Genre: Opinion/Argumentation

Looking back at your childhood what are the earliest memories of how the washing was done ? With a scrubbing board in a tin tub , and a dolly peg in a tub , boiling in the cellar with a fire underneath the water container . Also there were conveniences for the general public at that time . The city were I lived had a lot of baths and wash houses . They were combined with the public swimming baths and they gave the service of letting people go along to use their machines , which were huge . And you could often see people with prams pushing them down the streets with ... In those days potatoes used to come in big wicker baskets , and they 'd have a wicker basket in this pram and all the family washing . As much as they could possibly get in that wicker basket was put in there , and they wheeled it to the nearest public wash house and baths , and when it came back it was dry-ish , rather than having wet washing hanging around the house , as it would have been if it had been done in the house . You mentioned a dolly peg , what was that ? Yes , a dolly peg it was a little bit ... It was , I suppose , about 4 foot high , a little bit like a milking stool at the bottom , with a long pole in the centre , two handles at the top and you agitated it : a manual agitator . And for the very dirty bits on the working shirts , or whatever there was , you 'd have a scrubbing board . And that would stand in the water and you would put the dirty part , like the collar or the cuffs , and you would rub the soap over it and get a scrubbing brush and scrub it like that . And you knew when it was wash day because you walked in and you could smell the boiling washing , the washing that had been boiled up , even if it was in the cellar ... steam everywhere . Wet clothes hanging around forever , no dryers unless of course , you know , it was a fine day . If it was a fine day they would all get pegged out on the line . Did you used to have a mangle ? Oh yes . Now you needed strong arms for that because they were ... the big mangles were very , very heavy . Cast iron and great big thick wooden rollers . Instead of soap powders , you did n't use the soap powders we have today , so what sort of things did you use ? Well , it was carbolic soap ... Right ... or green soap sometimes . I can remember Fairy , green soap coming in . Before that it was just carbolic soap . Or those who could afford it had , I think , soap flakes perhaps : soap that had been specially flaked . But it just depended on what your income was , as to what you could afford . And then of course , a little bit later on there came the Rinso . You 've heard of Rinso have n ' t you ? It was the forerunner of all the powders . Oh , right ... Rinso ... Can you remember how any of these smelt , did they have a distinct smell or ... ? Yes , which is indescribable unless you 've smelt it yourself ! I suppose the nearest thing would be to a steamy bath . So it did n't smell nice , did n't make the clothes smell nice , it was just to clean them basically ? What was to clean them ? The soap it ... they did n't smell nice ... it was just ... Oh yes , it was a good clean smell , Yes it was good clean smell . OK . When washing machines were first invented , how long did it take for you to have one in your family , and how did this changed things ? My parents never had one , never had one . And I did n't get a washing machine until the mid fifties . How did that change ? Oh , it made a big difference , but it was n ' t an automatic . Well , what did it look like , and what did you have to ... how did it work ? Well , they worked on the same principle as they work now , with electricity . But my first one was only so big , very tiny , and it had a rubber mangle on the top ; and that was made by Hoover . And how did they differ from the ones they have today ? Oh well , the ones you have today ... there 's just no work . You just throw them in , p ress a button when you 've set the ... whatever you want , and walk away . It 's taken off your hands . In comparison , it used to take a day to do the family wash . Now you can do the equivalent in a couple of hours , all washed and ironed and dry , all out of the way . It saves hours of work . Before you had Hoovers what would you use to clean the floors ? I wondered if you 'd thought of that one . Brushes : You would sweep them with stiff brushes . And if they were very dusty , they used to have a trick of having damp tea leaves , and you 'd strew them on the carpet , all over , and that would kill the dust as you brushed . Oh right - I never knew that ! Or if the carpet ... and you remember in those days not many people - well very few - had fitted carpets . In fact I ca n ' t remember ... I ca n ' t think of anyone . They were usually big carpets or rugs . If they were small rugs they would go out over the line and you 'd beat them with a beater . Did you ever have , did you get , a Hoover eventually when they came out ? Oh yes . That obviously made things easier , but what did they look like ? Well , the first Hoovers I remember were very , very heavy in weight for me , and not unlike the traditional shape they still are , except they were made in stainless steel , I suppose , but they ... of course , by that time a lot of people had carpets all over the house , and it did make a difference . When was that roughly ? Roughly towards the end of the thirties . Right , OK , what were your earliest memories of television ? My earliest memories , Oh gosh ! I suppose the first time I ever watched television was at the year of the Coronation . Like most people , unless you were very , very wealthy , you could n ' t afford a television and the only ... The first time I watched television was on a friend's television , where we were invited to go and watch the coronation . And it was a very tiny little screen perhaps from there to there . [ Gestures a few centimetres . ] And it was , I think , in a very long , tall cabinet ... Of course , in those days your eyesight quite a lot better than it is after so many years . And it was all right and because it was new and we 'd nothing to compare it to , except the cinema , which , of course , every one was used to . You were aware that it was only tiny , but because it was contained within a room it was acceptable . Now-a-days they 're used for recreational use , you just switch on and watch it ; but how does that differ from what you used to do ? I mean , you said you were invited round , so you obviously did n't get a choice of what you watched ? Oh , very limited . In fact , I do n't think they broadcast for quite a lot of the day . You see , not owning one for a long , long time , I was n ' t aware of what programs there were ; but I have a feeling that they were very , very short hours ... mostly towards the evening time , nothing in the day particularly the mornings . But I suppose they had coverage at some stages for big events , but I really could n ' t answer that one . So , when was the first time you got a television in the family ? Once again I would say the middle fifties , and that would be ... ( How many years after they sort of came out ? ) 18 nearly 20 years after they first . You see , they only broadcast , did n't they , in the London area to begin with before the war ? Well , I was living up North , and I do n't think we had the television set up in that part of the world until after the war . I 'm not sure about that though . Before television , what technology was there to entertain you and your family ? Oh the radio , technology . I would say , all I can think of is the radio . It all depended in those days on what level of society you were . Some people had cars , they could go out riding . But if you could n ' t afford a car , well you could n ' t afford a car , and that was it . In the home the radio certainly had got more or less established in everyone's home . What did they look like , and how did they work ? Well , like anything else it started off , I suppose , with dials and headphones . They had a box and they had headphones and they had dials to bring it in and get the wave band . Those were the very ... That was my memory of the very earliest radio that I can remember ; with sitting watching my father twist the dials . And then , of course , we got ... As it improved , then you could just switch on and you even got places on the dial saying ... It would pick up places from Europe which was fantastic , you know . Was n ' t just within the country . But I am sure you will be able to get a lot of information from radio buffs who 'll be able to give you all the details , but those are my earliest memories . There was one other thing , the gramophone : and the earliest one I remember was one of those where you turn the handle and had a great big horn . With His Master's Voice ... and they were portable . This was portable , and you had , I suppose you had , a few selected records and played them constantly . In fact we used to take ours into the air raid shelter , when we had to sit in the air raid shelter at night ... It was a communal one . And the gramophone used to be taken in religiously , and it would play the records and people would ... everyone was smoking their heads off : the place was like a tap room . And suddenly , when you heard the aircraft coming , the first thing we 'd do was take the record off and sit and listen . Listen to the planes ... Listen to the planes ... and wait for the bombs to go over ... hear the swish of the bombs . But yes gramophones was another one , if you were lucky enough . OK . How old were you when you first got a telephone In your family ? Well , I suppose mid fifties , in the last century , in the mid fifties again ... when we first got our ... yes early fifties . But it was n ' t ... you did have access to phones ... Quite a number of people had them already in their houses , so I was not like some people who had never had access to using a phone . Some people were afraid of using phones because they 'd never been used to using them . How did they differ from the ones today , the touch ones ? Oh , I think the dialling , of course , was the main thing ; and obviously you had you had several different kinds . There was the hand held one and you also had the one that had it hooked on to the side , where you lifted the earpiece and spoke into the speaker . But you 've seen them all on films . You 've got record of them in old films , you know . If you keep your eyes open , you 'll see all varieties of them . But there was no touch telephones ; no , nothing like that . Was it expensive to use the telephone ? I would say for the time , very little difference , very little . And did