Changing the clocks

I so agree I really dread the dark nights especially when its dark by 4.00

We tried that once, Heron, back in the seventies - I was all for it, but actually, I HATED it when it happened. You can't win in December - there's just not enough daylight to go round, and what I loathed was sitting typing in the office at 9.30, pitch dark outside, with all the lights on. Felt like it was the middle of the night - AND it was dark again when we left at 5 p.m. It was a test because of the argument that schoolchildren had more accidents coming home in the dark - didn't work, there were even more accidents during the mornings, and more car accidents too.
I know a lot of people don't like Christmas, but it is something to do and think about during the darkest part of the year and I love it when it gets to the 22nd December - every day after, there will be 2 minutes more of daylight, fantastic...
Might be good if we could postpone the change till, say, mid or end November, though, and put them forward again beginning of March, instead of the end.

I don't see that it makes any difference at all. There are still the same numbers of daylight hours in a day no matter how you fiddle the clocks to make it get light at,say, 9 o'clock. Up here our children go to school in the dark and come home in the dark anyway. I would much rather we did not change the clocks.

I have always thought we should be in line with the rest of Europe timewise. That means we would still change the clocks but would be an hour in advance of now right the way through the year.
OK, so we would have dark mornings in the winter but we would have light evenings until almost 11pm in the summer

i like the clocks going back, its good... extra hour in bed! well I say extra hour my little girl will still get up!
nice thought though
x x x

I don't care whether we have GMT BST or CET just as long as it stays the same all year round... It has been proved that it is not healthy for your internal body clock to suddenly shift by and hour. As Mr MB says in winter regardless our children have to go to and from school in the dark, conversely in summer it is light by 3am and doesn't get dark until well gone 11pm. On Shetland the winter days are even shorter whilst in summer the sun barely sets - so what does it matter?

I have never understood this back and fore with the clocks. At one time they claimed it was for the farmers benefit. Several farmers we know always said the cows didn't know whether it was sumer or winter and expected to be milked at the same time every day whether the clock said 5am or 6am.

~I must admit to liking lighter evenings for as long as possible~they reckon that the traffic accident rate suddenly shoots up in the evenings after the clocks go back~ maybe we should adopt the European version and don't change it around as as MG says?

iagree wish the'd leave it alone--i still wake at the same time--whateveritis

Yes Arlene, but when we tried it, there were a lot more car accidents in the mornings, plus more accidents involving school kids, so you can't win, really. At least the schoolkids get home just as it gets dark this way round, and go to school in what passes for daylight in the winter.

Dont know Heron? just know night workers hate that extra hour.

but the body soon adjusts its internal clock. I'd rather have gmt. what i dont get is the different time zone thing.

I don't like the darker nights, but the clock change always helps me - by this time of year, I'm up till 2 or 3 pm, so putting the clock back means I'll be "earlier" to bed and therefore up earlier the next day!

Bamboo read what I wrote, in most of Scotland, even excluding the Northern Isles, it is dark when the kids go to school and dark when they come home! I honestly don't think that anyone living in the south of England realises just how our night and day change up here...

For anyone living on Shetland near mid-winter the sun rises (if you can see it!) at 10am or later and sets before 3pm. Where we live you can add an hour either side... BUT our children still go to and from school in the dark.

I repeat... there is X amount of daylight it maters diddely squat where you say it is 5am, 6am or 10pm -the amount of light is the same. I understand all the reasons why we have different time zones but moving back and forth every year - rubbish! (SORRY this really pisses me off!)

see todays Times
As well as the wind and rain, this weekend,we have an added delight this weekend: the clocks go back early tomorrow morning.

While that will grant an extra glorioushour under the covers on Sunday,morning, the evenings will suddenly be much darker and trigger an upsurge in traffic accidents, disturbed sleep patterns, seasonal affective disorder and other miseries.

There is nothing we can do about the shortening hours of daylight, but we could scrap the end of summer time and leave the afternoons and evenings lighter and then, next spring, add another hour for the summer, what is known as Double British Summer Time.

This was tried out from 1968 to 1971, but it left the mornings darker and met with protests from the early risers — farmers, builders and postmen. The switch was felt most keenly in Scotland, where sunrise in the far North was around 10am in midwinter. But if the Scottish Parliament were given the power to legislate on its own time zone, it could carry oncurrent system while the rest of the UK went an hour ahead. This is not as crazy as it might sound - until recently [2006], the state of Indiana allowed its local counties to set their own time zones.
Related Links

* It's half-term, so it must be miserable weather

* Time for a change: to 600 antique cuckoo clocks

* Speed of digital era may be harming our ability to think

By sticking to summer time we might save ourselves a wave of depression, as well as synchronising Britain with most of Europe.

And it would also save energy by burning less fuel in the lighter afternoons and evenings, and so cut 170,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, according to University of Cambridge scientists.

The whole idea of changing the clocks was thought up by Benjamin Franklin in 1784 to save energy. At that time he was American ambassador in Paris.He calculated that changing the clocks with the sun through the year would save Parisians £100 million of candles, in today’s prices.

But it was Germany that drove the time change in Britain. In 1916, during the First World War, Germany went on to Double Summer Time to save coal by using less heat and light in the winter afternoons and evenings. Not wanting to miss out on this golden opportunity, Britain followed almost immediately. And the same system worked so well it was used again in the Second World War.

Energy consumption these days has changed considerably, but saving energy has become just as important. In 2007 the US extended their summer time by four weeks to save energy, which was estimated to have saved about 0.5 per cent of the nation’s electricity per day, enough to power 100,000 households for a year.

And a study by scientists at Cambridge University estimated that if Britain went on to European time all year round, it could save the country 170,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions — literally at the stroke of the clock.

*

I do understand that, Moongrower, but clock change or not, there's still only 8 hours of daylight down south at the darkest point, so you will have even less up there, so no matter how we do it, it'll be dark at one, or both, ends of the working day.

As we now do a lot of our business with Europe, it would really make sense to be on the time zone as them.
Plus it's an absolute pain if you travel to Europe for a long weekend to have to change time twice. By the time you've remembered how to change your watch, it's time to come back again!

Exactly my point Bamboo, though we have far less than 8 hours in mid-winter! 6 if we are lucky, more like 5, where I live! But — changing the clocks does not create any more daylight... there is no daylight to create!

So what DOES it achieve because, for the life of me, I can't see that it achieve a b....y thing except to disrupt our internal time clocks!

Will we get up an hour later on Sunday in terms of what the clock says - no we wont. Will we go to bed an hour earlier - I doubt it... All that happens is that your internal clock, which has for the past 6 months had me awake at approx 07:30 will have me awake for days at 06:30 until my body adapts. This serves whom, how?

I can see that, where you live, there is nothing to be gained at all from the change. Down here, though, we will have either dark mornings or dark afternoons, and now that I'm more or less retired, I think I'd prefer dark mornings, marginally - I shall loathe the change on Sunday night, when it's thoroughly dark before 5 pm.

~ I think it's a very different kettle of fish these days with more children than ever being taken to school in buses and cars which isn't going to change anytime soon,and the need to save energy and have similar time zones makes sense.
What we need is to utilise the maximum daylight hours we have during the winter no matter how many or how few!

Sorry Bamboo I do not wish to be a pain in the pudendum BUT you will get the same amount of daylight regardless of what any clock says... And given you are retired you can construct your life any way you choose :-)

Daylight comes and I wanna go home...:))

Obviously - that point has not passed me by, since I mentioned that in the second answer under this question!

So why change the clock time? Or want to do so?

I have read with intrest what you have all said ,I rember a number of reasons why the clocks were put forward or back, and befor my time they used to open the pubs at six in the morning so that people in the steal works could quensh their thirst after working on the furnises all night and open until eleven o clock so that farm workers could get a drink after working late geting the harvest in, but I just want them to leave the damb clocks alone so that I dont have to change all the clocks twice a year.

Can`t understand either why they change them, Heaven sakes when i was going to school in the sixties we went to school in the dark & home in the dark didn`t do me any harm we didn`t no any difference so why bother :~))))))

I enjoyed that one Crazydi. and Arlene's cutting from 'The Times' (what a pun) I found very interesting. The one thing I'm sure of after reading all the interesting replies, is that I'd hate to be the 'Minister for altering the clocks'

(Derek's Friend typing Derek's comments - he's hurt his finger on Pyracantha- ouch!)

Of the innumerable reasons as to why the time should NOT remain as it is, perhaps two are worthy of inclusion at this juncture.

1 - Up until only a few hundred years ago, mankind did not pursue all the modern activities that extend "his" working day into the hours of pm darkness. Equally so, early rising was a normal part of daily life, to herald and witness the rising sun.
Therefore, mankind MOVED with the sun. He was NOT regimented into a fixed routine, and hadn't been for eons.
No matter what you try to do to "computerize" the sleep patterns of the human species, for 99.99% of it's evolutionary life, it's clock was SOLAR. Small wonder then that the more you try to fix a divergence away from this cyclic motion, the more your body will grumble about it.

2 - For an equal percentage of our evolutionary life, we have only been where we are for about 1% of our existence. Even less actually. Simply put, our internal body clocks, fixed by eons of evolutionary development, are running at 2hrs ahead of where we are in the Uk. It matters not that humans have lived in the Uk for 12,000 years, when they didn't for a period in excess of 4 million years!!!

Subsequently, if you wish to restore at least some sense of vitality to your existence, then perhaps you can do no better than to rise an hour before sunrise, go to bed two hours after sunset, and move your clocks 2 hours ahead of our present time, so that it lines up with far northeastern Africa, Ethiopia to be exact; the cradle of civilization.

Derek seems to think that that explains alot as to what happens in our gardens.
Personally, the only thing that I can get out of all this, is that I now fully understand why it is, that at 4am every morning, when I look into the mirror, all I can see is a trampled cabbage!!!!!

would not moving the time unnaturally
be better for us now it seems to me that we are not good at sudden change maybe some of the problems that happen whenever we change the clocks is not so much the light or dark but the actual effect on our bodies that -- if i'm anything to go by---take at least a week to adjust.

