50s 60s child

Campervanannie

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If you love food but were a child of the 50’s and 60’s you should remember most of this;
* Pasta had not been invented. * "Kebab" was not even a word, never mind a food. * Curry was an unknown entity. Indian restaurants were only found in India. * The only vegetables were spuds, peas, carrots, turnip, cauliflower and cabbage. Mange tout and Pak choi were made up words. Chilli was in South America and scotch bonnets were worn by old ladies in Aberdeen.* A take-away was a mathematical problem. * A pizza was something to do with a leaning tower.* Oil was for lubricating your bike chain not for cooking.* Olive oil was kept in the medicine cabinet.*Spice went in Christmas cakes (and so did peel, Yuk).* Herbs were used to make medicine I think.* All crisps were plain.* All soft drinks were called pop. * Coke was something that we put on the fire, we never drunk it and we certainly didn’t sniff it. * Ginger beer burnt your lips off, when you stopped drinking. * Rice was a milk pudding, and never, ever part of our dinner. * A Big Mac was what we wore when it was raining. * A microwave was science fiction * Tea was made in a teapot using tea leaves. The tea-cosy was the forerunner of all energy saving devices. Tea had only one flavour, it was tea flavoured * Figs and dates appeared every Christmas, but no one ever ate them. * Coconuts only appeared when the fair came to town. * Mayonnaise was called Salad cream* Hors d'oeuvre was a spelling mistake. * Dinner consisted of what we were given, and not negotiable. * Only Heinz made baked beans.* Leftovers went in the dog. * Sauce was either brown or red. * Eating raw fish was called madness, not sushi. * The only ready meals came from the fish and chip shop. * Frozen food was called ice cream. * Nothing ever went off in the fridge because we never had one. * None of us had ever heard of yoghurt. * Brunch was not a meal. * Cheese only ever came in a hard lump.
* If we had eaten bacon, lettuce and tomato in the same sandwich we would have been certified insane. * Eating outside was called a picnic not Al Fresco. * Seaweed was not a recognised food. * Eggs were not called ‘free range’ they just were, and the shells were white. * Pancakes were only eaten on Pancake Tuesday - it was compulsory. * The phrase "boil in the bag" would have been beyond our realms of comprehension. * The term "oven chips" would not have made any sense at all. * We bought milk and cream at the same time, in the same bottle, before you gave it a shake.* Prunes were purely medicinal. * Pineapples only came in chunks in a tin.* We didn't eat Croissants because we couldn't pronounce them, we couldn't spell them, and we didn't know what they were. * for Baguettes (see Croissants). * Garlic was used to ward off vampires in films, but never to be eaten. * Water came out of the tap; if someone had suggested bottling it and charging for it
they would have been locked up.
 
'............Frozen food was called ice cream.......'
This one explains rather a lot about your food preferences, Annie!
(You hid that one in the middle, hoping we wouldn't spot it, didn't you?)

Colin ???
 
we didnt have a dog.........there really wasnt any leftover food.....cos we HAD to eat everything on our plate..........any kitchen waste........ie. potatoe peelings went to make meal for the chickens........anything else went in the pig bin....for the
man who owned pigs to collect every week....known as the pig man......

we took our read newspapers to the local chip shop......they used it to wrap the fish and chips in. one portion of fish and chip would probably be a third of what is given today............that is if you could afford the fish........it was usually justa bag of chips.
portion sizes of everything was much smaller than today.
milk was delivered to the doorstep each day.............recall visiting hull where the lady of the house bought it by the jugfull from the milkman.
folk grew their own veg in the garden.......fondly remember shelling peas. out of their pods........one pod for me..one pod for the pot.........they were delicious....
 
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.
 
And the 'Man From The Pru'.
And the shell fish man doing his rounds on Sunday.
And Bakelite.
And getting the cream from the top of the milk if the blue tits allowed it.
And butter that was cut from a block, weighed and patted into shape.
And bicycles with a small petrol engine in the wheel hub or running on the front or rear wheel tyre.
And hand-knitted clothing being unwound and re-knitted when too small or worn.
And mending everything rather than dumping and buying new.
And doors on the 'tele'.
And a portable radio that had two batteries - one larger to power a single 'valve'.
And two-sided records of varying sizes and rpm.
.
.
.
Hell, but I'm old.
(I know it's not all food related but I enjoyed casting my mind back. I hope that's alright, Annie),

Colin ???
 
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Going back a little further, as a child of the 40s, I can remember my dad mending shoes in our house in Old Trafford, we had a Rediffusion wireless in the living room that my dad had to take the acumulator out of every few days to get it charged somewhere. As kids we never bothered about food, if it was on the plate, we ate it (boiled ribs and cabbage were my favorite though) We had gas mantles downstairs, but upstairs we had batwing burners. In the living room we had an electric light (the only electricity in the house) and I can remember my mum plugging her iron into it. We had a 't'ouse at the end of the back yard next to the bomb shelter. But life was good I seem to remember. Our front room was only used if we had posh folks visiting, my uncle and aunt fell into that category, and Christmas too.---------------------------Then we got a pre-fab !!!!!!!!!!!! Where it was is now part of Wythenshawe Park, but as a 7 year old it was paradise. We had electric lights in every room, a gas fire, gas cooker (not a coke fired range) and best of all----------a fridge, and when the Corona man came round, we could put bottles of fizzy pop in it, plus when Rosie Granelli drove her ice cream van into our street, we could get 6 penny blobs (and a free penny lolly if one of the kids went out to the van) and they would keep until Sunday tea. I'm sure that there is a whole load of social history locked up within our group, thank you Annie for triggering my thoughts. Anyone remember the first thing? I can remember my first banana. Due to various things, my gran was mainly responsible for my early years, and I remember quite vividly her coming home from work with a, would you believe!!!!!!. a banana. I had never even seen one, let alone eaten one, but there it was. Granddad pealed it and cut it into 3 parts-------and I got the middle bit. I could probably boor for England (and possibly have just started to), but those of us of a certain age have a wealth of history between our ears, we just need to bring it out so that the next generation can see from whence they came. Thanks again Annie for the starting gun
 
