Triggered memories

Years ago my SIL was telling us that she had bought her DD a new recorder as, she was having lessons at school. My BIL said 'descant' and she replied - no I paid full price. This triggers a happy memory in our family as unfortunately SIL died a few years back but we still have a chuckle.

In the 70’s my son, who was about about three at the time - he’s now 50 - was holding his ear looking very sad. He said “mummy I’ve got diet ear” - he had an earache but had obviously heard the word diarrhoea and got a bit confused ?

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My grandad used to wear metal sleeve garters. He was a pipe-smoking, flat-cap wearing miner, so these were only worn at weekends when he was wearing his best shirt! Obviously, he looked like this

It's also just reminded me of making him a tin covered in sticky-backed plastic for his spills (courtesy of Blue Peter).

When my OH started losing dexterity, I used to clip garters round his knees before he went to the loo, so that his trousers would stay within reach...I think they were sold for Scottish dancing.
My father used celluloid collar stiffeners, and his favourite trick was to put one in the mouth of the sailor on his Senior Service cigarette packet, and when he lit the end, it puffed. Probably giving off some sort of poisonous fumes!

What a cracking thread. Thank you Annsixty

Who else remembers Liberty bodices? I must have been very small, I don’t remember having them after starting school.
Were they just an extra layer for warmth? Probably needed them then, in the freezing house we lived in until I was 6.

AJAX now that brought back a memory right there !

I also had to wear liberty bodices as a small child- they were so uncomfortable with rubber buttons. I think us girls had to wear them to keep our bodies in the right shape ready for when we developed breasts.

My small nephews told their father they were going to see dinosaur bones he replied who is she! Still makes me laugh.

Both my grandfathers wore those elasticated bands on their arms, occasionally bicycle clips. They were both short, round men and shirt sleeves were always too long otherwise.

My grandpa, who died aged 84 in 1948, memorably wore spats. I don't really know why, except that they must have been de rigeur early in the century. When he died, we inherited lots of pure silk handkerchiefs which were lovely and soft for sore noses. He was a lovely gentleman in every sense of the word and delighted in showing me the camellia in his little greenhouse.

Mum used to use his old cotton pants as dusters
Haha *growing old* some of us still do

janeainsworth when we were young my sister used to tell our mum that when she had her own house she would buy yellow dusters instead of the old knickers that were used in our house ?

When I went to work at my first job in the late fifties both the bosses wore fedora hats and if you met them out in the street they would raise them. Can you imagine any of the baseball cap wearing gents showing the same gallantry with such panache.

My grandpa's hobby was photography. Short on space, he had built a makeshift darkroom in an over sized hall closet that was always locked. As a toddler it intrigued me that he would disappear into the hall closet for long periods at a time. No matter how much I begged to be allowed inside, I was always told no and warned to stay away!

One of my earliest memories is the day he finally relented and allowed me to come in with him. I had expected to find lots of toys in there and instead found crowded shelves full of disappointing brown bottles, trays and equipment, but no toys!

It was when the lights went out and the red light went on, that I threw a tantrum! My poor G couldn't turn on the light or let me out fast enough, without ruining his new photos. He hurriedly covered everything as best he could and cracked the door open just enough to push me out. Needless to say I was never invited in there again.

Funnygran my husband used to wear those expanding shirt bracelets. They're still in the house to this day.

Yes, I also remember my Dad wearing sock suspenders. I think he called them garters although that is what we called the loops of elastic which we used to hold up our long socks.

I wore Liberty bodices too, worn over the top of my vest, which was tucked into my knickers. Only remember wearing them when I was in infant school in the early 50's.

My Mum used to boil my Dad's hankies but she also used to starch them with Robin Starch. Old hankies weren't starched - they were kept for when you had a cold so that you didn't get a sore nose.

Later on, we had can-can petticoats -remember soaking them in sugar water to stiffen them up? - and circle stitched bras! (Well before Madonna's time.)

We always wore petticoats under our school uniform and if you saw another girl whose slip was showing, you announced "Charlie's dead!"

Happy days. What a lovely thread - thank you AnnSixty.

Must try to sleep now. Night night. ?

My sister and I used to wear Liberty bodices too. Talking of garters, our mum used to make elastic garters for our knee high white socks. Taking them off at night we had the mark left on our legs and itched like mad.
Love this thread. thanks for the giggles.

I still smile now at my DGDs first Christmas play, when she started school. The class were practicing their lines for a song that was to be sung during the performance. One day DGD came home and told me that she had been looking everywhere for a little girl, but couldn't find her. Apparently words in the song were " on the way to Bethlehem ". GD thought the word " Bethlehem " was actually " Betheny hen ". No wonder she could not find the little girl. GD is now 18 and we still laugh about it sometimes.

blossom14 My father almost always wore a hat when he was outside. I'm not sure whether it was a fedora; it was certainly similar but the crown might have been slightly shorter. He invariably raised it when he met a lady.

On one occasion my parents went to an open air concert and found two spaces to sit on one of the banks of benches. As the sky grew cloudier and darker my father suggested that he should go back to the car to get the "emergency" plastic macs – there's another memory trigger. He walked quite slowly because of a congenital hip injury and my mother was becoming concerned as the concert was due to begin. As the musicians began to find their seats on the stage, a man started shuffling down the row of benches where my mother was sitting and then proceeded to turn round to sit next to her. "Excuse me," she said, "that is my husband's seat". The gentleman removed his hat, bowed slightly and smiled. "Madam, I am your husband," he graciously replied.

I remember my grandfather and my father always wore bowler hats to funerals. They both wore sock suspenders, because when sitting down it was thought improper to show a patch of flesh when the socks inevitably wrinkled!
Most ladies of my mother’s generation seemed to have a black funeral suit, and when she bought a rather fetching black hat it was loaned out amongst her friends. Come to think of it, she once told me that her wedding veil had adorned 15 Brides!
Meanwhile I was left with liberty bodices, but mine didn’t have buttons. At one point during a cold winter suspenders were sewn on so that I could wear lisle stockings to school. As I was about 8 they didn’t resemble the look of tights for girls nowadays- think more Norah Batty!

I remember my dad wearing very stiff detachable collars on his white shirts and my mum starching them in a solution before drying and ironing them .

I had to wear liberty bodices. My mum was an elderly mum back then, nowadays she would be average age. I think only one other girl in my class wore them, I always felt dreadfully old fashioned, and would rather have been cold.

My dad wore those shirt bracelets for best. My sister and I would go in their bedroom and try them on. We stretched them all out of shape, and they were useless for their original purpose.

Nanachoochoo

My dad wore detachable plastic shirt collars. He thought they were a great invention, used to scrub them with Ajax each night and leave them on the drainer. Drove my poor mother mad, she had to move them and scrub the drainer before doing the washing up.

I used to be in the police force in the early 70s as a cadet and we had detachable collars and they were a pain. They had to be starched and obviously worn with collar studs. It was a real struggle to get the studs in on a fresh collar and at night when I took the collar off I was left with round rings on my neck where the studs had been; it was such a relief when shirts came in with their own collars! And then detachable ties came in, so that you couldn't be strangled with them - brilliant invention.