I say leave the clocks on BST all year!

Ask those of us living in the European time zone and I don't think people would be quite so keen on changing. Most of the winter here it doesn't get light much before nine o'clock, later in mid winter. The slightly lighter evenings are ok but why don't we all just go with the natural seasons. We could all work longer hours in summer and fewer hours in winter. After all, that's what the farmers do!

Very intelligent discussion this! I fume with frustration each time we have to alter all our clocks. I await the 21st of December eagerly, when it starts to get lighter each evening. Then its Christmas to enjoy and brighten up the winter days. Shudder to think of what is was like to survive the dark winter months before gas and electric. I know what it was like before C/H......blooming cold anywhere but right near the fire.

Befor C?H?
I remembre ice shaps on inside glas-beutiful-eatin brakfast wiht coat on an no fingers gluves becos no heet. no coal until coalman come, thne no fire until dad come home form work. mum put pan in bed with coals in befor i slep. holing wind at 3am blow snow betwen window into room, make botom of bed wet and cold and sound keep me not sleep- mum com in at 7am wiht mug of hot broth from food yestaday.
oh, the romnce of no C/h- i wander why i never fel romantic?
prob becos i culd not feel a b****y thing!!!

Derekf You have transported us back to past times before anyone thought of daylight saving. Try Seven daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes they never had to put back clocks. They just kept moving out of the way of the icy glaciers chasing them. No gardening for them, as not yet invented. No glas. No C/H either. No cole.

And the number of layers of clothes we had to wear... remember liberty bodices?

Wooly underwear with RUBBER buttons!

Never had a liberty bodice but always wished for one as a child as I was always so cold. I remember being so cold walking to school and the exhaust fumes from cars being the final straw, I fainted. If there's even a tiny bit of snow now that's it the schools are closed down.

dident we enjoy what we had better' no tv's or pc ,but jack show the light, scrumping' kick the can' dads playing the lads football on a sunday afternoon five woodbines and a bottle of pop' opening medison on a friday night tin bath in front of the fire on sunday night siren suites made out of spair blackout merterail' siting by the fire with your front too hot and your back freaseing' are happy day's

"Trampled cabbage",love it, hilarious. And no, Cliffo, I didn't enjoy it, except in the summer - I hated being cold, though I wasn't really aware of it as a child, just realise now how cold it was. As I grew up, being cold except when able to get near the fire added to the misery of winter. the first time I lived in a place with CH, I minded the winter less, but I do miss a good fire. I recall a toasting fork in the hearth for crumpet toasting, and an object with holes in to roast chestnuts on the fire, miss all that.
And Bertie, you have confirmed the drawback of sticking to BST - darker mornings.

oh deer-i hijajk post to memry lane- but memry of toasting fork ok- just wat was on the end alway end upin fire!
i memry my first dog, a scocth terierr. mum open back door and he run uot as normal, only snow 4ft deep!
no wory, we wait 10 secods, and he 20yds out, leepin up into air out ofsnow.
it took my dad all mornin to dig the snow of drive to get car out onto road-it wer a ford pop but winscreen wiper not work and no hetaer. going to grans with blnkets on in back was bitter at times.
it is in those dqark day of winter that i lern how much my perants do forme.

oh yes MG, wat is a libery bodice? Is it a peice of female underwere?
Oh, i embaress (go little red and shy away) ;)

As far as I recall, Derek, you needn't be embarrassed - a liberty bodice was an undergarment for little girls, bit like a thick vest, so it probably sounds more exciting than it actually was! I seem to remember buttons on the front and quite thick material, but don't remember much about them otherwise.

Hi Derekf a sleeveless or short sleeved garment made from a mix of cotton and wool (at least I 'think' that is what they were made of) Smooth on the outside and almost furry on the inside - fastened up the front with rubber buttons which smelt after a while. Both girls and boys wore them. Underneath was a vest over the top a full length petticoat (not the half slips they wear now) then a blouse, then your gym slip or tunic and finally a cardigan. Boys missed out on the petticoat! and wore a sweater rather than a cardigan. Of course in both cases our bottom halves were not so well covered. Shorts and long socks for boys - I remember their knees turning blue at times. Gym slip or tunic also only came to knees (well it started off longer than that and ended up shorter as you grew) and again long socks, so bare cold knees. Fortunately knickers were exactly that - not the delicate little things we were now! Given the number of layers it is small wonder we none of us looked skinny even if we were.

Clothes were passed from one child to another and from one family to another - there simply wasn't the money to keep buying new and clothing was also scares. Knitted garments were darned if there was a hole others patched. Kitted garments would also be unravelled, the wool dyed and re-knitted as something else.

When eating my sister and I wore cotton aprons to protect our clothes - try hand washing woolens in the middle of winter... and your gym slip was brushed down, dampened and pressed with a damp cloth between the slip and the iron.

Occasionally I tell our teenage grandsons things and they look at me like I have two heads!

Don't imagine that I felt hard done by, it was what was… the same for all of us. Post war there wasn't much of anything.

Sorry Heron didn't plan on hijacking your question

Please don't be MG, I thoroughly enjoyed your post . I was worried for a moment as I too wore a liberty bodice along with my twin sister !!

Mr MB wore one too... In spite of the smelly buttons I was very glad of to help try to keep warm. I remember putting on my underclothes whilst still in bed in winter to try to retain some heat. Oh and 'stone' hot water bottles… which needed to be well wrapped or you burnt yourself on them.

by gum you had it hard post war, I was lucke I had my childhood in the thirties, but having said that I lived in the country near the river dee not the one in Scotland MG all though the place was called Quensferry, we had fluke from the river ( flander if you were posh )rabbits pluver's eggs ,grew most of our own veg, and we had the fruit's of the forest , Ho yes and pidgen brest in cyder'' golden syrip in our tea insted of sugger, bread puding' nettle pop, in some ways we were better off, certanly, there was no mc donalds or any other fast food to make us fat or ruin our health. only being sarcastic about the post war times forgive me,xxx

It's nice to confer with fellow cold sufferers. It's hard to imagine snow on the end of your bed when you wake up these days. As I get older my thermal vest remains on longer even into the summer . OK so the weather's definitely getting warmer but I cringe or shiver when I see half naked girls in town wearing little more than a tattoo when I'm wearing a thick coat.

You and me both Heron.

Not that far from me Cliffo. I was taking photos from the Saltney Ferry footbridge only a week or two. The new 'Millenium footpath to Chester is great. Our family has always enjoyed boating on the Dee, I still do though only in Summer. I still have the same boat, last week I stripped her down for the winter. You describe conditions back then very well Cliffo, not much obesity then.

Sorry Heron - I never realised boys wore liberty bodices as well - I only had one sister then, before we stopped wearing them anyway.

~I remember clothing exactly as you describe MG.
I also remember the huge open fire
at my gran's with a high mantel piece and highly polished fender with seats on each end~ with hot water in a boiler on the left and an oven next to the fire on the right.
I never understood how my gran was such a fantastic cook with so little control over her oven!~
My grandfather used to get baby chicks when they were tiny and they used to spend their time in a tin bath inside the fender covered with a newspaper over them .
Little balls of fluff cheeping away!
~incredible change of lifestyle in 50 years isn't there! today's young housewives like my daughter would be horrified !

hay Bamboo I never wore one'' jack frost could have had me first 'Heron you must have eaten fluke from the same famaly as me,and in my youth saltneyferry was a ferry .a man in a boat rowed you across I stood in that boat holding my bike meny times, I still go to connahs quay now and agine to dround a few worms., but I live in Farndon now you know the pick your own Farndon.

I wore a liberty bodice under my pinafore and school blouse also long fawn wooly socks and brown lace up shoes and was it a burberry mac? and a schoolhat with elastic under the chin.Oh happy days!How about frozen school milk ,outside toilets ,and the fire in the classroom where you could dry your mitts if you had any.By the way I dont see any point in changing the clocks.

Were those the mittens attached through your coat sleeves with elastic Mavis? Yes I remember frozen milk sticking out the top of the bottle and did anyone else suffer terribly with chilblains on their feet?

at the moment there is little I can do in the garden except a bit of shallow hoeing, I am wating for next month when I will be doing the rest of my planting every thing is ready, I moved hear a year ago and this is the first time I have been able to say nothing to do, so I am stuck but this site has opend up a new venture ,a lot of you say daft things and I am just the same some times you are funnie and I try, but I look forward to this site carrieing me through the winter, so let us have more of this nonsence and if some one dose not like it let them go somewere else, and I had forgotten about puting the crates by the stove because the milk was frosen but dont knock the outside toilets, they were the latest thing in luxuary, our toilet was in a row one hundred yards from the house and it was a thunder box with the ash midden just behind, just read you Lily what about the big safty pin your mother used to pin your knickers to your vest with lol

No not mine Lily but my sisters were didnt have chillblains but keans on your fingers they were nasty.Cliffo the only reason to knock school outside toilets was the treck across the yard and the lads hoying snowballs over the top of the door at you.

No, no safety pins Cliffo but the underwear did stay on all week, in bed too! It was changed on Sunday evening after a bath in the tin bath in front of the fire. Had to take it in turns with my brother and sister as to who went first!

I work nightshift and hate the clocks going back as I work an extra hour, have to download an extra movie to pass the time..lol.

I never thought of that, Usernut, how tedious, though I guess you get that hour back again in the spring clock change and get home earlier (technically)

Hee hee, i was lucky i was, born in the sixties. Obviously i should be counting my blessings - actually we were living in a cardboard box on the M1 (bad joke and Monty Python quote, forgive me).
Every generation has its trials, so I don't think any of us can claim more than our share.
Daylight saving shenanigans - yes, a pure waste of time, but it gives us something to blog about, retired or not!
I think the only real answer for anyone hating the dark is to move a little further south. Maybe the beautiful scenery way up in the greater-contrast-of-daylength north makes up for some of the winter gloom?
Personally i struggled just as much with overlong summer days when i lived in Aberdeen/Kiel (Schleswig-Holstein) There comes a time of the evening when it just OUGHT to be dark. And the same thing with mornings that arrive too early. Ugh.

