Memories

[anotheoldgit]

Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favourite 'fast food' when you were growing up?' 'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him. 'All the food was slow.'

'C'mon, seriously.. Where did you eat?'

'It was a place called 'home,'' I explained. 'Mum cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate, I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'

By this time, the lad was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table.

But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I'd figured his system could have handled it:

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore jeans, set foot on a golf course, travelled out of the country or had a credit card, my parents never drove me to school... I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed(slow)..

We didn't have a television until I was married with children. It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at 10 PM, after playing the national anthem and epilogue; it came back on the air at about 6 am. And there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people...

Pizzas were not delivered to our home ... But milk was, all newspapers were delivered by local school boys. My brothers delivered newspapers, seven days a week, they had to get up at 6 every morning!

Film stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the films, there were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or almost anything offensive.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren, just don't blame me if they bust their guts laughing.

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

Ah memories, how many do you remember?

Headlight dip-switches on the floor of the car.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Trouser leg clips (Bike Clips) for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heated on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn indicators, or if you were up to date 'Elephant Ears' (large flashing amber lights fastened either side of the car's roof).
If one was lucjy enough to have a car radio, the aerial was a long carbon rod fastened under the 'running board' of the car.

Count all the ones that you remember, not the ones you were told about.
Ratings at the bottom….


1. Sweet cigarettes
2. Coffee shops with jukeboxes
3. Home milk delivery in glass bottles
4. Party lines on the telephone
5. Newsreels before the movie
6. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were
there until TV shows started again in the morning.
(There were only 2 channels[if you were fortunate])
7. Peashooters
8. 33 rpm records
9. 45 RPM records
10. Hi-Fi's
11. Metal ice trays with levers
12. Blue flashbulbs
13. Cork popguns
14. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-3 = You're still young
If you remembered 3-6 = You are getting older
If you remembered 7-10 = Don't tell your age
If you remembered 11-14 = You're positively ancient!

[shaneystar2]

I remember most of the things mentioned and the outside toilet,no hot water,only a cold tap in the scullery.
We had washstands in all the bedrooms with jugs and bowls .The mangle which I had to stand and turn .It squashed all your liberty bodice buttons :)
Tin bath on a Friday night and then the dreaded hair rags .We never had a fridge either ,we had a meat safe in the back yard .

[TheWinner]

What, like? er , at the sweet shop, where you could look in the penny tin?
where you could get 2 black jacks, and 2 fruit salad chews for a penny?

[TheWinner]

OMG, liberty bodice and hair rags, hated by everyone!

[TheWinner]

What about Winter.

Ice was on the INSIDE of the windows.
You came home from school and had to chop wood for the fire (with an AXE) even though you were under the age of 10, and light the fire. You had let yourself in the house with a key, that was on a piece of string around your neck.

[Georgiesmum]

Going on the beach to collect driftwood for the fire
putting gloves on the fire guard before we went to school.having porage for breakfast with condensed milk on it. before we went to school.
callard and bowsers cream-line toffees
sharps assorted toffees

cadburys lucky numbers chocolate sweets

[flump1]

Oh Gawd, i think I'm a fossil.

[Canary42]

It's amazing how much you forget until someone jogs the old memory with threads like this.

[mier]

A leather razor strop hanging from a hook on the back of the kitchen door. Functional parrafin lamps, tilly lamps and candlesticks.
The old flint gas lighter:
http://i20.ebayimg.com/08/i/001/33/6a/9456_35.JPG
The dolly peg:
http://gallery.nen.gov.uk/assets/0812/0000/0256/washday_003_mid.jpg
The bed warming pan:
http://www.iels.org/agile_assets/19/A11451_l.1.jpg_resized_380_.jpeg
The one that was colder than a polar bear's nose in the morning:
http://www.aubreysantiques.com/pigfootwarmer1.JPG

[Georgiesmum]

parma violets
drum stick lollies
firemans hoses
liquorice catherine wheels
liquorice pipes
hi blo bubble gum
traffic light lollies
rocket ice lollies
strawberry mivvis (do they still make them?)
cottage loaves in the baker shop window
homemade toffee apples in the grocers window
homemade 2d ice lollies from the corner shop(very popular)
when a three mile bus journey to school was only 2 and a half pence!
making a felt coal glove at school so you could put coal on the fire without getting black hands!
having a tub of splints by the fire for dad to light his cigarettes.
washing tongs to get your washing out of the machine to rinse in the sink!

[emmie]

jublee orange ice pyramid,
sweet cigarettes,
humbugs, cola cubes, aniseed twist
sherbet flying saucers
pink sweet shrimps
mostly awful food, sorry ma not
a great cook,
soggy greens, and even soggier yorkshire puds
overdone roast beef, shoe leather comes to mind
muffin the mule,
watch with mother
andy pandy and looby lou
the flower pot men, nothing to do with drugs!
strict bed time, 7pm except when there was a party, knees up
smoky coal fires,
playing out with no supervision
cowboys and indians, pirates type games
jacks, hopscotch, and skipping games
junior school with the playground on the roof
mangle, got caught in that any number of times
gran getting merry on mackeson,
port and lemon, what a horrible drink
Mr Jones the newsagent, and the Italian bakers
milk deliveries
post delivery twice times a day,
coffee espresso bars
saturday morning flicks, cost a tanner
mother cleaning the front steps, all women did it.....
mum in turban type scarf, in curlers and cig hanging out her mouth,
washing hanging everywhere in the home, no garden...
wearing sunday best
limited tv,
on the wireless, clitheroe kid, round the horn, the navy lark, the sunday play
shops closed on sunday

[wiltsman]

"We didn't have a television until I was married with children. It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at 10 PM, after playing the national anthem and epilogue; it came back on the air at about 6 am. And there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people... "

I don't remember television coming on at 6:00am in the morning. Also, there were no locally produced television news and farm shows featuring local people, that surely was on the radio. Here in Wiltshire, the nearest television transmitters were, I think, at Sutton Coldfield in the Midlands, with another one near Cardiff. So definitely no local news.

[emmie]

and so much more, there were some good bits in there, rationing wasn't one of them,
powdered egg, yuck
spam
corned beef
shrimp paste,
the above usually for tea on sundays
lido on a hot day or
cold if you were brave
roller skating on the roads, going down hills,
not too many cars then
go karts made of orange boxes and pram wheels with no brakes
cardies and frocks for the girls,
short trousers and tank tops for the boys, going to junior school
and hating it.

[Svejk]

Yes, I must say, I was surprised at the mention of 6am television.
I thought that was quite a late development. Not that we'd have known about such things, or cared. Our mum had a hell of a job getting us in for meals, or bed.