Funny things that your children would be appalled by

Before I started school (couldn’t yet read) I remember being sent with money and a list to the village grocery shop up the road. I didn’t recall it being very far, but when I returned to the area (village much the same) with dh a few years ago it was a lot further than I’d thought - would have taken little legs a good 15-20 minutes each way. Far fewer cars of course, and no busy roads to cross.

I don’t think it was a regular thing - to be entirely fair to my mother she had a toddler and a young baby at home, and of course no car then. But anyone nowadays would have a fit at the mere idea.

i remember watching children playing chicken in a secluded area.
i watched, never volunteered.
it involved a child standing still with legs wide apart, while another threw a knife between them.
after each throw they had to move their feet closer.
once i saw a boy about 12 spear his younger brother aged about 8, near his toes.
they used what looked like a dagger, def not a kitchen knife.
what was interesting compared with today's world, is that the immediate concern in the whole group, including the injured party, was what to say to the parents.
they all decided on a story that he had been climbing spiked railings and slipped, thus causing the injury.
they were all satisfied and relieved to get their story straight.
there was no ill feeling towards the thrower; that was the point of the game of chicken and you took your chances, you could opt out at any point and be called chicken.
there was no mention or thought of medical care.
the world of children was so much more self-contained than now.
we were expected not to bother parents, or adults generally, and in a way that limited mischief, and led to resourcefulness.

welbeck I remember children playing chicken which involved running across a main road dodging the traffic. It doesn’t bear thinking about.

I used to love the book "Little Black Sambo" in which the hero wins by quick thinking. It never occurred to me that it might be thought to be racist, but then, I am neither black not Indian. If I were, I might have thought differently.

My grandchildren were appalled by the fact I had a golliwog and collected for a golliwig badge from Robertson’s jams.

My old mum would send me and my sis to do the grocery shopping with a list from a very tender age. We also played out in the evenings till quite late and during school hols. We wandered far and wide, again from quite a tender age, making precarious rope swings over steep drops, jumping into rivers and streams, breaking into farm outbuildings and playing with the machinery, the list of dangerous pastimes goes on. But oh what a wonderful time we all had, and thankfully we all survived to tell the tale, tho there were broken limbs and cuts/bruises along the way.

Some boys I was friends with used to stand on a railway bridge in London and shoot dried peas at the train drivers. Luckily they weren’t accurate enough to hit anyone. No concept of danger whatsoever.

Some weird memories- not what I would call “funny” though- a bit “misery memoir” (rats?)

My parents took in a stray dog just before we went on holiday one year, and the dog gave birth (they didn’t know it was pregnant) in the car, half way there. We had a camper, and enjoyed watching the process, as my dad carried on driving. My children don’t believe this actually happened, but it did. Dog and puppies spent the week in the awning.

RosiesMaw2

Some weird memories- not what I would call “funny” though- a bit “misery memoir” (rats?)

there's funny peculiar as well as funny ha ha.

True- AIBU to find the majority the “funny peculiar” sort.

I must remember to tell my kids this story - the grandchildren will love it.

We used to play "Best Man Dead" with our neighbours - a girl who was aged between me and my.sister, and her.younger brother. You had to lay down as if dead and whoever was "it" would try to make you laugh. The boy would often threaten "I'll do my wee wees in your ear". One day he actually did! I don't think I'll ever forget the feeling of my ear getting slowly warmer....

Scarcely anyone had cars until petrol was unrationed in the early/mid 1950s. So public transport was good and frequent.

I left my pram outside shops in the '70s - no room inside. But these were shops where you were always near a large window - not like modern supermarket.

Put 3 month old baby in a carry cot on the back seat. Braked a bit suddenly and carry cot rolled gently over onto the floor. Baby underneath. She seemed surprised but not hurt!

JackyB

I must remember to tell my kids this story - the grandchildren will love it.