We've not even opened the can of worms which is remembering to put the dratted clocks back or forward. Don't get me started on that one. lol

spring forward fallback weeding :>)

I was born in the fifties, so luckier than some who've answered - we had hot and cold running water and a bathroom with inside toilet, thank heavens - but it was cold, frost patterns on the inside of the bedroom window (beautiful) and a fire in the sitting room and nowhere else. My grandparents, though, did not have a bathroom and the loo was just outside the back door - usually full of cobwebs and spiders, eugh, with a tin bath hung on the fence as well! Mangle, dolly, scrubbing board, irons heating on the stove... oh, how we have come on.

Oh lord... chilblains on your feet, frozen milk (or in summer almost rancid milk), mittens on elastic, that horrible school hat with elastic, my school mac certainly wasn't a burberry though - had a hood which was totally useless. Yup a bath once a week and hair wash ditto, clothes dripping in the kitchen when it was wet. The copper and the mangle I really must try to write it al down in a coherent fashion for the grandsons. No t.v. hiding behind the sofa to listen to 'Journey into Outer Space'. One little bar of chocolate a week when Dad came home from work on Friday - something like a Fry's bar you only got to eat one piece a day. Mum got a bigger bar of chocolate but I realise now she had to share hers.

chocolate? what was that? we had nobbut bread n drippin and that was on a good day....

I was born in the 50's too and like you my grandparents had the same and a blacklead range with a big guard around it made the best toast!
they brought up six children some families more of course grandparents both lived into their 90's too, think of the food --bread & drippingwith loads of salt--the health police would have a fit!

I rmember gran saying after the weekly wash in the copper she'd dip the children in!

Thanks Moongrower mine was just a mac then I couldnt remember, it didnt have a hood though.It was second hand though that could explain missing hood.Bamboo I was born in the fifties in a pit village in the north but as mam was a widow home life was good and bad but you mainly remember the good bits dont you.

Hey weeding, you'll be telling us you had no shoes next... and Mavis, no, I don't mainly remember the good bits, I remember nearly all of it, good and bad, I am cursed (or blessed) with the memory of an elephant;-))

Well it it was second hand Mavis perhaps it was a burberry...

I think we had gabardine macs--navy as you say the hood was rubbish so big it blew straight off!

there was a large famaly by me that had shoes but only for school' and the little girls were given second dresses, by the nabours and they would put them on comb their hair and visit every one of the local houses and say look at my new dress isen't it nice and would walk away with sixpence, and when ever you viseted there house you were given a cup of tea correction a jam jar of tea , they all turned out fine I rember one of the girls when a young woman went on the Huie Green show and won a holiday in grees for ansureing questions on greese, and she had only viseted chester that is the furtherest she had ever been , she dreamed of grees and studed it'' a lesson for the young people ( some of them ) who want things to come and finde them.

Pamg you are right - gaberdine macs and yes the hood never stayed up no matter what. They weren't that waterproof either so you often ended up sitting in wet clothes in class.

exactly! mg this is really bringing back the memories

Isn't it just... maybe we need to start a new topic simply to discuss our childhood? Wonder if we could copy the parts from this question across...

What about straw bonnets and white gloves at easter for chapel, white nylon socks and scholl sandals..

Good subject, but wonder if Heron minds it on here?

I wore the white nylon socks, Mavis, but not the gloves or straw bonnet lol.

it was sunday tea I remember you had to eat bread and butter with the jelly or fruit and carnation milk-- really had trouble with the bread.... but love jelly lol

oh yes-i memry mum make stawbery jelly with carnation milk an ad boken bits of cadbury flake and orang segments befor it set.
oh wow-i go spupermarket tomorow to buy- oh wow-i had foirget-oh wow-thankin you Pam

I haven't forgotten that my ma was dreadful cook, terrible, put me off things like mashed potato and custard for years, so we filled up on things like bread and dripping. My gran was the cook, oh, rabbit stew, and wild rabbit, not tame, fantastic.

Mother crocheted us what looked like little white skull caps which were bobby pinned to our hair in to wear to church all summer - I felt totally stupid wearing the damned thing and yanked it off as soon as we were out of the church door. Oh and the gloves were crocheted too!

The worse was when she decided to make my confirmation dress. Mother was a superb seamstress but, in this case, he material she had got hold of was made from fibreglass and intended to be used for curtains... Looked beautiful, like slub silk, heavy, just right. I had several fittings but these only lasted a few minutes.

Come the evening of the confirmation we all assembled at the vicarage and got ready, boys in one room, girls in another. The vicar's wife helped us pin on our veils and off we walked in procession through the church yard with our candles.

I can only say that the whole of my confirmation I was in agony as the tiny glass fibres irritated my skin. Mother demanded to know why I had fidgeted and then when I took off the dress could see why. The worst of it was I had to wear the damned thing again the next day to make my first communion. Mother ran up some sort of long sleeved cotton shift to protect me but it was still not a fun experience. She herself was so upset that this had happened. No idea what happened to the dress I never saw it again!

I feal that without realiseing it we have learned a grate deal about eachother and about ourselfs'they were all hard times if you were one of the grate unwashed as some one once called the working class,the thirtes the big depresion the forties the war and rationing the fifties all though there was plenty of work, for our perents and later for some of us the wages did not match the cost of living,I could not give my daughters what I wanted to give them just as my pairents could not do what they wanted for my brother and sister and me ,but my girls did better than me as I did better than my parents,and so it goes on my father left school at twelve me at forteen my girls sixteen and so on.

I agree Cliffo... given the money I would have trained as a medical doctor but, then I would never have met Mr MB. So I think we have to just go with the flow...

I remember the bread and dripping also we had sauce and bread and what about nestles milk.On a sunday if there was any yorkshire puddings left we would have them with a little bit of sugar like pancakes I suppose.

What I would like to know is.........is this a record on here for posts to a thread?

Not that I am aware of Fractal - why?

~then you have that whole other hot potato about free will or destiny shaping your life!!!!!One decision altered would have changed your life.
Yes I remember new socks and sandals for Easter but what about those fluorescent lime green,hot pink and bright blue socks~ anyone remember them?

~no have a look at Terratoonies blogs! plus we all go off topic anyway!

Yes, Arlene, I remember the fluoresscent socks but it was not obligatory to wear them. You mean that you did !!!

Um fancy coloured socks Arlene - not in the 50s white ankle socks and grey or navy knee socks... You must be thinking of the 60s.

~ oh yes~ can't remember how we got away with dark green school uniform and lime green socks....!and those awful compulsory green berets....!!!!

It is late now but still have to do the clocks. I never thought the chat would take such long scroll down ! I wonder has anyone mentioned a warmed up house brick in a flannel draw string bag, plus an old stone hot water bottle; the brick was warmed in the oven by the fire. My box room bedroom had 2 outside walls and it was frrrrrrrreeeeeezing cold. Just putting clocks back now ....goodnight.

Ours were cherry red... I swear the school only chose this colour to make it more difficult for parents! They really wanted you to buy your uniform from the school shop, but my, and lots of other parents, could not afford to. So we wore maroon blazers etc. which were just not 'quite' the right colour and got looked down on by those who's parents could afford to splash out for everything cherry coloured.

The size our grandsons are now, plus the speed they are growing at, means that their parents buy them adult size black blazers from somewhere like ASDA rather than the school shop (which actually does not have blazers to fit them!) there was a whole stuchie because our daughter-in-law had sewn their badges on their blazers... Given that the school could not provide blazers to fit them I think this was daft!

~ my parents too MG~ The local Grammar school I attended had this particular shade of green blazer only obtainable from the school shop and you stood out like a sore thumb on that first day.
My daughter got told off for wearing a chunky navy cardigan rather than the grey v neck jumper( with navy skirt and blazer) but just lately I see them wearing green jackets and yellow aertex shirts so I gather some where in the last ten years they have had a change of headmistress!

Gosh such great memories reading all your comments i can relate to a lot of them i come from a family of 11 and times were hard, but happy, drinking oxos in hot water for supper,having to carry our water in tin buckets from top of street where an old pump was,very hard at 6yr old and on a hard frosty morn,going out picking mushrooms Mum would fry in butter....Oh dear will have to stop could go on all nite...Lol Thanks Goyers for bringing happy memories back:~))))))

Fractal do you think we will get a telegram from the queen ,when this gets to a hundred' or is she going to come on and tell us how hard she had it changing a wheel for the camers when she was in the ATS in the forties'

Anyone else have sugar sandwiches? And I remember my parents listening to the Glums on the radio...

Yes Bamboo we had sugar sandwiches. They were the nice ones. What I hated were the dripping sandwiches. As for the radio I remember Mrs Dales Diary and Dick Tracey

Goodness, I didn't think anyone else would still be up, never mind on GoY! I liked bread and dripping - but then we were pretty hungry, my mother being such an appalling cook...

I've been up since 7 or was it 6, still haven't altered clocks, my trusty laptop tells me it's gone 8. How time flies, I seem to have lost an hour. Lol. I've so much enjoyed all your reminiscences. They were hard times and we all seem to have improved our lot considerably. Let's hope we never have to go back to such hard times. Cliffo you've 'moved up stream as it were, Farndon is a lovely village, I know it well, not far from where I live.,

raido, itmar with tommy handle much binding in the march/ the best that has ever been on the wirles the one we used to sit with the lights out and friten ourselfs Valentine dile /this is your story teller 'the man in black' /the hiperdrome with penny on the drum, and Heron I will bet that we have past each other at Bellises in Holt' so by for now all you Ovelteenes

my husband and I or me and Phill the greek can also recall hard times but we wont talk about that'''' to the tower cliffo

"to the tower" ???

