Being the only 'OldStyler' in your friendship group.

candlelight_2013

Oh dear that sounds nasty:)

We had to wear a liberty bodice when we were children (I was one of 3 girls) now that was bad.

Candlelightx

GreyQueen

Nomoonatall wrote: »

We had to wear knitted tabards. I don't want to talk about it.

I'd love to know more, pretty please?

Visited my allotment briefly and harvested four radishes, tops and the roots into a salad with a small amount of diced cheddar and a few sunflower seeds and a drizzle of olive oil. Simple, nutritious, even attractive-looking.

Supper was a leftover home-made chili and hg spuds and there is a rice pud cooking, made from most-of-a-pint of cast-off milk, with a bit extra water created by swilling out the bottle with tap water. Should turn 2 tbsp of rice into three goodly-size portions of pudding. Yummy.

I'm pretty much the poor relation of my social set, also. Partly it's the singleton vs couple thing, partly its chronic ill-health meaning I work 60% of fte, partly it's that I am lucky enough to have some very clever friends with much more lucrative careers than my own call centre job.

We socialise by doing certain things together and they've learned over time not to ask me for meals out (we eat together in each others' homes) because restaurants are beyond my budget. I will keep up with recently-published books via the library, read sensible newspapers online so I can discuss current affairs, and tend to avoid the movies and watch the film de jour months later on DVD.

Wardrobe from some of the best chazzers in town, including the Everything 50p one. Home-cut hair with much admired low-lights (white streaks actually ) and bicycling everywhere because it's green and much more sensible than driving around a congested city.

You can live a nice life as an Oldstyler with a bit of guile, I find. I'd rather have savings and peace of mind than a lot of expensive toys.

Nomoonatall

GreyQueen wrote: »

I'd love to know more, pretty please?

Visited my allotment briefly and harvested four radishes, tops and the roots into a salad with a small amount of diced cheddar and a few sunflower seeds and a drizzle of olive oil. Simple, nutritious, even attractive-looking.

Supper was a leftover home-made chili and hg spuds and there is a rice pud cooking, made from most-of-a-pint of cast-off milk, with a bit extra water created by swilling out the bottle with tap water. Should turn 2 tbsp of rice into three goodly-size portions of pudding. Yummy.

I'm pretty much the poor relation of my social set, also. Partly it's the singleton vs couple thing, partly its chronic ill-health meaning I work 60% of fte, partly it's that I am lucky enough to have some very clever friends with much more lucrative careers than my own call centre job.

We socialise by doing certain things together and they've learned over time not to ask me for meals out (we eat together in each others' homes) because restaurants are beyond my budget. I will keep up with recently-published books via the library, read sensible newspapers online so I can discuss current affairs, and tend to avoid the movies and watch the film de jour months later on DVD.

Wardrobe from some of the best chazzers in town, including the Everything 50p one. Home-cut hair with much admired low-lights (white streaks actually ) and bicycling everywhere because it's green and much more sensible than driving around a congested city.

You can live a nice life as an Oldstyler with a bit of guile, I find. I'd rather have savings and peace of mind than a lot of expensive toys.

Our first introduction to 'foreign food' was when those Vesta Chow Mein packs became available, we shared three between nine of us! They were so exotic!

Due to being such a large family, we all had to wear hand me downs. Unfortunately that meant I had my brothers' swimming trunks. I'm female. I then had my older sister's tops and swimsuits. When she had bosoms and I didn't!

My Mother thought we looked elegant in knitted tabards and those polyester trousers with squiggly stripes down the side. I refused to wear them when I reached 30. So there!

NewShadow

Nomoonatall wrote: »

My Mother thought we looked elegant in knitted tabards and those polyester trousers with squiggly stripes down the side. I refused to wear them when I reached 30. So there!

I'd swear I've got this pattern if you wanted a christmas gift?

Lynplatinum

Evening all

Today I met up with my friend, and because we were both in town for the dentist but were then heading off in totally different directions we plumped for a coffee shop.

Coffee was nice; her cake was quite good; I stuck to the cheaper (and lower calorie) wafer biccys they do. It was supposed to be a treat but we came out of there with our heads aching - what with the 'backgound' music and the yabber of all the folks around us we had trouble hearing each other (yep the woman at the next table a foot away had clearly lost her volume control!!) We stood in the car park talking about the more confidential stuff as we couldnt be overheard there for a further half hour. We have decided to investigate bringing our own vessels another time and going a parking up nearby where there are trees and a beautiful river to watch while we chat in the privacy of our cars!!!!

I often suggest a walk - if folks want a chat - I indicate they will be helping me loose/control my weight. I have also suggested galleries/ libraries/ parks (where there are seats) and for outings - somewhere I can support local businesses too (as have others on here!). there are often free or cheap music/poetry/open mike gigs at local pubs - and how much or expensively you drink is up to you!!!
Just a few thoughts!
BTW moneyistooshorttomention I love your newer signature!! Exactly what this is all about - feeding our hearts! Brilliant!

monnagran

Thanks New Shadow. I was wondering what to knit my DIL for Christmas. She will be thrilled!

