evocative pictures from history

NJA

20

Manchester 1961 (both)

Can you explain why the streets are so clean?
Can you see the seeds of change?

Reply 1

CCCU Official

Official Rep

18

The streets may seem cleaner due to the lack of modern issues such as increased use of chewing gum, public smoking &c. It’s worth considering that product packaging and attitudes to littering were different; however, without writing a massive essay with references (we all love referencing), I will allude to social perception and Monty Python’s Meaning of Life. 😉

Reply 2

NJA

OP

20

Original post by CCCU Official

The streets may seem cleaner due to the lack of modern issues such as increased use of chewing gum, public smoking &c. It’s worth considering that product packaging and attitudes to littering were different; however, without writing a massive essay with references (we all love referencing), I will allude to social perception and Monty Python’s Meaning of Life. 😉

Gum chewing is probably more now than '61 but smoking is definitely less!
The issue is attitudes to littering . . . people lived more parochially, so you had to get along and be sociable. The general ownership of motor cars and growth in social mobility reduced this so people no longer cared so much what their neighbours thought, or how clean their immediate environment was .. . but "toucha-my-car-I-smasha-your-face"