Wow it's taken me ages to read this lot,many things I too remember. The hot brick from the oven next to the fire in living room,wrapped in an old towel. The council replaced the fire/oven in the early 60's with a 'modern' gas fire. It never seemed as warm in the room again and Mum had to learn how to cook in the new gas oven.
I have a be-ro cook book from the 40's.It says 'eventually one will learn to judge the correct temperature by putting ones hand into the oven' !! Can you imagine doing that now ?
Oh and as I am still working I am not looking forward to going to and from work in the dark-and so not being able to check on the garden till the weekends :((

We aim to please Aster - fortunately it was Heron's question we hijacked this time not some newby who'd joined GoY to ask for info and suddenly got inundated with e-mail totally off topic... Well we did offer to start a new question but Heron was happy for us to burble on.

Just like normal conversations really ,you always wander onto something else and wonder how you got there lol !

all very interestin - like the new (to me only you may well say MG) word stuchie, does it sort of mean hoo-hah/argy-barge?
I'm off now to garden a little before the inevitable downpour. Lot of chopping down or back to do, so I'd better get started, just need to put an extra layer on and maybe down a lettuce-and-sugar sarnie first. Now let's see, where did I put those lovely luminous fibreglass socks?

!

I can only apologise playmates - don't know if it's me or me 'puter causing the hiccup, but the 84 ricketty children in the cellar clamouring for gruel aren't helping the matter.

No, no, Weeding, not as healthy as lettuce and sugar, just sugar and butter in the sarnie!

well, i never knew my ma was that posh, Bamboo.

lol, she obviously was!

Hi Weeding yes stuchie means hoo-haa.

we were very posh during the war we saved the sugar ration( did without the suger buties) and we got trecal and golden syrup toffie, I still like trecal toffie. but I would swap the lot for a dripin butty either beef or pork, and you canot get sheeps heads now the broyh is worth rembering, come to think of it we did not do so bad well I dident,considering there was no man in the house for five years,

This is the BBC home service, we present; Journey into space, Life with the lyons, Take it from here, and of cause The Goon Show. I do wish the Beeb would re play- them. Feet up on the mantle piece staring at the shape of the flames in the proper fire.

Actually while the TV leaves a lot to be desired, Radio 4 is still well worth listening to, and I don't just mean GQT !I wonder if any of you would enjoy a good laugh with me ' 'Bleak Expectations' There's a new series starting next week. 6.30 pm but I forget what day.

Heron I remember all those radio programmes too! We haven't had a t.v. in over 20 years I we really don't miss it.

I remember watching the coronation on a B & W tv in the local pub (at least I think it was a pub)...

Was 'Journey into Space' on the BBC? For some reason I thought it was Radio Luxemburg - or maybe that was some other series?

BBC I think BH, Can you remember their names? Wittaker the spooky one, snowy Jock, oh dear can't remember now. Come to think of it, I can't remember what I did yesterday either.

heron have you tried bbc7 either onDAB or 'listen again' on BBCi they have all sorts of' " black & white" radio programmes I think next week is the goon show and round the horne, sometimes its the navy lark
or the clitheroe kid and i think recently we had journey into space
I find it good when I'm doing the ironing especially if its a good murder mystery!

Radio Luxemberg was primarily a pop music station but I do remember some 'must listen to' series in the early evening.

Oh this really is turning into a nostalgia fest! Heron I remember all the radio programmes you are mentioning. I can remember things from 50 years ago far more easily than where I put the pruning shears yesterday lol!

Heron I know who would find the names for you dick barton spechal agent.

Hi Heron, you are right, Journey into Space was on the BBC. I have just been wasting some time with Google and nostalgia lovers who used to listen to Radio Luxumbourg (208) may like http://www.pjede.de/

that's cheating BA

Used to listen to Luxembourg all the time!
~they do say that googling keeps your mind sharp~equivalent to those machines to train your memory~I do google constantly a well as work part time so hopefully it is helping~however I wish I could remember where I put things too!
Seems as though that is not an age thing as much as a mind priority as my son can never remember where his keys or his iphone is~and don't forget how many years of knowledge all our minds are holding!

Moongrower what was the radio programme on a sunday dinnertimeI think it was a request one .

Pam I daren't look for another programme as I find it difficult to find time for all I do already. I am an avid Radio 4 listener, have it on all day, I have 7 sets so I don't miss any. Been listening to 'Howards End' this afternoon. Oh I forgot the one in the car and tho one I'm listening to now on my laptop. Good thing I don't have to pay for a licence for them all.

two way famaly favorits, who said that it might have been me! my longe term mem is fine ,now what on earth did I have for dinner, i'm going now I going to listen to raido caraline

Bingo Cliffo.. you got there well before me or Mr MB! 'Caroline, Caroliiiine...'
I am beginning to wonder if we should be creating our own history of growing flowers, fruit and veg. Oh and life, the universe and everything of course lol

have we mentioned desert island disk were you were allowed to take eight records / or down your way, hay my brain is starting to funciton'I think we can give a miss to germany calling with the star lord hor hor,

Lol...what a lovely nostalgic time I've had reading through these brilliant comments! "Thanks for the memories" folks!
Here's a few of mine...

Listening to Radio Luxembourg under the bed covers late at night, so my Mum and Dad couldn't hear me tuning in!

Dancing round my handbag on a Friday night, down the "Co-op Hall."

Throwing my school beret over the bridge and into the river Mersey, the day I left school...

Hard boiled eggs, salad cream, and celery sticks for "Sunday tea" followed by jelly and evap...then a dose of syrup of figs (whether you needed it or not, lol)

Camp coffee! What was that all about....?

Ooooohh and the list goes on....now where were we....and errrm, what's the time....? Yawn...it's been a long day hasn't it....night night all xxx

~I bought my first radio by doing a paper round morning and evenings~used to get up really early and cycle to the shop to pick up and then head to school and then get home and do it again!
It was a nice one as I remember...!
~ must have had a lot more stamina back then!

I carn't think of any more tonight so I will bid you coffin dodger's good night, us youngsters need our beuty sleep ,it's time you were in bed young Bamboo

How'd you know I was on, Cliffo, you psychic or something? I wanted to add something here - first night of clock change, how depressing, curtains drawn by 5pm, a long and rather tedious evening (I had company, not terribly exciting either, rather have been on here) and even longer evenings and nights to come, oh lord, don't know how I'm going to stand it. I want BST!!

Wow, I've sat here for soooooo long reading these comments I almost forgot what the original disscusion was about but the trip down memory lane has been fantastic. I was born in 1963 but my parents were already in there fourties then, I have one sister and three brothers older than me and two more brothers younger, so they are very old fashioned in their ways and yes we had dripping sarnies and jelly and evaperated milk on a Sunday. We were allowed one plain buscuit and one cream one. Mum always baked on a Sunday (after dinner and before tea!) Dad checking the pools and Grandma and grandads outside loo (scary place that was for a five yr old!) Nappies 'steeping' phew they stunk! :~((( I remember grandad when he got his first box of tea bags standing cutting the corners off and pouring them into the caddy!
I also remember when we didn't have CH and mum would throw her fur coat over our bed! I say our bed because we had to share until later on when the older ones had got married! I remember moving to a newer pit house that had a coal boiler in the kitchen AND an open fire in the front room. It was still ffffffffreezing because we never had the coal to keep both going. That house always had wet washing hanging from one of those pull out lines that stretched across the kitchen from one wall to the other, eating your meal and having it dripping onto your plate yak
We went to the pub to watch the tv but not the coranation (obviously) it was the moon landing! Listening to 'radio Caroline' under the covers, Was that the pirate station based on a ship out at sea?
Blimey it's 5:45 AM! I've sat here all night reading your memories, but it was a lot of fun.
Night all :~)))

am I dreaming or have we lost part of this list,Ian gave us the full poem of father come home, I surjested a few more names, and shows somthing funny hear' Bamboo I said earlear that we had lerned a lot about eachother

just cheked my home page there is part of this list missing, can anyone explane

sorry I thort I was awake, put my coments on poems were Ian gave us the poem father come home, it will proberly take me a week to ajust,

had my brakefast I think I am awake now,like to add Bille Cotton band show ( waaaaaki wa kee ) and saterday afternoon solders in the park, blackdyke mills' farie avation' brighouse and rastrick 'manchester co op' and all the rest, after just a few notes I could tell which band it was, back to sleep clifo Ithink I must be a coffin doger

Hi Ian I listened to radio 270 based off shore at Scarborough.I had to hide my transistor radio in my cookery basket when I went to school so I could listen at break times.

Cliffo the song is on another blog it was the right one did you know it as well.

no I am afrade I did not know it, but I do now a grate poem' my party peace I could not put on hear infact no were else except with a drunken men only party.

wasent there a program called all our yester day's, do any of you rember the cat's wisker in a boal'' you must be older than me I think I rember my parents talking more than the thing it's self. bakerlight the new materail the portable raidoes were made of, the milk man with his horse and trap filling your milk cans from a chern on the flote, the rag and bone man with his goldfish.

just befor we finish with this may I add,sweethart of the forces Vera lynn, and her rivel Ann sheldon, have a go with Wilfred pickles his wife mable and give her the money barne,and Paul Tempal and the theam tune midnight express.

Your memories, most of you, beat mine hands down - I remember 77 Sunset Strip, Cliff Richard (my mum liked him) and the biggest and best of all the Beatles. I was besotted, went to see Hard Day's Night 14 times... A boyfriend (I was 14, horrifying) who was a rocker mum didn't like, so he became a mod overnight, complete with scooter, rabbit tails and parka... and then she really liked him!

Going to the panto. at Christmas and being taken to see the 'lights' I even remember being taken to a big store one year to visit Santa. An entirely different and more magical experience than children seem to get now.

I rember being sent to the butchers by my dad for an ox tail and tell him would he minde leaving the horns on.,and when he brought a load of pluvers eggs home, mother asked him how to cook them,he said the same as potatoes' a pan full at a time. now you know were I get my daftness from.

