Typical Saturdays from your childhoods

Living in a rural area with no car and a poor bus service, cinemas were out for me until I was about 13 when a friend and I were allowed to catch an evening bus.

I think as a young child I just “helped” my Dad in the garden as he grew all our veg, salad, fruit etc. He worked gardening on a Sat morning and sometimes would take me with him. It was a posh house with a large summerhouse on a metal track so it could be revolved to catch the sun or to avoid any wind. I loved that.

Once I got to grammar school Saturdays in the winter were spent playing hockey which I adored. Coming home freezing cold and the smell of Mum’s lovely home cooked lunch all ready for us! Summer Saturdays I used to work part time in a gift shop.

Ballet lesson in the morning, then shopping or a visit to the Central Library, no branch libraries then.
In the afternoon play with my friends or my mother would be allowed to drive the car and we dropped my father off for the Wolves football match, waves of men in gabardine raincoats and trilby hats or tweed jackets and caps crossing the road then off for a drive in the nearby countryside or visit a friend.
Back for poached eggs on toast, and fruit jelly, then watching the television, after 1953.

Shopping with mam getting big shop in. We went main shopping area no car and carried everything back. Saveloy dips for lunch and dad watched racing on the telly hoping he’d backed a winner. Saturday night telly was val doonican. And we had treats for tea.

Mamie

Twenty minute Saturday trip by steam train to Croydon. Coffee in Kennards with the great-aunts while the string quartet played. Pony ride in Kennards' arcade if lucky.
There was a wonderful toy shop with puppets in the window.
Croydon market shopping in Surrey Street with kippers bought for tea.
The shopping bag was called The Croydon Basket. 😂

Ohh I’m a purley girl but had lots of family in Croydon . My mum would do a Friday shop at Surrey street market . And we’d wander down Kennards arcade and alders . My dad took us swimming at the pool by Surrey street

Muck out my pony's stable, write my english essay, clean the bathroom, ride my pony (usually down to the village to see friends & their ponies). After tea we often did go out, visiting grandparents, out to the pub garden with cousins, parties, just "for a ride" & find somewhere to play rounders, bonfire nights, fruit-picker's parties etc.

My typical Saturday was Saturday morning pictures and then my mum would have her hair done and my dad was in charge . Being Irish and loving the horses my dad would go to the betting shop and leave us outside with sweets and a bottle of pop .
After that we’d go to my grandparents for tea and would leave when match of the day started. Even now the theme tune for motd reminds me of my grandparents and my childhood.

Saturday was busy for me. I went to the cinema for sixpence, then went to.the children's library, then sometimes a different cinema in the afternoon.
When I was 12/13 I got a Saturday morning job in a pet shop so it all changed then.

Happy days. I was born in 1951. I don’t remember ever not having a TV although it was black and white or a car. Stepdad was an engineer and always had American cars. When I was 17 he taught me basic car maintenance.
Saturday was a walk to Tamworth castle with a school friend, possibly with a trip to the cinema to see an elvis film with lots of screaming. Evenings were celery and cracker barrel cheese for dad and watching the Saturday night programmes. I would generally have salmon sandwiches with mum as it was her night off from cooking. In the afternoon we all watched Jackie Pallo and Mick Macmanus.
I was allowed a sleep over with my school friend which was always fun and on Sunday her parents would often take us to a sort of mini festival in a park with groups playing live. I thought it was so happening!

Dad got an engineering job in Trinidad and on his day off, Saturday we’d go to the Texaco club for a swim, dive and a burger. A heavy influence from America. I had never heard of burger.

Later, back in Britain when I was 15 I had a Saturday job In Woolworths on the shampoo and sanitary towel counter. Used to love going upstairs for stock.

I'm so enjoying reading everyone's memories. I'm feeling very nostalgic now and have recalled other Saturday memories. The wrestling with jacky palo and mick mcmanus, gosh how my gran loved it. Dixon of Dock Green. Kippers or sausages for tea. Checking the football results against the coupon we'd filled in and posted earlier in the week. Going to confession. On Sunday morning dad polished all the family shoes whilst we dressed up in our Sunday best ready for church. And we each wore a mantilla. How life has changed.