We used to play "Best Man Dead" with our neighbours - a girl who was aged between me and my.sister, and her.younger brother. You had to lay down as if dead and whoever was "it" would try to make you laugh. The boy would often threaten "I'll do my wee wees in your ear". One day he actually did! I don't think I'll ever forget the feeling of my ear getting slowly warmer....

That made me laugh now

I remember how there would be a Xmas ‘do’ in the board room in the offices I worked in when I was in my early twenties.
The table would be heaving with booze of every description and just a few nibbles. Many got steaming drunk and those with cars would invariably drive home. Was terrible now I think about it. The police did crack down on drunk driving but public attitudes back then were far different to today.
And of course there were embarrassing incidents, such as when the office manager took her top off to prove she was wearing a black bra. She was not happy when we regularly reminded her of this for….well…it was still a regular joke when I left to have my first child.

Pupils sometimes had to track a teacher down in the school staffroom at break time. When the door opened a thick cloud of cigarette smoke engulfed them. Cue lots of exaggerated choking and arm waving by the young victim. So much for health and safety.

I don't think kids today would tolerate what we did upstairs in cinemas and buses!

Saxifrage

Put 3 month old baby in a carry cot on the back seat. Braked a bit suddenly and carry cot rolled gently over onto the floor. Baby underneath. She seemed surprised but not hurt!

We all put our babies ‘ carrycots on the rear set, but I remember it was strapped in.
The Archbishop of Canterbury and his wife lost their first child in a crash where the baby was in her carrycot in the back.
The Archbishop of Canterbury told BBC Radio 4 that Johanna's death in 1983 is a "constant reminder of the uncertainty of life," and recalled the day of the tragedy, when his wife Caroline was being driven through Paris in the passenger seat, while their daughter was in a carrycot in the back. “I was finishing off some work in Paris and Caroline set off with a friend, someone else was driving and they had a car crash," he said
Makes you think.
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My Dds found it utterly hilarious that when I was very small (so early 50s) the milkman came with a horse. To them it was like something out of the Dark Ages.

Wheniwasyourage

I used to love the book "Little Black Sambo" in which the hero wins by quick thinking. It never occurred to me that it might be thought to be racist, but then, I am neither black not Indian. If I were, I might have thought differently.

It would have been in the 50s, but I remember my brother (probably no more than about 5 at the time) playing very happily with a little black boy on the beach - but calling him Sambo. 😱

Gosh - in my day we had to wear a belt that we attached the pad to! Wish we'd had sticky ones then!

Bread was delivered by the Co-op in a horse drawn van. My grandmother and aunt used to come to our house every Sunday to have a bath because their house had no bathroom (they washed at the sink in the scullery). They had only an outside toilet. I hated using the outside toilet, especially on a cold dark evening by torchlight - there were spiders in there!
Yes, I used to put the carrycot in the back of our Triumph Herald estate car unprotected in any way. Also left pram outside shops (checking only that the brake was on). DDs are shocked when they hear these things and can't believe how they survived. Health and safety were a long time coming. I remember pre-safety belt days and being driven by a friend's father on the newly opened M1. No speed limit then and we were screaming with excitement as we reached a "ton". Of course there was hardly any traffic on the road at the time and only cars - no lorries.

When I was five my teacher sent me and another girl to the shop near the school to buy ice lollies for the teachers! It was a hot day! Mum was not happy to hear I'd been out of school unsupervised.

Mine are appalled by the level of responsibility we had. From 9 when my Nan died, we cooked for ourselves in school holidays. This meant carrying a hot chip pan and lift things out of the oven.

We also lit the fires, went shopping alone and would be out for hours with no one knowing where we were.

One day our chimney caught alight and we asked a neighbour to phone our mum. When she got home from work, the house was full of neighbours and firemen. We got in real trouble for not using the public phone to call her.

I remember Little Black Sambo - he was pursued by tigers, who ran so fast that they melted into butter! (Ghee, probably? )