# Spain in the twentieth century



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Do you know how much your area has changed in the twentieth and twenty first century?
I was amazed when talking to a woman who lives in the same town as me when she told me that up until the _*1970's*_ she was washing clothes in a local pond and hanging it on bushes to dry. This 30kms from Madrid
This picture shows women in 1972 near Barcelona








My husband tells of people coming to the door in Algorta in the Basque country selling the fish they had caught that day around the same time.
A friend of ours remembers riding on a hay cart pulled by oxen at *the end of the 1970's *and I myself have seen people coming home from the fields driving cows and donkeys laden with grass in the *1990's*.
They are images I associate more with the 1950's in England
Old fashioned Spain hardly exists, just as old fashioned England doesn't, but it was alive and kicking until very very recently and not just in the south of the country.
Does anybody have photos of Spain's not too distant past?


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## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

They might well have made their own soap (using fat from jamón amongst other things) which is something some people in the villages still do. Older generations were brought up with both the mentality and techniques not to waste anything, and its hard for them to change their ways.


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## AllHeart (Nov 22, 2013)

Yes, I have photos of Spain from my visit in 1979. I'll try to figure out how to post them. There's only a couple, and I'm not sure exactly where they were taken. Perhaps people can help figure that out with me?

My dad left Spain in his 20s under Franco's rule. He was obsessed with what he would always call his "austerity program," even though we had plenty of money. He was also obsessed with the idea of impending war and was always preaching to us through the National Geographic magazines about the famines in Africa. He also kept harping about the Cold War that Canada was involved with as I was growing up. Then there was his fear of the Vietnam War. 

I found a really interesting fact that 3% of today's population is living outside of their country of origin. In approximately the last 20 years, the number has doubled. There were approximately 215 million people in 2012 living outside their country of origin, and if all those people were put in one country, that would be the fifth largest country in the world. So migration is rampant, and it's effect on the world is good and bad. In case anyone is interested in those stats or some of the issues of immigration, here's more information: 

Migration: A World on the Move: Population & Development : UNFPA
Migration Issue in Depth | Globalization101

So I'll see if I can figure out how to post those pictures. I hope other people have stories and pics too.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

one of our local photographers has lots of old photos of Jávea I'm sure he won't mind sharing. I'll post some later


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## Brangus (May 1, 2010)

Chopera said:


> They might well have made their own soap (using fat from jamón amongst other things) which is something some people in the villages still do.


I think plenty of people here still make their own soap. The woman who taught me how to make it grew up in a village, but now has an ultramodern kitchen in the city where her expensive Thermomix does the labor-intensive stirring. Earlier this year I watched her create a batch using local olive oil, raw shea butter direct from Mali and organic coconut oil from El Corte Inglés.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Soap making is in fashion.

In times gone by (ie Spain pre 1980's I would say) it was a necessity for many.

Making soap from imported shea butter isn't the same as making it from rendered ham fat...


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Looking forward to seeing Spain in the 1950's - 1980's.
When OH shows me photos of his childhood it's almost like looking at photos of my parents at times and he was brought up in Bilbao, not a remote village


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## Brangus (May 1, 2010)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Soap making is in fashion.
> 
> In times gone by (ie Spain pre 1980's I would say) it was a necessity for many.
> 
> Making soap from imported shea butter isn't the same as making it from rendered ham fat...


It was a feeble attempt at showing how much her life has changed since the Franco era. She has made soap her entire life, not out of fashion.

Anyway, I suspect people are still making soap here partly because of the economic crisis. It's much cheaper to make a big batch using a little lye, olive oil and water than to buy the ready-made soap in the shops.


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## DunWorkin (Sep 2, 2010)

4 photos of Alicante taken 1968





































Playa San Juan de Alicante also in 1968










and in 1969


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## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

Not my area, but after returning from Calpe earlier this year I hunted down some old photos because at one time it must have been a beautiful area


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Brangus said:


> It was a feeble attempt at showing how much her life has changed since the Franco era.


Yes, sorry I didn't mean it to sound as cranky as it did 

Anyway, thanks to those who have posted photos and those who will. I like them!!

If anyone has got photos of people doing stuff, like shopping, working, going to school etc I'd really like to see those. There a lot more difficult to come by I think.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Chopera said:


> They might well have made their own soap (using fat from jamón amongst other things) which is something some people in the villages still do. Older generations were brought up with both the mentality and techniques not to waste anything, and its hard for them to change their ways.


