What memories would you liked to of shared??

[Accyexplorer]

The other week i was walking near Accy college when i was approached by a (young) lad who asked "oh Mr,What was ya favorite fast food when ya was growing up?"
I politely informed him,"We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,it was all slow"
"C'mon man, Where did you eat?" he said with a puzzled look on his face.
I explained "It was a little place called home''.
I also informed him "my mum cooked every day of the week and when my Dad got home from work, we all sat at the dining room table together" and
"if I didn't like what she put on my plate,there was always the option of going to my bedroom till i did like it (such a lonely place,I remember it well ).
He started asking other questions about my childhood but i said i was "really busy"(truth is, i don't think his system would of been able to handle my answers) For example, Pizzas were not delivered to our home,milk was.

Here are some of the other things I would have told him about my childhood (if I'd figured his system could have handled it):

1.All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers.
2.There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or almost anything offensive.
3.Trouser leg clips for bicycles with one gear (slow) and without chain guards.
4.TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning.
5.The bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we didn't have steam irons

These memories are some of the best parts of my life.But my Question is this:

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, and a youngster asked you about your childhood (plus you thought there system could handle it),"what memories would you liked to of shared"?.....

Answers on a postcard

[Margaret Pilkington]

I would share the fact that:-
During the winter we could make ice lollies on the window bottom of our bedroom - on the inside.

That no-one I knew had fitted carpets - we had carpet squares and the wood floor that showed was polished with lavender Mansion polish.

The fire grates were black leaded with Zebo and a hard brush and a lot of elbow grease.

That no-one I knew had an indoor toilet or bathroom.

That Friday night might have been Amami night, but it was also Nit check night and bath night - the bath being hauled in off the yard wall and filled with hot water from a Slaxone boiler...and that you bathed in front of a roaring fire.(cleanest first)

I would tell this young person that we used every scrap of food - leftovers were not thrown in the bin - they were made into something else - and that green mould was scraped off food and then it was eaten - the food not the green mould( and Lo - we are still here to tell the tale).

I would tell them that during the winter most children had 'Dunlop Rings'...marks where wellies had caused chafing of wet skin - and most of us knew what chilblains were.

That there were no 'designer' trainers.....there were pumps - you could choose, either black(very practical) or white (High maintenance - needed to be whitened with a block of white stuff that was grated and put into water then dabbed on..what a faff).

Dragging the mangle up the back yard was a weekly event...Monday morning...no wonder none of us had a pick of fat on us - we all worked and played too hard.

Listening to the radio in the light of the fire...toasting freshly sliced bread and drinking cocoa(not hot chocolate - Cocoa).....having a twist of paper with sugar and cocoa in it as a treat. Or a twist of paper with sugar in it to dip a stick of raw rhubarb into.

I could go on and on.

It sounds like a century ago......and it sounds unbelievable..but it is all TRUE!

[cashman]

What about filling the tin bath in front of the fire in the living room wi pans of hot water carried from the oven sorry missed that bit margaret but then its a thing silly owd sods do regular.

[Turtle]

If I was asked by a young person of today, I would like to share with them:

A special treat was eating the sugar butty I was given to feed the coal man's horse. Bread, butter and white sugar were more plentiful than apples or carrots.

A regular sound on the street was the shout of the Rag and Bone man with his horse and cart. It sounded something like: "Rag'nBoannnnn!" In those days everything was used, mended and re-used until it was only fit for this man and his horse and cart to pick up.

When I lived in Heights Cottages up Sandy Lane, the only source of hot water was from an immersion heater over the kitchen sink. Bath time for me was sitting on the draining board with my feet in the sink. No hour long soaks in a nice deep tub.

The school I attended had a strict dress code: girls were not allowed to wear pants, irregardless of the cold knees in winter. They had to, however, run around outside in navy cotton knickers for gym class.

More will come to me later...

[cashman]

Originally Posted by cashman

What about filling the tin bath in front of the fire in the living room wi pans of hot water carried from the oven sorry missed that bit margaret but then its a thing silly owd sods do regular.

Just realised yeh were posher n us Margaret, yer bath filled from a boiler.

[westendlass]

Remember the days when corner shops had bubblegum / chewing gum machines stuck to the wall outside? And the big shop meant a trip to the 'Queens' (Asda) on Blackburn Rd. The only fast food I remember was going to the chippy. I also remember my dad brewing up on a camping stove during the power cuts in the 1970's when the neighbours across the road had their own generator that kicked in, the only house with light on the street!

