Childhood Memories

29 Nov 2006

Chatting at lunchtime today there was a stunned silence when I announced that I hadn't lived in a house with a bathroom and indoor toilet until I was 11, or a house with central heating until I was 16. One of the youngsters then said,'But you're not THAT old!' Yes, he is still breathing biggrin

It got me thinking though, how different things are just 30 years on.
When I was 8 I used to chop wood and lay and light the fires. I could pluck and dress pheasants, pigeons and chickens, and skin and joint a rabbit. I used to eat things that kids today would vomit at................pigs heads, pigs trotters, chittlings, brawn, sheeps hearts and brains. At weekends if I wasn't needed to ride work on the horses I would disappear off all day with the dogs, just running wild. I used to walk 4 miles to school and back, summer and winter, and never thought anything of it.
My bath was a tin tub in the kitchen in front of the Aga, the toilet was outside, and at night I used the 'guzunder' (because it guz under the bed :D )
My companions were the dogs, the horses, and the stable lads. I could climb any tree, ride any horse, was a dead-shot with a catapault. I was usually covered in horse shit, mucky from head to foot and I was a total tomboy. I didn't even know what a television set was!
I suppose to some, it may sound like I had a deprived childhood. I didn't. I was happy, healthy, fit and energetic. Would I swap my childhood for the soft, over-protected, couch-potato lifestyle of so many children today? Not bloody likely!
So how about you? What are your memories of childhood......................and would you have changed yours in any way?

29 Nov 2006

Shopping...
Tesco back then was the size of a local Spar now... coner shops - lots of them, veg shops, butchers etc... now there are none round where I used to live - there were once 8.
Meals made with meat and veg from scratch - the only junk food I can remember was a fish finger, everything else had to be made. No ready meals and not many choccy bars.
Walking to school age 6 and not worrying about it, listening to mum's Beatles records and the Monday afternoon film on BBC1 whilst she did the ironing.
Films: ET, Labrynth and Annie at the cinema.
No central heating, real fires and coal duty. chimney fire and being taken from the first floor by firemen and thinking how strong they were.
Burying 'treasure' in the garden. i.e my mums jewellery... and getting told off for it.
The fantastic feeling I got when left alone for the first time, eating things I should not touch and playing with the telephone.
Bagpuss, Fingerbob, Candlewick Green, Trumpton, Noddy, Chorlton and the Wheelies, The Clangers, The Flumps, Basil Brush and more.
Blacking the stove every day - I hated that job.
Finding a pair of crutchless knickers in my mums knicker drawer and wondering what the point was.
I have loads of childhood memories - most a bit absurd. If I could change anything, it would be my father and my mothers illness. She died when I was 13 but was ill for many years before. The only other thing I would change would be to have been allowed to watch Grange Hill (I was banned from viewing it as they said 'aint'), and fancying Shakin Stevens and John Nettles - what was I on????? I was under the age of 10 at the time though so please forgive me...

29 Nov 2006

Lissa

What a great post. I can not add anything to it apart from sleeping on a Clothes Line.
With what you have typed I feel younger than I am :lol2:
Phredd :love:
ps = how many know where the saying "sleeping on a Clothes Line" comes from. Ask and all will be revealed .

29 Nov 2006

Quote by Medic_1
Lissa
What a great post. I can not add anything to it apart from sleeping on a Clothes Line.
With what you have typed I feel younger than I am :lol2:
Phredd :love:
ps = how many know where the saying "sleeping on a Clothes Line" comes from. Ask and all will be revealed .

we're asking - we 're asking

29 Nov 2006

Mine aren't far enough away yet to be able to get sentimental. :lol2:
Good post though. wink

29 Nov 2006

No central heating and waking up to ice on the inside of the bedroom window.
Buying a Red Rover all day bus ticket and going into central London to do the museums on our own - me and my mate from school aged about 11, plus brother a year younger.
First day at school - cried my eyes out, and every time the classroom door opened I hoped it was my mum coming back to get me. It wasn't of course, just another unfortunate kid being dropped off.
Having measles before 11 years old, and being off school, laying on the settee covered by what was known as "the Scotchy blanket" - i.e. tartan - which only came out when a kid was ill.
Winston Churchill's funeral on the telly.
I must admit to having very few happy memories of childhood.

