Tripping down memory lane… The 50s and 60s was the best childhood

I feel so lucky to have been a child of the 50s and 60s era. As kids we didn’t think that much about the hardships our parents probably faced. Post war, families torn apart by tragedy and deaths and destruction that war brings and their desperate struggle through the years of the depression.

We were the “Baby Boomers” and we were the new generation of freedom and liberation… Admittedly some of us took that too far, but it was a wonderful time to be born into.

My dad was a joiner, carpenter. A job he loved and held from age 15 until retirement at 65, as you did in those days. Interrupted only by his years away during the war. Mum was “the proud housewife”. Home cooking, corned beef slowly simmered in the pressure cooker for Saturday lunch and sandwich filling during the next week. Pink and grey chrome kitchen settings, flowered linoleum and plastic flowers in hanging baskets and the Crosley Shelvedore, replacing the ice box, taking pride and place in the kitchen. Frogs in the water tank, chip heater in the bathroom and the old wood stove. It was such an event when the electric stove was purchased. Mum ordered the yearly supply of linen, home wares and smalls from the “Marcus Clarke” catalogue while having a chat and a cuppa with the travelling salesman and we waited in anticipation for the delivery. Bread and milk were delivered to our door and the butcher delivered twice a week. We could play safely in the street and run rampant with friends after school until dark. I remember it all fondly. Then when I was 12 we got a TV… Black and white and grainy but it was magic.

I loved it when the annual “show” came to town, a new outfit always accompanied this special occasion. One year it was the big skirt with the rope petticoat that flew over my face on the octopus ride. I had an old uncle who travelled with the “show” and he would peel off a roll of tickets for rides. Raucous sounds of Elvis, Buddy Holly and the Beatles spewing forth from every load speaker as we squealed with delight, whizzing and tumbling on the rickety old rides with Elvis’s “Little Sister” booming in our heads.

The smell and taste of popcorn and fairy floss abound. Then we would find a spot on the hill to spread our blanket when darkness fell to watch the fireworks… Or canoodle behind the stands…

Family camping holidays were always the best. We had this huge old tent that dad painted green inside with waterproof paint. Totally ugly, but it stayed dry. We camped in many a showground on holidays all over Australia in this old tent. It eventually fell victim to a big storm and was literally blown away. The holiday shack was then erected at the beach. Basic it may have been but it served as our holiday retreat for many memorable years. We dug for yabbies, fished, collect oysters in jars and swam in the creek and ate fish n chips wrapped in newspaper. Simple pleasures. Simple times.

Then came the teenage years… Music, rock n roll, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, FJ Holdens, boyfriends, drive inns, moo moos, hot pants and mini skirts, free love, surfies, hippies and flower power. Man walked on the moon. It was an exciting time… I loved every part of that 60’s revolution. I know people say, “You only remember the good stuff”, but it wasn’t just good… It was fantastic! What about Woodstock? Although I wasn’t there the music is so much a part of me. These carefree days flashed by all too fast, and then we were adults.

Even with all our modern technology and gadgets, I don’t think the kids of today have it as great as we did. Probably every generation thinks theirs is the best, but I reckon it’s a much more dangerous and restrictive world in which our children live in now than the one we grew up in. Looking at young people today, I’m sad that they will never know the true freedom of youth and carefree days of the 50s and 60s. My kids and grandson tell me I was lucky to have been there, and I was.

And, what if all those years ago hippies were right about everything…

Just saying!

What did you love most about your childhood? Do you think kids of today are missing out?