Memories for the old 'uns

[oldbluefox]

I got this email this morning and thought I would share it..........

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 in our house until I was 10.
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 boys and all boys delivered newspapers
My brother delivered a newspaper, seven days a week.
He 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 a gut laughing.

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

MEMORIES from a friend:
My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December) and
he brought me an old lemonade bottle.
In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it. I knew
immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea.
She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew
it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to 'sprinkle'
clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.

How many do you remember?
Headlight dip-switches on the floor of the car.
Ignition switches on the dashboard..
Trouser leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heated on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn indicators.

How many of these do you remember?
1. Sweet cigarettes
2. Coffee shops with juke boxes
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 / 78’s !!
10. Hi-fi's
11. Metal ice trays with levers
12. Blue flashbulb
13. Cork popguns
14. Wash tub wringers / Kerosene Lamps/Coal Iron’s

Of course I don't remember any of them!!!

[Dark Knight]

I remeber seeing most of this in an episode of Time Team called "return to the Dark Ages"

The presenters were amazed that people lived beyond their 30's in this time period

[kaymar]

[quote="oldbluefox"]I
'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.'


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 in our house until I was 10.
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.

Spot on, obf, except that our first TV came when I was 12. One of the reasons we did not have one earlier was because we had no electricity in the Cumbrian hamlet where I was born (nor gas). Those were the days!

[oldbluefox]

We had a neighbour who had a little television. Four or five of us used to sit on his fence outside and watch it through the window!! Just the kids, mind you, not mam and dad!!!

[jacksparrow]

Can you remember Spangles.... the old English ones were the best....

[Mo2013]

I remember all of them, including Spangles, but then again I am ancient !

[jacksparrow]

When decimalisation came in.... the previous day a mars bar was 4d and the day it came in a mars bar was 4p... an increase of over 100%..... not impressed

[Mo2013]

A lot of people took advantage of decimalisation to hike prices and in later years, reduce the size of chocolate bars too.

[Silver_Shiney]

I don't remember metal ice trays with levers, but everything else is a firm memory! I wasn't too enamoured with Old English Spangles... each to his own!

[CaroleF]

Oh Horror! I remember all of them OBF. We also had a fridge that was a gas fridge! I loved Old English Spangles. I also remember buying penny ice lollies at a sweet shop on the way home from school and frozen Jubblies - the orange drink in a triangular package that our local shop used to keep in the freezer. I remember going out to play with my bike in the morning after breakfast at about 9.30am and not getting back until lunch time - I was probably aged about 9 or 10. I remember gathering my school uniform in the morning and rushing down to the sitting room to get dressed in front of the gas fire as we didn't have central heating.

In the Great Freeze of Winter 1963 I remember walking to school everyday through the snow and don't remember a day off. I remember playing snowballs in the playground. No health and safety worries there!

Carole

[jay-ell71]

I remember all of them. I was 13 when we got TV, we had watched the coronation on a neighbours TV and it was soon after that we got one of our own.


I returned from my Honeymoon in January 1963. We had spent a fortnight in Switzerland skiing. The trains in Switzerland ran on time, and were warm and comfortable. We flew home with Swiss Air. When we arrived back in England, nothing ran on time, nor was it warm and comfortable to travel.

Nothing much has changed in 50 years!! Jay

[oldbluefox]

