50s 60s child

[Topmast]

I remember having brown paper put between my vest and jumper to keep the cold out that was after libberty bodices. Then little squares of newspaper cut and put on a nail in the shed at the bottom of the garden, that was before zan Isal .And cars had starting handles.O happy days.

 

[GreggBear]

I remember my gran on the farm had a clothes drying frame on strings that was lowered to load up then winches up into the ceiling out of the way. The outside shithouse that always had a was of cut up newspaper hung behind the door(& a spider!) Hens kept in the back garden & the biggest gooseberry bush I ever saw. My other grandad worked down the pit & they had a council house. Meter under the stairs that needed feeding when the lights went off. They had a "Flatley" too for drying clothes. He grew veg in one half of his garden & the other side was full of roses, proper ones that actually smelled of roses! When I was very young I was allowed to sit up watching old black & white horror films with my gran. Halcyon days, wish I could go back.....

 

[GWAYGWAY]

I remember getting some sweets when they came off ration, bananas were a notknown commodity..
Living Dover We knew what bombsites and shell holes were, My house was JUST outside the range of the big guns by about 200 yards with a following wind but the house got all the windows blown out when a 500pounder went off in the factory grounds nearby. I keep finding some more cracks in the walls from that. My schools all had bomb shelters around them , the primary school at River where I live had ALL the younger kids from the town that were not evacuated , of which there were not many.

 

[Topmast]

It seems as if you have stirred a lot of memories with this thread,obviously the world moves on but what a shame if these memories are lost .I suppose a lot of us older members have fascinating tales to tell but can’t help wondering if the younger generation are even interested?

 

[Barge1914]

Wellies in the winter and pumps in the summer, wow such memories. I don't know about 'Gypsy Tart' but we had Manchester Tart which was probably the same, pastry, anonymous jam and custard, but bloomin lovely all the same, and then there was pink custard !!!!!!!Why or how that was created is a mystery------gruesome stuff though. At my secondary school in Cheadle we still had air raid shelters around the sports field, I suppose that it was due to its proximity to Ringway Aerodrome, but they were a wonderful place to explore and exploit the exuberance's of pubescent youth---------oh happy days

Secondary school in Cheadle??? We must have come close, I was briefly incarcerated at Mosely Hall, Cheadle. I remember the Nissan Huts, the Dome, Drac and Jonah, and indulging in subterfuge and concealment experiments in the wake of the recently published Colditz Story...not to mention raids on the girls school!

 

[oppy]

Secondary school in Cheadle??? We must have come close, I was briefly incarcerated at Mosely Hall, Cheadle. I remember the Nissan Huts, the Dome, Drac and Jonah, and indulging in subterfuge and concealment experiments in the wake of the recently published Colditz Story...not to mention raids on the girls school!

Oh, you were dead posh !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was at Broadway sec mod. Sue was too, but she became posh too. After becoming head girl she was transferred to Cheadle Girls Grammar School where she got dozens of O levels and then met this daft thick peasant in 1963, and is still stuck with him

 

[Barge1914]

Kids seemed in some ways to be on looser reins back in the 50s. Despite the somewhat Victorian approach by my Gran to child rearing, it was easy then to disappear for a whole days adventuring with vague assurances about being ‘at a friends for lunch’. Barrow in Furness although now seeming a bit of a left behind dump was full of all sorts of challenging hazards for the young ruffian (er...adventurer). Miles of coastal flats to nearly get overtaken by the tide. Old quarries and works, barns full of dangerous farm equipment (still got the scar), heavy steel and shipbuilding industrial sites, running the gauntlet...through railway tunnels. Dubious wartime half buried metalwork, dugouts, gun emplacements and bunkers...even a mediaeval abbey to re-enact (catapult) battles (and play fugitive from the warden). Oh the places we got to even in our primary school days...up to the Lakes on our little bikes, Dalton gasworks, Ulverston Canal, Morecombe Bay...I befriended a railway driver and fireman and got footplate trips to Lancaster and back...ducking down in the tender at stations...all while I was supposedly ‘down the road playing’. I don’t know what my Gran could have made of my sooty countenance! All very naughty, not at all Elf an Safety but in some obscure way ‘character forming’ by way of developing a sense of independence and a lust for travel...and rather more fun than computer games. No wonder I’ve ended up a Wild Camper!

 

[Barge1914]

Oh, you were dead posh !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was at Broadway sec mod. Sue was too, but she became posh too. After becoming head girl she was transferred to Cheadle Girls Grammar School where she got dozens of O levels and then met this daft thick peasant in 1963, and is still stuck with him

Posh??? It was like the Fawlty Towers of Grammar schools, run by Dads Army! Good job they only got their hands on me for a year.

