Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Back to 1965 for a Bit

The photo from Waitrose Weekend of the opening of their Henley shop in 1965, by which time Mr Waite's name had lost its final E to fit neatly with Mr Rose's, is fascinating. It makes me realise that the 1960s, looking back, are almost indistinguishable from the 1950s. The prices are in shillings and pence per pound weight, the coats haven't changed much since the war, most women wear hats outdoors and everyone is happy to leave children unattended, albeit in massive prams, outside a shop. All men are at work? Or at home not shopping? If you wanted to phone someone you needed a call box. Nobody had any computer power in their pocket. No microwave meals could be purchased. Dishwasher powder probably hadn't an aisle to itself yet, nor 'foreign' food. The idea of fair trade was a way off. We need to remind ourselves how innovative simply being a supermarket was in those days and, for my part, congratulate Waitrose on still doing so many simple things well.


1 comment:

RuthJ said...

Agree. I was really surprised to see so many women wearing hats - like you I'd have said that was a more 50s thing. By 1965 my mother no longer wore a hat to church, for example. We did have a dishwasher but we were very much in the minority.