Do you remember odd details from long ago?

Yes
When as a child, double decker buses in the Greater Northern City had signs at the inside front of the bus that said.

"Spitting Strictly Prohibited"

No idea why l remember this.

I remember my dad driving on a rainy weekend morning and I was in the backseat with a stuffed animal - yellow ..

Not much else .. I must of been 2 or 3 years old !

Ha Ha Ha ..

Does not hold any significance actually ..

Have a lovely weekend.

Friday
03 / 10 / 2025

I recently remembered being about 11, first year at the Grammar school, late 1950s and having a friend round for tea, no TV until later in those days, we did some homework and Mum came into the sitting room with the evening paper she'd picked up from behind the door. She made a few comments about what was going on in the world, what Saturday's referee had done wrong then went to finish getting tea ready.
Next day in school she had told all our friends that my Mum read the newspaper and knew what was going on in the world. They were astonished, none of their mothers read anything except Woman's Own etc. and they certainly knew nothing of current affairs. I felt very proud of my Mum!

I vividly remember the smell of something we had for school dinner when I was 5. The dining hall seemed to reek of it and I realise now it was Cole slaw.

My grandad died when I was still at primary school. It was only when I was nearly 60 and grew my first tomatoes in my greenhouse that a really detailed memory came back. I opened the greenhouse door one sunny day and the smell of the plants was so strong. I closed my eyes and could visualise my granddad's greenhouse. It had raised beds made of brick, two walkways of bricks laid in a herringbone pattern, a raeburn type heater with "our" rocking chair at the side. Outside he had wooden barrels that caught the water from the roof. It was a very happy memory.

I have very few memories of my other grandad who died around the same time, but I remember being in his office. He had a big black telephone with a drawer at the bottom that opened and a twisted cable. I remember his secretary made a fuss of me. I also remember that this grandad was always being told off by my grandma for swearing! I learned words like "bugger" from him. This grandad lived next door to us and if I toddled over to his dining room window at his breakfast time he would lift me inside and share his breakfast. (He came home for breakfast after doing a couple of hours work.) At Easter he always had a stash of little chocolate eggs.

Smells are the most effective stimulus to retrieving memories, I believe. Whenever I smell apples I am back in my Grandparents' old air raid shelter where the crop was stored.

I can remember my uncle owning a grey Austin England when I was about two. First memory.

I think about the past most days. Sometimes I go onto Google Instant Street View and look at the places I have lived. To be honest it sometimes makes me rather sad. I would like to replay my life.

Ooh I wouldn't*NanKate*! Once was enough

Aldom

Yogitree I don't think it's usual practice for the time of birth to be entered on a birth certificate.
Time of birth is not on my own, my children's, parents or spouse's certificate.

Time of birth is given in the case of a multiple birth, I believe. Also it used to be given on Scottish certificates, but I don't know if it still is.

When I wrote earlier about my dad's old cars' numberplates I was completely unable to recollect the number plates of any of my 3 motorcycles. I have no idea what the middle one was, once again not kept for long, but of course at some time in the evening XPJ something or other (a 1952 D1 BSA Bantam, originally red (ex P.O.?) which I Painted Flame Orange and FOT 529D, a blue 1970 D7 Bantam both popped randomly into my head while I was doing something completely different.

Things rarely get forgotten, but the filing system for retrieval can be a bit erratic.

My Mum's co op number. When I was about 5 we lived out in the country and the co op van came up the hill once a week. I remember having a three penny piece and bought some fruit gums and proudly quoted her co op number!

Why do some posters keep enclosing other peoples lengthy posts to make a point.. It is ridiculous, we have read them unless really lengthy posts, life is too short.,

Because just clicking on "Quote" is so quick.

I can remember the registration of DH's first car bought in 1965 it was TGR 220.
Mother's coop dividend number too 16089, I used to buy ingredients for cookery class there as it was next door to my school.

Crossstitchfan

Back in the 60s, if you shopped at the Co-op you got Co-op dividend and were issued with a reference number. Mine was 11628! Still remember it after all this time!

38627 here. So often repeated and never to be forgotten! I also remember the slosh of the pink paraffin as the 'paraffin man' poured it out of his big vat into a large tin jug that my mother was holding. I can also recall the smell of it as it sloshed in.

I recall my first bank account number when I opened an account with the Royal Bank of Scotland at the age of 17.

I cannot remember my present mobile number!

Allsorts To avoid confusion when reacting to a previous quote and to avoid seeming to write a non-sequitur.

my aunt and uncle used to visit us in there car in 1940s it was FMD 76.

I remember running all the way home after a dinner lady slammed a door hard and I couldn't get back into the little canteen!
I was only five & walked half a mile back to my Mum's. She eventually found me in the garden crying.
Lots of cuddles ensued. Luckily I had a nice Mummy.💞

Thoughts on babies born in Plymouth my mother was a navy wife and due to give birth to me in1943 but because of problems with bombing she was sent over the Tamar to Pentillie Castle in Cornwall. One of the wings was being used as a maternity hospital. She said she stayed for 3 weeks because there was no one at home. It was said to be haunted and the night nurse was frightened. My mother had to go around with her. I believe that castle wing was eventually demolished.

I never knew about that, Liaise, interesting!
So you were born in a castle 👸

My second DC was born in Alexandra Maternity Home. It was lovely but they used to lock the doors at night because they'd get drunks walking through the park and trying to get in. I remember one banging on the door late at night 😲

Ever since I was young (I'm 51) and I remember it so clearly of being in a car with another child who wore callipers, are they? on both legs. I can see the journey, the road layout (no longer as it's been redeveloped about 30+ years ago) and I don't know who she is. I told mum about it at the time, she said it never happened, but I remember it!

Yet a loved dog, even now I struggle to remember her and it upsets me when I can't recall her. I had her 1996 - 2008, I can see all the others before, even the first one who came around 1979 I remember her being in mums bedroom in a box when she was a pup, I remember her having her own pups, so it's not as if I can't remember the earlier ones. I can remember where I was born, we left there when I was 3, these are proper memories, they aren't off photos, but I struggle to remember Tet, and like I said, it upsets me.

Other than that, if someone wants to know something they usually ask me, they say I remember everything. My dad snapped at my sister the other week as he accused her of lying, because she couldn't remember something that he said happened 20 years ago.

Apparently she snapped back and told him she's not me!

I remember being at mass on a Sunday and making patterns with my finger on my mother’s green suede coat.

I think I was about 2/3.

I have memories of playing with my food as a child.
If we had sausage and mashed potatoes with gravy
I loved to make river banks with the mash and then divert the gravy to make rivers.
The sausages were shaped into buildings.
I didn't do it in front of my mother!

For me this morning it was the name of the housekeeper in Downton Abbey, for no apparent reason 😂.

Mrs Patmore? No. Mrs Carson? No, she didn't take his name upstairs. It plagued me until I woke up and forgot about it, at which point it popped into my head unbidden. Mrs Hughes.