General Chat

Seems like a good idea. There can,t be any harm in it. Should you want anything about fly papers; gas masks ; basin hair cuts and the like, I,m your man. Best wishes Happy days

I remember being pulled to school on a sleigh that my step-father had made us, (he was very clever like that) and there weren't fur lined boots, we wore wellies and wrapped our feet in news paper to keep them warm, and changed into plimpsoles for in class, also lots of snow, and having to have our doors dug out, step-dad had to go out of one door walk round and dig the other door out, now I am luck if we get an inch of snow.... :( Bev

Good idea and I could do with some now as my central heating broke down just before teatime and so my husband has had to go into the loft where I have an old electric heater which Im practically sitting on now lol. From 'A tad chilly Kay whose going to open up the bottle of Baileys supposed to be for Christmas'.

late 50's and 60's we hardly ever had new clothes (even the eldest child) it was always hand-me-downs from neighbours or aunties. Very much into recycling - 'make do & mend' was the order of the day. It was a treat getting a new dress at Whitsun - strictly only for Sunday Best of course. Christmas - a stocking with a new penny, apple and orange, & perhaps something like coloured pencils. Always hankies and slippers. Possibly a selection box and a book or board game. I got a tricycle when I was 5 & I was never off it till I was far too big for it. (Then it got made into a buggy!) We only got a telly about 1962. At Christmas watched TV for the Queen's speech only. Saturday morning listening to the radio was a real treat. No supermarkets - shopping was visiting half a dozen different places to get everything. Hardly any convenience foods - tins of beans or fruit were about the most 'convenient' we ever had! The thing I remember most about these times (apart from my dad telling me it was the best time of my life so I should stop moaning & enjoy it) - the respect children had for their elders, and the freedom we had to play almost anywhere without fear of being abused /murdered/being run over.

Sorry to have abandoned you all. friend came round with kids (still here for the duration I think) very upset husband's been having an affair and has walked out on her. Ann from Glos that's a better idea but I,m stuck with this problem until tomorrow (hope she's not planning to stay the night). Pat - christened Patricia but always called Pat, still what's in a name) Off now she's back from the loo

I remember the Summer of '76. It was absolutely boiling and I caught chickenpox. Don't think I had a square inch that didn't have a pox on! Spent two weeks sweating buckets, covered in calomine lotion! Remember the strikes in the 70's. Getting home from school to get homework done quickly and having a very early dinner. Candles and matches were always at the ready. We used to huddle in front of the real coal file, with the candles and plays cards or board games. Sunday night was always bath night with the tin bath in front of the fire in the winter (even though we had a proper bathroom, it was warmer in front of the fire). Watching the test card on BBC2, waiting for Play School to start. Then the white dot after the National Anthem, when the tv was closing down for the night. Going to the shops for some butter and having it patted in front of you. Small bottles of milk at school - either warm (left in sun or by radiator) or still frozen in the middle. Feeling so cold in the winter that you thought you'd never get warm again! I had two permanently bright red cheeks! Then when you got home being told not to get too close to the fire 'cos you'd get chilblains! All these memories sound like I'm ancient - I'm only 42, but oh, how things have changed! Jan

oh my god you sound just like me jeannnete i have exactly the same memories and i am the same age. I loved that summer, lived in my costume and played cricket and tennis ran down the tunnel road in jarrow and was sooo suntanned with the creams my mother covered me with, just wish i felt that young again. tishxxx

1950s, Manchester. The Aunties, splendid needlewomen, cutting down an old suit of my (dead) GGF, to make a suit for my brother aged 6. It was of Harris Tweed, at least half an inch thick, of a colour known as 'Tan' (but orange is nearer the truth). They made it big, for him to grow into. When buttoned into it, he looked like a small orange wardrobe, and the fabric was so stiff, he couldnt bend. The trousers (short, of course) cut him across the back of the legs like knives. I tittered like mad, till the Aunties produced a dress for me, made of coat lining material - I can still feel the horrid slippery shiny material now. Walking to school in the winter, on TOP of the snow which was piled at the side of the road and had frozen solid. The coke fire in the classroom at school, which had most of us in a coma by going-home time. Teacher reading 'The Wizard of Oz' to us on Friday afternoons. We were allowed to put our heads down on our desks - bliss! Getting home, soaking wet and freezing cold, to toast with dripping, to keep us going till Tea time. Great big baked suet puddings, sometimes only had leek or onions in them, but I didn't care, I loved them. Shoes stuffed with newspaper in front of the fire to dry out - they never did. The washing hanging on the Pulley in the kitchen, oh, I hated that, steaming and dripping everywhere. Going to the Chip Shop (expressly forbidden) for a halfpenny's worth of 'Dabs' - the cooked batter. Oooh, yum. Scraping plates pots and pans of every bit of food, for the Pigman, who took away the waste and gave us either a chicken or a big piece of pork at Xmas. Mum STARTING the Xmas cooking on Christmas Eve - never before - and making dozens of mince pies, sausage rolls, bread, cakes etc. Enough? Olde Crone

