Eating in England in the 60's

[malkiserow]

Being made to sit at table till you had cleared your plate wearing an apron to keep your dress clean.

 

you had clothes?!!!!!

 

Four Yorkshiremen Sketch Monty Python

Four well-dressed men sitting together at a vacation resort.

Michael Palin: Ahh.. Very passable, this, very passable.

Graham Chapman: Nothing like a good glass of Chateau de Chassilier wine, ay Gessiah?

Terry Gilliam: You're right there Obediah.

Eric Idle: Who'd a thought thirty years ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Chateau de Chassilier wine?

MP: Aye. In them days, we'd a' been glad to have the price of a cup o' tea.

GC: A cup ' COLD tea.

EI: Without milk or sugar.

TG: OR tea!

MP: In a filthy, cracked cup.

EI: We never used to have a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper.

GC: The best WE could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth.

TG: But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor.

MP: Aye. BECAUSE we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, "Money doesn't buy you happiness."

EI: 'E was right. I was happier then and I had NOTHIN'. We used to live in this tiiiny old house, with greaaaaat big holes in the roof.

GC: House? You were lucky to have a HOUSE! We used to live in one room, all hundred and twenty-six of us, no furniture. Half the floor was missing; we were all huddled together in one corner for fear of FALLING!

TG: You were lucky to have a ROOM! *We* used to have to live in a corridor!

MP: Ohhhh we used to DREAM of livin' in a corridor! Woulda' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woken up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House!? Hmph.

EI: Well when I say "house" it was only a hole in the ground covered by a piece of tarpolin, but it was a house to US.

GC: We were evicted from *our* hole in the ground; we had to go and live in a lake!

TG: You were lucky to have a LAKE! There were a hundred and sixty of us living in a small shoebox in the middle of the road.

MP: Cardboard box?

TG: Aye.

MP: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six o'clock in the morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down mill for fourteen hours a day week in-week out. When we got home, out Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt!

GC: Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at three o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of hot gravel, go to work at the mill every day for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would beat us around the head and neck with a broken bottle, if we were LUCKY!

TG: Well we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox at twelve o'clock at night, and LICK the road clean with our tongues. We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at the mill for fourpence every six years, and when we got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.

EI: Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, (pause for laughter), eat a lump of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing "Hallelujah."

MP: But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya'.

ALL: Nope, nope..

[loriusgarrulus]

Mum used to make all our clothes on a Singer threddle sewing machine which lived under the window in the front room. She used to knit all our woolies too, often unravelling old stuff and steaming the wool before knitting it into something new. Everything started off with big hems and loose fitting so it could be altered as we grew. Mum made extra money by doing alterations for neighbours who couldn't sew. I remember when about to start at the comprehensive Mum getting a plain bottle green blazer for me and embroidering the school crest on the top pocket by hand as the plain blazers were very much cheaper than the ones already with crest on. She was so good at embroidery you couldn,t tell the difference. Of course the sleeves were down nearly over my hands at the start of term, but everyone's was the same in those days.

Edited September 15, 2014 by loriusgarrulus

[pimpkiller]

Ill never forget the day I got to sit on jimmy saviles knee....it still haunts me

[Scully]

Ill never forget the day I got to sit on jimmy saviles knee....it still haunts me

Are you sure it was his knee?

[pimpkiller]

Well I sat my bum down on it and he bounced me up and down which give me a sore bum. Cant think what else it could of been.

[colin lad]

Did you have the same grub then ...........

yeah but i always went up for seconds can't you tell

 

colin

[The Croc]

Jeez we must of all been living in the same house, beef dripping on bread, the winter of 62, ( was 12 then) the splits with a proper knife, had a 6" stag handled sheath knife I used to wear to scouts

Sitting outside the local newsagents just before bonfire night with a guy made with old clothes stuffed with paper, getting money to buy fireworks, usually 1d bangers :-D

Buying sweets in the shop at a farthing each

Doing a paper round before school. Cycling as fast as you can to get to the top of the bridge as the steam train went underneath

Rabbit for Sunday dinner

Fuel a 2 bob a gallon

No supermarkets, and everything shutting for 2 weeks at Christmas

[ayano3]

Being made to sit at table till you had cleared your plate wearing an apron to keep your dress clean.

 

 

Just had to check your profile to check you was a female

[harrycatcat1]

 

 

Just had to check your profile to check you was a female

 

so did I, even though Dale still wears one I went round the other night and his mother would not let him leave the table till he had finished

[loriusgarrulus]

Was a tomboy. Still am to a great extent.

