In the Olden Days...

This post is pure nostalgia. I just watched Snow White, the 1937 Disney version. I reckon I was about 4 when I last saw it. I'm 71 now. Back then, the early 1950s, a lot of folk didn't have a TV. And  it was in black and white anyway. If you wanted colour, you had to go to the cinema. Not a problem where I lived - in Govan - because there at least 4 movie houses within walking distance of our street. 

And there was none of this nonsense about only going to see the latest movie. I reckon Glasgow people happily paid to see the same films for years. (Who else saw Imitation of Life at regular intervals?) 

There was a system for the movies for wee kids: on Saturday morning, all the wee kids who wanted to go to the movies gathered in Copland Road and were led by a group of 'big girls' along Govan Road to whichever movie house the big girls wanted to go to. Nobody asked us what we wanted to see. Just if we had our money to get in. 

I've no idea how many wee kids were in the crocodile that set off every week. A lot. I do know the big girls never lost anybody. They were all about 13 or 14 and very strict. Years of practice in large families. I'll bet they made terrific mothers. 

The films that stick with me are Snow White and Cinderella. Apparently, I got so excited at Cinderella I jumped up shouting: 'Stop, stop! You've dropped your shoe!'

I had a Snow White pop-up storybook and a Cinderella wind-up doll who danced. (I remember Cinderella had a glittery pale blue dress). I wouldn't let anyone else play with them - in fact, I don't remember ever taking them out of the house. I've been looking at the price of Disney memorabilia from that time and I reckon my mother must have sweated blood to buy those things for me. 

After Disney, she moved me on to Louisa May Alcott and Susan Coolidge. If you haven't read them, please do. These books are basic primers for feminists!  

I was lucky in the family I was born into. We were far from well-off but we had books in the house, newspapers every day, magazines and comics every week, trips to the local library. We had radio. My grandfather (Pop) was blind but made radios by touch. I still love radio. You haven't lived if you've missed Round the Horne, Beyond Our Ken and the Navy Lark ('left-hand down a bit'). 

Eventually, we got a TV. My father said we only got it so my granny (who lived in the next close) could watch the show-jumping and the horse-racing - which she loved, though I doubt if she was ever anywhere near a horse in her life. Eventually, we had colour TV and - o mirabile dictu! - a TV with a remote control, so you no longer had the oldies telling you any time you wandered through the livingroom: 'See when you're on your feet, goany switch that to ITV?!' Maybe there's some truth in the story that this was the only reason some people had children.

Even now, I admit that TV is not my preferred source of entertainment. I especially loathe 'reality TV'. My family called it 'Getting the paying public to do your job for you.' But movies, radio, books - bring them on!