Did you have a radio when you were younger and if so could you describe it for me?

Yes we had a radio. The very first set I can remember was a set that my father put together himself which was terribly exciting, it revolutionised the whole of our family life really. Then we graduated to a proper radio, a Bakelite set and this was the treat of the week when we were allowed to listen to Bandwagon on Saturday night. All pre-war programmes, but it was terribly exciting. We thought nothing could be better than that. It was just entertainment in the home for us for the first time from an outside source.

How many times a week did you listen to it? I mean was a just a Sunday thing, like many households?

It was a Sunday night,and then when the war came there was the news always that we would listen to, and there was the Nine O'Clock News. And my sister and I used to lie in bed listening to all the national anthems of all the various countries in the war. And when it came to our national anthem we would lie straight as a die in bed but we always listened to the news, but that was the war, a major part of our listening really.

Apart from the war can you remember any big events that you heard first of the radio?

It was Bandwagon. At first it was very mixed and it was only bits and pieces. I think that might have been due to my father's crystal set. But just to hear a voice coming out of the machine was so exciting, it really was and that you had some sort of control over it, little compared to now action had some sort of control over it.

What, were you allowed to touch it or was that your dad only?

No we weren't allowed. Only dad did and that of course curtailed our listening to some extent. When we got a proper set we could, but we never really sat and listened to it as children on our own, it was a family group that we would listen to it. A real sort of social evening to listen to the radio on a Saturday night.

Were you the first people in your street to get a radio or were you aware of others?

No, no I think it would the have been approximately at the same time as we lived in a cul-de-sac with all the same sort of houses and I would think that there would have been others at the same time.

Really, so it was not like the community thing, like where you heard stories that families came in just to listen to the radio or something, did that happen?

No, nothing like that. It was definitely just a family thing for us.

So did your radio become obsolete when you got a TV?

Well I didn't have a TV when I was a child, of course.

You didn't?

No, well I'm 71 now, and I'm talking at the moment about pre-war, and then the war came. I did see a television set during the war in somebody's house but it was green. I did see a television set from maybe '49, '50 but then I'd go and look at it in someone's house. We didn't have one until about 40 years ago. But it was great excitement to be invited around to someone else's house and when the others were there we would sit around and refreshments would be brought and the exciting thing that I always found, though, was if there were plays on they would always done on the spot, so I was always interested in the quick changing of clothes and sound effects. And if someone fell in the water and got wet hair how they could possibly get it dry so quickly for the next scene in ten minutes, but I found it just so exciting.

Could you describe what sort of thing that you used watch, what we're favourite programmes ?

Well, by the time we had a television I had children. I saw Coronation Street I think the first time we had ours and then it was Robin Hood for the children and children's programmes but it was fairly limited to begin with.

Yes it was like one channel wasn't it?

Yes and was finished at 10pm, then they played the national anthem. But on the whole it was for the children, we'd never think of looking at it in the daytime, it never occurred to us, and I'm not even sure it was on in the daytime. It might have just been evening. I'm not sure about that. Maybe from six o'clock news onwards or something like that.

Presumably you got a TV when you were an adult. Were you able to work it and tune it and work all the switches?

Oh I see, you mean right from the start. Oh no. After a bit I knew what not to touch, but I couldn't have installed it myself. In fact I suppose it was the person who brought it. I believe we rented it at first so I think he came in and did it all for us.

Right, yes, because not everyone could afford it. They started off really expensive didn't they?

And then they came down in price. Yes that's why we rented it. I think it was from Radio Rentals. No that's it. I mean it was 40 years ago which isn't that long ago really, not to me, just to you. But it was very exciting and of course it helped so much in entertaining the children, it was something for them to look forward to. There was Andy Pandy and things like that so it must have been in the afternoon. Then maybe it would go off and come on again for children's hour and then the news.

Would you let your children work the TV?

No. It was very precious and they weren't allowed really near it or to touch it. Which is quite a contrast to my grandchildren, you know, because they do everything. They tell me how to use it.

Yes, I suppose if you are brought up with technology you can work anything, but if it's all really new to you then it's harder.

Yes, yes they can do everything. I'm still at the first stage.

Right. Okay so let's talk about washing machines now. What affect did it have on your life when you first got one, and when did you get one?

Yes and it must have been about 45 years ago my husband was working in a school and we had a boarding house. We only had five boys in this boarding house but because I did the washing, what I got for doing the washing I could used to buy a washing machine with. So I got a twin tub at the time which was wonderful. I thought there could be nothing better you know, all my problems were solved with this twin washer which took rather a long time actually, and you used to have to watch it all the time. But before that I'd boil things, white things.

Presumably that would take a long time?

Yes. On top of the stove or in a little boiler and then mangle it and hang it out on the line. So a washing machine was bliss.

So it had a big effect?

Yes it was wonderful.

Was it the same thing with central heating?

