Remember when people used to go "visiting"

yes something i remember happening. we didn't always have a car so most visits were done by bus or if close enough we used to walk. I can remember once, we had a car. and travelled to Leicester to visit my nans niece and family, and returned the same day, must have been some journey as i have done this journey quite a few times over the years, roads faster and cars faster than in the 1960's and still found it quite a hike, going from cheshire to leicester

I was born in 1940 and I remember the Sunday visits so well.
Long walk first to and from Mass, then our lunch at home, and a while later a bus and a train to visit various aunties. I remember being bored as the adults talked about things that didn’t interest me. My mother thought it was rude to sit with my “nose in a book”, but I usually got away with it.
Tea was always salad with tinned salmon or ham. Bread and butter, when sliced bread hadn’t been invented, so it was always cut and I helped my aunt to do this. Pudding was tinned fruit with evaporated milk.
I have a feeling that letters were written to announce a pending visit, but my mother always made fairy cakes on a Sunday, just in case. No fridge so we probably didn’t keep ham.
When we visited I was always given a coin (half crown, two bob bit) and always found that embarrassing. Mum concentrating to make sure I said thank you.
One of the journeys involved a tram ride, which I always enjoyed. Interesting to look back on the old days, but thank goodness for phones nowadays.

Some lovely memories there. Like many we didn't have a car, but other family did and we all had to clear up (big family) untidy small home, but Mum loved seeing her sisters and lots of their children from the London's East End - all used the tube to get to Dagenham (then a relatively new town). She managed to make mounds of corned beef sandwiches for tea, even baked rock cakes, jelly, blamange, and a three-penny piece popped into our pockets - thrill!!! So very different from today's children's expectations. Thank you.

Your memories of "visiting" are certainly very similar to mine Bellanonna, complete with the salad tea. I'd forgotten, but now you mention it I was usually given a shilling or maybe half a crown too but I don't think I was embarrassed by it!

I’m 58 and was brought up in S Wales. I remember this ritual very well but it tended to be more on Bank Holiday Monday and I would be forced to sit in instead of playing or reading my book. I used to love visiting the Rhondda valleys going over the mountains in the car. We were very fortunate to have a car in those days. Fond memories.

we used to have family teas. One week would be with Fathers family, the alternate week would be with others. Each family would take a turn hosting. Each would take something along (my Mother always cooked scones) At my Grandparents me and my sister would put on a play but I had cousins on my Mothers side so we would play board games or charades and in summer we would play rounders on the green

forgot to add, this was just on Sundays

We have ‘visitors’ at weekends! Always have cake/snacks/wine ready!

We didn’t have a car but my Mum would take us to visit aunts, uncles, cousins etc. When we had a new baby in the family we also took them to visit all our relatives. I think we were much more family oriented then, saying that though, we as a family are still quite close to each other.

Not just a northern thing. I'm from South West Wales and every Saturday we visited grandparents (12 miles away) followed by a visit to my two aunts who lived together another few miles away on our way home. It was a day out every weekend with Sundays reserved for chapel - at least twice a day

I used to hate Sunday afternoons. My aunt and uncle used to come 'visiting' on spec but just in case they turned up I wasn't allowed out to play and we always had ham, tomatoes and lettuce ready for tea. We didn't have a car, so a return visit had to be pre-arranged and took up most of the day, on at least 3 buses each way.

It’s not something we did, really, but as Grandma lived round the corner, we’d drop by any time and vice versa - it wasn’t specific to a Sunday (although occasionally she’d arrange a Sunday tea, and my uncle, his wife and son would come too, by bus as they didn’t drive, and which involved them catching two buses).

Other relatives lived too far away for visits as described in the post above - if we did go, it was pre-arranged, by letter (as no-one had an phone except one aunty), and involved a day or so away. We didn’t have a car, neither parent could drive, so journeys further afield either involved the train or a coach, therefore infrequent because of cost and the practicality of getting there.

My husbands extended family of uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents were not so far away from him when he was growing up, and his dad had a car, so they would visit nearby family either walking if close by, or in the car if slightly further afield, or sometimes the service bus if his dad was working.

It doesn’t happen like that anymore, we all contact one another by phone or text, to arrange get togethers, rather than just turn up.

