francene--blog. Year 2013
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March 11th

3/11/2013

 
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www.examiner.com
The general lifestyle survey, taken in the U.K. forty years ago shows up some remarkable changes. Things we take for granted were not common then. See the full story here.

One household in ten had an outside flushing toilet and many had no toilet at all. Things have changed since then with nearly every home including an indoor toilet.

The head of the household was always a man because it was assumed he earned the most money. The other person, the housewife, answered separate questions. The terminology for the person who earned the most changed in 2000 to household reference person, regardless of gender. The term housewife which was defined as 'the person in the household responsible for most of the domestic duties' disappeared from the survey entirely from 1981.


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www.telegraph.co.uk
The 1971 survey queried the availability of hot running water, termed as a bath, in the home. Showers were not even considered. Nine percent did not have a bath. The latest figures show nearly everyone has a bath or shower now.

Surveys about different ethnic origin used the term colored. Britain was still a very white country in the seventies. Only one out of a hundred sample surveys were marked colored, the term last used in 1986. The 2011 Census found that seven out of a hundred were Asian/Asian British, three percent were Black/African/Caribbean/Black British and two out of a hundred were from mixed/ multiple ethnic groups.


The issue of women smoking while pregnant was not included. Now considered important to the unborn child's health, eight percent of surveyed pregnant woman were smokers.

The occurrence of couples living together has changed drastically. The cohabiting option was first introduced into the main household information section in 1986. Between 1979 and 2011 the percentage of women who were cohabiting tripled, from 1 percent in 1979 to 34 percent in 2011.

Less than half the households possessed a telephone in 1972. Now, nearly all households include a landline or mobile. In 2000, 58 percent had a mobile. Now, 86 percent do.

Back in the seventies, 34 percent of people did not own a washing machine, either using laundrettes or hand washing. Today, just 4 percent do not have their own washing machine.


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I'm the woman on the right, bending to include my small daughter.
At the age of twenty nine (you'd be surprised at how difficult that was to work out), I lived in Adelaide, South Australia. After his after his nervous breakdown in 1972, I moved my husband and three children to a little fishing village, where he recuperated. The wonderful old cottage we settled in contained all the conveniences mentioned above—except for the mobile phone. I happily cooked on an old iron wood stove and cleared the yard to lay out a vegetable garden. After several years, I used the front room for its original purpose one hundred years before—a shop. However, I replaced the type from butcher, to craft shop. With a back to the earth lifestyle, our outlook enthusiastic and I supervised my children to grow up free from the trappings of society.

Where did you reside in the early seventies?


Charlotte Henley Babb link
3/10/2013 09:45:31 pm

I lived in a rental house surrounded by cow pasture. We were on an 8-party telephone line (you had to listen for a dial tone to make sure none of the other 8 households were using the line) and we had to join an electric coop for electricity. We did have running water, but no TV. We had two cars, a 1954 Jeep station wagon and a 1946 plymouth coup. Not exactly high cotton.

Francene Stanley link
3/11/2013 01:06:14 am

Wow! A party line. How the world has changed. We should wonder if the change is for the better.


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    Author

    Francene Stanley, author of many published novels. If you like my writing, why not consider purchasing one of my books? You'll see them on the sidebar below.
    Born in Australia, I moved to Britain half way through my long life.

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