In the houses we lived up until '62 we had no central heating at all. And some of the houses I've lived in were very big so we just had coal fires or those stoves in, and I can well remember coming down in the morning on a cold morning and finding the dish cloth in the kitchen actually frozen hard, and you actually, in some of the houses I've lived in, almost think of putting your coat on when you went out of the sitting-room across the hall to the kitchen, it would be so cold.

What affect did it have when you eventually got central heating? Did you really notice it?

I thought it was heaven. I didn't have to do anything, I didn't have to get coal in, I'd just turn a switch or whatever and it was on. I missed the fire, I missed the flames of a fire, something alive in the room, very much, but it was more than compensated because it was so much cleaner and simpler to use. I'm not sure I like the atmosphere of central heating very much. I like to have the windows open, I mean to me this room is far too warm and I'm sure you find it so. And I find that sort of heat a bit deadening. There is no sort of drought. So I usually have the windows open in my flat because I prefer it that way. It gets stale and stagnant.

Okay, so let's talk about telephones now then, getting even more up-to-date. Do you remember when you first got a telephone? And can you describe what kind of affect it had on the way day-to-day things happened in your life?

When we got a telephone it was placed in the hall, but it was very rarely used. I think my mother used it quite a lot to chat to her friends. My sister and I weren't really allowed to use it very often but it wouldn't ring much. It was awkward in the hall so you couldn't really have a chat. The whole house could hear, and there was nowhere to sit, but I suppose my mother must have ordered things from the shops and things like that. But I didn't really use it a lot. Maybe later on to ring my school friends, to see if they'd done their homework.

Same as it is today then really.

But it was very limited and you wouldn't think of staying long on the phone. At least we didn't.

How did pricing work?

I really can't remember.

Because some of them you put money in before you phoned?

No we didn't have that. I can't remember about pricing or thinking whether it was, as a child obviously I wouldn't, but when we were first married it was really quite an expensive item. And we had a job where we just had to have a phone, that was quite a big drain on resources.

So it was really a novelty item. You weren't as excited about it as you were with your television?

No, I think I felt a bit better than anyone else in our little cul-de-sac because I think we were first to get one so I was a bit sort of proud.

So no one else came down to use it or anything?

No, my father wouldn't have allowed that, but it was a bit of one-upmanship I think, social status, which I quite enjoyed. I don't think we were allowed to use it much. It was almost like an ornament in some sense. You'd know the house had a telephone, of course, you'd have the wires going overhead, so everybody knew.

Yes, social status!

Absolutely, yes. It's like having a car parked outside your front door in these days. It was quite a status thing.

That follows on nicely with cars. What are your first memories of cars or being in a car?

One of my first memories of being in a car was sitting in the "dickie". Do you know what a "dickie" is in a car?

No

At the back of the car where the boot is you pull the back down and there was another seat outside the car. And sitting in that, and that was exciting. But we didn't actually have a car is a family ourselves as a child, but we went about in other people's cars quite a bit. But we loved sitting in the "dickie". It was so dangerous when you think about it. But of course there was no traffic, or very little traffic, on the roads and we would cycle everywhere anyway. Everybody cycled. There were very few cars, so it was quite exciting to go in somebody's car. And I can remember that often the driver had to get to the top of the hill and then switch off the engine as we went downhill to save on the petrol and then switch on again at the bottom. I drove quite late, I started when I was 30, so I can't compare it with anything in my childhood.

So you got your first car at 30?

Yes, because of the job we were doing, and then after that I drove up until about two years ago. But when I go to London now I think, what was I thinking?.

Was getting a car like a status symbol?

No, it worried me to death. If I had to drive the family anywhere I used to not get any sleep the night before because it worried me so much that I couldn't control it enough, the anxiety level was very high. I miss the independence though. I think I was nervous because I hadn't been brought up with cars and I miss the independence.

.Can you remember your first gramophone?

Yes, a radiogram. Fantastic! I was allowed to use it and I used to write down the names of the songs on paper on when the records wore out we used to make hideous vases out of them. But I was trusted with a gramophone but not the radio. The radiograms were huge but to us they were amazing.

When did you get a microwave?

About 20 years ago, maybe 18, it saved lots of time as I was out at work, and because I had a family as well, and Marks & Spencer's had convenience food so I thought they were useful. I've only got a small one now because I'm on my own. You don't have to worry about food drying out or going stale because you can just microwave it so it's extremely handy. I still feel a bit anxious about a microwave. I don't know why, perhaps I fear it's giving off something, but that revolutionised things, dear me! Along with gadgets to make things easier.

Did electric irons and things like that have the same effect?

Yes but a slow impact, it's convenient but you can do without. All these things make life easier but it leaves a hole doesn't it, a big gap. I've always had a Hoover, I have an obsession with Hoovers!

When did you first get one?

When I was first married because I'm quite an allergic person so I needed one. Really I was allergic to house dust and I have always wanted the best ones.

How many Hoovers have you had?

A lot. At least 20.

Can you see any parallels between the computer having effect on our lives and TVs having an effect on yours?

Yes I can, because although radio and TV looks small now to us it was big and magic and I feel the computer is taking over in the same way for young people because it's a bit frightening as its really taking over.

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