The OS Doorstep - a helpful and supportive thread in these tough times

Molly41

My kids are now nearly grown up but were lucky in that they got the opportunity to play outside and make dens as we live on the edge of a relatively safe park and the countryside.

I think some memories are positive but some still make me sad from my childhood. It was just plain hard at times and I would not want to return to that era.

Bigjenny

I was born in 1946 and remember all the things that have been mentioned. I hated flannelette sheets and nighties and would never have them on the bed even as a child.

Not sure if the little rubber ball on a piece of elastic has been mentioned, around in the late 50's early 60's . You stood with your back to the wall and bounced the ball up and down or across your body to rhymes until an adult got fed up with the noise and shouted at you to stop.

Mini skirts so short you daren't bend over, then a few years later maxi skirts.

Cheapskate

Morning all

• Pin curls on Saturday night after our baths (3 girls sharing 1 lot of water!) before church next day - I still have hair straight as a yard of water!
• Birthday "teas" with everything homemade and just a few friends from school
• Day trip to the seaside with a huge picnic, then fish tea in a cafe as a treat
• Many homemade clothes - including a a long crochet jacket made by my great aunt that I wore to death, cried when it got too small!
• Ball games against the wall - tennis ball in a leg from old tights

I miss a lot of that stuff, seemed less stressful (even for the adults), it feels harder to keep it going now with so many of my friends falling victim to commercialism. Even now, birthday parties at ours are homemade affairs, no expensive play gyms for us!

Many of people's memories are so similar - the 50/60/70s of our childhoods seem to be when we really were "all in it together" with simpler tastes and having less cash to splash.

A xo

FairyPrincessk

Morning everyone!

I'm very sorry to hear about your grandmother, Kezlou.

Mrs. LW, so glad you enjoyed your trip! 8 weeks is so short! What an exciting time.

As of around 10pm last night we have a new nephew. I imagine we'll go to make his acquaintance some evening this week.

Unfortunately the carboot sale yesterday was a washout. Since OH had bought a day ticket on the bus, we decided to make the most of it and headed to the CS in two nearby areas. We were exhausted when we got home. I don't think we actually found anything, but it was nice to get out. I tackled curtains last night while we were watching a film. I ended up going with plain unbleached muslin curtains over the orange ones. I tried the tulle and it went from 70s shagwagon decor to 60 synthetic flower child...I couldn't decide which was worse:rotfl: They look much better now, and with nets, a set of heavy line curtains and a set of light lined curtains on each window I think the bedroom will be warm. I've had the muslin curtains for years now--they've served a number of purposes. I also shortened some curtains for another room, just put a tuck into them so they can be used again later.

The strawberry still has a green underbelly. Haven't been out this morning, but it might be ready. The rest are still green with envy. I shall have to recount Lyn's wedding knicker story again!:rotfl:

[Deleted User]

FPK you have just placed my keyboard in jeopardy again, I really shouldn't drink coffee when reading posts, give my love to your now very blushing strawberry!!!!! Love Lyn xxx.

GreyQueen

Emm-in-a-pickle wrote: »

While we`re looking back - does anyone remember those AWFUL fibreglass curtains? Mum got some with leaves on, then we moved house and she wanted to shorten them to fit the new windows better, but the fibres snapped and frayed when you tried to sew the stuff on the old singer treadle. And the creases from previous sewing would never come out. Mum tried taking a whole pair to bits and re-sewing them by hand, but ended up with leaves growing up one curtain and down the other, didn`t notice till they were up on the window again. My dad found this hilarious, Mum replaced them all soon after that, but it was a family joke for ages. Any bargain or new household item she bought, dad would say `I hope it`s not another fibreglass curtain`.

OMG, have just flashed on the fibreglass curtains we had in our 1970s living room. Ghastly things, whitish background with a sort of abstract pattern in gold and beige. I could pick that pattern out of a crowd even after all these years. She never bought another pair; they were seen off in 1984 by a kitten who used to run up them and plucked them to pieces. Good girl!

Bigjenny wrote: »

Not sure if the little rubber ball on a piece of elastic has been mentioned, around in the late 50's early 60's . You stood with your back to the wall and bounced the ball up and down or across your body to rhymes until an adult got fed up with the noise and shouted at you to stop.

