It used to be different

Yes, it used to be different back in the old days. Well, actually, back in the not so old days too, for that matter.

In Britain even in the 1960s and 1970s, perhaps even into the 1980s, things were done in a certain way.

For example even families who did not attend church would insist that their children would wear their Sunday best clothing and they were generally not allowed to play out on a Sunday, so the streets of suburbia were, in general, fairly quiet.

To paraphrase the old Victorian aphorism “Children should not be seen (out on the streets) and they should not be heard, anywhere.

Every Sunday most families enjoyed (or endured, take your pick!) a traditional Sunday dinner which often took place mid-afternoon.

The meal (roast potatoes, vegetables, Yorkshire pudding and a meat, beef, lamb or pork, or chicken for those who couldn’t afford a more expensive cut of meat) was prepared to the strains of BBC Comedy programmes on the wireless (Beyond Our Ken, Round the Horne, The Navy Lark, The Clitheroe Kid and the like.

And eaten –with everyone round the dining table- to the programme designed to keep those at home in touch with far-flung outposts of the British Empire (sorry! Commonwealth!) on Two-Way Family Favourites, with links designed to keep British overseas military personal in touch with those back home in the United Kingdom.

Afterwards the family might watch some television –though some families eschewed watching television on a Sunday- or playing board games.

There was also something that occurred every November that doesn’t happen today. Nobody, anywhere, would have a Bonfire Night party on Sunday November 5th. Such a thing would have been anathema to the neighbours and would have resulted in social ostracisation for the family.

Instead, anyone hosting a Bonfire Night party would stage it on Saturday 4th of November instead. I cannot recall when this ceased to be the norm, but the change to having Bonfire night parties on Sunday November 5th seemed to be a rather rapid change.

And the Sunday Trading Act made sure that there was very little shopping on a Sunday.

The result was that Sundays in Britain were remarkably quiet and fairly peaceable affairs.

But now, children no longer wear their Sunday best on a Sunday, they play out, Sunday dinner is now eaten on the laps in front of the telly, Sunday Trading laws means that Sunday is now, pretty much, just like any other day of the week.

It’s different, but is it better? Probably not.