And the 'Man From The Pru'.
And the shell fish man doing his rounds on Sunday.
And Bakelite.
And getting the cream from the top of the milk if the blue tits allowed it.
And butter that was cut from a block, weighed and patted into shape.
And bicycles with a small petrol engine in the wheel hub or running on the front or rear wheel tyre.
And hand-knitted clothing being unwound and re-knitted when too small or worn.
And mending everything rather than dumping and buying new.
And doors on the 'tele'.
And a portable radio that had two batteries - one larger to power a single 'valve'.
And two-sided records of varying sizes and rpm.
.
.
.
Hell, but I'm old.
(I know it's not all food related but I enjoyed casting my mind back. I hope that's alright, Annie),

Colin ???
But did your mum knit you a pair of swimming trunks?
 
Without being political, as a child of the 50’s, I luckily grew up on a new council estate where everything a new community would want was planned and built. A new primary school, a row of shops including a proper bakery, grocers and greengrocers and of course a newsagent/sweet shop. The estate included open space for us to kick a ball around on and was generally very safe. We would disappear off to play with our mates for the entire day and no one batted an eyelid. I can clearly remember my first encounter with ice cream, I must have been 3 or 4 and had just had my tonsils removed. Our neighbours were an elderly couple whose son worked for Frigidaire and “Frigidaire Nixon” as he was known had provided them with the only fridge in the street, and yes, they kindly kept sending round bowls of Neopolitan ice cream, purely medicinal........ then there were pedal cars, home made karts from planks and pram wheels, bikes with wide handlebars so we could pretend we were the best scramblers or trials riders in the world..... and summer holidays were always sunny and seemed endless ..... hey ho
 
Ooh Soozie, the mind boggles-------------any piccies?
During my knitted trunk days we, my gran, granddad and me used to go on a cruise every summer. For me it was on a great ship, but on reflection, it was the New Brighton Ferry, but New Brighton was nirvana to a sprog like me. Ok, so we went to Abergele sometimes, but that was on a sharra, (a motor coach/ charabanc for you southern jessies) not on a ship. Oh those innocent days after the war, ah well. Strangely enough the church that Sue and I belonged to a few years ago organised a trip on the Manchester Ship Canal from the Lowry Centre to the Mersey Basin and it was on the same blessed ship----------------the royal daffodil. I later found out that it had seen war service and appeared to have been scrapped subsequently together with the royal iris. But for one reason or another (I Suppose Google would tell me why, but I don't wish to spoil the memory), Sue and I boarded the same boat that this little oppy boarded way back in the early 50s.
I probably have more romantic memories of my early formative years than is really healthy, but despite all the problems and deprivations, they were wonderful years. We didn't need therapy, analysys or any form of psycho stuff, you were naughty, you got a crack. You were told about the person at the end of the street to stay away from, girls were girls and boys were boys, we fiddled about with each other (doctors and nurses stuff) but our genders were intact. We played in bomb sites. we decked on and off busses, we built bogies to race each other down the local hill, we had penknives and if you were in the cubs or scouts, a sheath knife !!! As a scout complete with a sheath knife, you could play 'split the kipper'--wow, imagine that now. Oh bloomin' eck, the blessed gin is kikkin in again, sorry Annie
 
dustbins were made of metal........poor chap had to haul it onto his shoulder and carry it to the refuge truck........













dustbins were made of metal.........poor chap had to walk round back of every house ...haul it onto his shoulder and carry and empty it into refuse wagon......then take it back round the house...........poor chap must have been exhausted by the end of the day.

coal cam in bags on a wagon........chap had to carry sack on his back...uusually round the back of the house where the coal house was..............wonder how long his back lasted for.

washing was done in the outhouse...........gas boiler...sink.....and wringer........first washing machine was like a square tub with a wringer attached.........and a hand worked leaver that wnt back and forth in the tub to do the washing.......earlier tho...40s-50s.............then came our elec one,,,,,,,again a square tub which swished the washing around...elec....and elec wringer........o..boy was that the WOW......
.
 
Used to put the free school milk in bottles next to the radiator in the winter to warm it:sick::sick:
Gypsy tart, over boiled cabbage for school dinner, never chips!
Navy knickers with pocket in them for "proper hanky".....used to do PE in them ?
Oh and liberty bodices, my gran was shocked when I got a vest instead! What did the boys wear that has changed, other than knee length trousers till secondary school?
 
Used to put the free school milk in bottles next to the radiator in the winter to warm it:sick::sick:
Gypsy tart, over boiled cabbage for school dinner, never chips!
Navy knickers with pocket in them for "proper hanky".....used to do PE in them ?
Oh and liberty bodices, my gran was shocked when I got a vest instead! What did the boys wear that has changed, other than knee length trousers till secondary school?
Oh, don’t mention knee length trousers. Mi faither was the hated ‘revenue man’ in Stornaway. Used to send his warn out customs uniforms down to my gran in Barrow to be cut up and remade into school trousers. Stiff as cardboard, I can still remember the raw chafing scars they left on my legs.
 
Just remembered long socks with garters! Was there no elastic? Used to get ridges round calves where garters cut into flesh...Or else they fell down!
 
Just remembered long socks with garters! Was there no elastic? Used to get ridges round calves where garters cut into flesh...Or else they fell down!

It was good when you took them off though Ruth!..you thought your legs were being cut in half.. :sneaky:
 
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
 

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