Climate change is happening. We all know that because the
climate has been changing from hot to cold to wet to dry and back again for millennium.
It’s what it does. The argument which is waxing ever louder is
whether humankind is making the process worse. According to some we only have a
few years left to save ourselves, while others, usually from the scientific
community, are working to a more optimistic timeframe, even though they too say
we must do something to slow things down or even (is it possible) stop it
altogether. This is not the place to have those arguments, however. Instead it’s about
remembering how we once lived and how, if we want to do our bit for climate change, we might have to live in the future.
We don't have to go back thousands of years to do this. We only have to be old enough to remember the 1940s and 50s in
the UK and many other Western countries to get a glimpse of what such a future might be like. No central heating, air conditioning, double and triple glazing, memory foam mattresses, food mixers, TVs, mobile phones, The Internet, supermarkets, out of
town shopping malls, nylon tights, minimum iron clothing, steam irons, frozen ready meals, exotic foods from across the world, disposable nappies, babygros, 24 hour shopping...the list is endless.
While none of these things were available in those far off days just after WW2, most homes
burned coal or wood for heating, and as we
all know, coal is responsible for some of the most noxious gases that are
threatening the planet. We paid for it in the winter, however, when our towns
and cities were lost in a greyish yellowish smog and pale bricks
became coated in a sooty, tar-like substance until everyone forgot how they had looked in the
first place. We coughed a lot too, and more people got bronchitis or died from pneumonia.
The coal fires kept us warm in the winter though, sort of! Of course legs
were scorched if we sat too close, and we got chilblains if we warmed icy feet
too quickly, and there was always the danger of clothes and rugs catching fire from spitting sparks. But if we sat further away from the fire the room was often still cold, as
were all the other rooms in the house, so that going to bed was only bearable
if the sheets were first warmed by a hot water bottle, and vests and bed-socks
were worn under thick fleecy pyjamas while furry slippers and dressing gowns were a
must in any transit through the house.
Clothes were different too, especially for children. Then it was a woollen vest and knickers with a thick cotton liberty bodice buttoned over the top. Home knitted woollen jumpers, cardigans, long woollen socks, home knitted leggings, a thick winter coat (woollen again) and home knitted hats, gloves and scarves were the order of the day, and woe-betide the child who removed a single item of clothing. There were no padded, waterproof all-in-one suits. No easy-wash, easy-iron fabrics. Nor were there washing machines or tumble dryers, except for the very wealthy few. Instead clothes were washed by hand or, in the case of white items, in a boiler. before being hand wrung or passed through a hand cranked wringer, and then hung out to dry if the weather was fine, or draped around the house if it was raining. Depending on where people lived this could result in crisp white sheets smelling of sunshine, or soot flecked bedding courtesy of coal fires and steam trains.
Shopping had to be done almost daily, although milk and bread were delivered to most people, and some had groceries delivered too. The majority did their own shopping, however, carrying it in string bags or in paper carrier bags, often for long distances while the string handles cut into fingers and palms, leaving red weals and temporarily cutting off the blood supply.
Of course it wasn't all bad...in fact none of the above was bad because it was what people were used to. Cooking was always from scratch with most of the ingredients grown or sourced locally, and it was all seasonal. Sprouts, cabbage and root vegetables in the winter, peas, beans, salads and tomatoes in the summer. Nothing was frozen. If peas were needed then they had to be podded by hand (usually a child's job) and it was the same with fruit. Gooseberries, apples, pears, plums, rhubarb, black and redcurrants, cherries, strawberries and raspberries were all plentiful in season but there were few bananas or oranges, and nothing exotic at all. Pies and puddings were made by hand, and cakes were mixed the hard way with a bowl and wooden spoon.
Few people owned cars. Instead they used buses and trams or cycled or walked. Hardly anyone travelled by plane. Instead long journeys were by sea, taking the length of time only the rich could afford, or the very poor who were sailing away in search of a better life in.
Entertainment consisted of card and board games, word games, charades and guessing games, reading, jigsaw puzzles and the radio. A lucky few had what was then called a gramophone where they could play scratchy sounding records, and in houses with a piano there would be musical evenings where everyone sang. Screen time was visiting the cinema to see whatever film was playing that week. There was no choice. It was also the only time anyone saw a curated newsreel of happenings around the world. Consequently daily newspapers were the lifeline of almost every house. They were eagerly read from cover to cover and then used to light the fire before the coal was added, or to wrap rubbish before it went into the trashcan.
I could go on about compost heaps, collecting horse droppings from the street to feed the roses, growing more vegetables than flowers, making jam from surplus fruit, buying everything loose from potatoes to biscuits because there was no plastic packaging. Instead it was cellophane, waxed paper or cardboard. String instead of cellotape.
Very few people had telephones and as there were no mobile phones, messages were either written and sent by post or, if they were urgent, by telegram, both of which entailed a visit to a post office and quite possibly a long wait in a queue.
Of course, in memory, the summers were glorious with day after day of sunshine, and children had the sort of freedom few can imagine now. Days spent collecting frog spawn from muddy ponds, picking huge bunches of wild flowers, climbing trees, building dens in the woods, chasing butterflies, lunch often no more than bread and butter and an apple.
Living this way took a lot of effort and energy and most women toiled from morning to night shopping, cleaning, washing, ironing and cooking. There were very few households with children where both parents worked, and even fewer households with paid help. Instead men (and it was nearly always men) mowed the grass, dug the garden, grew vegetables, filled the coal buckets, collected and chopped wood, and mended things. Nothing was thrown out. Not a screw or a nail or a piece of string. They were kept in jars and tins until they were needed to patch up a fence or fix a loose broom head or mend or make a toy. Clothes too were never wasted. Worn out underwear was torn into rags for dusters and wash cloths, knitwear was unraveled and the wool rolled into balls and used again, frayed shirt collars were turned, and worn sheets cut down the middle so the strong sides could be sewn together again.
A lucky few had sewing machines but much was done by hand, including making clothes, especially baby clothes. And looking after babies was a whole new ball game because every single cotton nappy had to be washed and dried whatever the weather, so 24 nappies flapping on a clothes line was a common sight winter and summer. The clothes too were all either wool or cotton, nothing was easy wash and dry, and almost everything from bonnets to sheets had to be ironed. And in a time when few people owned steam irons this sometimes meant sprinkling water over over-dry sheets or shirts, rolling them up and waiting until they were damp again. Using a wet cloth over the top of a very dry item was another trick but even this was difficult in the houses that still didn't have electricity. Houses where a heavy iron had to be heated over a fire before it could be used. Houses that still relied on candles and gas lights. Houses where the radio would only work if the battery was replaced every week, which entailed a long walk to the nearest shop that would recharge it.
Until I started writing this I had forgotten quite how much things have changed in the past 70 or so years. I had forgotten, too, what it would be like to live without foreign holidays, exotic food, and instant access to family living halfway across the world thanks to the Internet, computers and mobile phones. Are future generations going to be content with buying less, travelling less, no exotic holidays, giving up the convenience of cars and the comfort of central heating, air conditioning, man-made comfortable easy-wash clothing, out of season food, convenience meals...as I said before, the list is endless. Or are we all going to hope that the scientists have got it right and that there are technological ways out of our growing dilemma of climate change?
Part of my book Remembering Rose is set in an even earlier time when life was harder still but when the fields were still full of a multitude of wild flowers, when songbirds and wildlife were much more plentiful than they are nowadays, and when horses were a common form of transport. How times have changed...and will keep on changing...
