Remember when people used to go "visiting"

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!

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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 am 78 and don't remember ever doing this.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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!

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.

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".

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'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!

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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. 😊