Eating in the 50's in the UK....

My parents would tell me about an apple as a Christmas present, maybe it's true.
After growing up on tripe and drisheen though, I can kind of believe it.

prinzeugen wrote: »

Frozen pizza back in the 80s & 90s were a million times better than now. Dont know why.

Had the bird issue with milk also. Was the "juice man" a thing in Ireland? We used to have a truck drop off soft/diluted drinks weekly.

You would leave the empty glass bottles out and a note just like you would for the milkman.

Juice? You were lucky...

igCorcaigh wrote: »

Juice? You were lucky...

Well fizzy sugar filled drinks... All called juice in Scotland!

This is the company that used to deliver to us

http://www.bonaccordsoftdrinks.com/history/

Andy From Sligo

prinzeugen wrote: »

Frozen pizza back in the 80s & 90s were a million times better than now. Dont know why.

Had the bird issue with milk also. Was the "juice man" a thing in Ireland? We used to have a truck drop off soft/diluted drinks weekly.

You would leave the empty glass bottles out and a note just like you would for the milkman.

my brother worked for Alpine soft drinks in the 70's or 80's - yeah used to collect the empty bottles off the doorstep and leave the new soda drinks - I used to like Tizer (red lemonade) and Cream Soda and dandelion and burdock ...

prinzeugen wrote: »

Well fizzy sugar filled drinks... All called juice in Scotland!

This is the company that used to deliver to us

http://www.bonaccordsoftdrinks.com/history/

Penny bottles woz when we were luckey...

Better bread those days, must say that...
Milk too. And delivered to your door with the Echo and coal, and the veg man.
You'd hardly have to budge, them days.

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

my brother worked for Alpine soft drinks in the 70's or 80's - yeah used to collect the empty bottles off the doorstep and leave the new soda drinks - I used to like Tizer (red lemonade) and Cream Soda and dandelion and burdock ...

Alpine were hit and miss in our area. Red Kola, Limeade, pineappleade, and who does not like cream soda!

We had the fish van twice a week, the green grocers van, the video hire van and the we sell everything van. All used old ambulances except the fishmonger!

prinzeugen wrote: »

the video hire van

Oh lord yeah! LOL!

Andy From Sligo

igCorcaigh wrote: »

Better bread those days, must say that...
Milk too. And delivered to your door with the Echo and coal, and the veg man.
You'd hardly have to budge, them days.

funny you say about bread because these days they impose a new modern way of making bread its called the 'something something process'* - cant remember what its called now but they introduced it to make more batches and quicker for the mass market, and it never tasted as good after that

*EDIT: found out what its called "The Chorleywood Process" ...

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

funny you say about bread because these days they impose a new modern way of making bread its called the 'something something process' - cant remember what its called now but they introduced it to make more batches and quicker for the mass market, and it never tasted as good after that

Chorelywood? Yeah naff ****. Our old local bread was better, especially proper white. Skulls, cut thick with proper butter.

igCorcaigh wrote: »

You'd hardly have to budge, them days.

True. People think getting shopping/groceries delivered is a new thing. And if you needed something unusual they would have it in the van for you on Thursday!

The last mobile shop stopped coming round to where I lived in about 1998. New petrol station opened up down the road and it was not worth it anymore.

Yeah, that's it Andrew.

We had some nice bakeries down here when I was growing up.
Come in warm to your door by the delivery boy each morning.

Must have been same up in Sligo back then.

prinzeugen wrote: »

True. People think getting shopping/groceries delivered is a new thing. And if you needed something unusual they would have it in the van for you on Thursday!

The last mobile shop stopped coming round to where I lived in about 1998. New petrol station opened up down the road and it was not worth it anymore.

People didn't drive. You had local deliveries, and you knew your supplier. At least that's the impression I got as a kid in 70s/80s

To keep with the OP though, for a bit of fun check out 70s Dinner Party
@70s_party

igCorcaigh wrote: »

People didn't drive. You had local deliveries, and you knew your supplier. At least that's the impression I got as a kid in 70s/80s

It was a shame to see them go although I think there are a few still going in NI.

We felt sorry for the guy and still bought stuff from him even although we could get it down in the BP garage cheaper and whenever we wanted.

I remember he saved the life of a OAP that lived alone and had fallen. She never came out when he tooted so he went to leave her usual shopping by her backdoor and spotted her on the kitchen floor.

Beef dripping was for the poor.
Now, it's for hipsters and sells €€€

prinzeugen wrote: »

It was a shame to see them go although I think there are a few still going in NI.

We felt sorry for the guy and still bought stuff from him even although we could get it down in the BP garage cheaper and whenever we wanted.

I remember he saved the life of a OAP that lived alone and had fallen. She never came out when he tooted so he went to leave her usual shopping by her backdoor and spotted her on the kitchen floor.

Wow, well isn't there a value system we are losing right there.

Not sure how we can create that again

(I think we can create new communities about caring, and food, and people)

It's kinda a trendy hipster thing now, but I hope it can scale.
I do think we're reaching a turning point on capitalist distribution, of food and community, but It's only a seed.
I don't know.

I just want good bread again

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

people were a lot thinner in them days - no fat bastrds like they are these days (yours truly included) ...

and a lot healthier. That was the decade I grew up in. Food was plain but wholesome. We always had fresh vegetables,often home grown, fruit always.

There was a local chip shop but that was a rare treat.

Many of us kept hens and had fresh eggs

Food was home cooked. No takeways. No junk. Chicken was a once a year Christmas treat. Beef was the Sunday roast.