29 Nov 2006

Quote by Laff_n_Chilli
Lissa
What a great post. I can not add anything to it apart from sleeping on a Clothes Line.
With what you have typed I feel younger than I am :lol2:
Phredd :love:
ps = how many know where the saying "sleeping on a Clothes Line" comes from. Ask and all will be revealed .

we're asking - we 're asking
You have a PM and >>>>
In The Days When We Had Nothing, We Had Fun.

29 Nov 2006

Quote by Gitfinger
No central heating and waking up to ice on the inside of the bedroom window.
.

I had that in my first flat when I was 23! :shock:
Walking to school in all winds and weather and knowing, when you got home, Nan would be warming your nightie and a towel by the fire for you.
Real cooking and no ready meals
My Dad making us wait outside the front room on Xmas morning until he came downstairs and he deliberately took his time :giggle:
Party lines on the phone :shock:
Clippies on the buses
Clip across the ear by the local copper if you dared to cheek him then another from your Dad when he found out
Earning your pocket money and not expecting it for nothing
Taking the washing from the line in winter and it was stiff with the cold :giggle:
Swap all those memories for a cossetted and boring childhood? No fear!

29 Nov 2006

almost forgot..
penny sweets and half-penny sweets.
black jacks, fruit salads, prawns, milk gums, choccy mice when they were made from real choccy etc
you can tell i'm a foodie!

29 Nov 2006

Getting a whole threepenny bit to spend at the October Fair biggrin

Climbing to the top of the tallest tree and staying up there all night in protest at my Mum wanting me to wear a dress :shock:
Going to Brownies.................once.................and refusing to ever go again because they were 'sissies' :D
Watching the old 'push-me-pull-you' steam trains and waving to the drivers.
Mushrooming at dawn.

29 Nov 2006

im going to sit here and remanis about are first colour tv and riding horses when i was 4 before i post ( wouldnt want to miss anything rolleyes

ill post tomorow wink

ps/ gr8 post hun :rose:

29 Nov 2006

well since my childhood was alot more recent then everyone elses here i cant really get all sentimental about it but i'll say something.
I remember playing on my bike with my friends in the street (something that isnt so encouraged anymore- this was only about 12 years ago) Watching live and kicking on saturday morning. Running outside when i heard the ice cream van everyday just hoping it would come past my road but it never did. walking to school with my mum and my best friend. Playing bulldog innthe playground at school.
I remember actually having a blackboard (oops- cant say thatttt) in the classrooms at school then as i got to senior school they started putting up white baords (pens) and in my last year they were putting up digital ones!

29 Nov 2006

My favourite memories are:
Myself and my two brothers all on our bikes at Christmas, a Chopper, a Chipper and a Tomahawk (SP), but obviously none of them were new bikes, you didnt get new bikes back then.
Sharing a bedroom with my brothers - they had got chicken pox and my dad thought it would be a good idea for me to get them as well so he could get it all over and done with. Guess what, I didnt get them (but did when I was on my honeymoon) :shock:
Waiting for the black and white TV to warm up when you turned it on and thinking we were the poshest house in the street when we got a colour TV.
I also had horses, and remember when I went to high school and wearing my jods rolled up under my school skirt so I could nip out of school in my lunch hour and go for a ride (I probably also wagged school, but I dont think I should admit that on here)
Wouldn't swap my childhood of going out and getting dirty, playing in the mud, putting plastic bags in our wellington boots to keep our feet warm and generally causing havok for anything that the kids have today. We didnt sit at computers all day, or watch the telly all night, and our havok was not the type that did any harm to anyone. It was safe for us to be out till dark and walk home from school alone.
We never risked 'cheeking' any adults or we knew our parents would find out and we would get a 'good hiding' when we got home (which was more of a smack on the legs) lol

Happy memories smile

29 Nov 2006

Ah the memories!!!.........
Tripe,.... Sheeps Head Soup,..... Homing Pigeon Pie,.....Dripping,......Makeson,.....Coal Fire,......House going on fire sad

.....Coalmen shouting "COAL"!!.......Paper Xmas Decorations,.......Chip Van,......and on.......and on......
Any More? biggrin

29 Nov 2006

Quote by Xjxkx
Ah the memories!!!.........
Tripe,.... Sheeps Head Soup,..... Homing Pigeon Pie,.....Dripping,......

