Remembering My Childhood--- To My Grandkids
Without Prejuduce
Life is very different these days, some things remain the same, but the life I had as a child was very different to the life you are living.
When I was a child ( and I am not that old, ).chicken was something we had once or twice a year. And it had to be killed, plucked and prepared. Then we wouldn't eat it as we had seen it running around the backyard.
School lunch consisted of a doorstep of bread and butter with a tomato and a twist of salt in greaseproof paper, or a whole banana. Meat was leftover lamb roast, luncheon meat, called Devon, which was cheap and cheerful. Tomato sauce was added if we were lucky. Water came from a bubbler in the school grounds.
Whacking was still allowed, usually with a ruler on the back of the legs or across the knuckles. Teachers were Gods and to be obeyed. No back chat.
Poor kids were allowed to come to school with no shoes. Orphans from orphanages often had chilblains.
If you lived in a procession of Ministry Houses like my family did, you were not considered abnormal or poor. I never knew we were poor until I was about 11 and for Christmas instead of an expected bike received instead a Pogo Stick.
From my Sister, who was allowed to work at 14.
A treat was being taken to a cafe and having a Spider, which was a mix of milk and a fizzy drink. Another treat was a Sundae which came in a glass dish shaped like a boat. Two scoops of ice cream swimming in chocolate or strawberry syrup with chopped nuts and a sprinkle of malted milk.
Groceries were delivered once a week in a wooden box. We ate butter not margarine and bread was unsliced. It was hacked into with a serrated bread knife and you could carve a slice as thick as your arm or a skinny sliver. We would then add sugar or sauce depending on what was in the pantry.
Our Mother would roast mutton or lamb with potatoes which we had helped to peel and eaten raw when she wasn't watching. We were constantly hungry as kids. A rare treat was a bought meat pie at the Swimming Pool canteen, broken biscuits bought by the pound from the corner shop or a small bag of mixed lollies.
We played with other kids outside and had to be home by dark, or else. We ran under sprinklers when it was hot or went to the Pool where we fried in the sun, no sunscreen then. We would spend all day at the Pools and run home barefoot and wet. I can still remember the feeling of peeling off wet bathers and getting in to warm pyjamas. My skin white and crinkled under my pair of Jantzens.
We went to Swimming Races and had to take salt tablets, ( yuk ) and glucose tablets ( yum ) for energy. We were expected to win and often did. That was our entertainment. On school holidays we were sent outside with a jam sandwich and not allowed back in till evening.
We had no inside toilet, just an outside toilet with a wooden seat over a pan that stunk and was often buzzing with flies. If the seat was broken you had to sit on it gingerly or it would bite into your bare bum. Or hover over it thighs trembling and trying to hold your breath at the same time. Some people splashed the toilet with phenyl and I don't know if that smell was any better than shit.
We didn't have to think about clothes as we wore our bathers all day every day. I wore my first dress at 9 and it was a hand me down from my older Sister and was way too big. Pink and white thick stripes in a shirt waister style that hung limply from my skinny little body almost to the ground. I really looked poor then and refused to go outside with it on.
I did then get a pinafore in grey and yellow tartan and loved to death. I wore it with a white blouse underneath with a Princess collar. I thought I was the smartest dressed girl in the neighbourhood.
Life is very different these days, some things remain the same, but the life I had as a child was very different to the life you are living.
When I was a child ( and I am not that old, ).chicken was something we had once or twice a year. And it had to be killed, plucked and prepared. Then we wouldn't eat it as we had seen it running around the backyard.
School lunch consisted of a doorstep of bread and butter with a tomato and a twist of salt in greaseproof paper, or a whole banana. Meat was leftover lamb roast, luncheon meat, called Devon, which was cheap and cheerful. Tomato sauce was added if we were lucky. Water came from a bubbler in the school grounds.
Whacking was still allowed, usually with a ruler on the back of the legs or across the knuckles. Teachers were Gods and to be obeyed. No back chat.
Poor kids were allowed to come to school with no shoes. Orphans from orphanages often had chilblains.
If you lived in a procession of Ministry Houses like my family did, you were not considered abnormal or poor. I never knew we were poor until I was about 11 and for Christmas instead of an expected bike received instead a Pogo Stick.
From my Sister, who was allowed to work at 14.
A treat was being taken to a cafe and having a Spider, which was a mix of milk and a fizzy drink. Another treat was a Sundae which came in a glass dish shaped like a boat. Two scoops of ice cream swimming in chocolate or strawberry syrup with chopped nuts and a sprinkle of malted milk.
Groceries were delivered once a week in a wooden box. We ate butter not margarine and bread was unsliced. It was hacked into with a serrated bread knife and you could carve a slice as thick as your arm or a skinny sliver. We would then add sugar or sauce depending on what was in the pantry.
Our Mother would roast mutton or lamb with potatoes which we had helped to peel and eaten raw when she wasn't watching. We were constantly hungry as kids. A rare treat was a bought meat pie at the Swimming Pool canteen, broken biscuits bought by the pound from the corner shop or a small bag of mixed lollies.
We played with other kids outside and had to be home by dark, or else. We ran under sprinklers when it was hot or went to the Pool where we fried in the sun, no sunscreen then. We would spend all day at the Pools and run home barefoot and wet. I can still remember the feeling of peeling off wet bathers and getting in to warm pyjamas. My skin white and crinkled under my pair of Jantzens.
We went to Swimming Races and had to take salt tablets, ( yuk ) and glucose tablets ( yum ) for energy. We were expected to win and often did. That was our entertainment. On school holidays we were sent outside with a jam sandwich and not allowed back in till evening.
We had no inside toilet, just an outside toilet with a wooden seat over a pan that stunk and was often buzzing with flies. If the seat was broken you had to sit on it gingerly or it would bite into your bare bum. Or hover over it thighs trembling and trying to hold your breath at the same time. Some people splashed the toilet with phenyl and I don't know if that smell was any better than shit.
We didn't have to think about clothes as we wore our bathers all day every day. I wore my first dress at 9 and it was a hand me down from my older Sister and was way too big. Pink and white thick stripes in a shirt waister style that hung limply from my skinny little body almost to the ground. I really looked poor then and refused to go outside with it on.
I did then get a pinafore in grey and yellow tartan and loved to death. I wore it with a white blouse underneath with a Princess collar. I thought I was the smartest dressed girl in the neighbourhood.
