In the 1950s, housewives (and the very occasional househusband!) in Scotland would write into The Sunday Post with tips on running a household. Some of those inventive, sometimes baffling tips were collated into a series of books and now a podcast which asks: are these tips useful to today’s householders?
Pass It On: funny, fascinating and useful retro household tips from the 1950s
Household tips from the 1950s – often funny, sometimes delightfully dated and dubious, occasionally even useful! Always fascinating.
Listen on:
Episodes
Wednesday Jun 12, 2019
Wednesday Jun 12, 2019
Steve works through his fear of white vinegar to talk Chris and Connie through its many uses. Perplexed by post-war Scotland’s hatred of flies, the trio explore how vinegar was used on floors, glue, and jam. That is, if they don’t get distracted by the prospect of fish and chips.
Remember, you can get 20% off the Pass It On books themselves – stuffed with thousand of tips! – at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, using the discount code ‘podcast’ at checkout; that code is valid till 28 August 2019! Let us know what you think of the show at twitter.com/ThePassItOnPod or facebook.com/PassItOnTips, and if you know anyone who’d enjoy the podcast as much as you do – pass it on!
Wednesday Jun 12, 2019
Wednesday Jun 12, 2019
More than 50 years ago, a Scottish newspaper called The Sunday Post started a little column where readers, usually women, could write in with tips for running a household. We recently rediscovered these in our archives, and have been republishing them as a series of books; the tips are often funny, sometimes delightfully dated and dubious, occasionally even useful! But they’re always fascinating, as a capsule of social history, forgotten knowledge, gender expectations and more.
Welcome, then, to the Pass It On podcast, where we really dig into all that! Connie is the host – the modern equivalent of the generation who wrote into Pass It On – and she’s joined by the author of the books, Steve, who’s of a generation to remember these tips in use. Between them in age is Chris, and though the tips themselves are our starting point, they're just an excuse to explore changing attitudes to housekeeping, gender equality, privilege, thrift, throwaway culture, and more – we hope you enjoy it whatever age you are or wherever in the world you live, and that you subscribe now to join us as we discover, talk and learn!
As a special thank you for listening to the podcast, you can get 20% off the Pass It On books themselves – stuffed with thousand of tips! – at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, using the discount code ‘podcast’ at checkout; that code is valid till 28 August 2019. Let us know what you think of the show at twitter.com/ThePassItOnPod or facebook.com/PassItOnTips, and if you know anyone who’d enjoy the podcast as much as you do – pass it on!
Monday May 06, 2019
Monday May 06, 2019
The Pass It On column was a little bit of genius more than 50 years ago in The Sunday Post, a newspaper published in Scotland by DC Thomson. Readers would write in with household tips, such as how to get furniture dents out of carpets, how to dust behind an immovable wardrobe and – my personal favourite – how to get a dent out of a ping-pong ball.
My name is Steve Finan, and I couldn’t help but be struck by how these tips tell you so much about the people making their homes in the 1950s – about what they valued, about their pride, about their inventiveness – and so we collected them into a book.
Now we’re making a podcast about these tips, and the thrifty, endlessly creative people who came up with them. Hosting – and keeping me in my place! – is Connie Fleming. Connie’s a young, modern woman who has just bought her first house, so we’re going to see what she makes of the wisdom – or otherwise! – of her forebears. It’s all very useful and informative, apart from the bits that are absolutely irrelevant.
To make sure you don’t miss a moment, subscribe to the show now wherever you find your podcasts!