I still eat much like this now. Prefer it. Never rice and rarely pasta. We rarely had stomach trouble and were a healthy lot.

igCorcaigh wrote: »

People didn't drive. You had local deliveries, and you knew your supplier. At least that's the impression I got as a kid in 70s/80s

No deliveries where I lived ( Lancashire) Part of my jobs was to go for the "rations" as they were called for many years after the war. But yes we knew the local shops and who to trust.

smelly sock wrote: »

Sounds fxcking miserable to be fair.

Life expetancies were shorter.

Curable and common illness killed a lot more often.

But hey we had carpenters from china and big raincoats. Great.

None of this is actually true. Believe me! We were a healthy lot and the older ones lived to good ages. Far less cancer. No fuss re additives etc as there were none. Simple good food.

mfceiling

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

True this - Eating in the 50's - I am sure it was the same in Ireland too...

One of the reasons I quit facebook was this kind of shìte.

Peregrinus

Graces7 wrote: »

None of this is actually true. Believe me! We were a healthy lot and the older ones lived to good ages. Far less cancer. No fuss re additives etc as there were none. Simple good food.

None of this is true. Live expectancy was significantly lower in the 1950s than today. Cancers were common, and more often fatal than today. Stomach cancer in particular, which is linked to diet, was more common, and more common cause of death, than today. There were plenty of additives in food, and they were less controlled than today. (The high rates of stomach cancer at the time are generally attributed to the fact that people ate more highly-salted food, and more pickled food.)

Food was (relatively) more expensive. This meant that people generally ate less. On the plus side, there were much lower rates of obesity. On the minus side, there were much higher rates of malnutrition and associated diseases. This is attributed to the combination of greater poverty than today, relatively expensive food and a more limited diet, with much fresh produce being available, or at any rate affordable, only seasonally.

bee06

Graces7 wrote: »

None of this is actually true. Believe me! We were a healthy lot and the older ones lived to good ages. Far less cancer. No fuss re additives etc as there were none. Simple good food.

Statistics would disagree with you. See page 3. Average life expectancy 1950-52 was mid 60’s and now its 81.

Also far less diagnostic tools. Just because people didn’t know they had cancer didn’t mean it didn’t kill them.

https://health.gov.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Health-Statistics-2005-Section-B-Life-Expectancy-and-Vital-Statistics.pdf

bee06 wrote: »

Statistics would disagree with you. See page 3. Average life expectancy 1950-52 was mid 60’s and now its 81.

Also far less diagnostic tools. Just because people didn’t know they had cancer didn’t mean it didn’t kill them.

https://health.gov.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Health-Statistics-2005-Section-B-Life-Expectancy-and-Vital-Statistics.pdf

Ah you are talking about IRELAND. I grew up in the Uk which was and is a very different schema. Apologies. We did not have the dire poverty this country suffered and as by the 50s the NHS was very well established we had good health care...and better life expectancy etc. Poor Ireland; you had a very hard time and yes I saw the shadows and legacy of that when I was first here in the 70s.

Poor Ireland...a terrible history you had. War torn UK did better thankfully.

Blessings and peace

Peregrinus

No, I'm looking at the overall picture. People did eat better in rural areas than in the cities, on average, but even in rural areas the picture was not as rosy as you remember it. It's not the case that fruit was available all year round; it was highly seasonal, and many fruits were either unavailable, or prohibitively expensive, in the off-season. The same goes for many vegetables.

There were significantly higher rates of malnutrition than today. Yes, this was concentrated among the poor, but I don't see how that makes it unimportant or irrelevant. If good food is sufficiently expensive or sufficiently scarce that a material sector of society cannot access it, that's a huge problem.

Peregrinus

Graces7 wrote: »

Ah you are talking about IRELAND. I grew up in the Uk which was and is a very different schema. Apologies. We did not have the dire poverty this country suffered and as by the 50s the NHS was very well established we had good health care...and better life expectancy etc. Poor Ireland; you had a very hard time and yes I saw the shadows and legacy of that when I was first here in the 70s.

Poor Ireland...a terrible history you had. War torn UK did better thankfully.

Blessings and peace

The UK also had materially worse life expectancy in the 1950s than it does today, and the national diet was in fact slightly worse than the Irish diet, which contained more meat and vegetables, and less processed food, than the UK diet.

However the UK did better on childhood nutrition, with school milk and similar targetted schemes that Ireland did not have at the time. But of course the long-term benefits of that really only show up fifty or sixty years later. ('Round about now, in fact! You are probably a beneficiary.)

Peregrinus wrote: »

No, I'm looking at the overall picture. People did eat better in rural areas than in the cities, on average, but even in rural areas the picture was not as rosy as you remember it. It's not the case that fruit was available all year round; it was highly seasonal, and many fruits were either unavailable, or prohibitively expensive, in the off-season. The same goes for many vegetables.

There were significantly higher rates of malnutrition than today. Yes, this was concentrated among the poor, but I don't see how that makes it unimportant or irrelevant. If good food is sufficiently expensive or sufficiently scarce that a material sector of society cannot access it, that's a huge problem.

Hey we are talking at cross purposes. The article was the UK and you are quoting Irish stats which do not apply to the UK.
Thought it sounded odd...

No rose coloured glasses thus so let us part in peace on this please? I was a teenager in the 50s and have excellent recall .

So sorry that Ireland went through all that..

Over and out.