 

Once was made to go and visit my Great Aunt in the next village wearing a primrose yellow satin frock and those red leather sandals with crepe soles you got then for Summer. Satin frock was handed down from my sister who had been a bridesmaid for our older cousin. Made it there intact, but had noted an interesting tall pine tree on the way.

On the way back i decided to climb the tree, but one of the twiggy branches broke off when I was way up high. The satin frock was strong material and survived the landing into an Elder bush, but the lacy underpants got shredded. One of the few times I remember getting smacked and sent to bed with no supper. Bedrooms in those days had no toys or other forms of entertainment in them.

[islandgun]

 

 

Just had to check your profile to check you was a female

And me, I thought jeez I don't remember being that poor that I had to wear my sisters hand me downs, (well not all the time)

 

I bet lorius got quite a few profile views that day

[loriusgarrulus]

Just had a look, the profile total does seem to have shot up a bit. Maybe I shouldn't have filled the gender in, then you would still all be wondering till after the Midland.

[malkiserow]

Just had to check your profile to check you was a female

Was that in a crocodile Dundee sort of a way?

[ayano3]

Was that in a crocodile Dundee sort of a way?

 

Nope, was a quick peep stealth like so nobody knew

[islandgun]

Just had a look, the profile total does seem to have shot up a bit. Maybe I shouldn't have filled the gender in, then you would still all be wondering till after the Midland.

Yes you should have filled it in NOT SURE

[loriusgarrulus]

After two children I am sure. OH is too.

[docholiday]

Playing in goal wearing a woollen jumper which got heavier and wetter as the game went on, sleeves used to end up a foot longer

[islandgun]

After two children I am sure. OH is too.

I bet

[Velocette]

There was some sort of a potato shortage in the late 50s when I was at school and we got bread and dripping instead to go with our school lunch. We loved it,,,,,as it was one less vegetable for them to boil the bejasus out of. Savoy cabbage was nearly white by the time we eat it and its unique smell haunted the classroom for the rest of the day.

[loriusgarrulus]

There is nothing worse than cabbage or cauliflower boiled to a mush.

I used to love the trays of sponge pudding they did, cut into squares with custard on and Tapioca (frogs spawn we used to call it). Loved having school dinners as it was very rare we had them and it was a novelty.

We lived near the school and Mum was home all day so went home for lunch most days and had cooked dinner at night when Dad got home from work.

 

I remember when Decimal currency came in rushing to the shops with my pocket money to get some of the new coins.

 

We had to earn our pocket money by dusting, setting and clearing the table and washing and drying pots between my sister and I and running errands down the shops for Mum.

I still remember the fights I used to have with my sister as to whose turn it was to wash and whose turn it was to dry the pots as we both preffered washing up.

[TriBsa]

Dinner Lady arms! How come they all had forearms like Popeye?

[loriusgarrulus]

Eating all that boiled up cabbage we wouldn't eat.

[Fatcatsplat]

Coming down for school in the winter and your mum had hung your clothes on the dryer in front of the fire to warm them up.

 

Hot saspirilla from the stall in East Lane Market, the really chicken stall that sold cooked chicken wings by the pound in Rathbone Street Market and apple fritters from the stall in Brick Lane - My nan used to bribe me into going shopping with the promise of food!

 

I'm only 47 - Shouldn't be getting this nostalgic for at least another 10 years!!

Oh and one i was telling my kids about the other day - The amusing nights spent on the doorstep of the pub, with a bottle of pop and a packet of crisps for company, 'cos you weren't allowed in!

[malkiserow]

Coming down for school in the winter and your mum had hung your clothes on the dryer in front of the fire to warm them up.

 

Hot saspirilla from the stall in East Lane Market, the really chicken stall that sold cooked chicken wings by the pound in Rathbone Street Market and apple fritters from the stall in Brick Lane - My nan used to bribe me into going shopping with the promise of food!

 

I'm only 47 - Shouldn't be getting this nostalgic for at least another 10 years!!

Oh and one i was telling my kids about the other day - The amusing nights spent on the doorstep of the pub, with a bottle of pop and a packet of crisps for company, 'cos you weren't allowed in!

 

Why? Were you a bit of a Gok when you were young?

[loriusgarrulus]

Melting hand prints in the frost on the inside of the bedroom windows. You had to be careful you hand didn't get stuck. There were some amazing frost patterns in the Windows.

Building igloos in the garden. We could get the curved wall to start, but never could get the roof finished fully as it always collapsed.

 

In the Summer making Daisy chains on the Church Lawn at the top of the street. You can't get on it now as it has a 6ft high fence and most of the lawn is car park.

 

P.S What's a Gok. Is that a local Walmington on sea term.