Socyberty » milkman

Relationships in The 1900 + Compared to The 2000 +

Thu, 12 May 2011 17:49:19 +0000

First of all starting with today. People in a relationship, even with children find it easy to walk away and get a divorce if married. You don’t find that people work in a marriage as much as they did in the past. However you also find that in the past you just got on with things. These days if your loved one had an affair most would divorce them. There are more single parent families now than there used to be and it seems to be on the rise. I’m not 100% sure why but it seems obvious that we do not work as hard in our relationships as what we probably should. Maybe we should try and stick together especially when kids are involved. Its hard to say what you would do if your loved one cheated on you. On the other hand are we less likely to stand by someone that does not respect us these days.

I always thought that in the past families stayed together unless one of the parents died as so many used to in those days. Then they would probably re marry. I have been doing ancestry and looking into things with other members of the family and you didn’t really come across a divorce back then. It was literally death do us part! lol. Were our ancestor’s more loyal in their relationships? Did they work harder to keep families together? I just don’t know. It really would be interesting to know why those families stayed together was it that the times were extremely tough?

We have all watched the movies/comedies where the stay at home wife is sleeping with the milkman or the post man haven’t we. Lol. If you are like me you probably just thought these comedies were funny and didn’t really think that kind of thing happened. I mean, i doubt these days anyone would be sleeping with their post man lol. However after talking to relatives (the older ones) I found that years back our ancestor’s were randier than you would have expected. Out of the window went my view of loyal relationship ancestor’s. I found that great grandparents were always having a fling with one person or another. Throughout the marriages. Apparently most would be having the odd affair with someone which at first I found disappointing that my great ancestor’s cheated on there partners but then you find that both in the couple were doing it. Yet they stayed together and continued to have children. But who’s kids were really the couples. You really start to wounder. I mean the birth certificates say both the parents but if the mother is having flings then who really knows. Then the father in the family is having his bit on the side further up the road. Who’s to say there is not any other children born that we do not know about that are actually related to us.

I am sure you understand where I am going here. Everything is not as simple as what we think. I knew my great great grandparents briefly and they seemed to be a really happy couple. Always happy and giggling and joking with each other. I would never have believed that they did what they did. Although it sounds like everyone did it, they probably didn’t think anything of it as that was their generation. On the other hand I have one line of relatives that are extremely religious and I doubt that they would have had these flings but who really knows. I would not even want to ask them. I would probably get a good clout! lol

The older generations easily criticise the younger generations as they split up and bring up children in single parent families. Some have children to different partners and still don’t continue in relationships but to me nothing has changed. There’s always been people that have been strayed from one time to another, the only difference is that back then they got on with it. Now we don’t take it. They still worked on their marriage, either that or they just accepted it and moved on.

I am saddened that our ancestor’s got up to these antics but I suppose in tough times a bit of nice totty or a handsome chaps affection was what often kept spirits alive. We will never know the truth and as I said it was not 100% of the population. It may have been the key to dealing with a hard and difficult life. When our older family member’s are criticising us. it is more to do with the fact that once we are married we don’t stay together than the fact that we cheat? I don’t know whats worst but I think that if we are cheated on we have the right to walk away and maybe back then it was unheard of and they had no choice. Was it a” If you cant beat then, join them?” situation? If you cant leave then why not have a little fun yourself. What can happen? lol Now it gives me a giggle at least to think that they were upto no good just as much as people today.

Here is a few other articles that may be of interest to you.

Never enough hours in a day

Damaged – Black teeth, tooth

Is your Laptop turning off unexpectedly with out any real reason?

Saucy Seaside Postcards

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:50:43 +0000

As a young lad the scantily clad women on the cards were eye opening and as a slightly older young lad, the innuendoes were well worth a titter behind the card rack. Of course you didn’t pick one of those to buy, not in front of mum and dad; you chose a nice view of the resort. Then you took it back to where you were staying to write out to send to your friend back home.

If you were feeling kind the message usually was “Having a nice time, wish you were here.” However if you were that way out, and wanted to remind him that he wasn’t on holiday while you were then it would be, “Having a fantastic time. Wish you were here?”

By the time you were into your teens then inevitably you’d be bold enough to pick and send one of the saucy ones.

During the holiday season I’m sure delivering the mail gave the postman a bit of a giggle.

The Benny Hill type humour reflected British humour that was popular in the late fifties, sixties and seventies and seen in the popular “Carry On” series of films.

They usually contained buxom women, hen pecked husbands and “courting” couples, and always the innuendo or double entendre.

The postcard first appeared in the mid nineteenth century.

In “A brief history of the picture postcard” by Judith & Stephen Holder (FRPS) they write

“The creation of the postcard by Dr Emanuel Hermann in Austria on 1 October 1869 set in motion a revolution in the communication of the ordinary message of no especial importance, the private note, the mundane or jolly remark, the ‘wish you were here’ – indeed any short note for which no real ’security’ was required.

Almost all the main developments in the artistic designs of Postcard art originated on the continent, in Germany, Austria, France, Italy and Switzerland. The two main exceptions which developed in Great Britain were the Comic card and to some extent the Real Photograph cards of social, industrial and village history.”

Jonathan Duffy (BBC News Online) quotes from a book by Collector Tom Phillips.

“They were classless and democratic and the limited space was a blessing to those with poor spelling or without much to say. “

In an essay in 1941, the renowned author George Orwell wrote:

“Who does not know the ‘comics’ of the cheap stationers’ windows, the penny or twopenny coloured post cards with their endless succession of fat women in tight bathing-dresses and their crude drawing and unbearable colours, chiefly hedge-sparrow’s-egg tint and Post Office red?”

“In general, however, they are not witty, but humorous, and it must be said for McGill’s post cards, in particular, that the drawing is often a good deal funnier than the joke beneath it.”

Donald McGill ,was one of several notable illustrators, who among others included Tom Browne, John Hassall, Bruce Bairnsfather and Alfred Lees.

Unfortunately for McGill he was the unlucky one.

In the 1950’s there was a public morals backlash and Watch Committees were set up in seaside resorts. This led to the 81 year old McGill being prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act of 1857, and several of his cards being destroyed.

These are some of those vintage postcards.

They seem somewhat tame by today’s standards. It was enough however to cause confusion to the shop owners selling them and to cause several printers to cease trading.

After a couple of years this “do-gooder” attitude subsided and the illustrators and printers were back in business.

How are postcards faring in today’s “techno” climate?

In a recent survey the broadcaster ITV said that the number of postcards sent has dropped by 75 per cent. It showed that 67 per cent of those surveyed used emails or photos while on holiday, to keep in touch with family and friends.

And Donald McGill?

In 1994 the Royal Mail brought out a set of commemorative stamps featuring McGill’s postcards.