[Margaret Pilkington]

Originally Posted by cashman

Just realised yeh were posher n us Margaret, yer bath filled from a boiler.

You have to remember we were a big family and my mother used the slaxone boiler regularly to boil the bed linen - we had a bed wetter in the family(it wasn't me)......and the slaxone boiler was something gifted to Ma from the inlaws...they were posh...they had a washing machine with a mangle built in...electric too...no hard work for them.
The slaxone boiler was delivered by the coalman and his horse buttercup.
Happy days eh?

[Margaret Pilkington]

Have a read of this....

http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/b...f-the-60s.html

It will give you something of a flavour of my past.

[shillelagh]

remember these ....

[JCB]

People used buses , and what a great service they provided from first thing in the morning until the last bus at 11 p.m.

Also buses were available on Burnley Road to all parts of Accrington after a Stanley match at Peel Park . A bus to Fern Gore got you home before 5 p.m.

As a lad , what you wore on Monday you still wore in Friday when you had the one bath of the week .

No supermarkets , but friendly corner shops , butchers , confectioners , iron-mongers , green-grocers , cloggers , grocers , chippies , and not to forget the co-ops .

Red metal oil lanterns on the pavements or streets to mark where workmen were working , and the lanterns were still in place come morning .

The policeman coming round the corner on his bicycle , and woe-betide you if you were up to mischief .

In general , friendly folk , time to pass the time of day , respect , discipline , a good community spirit , kids playing out without fear from the combustion engine . In short , a much better place to live .

[cashman]

Another thing i remember plainly,is on a sunny day,many front doors on many streets were open wide, also pensioners sat on stools at em, enjoying the sun n talking to whoever walked past, Out with the dog these days,i rarely if ever see this,?? Think its such a shame the world has changed so much. cos we all know the reason why this has virtually ceased.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Yes, we rarely locked our doors...but then we were so poor that if anyone broke in they probably would have left us something.

[cashman]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

Yes, we rarely locked our doors...but then we were so poor that if anyone broke in they probably would have left us something.

Yeh but as a nipper i used to love talking to the owd folk sat at the doors, thats all gone now.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Yes, those old folk knew a thing or two.
Little girls seeing a pram outside a house would go and ask if they could take the baby for a walk....I have to admit to not doing that. We seemed to have a baby at our house every year for a long time.

Children played games in the street. and each game had a season...skipping ropes, two balls, Jacks, hopscotch.....and then there were the naughty games like knock and run.

Children could go out early in the morning and stay out almost until bedtime - playing out.
You could always see women providing jam butties for a host of children...and they would sit on the kerb eating them(the jam butties, I mean).

In summer playing with the gas tar bubbles - a few of us got into strife with our mothers for that.

When I think about it, we have a wealth of memories that will never be understood by those children growing up today.
We might not have had the mobile phones, the computers and video games...but we had our imaginations, our friends and time to play. We were not forced to growe up before our time......and that is priceless.

[dotti34]

What a great thread this is – brings back so many memories it’s hard to know where to start. However, here’s a few that come to mind and I certainly also share the same as those on the other postings.

Mum’s washing day (always Monday) – no washing machine only the dolly tub and the posser, then through the big and heavy wooden mangle, but all the clothes so beautifully clean. When dry EVERYTHING was ironed and hoisted up on the rack to make sure they were all aired before use.

A Fair came to the local market town twice a year. I would have a whole 2 shillings to spend that my uncle would give me to go to the fair and which would last all day. This was also supposed to include my bus fare – though I always spent this as well and had to walk home.

Not always being good kids - oops! - we did go robbing orchards (they belonged to the rich people who didn’t bother to pick the fruit anyway) – and then had to eat the green crab-apples to ‘destroy’ the evidence of what we’d been up to. Numerous times ended up with bellyache.

Us kids could go off all day on a non-school day with a bottle of cold tea (left-over from the pot) and a jam butt to keep us going. No fear of anything bad happening – except maybe a skun knee or two.

In school the cane was used with regularity but mostly on boys – and the only response from parents would be to give them another whack when they got home. Parents did not interfere with school.

Swearing resulted in the mouth being washed out with carbolic soap! (Or the threat of it).

A ha’penny would buy sweets – carefully chosen as this was a real treat.

Better stop now before I get too nostalgic….