I still listen to 'Desert Island Discs' of cause. I'm surprised that it's not been televised especially as it's last two presenters are so attractive, well more than Roy Plumley. Cliffo you also mentioned 'Down your way' Why oh why don't they do it again on TV. It wouldn't cost much as all they need to do is send a small recording team to chat to old codgers like us about....well anything. Sadly they would rather pay Johnathon Ross.

Not any more, Heron, he's been given the heave ho when this latest lot ends.

I intend to watch Warren Buffet on BBC TV tonight, should be interesting. I'm not sure it's a good thing taxing the rich too much but I would like anything over a certain amount paid not to HM Taxes but directly to Charity.

They could chat to us all about our memories... Whilst we've still got them lol

just to get back on track ,I rember when flat lettis was called tomthum, and when celerey was grown in a trench and not pulled untill it had frost on it ,and not yet grown in a big bed hoping the middle ones would be white,when spudes were spuds and you could roast boil chip them and king edward ruled,we had spring cabbage in the spring not allyear, and the first new potatoes did not come from Eygept,there try and scrub that out LOL

Did we go off track Cliffo? This started as a question about changing the clocks and sequined into 'All Our Yesterdays'

Sequined? Do you mean segued, Moongrower? (which isn't in my dictionary either, for some reason)

Oh... poop yes indeed segued!

Jumping in the piles of coal left for the pitmen,leek shows jazz bands,hot rice ,and tin can blocky we used to get wrong for waking the men up on back shift when we played that,AmenCorner Dave dee etc the memories go on.

it don't matter if it was sequined''segued'' neairer the subject' sequoia, or indeed sequent; it has been fun and refreshing, and I feal that I have got to know you all better and you are no matter were you live my kind of people, and this is only for the ladys because Im strate XXX

Ooooh Cliffo no kisses for Mr MB - giggle!

I honestly don't think our grandchildren realise just how much life has changed in the past 50 - 60 years. The world they were born into is one that is almost alien to us. I remember in the early 70s watching a programme on TV about computers and how they were going to change the world... given that these huge things had to be house in special units to keep them at just the right temperature etc. Mr MB & I laughed our heads off... Now what am I using to communicate with all of you?

Remember 'flower power'? Floating around in caftans and log skirts, boys in bell bottoms... I had an off white pvc floor length mac and thought I was the bees knees!

yes I had eighteen inch bottoms never wore the twenty towes, and swade broughes, lether gloves with thick ridges over the nuckles to make us look tough allthis with a sports coat in summer, the DA you rember ducks well a hair stile also the girls the A line the beehive hair do, pasher cigs, looked good tasted orfel and stank, the yanks with their big cars, is anyone looking X for MR MB,but don't tell him were I live

al those sugar starched petticoats under the skirts

another thirty nine post and we will qualifie for telegram and bar. sweet dreams, it's warm tonight so let Mr MB have a fair share of the covers

Mr MB always has his fair share of the covers

that reminds me of an old poem, about a couple stranded whilst crossing the alps,it goes, anne marier you have got all the cloths and im out of bed and Ooooo but it snowes ''kick 'I don't caire'' scratch' I don't care, but my feet are cold so beware beee waaaaaaare, .another one for Mr MB.

workers play time

Cliff Richard Lol He's slightly older than me!

And not nearly as good looking Heron

and his groop the shadows,fredy and the dreamers, did you ever go to the cavan Heron, I rember the manager of a local dance hall ( the tiverly in buckly ) turning the beetels down because he said they were not worth the £20.00 they asked for.and I rember Liverpool the last time they beat man u. ho and the busby babes, and Whales when they realy could play rugby,

~I vaguely remember being taken to my Grans sister's house to watch the coronation on one of the first tv sets.Small screen.lots of wood and black and white but we had never seen anything like it!

a number of you have mentend the coronation' and I wish you would not,I never saw it on tv , because I was stood in the mal all day ,and when you say you were kids you make me feale like I belonge to another age which I proberly do but I like to think that I am not a coffin dodger lol

If its any comfort, Cliffo, we're all coffin dodgers, from the cradle to the grave..

Arlene's television memory would be the same as mine. As many people as possible packed into grans sitting room to watch the 'c' word thingy. You must admit that it was the best ever advertising campaign for the emerging television industry, Cliffo.

I was one year old cliffo when the queen was crowned Ican remember our first tv set they were tiny compared to todays some programmes I remember The one o clock show ,Crackerjack, and tinga and tucker.

I agree BA and thanks for spairing my fealings, in fact it was a couple of years after that befor I saw tv, Bamboo were you there watching wasent the queen of tonger lovley, we all fel in love with her, nothing to look at but what a personality, gorges,

I don't remember it at all, Cliffo, when was it?

Apparently I watched it from my pram....can't remember it though :))

PS. Cliffo....the last time Liverpool beat ManU was last Sunday (much to my hubby's horror, and my son's delight, lol)

~my great Aunt 's hubby and son were both colliery officials and as such they were reasonably well paid
On some Sundays my gran ,myself my Aunt and Ron her son would go out into the Northumbrian hills in their austin A50~they were the first but not not the last trips~we have been doing it ever since!

1953 Bamboo and my mother was royally peed off because every child born at the time of the coronation received a special mug - my sister was born a few weeks later!!!

I was 3 halfway through that year, no wonder I don't remember it...

~didn't everyone get asmall model coach and horses?

I ment befor last sunday. and my regards to your lad he's got a bit of sense that lad, Bamboo it is a wonder we never woke you we were in welington barracks and the bulgler played longe revale at four am,the sargentmajor was very quirt though you could proberly not hear him if you were over a mile away,

Not sure Arlene...apparently I cut my first tooth and cried all day :(((

Lol Cliffo :)) My lad has no sense at all...and neither has my hubby, lol

~ my hubby says they all had street parties and were given teacup plate and saucer with picture of the queen on them~still in the sideboard!

I don't know about you guys, but every time I look at the new comments on the bottom of this blog, it takes forever for the cursor to get to the bottom of the page.... and the site seems to be very, very slow tonight, I mean technically in a computer sense, or is it just me?

Oh yes we all had street parties... Mr MB says yes we did get a coach and horses made of metal (he points out there was no plastic then - lol) I confess I had forgotten that! But I do remember the mug. Didn't folk have to buy the plate and saucer Arlene? We used to have al sorts of coronation knick-knacks we got rid of them all when son said - not interested.

I was one of the lads that carried the coffin of her dad ,I dont cair for royalty as sutch but her dad was grate ,I belive that during the air raids on london he could offten be seen siting in the taxie drivers cabin drinking tea with the drivers, and her uncel will allways be remberd by the southWales mining famalies when he was prince of Wales. and yes Crazydi I agree us fans have no sense, that reminds me of the Liverpool woman who said to her husband some times I think you love liverpool more than you love me'' he said sweethart I love Everton more than I love you ''lol

Gosh Cliffo...did you really carry the coffin? I take it you were in the forces? Really admire you for that :)

On a "footie" note...have you any idea what it's like to be a woman in the middle of a family, where the males support...Liverpool, ManU...and err, Everton? Probably not, no...;) Most of the time they are not speaking to each other, lol.

PS. Bamboo...just press the "page down" button...it's quicker :))

Nothing wrong in looking back with nostalgia, more comforting than looking forward. at my age anyway! The 64 thousand dollar question is, were those days better. I know we had little but I think we were happier generally. We didn't know about what we didn't have, and we weren't just a number, we had a name and a sense of belonging.

Well I'm not sure what the answer to the 64,000 dollar question is Heron...but I think that we appreciate what we've got today, because we didn't have it yesterday....if you get what I mean, lol? Looking back with nostalgia is OK...but times were a lot harder then....

I agree Heron, we were perfectly happy, didn't know we were poor... just enjoyed life to the full. But, we were children... I wonder how it was for our parents? I know in retrospect that my parents struggled to make ends meet. That said the children these days seem totally discontented which I don't remember us being - we knew we weren't going to get lots of fancy stuff or be spoiled and we got on with life. Now children as young as 9 or 10 seem to think it is their right to have a mobile phone... We never had a phone in the house, we went to the call box on the corner. The world has changed so much it is difficult for even those of us who have lived through it to comprehend. Think what it must feel like for someone in their 80s or 90s. They now talk about most people living to be 100 soon - wonder if they will want to!

Not sure I want to live that long, far too tiring. What all the young people haven't got that we all had was that sense of belonging, not only to your own family, but within the wider community; children, by and large, knew about authority and it was everywhere- teachers, neighbours, local bobby, truancy officer, even the "nit nurse", anyone who was adult, really, so there was that sense of order and enforcement and safety, really, which most kids today certainly don't have - community spirit, in London and most big cities anyway, has disappeared. I blame Thatcher! she brought in the cult of "me, me, me" and every man for himself... not that I want to get political, please don't start hurling things at me! Trouble is, most young people know what their rights are, they just haven't been told what their responsibilities are.

yes Crazydi I joined on the first of march 1951 as a natnal servise man and was mad enough to signe on reglour service in the guards depo., on the cornation my proud moment was as we marched down the mal to take up our positions the loud speakers anounced this is the welsh guards and the whole croud cheerd' and yes we were flown back from germany to walk by the gun carrage and carrie the coffen, and we realy felt it because we all respected him, inserdently in Berlin we did guards onspando prison, and you know who was there, I did buck jimmys and windsor when in this country, I am still very proud of the redgement' and by the way in liver pool everton and liverpool surporters are in the same famaly, when there is a darby if everton win the pubs around anfield are like a morg and if liverpool win it is the same in everton vally

You are right to be proud Cliffo :) I take my hat off to you...x

And yes, Liverpool and Everton are very close really....(wink, wink).

