Wales

Hats, they were a pest, every Sunday I had to wear a brown bowler hat in winter for chapel and summer a straw hat with daisies stuck in it, my mother too always wore a hat, never a head square .

Annie I can't believe it! I had to wear a wretched brown bowler hat for church on a Sunday when I was a child too and I hated that hat with a vengeance! I used to deliberately leave mine on the pew, in the hope that it would get sat on. Were brown bowler hats a particularly Welsh form of child cruelty, do you think?

Chewbacca, those blasted brown bowlers, did they ever blow off? Oh no such luck , I tried leaving mine in Sunday school, greeted by my father with - bsck for your hat please, grrrrr, I hated that bowler ,it was child cruelty

I remember a straw hat in summer for weddings when a child, it was all prickly and I hated wearing it...

My bowler never blew off because my granny "thoughtfully " stitched a length of elastic on it, to go under my chin. Provided endless fun for my brother when he "pinged" it before running off. not funny having elastic burns under your chin!

I used to have a hat to match my winter coat, sometimes with elastic stitched on to it.
It wasn't just Welsh children, English children had to suffer too!

Brown is cruel though

Thinking back, at one time, we had what looked like bowler hats worn for Church on Sunday, but they were colourful ( ish) being a sort of cream colour with a narrow band of maroon on them ( yes, elastic under the chin.) I think that we quite liked them.Perhaps that bowler style for children was a fashion?
We especially looked forward to Whitsuntide as we were always bought new dresses, hats socks and sandals.The dresses were always white bacgrounds with small flower sprigs on them, and being a poor family, we felt the bees knees!

I always had a new coat for .easter and new dress and sandals for whitsunday , all the chapels marched through the streets together to celebrate the decent of The Holy Spirit

Looking back, how the Church and also traditions marked the year for us as children,
We knew, and eagerly anticipated each event.

So true Rosesarered, thinking back my life was lived according to chapel teachings, I still cannot bring myself to play cards or a dice game on Sunday's, not from fear , just cannot do it

My daughter is taking her 5 years old twins on holiday to Wales, I asked where she had booked and she said she had booked incorrectly, she thought the cottage was in Wales around 2 hours away, she has booked a part of Wales 5 hours away! She is taking it in her stride and will have picnic and play stops along the way lol.!!

I agree with ab about the Chapel effect. My family were quite strict, but my friend's family were even more so.

I was allowed a treat after Chapel of an ice cream from the corner shop; she wasn't. She wasn't allowed to wash her hair on a Sunday, or eat sweets of any kind. No kids were allowed out to play, even if they weren't Chapel goers!

My gran (an ex Chapel caretaker and very devout) never drank. She had a cup to prove it (I still have it) called a Rechobite? cup.

Loved Easter and early summer tnough-Gymanfa Ganu season! Everyone in white hats, gloves and socks. Sunday best with knobs on!

Chapel had pretty much died out by the late 60s but I still had a very fetching blue crimplene suit for the Gymanfa!

DH's family were not chapel goers, though his mother was in the Salvation Army, and he used to go to Singing Company . Then "he lost his moral compass" (his words not mine). His granny, though, who lived in mid Wales, was a chapel goer. She was old and extremely frail the first and only time I met her, she said to me "do you go to chapel?" After I told her I didn't I don't remember her actually speaking to me again. I don't think she approved of fast English girls!

How I loved the Whitsun Walk. Everyone in their new dresses. We often had sports and a tea afterwards. My grandfather was Welsh speaking, Chapel. My grandma Cof E. So we often went to both.

Mr C went to both Church and Chapel as his Mum attended one, his Dad the other. He says it seemed 'normal', guess it was.

It was normal for me, my g grandfather built the chapel, he was the minister but also worked fir sometime in the pit to raise money to build the chapel, there was huge marble plaque in the pulpit dedicated to his memory, a large framed photograph of him in the Sunday school room , his four children were deacons so sat in - the big seat , several of his grandsons Were lay preachers , my father was one, my aunts run the Band Of Hope, and Ladies sewing circle . So fir me it was a childhood filled with much love from so many , and I always got a part in the chapel plays and concerts

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Easter eggs - what do we think? Once when staying with Welsh relatives as an older child, I was given 13 Easter eggs.

How many is too many?

I used to get a lot when I was a child - lots of aunties! It was hard work but I managed.

No such thing sparkly ! but if you're sure you can't cope, pm me, I'll help you dispose of them

Chewbacca maybe you are right.....

Anniebach about Chapel rules I still can't gamble even if its a tiny raffle at an event because I can imagine my chapel grandmother saying something about it....

The other thing is in my town a woman would never walk into a pub or social/political club on her own, I just cant do it. When I lived outside of Wales, it wouldn't bother me, but here....

Jalima1108 I am glad you managed when receiving a lot of eggs...

sparkly until very recently my old village Valleys pub had a men-only area.

There's still a lot of casual, everyday sexism in the Valleys.

I don't think I ever had 13 eggs though, perhaps 10!

I had lots of 'aunties' who were not real aunties as well, iyswim.