Growing up in the 50's and 60's How kids entertained themselves in the 1950s |
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Welcome to the Down the Lane 'Extras' |
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1950's - Kids home entertainmentNo Console Games, No PC and hardly any TV as wellTake away Computers, Consol Gaming, DVD's and 100 channel TV at 24 hours a day and you have the 1950's! We had toy's, but ours would fit under the Bed and not need a separate room to put them in as is it a lot today. Our biggest toys were of a natural kind; tree's, woods and our own imagination. INDOORS Around the mid 50's I got my first Meccano Set, No.4 I think, but it was a large enough Kit to make a Tower Bridge of Sorts. I had a clockwork Hornby Train Set which always seemed to go so fast it kept coming off the tracks on every bend. In my Aunt's house I had a Bay Window to play in. There was space enough between the writing desk and window big enough for me to manoeuvre around quite easily and this kept me occupied for ages. A few days after the Coronation, I had my tonsils removed, I remember the gas mask being put over my face now! We simply didn't have the distraction of other things, fewer toys but a lot of imagination ! OUTDOORS If you were really lucky your Dad would make you a swing! Normal things became something else; the wheelbarrow was the 413 bus from Chipstead to Sevenoaks or an Atlantic Class Locomotive speeding it's way from London to Dover for the Boat Train. Yes, the wheelbarrow then transformed itself into a cross channel ferry! As the 50's progressed I got a few of the 'larger presents'. My first bicycle was second hand, one of those with a single brake, always black and something you cleaned once a week or got your ears clipped. I was then lucky enough to get a Hornby 'OO' guage, three rail Hornby Set and my Aunts Dining Room was soon filled up with 'train'. I'd find bits of wood and draw houses on them, make hills and tunnels out of green tablecloth. I even had a cricket ground and many a closely fought Test Match was played between my guaged people, albeit most of them batting with a newspaper in their hand or waving a flag! All this carries on through your life. I'm sure that people in my age group are more happy that something works than if it looks right or not. The 1950's were hard years for many. People of my parents age had come out of a War in which they lost some of the most important years of their life and it couldn't have been easy for them. But, if you couldn't find happiness in reality, you could in your imagination! |
Julia and me. I remember those beads!
For me, a wheelbarrow became a Bus, a Train - or just a wheelbarrow!
Along came Nigel (at Selsey
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Growing up in
50s and 60s 50's & 60's In the Blog 1960's Year by Year Hornby trains and Matchbox Toys filled the house. If only I'd have kept them!
Davy Crockett
King of the Wild Frontier
One of the favourite 'pretend's'. Others include Robin Hood, Roy Rogers, Buffalo Bill and Ivanhoe
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