I do realise how much easier my life is compared to my parents. They didn't have a fridge or freezer when i was young only a cold store. Shopping was done daily and it was not unusual for me to be sent with a 10 shilling note to the local shops for my mum to get meat and veg. i do remember once on arriving at the local shop only to find i had lost the money and list and was so worried about returning home and owning up to this, it was alot of money to lose.Washing, hoovering, bed making (having to make beds, tucking sheets in and blankets) are all alot easier now and mum would have gladly welcomed these mod cons then having a family of 7.A freezer would have been a godsend with a large family. But at least everything we ate was fresh, no artificial colourings or additives and i'm sure we were not fussy eaters, was due to the lack of choice of food available then. We didn't have snack food that kids now are eating between meals. We wre always so ravenous by dinner time, we just ate everything put in front of us.
You mentioned whether we remember any significant times. Living alongside a naval port, i distinctly remember when the falklands war broke out. My husband and i had friends who were in the navy and remember them going off to war. We wre selling our first home and wanting to buy something a bit bigger. We found the perfect house, unfortunately the gentleman we were buying from was coming out of the navy and going to work as a civilian on the oil rigs. But because of the Falklands there was a question as to whether he would be able to leave the navy. We waited patiently and it took nigh on a year before the sale went through , the navy finally released him and he went North. We are still in the same house 26 years later and glad we waited.
I do remember during my childhood that winters were wintery and summers were very hot.I remember running around in fields and collecting grasshoppers in jars and winters when it was so cold you toes really hurt and if someone trod on your toes when they were so cold it was agony. My boys say they have never known it that cold and down here in the south have only experienced snow a handful of times in their lives. Global warming?