Tea with your grandparents

Only knew one grand-mother - my mum's mother. And never had tea with her - she didn't cook and she was a very cold 'socialite'.

Sadly my grandparents did not acknowledge my existence as I was illegitimate and adopted. Different times.

My granny lived with us from 10 years before I was born until she died when I was 18 .She never to my knowledge cooked.When she had her own home she had a woman who cooked and cleaned for her .
She did tell great stories though and we all loved her and miss her still 50 years after her death .

Following my previous post about my grandma, I should also say she never offered me a cup of tea or a biscuit or anything. I didn't think much about it but was aware that my mum was very different. She was a generous friendly person and I was able to appreciate that from a young age.

My maternal grandma died when I was a baby so never knew her. I used to visit paternal grandma with my dad on Sundays. He went for a drink with grandad and I stayed and sat with grandma. Sadly she wasn't a talker so we mostly sat opposite each other by the fire and didn't say much. It was always disappointing but I put it down to the trauma of seeing three of her four sons go off to fight in the war. They did all return though.

Tinned salmon, mashed up with vinegar, in sandwiches followed by tinned peaches and evaporated milk.

My grandmother lived with us and I remember making Mary baker fairy cakes with her every Sunday morning.
On a Sunday afternoon she would take me for tea to her sister we would have salad Pek tinned ham and home made cakes and tarts, I thought it was all so posh as she used to have a pretty tablecloth and doilies on the plates.
The only downside was she thought Children should be seen and not heard and they would have a conversation in Welsh so that I didn’t know what they were talking about, I still loved going there though.

My Nanna (Dad's side) had a strict rule at teatime.
You had to have bread and butter with anything she considered to be very sweet e.g. tinned fruit salad with Carnation evap, or fruit cake. We had Battenburg but always called it window cake.
At my other Nanna's, I don't remember ever having afternoon tea but the sideboard was always heaving with 'delicacies' such as tripe, brawn, black pudding, offal of every sort and salt fish steeping in a big bowl. I wouldn't eat any of it back then and still won't! 😅

I only knew one grandpa and his second wife, she was always dressed in soft pinks and lilacs. We used to visit for tea when I was quite small but no-one really paid much attention to me, I was expected to be 'seen and not heard' - we had paste sandwiches. There was a child sized armchair in the lounge with one of those screens covered in cut out pictures, that was my entertainment for the afternoon! Along with a rather lovely china cat that sat on the hearth.

My maternal gran lived with us and I never knew the other three grandparents. She was great …as my mum worked at three jobs to help pay for little luxuries like a camping holiday in summer at Dorset…my gran during the summer school holidays would get us up and cook us a breakfast we always called ‘scram’. Consisted of eggs scrambled with mushrooms…onions….any tomatoes going bit soft and salt and pepper …served up with toast and tea …then she’d thrust a bag of jam sandwiches and bottle pop or water into a ‘duffle bag’ ( remember those?!) and open door and say “ now scram, and don’t come back til tea-time”…. we never did! Hence when we had ‘scram ‘ fir breakfast we knew we were gonna be out all day!

Hovis bread from an unsliced loaf and dandelion and burdock to drink - a real treat!

Maternal grandmother’s every Sunday for tea. Bread & Butter, winkles & shrimps, salad. Dairy Lea cheese triangles, homemade rock cakes, jelly & Nestles tinned cream. Paternal Grandmother always served tongue sandwiches, which I loved until I found out what was in them!!

Onion, cucumber and lettuce cut up and soaked in vinegar, home cooked ham, and her lovely fruit cake. Nothing has even come close to it.

I don't remember ever having 'tea' - although I heard about it from others. We had breakfast, lunch, dinner - and sometimes supper as well. On Sundays, 'dinner' was at lunchtime, so we really should have had tea - but it was another full meal, supper.

My paternal grandparents died before I was born and my maternal grandmother (who I remember very well) died when I was five. We had meals there, but never 'tea'.

My late partner said that the school dinner (my lunch) was his main meal. I was quite horrified that all he got after school was bread and jam! His mother worked - and only cooked at weekends.

