New BBC2 Back in time for dinner

Purple_kitten

What is making me curious is they can't have any meat or a very limited amount, so how do they have big pots of dripping?

Butterfly_Brain

honeythewitch wrote: »

I was baffled by them making the father eat on his own. I have never heard of it.

Me neither, we always ate as a family at the table, my parents were sticklers for it and we were taught proper table manners none of this talking with your mouth full in those days you would be in big trouble for that, our children were brought up the same way and we never had any complaints when they went to their friends houses for dinner, some of their friends however had no idea about table etiquette:eek:

prosaver

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Me neither, we always ate as a family at the table, my parents were sticklers for it and we were taught proper table manners none of this talking with your mouth full in those days you would be in big trouble for that, our children were brought up the same way and we never had any complaints when they went to their friends houses for dinner, some of their friends however had no idea about table etiquette:eek:

some people dont know what a table is for.

pricew1970

prosaver wrote: »

some people dont know what a table is for.

Wow you're a little bundle of joy arent you, sounds like you've had it hard....did you live in a shoe growing up and get a lump of coal for Christmas ????? :rotfl:

Get back to your copy of the Daily Mail please :T

duchy

honeythewitch wrote: »

No actually. I didn't. That's why I asked.

Please don't feed the troll

(Unless it's tripe or pilchards of course)

storytime

We had meat for dinner everyday, just cheap cuts. My mum's speciality was stuffed hearts! My children are horrified that we ate hearts. Liver was another favourite and steak and kidney pudding. To fill out a meal we also had a slice of bread and butter.
My dad had a sweet tooth so my poor mum had to make a pudding from scratch too.
We were all skinny but then we didn't have a car and walked everywhere. Also we didn't eat between meals.
Oh the good old days, everyone was so friendly and neighbourly then.

[Deleted User]

Well my friend was down for the day from Dartford and we are of a similar age .We sat and hooted at the womans ideas of cooking for her family.I know it makes good tv, but the children seemed to be spoilt quite a bit, and had not much idea of how to entertain themselves without a tv in the corner.The Father I would suggest was quite old enough to know how the tin opener worked it was hardly rocket science.

Children of my age read books ,you know, the things you got off you bottom and walked to the library to loan and walked back home again.

My two brothers used to make model aeroplanes from balsa wood and tissue paper, and my middle brother was never happier than when he was tinkering with something .He had a little white crystal set given to him for his birthday once and spent hours taking it apart and then putting it all together and getting a sound out of it.

I sat and either held my Mums wool for winding, or knitted clothes for my rescued dolly that my big brother found on a bomb site .
It was minus its eye,arm and a leg but I adapted my dollys clothes to fit and can remember knitting a pair of one-legged one-armed pajamas for my Molly-the-Dolly.(My Mum hated it with avengance as she knew what had probably happened to its original owner )

After our evening meal as a family ( we all had to sit up to the table together and no elbows on the table if you don't mind !!!:):):))

We played either domino's or cards or if my big brother brought his young lady home in the evening Ludo. (No hanky panky allowed in my Mums house :):))

My Mum made food taste as best she could with what she had, and would never have dished up cold left overs to any of us

The veg true was a larger part of our diet in those days simply because of rationing.

But apparently when war broke out my Mum had hustled round to every shop she could in Glasgow and bought up all the pepper,salt herbs and spices that she could. She used most of it up during the following 6 years of hostilites.

She had been born in 1900 so had grown up during WW1 and knew how quickly things could run out in the shops .

True rationing was a bind, but very few went hungry, and what you don't have you don't miss.

In the programme it seemed to say that once rationing was finished in 1954 that the shops were full of things again This was just not true as shortages went on for a lot longer , even without rationing.The country had to rebuild its self and there were just not the materials around ,or the men with skills come to that.

Imagine an 18 years old young man going off to war for 6 years then coming home He has to learn new skills to get a job as there had been very few apprentices during war-time.

Shortages were everywhere.The bad winter of 1947/48 when coal was horded like gold and people froze.

Pipes burst because of the cold and plumbers were few and far between.Most kids (me included, went to bed with Dads army greatcoat over their feet ).In those days keeping warm was all you though about.

Talking with my friend yesterday after watching this we said what we most remembered about the 1950s and it was being cold and queueing for everything.

I would go shopping with my Mum and I would be stuck in a queue at one shop, while she queued at another Often I hadn't got a clue what I was queueing for ,but I had saved a place for Mum.

She shopped virtually daily but she certainly never did 75 hours of housework a week ,that was just rubbish, true she had no labour saving gadgets, but she had a great deal of common sense, and three healthy children who helped out with the chores.

My eldest brother's job every night was to clean and polish all the shoes, my middle brother would make sure there was enough kindling for starting the kitchen range off and wood or coal in the scuttles .