The lady who owns the house across the street from mine still does - she gave me 3 bars one day, explaining it is laundry soap meant for hand washing delicate items. I still haven't tried it!


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

There are some on here of Velez-Malaga from 1920-1940. I still pass many of the buildings every day, and most of them have now been restored. At that time the area I live in was pretty much in ruins, the houses having been abandoned, apparently it wasn't until the 1960s\70s that people started moving back and restoring them. A man who'd moved to Barcelona with his family as a child told me one day that he remembers my house when it was "just a pile of stones" as he put it.


Fotografías antiguas de Vélez Málaga | Guadalinfo

A few years ago, pre-Crisis, the Ayuntamiento gave out a book of photos (gratis) of Velez Ayer y Hoy and it was surprising to see the main streets in town still unpaved in the 1950s.

A couple of weeks ago we saw some amazing photos in the town museum of Avila, taken by a German photographer in 1932 of rural life in the area. My God, what a hard life the people had.


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## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

Lynn R said:


> The lady who owns the house across the street from mine still does - she gave me 3 bars one day, explaining it is laundry soap meant for hand washing delicate items. I still haven't tried it!


My wife's aunt still makes it, and we occasionally use it for things like that. Not sure if it's any better than commercial products though, but it's there so we use it.


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## Maureen47 (Mar 27, 2014)

Interesting article on Benidorm in the 1960's 

Retro holidays: Thomson Airways reveals 1960s images | Daily Mail Online


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Mules are still used for transporting cork and firewood from the hills around my town. Until the 1960s they were used to deliver gas bottles and water within the town itself, and in this photo they are transporting some young ladies off to the nearby Santuario for a bit of prancing about.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

These are the _arrieros_ (muleteers?) quenching their thirst after a week's work in the campo. There are still iron rings on the walls outside the bar where they used to hitch the mules. 

They mainly drank _chiclana_, a rough dry sherry from the town of the same name. It's still popular now, at around 80 cents a glass.


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## tarot650 (Sep 30, 2007)

this is how I remember Benidorm.first went there in 1969,god 45years ago.The Avatar I use is from 69 as a very young 23year old.when I get chance I will have a look on my hard drives.Got a lot of photo's from the early 70's of Lloret de Mar,Blanes and Calella de Mar.when I think of those Dan Air 111's and that chuffing song Viva España.Funny back than I never thought me and the wife would end up living here but it's been our home now for 20years and the changes I have seen in 20years the mind boggles.


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## olivefarmer (Oct 16, 2012)

We have been coming to Spain for 30 years and have explored off the beaten track(except Galicia sadly). The changes have been quite dramatic.

My good friend recounts how his dad took them to Costa Brava in an Austin A40 in 1964 from S****horpe. The road over the Pyrennees wasn't tarmacced.

I worked with a lady many years ago who was the daughter of a fairly well off butchers family from Leicester. Mid world wars (20's) they used to go to Malaga on holiday. Now she had loads of black and white photos of Spain. The hotel was still in the brochures in the 70's but unlike in her photos when it was the only one, it was surrounded by hotels. I bet those photos have long since been junked. They flew from London to Madrid and then caught the mail plane which had no doors!

Mechanisation of farming for one thing. ten years ago spraying olive trees was a three man affair even with machinery. Now the tractor tows a beast that sprays automatically and efficiently doing two folk out of a seasonal job.

Mules and horses are still the power of choice for some arable farmers on the vega 15 miles away. Otherwise horses etc seem to be kept(often in miserable lonely conditions) just to be brought out for the Romeria/fiesta etc.

Two days ago a guy of about 60 turned up on our era on a small mule. Everything about the tack was hand made from woven grass etc. He wanted to know where a guy lived as he was swapping his mule for a bigger one. He had come over 10 km on it.

Our small village still has one annual matanza where they process collectively 8 pigs. Everyone goes up and mucks in (us included) over the weekend. Very hard work for the women . The following weekend they make soap in giant cauldrons. 

The family that owned our house also still do an annual matanza but no soap. They are now one of only two families left doing it in their large village.

We keep having folk turn up saying "can they have a look around" as they used to live here. So far four different families with the oldest being in his eighties and now living in Madrid. It has been quite interesting finding stuff out including a capped open bucket type well on one side of what is now a patio. The last family knew nothing about it.