and in case you have forgotten, in the 50's

* Pasta had not been invented.
* Curry was an unknown entity.
* Olive oil was kept in the medicine cabinet
* Spices came from the Middle East where we believed that they were used for embalming
* Herbs were used to make rather dodgy medicine.
* A takeaway was a mathematical problem.
* A pizza was something to do with a leaning tower.
* Bananas and oranges only appeared at Christmas time.
* The only vegetables known to us were spuds, peas, carrots and cabbage,
anything else was regarded as being a bit suspicious.
* All crisps were plain; the only choice we had was whether to put the salt on or not.
* Condiments consisted of salt, pepper, vinegar and brown sauce if we were lucky.
* Soft drinks were called pop.
* Coke was something that we mixed with coal to make it last longer.
* A Chinese chippy was a foreign carpenter.
* Rice was a milk pudding, and never, ever part of our dinner.
* A Big Mac was what we wore when it was raining.
* A Pizza Hut was an Italian shed.
* A microwave was something out of a science fiction movie.
* Brown bread was something only poor people ate.
* Oil was for lubricating your bike not for cooking, fat was for cooking
* Bread and jam was a treat.
* Tea was made in a teapot using tea leaves, not bags.
* The tea cosy was the forerunner of all the energy saving devices that we hear so much about today.
* Tea had only one colour, black. Green tea was not British.
* Coffee was only drunk when we had no tea….. and then it was Camp, and came in a bottle.
* Cubed sugar was regarded as posh.
* Figs and dates appeared every Christmas, but no one ever ate them.
* Sweets and confectionery were called toffees.
* Coconuts only appeared when the fair came to town.
* Black puddings were mined in Bolton Lancashire.
* Jellied eels were peculiar to Londoners.
* Salad cream was a dressing for salads, mayonnaise did not exist
* Hors d'oeuvre was a spelling mistake.
* The starter was our main meal.
* Soup was a main meal.
* The menu consisted of what we were given, and was set in stone.
* Only Heinz made beans, any others were impostors.
* Leftovers went in the dog.
* Special food for dogs and cats was unheard of.
* Sauce was either brown or red.
* Fish was only eaten on Fridays.
* Fish didn't have fingers in those days.
* Eating raw fish was called poverty, not sushi.
* Ready meals only came from the fish and chip shop.
* For the best taste fish and chips had to be eaten out of old newspapers.
* Frozen food was called ice cream.
* Nothing ever went off in the fridge because we never had one.
* Ice cream only came in one colour and one flavour.
* None of us had ever heard of yoghurt.
* Jelly and blancmange was only eaten at parties.
* If we said that we were on a diet, we simply got less.
* Healthy food consisted of anything edible.
* Healthy food had to have the ability to stick to your ribs.
* Calories were mentioned but they had nothing at all to do with food.
* The only criteria concerning the food that we ate were ... did we like it and could we afford it.
* People who didn't peel potatoes were regarded as lazy so and so’s.
* Indian restaurants were only found in India .
* A seven course meal had to last a week.
* Brunch was not a meal.
* Cheese only came in a hard lump.
* If we had eaten bacon lettuce and tomato in the same sandwich we would have been certified
* A bun was a small cake back then.
* A tart was a fruit filled pastry, not a lady of horizontal pleasure.
* The word" Barbie" was not associated with anything to do with food.
* Eating outside was called a picnic.
* Cooking outside was called camping.
* Seaweed was not a recognised food.
* Offal was only eaten when we could afford it.
* Eggs only came fried or boiled.
* Hot cross buns were only eaten at Easter time.
* Pancakes were only eaten on Pancake Tuesday - in fact in those days it was compulsory.
* "Kebab" was not even a word never mind a food.
* Hot dogs were a type of sausage that only the Americans ate.
* Cornflakes had arrived from America but it was obvious that they would never catch on.
* The phrase "boil in the bag" would have been beyond our realms of comprehension.
* The idea of "oven chips" would not have made any sense at all to us.
* The world had not yet benefited from weird and wonderful things
like Pot Noodles, Instant Mash and Pop Tarts.
* We bought milk and cream at the same time in the same bottle.
* Sugar enjoyed a good press in those days, and was regarded as being white gold.
* Lettuce and tomatoes in winter were just a rumour.
* Most soft fruits were seasonal except perhaps at Christmas.
* Prunes were medicinal.
* Surprisingly muesli was readily available in those days, it was called cattle feed.
* Turkeys were definitely seasonal.
* Pineapples came in chunks in a tin; we had only ever seen a picture of a real one.
* We didn't eat Croissants in those days because we couldn't pronounce them, we couldn't spell them and we didn't know what they were.
* We thought that Baguettes were a serious problem the French needed to deal with.
* Garlic was used to ward off vampires, but never used to flavour bread.
* Water came out of the tap, if someone had suggested bottling it and charging treble for it
they would have become a laughing stock.
* Food hygiene was all about washing your hands before meals.
* Campylobacter, Salmonella, E.coli, Listeria, and Botulism were all called "food poisoning."
* The one thing that we never ever had on our table in the fifties …. elbows.

[Wina G]

[Kendhni]

Jeez ... I am feeling very old all of a sudden

[Manoverboard]

In the Great Freeze of Winter 1963 I was delivering milk ... such fun.

Yes I remember them all but I was actually 17 before my Dad would allow a TV into the house, the phone was allowed in when I was 24 but only because I paid for the instalation ... in spite of having left home to get married several years earlier

We did have curry and it involved a a pint of water, some mince, an apple and a few sultanas plus a teaspoon of curry powder. Can't remember what it tasted like ... thankfully.

[oldbluefox]

There's a reason for that Ken

[Kendhni]

But OBF, how can I be the board pin-up if I am old and wrinkly ?
I was going for Mr September in next years P&O calendar you know ... as soon as I get the knots out of my mankini.





That last sentence sounds somewhat euphemistic.

[incawat]

Birthday treat was coloured sugar sandwiches,Pye 9 inch telivision for coronation. £12.17/6 a month for p&o bell boy 1957, going up to £32 assistant steward when 18.

[Mo2013]

Oldbluefox - love that post ! I'll bet we're a similar age !

[haveabeer]

Mother made me go sunday school and sunday after noon take my baby sister out in her pram while mum and dad rested?

[haveabeer]

Sherbert dip, love hearts, corona lemonade

We had a 9inch tv with a magnifying glass in front of it

Black and white minstrels

Sunday night at the Palladium

Austin Eight

[jacksparrow]

You can still get love hearts but they dont taste the same.....


When you think about the size of the coinage and bearing in mind that we had 10 bob notes and £1 notes, I dont think that purses were any bigger, mind you we didnt need so much money before decimilisation came in....

[ChrisB]

OBF, I remember all of those. We had a television for the Queens Coronation. It was a 9" or 12" screen with an indoor aerial.

CarolF I also remember the Jubbly. And wagon wheels were a lot bigger than they are today. Sherbert dabs and sweet cigarettes. Do you remember you could buy 4 sweet shrimps for 1d. Oh! I must be getting old. 66 in April.

[jacksparrow]

There were black jacks aswell which turned your tongue black....

[oldbluefox]

My in-laws were POSH and I mean POSH!!! They had a piece of coloured cling-filmy type stuff which converted a black and white TV to a coloured one. Landscapes looked fine but close ups of people with blue foreheads and green chins were a bit wierd!