PS. Bamboo...I agree..."Bring back the Nit Nurse!" lol

by gum Bamboo for a youngster you have a lot of wisdom,

Dunno about that Cliffo, but I do remember my gran constantly saying "oh, she's got an old head on young shoulders, that one"...

just the opsit with me Bamboo, I rember my mother conplaining to someone when I had yet agine stepted out of line ,and him saying you carn't put old heads on young sholders, by the way Heron I hope you are reddy to put the 200 up after all you started it so you should get the telegram lol

Still going strong, amazing! I don't like the dark nights. Throwing hats in the Mersey ? from Bridge Foot, can't think any other place, that used to be a right mucky river. Still not very tasty. Queensferry, my brother sails near there. Taken me a long time to read from where I left off yesterday. I think all the memories of my child hood might have been posted. I remember long brown stockings held up with garters. Bottle green school knickers with a pocket. Came down one day as I got off the school bus. Elastic broke. Whoops shouldn't have said that.... Night night.

I have just read this from start to finish and loved every little bit of it !! I didn't 'start out' until 1955, but still remember the frost on the inside of the windows and the coats on the bed ! Wonderful reading .... thank you all so very much !! :-)))

holladays''constid of a day in Rhyl or Newbrighton, and once we had a real holladay two night's bed and breakfast in Rhyl only twenty minuates from the sea, all ways punch and judy,kiss me quick hats to show that you were on holladay' and about the time when most of you were kids, Butlins yuck''

seaside rock... watching the guinness toucan perform - there was some sort of 'thing' that opened up on the hour and put on a little performance.

we went to mablethorpe-- extended family--lots of cousins-- went on a steam train and can remember running with the cousins(i was the youngest) who would see the sea first
the smell of the sea and sand--the oaky man(or icecream man to you) nd the donkeys

"Bottle green school knickers with a pocket". now then Dorjac what was the pocket for, could it have been the weight of your pocket money that made them fall down?

the pocket was for your hanky when you were doing gym ours were maroon!

we never had hanky's and news paper was our table cloth, over coats on the bed, our house was so dirty the council used to make us wipe our feet as we came out, lol

Clarks sandals - worn with white ankle socks of course...

Somewhere back up on this question someone mentioned Camp Coffee which was a 'coffee' essence - I believe it was actually made from chicory roots.

The milk man with his electric float.

The coal man with his horse and cart.

Remember how they all used to shout out their wares... aside from the rag and bone man who rang a bell. Those poor goldfish never lasted any length of time.

you people keep reminding me of things I had forgoten, but it depends were you lived realy, our milk man had a hores and trap with a churn of milk' bottles were not out then and the coal man had an old flatbed truck, and I rember castle brick works had steam driven trucks and still had them after the war, they were dangerious because you could not hear them coming, and the ragerbone some times had day old checkins they never lasted anything as long as the fish, untill people decided it was crule, and the market refused to sell them, and to finish'' sheeps brains in batter, sheaps head broth, tripe and sweetbreds

Lol Dorjac...yes it was "Bridge Foot"....how did you know that? I guess you must know where I live :)) The Mersey was pretty mucky...used to have great piles of frothy foam on it from the nearby soap factory. Years later, I ended up working there (the soap factory that is..) as an Occupational Health Nurse. Loved it...best career years of my life I think :)

Mrs MB...it was me who mentioned "Camp coffee"....we couldn't afford the real stuff, lol.

camp coffie I loved it ''now I carn't stand it ,you can still get it by the way, and conie onie could not get enough, now no thanks, butter milk we used to have a specal bucket to go and get it from the cheese factory six pence a bucket never lasted longe enough for mother to bake with it,

I remember the bottles of Camp Coffee well Di. As you say, couldn't afford the real stuff ! Also the sterlized milk to go with it !! Yuck !! Had to have it, no fridge, but still can't touch it to this day !! lol

One for the ladies ...... for these days when tights had not yet been invented. If a suspender went, you used a thrupenny bit instead to hold up your stockings !! lol ;-))

I remember going to the co op for mam you had to tell them her number so she could get her divi.They used to sell sugar in blue bags and the butter was cut from a large piece and wrapped in greaseproof paper.Also how about beechnut chewing gum machines and green shield stamps.

~ I used to do the same Mavis~ I used to live near BLyth~

Arlene I lived in a pit village just outside of Sunderland .The co op was much needed .Also my first job was at the co op in Sunderland .

i remember beechnut didn't you occasionally get 2 packets or was our machine faulty?

and anyone remember jubbly--frozen triangular ish cartons of orange squash that you cut the top off and pushed up were as big as your hand... and you just sucked and sucked ...

A sad day today, I remember when Phill Archer lost his wife Grace.

I wakked behind a family in the supermarket today it looked like a grand mother a mother and two young girls about twelve and ten the eldest had written on her jacket' I saw I want I throed a tantrum I got, and I thort that would have had a diferent out come in my day, yet I loved my mother

A different outcome in mine too Cliffo.
I'd have got a thick ear and told to be quiet !
I wouldn't do/say it a second time !!!

As no one has responded ..... am I too young to join in ?? If I am .... no probs, I understand ... I'll just read and enjoy :-)

Sue why would you be too young? All ages are free to comment - I hated suspender belts! I know men thought they were sexy but not to wear. I used to put on white cotton gloves to put on my stockings, complete with seam up the back... thank god tights appeared.

Crazidi... Anywhere else along the Mersey you would not go near. I got told by my grandad that if you fell in the Ship canal or the foamy Mersey you would come out as a boggart with warts! To get from where I lived at 'Stocking Feet' you waited while the bridge turned, and saw the puffa train go through the the level crossing. Or you could use the foot bridge.....you could have thrown your hat from there but I guessed right. Imagine those 2 obstructions now! The bridge does 'go off ' rarely. Tesco have a wine barge?....perhaps it goes under?

Thank you MG !! x x White cotton gloves ??? :-))

Boggart with warts !!!!
What a lovely, scary image it conjures up !!!

Heron was the first person i heard use that word and i liked it ever since :-)))

Hello Sue we used to have like an elastic garter or mam used a button neither where much use but it did in an emergency, do you remember those crocheted hats that fastened under your chin.Pamg you used to get the second packet of beech nut free after so many single ones.There was nothing better than a jubbly after being in the park.

Another thing thats gone. Sorry Sue. The hall wardrobe. Mum put her hats and gloves on the top shelf. Winter coat on a hanger. Scarfs on hooks. She could lurk in the seldom used sitting room and see what to wear when she 'changed' in the early afternoon to sally forth to shop in town or the village. Under the wardrobe was a space in which lived a boggart,this was a slithery grey thing. I had to be escorted past said wardrobe to go to bed....not any other time......attention seeking little sweetie (see avatar)!!!!!

Sue, so that I didn't ladder said stockings... only had one pair at a time.

Was anyone else a Saturday girl, or boy, in Woolies?

Sue you were rich having a thrupenny piece to put in your suspender ,we made do with a button !! I remember my sister using clear nail varnish to stop a ladder in stockings lol

So did I !!! Lol :-) And sewing them up Aster !! :-))
Couldn't work in Woolies until you were 16 MG. I had other Saturday jobs before then because my Dad worked in the motor industry and it was a 3 day week . NO chance of pocket money !! Started as a Saturday girl at Woolies in 1971. The year of the changeover !! lol Funny how it comes around isn'it ? :-))

I was a saturday girl in B.H.S.Dorjac it wasnt a boggart that lived in our wardrobe but one of those horrible stoles with the foxes heads I was petrified of them they still give me the screaming hab dabs .

Gosh SueB I started work as a Saturday girl at 14... I left Wolie's at 16 to move on to my career.

I started my career at 21 ! Just grateful for what I learned at Woolies ! How to talk to people ! :-)))

I was only 15 and a half when Istarted full time at bhs.

Goodness SueB no wonder you are asking if you are too young to be involved! Yes you are and no you aren't is my answer ... we all need to remember our roots.

Remember as a teenager harvesting peas a tiny amount per sack...

No MG !! Far too young !! lol ! I shall shut up and enjoy xxx

Yep, I was a Saturday girl in Woolies from 14, and for half terms and holidays was full time. I couldn't add up for toffee, never forgotten being put on the crockery section and having to add up cups, saucers and plates, all with farthings and halfpennies - lord knows what I charged the woman who bought them!

We did our 'adding-up' on the paper we then wrapped things in... I was mostly on the haberdashery counter which was not very exciting but remember relieving on the biscuit counter where they had big open containers of biscuits for the staff to make up bags of - and, of you were lucky - eat a few biscuits!

Yep, did the biscuits and cake counter, lovely, never got put on sweets though, which is probably just as well...! I do recall cockily swinging a brown paper bag full of biscuits to twist the corners a bit too enthusiastically - the bag split and the biscuits flew in all directions. I was crimson with embarrassment...

I well remember stockings with seams and also fishnet and diamond patterned ones which were much better lasting than sheer ones and looked great with stilettos~i don't know how I used to wear such very high heels but I think my feet were much narrower then!

There used to be broken bicuits in some of those tins. As I recall. Can't remember if all one sort or jumbled up together......nice though. I started work at 17, as a cadet nurse in the sewing room.....lovely ladies. Out -patients records ...a disaster. Met my first dragon sister.... not the last

Broken biscuits were kept separate and were all kinds, and sold much cheaper by the pound than the intact single variety ones - used to sell loads of those. And the big slab cakes that you'd cut a piece off, wrap and weigh, remember those?

Can anyone remember working in a store like 'Grace Brothers' ? There's still one in Chester but it's not the same as it consists of lots of different franchises. When my Sister worked there, there was a Captain Peacock.

I started full time work at 14 in 1947 learning the tools until 16 then started apprentiship, you talk of ladders in nylons, the girls used soap to stop a run but more often than not the girls would put tan of some sort on there legs and draw a line down the back with their eyebrow pencel, we had delies then but they were called cooked meat shops,and a real shoping day was a train ride to bidston then the underground to hamalton squar Liverpool and up the steps to lewises. but all though we can talk about stors in our childhood there are shops in liverpool that have been there befor our grate grandads greens for instance navel surplayers people still go there for navel uniforms, when you see things like that it makes us very recent.

