Pass It On: funny, fascinating and useful retro household tips from the 1950s

Connie, Steve and Chris come together – in person, this time, for the first time in six months – to hear Steve’s top five tips from the Pass It On books, pick out their favourite moments from series one, and release some previously unheard footage from the recording of the first episode. We’ve so loved having you join us! If you’ve enjoyed this odd little podcast, remember you can still buy the books it’s based on, packed with thousands of ingenious, fascinating and occasionally bonkers tips from housewives in Scotland in the 1950s and beyond. Pass It On & Pass It On Cooking: https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/books/non-fiction/pass-it-on-household-cooking-tips-lpas2 The Doc Replies: https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/books/non-fiction/the-doc-replies

It’s the penultimate episode of Pass It On, but there’s no end of weird and wonderful tips from the 50s to discuss. Why, for example, would you need to know the best technique to post a chicken?

It’s the second part to Steve’s baking tips extravaganza, but he’s left with egg on his face (rather than in the bowl), and Connie and Chris spend far too long thinking about eating condensed milk straight from the can. We’ve extended the discount code – which gives you 20% off the Pass It On books at dcthomsonshop.co.uk just by entering ‘darning’ at checkout – to 30 June 2020. You can help us make a case for a second series by buying the books and telling your friends to listen to season one of this podcast; book sales and downloads of the podcast help us prove that our kind, interesting little experiment is loved and wanted – and isn’t that all anybody wants?

Steve comes over all Mary Berry in this episode, as he shares tips from Sunday Post readers all about baking. And we discover Connie’s horror of cinnamon. We’re nearly at the end of our first year of publishing these podcasts, and when we hit our 52nd episode, we’ll be mothballing it for a little while – we think the fifties housewives would approve! We’ve extended the discount code – which gives you 20% off the Pass It On books at dcthomsonshop.co.uk just by entering ‘darning’ at checkout – to 30 June 2020. You can help us make a case for a second series by buying the books and telling your friends to listen to season one of this podcast; book sales and downloads of the podcast help us prove that our kind, interesting little experiment is loved and wanted – and isn’t that all anybody wants?

Steve shares tips from the 50s on keeping kids occupied – and to Connie and Chris’s delight, they’re brilliant! We’re nearly at the end of our first year of publishing these podcasts, and when we hit our last episode in Spring of 2020, we’ll be mothballing it for a little while – we think the fifties housewives would approve! We’ve extended the discount code – which gives you 20% off the Pass It On books at dcthomsonshop.co.uk just by entering ‘darning’ at checkout – to 30 June 2020. You can help us make a case for a second series by buying the books and telling your friends to listen to season one of this podcast; book sales and downloads of the podcast help us prove that our kind, interesting little experiment is loved and wanted – and isn’t that all anybody wants?

With lots of folks taking up knitting and other crafts at home, Steve thought it was time we took another stab – not literally – at knitting tips from the Pass It On books. We’re nearly at the end of our first year of publishing these podcasts, and when we hit our last episode towards the end of May 2020, we’ll be mothballing it for a little while – we think the fifties housewives would approve! We’ve extended the discount code – which gives you 20% off the Pass It On books at dcthomsonshop.co.uk just by entering ‘darning’ at checkout – to 30 June 2020. You can help us make a case for a second series by buying the books and telling your friends to listen to season one of this podcast; book sales and downloads of the podcast help us prove that our kind, interesting little experiment is loved and wanted – and isn’t that all anybody wants?

Once again recording from our respective – and respectable – homes, we thought we’d dig into some cleaning tips from the 50s, since we’re all frantically swabbing every available surface. Or at least, will be after Steve’s tip about playing cards. The discount code for the Pass It On books, giving you 20% off at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, is now ‘darning’; it’s valid till 20 May 2020, and you just need to enter it at checkout! Chat to us 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!

The last time Connie, Steve and Chris were together, we promised you that the next episode would be filled with sewing tips. But then again, the last time we were all together, the world was in a very different place. And now so are we, literally; this episode was recorded from Connie, Steve and Chris’s respective homes, and while we do get to some sewing tips, first, we took the chance to chat and catch up with each other. Stay safe, and if you’d like something to entertain and amuse you while you’re home, remember that the discount code which gives you 20% off the Pass It On books at dcthomsonshop.co.uk is now ‘darning’; it’s valid till 20 May 2020, and you just need to enter it at checkout! Chat to us 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!