Mini skirts so short you daren't bend over, then a few years later maxi skirts.

Oh yeah, we had that, and a craze in my primary school for putting a heavy rubber ball the size of a tennis ball into the end of a long sock, then you stood with your back against a wall and sort of flailed it about, bouncing it off the wall around your limbs as fast as possible without hitting yourself. Must have crazed the adults when we used the gable end wall of their houses.

And skipping with plastic washing lines, complicated group games with really long lines, often two going at a time. God, you needed to be fast and accurate to skip two lines or you'd get a welt across your calf or even your face.

I can still see a puff-sleeved canary yellow shift dress with navy rick-rack around the sleeves, and a nasty nylon patterned Heidi dress.......static cling, eww!

Gotta go to work, laters, GQ xx

PRINCESSX87

JackieO wrote: »

I have been reading through the posts and what struck me was how many smashing memories there are here ,none of which involved spending large amounts of cash on gadgets. I have nothing against techy stuff, but I daresay that like me, you either have children or grandchildren that seem to spend hours staring at a screen and 'playing' games.Bacically just pressing buttons.
All of my childhood games involved either a ball, a skipping rope (I once had one of those ones with ball bearings in the handle and really thought I was the bee's knees)or just plain imagination.Today's children seem to find it hard at times to actually relate to each other .One of my grandsons 'plays' with his friend on his Xbox and he has a set of head phones, and is in the dining room chatting whilst playing
I think its a bit sad that so many children today don't get out in the fresh air to play.As a child holidays from school entailed going to the park with a jam sandwich(if you were lucky ) and a bottle of water, and strict instructions to be back by six and no later.It meant being free from most adult restraints, and making 'dens' or small hideyholes as kids that were away from grown-ups and their boring conversations.Today's kids rarely seem to venture very far from home unless they have adult supervision.I know that you have to be careful of stranger-danger but I too was warned 'don't talk to anyone you don't know especially if they ask you to go anywhere' I was brought up on Blackheath in London and at times it was deserted, and in the winter could be a bit creepy in the fog, but you knew how to stay safe, and I can't remember ever being approached by anyone.

Most children hung around together anyway where I lived and everyone knew everyone else.in the road.How many folk even know their next door neighbours surnames today I wonder. So we may not have had lots of money or 'designer stuff (my grandson has a pair of 'Vans' that to me are no different from the 'bumpers' that my Mum bought me as a small child to play in during the summer holidays for 7/6d from Woolworths :)) but we did have freedom and imagination and the ability to amuse ourselves.How many times today do you hear kids say 'I'm bored' yet most of them have far more than I could ever have dreamed of when I was small.So they have lots of gadgets and things that have been bought for them yet they are still bored and restless.I look after four of my grandsons before and after school and during the holidays and one word that is banned is 'bored' I tell them bored people are boring and I've never been bored in my life there are far too many interesting things to do.:)
We make up games and daft things to try and I do get them out of the house and into the parks as much as possible,especially during the holidays.A bat ,a ball and voila you have 'french cricket' which even I, as a clapped out old Granny with rubbish joints can play.or we cook ,all the boys can make flapjacks or biscuits I taught them as soon as they could stand on a chair and stir that food is made in the kitchen and not out of a packet:):) we forage for stuff in the summer and I have taught them to recognize differnt birds on our walks I don't spend lots of money on 'things' for them but I do spend lots of time with them playing cards or board games and probably because I have time to spend it works, and keep them fairly happy.they do have their moments as do all children when things go wrong and they argue,but I try to divert their attention to something else.I feel very privileged to be able to be part of my grandsons childhood and my DD says its really funny sometimes to hear the boys if they say something and she says she knows they have heard it from me as she can remember phrases from her childhood.The other day apparrently the youngest one Mikey was singing a song in the car that came from my childhood, and she said she could remember me singing it to her over 40 years ago
By the way I have just rememebred something else who can recall those awful metal curlers that were instruments of torture when you 'set' your hair and worst of all when I was little on a saturday night having to have your hair done up so that you had ringlets in the morning for church.My hair was stick straight and nothing my Mum could do would induce a ringlet that stayed in well.I had chemo 5 years ago and when my hair grew back in I finally had a curl in it after well over 65 years my mum would have been so pleased :):):)