Can anyone remember eating Horlicks powder? I used to pinch my Granny's from the jar when she wasn't looking. A teaspoon at a time....just like the middle of Maltesers!

yes and do you rember the ovelteenes song and the badge, and the police man that cliped your ear when he cought you scrumping,and you dare not tell your dad or you got another one,kensiter cigerets with four for your frends, packets of five woodbines,botels of pop with a marble in the bottal,sherbut dips with the stick of lickerish sticking out of the packet,toffie apples made at home, dip apple , six penny pices in the christmas puding, dont start me

crumpets toasted in front of the fire, yes I remember the Ovaltinees song - could sing it for you now (but I'm kind hearted so I wont lol). An oxo cube in a mug of hot water, spotted dick, garibaldi biscuits, thruppeny bits, tanners, a bakers dozen... we could obviously drivel on for years.

Potaoes cooked in the bonfire they came out blackened and burnt but they tasted lovley with tomatoe sauce.I remember ovaltine tablets and mam making ovaltine in a glass jar? type thing.

I have just scroled down, and I can rember most of them, even though they move to fast to read, a thought came in to my minde'' this is my life pasing befor my eye's, I hope I am not dead lol every thing cooked on the open fire or in the oven, home from school on monday lunch my job to turn the mandle for mam (thats mother in Welsh,)befor I got any lunch. remember our first electric cooker a little belling, tellephone by the shops any one had to go to hospital they went in the butchers car ,him being the only one that had one,

Tatties cooked in the bonfire yes - tomato sauce no. A dab of butter or 'marg.' nothing as fancy as sauce. Though I do remember malt vinegar being sprinkled on a poke of chips, along with a lot more salt than the government would approve of!

Yes there were Ovaltine tablet but didn't they appear later?

The real serious memory on the food side is we had a 'joint' of some sort on Sunday. Had bits of it cold with veg on Monday, shepherd's/cottage pie on Tuesday,soup on Wednesday and probably Thursday too, fish on Friday, something like egg and bacon or macaroni cheese on Saturday. Mum baked a fruit cake, or the like, on Saturday for Sunday. We also had all those stodgy puds to fill us up - like spotted dick and custard!

When our son visits and serves up dinner I am still horrified at the amount of meat he puts on the plate... twice as much as would do! One good slice of meat and the rest veggies! I can still make a joint or chicken feed us for most of a week - along with lots of veg! It isn't that we are hard up just the way I was brought up... most of the meal should be veg with just a small amount of protein.

I worked on the haberdashery counter in Woolies too MG, loved it but then my Mum was a professional dressmaker and I grew up making my own dollies clothes........still making them ......for grandchildren!!
How much did we get paid? I seem to think it was 12/6 going up to 14/- when you were 16. Also could buy a hot meal in the staff 'canteen' at lunch time for 1/3!!

I wonder if today's youngsters will one day reminisce about, Big Macs !!

I know what you mean MG my ante was ayorkshire woman and on sunday the first corse was yorkshire pud with gravie, and she used to say him as eats most pud gets most meat, by the time the main meal was served you did'ent want much meet, jam or dripen buttes to fill the kids up, if I have a checken after a couple of days I put the carcas in the presher cooker and blow the meat off the bones then add a good size bunch of leeks the best supe I ever had and my mother used to put the joint through the mincer on monday for mince meet and beefburgers that she made herself, and there was allways tricle toffie and nettel pop,

Don't remember Lily but that sounds like a lot when I started my training got less than £5 a week.

I'm probably remembering wrongly then as I know everybody including me thought it was slave labour at the time! (but it was very valued pocket money even so)

Does anyone recall the winter of 1947? The depth of austerity then. We made a sledge, skated on Ackers pits; Now modified on health and safety grounds after a recent incident. Slid down hill at The Hydro Hotel grounds at Stockton Heath. No one told us not to use their grounds, after all the whole village used the grounds on fete day. Got to school 5 miles away at Lymm. Played out all day mum was FREEEEE of us under her feet. I surely enjoyed myself that winter. These days I might be busy putting on my make-up, ready to party, at the age I was then!

yes I rember the longe cold winter of 47 ,no coal the coalman could not get through , going for logs with my sled and when mum was flush we had scouse still love it and when money was short we had blind scouse, when I started work I got fifteen shilings per week and had to go to night school two nights a week and it cost five shilings each time then there was the busfair there and back, and the teacher was an english teacher earning a few extra bob reading from text bookes he did not understand, would have been better to have given us the book, he would get through as much as he could so you neded shorthand just to take notes, and yet an old trades man said to me thar dosent know thar born lad, meaning ''I think'' we had it a lot worse in my day.that was when they used to paint fire engins with a brush seven coats ,six of them rubed flat, but I do rember the steam crains and used them,

Mavis.... that's my other name .Just spotted the reference to fox furs. I was always tempted ,on the bus, to give one of those poor little paws a good shake or pin a note to say 'Horrible person wearing this'. Mum never had one of those,so the boggart wasn't scared away! My gran lived in a haunted house nearly opposite. She never minded but my brother would not have it after she died. My other gran lived there for a while. My aunt ,who is going for 102 tells spine chilling stories of it from her childhood. There's another thing we were all in the same street!

~ Dorjac ~ I know just what you mean as my gran's family was huge and I had Greataunts and cousins living everywhere ~ I used to pass some of them on my way to school and sometimes call in for sweets and biscuits!

I was brought up in a harnted house but can not rember being fritend, my sister and I had a travel trunk in our bedroom that used to knock back to us when we knocked on it, and sometimes it happend on the wall betwen bedrooms,, and I have left the other bed room door wide open and had my hand on the door knob she would knock on the wall and when it replyed I would fling the door open and jump across the stairs to catch who ever it was but there was never anyone there, I rember my mother taking the trunk wich she used as a blanket box down the garden and burning it so may be we did get fritend after that it never happend agine, un till one night I had come out of the army did not have a drink and was not over tired I woke in the night because I felt and saw in the light from a street lamp through thin summer curtains some one laying in bed by my side I tryed to grab whoever was there but I could not move and the swet pored of me with the efert,then agirl spoke my name and the form in the bed cloths disapeard I was not fritend but confused, I later made enquires and found that a girl that had lived in the house befor us had been gilted and had commited sueside in that room,, I know that poltigist through things about but I have never haerd of anyone being harmed.

I wasn't here in '47, but I do recall clearly the winter of 61 - last time the Thames froze over. We couldn't go to school cos the oil couldn't get through to heat it, so we spent weeks mucking about outside in the snow, had a toboggan and lived on a hill, used to get cross when the "oldies" (younger than I am now) put cinders down on the lovely, icy sled run we made down it. And when it thawed, months later, you couldn't walk on the pavements, too risky - there'd be a very loud crack and 6 foot deep snow would slide off a house roof all at once, so if you were on the pavement, you got buried.

1961 Bamboo, we still had to go to school regardless - no heating - well keep you coat on... The snowdrifts were 6 foot or more high at the side of the roads and the pavements totally buried. A lot of folk ended up with broken legs.

I've really loved this,( I can't say as i could on a blog) I've taken to reading it every day its been wonderful, reminded me of lots of things I had forgotten and told of time before 'my arrival!' y'know arn't people on GoY lovely

I've just checked--- 260 replies--

thankyou so much heron

Yes a great wander down Memory Lane... bet you didn't expect this when you posted the question Heron. Oh and given that 'all' gardening questions are meant to be just that 'gardening' thank you Ajay and Pete for letting this run and run.

~ we were cut off for a week in 78? ~the local shop was stripped the first day but we were able to go across the fields with toboggans to the local farm and get milk eggs and potatoes because they couldn't get them out for sale.However we did have power which they didn't further round on Gower and I believe they used Helicopters to drop supplies!

Cliffo.....Your haunted house sounds spookily like my dad and auntie at No21. They were children then too. This is the right time of year for spooky tales. The only trouble was that if anyone told them, I had to be escorted to bed for ages after, What a terrible experience for you. March 1963 I had a ski holiday in Austria. Plane couldn't land at Salzburg due to snowy weather. We were landed with a long rail trip from Zurich to Brixlegg? through the most amazing snow scenes, like the ice age. The snow on chalet roofs was about 3-4 foot deep.

just been talking here about trick -or -treat being american and it used to be 'penny for the guy' it would be dragged about in its cardboard box the week before bonfire night never took any notice of halloween at all!

Agree Pamg we didn't know Halloween existed just 5 November.When we first moved to Scotland in 72 they used to go guising and this continued well into the 80s. Young people would go around and tell a tale or sing a song or do something to get an apple or what-have-you. Now it is straightforward going around dressed up and wanting sweeties.

You're right there, Moongrower - can't bear hallowe'en myself, whatever happened to bonfire night - trick or treat crowds stopped coming when I took to handing out fruit instead of sweets!

Thankfully we don't get them anymore either... I handed out bags of peanuts lol

at the risk of afending you kids in 1947 not only did the rivers freez the sea frose along the coast of north wales and northwest england, the whole country froze it must have been worse in scotland, and we dont get the fogs like we used too, I rember the works bus being guided around the corner by a chap with a flash light, and the driver was treated like a hearo as most buses would not run. and we did not think that it was so bad being hornted rember in those days no tv and not every house had a raido ,(somthing to brag about ) I rember next door bringing his raido out in to the yard so that the local men could hear the fight betwen joe lewis and tommy farr and I still say he was robed, but he still sang to the croud after the fight.