I had to turn the handle on the mangle when Mum was doing the washing or jab the boiler with the dolly stickwhen it was full of washing .Mum always did the ironing with two black flat irons on the range and as children we were never ever allowed to touch them on pain of death in case we burned ourselves.

The wirless was on in the evening, and we usually were doing something while it was on. My Mum used to do her housework in the morning then after lunch off would come the pinny and she would sit and listen to Womans Hour before prepping stuff for the evening meal.

My Dad always sat at the head of the table, and Mum the other end. Manners were observed and woe betide any child who misbehaved at the table ,you were likely sent to bed without your meal .Bathtime was Friday night as I was the girl and youngest, Mum put me in first before my mucky brothers.The tin bath was grey and hung on the back of the coal shed door and it took ages to fill up. Hair was washed weekly and closely inspected to make sure no 'visitors ' were brought home from school.Homework was done with a bit of bread and jam after school to 'keep you going until tea time' Very rarely tasted crisps, and certainly not in our house as my Mum thought they were a waste of 2d.

My eldest brother used to bring some in now and again when he started work and had been out with his girlfriends on a Friday night.

I had 9d pocket money 6d for the Saturday morning pictures, and 3d for sweets and that was it (my brothers had to earn their pocket money) no extras and presents were birthdays or Christmas.

There seemed as though there was very little obesity as people walked everywhere I walked backwards and forwards to school four times a day (I came home for lunch )and it was a mile and a half each way so I walked six miles a day from the age of five across Blackheath in all weathers.


Summer time we usually went to visit my Gt Uncle Bob who had a market garden in Herne Bay for the day and we would come home laden with fruit (usually strawberries :):)) and Mum would manage to get hold of or swap for some sugar and make pots of jam that lasted us through the winter.

Or if we went to visit relations up in Scotlad we would go up on the overnight SMT coach to Edinburgh, then another coach after that, then a bus ride before we got to my Aunts in Brechin.It would take almost 24 hours to get there. Often, as she had four children of her own, my two brothers would be farmed out to sleep in her neighbours house overnight.

I can remember being taken to Montrose as a little girl and Dad making us all get into the water It was freezing but he insisted it was 'good ' for you.Wearing a knitted swimsuit that Mum had made I looked a sorry site when I came out as my 'cossy' was down past my knees :):) and my brothers absolutely fell about laughing.Put me off of swimming for years and I never learned until I was in my late 50s

But relatives recipricated and when they came down to London they would stay with us for their holidays

I never felt deprived, or hard up, as life was just normal, and when ever something exciting happened it was usually to do with Mum finding something unusual to eat, like she brought home some bananas and my brother thought you had to eat the skin as well.
I'd never seen a banana until I was about 10.
People seemed more neighbourly then and children were often watched over by neighbours, and if one fell over in the street they would usually end up on my Mums doorstep where she would stick a bit of pink Germolene on their knee give them a cuddle and a biscuit if she had one and send them back to play.

Life was probably less stressful than today and far slower.The seasons meant to a child different games, and we didn't need a console or tv set to play two tennis balls or a skipping rope for girls and if they were lucky a foot ball (or tin can) for boys. In the summer a home-made bat for cricket made out of orange box wood and the handle wrapped with string and a sorbo rubber ball would keep hoardes of little boys happy for hours.

You had to make your own amusements and being taken anywhere for a day out was few and far between. But I enjoyed my 40 and 50s upbrings and certainly don't feel deprived by it.

I am happy to have wall-to wall carpets and double glazing and central heating now and certainly wouldn't want to go back to queueing or rationing but the friendliness seems to be missing in todays society I find

snoozer

To be fair to the mother it did seem as if they were using menus from the food survey of the day so maybe she didn't have a choice in what she was cooking. I did think that the liver and potatoes was yukky but if that was what the person in the fifties put that they'd eaten she may not have been allowed to add veggies, gravy etc.


Re the bacon, she must have been vetted beforehand and said she would cook it - the kids tucked in to it and they must be jewish too as it is passed down from the mother.

Ken68

You bring back lots of memories, Jackie. I was brought up in the wartime and forties/fifties, nine of us plus mum and dad. Remember sour milk being drained off to make cottage cheese and my job was to do all the shoes everyday.
The older boys helped dad on the allotment, the girls shared the cooking and cleaning. How on earth did our parents manage what with rationing too.
And shall never forget going to Sunday School in a crocodile fashion and best clothes and behaviour for the rest of the day. We often joked about eating the crocodile if we ever found it.

flea72

honeythewitch wrote: »

I was baffled by them making the father eat on his own. I have never heard of it.

I didnt get the impression the dad was 'made' to eat on his own. i think he was pointing out that normally they all eat their main meal of the day together, but as he was now having his at lunchtime, the kids were at school

Then again in the evening, it was normal for kids to eat their main meal when they came in from school, not wait til dad came home from work. So his normal family dynamic of eating together had gone. He still had meals with wifey, but she was busy doing chores, so didnt get to sit n chat after eating