No photos and in fact when the nearest big village had a photographic exhibition as part of their feria that elicited very few photos. People were so poor in this part of Andalucia that photography would not have been high on their Xmas lists.

There was an excellent 20 minute video narrated in English by a school teacher posted on another forum a while back about life in Mijas.

well worth a look. 

Video of Mijas Village in Málaga 1947 - History - Spain news 

Excellent photo submissions!


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

olivefarmer said:


> Video of Mijas Village in Málaga 1947 - History - Spain news
> 
> Excellent photo submissions!


 WOW!!! That was brilliant

Jo xxx


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## tarot650 (Sep 30, 2007)

soulboy said:


> this is how I remember Benidorm.first went there in 1969,god 45years ago.The Avatar I use is from 69 as a very young 23year old.when I get chance I will have a look on my hard drives.Got a lot of photo's from the early 70's of Lloret de Mar,Blanes and Calella de Mar.when I think of those Dan Air 111's and that chuffing song Viva España.Funny back than I never thought me and the wife would end up living here but it's been our home now for 20years and the changes I have seen in 20years the mind boggles.[/Q
> 
> There is a nice download hear it is 1.2gb
> 
> https://archive.org/details/gov.archives.arc.654272


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

I loved the video of Mijas. It looks a lot like Alcalá, which hasn't been affected much by tourism and only became accessible by a fast road (the A381) ten years ago. It's easy to forget how recently things have changed. 

Those handmade paper bags! "It takes many people much time to make little". An era when nothing was wasted and everyone had work.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

A few years ago, we happened upon an exhibition in Zaragoza of The Beatles in Spain, dating back to their first tour here in 1965. There was some fascinating memorabilia on display including press coverage of them and their music being condemned by Catholic church leaders! I never knew they were called "los ye ye's" in Spain.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Lynn R said:


> A few years ago, we happened upon an exhibition in Zaragoza of The Beatles in Spain, dating back to their first tour here in 1965. There was some fascinating memorabilia on display including press coverage of them and their music being condemned by Catholic church leaders! I never knew they were called "los ye ye's" in Spain.
> 
> The Beatles in Spain - Madrid 1965 - YouTube


I thought the ye ye's referred to the home grown version of this type of music. The expression comes from the English word "yeah" which was one of the few that Spaniards could understand. Later there were Chicas ye ye who were teenagers who followed the fashions and music


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Pesky Wesky said:


> I thought the ye ye's referred to the home grown version of this type of music. The expression comes from the English word "yeah" which was one of the few that Spaniards could understand. Later there were Chicas ye ye who were teenagers who followed the fashions and music


I kind of figured out where it came from!

I know that there was a Spanish group who were called Los Ye-Yes, formed after The Beatles became popular, but there was a lot of stuff on display at the exhibition we saw, contemporary articles in magazines and newspapers about The Beatles themselves, and memorabilia like model cars and guitars, where they were called that.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Lynn R said:


> I kind of figured out where it came from!
> 
> I know that there was a Spanish group who were called Los Ye-Yes, formed after The Beatles became popular, but there was a lot of stuff on display at the exhibition we saw, contemporary articles in magazines and newspapers about The Beatles themselves, and memorabilia like model cars and guitars, where they were called that.


Maybe it varies according to age or area 'cos my husband and family (one BIL and his sons are Beatles fanatics) don't use ye ye to mean the Beatles, only the fall out from them.


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## tarot650 (Sep 30, 2007)

Hotel Helios.When we stayed there it was similar to the picture 74..Went back 4years later for a holiday and all around it was just a mass of hotels.Just shows from those 1940's videos how it evolved in 30years.Picture of The Village Inn in Calella.If memory serves me right 76,Typical English bar but the truth be it was owned and run by Spanish and one day I asked the owner why he had called it the Village Inn and he said it's for the tourists and they have plenty of money to spend that's why we called it this.Picture of the first hotel we stayed in in Lloret de Mar.Bloody hell what a hike at night time when you had been out for a few beers.


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## tarot650 (Sep 30, 2007)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Maybe it varies according to age or area 'cos my husband and family (one BIL and his sons are Beatles fanatics) don't use ye ye to mean the Beatles, only the fall out from them.


If they are Beatles fanatics a bet they would like to see the two photo's that I have of them.One taken in the Cavern Club and one taken in Soho in London and one has the four signatures on.They were given to my late mother when she worked at the ABC in Blackpool and the Beatles were appearing and she had been given the job of making sure they had everything in their dressing room and these were given to her as a good will gesture and yes I do have the letter of authenticity.Been asked a few times to sell them but they mean a lot more to me than money.respect.SB.


