it used to be posh but now it ain't

skintchick

My family was the posh one - my mates lived on council estates and I lived in a big Victorian house with 5 beds, 2 bathrooms, study, 2 living rooms, dining room, study, cellar, 2 cars, 3 phones........our family holidays were to Paris!

Got horrendously bullied for being 'posh' and 'talking different' (parents from south, grew up near Brum)

I used to love going to other pepole's houses and having beans on toast and fizzy 'pop'!

SaraP

I think I must be much older than some of you. When I was a kid getting fitted carpet was the latest way to be posher than the neighbours. We all had lino. And central heating instead of a gas fire in one room and ice on the insides of the windows everywhere else was very posh indeed - you had to have money for that. Mind you when my mum was little having toilet paper was very posh. Everyone else used cut up squares of newspaper or the wrappers off oranges if you could afford oranges.
We didn't have a telly, a phone, a car or a record player and our fridge ran on gas. It had a little man on the front called Mr Therm. My parents even took up the lino when we moved and took it with them to two different houses. It dated back to the stone age and was still in the house when we sold it in 2002. I bet the buyers were surprised when they took up the posh fitted carpet and found manky brown lino underneath.
I remember the first pocket calculator. Pocket! It was huge, had leds (red lights) and the batteries lasted six weeks if you were lucky. We all gathered around the lucky lad reverently to see the new gadget. The school caretaker had an led watch and used to stop everyone in the corridors to show it off! Ah the innocent fun we had in those days!

foreverskint

vikster wrote:

How about double barrelled surnames.
Once the reserve of the extreme land-owning upper-classes, now representative of the council house unmarried couples who cant decide whose surname the child should have. God knows how they will manage on the estates when the second generation comes along (in about 13 years!) Quadruple barrelled or even more![/QUOTE

oh well, that makes me really common then. I'll let you know what my daughters decide on surnames. by your rekoning she should be pregnant anyday soon.
P.s not all coucil estates are rough.

Back on topic,

i was born in 1963, so for me it was
tinned fresh friut juice,[only at cmas]
Ready meals like fishfingers
yogurt
angel delight
wine [bulls blood and blue nunn]
great thread

janjan

I was born in 1969 and I remember thinking that my school friends were posh if their school uniform wasn't home made. My great aunt made all my jumpers/cardigans and my mum made my skirts, other bits were ususlly hand me downs. I remember a PE skirt my mum bought for me, (with a free school clothing voucher) was actually a school kilt for a 4 year old and I was 14! I had to turn it over at the waistband...how I longed for one from Martin Ford's!
This is a great thread and I could go on but most of what I want to say has already been written far better by other paople so I will leave it at that!
Jan

megsykins

OK, I'm only 20, but this is what I thought was posh when I was a kid:

Holidays abroad - especially America
TV in bedroom - I didn't get one til I was 14!
Having your own bedroom, I dreamed of not sharing with my sister (but I miss her like hell now!)
A CD player
One of those tape players with a double cassette deck
2 cars
Cable / Sky TV
Having your toilet in a seperate room from the bathroom (although we had a downstairs loo, I was v ashamed that the upstairs one was in the bathroom)
Having a new bike, I didn't take my cycling proficiency cos I was too embarrassed of my 2nd hand pile of rust!
Having take-aways / going out for meals
Designer clothes / shoes
A real football shirt
Trainers that weren't from Tradex
Walkers crisps in your packed lunch, mine were No Frills
Fizzy pop, not water or squash
Ice-creams from the van
A toaster, don't ask me why, but we didn't have one until a couple of years ago, we used the grill
Not 'posh' but cool - eating in front of Neighbours or Home and Away, we always ate 'at the table, as a family'.
Weird one, I always though it was posh if your grandparents lived far away and you could have proper 'visits', having both sets live within a mile of home didn't seem as good.

ETA: Those watches that were also calculators and remote controls!! They were soooo cool, I would've done anything for one!

Rage_in_Eden

ready meals
cup-a-soups in the proper "collectible" mugs
a car
a telephone extension
a chest freezer
museli (!)
taking your shoes off and NOT wearing slippers :eek:

and, double edged one this, tinned custard - posh but also (quoting from my Mum) "the staple of the lazy madam" !!

Gingham_Ribbon

Born in 1971

Posh was:

'bought houses' (not council)
Colour tvs
Tvs with remote controls on a wire
fitted kitchens
shop bought hats
cars
'bought' cardies and jumpers
restaurants
I thought being allowed to put a sugar cube in lemonade was the hight of grown up sophistication (the grown ups put them in their coffee at the cafe.) I was only ever allowed to do it when my gran took me out with her friends.
Bungalows
Automatic washing machines
Central heating
Double glazing (although I didn't know what it was until I was about 14)
Electric kettles
The mysterious, glamorous 'dinner parties'
Going to foreign places
Going to England was quite posh I thought. They all talked funny!!!

oibaldy

Posh, for us, was anything that was deemed to be excessive or wasteful. Something as simple as leaving a light on when you weren't in a room, or leaving a door open as you went through it, thus letting out all the mythical heat in the room since the fire wasn't even lit, the fire only being lit once frost was evident on the inside of the windows. I was brought up very much of the adage: if you're cold, put on a jumper. If you're really cold, then go round someone else's house, which has since been replaced by the pub.

One thing I don't recall is how bad everything must've smelt. I used to have a fortnightly bath, and was the fourth in line to use the water, so you couldn't get posher than having a shower, and using it with real soap.

However, I'm in danger of becoming one of Monty Python's 4 Yorkshire men with "right, we had it tough..."

VickyA_2

Children's parties in McDonalds - not posh, but jealousy set in as your parents didn't have to clean up (never had or been to a party there, thankfully I realise!).
A new bike - I had hand-me-downs from my cousins.
Going to Spain/France on holiday - the north Norfolk coast's buoyant economy is down to my parents!
Like someone else said - grandparents that lived miles away. Mine lived 1mile away max (got to see them more though).
Pedigree dogs - we only ever had mongrels that we'd inherited when people died. My parents have a right muppet of a choccy labrador now - bless her!

brokenwings

i used to think tupperware was posh

my mates mom used to have a blue tupperware milk jug, a green lettuce spinner (lol ), and they used to have tupperware beakers in several colours, with lids on to take drinks to school! i used to take mine in an empty little pop, squash or even medicine bottle!