Never had tea at paternal grandmother's house, in fact I can only remember visiting her once, she used to travel to visit us.
Visited maternal grandmother about once a year and mother took bread, cooked ham and a tin of peaches with us. Grandmother was a superb cake maker and she used to bake rice cake and Madeira cakes. The smell of cakes baking in the coal oven stays with me.

My maternal grandmother died just before Christmas 1949, before I was 4 years old, so I don't think I remember her, but I've always had the lovely story that she gave me a banana, (that single banana had been given to her), it was special as none of our (large) family had seen bananas since pre-war!
My paternal grandmother died when I was 14, although we lived nearby, I don't think we ever had a meal with her, ( there were even more on that side of the family, so many GC!!).

We did occasionally visit an elderly great aunt, tea was served, small sandwiches, & always exactly half a Victoria sponge. It was much later that we realised that she had baked just one layer & halved it.

I used to go to my grandparents after school once a week for a homemade Cornish Pasty!

I only knew one granny - my mother’s mother. She made a mutton stew to die for, complete with perfect light dumplings. Even though I’m a vegetarian now, I dream of that stew from the 1950s sometimes. She honed her art of making a little go a long way in the hungry 30s and the war years, and got us through rationing by being a careful and inventive cook.
She also made a bacon and onion roll with suet pastry, and steamed it over the copper. I can smell it now …

I visited my Granny every week for tea. I had my own child sized china cup and saucer. We always had homemade Empire biscuits and Greek honey cake.

I have no memories of tea with Grandparents. The only grandparent I had was my Grandmother who died when I was 4 years old.

My paternal gran always made seed cakes. I loved them. I washed them down with milky tea. My granddad used to say that my tea was so weak it was almost a fortnight.

LadyHonoriaDedlock

The tea was always Co-op 99. My Nanna and Granddad drank it without milk, pouring it into the saucer to drink it. They are the only people I've ever seen doing this.

There'd be tinned salmon, with a salad of lettuce, sliced tomatoes, sliced hard-boiled egg, with jars of piccallili, pickled beetroot and picked red cabbage on the table.

Maybe a glass dish of sago or tapioca pudding with tinned peaches. I hated that bit. Yuck!

Then bread and butter with jam or maybe lemon curd. I refused to eat the crusts and I was told that if I didn't my hair wouldn't curl, although it turned out that I had hair that fell into natural waves that were the envy of my big sister, whose hair tended to thin, straight and straggly.

And cakes from the cakeshop down the street whose name I ought to remember, it's on the tip of my tongue but won't come.

I drink black tea and my DH who's from the same area. It was called pit man's tea. The mines were too hot and if they put milk in the tea it curdled. I always have to be reminded to put milk out if people are here.
I've seen my grandad and his brothers put it in their saucer to cool it and drink. My gran always shouted at him and claimed it was because he copied his Irish relations. Doubt if that is true

So many lovely memories and one or two sadder ones. Different backgrounds, different cultures. I've been playing 'Spot what part of the country they are from' 😃 Thank you all for the stories.

I too remember tea at my paternal grandmother's (Maternal grandmother lived 30 miles away, so transport being what it was in the late 1950's we rarely saw her) we always had either tinned mandarin oranges, apricots, peaches and fruit coctail in syrup on very special occasions with Carnation or Ideal evaporated milk, but always in a very small glass bowl. We were expected to eat half a slice of bread spread with either Stork or Summer County margarine with each spoonful to "pad it out". I'm guessing that was a hangover from rationing during and after the war.

I pretty much lived with my gran until my sister was born when I was 5, nearing 6, when I went back to live with my parents. No idea why I wasn't with them before, but boy, I loved living with Gran and really didn't understand why things changed (although I'd guess that she told my parents that they should be looking after me if they could manage another child!) She cooked everything from scratch and it was delicious. She grew her own veg; I remember shelling peas, quite happily with her when I was wee. Lovely, warm lady full of hugs and cuddles - the polar opposite of my mother, unfortunately.