>>>>>>>>OTOH, my junior high was on shifts. The morning shift (which was all the 7th grades and the 8th graders who were going to go to a high school for 9th grade) started at 7 and finished at noon.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Not much provision there for parents being at work
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Yeah, well, this was the late 60's when most moms were at home. Besides that, it was junior high (grades 7-9, ages roughly 12-15, though I was a lot younger), so in theory, these kids could be home on their own.
>>>>>
>>>>>Oh well you all had maids back then anyway! :-)
>>>>
>>>>Maybe you did. We sure didn't. To be exact, at one point in my childhood, we did have a woman named Margaret who came about once a week to clean house. Other than that, we never had any household help.
>>>
>>>We did!? Why in many of the old B&W sit-coms from back in the 50s and 60s, and films, the guy went out to work, pipe in mouth, the "little lady" stayed home, with her pinny on, and the coloured maid came in :-) Tom & Jerry's household always had a maid (well a fat behind and stockings down at her ankles was all we saw of her!)
>>
>>But remember, the definitive family - the Cleavers. June did her own housework. She wore a party dress and pearls to do it, of course, but she did it herself. Ward always wore a tie and jacket at home. The jacket had the obligatory elbow patches.
>
>Don't think that ever made it over here - unless the show isn't named after the family.

It was 'Leave it to Beaver'. There was also 'Father Knows Best' in which mother usually knew best, but they dressed much the same way. That was, if memory serves, Jane Wyatt and Robert Young as the Andersons.

>
>Funny, I was just thinking of Mr Ed, and his next-door neighbour always called him "Post" (never Mr). Seems they were stuffy times back then when you're not even on 1st name terms with a neighbour. Reminds me of the teachers back in Grammar school.
>
>Oh, just remembered that old sit-com with the Applegates in it? "Gold dubloons and pieces of 8, pieces of 8, pieces of 8 ..."
>Was it "The Applegate Treasure"?
>
>>
>>>
>>>During the 70s, when my mum was a successful hairdresser, we did have a "daily" came in a few days a week to do some chores.
>>>But not back in the struggling 50s and 60s.
>>>
>>>>
>>>>I, otoh, have had someone to clean my house most of my adult life. Once I realized that I could earn in an hour or so what it costs, there was no reason not to.
>>>>
>>>>Tamar