Loving the common thread so much thought we should go “POSH”

""Posh people used Fish Knives and forks for the food from the "Chippy".

My kids must be posh because they went to private schools and university and we have a swimming pool. Very different definitions of posh in my country which is interesting in itself. We don’t have an aristocracy, thankfully, unless you count those descended from convicts!

A number of ladies were in the hospital waiting room and their names were called out by a nurse when it was their time to go in. The nurse kept calling out "Mrs Sidebottom?" with no response. Finally there was just one woman left. The nurse asked why she was still waiting and the lady replied "My name was not called." "What is your name dear?" asked the nurse. The lady replied "Mrs Siddybottome."

I love that story fiorentina. Your FiL sounds like a lovely man.

GrannyGravy
The linen feel napkins are lovely, and you don’t have to wash and iron them. Some of the posh good restaurants use them, and of course I buy them in Waitrose the supermarket.
I remember being taught how to wash, starch, and iron a linen napkin at school in Domestic Science. I think life’s too short to iron a napkin. I’m thinking of taking them all to the charity shop.

Rich doesn't mean posh.

We think that my uncle, dad's brother, had delusions of grandeur. I don't remember him at all, but dad used to say that when he visited, he would stand at the door into the garden, hands in pockets rattling small change, and saying that "he was taking the air"

Aveline

Rich doesn't mean posh.

As Dolly Parton said:
"It costs a lot of money to look this cheap"

Years ago, one of our neighbours, in her sixties, was a cleaner for a Lady. Lady X would pick her up in her battered, rattly old Mini drive her to her home to work, make her lunch and bring her back home. Lady X was often seen in her very un-posh car around town. She was proper posh!

On the other hand, a colleague of mine never just took her shoes to the menders, she always made an announcement to the entire office that she was taking her Cardin (or whoever) shoes to be repaired. Similarly with her clothes when they needed to go to the cleaners. Not proper posh!

maddyone
FIL was lovely. Quite a character but very kindhearted.

Yammy

""Posh people used Fish Knives and forks for the food from the "Chippy".

We received a set of fish knives & forks as a wedding present Yammy. We were really hard up with not a bean between us ( both nurses) but at least we could eat our fish supper with the correct utensils

“…..an air of dowdy elegance” Osbert Sitwell.

Calling parents mummy and daddy throughout life. Unlike my 3 who dropped mummy and daddy for mum and dad at about 10 years old.

However, when my 33 year old daughter wants something it’s still, “mummeeee” !

I seem to recall Prince Charles referring to HM as Mummy in one of his speeches not too long ago. It sounded very strange to us not so posh folk…

I absolutely loved that little clip of his speech!
It gave me a whole new level of respect for Charles because it was so funny.

To my mother and most of her friends there was nothing good about being "posh".

This may well be because the Glasgow area regarded posh people as people who were trying hard to appear better off than they were. To give an example: if they bought anything in Woolworths, they would tell you they had found it in Lewis's household basement or some similar more acceptable shop, even although we all knew that Lewis's didn't stock it, so they must either have bought it in Woolies or The Barras where they pretended never to set foot.

This may be an exclusively Scottish understanding of "posh" also called "Lah-di-dah".

My mother and aunts would never in any circumstances whatsoever have described anyone or anything as "common".

It was common to describe something as common, and even worse to use the word of a person. I have not the faintest recollection of how they conveyed this message to us children, but convey it they did, without using the word "common".

I have an idea it was done by saying that "nice people don't do this, that or the other thing", but how they conveyed the idea that something was posh, I cannot tell you.

Posh people call things which are tatty (in my eyes)
“shabby chic” .

I like that Hollysteers I am certainly dowdy , now to work on the elegance.
Things change though don't they.
When I was a child you didn't take your shoes off indoors at a party whereas when our DC had parties all the DC brought slippers or plimsoles to wear inside.
Now it is pretty much obligatory to at least offer to remove your shoes.
Is this a Scandinavian influence or just that no-one has servants to clean up?

We were never posh . NZ when I was a child was a classless society although some people were better educated than others. They still don't tip there. It is considered very rude.

My mum thought she knew what posh was.
She shopped in Harrods telling us that it was no more expensive and you could bring home boxes of clothes "on Approval" and return them if you changed your mind.. When she came to Edinburgh she shopped at Jenners where the doorman would park your car for you and return it whenever you needed it.
I don't think she thought she was posh, just canny.

She was invited for the weekend in a semi-stately home once and went down on the train and was collected by a "car" at the station.
I asked her how she'd enjoyed it.
"Oh these people, they care about their antiques so much that they don't have central heating so it was freezing cold and draughty with open fires and dogs everywhere"

We have white linen table napkins, but they come out only for guests.
Otherwise it’s kitchen roll, and sometimes even for guests, if I’ve forgotten to iron the linen ones, or can’t be bothered to find them in the chaotic heap of stuff that might get ironed when I eventually feel like doing some.

You're posh, aren't you, witzend?
Come on, own up!

When she came to Edinburgh she shopped at Jenners where the doorman would park your car for you and return it whenever you needed it.
I don't think she thought she was posh, just canny.
If she had a car, she was posh ?

We had a car, but no poshness.
My dad was a plant fitter: repairing building site machines and keeping them running.
He repaired cars as favours for people in his spare time, and wouldn't take any money.

What a lovely man your dad was MissAdventure

Lots of cars then Callistemon . Jenner's offered this right up to the 1980s. Not any more. No Jenner's any more.

Calling parents mummy and daddy throughout life

Don’t be silly, my three DDs call me mummy, why not? In France the children say maman and I expect other countries keep the original version. I am not posh at all.

I have napkins in the kitchen, checkered pattern ones which go in the wash and don’t need ironing. Paper ones when sitting at the dining table as I hate ironing linen, except on very special occasions.

I think some of these things can just sound affected unless used or done by actual aristocracy ?.