OOOOH Candlight. Liberty bodices! Did you ever have to wear the horrible rubber suspenders that could be attached to them?
I did. They were supposed to hitch up the ghastly lisle stockings that my mother thought would keep my poor little fat legs warm.

I was quite a placid, obedient child but the tantrum I threw when these were produced a second time ensured that the stockings at least , were jettisoned.
Mum was a bit more stubborn over the Liberty bodice but eventually even that went the way of all flesh.
I don't think she ever wasted her precious clothing coupons on anything like that ever again.

x

[Deleted User]

Ahhh liberty bodices the scourge of the 1940s-50s child with those horrible rubber buttons on them, in the winter a pad of red flannel was placed across your chest and under the darned things to keep the cold out !!! today it would be considered child abuse :):)

My oldest friend was my partner in crime back in those heady days of 15% mortgage rates and three day weeks in the 1970s.When the lights used to be out because of cuts for three hours at a time if they went out when I was in the middle of cooking (I had an electric cooker then ) I would gather my two small children up and along with my casserole /dinner walk down the road to no 4 (I lived at no 18) and June bless her would pop the said meal into her gas cooker to cook .

We have been friends for well over 45 years and have gone though lots of ups and downs in our families (her acrimonious divorce from her controlling OH) and both our children growing up and marrying and having grandchildren.We now have 12 grandchildren between us and she splendidly remarried last November after being with her partner for 21 years.

We still natter away 10 to the dozen when we meet and remember the hard times and tribulations that we both have gone through. We natter about how young couples of today moan about not having the latest gadget (we both used to rent a TV back in those days) Unheard of today isn't it.

The most exciting thing we did back then was to have, or go to a Tuppaware party (we knew how to live :))

She was my child minder when I eventually had to go back to work, no rules or regs back then I knew my kids were safe with her, and if she needed the same (she worked in the evening at a local hospital cleaning ) I did the same for her.

We shared are good days and bad together and in all that time we have never fallen out or had a disagreement We both knit and read quite a bit, and once a year in the spring we go away on a weeks holiday exploring different parts of the UK.

Her OH is a smashing chap and I am so pleased she is happy with him (even if it did take him 21 years to get her up the aisle )

I can remember knitting tank tops for my two Dds and she made them bell bottomed trousers in a polyester material to match My youngest says it scarred them both for life :):)

We are both O/Stylers from choice and old habits are hard to break.We neither of us waste anything I knit charity blankets and she crochets them and also makes patchwork quilts for the charity. We exchange recipes and odds and ends and try to make sure anything we come across gets reused and recycled as that what we have done for most of our lives We are both a lot better off today than we were back then ,but we still shop carefully and if I see something I think may do her a 'turn' or it could help her DD (a single Mum of twins ) I will get it.

I have on my to-do list at the moment an small wooden dolls cot that I have dug out from the cupboard under the stairs I am renovating it for her little granddaughter, and will make some blankets and bed linen for it It was originally my eldest DGS but as she is now 23 and grown up I think its time it found a new little girl to play with.
never be embarrassed about being OS its far more interesting than the opposite sort who overspend and get into debt. I sleep easy at night and never worry about money as I know because of my way of life I can afford most things if wanted by my wants are few and my needs quite simple and basic ,food in the cupboard ,dry roof over my head and my family and good friends around me what more could anyone want or need

Pollycat

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Ever had the thought that YOU are the future and pioneering what they will all in the fullness of time be forced to do too? What a role model you'll be, the day one of them asks just how you manage to do what you do will be a watershed and if you ever needed justification for adapting your life to be the way YOU want it to, that will be it and believe me it's coming fast. I've seen our way of living compared to peak oil in so far as they liken it to a cartoon character running along a road to a cliff edge and then running out on to fresh air without realising it, not looking down but with eyes still fixed on the bright £ signs in the distance, only momentum is keeping them aloft.

I agree.
I think a lot of us on here will be able to cope if things changed drastically but I'm not sure that many younger people would.

JackieO wrote: »

Ahhh liberty bodices the scourge of the 1940s-50s child with those horrible rubber buttons on them, in the winter a pad of red flannel was placed across your chest and under the darned things to keep the cold out !!! today it would be considered child abuse :):)

Lordy!
I hated liberty bodices with a passion!

JackieO wrote: »

The most exciting thing we did back then was to have, or go to a Tuppaware party (we knew how to live :))

I hosted a tupperware party in my tiny 1 bedroomed flat when I first got married.
Mum & Aunts came, loads of people from work, we could hardly move.

And then came.........Pippa Dee parties.
I never really embraced that as I made all my own clothes at that time.

I'd like to thank the OP for starting this thread, it's been very interesting and I'm glad she is feeling better about being O/styler from necessity now she knows a lot of us are from choice.

candlelight_2013

Monna, no I didn't have to wear stockings, I think I was a bit young. You might have thought because the liberty bodice was so restricting I might have been flat chested, quite the contrary. They grew overnight when I was 11 and have been the baine (sp?) of my life ever since

Candlelightx

Nomoonatall

NewShadow wrote: »

I'd swear I've got this pattern if you wanted a christmas gift?

If only. The one I had to wear was 50 shades of green!