Christmas Club Story two

When I was young, and I mean really young, still in single figures so we are looking at the 1950s here, I remember only cold. We lived in an old Nissen hut, the picture was taken when I was about three and you can see the corrugated steel wall of the hut. My Dad bought it right after WW2 and built it on the piece of land he had bought. we moved in there in 1947 just in time for the hardest winter on record. Well the following winters were pretty hard too. The walls of the hut were simply a double skin of steel with a 6inch gap between them. The only source of heat was the fireplace in the living room. The condensation hit the steel and froze so we had icicles hanging from the ceiling. I remember that we shut all the internal doors except the one between my parents bedroom and the living room and we all bundled into my parents feather bed so that we could put ALL the blankets on the top. The water pipes froze but my mother had filled every pot and pan so we could melt enough to have a warming drink.

I remember that the Christmas tree had real candles on it and I had a train-set as my present.

So the next time someone talks about the good old days, remind them that most people in the 1950s were just getting used to indoor plumbing and the majority still regarded a bathroom as a luxury. No-one had central heating unless they were rich and very few had a car. Yes I look back with fondness to a simpler time but would I go back? not on your nelly!