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## DaveandLiz (Aug 18, 2014)

Soulboy,

Are you starring in the Benidorm film?

Dave


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## tarot650 (Sep 30, 2007)

DaveandLiz said:


> Soulboy,
> 
> Are you starring in the Benidorm film?
> 
> Dave


No,sorry to disappoint you cock.Just sharing some of my memories of coming to Spain for the last 45years and twenty of those 45years it's been my permanent home.


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## DaveandLiz (Aug 18, 2014)

No worries, its great to see how things used to be thanks for sharing

Have a good day.

Dave


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Alcalaina said:


> Those handmade paper bags! "It takes many people much time to make little". An era when nothing was wasted and everyone had work.


Although tens if not hundreds of thousands of Spaniards went abroad, mainly to find work in Germany and Spain..so not everyone had work. Just like now...

I wonder how many Spanish women look back nostalgically to those days...


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

mrypg9 said:


> I wonder how many Spanish women look back nostalgically to those days...


You'd think they would want to put those years of shortage behind them, but many do have a sentimental attachment to the past. There's a group of women in our village who run a "museo vivo" where every now and again they dress up and reenact the old crafts like weaving chairs and making soap. This is all done for the locals, not for tourists. 

They also persist in eating tagarniñas, cardos and other forms of barely edible weeds that sustained them in the famine years, as if they were some sort of delicacy.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Just down the road from us there's a field in which stands what looks like a public laundry trough. It's in fairly good condition too. It consists of a washing sink with a washboard and a rinsing part. This part of the village, the outer edge, was fairly undeveloped ten years ago so I'm guessing it was in use until about twenty years ago. I'll try to take a photo and post it.

Where I lived in the UK there were groups dedicated to that kind of 're-enacting'. I don't think my mother would have wanted to start scrubbing floors on her hands and knees, blackleading grates, scouring greasy pots or doing all the washing including bedlinen by hand...

Some activities of the past that were carried out by poorer women are obviously more pleasant than others...

We should remember our past but be thankful that much of it is past. After her floor-scrubbing stint and almost ten mile bike ride to and from work in all weathers, my mother used to take me shopping with her to get everything we needed for dinner. We went into several shops - baker's , butcher's, grocer's, greengrocer's, sometimes the 'fancy' cake shop, all of which took up a lot of time.
People often see supermarkets as second-class but they must have come as a godsend to women like my mum.

I enjoy looking at photos of how my parents and grandparents used to live, and especially 'then and now' photos of streets in towns and villages but I am thankful times have moved on!

As for the weeds...maybe they are good to eat!! When I was young we used to eat 'poor people's food'....lungs, lights, pigs trotters, blood sausage, chitlins, ox tongue, sweetbreads, that kind of thing. It seems that some of these things are now served by Michelin chefs at fancy restaurants.....


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## Justina (Jan 25, 2013)

The photos and short films on here today have been most enjoyable.
Here in Cadiz, we have today the celebration of the virgen del rosario and I suppose the float will be trundled up and down at 6pm. Meantime, there are hundreds of people out on the plaza, many women dressed in flamenco dresses and groups of very middle aged people who seem to have come in from the outlying villages for a day out. What I most admire is the sheer spontaneity as they wander along in groups and then break into a song and dance routine.


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## Justina (Jan 25, 2013)

The one sour note is a middle aged man with lots of coloured balloons who has been marched off by the local police and taken into the town hall and now. Police van has appeared and presumably taken him off to the station. Given the economic times, couldn't the police have looked the other way?


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

mrypg9 said:


> As for the weeds...maybe they are good to eat!! When I was young we used to eat 'poor people's food'....lungs, lights, pigs trotters, blood sausage, chitlins, ox tongue, sweetbreads, that kind of thing. It seems that some of these things are now served by Michelin chefs at fancy restaurants.....


Offal yes - very tasty. But thistles?  I've tried, I've really tried, but I cannot see why people go crazy over tagarniñas.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Alcalaina said:


> Offal yes - very tasty. But thistles?  I've tried, I've really tried, but I cannot see why people go crazy over tagarniñas.


Have you tried nettle soup? I haven't but am told it's delicious..


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## amespana (Nov 10, 2009)

Thistles ! You were lucky! We used to dream about thistles (Monty python circa 1968).


