Im currently writing a story about a lady who is living in a care home but difts back to her childhood whiles watching the world go by. Id love to hear from anyone who has any knowledge on this era. Thankyou.
The ladys kind of from average backround. Two up two down town house, cobbled streets, mothers chatting on the doors steps whiles the kids play outside. I got these ideas off my nan whos now in her 90's with alizimers.We use to sit at the kitchen table playing dominos and chatting.
Her fathers going to be a war hero as her brother follows in his footsteps.Its going to be about love,lost,tragedy and adventure.
They tended to dance a lot - listened to the wireless. Food was interesting lol but life was getting more comfortable - although the welfare state hadn't come in children were staying at school until after the age of fourteen/fifteen. There was a form of health insurance and unemployment insurance. There was also penicillan a new invention at that point. One family in the street may have a telephone. The streets would be cobble. Inside the house the bottom half of the walls would be placed in gloss for ease of keeping clean. Everyone kept their part of the street clean because it helped keep the houses cleaner. Probably would have a day at the seaside every year. What sort of information do you want? The end of the decade saw the start of the Great Depression - and its impact/
Um, I think hair dye was around but women who used it were seen as 'cheap'. It was generally a time of high spirits and gaeity; the Great War was over and people had no idea WW2 was on the horizon. Silent movies were popular; the first talkie wouldn't be for a few years I don't think. Cartoons like Mickey Mouse, Betty Boop and Felix the Cat were shown before features at the cinema - people got their news through the wireless, or Pathe movie news, which showed between these cinema cartoons. Afraid that's all that really comes to mind unless you have specific areas you'd like to know about.
What was her actual birth year? The 1920s were a very turbulent time in Britain, the most jarring event being the general strike of 1925. You'd want to be able to establish how old she was in order to gauge what impact if any an event like that had on her. If she were more than five or six, she would probably have some servicable memory of it. Also important - where did she live? Her experiences growing up in London would be very different from growing up in Surrey. You may also want to keep in mind that someone born in 1920 would be 90 now, and one begins to lose long term memory function (short term memory goes earlier). This has the effect in some people of making certain memories stand out much more clearly.
Thankyou your all great. Il have to rack my brains a little hear. Im think a lady about 97. Its based on a lady i use to know from a care home. Shes basically relaying stories to her grandaughter who waorks as a tea lady at the home.
Ok so born in 1913 may have remembered Daddy coming back from war. Would have been a teen at the end of the 1920s so my Great Aunts musically loved Al Jolson and George Formby. She probably wouldn't like Baked Beans tended to find my family were split those born after1920 loved them those before saw them as new fangled lol Those from before 1920 saw milk and tripe as a real treat, pigs trotters etc My Great Aunt born in 1913 loved to dance and sing. They would pull back the carpet and sing and dance. Her favourite drink was gin and tonic. She loved to read - their favourites books tended to be Oliver Twist, the Brontes. My Great Gran was in service with a lovely family, so when she left to have her own family she got clothes etc Remember a very sad story a doll was a rare occurance and my Gran got one. She was given it, and fell to sleep in the sun holding the doll. She had only had a few hours and loved it. She dropped it and it broke. My Great Gran used to wait for Christmas Eve and buy cheap cuts at the last minute to have agood Christmas. Father Christmas - certainly Santa wasn't really a big thing until the 30s. Boys for blue and girls for pink again wasn't set in the 20s We still didn't have the prudishness about breastfeeding in the communities if a mother was sick someone would have cared for her baby for her. That would include wet nursing if necessary.
!920s Britain. A lot of children did not have shoes. We still had work houses. A lot of young women went into domestic service. No national health service. Women got the vote in the 20s. Children worked in the mines, the mills or where ever they could. It was also called the 'roaring twenties' the time of the Flappers and the charleston was all the craze.
