The Baby Boomer Generation Read Online Free PDF Page B

was introduced together with a flat rate fee of £1 for any dental treatment. In 1956, prescription charges were reviewed again and thereafter patients had to pay 1 s for each item that appeared on a prescription form.
    The overall pace of life in Britain was much slower than it is today, with buses and bicycles being the most popular modes of transport. In 1952, there were no motorways in the UK and only 2.5 million cars on the road (compared to 26 million in 2011), with most working-class families relying on public transport for any long journeys. We frequently walked rather than use buses, and the majority of schoolchildren walked to school on their own each day. Street crime was quite low and we felt it was safe to walk the streets, even at night. The total number of all crimes recorded by the police in 1952 was about 10% of the number reported in 2010. People were more inclined to report crime back then because the police were more likely to investigate anything that was reported to them. It was also quite legal for anyone to carry a knife and it was common practice for young schoolboys to have a penknife in their pocket, but such penknives were regarded as tools rather than weapons. Children had great respect for their elders but at the same time their disciplined upbringing also made them slightly fearful of adults, especially of anyone in authority. You never heard stories of old ladies getting mugged in the street for their pension money. It would have been hard to comprehend such a wicked crime being carried out back then. As young kids, we were all told not to talk to strangers but we never heard of any children being abducted. We would secretly carve our initials into tree trunks and on park benches, but there was no such thing as graffiti as we now know it and there was very little else in the way of vandalism. Mobile phones didn’t exist and few people had a telephone installed at home because it was really expensive to have one and it was considered a luxury item. They would normally only be found in business premises and in some well-off households. The majority of people used public telephone boxes when they needed to make a call and for most that was not very often, the preferred method of communication being letters and postcards. If you did need to use a telephone then you rarely had to walk far to find a public phone box; when you did, the telephone would be in working order with a pay-box full of pennies and not looted. Each box was fully glazed with a light inside so you could read the telephone directories that were stored next to the telephone. The boxes were completely enclosed and weatherproof with heavy spring-closing doors, and they were capable of holding two people (or six kids as all baby boomers will know). Inside, they may have smelt a bit musty or damp but there was no smell of urine and you were very unlikely to find anyone sleeping in them.
    As children, we spent as much time as possible playing outside in the fresh air and we were quite healthy, but we still got all of the usual childhood illnesses and we lived in fear of catching dreadful diseases like polio, diphtheria and tuberculosis (or TB as it was generally known). There was no such thing as children’s rights and we were expected to obey any rules that were imposed upon us without question. We were taught that children should be seen and not heard and it was common practise for us to be physically punished for any wrongdoings, and not just by our parents; anyone in authority, such as a policeman or park warden, would give us a clip around the ear if they caught us up to mischief. Most of the painful beatings were done at school as corporal punishment was still lawful, and teachers were allowed to used various flogging tools to beat you with, including the traditional school cane and a leather strap with its serious end split into a number of tails to provide that extra-painful whipping action; some favoured the use of a