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Lynn R said:


> There are some on here of Velez-Malaga from 1920-1940. I still pass many of the buildings every day, and most of them have now been restored. At that time the area I live in was pretty much in ruins, the houses having been abandoned, apparently it wasn't until the 1960s\70s that people started moving back and restoring them. A man who'd moved to Barcelona with his family as a child told me one day that he remembers my house when it was "just a pile of stones" as he put it.
> 
> 
> Fotografías antiguas de Vélez Málaga | Guadalinfo
> ...


Yes, I'm pretty sure the main square of the town I live in wasn't paved until the 1970's and it's something that stands out in the video that you posted although of course they were from an earlier period.
Mrygp9 also mentioned streets in Granada being unpaved.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

maureen47 said:


> Interesting article on Benidorm in the 1960's
> 
> Retro holidays: Thomson Airways reveals 1960s images | Daily Mail Online


The video is worth watching just to see Benidorm 1959 and 1985.
I still can't find an explanation for how such blatent destruction and ruin was allowed. People usually cite greed, corruption and lack of control but even so why no government put the brakes on until it was too late, I just can't understand. And not just Benidorm, so many places along the coast. Such a shame, ruined for ever more IMO


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## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

Pesky Wesky said:


> The video is worth watching just to see Benidorm 1959 and 1985.
> I still can't find an explanation for how such blatent destruction and ruin was allowed. People usually cite greed, corruption and lack of control but even so why no government put the brakes on until it was too late, I just can't understand. And not just Benidorm, so many places along the coast. Such a shame, ruined for ever more IMO


The councils get money for awarding building permits. And if the local mayor also happens to be a director of the building company that's awarded the permit then they're in financial heaven. And if they also happen to be a director of the local caja that finances the development then they're in Spain.


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## olivefarmer (Oct 16, 2012)

Ten years ago were were in the Teruel area. I take photos of stuff like the communal village wash areas. Jumped out of the car and there was a very elderly woman doing her washing on her own. It was so cold that the sluices she wasn't using had a thin cover of ice. No gloves either.

The folks around here are very much into natures bounty. I am sure it is a throwback from the terrible lean years. So you have the wild asparagus (very strong compared to cultivated but I regularly partake ), then the nisperos(good source of Vitamin C) chumbo(dreadful stuff),figs, nuts various, mushrooms (we have a productive area of honey fungus that folk used to pilfer until we realised it was edible). Wild growing herbs etc include chard. The locals gather bags full of greens, sometimes for their caged meat rabbits. I do the same for our hens.

Our village got electricity circa 1980. Prior to that all clothes washing was at the village communal spring area. A long walk and even further carrying all the wet washing back. No one uses it now but many continued for years after electric as they hadn't the money to buy a washing machine or even a doby sink.

Drinking water. Landworkers and people out for walks still fill empty bottles up for the day from their favourite local spring. Probably something in it too. I still gag when I have a glass of town water.

One final story. The lady who lived in the house before us had several children, all born at home using help from a knowledgeable local woman(not a midwife but I guess she had helped at loads of births). However one birth 33 years ago wasn't going well so her husband put her on a mule and took the shortcut(11 miles on dirt tracks -some quite steep in places) to the nearest town hospital for a successful birth. We don't know we were born (pun intended).


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

soulboy said:


> Visiting BENIDORM, Spain, fifty years ago in 1962 - YouTube
> 
> this is how I remember Benidorm.first went there in 1969,god 45years ago.The Avatar I use is from 69 as a very young 23year old.when I get chance I will have a look on my hard drives.Got a lot of photo's from the early 70's of Lloret de Mar,Blanes and Calella de Mar.when I think of those Dan Air 111's and that chuffing song Viva España.Funny back than I never thought me and the wife would end up living here but it's been our home now for 20years and the changes I have seen in 20years the mind boggles.


What a fantastic holiday these people had!
Did you notice the blokes red speedos were skimpier than the woman's bikini bottoms that went up to her armpits nearly!
Another great image was the posing bullfighter chatting to a young woman.
And the image of the children all dressed in white? OH has a box full of photos like taken on Sundays with his 4 brothers and sisters.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Chopera said:


> The councils get money for awarding building permits. And if the local mayor also happens to be a director of the building company that's awarded the permit then they're in financial heaven. And if they also happen to be a director of the local caja that finances the development then they're in Spain.


