Childhood & Sentimental memories

noonesperfect

Sparky16 reminded me of washday taking ALL day. As far as I can remember Mum had an automatic washer, but she hand-washed alot of stuff and boiled whites (the smell of Persil still takes me back to be being small (in the 60's!)). But she didn't wash any other day of the week until very much later after me and my brother left home.

Does anyone else remember Supermoose (a bit like milky way) or Crackerjack popcorn (it came in a box mixed with peanuts and a small toy)?

Hot cross buns were only eaten on Good Friday and crumpets sometimes for tea in the winter. I loved readybrek as a child but can't stomach it now - I like porridge though.

I remember trying to pinch glace cherries from time to time but on the whole never ate between meals. I wasn't allowed to! My Mother always seemed to know exactly how many sweets/chocolates were in the sweet drawer!!

portsmouthali

noonesperfect wrote: »

Does anyone else remember Supermoose (a bit like milky way)

I loved Supermoose! Very yummy. Also liked Galaxy counters, which were like non-crispy minstrels.

We always had either Angel Delight (butterscotch was/is my favourite) or little birds' eye frozen mousses (I had strawberry, my brother had chocolate) for pudding, except on Sundays when Mum would make an apple pie or fruit crumble. We used to get our fizzy drinks from the Unigate milkman, my favourites were cherryade and cream soda.

I also remember ice on on the inside of our louvre windows, we only had gas fires downstairs (which I remember huddling in front of!) and a smelly parrafin heater in the kitchen so upstairs was always freezing in winter

We always went to my Nans for tea on Saturday, and it was always ham, luncheon meat, bread & butter, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, celery (with salad cream to dip into) and tinned fruit and evaporated milk, followed by a cup of tea made with proper tea leaves, or milky coffee (Mellow Birds). We always watched the Wrestling, followed by the football results, while my Mum, Nan & Pop were getting tea ready. Dad would always get back from football just after World of Sport finished, and his mood would depend on whether Pompey had won or lost. :rolleyes:

Lovely memories, I miss my grandparents like mad and am glad my son has an equally good relationship with his grandparents.

What a brilliant thread!

[Deleted User]

I can remember when Sainsburys used to close at 4.p.m. on Saturday afternoon in Lewisham,London and not re-open until Tuesdays .For some reason they were always shut on a Monday.
When the first supermaket in Lewisham opened it was Sainsburys, and you could buy 3 eggs in a little plastic box similar to the 6 egg ones today They cost 9d or 11d if they were large ones.We kept several laying hens , and my Mum was appalled that anyone would buy eggs at that price, and said 'How long since the chicken clucked those out I wonder'
Fish was always bought fresh on Friday afternoon and the Sunday joint on Saturday afternoon from Gorstons the butchers in Lewisham market.This was an open-fronted stall/shop lit by parrafin lanterns in the winter.At 4.p.m. onwards a large crowd of women would gather and the meat would be auctioned off.Often thrown in along with the joint were a lb of chipolatas or some liver or kidneys.Everything had to be sold off so if you hung on for long enough you would get a bargain.
Chicken was a once a year meal, and often it was one of our own birds. My d
Dad would kill it and my brothers and I had to pluck its feathers off. My Mum would then burn the stubble off with a candle, and it stunk the house out.I never tasted turkey until I was married as it wasn't very often around in the butchers then.
As my parents were Scots we kept more to Hogmanay than Christmas, and as a little one I was put to bed early on the night and woken at 10.30.p.m. to join the rest of the family in bringing in the New Year.My Dad would light all the lights in the house and open all the windows to let in the New Year.My middle brother Davy would be turfed out with a bottle and some shortbread and as the bells went my Dad would let him 'first foot 'us as he had dark hair and the rest of us were fair.We lived fairly close to Blackheath and could hear the ships hooters at 12.p.m. The neighbours all thought our family were very odd as we were the only ones in our street to do this.Its a custom that I still do even to this day I can never remember not seeing a New year in ever in my long life.
My late husband came from the Isle of Wight and our first New Year together he thought it very odd but he didn't mind and got used to my 'heathen ways'