In this unusual episode for these unusual times, Chris is joined from Seattle by Glenn Fleishman, whose response to the current disruption has been to write and release a free book to help anyone who finds themselves working from home for the first time. Glenn shares the tips he’s learned over years of home working, as well as the expertise from his network of friends and colleagues; we’re sharing them here in case they‘re useful to you or your friends and family. And never fear – Connie and Steve will be back soon, but you may just have to forgive some slightly ropey audio quality! To download get Glenn’s book, free, for Kindle, iBooks, PDF and more, visit https://www.takecontrolbooks.com/working-from-home/

In this episode, we let fate decide what tips we pick out of the Pass It On books. Well, Connie, but that’s roughly the same thing. You can follow along at home if you have a copy, and if you don’t, remember that the discount code, giving you 20% off the Pass It On books at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, is now ‘darning’; it’s valid till 20 May 2020, and you just need to enter it at checkout! Chat to us 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!

Steve is determined to put a smile on Connie’s, Chris’s, and even your face with this selection of awww-worthy tips from The Sunday Post in the 1950s – but it’s he who ends the episode laughing so hard he can’t go on! The discount code, giving you 20% off the Pass It On books at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, is now ‘darning’; it’s valid till 20 May 2020, and you just need to enter it at checkout! Chat to us 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!

We go full nostalgia this episode, as Steve picks tips that remind him of things he misses from his childhood. Mushy veg, being cold, and lots more make the cut – much to Connie’s irritation! The discount code, giving you 20% off the Pass It On books at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, is now ‘darning’; it's valid till 20 May 2020, and you just need to enter it at checkout! Chat to us 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!

Steve challenges Connie and Chris to present him with some modern equivalents of the life hacks that the Pass In On housewives sent into The Sunday Post in the 1950s. Little do they know, he’ll be scoring them – and his own. Who do you think will win? The discount code, giving you 20% off the Pass It On books at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, is now ‘darning’; it's valid till 20 May 2020, and you just need to enter it at checkout! Chat to us 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!

Steve introduces us to the most prolific Pass It On-er. So prolific that, not only don’t we get to cover all her tips she submitted to The Sunday Post in this episode, but that Steve couldn’t even include them all in his books which we base the podcast on! The discount code for those books, incidentally, giving you 20% off them at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, is now ‘darning’; it's valid till 20 May 2020, and you just need to enter it at checkout! Chat to us 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!

Steve promises a special Connie-centric episode of tips and wisdom from Scottish housewives in the 1950s, but does he – can he – deliver? Oh, and we’ve finally sacked Santa, and the discount code, giving you 20% off the Pass It On books at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, is now ‘darning’; it's valid till 20 May 2020, and you just need to enter it at checkout! Chat to us 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!

It’s the last of the three-parter on The Sunday Post’s 1960 vision of the future, but what did the gang spend most of their time talking about? The pools. If you know what the pools are, you’ll share Steve’s bemusement and frustration, and if you don’t, well, just press play! As always, there are far more tips in the Pass It On books than we can cover in the podcast, but remember, you can get 20% off the books this show is based on at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, using the discount code ‘thrifty’ at checkout; that code is valid till 12 Feb 2020! 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!

We’re back to the future in this episode. Big tellys, TV detector vans, fracking, bar codes, subscription styling services, phalluses and more. It’s all here, folks. There are far more tips in the Pass It On books than we can cover in the podcast, but remember, you can get 20% off the books this show is based on at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, using the discount code ‘thrifty’ at checkout; that code is valid till 12 Feb 2020! 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!

In the first copy of The Sunday Post published in 1960, its journalists wrote about what they thought the next decade would bring. It’s fertile ground for intergenerational japes and discovery from Connie, Steve and Chris, but we’re not sure we could have predicted that it would have been the catalyst for finding out how recently Connie discovered where Fife was – hint: we can see it from the room we recorded in. There are far more tips in the Pass It On books than we can cover in the podcast, but remember, you can get 20% off the books this show is based on at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, using the discount code ‘thrifty’ at checkout; that code is valid till 12 Feb 2020! 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!

In this episode, Steve presents Connie and Chris with another list of – he says – sure-fire painting and decorating tips from the readers of The Sunday Post in the 1950s. But as usual, they’re sceptical, and as usual, they quickly find themselves on tangents. Plus, Steve reveals his favourite thing about paint, and if that’s not going to get you excitedly listening, we’re out of ideas. There are far more tips in the Pass It On books than we can cover in the podcast, but remember, you can get 20% off the books this show is based on at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, using the discount code ‘thrifty’ at checkout; that code is valid till 12 Feb 2020! 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!

Planning on refreshing your interior décor in the new year? Let the Pass It On tips be your guide! On second thought, maybe not! There are some good ideas here, but there are towels being given our left, right and centre – can you work out why? As always, there are far more tips in the Pass It On books than we can cover in the podcast, but remember, you can get 20% off the books this show is based on at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, using the discount code ‘thrifty’ at checkout; that code is valid till 12 Feb 2020! 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!