 

[oppy]

Posh??? It was like the Fawlty Towers of Grammar schools, run by Dads Army! Good job they only got their hands on me for a year.

Now there's a thought

 

[Topmast]

And who rememberers nitty Nora.?And the fun when someone was found with the little devils.Children can be very cruel.

 

[oppy]

And who rememberers nitty Nora.?And the fun when someone was found with the little devils.Children can be very cruel.

Ah, the bug explorer, and of course the blue blotches on our 'eads, what was that stuff that ended up on the end of a cork and was plonked on us faces an 'eads ??

That said though, in the late 40s and into the 50s we had proper medical checks and dental too, it wasn't always fun (especially the jabs), but we had it, which is why, I suppose, many of us are still above ground

 

[Rec]

Ah, the bug explorer, and of course the blue blotches on our 'eads, what was that stuff that ended up on the end of a cork and was plonked on us faces an 'eads ??

That said though, in the late 40s and into the 50s we had proper medical checks and dental too, it wasn't always fun (especially the jabs), but we had it, which is why, I suppose, many of us are still above ground

Genitian violet?
The school nurse has a very different role now!
I just remembered, we had no dog but my mum used to send us kids up the road to the butchers to ask for "bones for the dog" and they were the basis of several meals! I am sure he knew as we often had stuff in the bag that was more like chops than bones...he was a very kind man!

 

[yorkslass]

And who rememberers nitty Nora.?And the fun when someone was found with the little devils.Children can be very cruel.

That's amazing. That woman must have singlehandedly seen every head in Britain

 

[Pudsey Bear]

@oppy I can remember most stuff, but what on earth was a batwing burner .

 

[oppy]

@oppy I can remember most stuff, but what on earth was a batwing burner .

Basically it was a naked gas flame with a deflector to widen the flame, downstairs there mantles and shades but upstairs nada

 

[MJVW]

Rubbing butter on a wound was the fix for all cuts and bruises, a treat was sugar and bread sandwich and if i was lucky cocoa powder with a bit of sugar presented in a paper bag was heaven.

It was a meat and two veg life with stuffed marrow and steamed leek pudding.

 

[2cv]

 

[Trotter]

Agree with a lot of it, but:
* Pasta had not been invented. *Yes it had it was in tomato sauce in cans by Heinz and was served on toast instead of beans for tea sometimes.
*Curry was an unknown entity. * No, it came in boxes made by Vesta and had to be boiled up in water for 20 mins.
* Leftovers went in the dog. * They still do.
* Cheese only ever came in a hard lump. * We often had cottage cheese, Cheshire or Edam as well as Cheddar, but I had no idea things like Gloucester and Leicester cheese were a real thing
* Eggs were not called ‘free range’ they just were, and the shells were white. No, ours came from the garden and some were brown 'cos we kept our own hens. Sunday dinner was usually chicken.
* French bread - Mum often bought one for tea, it was sliced up and went round a family of 5.

Some people were simply, upper class. Wot we would call, posh! Lol!
The stuff made by Heinz in tins was, Spagetee, and came on toast. I can remember curry powder, reserved for Dad, as were most things, because he had served in India, although even that would probably now be called Pakistan.
If cheese wasn’t hard, it was Dairylee, and without a fridge, even that went hard.
Oh! Such wonderful memories. Like the nit lady and rickets.
Edit. Should have read page 2 before posting. Oh well! Tis done now.

 

[Trotter]

Ah, the bug explorer, and of course the blue blotches on our 'eads, what was that stuff that ended up on the end of a cork and was plonked on us faces an 'eads ??

That said though, in the late 40s and into the 50s we had proper medical checks and dental too,

Ah! Yes. Who could forget the Melbourne trench?
FYI. Most local authorities employed Australian dentists who were paid by the filling. The more fillings, the more money. Thus, the Melbourne trench.

 

[MJVW]

I remember my gran on the farm had a clothes drying frame on strings that was lowered to load up then winches up into the ceiling out of the way. The outside shithouse that always had a was of cut up newspaper hung behind the door(& a spider!) Hens kept in the back garden & the biggest gooseberry bush I ever saw. My other grandad worked down the pit & they had a council house. Meter under the stairs that needed feeding when the lights went off. They had a "Flatley" too for drying clothes. He grew veg in one half of his garden & the other side was full of roses, proper ones that actually smelled of roses! When I was very young I was allowed to sit up watching old black & white horror films with my gran. Halcyon days, wish I could go back.....

Don't get me started about the outside netty, when i was young my aunty who was a clippy on the buses toilet looked out onto a pit heap we used to sit on tin trays and slide down the pit heap and end up covered in coal dust. Visiting the netty in the dead of night was.....as a youngster a frightening prospect however nature called