That's still not an explanation for what happened in my book though!


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

olivefarmer said:


> There was an excellent 20 minute video narrated in English by a school teacher posted on another forum a while back about life in Mijas.
> 
> well worth a look.
> 
> ...


Can't believe that video was from 1947! I suppose the sound had been re digitalised or re mastered or re something. As somebody else said, that paper bag making! And the teacher, what a moustache!!
Very interesting thanks for posting


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

> *soulboy*;the Avatar I use is from 69 as a very young 23year old


But it's too small. We can't see you!


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## Justina (Jan 25, 2013)

*Construction*



Chopera said:


> The councils get money for awarding building permits. And if the local mayor also happens to be a director of the building company that's awarded the permit then they're in financial heaven. And if they also happen to be a director of the local caja that finances the development then they're in Spain.


Construction companies can also be used to launder money.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Chopera said:


> The councils get money for awarding building permits. And if the local mayor also happens to be a director of the building company that's awarded the permit then they're in financial heaven. And if they also happen to be a director of the local caja that finances the development then they're in Spain.





Justina said:


> Construction companies can also be used to launder money.


Yes, of course this is the mechanics, and when you realise as well that the mayor, who also owns the building company is also the cousin of the person in the permit deparment and the brother in law of the guy in the bank it all comes together .
What I really meant was how can this have been allowed to continue when it is so obviously to the detriment of the land and the people (in my opinion). Rhetorical question...


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## Justina (Jan 25, 2013)

*Construction*



Pesky Wesky said:


> Yes, of course this is the mechanics, and when you realise as well that the mayor, who also owns the building company is also the cousin of the person in the permit deparment and the brother in law of the guy in the bank it all comes together .
> What I really meant was how can this have been allowed to continue when it is so obviously to the detriment of the land and the people (in my opinion). Rhetorical question...


Greed?


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Justina said:


> Greed?


See post 41
As I said it's not a question that I'm expecting a real answer to. It happened and ...


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## Justina (Jan 25, 2013)

*Greed*



Pesky Wesky said:


> See post 41
> As I said it's not a question that I'm expecting a real answer to. It happened and ...


Yes, you did mention greed. Having looked at some of the videos and the really hard life that so many of the villagers had, then it is not quite such a surprise that the building and construction mushroomed. What is shameful is that nobody in the town halls could ever step back and think that the village was losing its character. And with the growing tourist trade, probably the villagers were delighted that at last they could have some money in their pockets.


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## Madliz (Feb 4, 2011)

Alcalaina said:


> Offal yes - very tasty. But thistles?  I've tried, I've really tried, but I cannot see why people go crazy over tagarniñas.


Tagarniñas? Tell us more! 

What used to intrigue me were _zarajos_ that I saw in the supermarket when I arrived in the 90s. I nicknamed them 'guts on a stick' as that's exactly what they looked like. I discovered years later, with internet help, that I was right - apparently they are a delicacy from Cuenca made from marinated suckling lamb intestines. I still see them now and then. Somehow I think I'll pass.

Zarajo - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

'Character' versus semi- starvation isn't much of a choice, is it....

What I wonder is the true 'character' of a place? As it was in 1960? In 1930? In 1850? In 1550?

Like people, places change with time. Sometimes for the better, usually for the worse. Brits looking from the outside can't be surprised if landscape and towns change, sometimes very rapidly. This isn't unique to Spain either as anyone who knows the Riviera region of France will know.

It would be interesting to ascertain the views of less well- off Spaniards in these aesthetically ( to some) unpleasing places. 

There isn't a single town or village in the UK that hasn't changed radically in the last fifty years, usually imo for the worse. New housing developments spread like a rash over towns and villages all over the Czech Republic. Not many complained, there were no Brits who were looking for the 'Czech dream'. Czechs who had lived in cramped conditions for decades were pleasedto have bright modern houses at affordable prices.

It's common to blame all this on 'greed' but I'm never sure exactly what level of profit constitutes greed. I do remember that forty years ago when we used to spend our summers in a friend's finca in Ibiza we used to see aged gnarled peasants drinking in cafes, to be told that many of them had become extremely rich from selling off their land to developers large and small. They had learned how to bargain to get the best price...greed, like beauty, is in the eyeof the beholder.