piratess

Oh i love reading things like this ! .. I was born in 75 and some of my greatest memories are as follows.... Saturday mornings watching "going live" i vaguely remember Tizwaz! ...
Saturday morning was always a walk into town with my sister and mum and dad, "down one side up the other" .... never sempt to buy anything though and then back to grans house where my auntie, uncle and cousin would be .... my gran used to make pasties every saturday, at least 10 as she would make spares! ... and a pan of stew so i could put half of my pasty in it lol, my grandad bless him used to give me and my sister 20p pocket money every saturday! even when i was 15 it was still 20p!.
My grandad taking me down town to buy me my school bag for my first day at secondry school ! it was like a suitcase ! ....
I remember also on a saturday i would nip down to the buttery for a fresh loaf still warm and my gran would cut the crust off each end for me and my sister with lots of butter on and then if we were still hungry she would slice the top off to!
Sundays in our house was roast day without fail! and is the only day we would sit round the table, my mum was a bit slack in that department lol, and listening to umm alan freeman on the radio whilst eating! and my dad singing "pass the gravy by the left hand side" and me finding it hilarious! hes just as daft now! ....

Summer holidays were spent on the beach egg and sand sarnies salt and shake crisps, i remember our little car a triumph herald which my dad and next door neighbour painted with coach paint one weekend outside out house! .. i cried when it went to car heaven!
Making dens down the field playing true dare double dare kiss command or promise! ... 40/40 sardines british bulldog ! and not coming in until it was almost dark!
I used to get smash hits most weeks and also Just seventeen and also mizz magazines and then me and my best mate trawling thro all the agony aunt pages lol and having my walls plastered with Aha posters! ... tapin the charts on a sunday and as somone else put trying not to get the Djs voice! ....

sunday evenings were bath night me and my sister would have a bath with mum and then get nighties and dressing gowns on and go down to listen to the charts (we would have only been 6/7 ish ) and dancing to the songs whilst mum and dad watched laughed lol

i could go on but i dont want to bore you all ! brilliant thread
OOoo just to add my dad made the best scrambled eggs! and rounders mmmmmm

alice's_mum

What a brilliant thread, made me think

I remember taking the lemo bottle back to the shop for the "old money" bottle return - think it was 6d. Being allowed to spend the said 6d and buying a huge bag of fruit salads and liquourice, they were about 10 for 1 new p.

my dad with me on my little seat on the front of his bike, during the heatwave of 76 wobbling all over the road as we burst the bubbles in the tar, the roads were that quiet it didn't matter which side of the road the bubble was on we just had to burst it.

Still on my dad's bike, sitting under this huge yellow mackintosh type cape he had for wearing on the bike to keep dry and him singing all sorts of mad songs that he'd learnt during the war, usually George Formby or something about being barefoot - and when I peeped out I could see people giving him funny looks coz they couldn't see me!

my uncles (dad's uncles actually) "wack" don't ask his name was Patrick - and Bernie, giving me conny onny butties. my mum went spare it was soooo sticky and it was all in my hair and on my clothes.

My dad and above uncles brewing their own home brew in a yellow bin in uncles kitchen and the smell of hops etc, still takes me straight back to their back kitchen.

My dad borrowing cars from his friend so we could go on holiday, and then him locking the keys in it. It was a Ford Cortina Mark 1 it had been an old Cop Car and the local plod was able to open the car for us with his key - they all had the same key if they belonged to the police!!!!!!

my mum buying the first ever disposable nappies for my sister (summer 76) when we were driving to Scarborough on holiday.

Always going to Whitegates Hotel in Valley Road in Scarborough on holiday and watching Z cars being filmed at the bottom of the road. And whilst there getting stuck on the big wheel with my mum ('74 ish) and we were at the top of the wheel and she had her scholl's on and was sure they were going to fall into the sea and was screaming to be gotten down. And dad standing underneath telling her to sit still and keep hold of me, none of these supper safety locks, just a small chain holding us in - dad was convinced I was going to slip under the chain and fall.

Anyway enough of this, I miss my dad and it's wierd how so many memories are of me and him. I'll have to stop or I'll start crying.

PennyPinchingPrincess

The bags of sweets Grandad would have for me and my cousins when we went to visit on Sundays. There would be Roses misshapes - malformed but just as good as the posh ones, or Malteasers with a much higher percentage of those little yummy chewy ones, or Spangles, which I hated! He'd also give us "50p for your money box and 10p for an ice cream."