They made you EAT that stuff? blink

Do the NSPCC know? :blink:

29 Nov 2006

Quote by Sassy-Seren
Ah the memories!!!.........
Tripe,.... Sheeps Head Soup,..... Homing Pigeon Pie,.....Dripping,......

They made you EAT that stuff? blink

Yeah!!! ......and that was only the first course! lol

29 Nov 2006

Tripe :shock:
That was one thing I just wouldn't eat. I couldn't even stay in the house if it was being cooked redface

Dripping though......................on toast made in front of the fire................with lots of jelly and crunchy bits..........................sheer heaven!

29 Nov 2006

Quote by Naughty Wigan Couple
Myself and my two brothers all on our bikes at Christmas, a Chopper, a Chipper and a Tomahawk (SP), but obviously none of them were new bikes, you didnt get new bikes back then.

My sisters and I all got those bikes! My dad had to have the first go on mine though rolleyes

I remember knocking on doors and running away redface

to make the oldies have to get up.
Climbing onto garages and jumping off :shock:
Climbing trees. Chucking water bombs out of the stairwell windows of the block of flats near us, on to passers-by.
Never had a doll - hated the bloody things!
I was a bit naughty really. surprised

ops:

29 Nov 2006

HR Puffinstuff, Clangers, Hectors House, Banana Splits.
Mojo's, Fruit salad and gob stoppers. Frozen triangle drinks that we used to call Jubblies.
Being let out of the lifts when they broke down by the sexy fireman, being an altar girl redface

Girls brigade surprised

ops:
Holidays in Cornwall and perving the B&B owners son even though I was only 14 and he was 17 :oops: Still, you're glad of it now ar'nt ya Stormy wink

FIRE xxx

29 Nov 2006

I remember at infant school when we had a plaster the nurse would always draw a little picture on it for us....boys would normally choose the robot or the car....i went for the doll everytime!

29 Nov 2006

Spending what seemed like every single day at the beach. The adults wine and beer in the cool box - while our bottle of orange squash practically boiled next to it, cos it wouldnt fit in!! confused

Beds with sheets and blankets, having to make it properly every morning - the days you just pretended, and made the top of it neat, were the days you knew you were gonna spend that night totally knotted up in the top sheet :taz:
Avon nighties .......... where you weren't allowed to go within about 10 foot of the fire, cos of the risk of going up in flames :? If a bit far away to go up in flames, then you ended up shrink wrapped in yer nightie :?
Waking up in the morning, leaning out of the bed and grabbing all your clothes in with you, so they could warm up :?
My dad saying how he would never ever ever go back to wearing straight leg trousers, never mind drainpipes - flares were the way forward :?
Tellies - the first colour one I rememer, you had to turn a dial to get the channels :shock: Then we went upmarket and got a second hand push button one ........ and then we got a remote control :smug: Although the control was attached to the telly by a wire that never quite reached your chair, and everyone that entered the room tripped over :?

29 Nov 2006

sunday lunches, the only time we were allowed pop, a bottle of Corona lemonade and the front windows (old wooden sash ones) were always steamed up., Jimmy Saville on teh radio.
boiled eggss and chicken drumsticks on the beach, never tasted better since then.

29 Nov 2006

the fun in the sweetshop spangles.....2 backjacks for a penny, buying the beano and sweets and still getting change from 10p...... the sixpence which was only worth two and a half pence dunno

(that one is still a puzzle),
Saying prayers at the end of school then putting chairs on desk, the nit nurse which everyone had to go and see and she pulled your hair and hurt you whether you had nits or not.
Betamax video's wow they were the rage and we thought they were really cool too.
Recording the charts on a sunday from the radio and having to position the tape recorder right next to the speakers and be real quiet, pressing stop between each song so you didnt get the presenters comments.
Errrmm thats about it for now, starting to get all sentimental remembering, and wouldnt change any of it.........well maybe the nit nurse.
May post more memories when all composed again hehehehe