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## tarot650 (Sep 30, 2007)

You will have to put some photo's up Mary of these so called summers in Ibiza.Be interesting to see.that's if you have got any.


mrypg9 said:


> 'Character' versus semi- starvation isn't much of a choice, is it....
> 
> What I wonder is the true 'character' of a place? As it was in 1960? In 1930? In 1850? In 1550?
> 
> ...


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## tarot650 (Sep 30, 2007)

Picture roughly 39years ago.The villa was built by a property developer on the Costa Brava from money he made selling his land to a hotel developer.Surfice to say the very young girl stood on the steps we are still together 40years later.Oh PW my Avatar unfortunately it won't blow up as it was only a small picture to start with.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

mrypg9 said:


> Have you tried nettle soup? I haven't but am told it's delicious..


Yes, I've tried them all. With all these things, with a good stock and clever seasoning they can be made edible, even tasty. But delicious ... hmmm. 

Still, there is still a demand amongst the locals and it brings in a bit of money for the people who go out in the fields and harvest them.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Pesky Wesky said:


> What I really meant was how can this have been allowed to continue when it is so obviously to the detriment of the land and the people (in my opinion). Rhetorical question...


People didn't value "unspoilt" land the way they do today. It was just sitting there waiting to be put to use. These days there would be a massive outcry from the environmentalists but they weren't around then, or not in such significant numbers to have any economic impact. These days, "unspoilt" is a selling point.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Madliz said:


> Tagarniñas? Tell us more!


Oops, I've just discovered there is no tilde, it's _tagarninas_. They are Spanish oyster thistles (Scolymus hispanicus) which grow profusely round here in spring, about a metre tall with bright yellow flowers. You have to spend hours stripping off the spines to get to the edible bit of the stem. They are then added to soups, stews or scrambled eggs.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

soulboy said:


> You will have to put some photo's up Mary of these so called summers in Ibiza.Be interesting to see.that's if you have got any.


I've got some old, faded snapshots of 1980 but mainly of me, partner and son on the beach in Santa Eulalia which was then fairly quiet and unspoilt. We used to spend our summers in a rather rundown finca belonging to a gay friend of ours, who owned an undertaker's business.

I don't know why you refer to 'so-called' summers...I can assure you that from 1980 until 1985 we left the UK as soon as the school holidays began and returned when the autumn term started. One year, 1983 it might have been, we returned for a week at the autumn half-term.We spent three years in the finca and two summers in a clean but cheap hotel 'Hostal Rey' in the centre of Santa Eulalia. We had a bank account in Banco March in Santa Eulalia..We flew Iberia, sometimes direct, sometimes changing at Valencia or Barcelona.. The name of the finca's owner was Hugh Mitchell....can't think of any more details....I have no idea why you think I or anyone would want to invent anything like that... 
We had to walk up a steep hill to reach the finca, Casa Mitchell as it was called, as it was on the outskirts of the town. We didn't have the private jet or Rolls in those days, that came later..
Because it was a long walk and we were hot and had a lot to carry, we used to designate each day for buying specific things, so one day would be meat day, another vegetable day, another wine day and so on.
We stopped going in 1985 when the 18 - 30 Club started taking over and it wasn't pleasant to be in town in the evenings. Hugh sold the finca and I believe the new owner modernised it.
So we then turned our attention to Turkey and made that our holiday choice for a couple of years, then Tunisia, in 1992 we started driving around France, to the Dordogne....
Would you like witness statements? I think I have a photo of me in a market in Tunisia...could be faked though...


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Alcalaina said:


> People didn't value "unspoilt" land the way they do today. It was just sitting there waiting to be put to use. These days there would be a massive outcry from the environmentalists but they weren't around then, or not in such significant numbers to have any economic impact. These days, "unspoilt" is a selling point.


And there were probably few buyersuntil the 1960s when tourism started taking off in earnest.
I don't like big towns and cities wherever so Benidorm is as unappealing to me as Blackpool. That's why I don't live there.
People often label places like Blackpool or Benidorm tasteless, tacky and vulgar and I have to admit I agree with them because they are not to my taste.
But since time immemorial people of all 'classes' have enjoyed entertainments that require little effort for much enjoyment. Back in the eighteenth century Londoners rich and poor flocked to public amusement parks such as the Vauxhall or Cremorne Gardens. I guess they were in a way the ancestors of Disneyland. The 'amusements' on offer were indeed cruel and barbaric beyond dispute...bear-baiting, cock-fighting, bare knuckle boxing and of course the ubiquitous prostitutes. 
I would hazard a guess that people in Spanish towns and villages entertained themselves with much the same kind of things.
Compared to those, Benidorm for all its tackiness must be preferable? And along with wealth for developers came job opportunities for many people especially women.
Given the choice, most people prefer going to the pub, making love or watching football to going to the opera or reading Tolstoy. The antics of the upper-class Bullingdon Club types are no different from the proles on a Saturday night out...


