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Did you get a "play piece"

(88 Posts)
paddyann Fri 07-Jun-19 08:55:47

I suppose that Scottish grans will be the only ones who understand this.When we were at school we had a snack for playtimes a "piece" being a sandwich.On another site I read about folk having cold toast or chocolate biscuits .Mine was usuallly a piece and jam .My late mother who was thought to be delicate all her life had her playpiece in the staffroom bovril and toast ...to build her up.I'd forgotten all about the sandwich wrapped in greasproof paper tucked into my satchel and the swapping them for something a bit more exciting like a cold sausage roll .

Alexa Sun 09-Jun-19 18:34:35

Yes, I got a play- piece from my mother when I was a Scottish child. I also got a chittery -piece for after the swimming at the town baths.

varian Sun 09-Jun-19 15:35:00

I remember tucking into my chitterry bite whilst still in my wet swimsuit. Munching kept my teeth from chittering.

Piersfield62 Sun 09-Jun-19 15:28:50

Yes I always had a "playpiece" in 1960s Scotland which could be crisps or an apple or a couple of biscuits or sweeties if you were lucky. We also had a "shivery bite" after we had been swimming. It was an open air pool so very apt!

grannyqueenie Sun 09-Jun-19 15:10:38

grannyactivist, we called the snack after swimming our “chittering bite” i.e our teeth were chattering from the cold... well it was Scotland after all!

Marmight Sun 09-Jun-19 01:33:14

Yes. It was for some inexplicable reason called 'lunch' consumed at morning break with the quarter bottle of milk. Either an apple, some sultanas wrapped in greaseproof or a couple of Nice biscuits similarly wrapped. Remembering this has taken me back to the playground - boys one end and girls the other and no meeting in the middle confused

grannyactivist Sun 09-Jun-19 01:17:41

It was the rule to take a 'snack' to eat after school swimming lessons and I only ever took cold toast as snacks didn't feature in our eating pattern at all. I did so enjoy eating that toast though.

BradfordLass72 Sun 09-Jun-19 01:10:50

Not only Scottish people understand smile

I used to take Mum's home made biscuits in my peggy-purse, wrapped in grease-proof paper. They were eaten when we had our little bottles of milk at playtime.

The jam 'piece' was what I ate when I got home, to put me on until 5:30 teatime.

Conker Sat 08-Jun-19 20:26:06

Never heard of it smile I’m from Merseyside we would take a butty for playtime and those that went home for dinner time usually had a list of names for 5p bags of sherbet or sherbet pips .

JanaNana Sat 08-Jun-19 20:03:11

I hadn't heard of a play-piece until we moved to the north of Scotland and the children went to school, I was fascinated by the sound of it. Then I started working at a local playgroup and all the children had to put their play piece onto a very large set of trays until it was time for break. Have very fond memories of this time.

OurKid1 Sat 08-Jun-19 17:22:54

Some Sugar Puffs in a paper bag was my break-time snack at Junior School.

Albangirl14 Sat 08-Jun-19 17:20:41

Mmm New Berry Fruits still my favourite but hard to find now.

SirChenjin Sat 08-Jun-19 16:26:45

Nograndsyet we used to say that too! The whole school used to chant it in the lunch hall before we were allowed to tuck in!

grannybuy Sat 08-Jun-19 16:01:10

We all had water fountains in the playground, and although, going by today's standards, they probably were unhygienic, in all seven years at primary school, I never had a bout of sickness and diahorrea, and I don't think there was ever a round of everyone being off with it over a period of a week or two like there is now. We didn't wash our hands before the playtime snacks and lunch either.

grannybuy Sat 08-Jun-19 15:53:17

Paddyann, mine was a rowie (buttery). In the winter, I sometimes put it in the class radiator so that it would be warm at playtime, until one day, the teacher noticed that the writing on the baker's paper bags had been transferring itself onto the radiator 'slats' due to the heat and grease.

FarNorth Sat 08-Jun-19 15:01:27

My favourite play piece was marmalade sandwiches. I'd never heard of Paddington Bear, btw.
When we moved to Fife, I was briefly baffled by talk of a 'lief piece'.

Daisyboots Sat 08-Jun-19 14:08:14

I don't remember taking a snack to school for playtime in the junior school. It was just the free bottle of milk when I started at grammar school we could buy Chelsea buns 3d and Bath buns 4d to have with our milk. I thought that was the height of luxury . The buns were made by the baker down the road whose daughter had been in my class at the Junior school. Years later she made contact with me on Friends Reunited. We had lived very different lives and she had become a vicar.

3dognight Sat 08-Jun-19 14:01:50

Moo moo, sugar and butter sandwiches! That so reminds me of what my mums favoured snack was - a weetabix spread with butter and then a spoon full of sugar on when she was a schoolgirl.

I like you ate oxo cubes, and also drank any left over mint sauce that was left after a lamb dinner at my nans. Nana said it would 'dry my blood' drinking mint sauce! It never stopped me though, and I still grow mint to make my own home made mint sauce, and I still finish it off. Delicious !

Grandma70s Sat 08-Jun-19 13:52:06

It’s amazing to think how much I used to eat as a schoolgirl in he 1950s. I had a cooked breakfast, often with porridge as well as bacon and egg. I had the aforementioned marmite sandwich and apple at morning break, then a two course school lunch. I went home to a snack before a full cooked meal in the early evening. Milk and biscuits, bread and butter or cake at bedtime.

All the time I was thin as a rail!

nannypiano Sat 08-Jun-19 13:34:51

I can remember being quite jealous of children lucky enough to be given cold toast to eat at break time because we were poor and I had to suffice with the free milk given daily. I was never over weight though. It didn't have a name that I can recall, but my mouth used to water for some cold toast.

Pat1949 Sat 08-Jun-19 12:47:11

I was quite put out when one of the 'posher' girls at my next school ridiculed me for calling a cheese sandwich a piece of cheese. Quite funny how things can still hurt 60 years on.

felice Sat 08-Jun-19 12:46:10

I had an Apple every day, I hate Apples, always have. DGs has cheese and biscuits, French soft Cheese.

POGS Sat 08-Jun-19 12:34:16

No food or drink at my school only a water fountain in the play ground so at best that was useless because it froze in winter and now I think how unhygienic the damn thing was.

Primary school the dreaded enforcement of having to drink milk which I was intolerant to at the time and being sick didn't stop you having to drink it because ' it did me good'.

Pat1949 Sat 08-Jun-19 12:32:01

I live in England, but going to school in the 50's we took a snack to eat with our morning milk, mine was usually a piece of cheese spread. We had little table runners to put our snack on. Paisley patterned material if I remember right.

varian Sat 08-Jun-19 10:53:49

We were always given a piece, quite often a jeely piece, which was eaten at morning break, washed down with our free school milk. I never liked drinking milk but it was more palatable with a sweet piece.

When we went swimming at the local baths we were given a "chitterry bite" which was usually a roll and butter, sometimes a jeely piece, to eat as soon as you got out of the water

Minibookworm Sat 08-Jun-19 10:52:01

I’m English, but can remember going out with a Scottish lad in my early 20’s who had to explain to me what a ‘jammy piece’ was.