Using the offcuts of pastry from Gran's baking to make little loaves or cats which she'd bake for me.

Staying at Grans and having to wash in her freezing bathroom, then rushing into the living room where she'd be warming my pyjamas in front of the fire.

Making a 'house' out of Grans clothes maiden and rugs. It would stay up for days, until she needed to dry clothes :rolleyes:

Going for drives with Mum and Dad. Just drives. We'd drive somewhere, eat the sandwiches we'd brought with us, then drive back. Occasionally we'd get out of the car, but not often. Still haven't worked out what that was all about.

MRSMCAWBER

Hi PPP..

We used to have those strange rides out in the car.. and if we ever asked where we were going it was always " there and back again to see how far it is"... and even now i am quite happy to get in the car and for hubby just to drive around, just for the sake of it....hubby will always ask "where do you want to go" and he always gets the same answer that i did.....it drives him nuts though:rotfl:

PennyPinchingPrincess

I'm sure the drives were based on time rather than any destination! We'd often just stop in a lay-by, eat, and come home

Though now you mention it, I do like long journeys, I'm really looking forward to a 5 hour train journey I have to go on at the end of the month! I shall take sandwiches and a flask of tea and some biscuits to have on the way

[Deleted User]

When we used to holiday with the children at my Ma-in-laws house on the Isle of Wight we always went out en-famille in two cars for a drive from Northwood (where she lived ) usually up to Tennyson Down or one of the steep grassy cliffs.We would sit in the cars and look out to sea.When the children got restless, there were usually an ice-cream van parked in the lay-by and they would get a cornet .Then after looking at the sea which never looked any different to me week in or out we would drive back to Northwood where ma-ilaw would make Sunday tea of bread and butter and home-made jam (the plate had to be cleared before you could have a piece of lardy cake or fruit cake .We would help with the washing up then she would get out her Dad's dominos (circa 1890)and we all had to have a game of dominos before we caught the last boat back to the mainland and a two hour car journey back to London.When we landed at Southampton I would usually get the girls into their pajamas and dressing gowns and they would sleep all the way home then straight into bed when we got there around 11.30.p.m.
My late Pa-in-law was ill with Pnemoconosis(Miners lung)(sp) in the mid 1970s and we did this for 19 weeks from Friday night after work until Sunday night every week-end until he finally died in 1975 .He was a lovely old boy, and my girls loved the bones off him.I liked him as he could always tell my ma-in-law to shut up and she did when she was getting too gobby.She wasn't keen on the fact that her eldest son had married a 'cockney sparrow' as she called me .She thought I had gypsy blood as I had pieced ears:rotfl:
She was very straight-laced and Victorian and would stand no nonsence from anyone ,but her beloved Joe whom she had married, when widowed with two little boys when my husband was 8.
She was an amazing lady though who could make something out of almost anything.Widowed at 28 and on her own for 5 years with two kids she had learned to survive on next to nothing.In the late 1930s she had 8/- a week to feed herself and the two kids on. She had used her first husband's insurance money to buy the house outright when she went back to the Island to live from London after her first husband died .It was a detached pair of cottages with four rooms upstairs and four rooms down.There was 2 thirds of an acre and she used that to survive on .
My husband and his brother dug over every inch of it, and they grew everything there. In 1937 she bought the house and ground for £550.00 and in 2003 my step brother in-law sold it to a builder for £225.000.Where the garden once was now stands 9 houses .My ma-in-law would have been shocked to see it now.But in the 1970s it was a family home where my two DDs spent most of their summer holidays.It was idyllic for them as it was so different from their own home in London.When my ma-in-law died in 1985 she had all her own faculties and was proud that she still kept her own teeth. She cleaned them twice a day with salt and never had a filling in all of her 84 years.She was a very tough old dear and although were wern't that close I did admire her spirit .She also made a mean sloe-gin that would strip wallpaper:rotfl: I still have the dominoes that the children learned to count onand they are black and ivory and well over a hundred years old.

pariskate

Such a great thread - I remember a whole lot of the things mentioned.
But am I the only person whose Nan used to serve up fried spam with lettuce dressed in sugar and vinegar? Sounds disgusting (and I guess I wouldn't like it now) but at the time it was delish!!!
Aren't Nans just the greatest?

Kate