Remember when people used to go "visiting"

I remember going to my grandma's house for tea not regularly as it was 3 bus rides away. We were allowed to play out in the street with the other children ( nobody owned a car in that road in the 50s) We had a good time and were disappointed to be called in for the salad tea and scones.
My aunty and cousins would visit from over the water but not often as it involved a long journey. We always had jelly and blancmange after the salad.

Parents were definitely involved in visiting. It was walking though, no car and no buses on Sunday. Certainly no children allowed outside to play. We had to walk mainly on small country roads or through country estates to get to friends and relations. Loved it, finding a branch, strippjng the leaves and using it to poke in shrubs and bushes looking for wildlife. Often a jar of homemade jam, or berries, fruit, even potatoes from the garden were taken as gifts.

I grew up in Sussex and family often used to visit for the tinned salmon sandwiches and home made fruit cake. Sometimes my grandads sister and her husband would come - from Kent - in their motor cycle and sidecar with the giant poodle tucked in the sidecar with aunty. Other family came from their farm and much laughter was had as the olden days were remembered by our elders. We sometimes went to visit, but mainly they came to us. We also used to pack up a picnic and head for a field in the countryside nearby where mum and Nan sat on little chair to knit while they drank their tea and my brother and I would play some sort of ball game. We were always very careful not to intrude on crops in any way. Very happy family memories.

Flapper girl my family had this tradition of visiting family on a Sunday afternoon. Grandma’s house for tea and an aunty sometimes. I always remember these visits as a pleasant experience, filled with excitement of a trip out.

I am 78 and don't remember ever doing this.

It seems that many of us share similar memories Spencer2009. When I started this post a lot of the responses made me wonder whether my family was the only one to go visiting on a Sunday afternoon. I always enjoyed it too. It was a trip out, as you say, and I loved listening to the adults reminisce about times gone by.

I grew up on Army bases and as no relatives nearby .We visited other families on Sunday afternoon or hosted the salmon sandwiches tinned pears or trifle and cake Longer visits were to actual relatives Easter summer holidays or occasionally in Christmas holidays relatives in Ireland ( very long journeys) or Cornwall and Devon

I'm an Essex girl and we did it, so did my Suffolk boy husband

We also spent our childhood on military bases. We were either too far from anyone to visit or living with them in between postings so no need to visit

Yes I do remember this - born 1956 - my dad was usually the instigator and it was always a spur of the moment thing. There were 4 of us children so I was aware of mixed responses when we arrived. My dad even took us to his boss's home unannounced once. I remember, though none of our family were well off, a tea was always rustled up for us. Only one uncle ever visited us though and yes tinned salmon sandwiches and tea saved the day.

My mum and I visited her mum and dad 8 miles away every Saturday on two buses. We changed buses in a village where my uncle and his two sons (my cousins) lived so we called on them as well. Their mum had died when they were small. In fact both my mum's sisters died in their thirties which is why mum visited her parents every week. Dad was always working so he didn't mind at all.

My grandad played the piano in the local pub and it was the job of mum and I to sing the latest pop songs for him so he could play them that night. Ten minutes and he'd got it even though he hadn't heard them till we sang them. I particularly remember singing "She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah".

We visited my other grandma who lived with her daughter and family but not so often cos they were a train ride and two buses away. That meant a lovely tea and pocket money from my grandma.

Yes, I recall being stuck in the winter!!!

Once married, my parents visited us every Sunday afternoon, unless we were too busy. Just a cup of tea, and I loved it, as did my girls later on. The other GPs lived a bit further and had no car so it was more difficult to fit in but we still visited pretty often. In fact weekends were primarily for visiting rellies.

Nowadays my Grandkids have so many activities at weekends we only see them if we offer to take them to these. They almost never visit us even though only about 20 miles away.

Sad. And we are getting older, hubby struggles to walk, hates driving (but I am okay driving) and this year I have been having cancer treatment, and so we've barely seen the family. We've seen almost as much of our DD who lives 180 miles away, cos we have gone there three times so far this year.

Of course we are lucky compared to those whose families have moved abroad and everyone seems to lead busier lives with different priorities so I suppose we do pretty well overall. Our DDs have no aunts, uncles or cousins to visit.

My Mum always knew intuitively when my Nan & Pop were coming to visit us. They’d get up early get on the green line bus & be knocking on our door in London by 9 am. I loved them dearly
Sometimes we would get on the bus & go see them Loved Nans Victoria sponge cakes She always made an extra one for us to take home. We always took Grandad a packet of St Bruno mild for his pipe xxx Happy memories xxx

I remember Sunday afternoon teas at various relatives and friends houses. Although I think they were usually pre-arranged.
We mostly used to meet at my nan's house where my mum would have press ganged her brother and his family to come as well. Mum would take everything required and lay it out on the table, and that would be after she had cooked a full roast dinner for us at lunchtime and plated one up for nan.
Looking back it must have been such hard work for her but if nan came to us mum's brother would often weedle out of coming so I can see it was my mum's way of forcing her brother to see his mum and enabling her to see her other grandchildren!!
I was just bored because her one bed council bungalow was very small and there were no toys and her TV was coin operated, so we couldn't 'waste' money watching TV which would have been an intrusion anyway as we were all in one room!
Occasionally we would visit my dad's aunt who having purchased a new three piece suite kept the fitted plastic covers it had been delivered with on. It was very uncomfortable to sit on, especially in the summer when your legs stuck to the plastic!
And then the best visit of all was to another aunt of my dads who was very mischevious. She had a small plastic model of a little boy supposedly having a wee. He was hollow and you filled him up with cold tea and turned a little lever.................
She kept him in the kitchen cupboard with the tea things and whenever a small child visited they were treated to this little display..........!
I remember taking my own daughter to visit when auntie was in her late nineties. Even though she was largely immobile by then she had asked her carer to fetch the model out, ready for our visit!