Yes! We always had to go visiting in the 70s and dress up in our best clothes. I got sick of it, it was actually really boring for a child back then, we just sat around waiting to go home. Dad would be hours, he is still like that today always out visiting, mum complains he’s never home! Funny.

Yes! I hear you! It was really boring waiting to go home, Dad never knew when to leave. To this day I hate visiting, I’d rather be home sewing or cake decorating. 😊

In the 1970s one particular couple and their badly behaved child used to ring me in transit and tell me they were on their way to visit me! Yeah, right. I was a single person shopping for one. So for a family to land on me and assume I was going to feed and water them without notice is really a bit much.

There was no caller display back then. So if you answered you got lumbered. However they always made the journey on a warm sunday afternoon, so I knew better than to answer at that time. If they got no reply they (presumably) went to "visit" someone else.

One of the great things about mobiles is that you can answer but tell people "Oh sorry Im in (another city) staying with friends" and that stops them in their stride. Or you can answer the ring doorbell but tell them you are using the app on your phone. "Sorreeee this is a terrible line. What a pity I missed you."

Modern technology does have its benefits.

My mother was one of nine, and my father one of five, so there was a fair bit of visiting in the fifties. Not just on Sundays. My mother and I would sometimes visit my granny or one of her sisters in the evening during the week. We had no phone or car, so it was ad hoc, and we went on the bus. My father’s mother lived with one of her daughters and her five children and my father and I went there on the bus most Sundays. An aunt, uncle and cousin were often there too, so it was very sociable. Eventually, they had a tv, which we didn’t have, so that added to the fun. I remember watching Sooty there possibly in the early sixties.

Yes, we used to visit my dads mum and other family on Sunday afternoons. They lived two bus rides away, and while I loved seeing them, I remember being very tired on the trip home

When you live abroad, you still do- everyone expects to see you when you visit. Used to be that'a way, now t'other way round.

We went visiting yesterday (Sunday) afternoon the lady of the house was in the bath!.

OH had sent a text that had not been read

I'm 59 and absolutely hated being forced to ''visit'' people. There was no other family so it was always neighbours or friends of neighbours etc.

I basically wasn't allowed to say anything except being TOLD to say please and thank you and would sit there for hours absolutely bored out of my skull so the adults could natter about the most ridiculously boring things. I stayed with and played with any pets that were around!

Then some prat would rush over to me and say ''what rosie cheeks you have'' then would physically grab my cheeks and pinch them so hard it made me cry, then I was told to shut up and stop being childish! Those ''pinches'' were seriously painful!

One day one of the prats did it and I slapped her hand away snapping ''don't do that to me'' and the whole house erupted!

HOW DARE YOU?! WHAT A BRAT! GET HER OUT OF MY HOUSE!

Then I was shouted at on the way home!

I'm 61 and remember visiting grandparents every Sunday. One week it would be one set for lunch then the other for tea, the following week the other way around. Unfortunately my son and wife don't do this and I'm lucky if I see them once every 2 or 3 months. They live 20 miles away!

I think people must have visited us, because I can remember tea of sandwiches, pickled onions, celery kept fresh in a glass of water, with crusty bread and a big bowl of salad.

My dad's friend used to bring his latest girlfriend, and I can remember them being all shapes and sizes, and very "with it".

The only ones we visited were my gran or her younger sister. I loved going to the sisters house but my mother hated her as they were often mistaken for sisters which was not flattering. She lived in a rundown old house with outhouses and a river in the garden where the kids played unsupervised all afternoon.Luck no one drowned. In her attic she had her dad's stuff from the first war including guns and swords also a copy of the Kama Sutra which kept us entertained for hours.

We used to go and visit my mums sister, who had lots of children.

They all shared bunk beds, which we could jump on, and make camps in.

I don't remember the food, except icecream floats with cream soda, but it was all things we were never allowed to do!

We were the visited, rather than the visitors, as my father was a G.P. and as often as not on duty both Saturday and Sunday.

I miss visiting so much. No-one drops in for a cup of coffee any more, and seem to regard it as an imposition if anyone dares to present themselves around three in the afternoon in the hope of a cup of coffee.