29 Nov 2006

What a brilliant thread :thumbup:
I absolutely adore coal fires, miss them so much, and my childhood is not dissimilar to yours Lissa, minus the trees cos I hate heights redface

making homemeade pastry age 3 and licking raw cake mixure off the spoon .... OMG fireside toast and dripping :inlove: and making my Dad his hometime tea in a pint mug, kept warm with a 'mug-cosy' I kinitted with my Gran til he got in :smitten:
snowmen the entire street built together, none of this 'our snowman's better than your snowman' shite rolleyes

The lamb I hand-reared with formula milk, and having peacocks as pets :shock:
The bogey-man that looked like Raggety from Rupert the bear and lived behind the polystyrene ceiling tiles in my bedroom :scared:
did I mention coal fires? :inlove:

29 Nov 2006

I just remembered my imaginary friend! It was a dragon.....called dragon, he was so cool. We had a fight though and then he started to get scary....i learnt at an early age not to fuck with a dragon.......how many poeple here had fights with thier IMAGINARY friend?
p.s since seeing horror films with dead children in them i now get very freakedout when i see my niece talking to her imaginary friend

29 Nov 2006

Quote by Sassy-Seren
No central heating and waking up to ice on the inside of the bedroom window.
.

I had that in my first flat when I was 23! :shock:
Walking to school in all winds and weather and knowing, when you got home, Nan would be warming your nightie and a towel by the fire for you.
Real cooking and no ready meals
My Dad making us wait outside the front room on Xmas morning until he came downstairs and he deliberately took his time :giggle:
Party lines on the phone :shock:
Clippies on the buses
Clip across the ear by the local copper if you dared to cheek him then another from your Dad when he found out
Earning your pocket money and not expecting it for nothing
Taking the washing from the line in winter and it was stiff with the cold :giggle:
Swap all those memories for a cossetted and boring childhood? No fear!
Two years ago I moved back into the house I grew up in as a kid. It still only has a open fire with no central heating and I had ice inside the bedroom windows last winter.
And i remember having a tin bath in front of the fire when all the pipes froze when we were snowed in for a week.
I still remember it all well, but i moved out when i was 10 which was only 16 years ago.
-d-

30 Nov 2006

Getting home from primary school age 8-10 on a friday, grabbing tents and camping kit,waving bye to parents, walking off through woods to lake. Tying fishing line with hook and worm to tree, pitch tents, gather wood,enough to go all dusk check lines,guaranteed Trout everytime, cook at camp then drink pop and eat sweets and tell stories through the night. Shit yourself at sound of Badgers crashing through woods,the screech of owl the bark of up and return Sunday ready for school Monday.
Going around village stealing drawing pins and string to set traps for the fox hunters biggrin

poor horses, then going home getting guns to shoot rabbits surprised

ops: Rushing home to bottle feed lambs and cuddle the calves, check on the horses,
Then find your bloody pet cat dead from rat poison sad

Wouldnt change those memories for anything
Then sat all relaxed in the lounge in front of the fire, and the mouse pokes its head out from a hole in floorboards, looks around and runs across floor , followed by its family; and the mice in the larda , dead in the trap :shock: The lovely fresh smell collecting eggs from the hen house,then a rat jumps out :shock:.The kittens appearing from the barns where they were born, friends coming to play on motorbikes at age of ten, we had no action men like them. Eating tea , seeing Dad at window all pleased with Rat on pitchfork, we were happy for him cos a rat killed his Dad(veils disease)
Going knocking on doors, and running away, raiding allotments and gardens for apples plums and strawberries,
Thanks Lisa you brought back some lovely memories for me
:D edit Lissa

30 Nov 2006

Quote by Medic_1
Lissa
What a great post. I can not add anything to it apart from sleeping on a Clothes Line.
With what you have typed I feel younger than I am :lol2:
Phredd :love:
ps = how many know where the saying "sleeping on a Clothes Line" comes from. Ask and all will be revealed .

Yeh ditto that last remark.
I remember the three day week and power cuts and making toast by the gas fire (sniff)
and a world with out mobile phones was bliss,and it seems a world away now.
the song baggy trousers sums up my school days for me although I lost both parents when I was young,I still reminice(spelt wrong)about a world with out trouble because your to young to care!

30 Nov 2006

can any one remember" pogles wood "on watch with mother or am I really from another planet!