In the 60's, although all the houses in the street had wall sockets (brown ones fitted to the skirting board) I remember my mate's Mum across the road having an iron, and of course a bare light bulb plugged into the living room light socket. It had a pull cord on it as it was dangling off of the dust covered flex as it was too high to reach. She must have stood on a chair to plug the iron in!
They also had fully 'loaded' fly papers which I think had been in place since the mid 50's
