Prudish 60s

I remember my mum bought my sanitary towels in the local drapery shop which of course was staffed by two women. Mum would whisper her request. The lady would reach down and stuff them into a thick brown paper bag then would place them on the counter. So the package was never seen until we got home. When I started my periods mum told me not to tell my dad or my brother. We were made to feel ashamed of being female.

In the 1960s I was au pair to a German woman, she said when she started periods she had to roll up rags and insert them like a tampax, then remove and wash out, yuk!

I heard about periods at primary school, I didn’t believe there could be such a thing so I asked mum and she said no. When I started bleeding at 11 years old, I thought I had something terrible wrong with me, then remembered what I had heard at school. Mum never bought me brassieres, but an aunt seeing how well developed I was, gave me some. My mother was very prudish, I learnt everything from friends, books and experience.

When we first lived in this house - 1970 - we had a 'creel' above the bath. It was so useful because I could hang so much washing on it and it dried very quickly. However, when we had the bathroom redone it had to go because it looked so old fashioned and we were so proud of our advacado bathroom suite! BTW that's gone now, thank goodness.

I've just remembered. My Mum would never hang her knicker or bras outside on the line where people could see.

They were always put up on the 'creel' which pulled up to the ceiling above the range.

What a pity modern homes no longer use these, it was such a useful thing.

That was such a good filmCalndargirl and a great book too.

Flowerofthewest.

Your post reminded me of the film ‘A Kind of Loving’ when Alan Bates went in to the chemist’s to buy condoms, but came out with I think Lucozade!

No wonder Ingrid ended up pregnant!

I went to a Catholic boarding school and if we wanted sanitary towels we had to write our name in a book and ask for "packets". This was mid 50's to 1961.

My mother, a nurse, was too embarrassed to tell me anything so I was extremely ignorant for a long time and the nuns did zilch.

my First job at 16 was working in a chemist at the age of 16 in early seventies a man came in said can I have 12 c films please I went to the Kodak films to look, he laughed blushed an said no love. They are condoms ??

ANNSL my grandmother used to say ''she's had everything taken away'' meaning the lady she was referring to had had a hysterectomy. I once heard an old lady saying this about her dog after the dog was neutered

My mother gave me a book ‘The Way to Healthy Womanhood’. It was a Woman or Woman’s Own publication written by the resident agony aunt who, it turned out, was actually a very hirsute gentleman. I seem to remember that it was quite comprehensive.

I was ten and about to start secondary school and Mother told me not to discuss it with any of my friends and, if I had any questions, I was to ask my father. It was always much easier to discuss intimate things with him than with her, partly because of her embarrassment but, also her lack of knowledge.

Floradora9
I have honestly never heard them called that before and my job at school was dusting the pianos!. I had to dust them every day and rub the keys with meths. I loved the smell and must have been intoxicated by the fumes.

We had a small shop which sold everything . Ladies used to come in and ask for piano dusters .

What a selection of funny and sad stories. Sussexborn my mother started telling me about periods from when I was about 8 years old. She had lost her parents as a child and was brought up by her sister. When she started her periods at age 16 she thought she was dying and went to the doctor. She told me she didn't want that to happen to me.

The problem was that I didn't start until I was almost 18 and was convinced that I must be a boy as all my friends began menstruating from 11 onwards. I was very small and probably undernourished which may partly explain it as I grew another 4 inches between 18 and 21 as well as growing recognisable breasts. I had no real problems with periods or falling pregnant so I must have been a really late developer. I hardly noticed my menopause somewhere in my late fifties.

Yes, annep1, and not comfy to sit down on, either. ?

I used to get strange looks from assistants when buying tampaxes for my wife, that would be around 1970. I was also present at by son's hospital birth 46 years ago, at that time I didn't know any other male, other than doctors, who were so “lucky."

Goodness Marelli that was hard to cope with.

My mum handed me a pack of Dr Whites (and the necessary belt), which must've been languishing on top of the wardrobe. She told me that when I had 'this', that I mustn't ever go near boys (1963).
After a couple of years, when I was 15, I asked her if I could start using Tampax. She pursed her lips and informed me that only married women could use Tampax (end of conversation).
That was bad enough, but when I asked for a pair of jeans, she searched high and low until she found a shop that sold jeans which had a zip up the back. She thought that women wearing trousers with zips, at the front were drawing attention to themselves. This was in 1964. ?

I think I must have been prudish even in the seventies..
In '71 or '72 ( last year at primary school), we girls were shown a film that showed childbirth and mentioned periods. When I got home, I mentioned to my mum that we had been shown a film, but when she asked me what it was about, I was too embarrassed to say, and said Tufty!

I was sent to a local ladies shop who sold Dr White's. They were wrapped up in brown paper, and I wore a belt. My younger sister thought they were dolls hammocks and used to put her Sindy doll in them for a rest lol

Remember having to buy them from the local co-op, one time they weren’t put in a paper bag and had to run home in case anyone saw them.

Off subject but remember being on local bus and neighbours were discussing a woman who had “everything taken away” Found that very puzzling.

Littleannie that was awful for you. What a stupid insensitive teacher!

annepel Your story re buying sanitary towels resonated with me. My Mum told me to go to the chemist and ask for "a packed of soluble sanitary towels". I felt very nervous about doing this and was really embarrassed when a young male shop assistant served me. I gabbled out my request and rushed home, red in the face, without even looking at what I'd bought. Mum was furious when she looked in the paper bag - he'd not understood what I'd said and given me a packet of cotton wool balls.

In those days (the 60's), periods and sanitary towels were not to be mentioned in company and only whispered between girlfriends. I wouldn't describe this discomfort with nudity and bodily functions as "prudish". That implies a deliberate decision to be disgusted or offended, and a proudness in being so. I see it more as a feeling of vulnerability, shyness and embarrassment - at least so far as my Dad and I were concerned - I never saw him even partially undressed and I would certainly never have undressed in front of him. My Mum was more relaxed though so I don't know why I was so painfully shy about such matters.

A few years ago my mum, who had had a small gynae procedure, asked me to get her some towels for when she came out of hospital. She wouldn’t dream of asking my dad although they been married nearly 50 years.

When I started my periods in the 1930s my mother said it would happen every month and it was my body clearing me out and presented me with towelling nappies which had to be pinned to a belt. I had to wash them myself.
When I joined the WAAF sanitary towels were part of the kit. We just had to ask for them. We also used them to polish our shoes and buttons.
Joke about Tampax. Little boy went into chemist and asked for Tampax. Chemist asked if they were for his sister or mother. “No”. replied the boy. “I have heard that you can go swimming and ride a bike wearing them and I can’t do either”.
Just the other day my home help said that her daughter when she has a headache she puts a cooling strip on her forehead. Her seven year old came downstairs with a sanitary towel tied round his head. he said he had a headache!

,

Grammaretto Ah yes, poor inhibited Ruskin. But I suppose men were as naive about sexual stuff as women in those days.

During my time working with refugees I've found so many married women who had absolutely no idea what sex was or would be like before marriage and one or two who still didn't connect sex with pregnancy.

One girl said to me, 'But my husband does this to me every night, why don't I have many, many babies instead of just one at a time?'

Many thought urine came from the clitoris; had no idea there were 3 separate orifices. So ignorance does still exist.