it bring the family closer together ? I mean , you could communicate easier ? That was good , because even if both ... all members of the family did n't have a phone , it did mean that there would be a point at which they could all come together . It meant that communication was n ' t as difficult . Yes . With cooking appliances changing over the years , first you had the Aga , then the cooker and then the microwave , how did the introduction of microwaves effect your family ? It did n't , because they never had one ! It 's affected mine fantastically , wonderful . I think one of the best inventions out , but what came before the Aga ? Have n ' t got a clue , I do n't know , have n ' t got a clue . What came before the Aga ? Not everyone had an Aga . Was it called a range ? A fire range . If you were lucky enough , some houses had fireplaces where they had an oven beside it , where they cooked . Some people did n't even have that , and they had little hobs on the grates , on the fire , and they turned the hob over the fire and cooked on the fire . Did n't have a cooker , kettles too always used to sit beside the fire or hang over the fire on a hook . When you first got a microwave , how did you feel about them ? There are stories that some people were scared of them because of the waves they let out . Did it bother you ? It did n't bother me because I reasoned that it would n ' t be allowed to be sold unless it had been fully tested ; and if you 're sensible and careful . But of course , remember , it had been invented and had been used in America many years before became popular in England . So we did have that knowledge , before it was more or less introduced on a big scale in this country . Very few places actually sold microwaves for quite a while , but they were used a lot more in America for years before that . OK , central heating . Can you remember when it first came out and how did you heat the house before ? Before central heating : fires hot water bottles , loads of clothes , closed windows . And did you have an open fire in every room , or just one that heated the whole house ? Unless you were poorly , then you had one in your bedroom . Did you ever work in an office or anything like that ? Yes . And how did technology change , I mean typewriters and things like that , how has that change ? Well , I was n ' t in that kind of a situation and it was n ' t for a long , long period so I could n ' t answer that one . OK , computers : what do you think of them do you have one ? I have n ' t got one , but I am like people who were first introduced to the unknown : probably have n ' t bothered because I am just a little bit afraid that I will make a fool of myself , and that 's really the top and bottom of it . Those who have confidence in new things just go all out ; and it depends too on your need . Well I 've not needed a computer since they sort of , you know , have just become so popular . But I 'd certainly like to have a go now . Now that I 've got time and it does n ' t matter , there 's no pressure . OK . Before electricity , how would you light the house and what happened when lighting was introduced ? Well before electricity , which was wonderful , there were several stages of lighting . Candles I can recall using as a child to light my way to bed , on a candlestick . Oil lamps , which had to be trimmed and cleaned and paraffin bought for them ; and kept in absolute pristine condition because the fumes from the paraffin lights could have been dangerous . So those were the first two forms of lighting that I recall . Then town gas came in ; and if you were lucky enough you you had a house with gas supplied . Usually there was a centre light , almost like an electric light positioning and this , of course , was in the main room ; perhaps not every room , but once the gas was in the house I think most rooms did have it on little side brackets in certain rooms , but the main rooms had a middle , centre light . And you used to have ... you used to have to buy what they called mantles ; and they were terribly delicate . They were small shaped , rounded with almost , I suppose , a clay type top . And you had to put them on to the ... where the gas came out , and carefully put them round to make them hold , almost like a bulb ... and if you were n ' t careful even blowing on them sometimes would break them . So they were very delicate . And then you 'd turn the gas on . It could have been a tap that screwed in , it could have been a lever where you had like a swing , a see-saw , where you pulled it down one side and it would bring the gas out and you turned / pulled it the other and that would turn the gas off . You would then light it with either a taper or with a match , and then it would give the light . I think that went on for quite a while . Now you see , the gas obviously was introduced in some houses in the 1800's , but some houses did n't even have gas until 20's . A lot of people lived in houses that did n't even have town gas , but that was n ' t the general rule ; most people by that time had . So then , of course , you could ... you could then get electricity put in once the mains had been put in . And how they did that by taking the gas out and replacing it with electricity I do not know . But they did do that , they converted gas lit houses into electrically lit houses .