I was born in 1987. & Most of the things you said was our rules for playing out. Stranger danger was taught to all of us from a young age, In fact, I remember when my 2 younger brothers was sharing a bath, (Must have been about 3 & 5 yrs) My mum was teaching them what to do if a stranger approached & the boys used to scream at the top of their lungs. Although they see it as a game its something they still remember & laugh about it to this day (Now 19 & 17:rotfl:)

Another rule we had was times, If my parents told me in by 5 & i wasn't you could bet your bottom dollar, 5:05 they would have found me and gave me a mouthful. The only time "playing out" was extended was the summer months, And providing all the neighbour hood kids was together we was allowed to 9!! :rotfl:

Nowadays, Most people dont know where their children are. I was also brought up around London, (Mainly Peckham before moving to Thamesmead near Dartford.) But i have seen a huge change. Children cannot make fun, They have it provided, They do not make "mud pies & attempt to eat them" because of germs.

Instead its children because sat in front of computer games and having iphones that makes them smile. Such a shame really!

Does anyone else remember them dreaded metal nit combs! Gosh, I'm convinced i had no scalp left! They still make me now lol

alfsmum

Gosh this thread is moving on apace and so many lovely newbies and so many memories.

I'd love to have all the delivery vans that we used to have: breadman twice a week with bread and lovely cakes, fishman, butcher, corona man selling pop, grocery van from the co-op, local hardware store van on a Friday with everything you could possible want for the house and garden, paraffin for the greenhouse lamps etc. and of course the milkman every day except Sunday. The milkman is the only one we have left and that is just three time a week. Fruit and veg was all grown by the family so no need to buy, potatoes stored in sacks, apples carefully wrapped in tissue and layered in boxes, and so much jam and bottled fruit.

We had an outside loo, no hot water or heating other than coal fires, water for washing was heated in the boiler , the pipes were lagged to try to stop them freezing, the milk bottles would have a lovely frozen layer on the top in winter where the cream had frozen. It was the nearest we got to ice cream as we didn't have a fridge or freezer, just a pantry with a flagstone floor to keep it cool. With food being delivered fresh on an almost daily basis, it wasn't a problem.

Emm-in-a-pickle

Summer of `76 - by then I was a young mum (DS was 4 that summer) and I was glad I`d kept the `hot pants` from a few years before, I lived in them all that summer. (I could get away with it then, I`d be arrested now!)
As an only child, there were periods when books were my best company, though playing out with friends happened a lot too. Either way, we were using our imagination a lot then. I was rubbish at skipping and ball games, but watching others felt it was all repetetive and a bit boring. I got exercise enough playing `tic` and climbing trees though.
Kids today? OK they do have all the techie stuff, but they don`t ALL spend every minute on it. My grandchildren, and the neighbours` kids too, are still doing a lot of `imagination` games. It`s very entertaining to listen to them play and whoevers game it be giving their commentary on the `plot` - like little film directors! Then you hear one of the other kids arguing a bit and getting told `it`s MY game!`

[Deleted User]

I remember the summer of '76 with such joy, we lived outside for the entire summer He Who Knows and I had just got our first house, we were in a 2 bed modern terrace amid 4 rows of identicals and if you stood in the kitchen of the end one you could see right through 4 rows to the other end. The gardens backed on to each other and the fronts had a walkway between the front gardens that faced each other. We barbecued every night for months, someone would supply the charcoal and someone the salad, someone else the bread and we all chipped in for wine/beer and brought our own meat and every evening we were in a different garden, it was the best time. Sitting in the garden in the deepening twilight with some music on in the house nattering with our friends and neighbours and laughing and enjoying the company. No one locked back doors and if there were litle ones we all took a turn to pop into the houses and check they were OK. It was like being an enormous family that summer and one of the most satisfying periods I can ever remember. There were down sides though, stand pipes in some areas as the drought bit deeply and where we lived in Kent the oldest pond in the town cracked across its clay base and never filled again. It was a brilliant growing year though and we filled our first freezer from the allottment and windfall apples from the old kentish orchards. We made fruit wines, and homemade beer, jams, jellies and pickles and chutneys and then in a flash it was all over and we were pitchforked into autumn, there was a sadness but also funnily enough a relief as it had been so very hot for so long, and the first rain we had after the summer was very,very welcome. Happy memories!!! Cheers Lyn xxx.