Saturday night Tv was much more family orientated in the early days .

It depends when you mean.
I worked on Saturdays as a teenager. Both mum and dad worked.

I thought we were talking about when we were very young.
Perhaps under 11?

We lived in a village, so maybe a bus ride to the nearest town, with mum, but mainly, packed sandwiches and we all used to take a bike ride to our local beach. Lovely sand, rock pools, and a couple of old air raid shelters to explore. Cannot remember staying in to watch our very small TV. That was for evenings.

In my childhood,I lived in about 20 different homes in 5 different countries and went to 10 different schools. There never was a typical Saturday.

Dad worked Saturday mornings. He would come home with a loaf of bread, a big bar of Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut chocolate for mum, and a bag of extra strong mints. These were so strong that even though longing for a sweet ( I had a bag on Thursday when mum went shopping) I could never eat a whole one.

Silence for football results at 5pm on the radio or rather wireless. If Dad was out busy in the garden it was my job to write them in on the newspaper to compare with his coupon. You could always tell by the intonation if it was a draw.

25Avalon

Silence for football results at 5pm on the radio or rather wireless. If Dad was out busy in the garden it was my job to write them in on the newspaper to compare with his coupon. You could always tell by the intonation if it was a draw.

Yes, the voice rose for a win, dropped for a loss and was even for a draw
I can still hear it now 😁

My Great-Uncle said that, when he won on the Pools, he'd buy me a pony. He never did win.

Children's Favourites on the radio with Uncle Mack. Sometimes the cinema with a comic thrown in for good measure - Beano or if my memory serves me correctly there was a comic called Beezer? Helping my Dad to check the football pools when the results came on at 5. Playing in the garden.

I do believe those simpler times were happy times, certainly for me.

I remember being dragged around the shops in the nearest city, ‘window shopping’ as Mum and Dad could afford much, I was bored.
We had a TV quite early as Dad worked for a TV company as an engineer, so from tea time onwards we watched some programmes. Tomorrow’s World and Thunderbirds come to mind, Mum used to be glued to Wimbledon in the summer.
Dinner on a Saturday was toad in hole, later on spaghetti bolognaise.

It was sent off to the ABC minors (cartoons at the Odeon) in the morning then on the Wee 30 bus to the stables for the rest of the day (with a flask and sandwiches in tinfoil). Dad would pick me up at 6pm for home.

I was born in ‘51 too, but no TV until I was 7 or 8, although my Gran who lived nearby had one.
Although Dad could drive, he couldn’t afford a car until the mid-60’s. He still got the bus to work, as it was easier and there was no parking, free or otherwise near to his work.

I'm another one that remembers Kennards and Allders in Croydon. I also went to Medhursts in Bromley, Bon Marche in Brixton and John Lewis in Oxford Street with my Mum. These would be occasional Saturday afternoon trips.
Saturday morning I went to ballet and my Dad went to work whilst Mum did housework. We had our main meal at lunchtime with high tea in the evening Saturdays.
My brother and I loved Dr Who when it started. My Mum watched wrestling.
When older I had to go shopping in the morning and afternoons met with friends and went to the cinema, if we had enough money, or went to the park.

Kennards, Allders & Grants in Croydon. Yes, Medhursts in Bromley and Rogers in Penge where they had those pulley things for your money - it went to the cash office and your change and receipt came back.

Kennards arcade was a once in a while treat for me when we went to see my Dad's parents in Purley - got the trolley bus from the back of Kennards.

Saturday morning meant my father going down to the launderette with the bags of washing and, if it was winter, going to the hardware shop to buy paraffin for our heater. Meanwhile my mother would be hoovering. My Saturday was spent mucking about until I was old enough to get a Saturday job.

What a lovely nostalgic thread. The football results! Hamilton Academicals such a memorable name. Easy going days. Sometimes shopping in Bobby's in Cliftonville or even Folkestone. Off on my bicycle on my own or with a friend. Swimming in the seawater pool on the beach in Cliftonville or on our little Ramsgate beach. Oh to relive one of those days. With Mum and Dad and Grandmother.