Our family was very lucky to get a brand new Council house in 1949 after living in rooms and with relatives for a while. I was 2 years and 10 days old and my brother just 10 days old when we moved in. It had concrete flooring in the large living room which was polished with Cardinal red polish - must have taken my mum ages as it was about 21' long and 15' wide. Don't remember having much in the way of carpet or rugs for a long time and most of what we did have was passed down from relatives who were better off than us. The furniture was all secondhand. I was about 3 I think when I got pneumonia and had to sleep downstairs in a cot in the living room, where the open fire could be kept in all night. There was no heating anywhere else except a paraffin heater in the kitchen where mum would warm our clothes before we dressed in the morning. I think one or other parent stayed downstairs with me. Mum made my doll some lemon winceyette pyjamas which I think are still tucked away somewhere. Dad used to make rag rugs with scraps of old coats skirts trousers etc sort of poked through a piece of sacking. He also made me a rug for my bedroom with french knitting which he wound round and round like a snail shell starting tiny in the centre and then getting bigger and bigger. We also had coats on the bed and hot water bottles, and the ice used to form on the inside of the metal framed windows. When I grew older I can remember it snowing one winter and my dad was at work. He worked shifts at the local Steward and Patteson brewery, as the timekeeper on the gate. He had an office up some steps and a nice fire in there so had a cosy place to be but had to keep coming outside to check the lorries in. This particular time, mum had been frying chips - by this time I had another brother - for lunch and she accidentally poured hot fat (probably dripping or lard) over her thumb and part of her hand. Despite the pain in her bandaged hand, she went outside after lunch and managed to bang together some wood to make us a sledge so we could go out to play with the neighbours kids in the snow. I always suffered badly with cold in my hands and feet similar to what is now known as Raynaurds disease and when I got too cold I would go inside and cry with the pain of my hands and toes thawing out - mum used to massage them and wrap them in warm towels but I suffered like that for many years. Thankfully now, I am ok if I wear boots and gloves in the cold weather but oh, I remember that pain....

Absolutely facinating reading! Please keep adding your memories. Love becx

Its taken me ages to read all your memories but time after time i kept remembering the words of a song!! I hope you dont mind me sharing it with you all!! Dolly Parton!! Back through the years I go wonderin’ once again Back to the seasons of my youth I recall a box of rags that someone gave us And how my momma put the rags to use There were rags of many colors Every piece was small And I didn’t have a coat And it was way down in the fall Momma sewed the rags together Sewin’ every piece with love She made my coat of many colors That I was so proud of As she sewed, she told a story From the bible, she had read About a coat of many colors Joseph wore and then she said Perhaps this coat will bring you Good luck and happiness And I just couldn’t wait to wear it And momma blessed it with a kiss Chorus: My coat of many colors That my momma made for me Made only from rags But I wore it so proudly Although we had no money I was rich as I could be In my coat of many colors My momma made for me So with patches on my britches Holes in both my shoes In my coat of many colors I hurried off to school Just to find the others laughing And making fun of me In my coat of many colors My momma made for me And oh I couldn’t understand it For I felt I was rich And I told them of the love My momma sewed in every stitch And I told ’em all the story Momma told me while she sewed And how my coat of many colors Was worth more than all their clothes But they didn’t understand it And I tried to make them see That one is only poor Only if they choose to be Now I know we had no money But I was rich as I could be In my coat of many colors My momma made for me Made just for me So apt i think!!! Karen Who also wore handmedowns!!!

Ohhh, The long hot summer of 1976 not just for the heat, but for the swarms of flying ants that invaded us all....... I can still picture the neighbourhood cars covered with them, and us kids all armed with rolled up newspapers swatting them all day long...........Happy days. Also I remember when ambulance men went on strike in the 80's, my hubby broke his leg playing football, and was taken to hospital by the army. Rosi

1960s WE were very posh, lol had a washing machine with an electric mangle. And dad caught his hand in it pushing the sheets through, squashed his wedding ring onto his finger and had to go to hospital to get the ring cut off! I remember during the school holidays there were special programmes on in the mornings, who else remembers Belle & Sebastian, The White Horses, and the Singing ringing tree?

Anyone remember this then - with apologies for perhaps a few mistakes------Oh! and what is it? 'We some along on Saturday morning... Greeting everybody with a smile, We come along on Saturday morning.... Knowing it's well worth while. As members of the ABC - we all intend to be Good citizens when we grow up And champions of the free. We come along on Saturday mornings Greeting everybody with a smile.'

Thank you all so much they were wonderful memories. Anything is relevant to our childhood and other ages. It highlights how we all lived/survived then. I have copied and pasted you replies into the various decades and will add to the boards soon.

Pilgrim That was the song for the ABC Minors at the Saturday matinee (cinema, called the pictures then where I come from). Pat, Great idea. I've not had to time to read it all as I'm getting ready to go out but have copied it and pasted into a Word document. We had coats on the bed to keep us warm in the 1950's. Dad made ginger beer in big brown stone jars and when they were empty we used them as hot water bottles. Rag and bone man came round and if you gave him any old clothes you got a balloon. My daughter was born during the 1972 black outs! Lynne

i remember 76.i was six and had chicken pox,i spent the whole time out in the garden in my paddling pool trying to keep cool and stop the itching.my mums neighbour kept bringing her two girls along hoping they'd catch it,they didn't. 1981,i was eleven and i saw Duran Duran on TOTP singing Planet Earth,at that moment i fell in love with John Taylor

i remember 76.i was six and had chicken pox,i spent the whole time out in the garden in my paddling pool trying to keep cool and stop the itching.my mums neighbour kept bringing her two girls along hoping they'd catch it,they didn't. 1981,i was eleven and i saw Duran Duran on TOTP singing Planet Earth,at that moment i fell in love with John Taylor