I remember the pea soupers here in London - the last one was when I was at high school, probably 1965 or thereabouts - thick, yellow, almost oily, fog that left black streaks on your top lip below your nose, where the dirt in it deposited on your skin as you breathed. Thank god for the Clean Air Act... although really, we're just as bad now, but you can't see it, its a different form of pollution

bet you are glad no fog no jack the riper, yes you had fog in london like nothing we saw , I was there in 1951, and being on buck and being sprited lads we took advantage to strip off and get in the fountin just because we did it when we were surposed to be standing guard in the night, it was a brag, and on malbrough house the old queen Mary was lovly and would come out in the morning and say good morning to who ever was on guard and thank us for looking after her all night , she was lovly,I thought the best of the lot

That would be the lady with the dolls house Cliffo. She looked so regal and imposing....... with a heart of gold. At what point did ladies of a certain age get out of that way of being 'old fashioned' for ever, like my great gran, long black silky clothes and button boots, no coats, a shawl? I think it was the seventies when we all cast off the crimplene!

flying standard 8 and 12 /austin swallo 7hp and austin 10 /armstrong sidle / bull nosed morris with the battre on the runing board, come on you men refresh my memory,

I had a Morris 8 the one with separate mud guards. The chassis broke under the weight of passengers, we were all a lot more supple then. My next one was a 1934 Standard flyer. I could do a whole blog on that one Lol

8 or 12 ? rember the petrol pumps when the attendent had to turn a handle about six times to get a half galon, and the jags with left and right tanks about thirty galons in each. the flying standard was side valve and I had the 12 and used to take the head off once a month to polish the head to make it go faster , removing the head today is a much bigger job,and you could tuch the headlight bulbes without ruining them, the zeffer six and what was that oen the army liked because it could do seventy in reverse used as a staff car, no nasty remarks about the army and reverse gear please,lol

the first car i drove was a morris 1000 -you still see the odd one today especially at classic car shows-- my dad had a standard 8 it hadnt got a boot lid you folded down the back seats to use the boot!

the one the army like I rember the humber super snipe, they had chases then themogie 1000 had the slave cilinder in the chasie under the drivers feet,ajob to get at, water cooled moterbikes,one car a street not two per house. and snow for christmas,

Cars in those days had individual charm/character. I'll bet we've all had a dozen over the years. The one I remember best was the Standard. It was left to me by an uncle. It was the subject of the first Feature advertisement in The local paper. I had to drive it into the new shopping centre (with a police escort) where it was the centre of attraction on it's becoming Vintage. The newspaper article told of many experiences but it's biggest achievement was when I drove it two and a half thousand miles across Scandinavia to visit a pen friend of mine. Believe it or not, but it didn't break down until I reached Chester only two miles from home when the throttle cable came lose owing to a loose screw.

yes in those days if your rad went you took the top off and as longe as you drove at forty miles your engin was ok for meny miles, now you get bent valves and a big bill, and a low battre was ok you just swoung the starting handle, if your automatic choke broke you could fix a manual one easaly, now it is a new carb,and all the jobs you could do yourself now you will upset the conputer, which needs another to put it right, they are even making engins now with no sump plugs so that you need a pump to change your oil, I wont go on but you are all seeing what is happening

Yep, if it goes wrong, whip it out and pop another engine in. Speaking of rads, while going up a mountain along the Hardanger fjord in beautiful Norway, I had to relieve myself into the rad as there was no water. Not even houdini could do that with my present car.

Hay Heron, have another look, you now have a header tank' much more confertable no hot steam belching out, but I get your point I allways carred a nylon stocking incase the fanbelt broke,after a certain young lady got the wrong impresion when I asked her to take her tight's off' and werent we dun when they stoped puting oil in quart bottles' just as we were when they got rid of LSD' excuse me you older ones' thats pounds shillings and pence children lol

It was difficult to change over to metric but I suppose that our lord and masters in Brussels wouldn't be able to use 'lds' as they've only got ten digits on their hands. I wish someone could tell me in what way we;re better off since we lost our independance.

I have to disagree with the metric thing, at least as far as money was concerned - I was hopeless in my Saturday job at working out what things cost and giving the right change, all those farthings, ha'penies, 12 pennies in a shilling 20 shillings in a pound, doesn't make any sense at all. I took to decimal money like a duck to water... not the same with measurements, though!

i'm ok if i use one or the other but i can't convert or 'see ' wat 6 cm would look like!

inky fingers from using those wooden pens with nibs at school... and the boy behind you dipping the end of your pigtail in the ink pot so you ended up with ink on your clothes...

Agree metric money is easier Bamboo and don't have a problems with weights and measures. Wish we'd gone over to the Euro years ago - lot easier for businesses that sell out-with the UK. The company I am part of has to have a £ A/C for UK transactions, a $ one for American transactions and a € one for all of Europe... all of which incur bank charges!

Agree, Pam, that's the problem with metric measurements - I can't visualise them as I can with feet and inches (I'm thinking of planting space, of course!)

the worst thing is bieing wood. a simple one is 2x2 sold in two meater lenths, that is two inches squar, but it gets worse when bieing board, and when you have been brought up with imperail that is what you think in, but I like that crack of Heron's and agree with it, lsd, I had to teach my staff metric and told them if you have a problem explaining it to a customer call me, and I will deal with it, I was called to an oap and tryed to explain in a way he would understand, he prompled showed me how we were looseing out that was the day I learned about metric, and we will be dun agine when the pound goes

I must admit I do remember a quarter pound of sweets, which had been sixpence in old money, changing to 6p in new - I seemed to be the only one who realised it should have been 2.5p...

lol

But thinking about it, the owner of the shop also sold our lunchtime sarnies - and she couldn't get to grips with the new money and would give you change from 10p as if it was a two shillings, so I guess it was swings and roundabouts!

I remember at the coffee/tea shop all those lovely cannisters still in use, a wonderful aroma. Those blue paper pointed bags they made with expert ease. The money carriers whizzing across the Coop to a lady who sat in state, doshing out the change. Big flagons of Dandelion and Burdock at my grans shop. When you took them back you got some pennies back. I had a scooter called a Corgi. It cost £18 and the carburretor kept blocking. It had one gear. I was told it was for parachutists; to make them more mobile after they landed. I last saw one at Milestones at Basingstoke. I had a Bond scooter with an electric starter. Came down to London from Cheshire on it. Never seen one since. Short time in production.

Oh yes Dorjac the cones of sugar and salt that they cut a lump off, the big slab of butter ditto. Standing in the queue to buy all sorts of odd things that probably don't exist now. Shopping was much more demanding and time consuming than it is today. Mum used to take my sisters old pram (remember those proper sprung big wheeled prams) along to load the shopping into to push it all home.

yes but what about the filims then' apart from saterday afternoon'when the lads road their horses home after watching cowboys like roy rodgers we all had our own trigger, but what about gon with the wind 'our vines have tender grapes (that makes it coasher) lol gongerdin a tree grows in bruckland, come on girls you are better at this than me

Gawd... never got to go to the movies until I was in my teens!

come on Dorjac, what was the one with margret lockwood as a highway man, and some of the ones with mickie runie and victor merclagland in the salvation army, and the one with paul roberson, and the songe he sang in it sanders of the river,there was some good ones when you were in your teens MG

It was Saturday morning pictures when I was a kid, Cliffo - we'd all shout our heads off in the exciting bits, I remember - good fun

Margaret Lockwood film was The Wicked Lady

thanks Pipsqueak she was the first girl I fell in love with.

I can never remember film stars names. We have a large book (Halliwells) that settles any discussion re putting a name to a face. It goes by film as well as name. I like guessing by way of speech, dress, manner, style, what year it was made. We referred in, Cheshire, to speaking 'far back'. Meaning posh; they all spoke posh then, apart from attempts at Cockney. My Grandads Cheshire dialect was so lovely, it was like another language. Thee and thou and that difficult 'Art thee t't fere tha.' Far back would say 'Are you going to the fair'. We should have tape recorded him,as my brother had a Vidor? one in, like, a suitcase.

sorry to disagree Dorjac, it is not cheshire , a little storie'' longe befor you and I a firm called John Summres that made clog nails ,moved to shotton and the factory was named after the little rail station hawarden bridge, they came from staily bridge staff's the familes moste of them settled in buckly, and there was staficher ,being surounded by the welsh langwage ,so there language was not changed as it has changed over the years in stafs, they used to say things like dose thar went a cuper tay in a basion and if tur wonts tuther through ter tay leaves up tu essole ,and have a bit of suder ceke , the one that got me was a man talking about his dog an allstation, it is stil spoken in the old parts of buckly old staff's ho yes they all so worked at the clay works making furnes bricke and the famious buckly mugs (gusunders)

Sorry Cliffo 8 generations of pop's side of family in Cheshire. Lost em at Lymm, last known as fustian cutters in Lymm. Not tracked doing fustian cutting anywhere else. 3 George Cooks. Grandad liked speaking that way. No one else in the family. He liked to tell stories. A man who published a book on Stockton Heath remarked about the way Wazza Cook spoke. Book was published in1926. Still in the family. My aunt, 102, who is his daughter is well spoken owns it,her grandaughter is minding it.

every thing you have said is staffitshire from the old times, you are not far away try a trip to buckly flintshire and ask for lane end which is the old part the rest has become an over spil from liverpool but if you talk to one of the older people you will reconise it from the way your grand father spoke ,you may be right but I know the cheshire way it is like deeside were they tend to slur like as if they cano't ne botherd to pronounce the words, and people that talk far back are there also . dont get me wrong Dorjac that was not a chalange I feel it will be interesting for you to hear them. thee and thou are still used there, but dont ask them you must axe um lol

Grandad spoke rapid backslang as well from his Manchester ship canal days, so, linquistically, he was clever. He skulled a boat under the bridges to pick up painters who might fall off! He was a sergeant cook in 1st world war. He may have worked with a team of men and adopted their way of speaking for ease of working. Kept with it because he found it mesmerised people. Hence the remark in the book.He ran a successful corner shop/newsagent/groceries for rations during WW2. 2 grandsons also became sergeants in catering in the RAF. He predeceased them.

your grandad had a full life, and I bet could tell a fine tail. I would have been verry intrested to have met him, my dad had an interesting tale which I know was true he volenterd for the army in 39 although his was a reserved job he ended in artilary first on serch lights in London then on the denge marshes shooting down v1 and v2 rockets for which he got the diver belt meddle and not meny people have heard of that one, your grandad sounds cosmerpolitan like me , I worked with liverpool men for a long time , and when I worked in liverpool they called me taff and when in my homeland they called me scouse,I tend to quickly get in to the local dirlect, but I must admitt real jorde has me beaten.