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## tarot650 (Sep 30, 2007)

mrypg9 said:


> I've got some old, faded snapshots of 1980 but mainly of me, partner and son on the beach in Santa Eulalia which was then fairly quiet and unspoilt. We used to spend our summers in a rather rundown finca belonging to a gay friend of ours, who owned an undertaker's business.
> 
> I don't know why you refer to 'so-called' summers...I can assure you that from 1980 until 1985 we left the UK as soon as the school holidays began and returned when the autumn term started. One year, 1983 it might have been, we returned for a week at the autumn half-term.We spent three years in the finca and two summers in a clean but cheap hotel 'Hostal Rey' in the centre of Santa Eulalia. We had a bank account in Banco March in Santa Eulalia..We flew Iberia, sometimes direct, sometimes changing at Valencia or Barcelona.. The name of the finca's owner was Hugh Mitchell....can't think of any more details....I have no idea why you think I or anyone would want to invent anything like that...
> We had to walk up a steep hill to reach the finca, Casa Mitchell as it was called, as it was on the outskirts of the town. We didn't have the private jet or Rolls in those days, that came later..
> ...


In your post Mary girl you said Ibiza 40years ago so by my calculation that's the 1970's not the 1980's and I just passed a comment that if you had any photo's I would love to see them.Being such an honest and god fearing woman I wouldn't think for one minute that you would fake a photograph.Don't blame you for stopping going though I couldn't imagine you into the old garage music or house music or popping the old E's.LOL.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Here are a couple...no I said we went to Ibiza in 1980 to 1985...A street in Santa Eulalia, and one of a younger me at gay undertaker's finca. I went to Spain in 1966 I think it was, driving around as described earlier. I'll look out and scan some very faded photos of that trip..


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Building either B


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Building Benidorm, must have been 1966.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

[/URL


Las Ramblas Barcelona 1966. Me on left in blue top.]


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

soulboy said:


> In your post Mary girl you said Ibiza 40years ago so by my calculation that's the 1970's not the 1980's and I just passed a comment that if you had any photo's I would love to see them.Being such an honest and god fearing woman I wouldn't think for one minute that you would fake a photograph.Don't blame you for stopping going though I couldn't imagine you into the old garage music or house music or popping the old E's.LOL.


I have never been into Es...preferred the weed but have given that up now...
I could throttle you, SB....having rummaged around to find these photos I've decided I should do something about sorting and categorising the hundreds and hundreds of photos I've never bothered to put in albums...this task could take many many days. Until you mentioned it I hadn't thought about them.
I did find one of me topless on Santa Eulalia beach eating an icecream cone but even my mother when she accidentally came across it shuddered and said it was horrible so although the background is interesting I won't be posting it.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

mrypg9 said:


> Building Benidorm, must have been 1966.


I would never have taken this view, of a building site but what a great photo; history in the making. Who would have thought it. 

I actually have a class on a building site ATM (I didn't know that when I accepted it. It's going to be fun when the rain comes in at the end of the week - not) Maybe I should get a few snaps in??!


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Pesky Wesky said:


> I would never have taken this view, of a building site but what a great photo; history in the making. Who would have thought it.
> 
> I actually have a class on a building site ATM (I didn't know that when I accepted it. It's going to be fun when the rain comes in at the end of the week - not) Maybe I should get a few snaps in??!


I took a lot of photos of 'odd' things as I had never been to Spain before. In those days not many people ventured far from the Costa Brava and as I said we drove down, across and up along the Atlantic coast for several weeks, either five or six, can't remember...
I think I was quite shocked to see all that building as up to then we had stayed in small, 'traditionally Spanish' places. Also it sat oddly with the unasphalted roads I mentioned earlier. We didn't stay in any big towns apart from Barcelona and Madrid. For some reason when I recall Madrid images of heat, dust, traffic, shiny black patent leather and shocking pick come into my mind...and the scent of a particular cheap cologne. Can't remember the name, it came in a huge bottle and was a few pesetas. Occasionally I'll pass someone elderly in the street and catch a whiff of it.


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