the pub last night discussing the usual stuff,crime ,politics,football etc and came to the conclusion that being born in the mid forties was not a bad time at all.
Being a teenager in the sixties seeing England win the world cup,listening to the best music of all time,crime was nothing compared to today(murder actually made the front page)Add to that England was England without the PC brigade,river fishing was good with no fish artificially inflated on high protein baits.
Yes we had srikes and the great strides in medicine had not been made but at least we lived in a less overcrowded land without the dreaded mobile phone(yes people actually spoke to each other)
There again i might be waxing lyrical about a time that might not have been as good as my memory tells me it was.

John. I was born on 29 oct 1939 and can agree with you. Being a teenager and in my early twenties during the 60s was a great time for me. I had a decent job, met my wife to whom i am still happily married, went fishing regularly and generally had a good time with good mates good music.Not too many worries about bringing our two fine sons up. Happy times indeed.

John, I was born September 1941.Got married October 1964.Still married to the same girl, 2 Grown up kids who have never been in real trouble Why? because we taught them the same values as our parents taught us. The main one was Respect for other people and their property.Yeah the 60's was great.I agree with Michael very happy times.John there is nothing wrong with your memory mate.

Sorry guys, I was born 1966, world cup baby.
Married 1988, still married to the same lady. My kids too, have never been in serious trouble. Why, because I have the same values as you guys and I have passed them on to my kids.
It's all about respect, if respect is lost it all falls apart.

I honestly think this was a better country to live in in my youth, in fact right through till the end of the 60's in fact but then there was a bit of a sea change here.

It suddenly became fashionable to be anti social, hard drugs suddenly became the in thing, would be punk rockers went around mob handed and thought it was good fun to kick the doodah out of anyone they took a dislike to, town centres became no go areas for old and young people, music became unintelligible and worst of all the price of beer went up.

1951 just missed the 40s, still the fifties, was OK and I managed to get layed for the first time in the 60s, glad I wasnt born in the forties because I`d be a bit nearer death by now

Well I was born in '42.

I can even remember the sound of a Rolls Royce Merlin in the sky. And I remember the corrogated iron structures in Clumber Park full of WW2 ammo. And rationing, and my Dad coming home in his uniform.

I have distant memories of Hardwick village in Clumber Park, and of probably one of the Dukes sons bowling at me underhand.

I often have dreams of people at that time that quite frankly I will not describe here.

Fortunately most are pleasant dreams.

Thought the Monk would lower the tone(disgusting man)
Can you remember her name Monk

"It suddenly became fashionable to be anti social, hard drugs suddenly became the in thing, would be punk rockers went around mob handed and thought it was good fun to kick the doodah out of anyone they took a dislike to, town centres became no go areas for old and young people, music became unintelligible and worst of all the price of beer went up."

Graham, you haven't visited Bristol City Centre lately have you!

If you want to get knived or glassed for no reason that's the place to go on Saturday night! If you want some Coke or Crack it's also the place to go, it is a "no go zone" for me and my family, it aint worth the risk.

Times have changed, for the worst.

According to my elder sister, I was conceived on VE night. Now, not a lot of people would know the very night on which they were conceived, but our kid had it worked out.

It was the only night, a month either side, that my dad got off night shift. Otherwise, my mum and sis slept together to save being disturbed when he came home. Talk about being a true European?

I love programmes like "The Darling Buds Of May" simply because they show that period for the best of life. Simple holidays at Paignton, Brighton and Clacton and if you got abroad you were bloody lucky.

No car for us, bus or shank's pony.

Punk Rock sppoiled it in the 70s.

All them plastic bin liners, swearing and people gobbin' on each other. No respect!

It was the 50s kids that created it.

I think it was John, I have to agree,born 24th March 1949.
I'm one of 5 kids,not one of us in trouble or, in drugs(and they were available)
Life was easier,although there wasn't a great deal of money.You didn't get anything for nothing and,it wasn't expected.
Jobs were two a penny,music and the birth of good radio, all in my teenage years.
Most of all respect, particularly in the overflows of London.We never said boo to a goose,helped the neighbours and even the miserable old biddy around the corner, didn't get cheek.
My mum didn't get a washing machine 'til I started work in 1965,I think my dad got his first car in about a year or so before,he got promoted and a job in Chelmsford,so the push bike was no good.
I've been married 32 and a bit years to the same one,so we got stability as well..

I appeared in 1972. I used to wish I'd been born thirty years earlier - then I met the girl who is now Mrs B.

Besides, it's more fun being different; I can go to the pub in a tweed sports jacket; listen to Country Joe and the Fish or the Thirteenth Floor Elevators and use cane rods happy in the knowledge that most people think I'm completely bonkers.

I dont like the lack of respect the young people have today(not every kid).
I honestly believe that some of the parents in the 30year age group have a lot to answer.I agree with both Fred and Jeff , we never had a car never owned a house but my parents where happy,never ever heard my father swear in front of my mother or my sister.
Todays people are greedy,they must have the BMW the two holidays abroad,the wife has to work fulltime or they make out they cannot exist,what a load of rubbish,their kids are foul mouthed but the parents never hear them because they are never at home.

Used to like Country Joe myself Fred and Capt Beefheart

no John, never can remember names and faces, I can remeber she was well stacked though mate

Grown up kids who have never been in real trouble Why? because we taught them the same values as our parents taught us.

I honestly believe that some of the parents in the 30year age group have a lot to answer

i blame the parents of the 30year old parents for not teaching them the values that you all forgot during the 60's and 70's.....after all, the mods and rockers (remember them taking drugs/rioting/fighting or do the rose tinted specs obscure that?) and the 20 year old punks in the 70's were the kids born in the 40's and 50's......

It was all the fault of them there Russians messing about with them space ships.

Frothey is right to certain extent, it was the parents of the 60's that were the cause of the deterioration in 'standards', for want of a better word.

I was born in '36 and I had two sons by the time I was 28 and they will tell you even now they never got away with anything, they were brought up to respect their parents and everyone else as well, still do in fact but unfortunately that wasn't the case in general.

The 60's was a massive release from the restrictions and hardships of the war and anyone who never lived through it couldn't begin to imagine how hard times were in the 40's and 50's. All of a sudden things began to brighten up for the average working man, he had more money in his pocket, music became pop, women became more, shall we say amenable and morals started to slip and become old fashioned.

By the 70's it became fashionable to be aggressive, sneering replaced smiling and thuggish behaviour was suddenly the vogue and this was due to the young being neglected by their parents who had been liberalised in the 60's. If they wanted to drink and smoke well let them, we don't want them to be under the thumb like we were, I swear so let them swear, its natural and who gives a toss anyway. You don't like it? Tough! You don't like me? Well heres a smack in the mouth because I don't like you either!

Nearly all of this 'out of character' behaviour for the British came as a result of the American influence. They were cool, the Yanks, they have everything and we have nothing so lets try and be like them. Every trend in the states wasn't long in being copied here and still is to this day unfortunately.

I often wonder if the liberalisation in the 60's was a direct result of the stopping of national service in the mid 50's because the young parents of the 60's had never done their two years of discipline but they did have parents who imposed discipline. When they became free to make their own choices they rebelled against the sort of restrictions they had been made to live under so they kicked out against the traces of normal society.