Funny stories that show your age.

she rung and said I haven’t got a garlic crusher. When I told her I’d bring mine over, she asked me if it would fit in the car

😂😂😂

Food was so boring in the 50'/60'ss, I knew what we'd be eating by the day of the week but it was punctuated by the real joy of having something "special". Oranges and nuts at Christmas, a tin of salmon when we had visitors on Sunday for tea, a piece of beef (usually topside for five shillings, please) that was tender, trifle with bananas, birds custard with proper double cream and sprinkles on the top and fish and chips on a Friday after going to the launderette. There was never anything in our pantry other than a tin of salmon, a tin of mandarin oranges and one of Fussels cream and a little metal tube full of shillings to feed the meter. I stole from that to buy sweets but was caught (obviously) as my Mum knew exactly what was there and had my bag packed and I was put out of the house. I stood on the step howling and when asked by the next door neighbour why I was there, she said, better there than in prison! I wailed even louder until I was let back in.

The first time a boy took me to The Pictures I asked for a tube of fruit gums when he offered to buy me something to take in.
I found out later that his father advised him to stick with me because I was a cheap date!
I didn’t know whether to be flattered or outraged. 😂

My grandparents lived in Cosham, Portsmouth. Their house had a large, brick built shed that covered the whole width of the bottom of the garden. This was where the washing was done. I clearly recall helping turn the handle on the big mangle which squeezed huge amounts of water out of towels and sheets. These were then put on washing lines which I’ve never seen anywhere else but were apparently a feature of some naval towns. Essentially they were double decker lines: two lines, one lower, one high, attached to very tall poles with a pulley system which hoisted the top line to roof height. Must have been interesting in high winds.

I remember when I was working in Saudi in 1977, one of the nannies bringing out some English food as treats, and found some of the staff sitting around tucking into something they didn't much like and it turned out they had started on the frozen puff pastry !

A posh night out for me in the late 60s was a Berni Inn: prawn cocktail, rump steak and black forest gateau + a schooner of sherry. Still love a prawn cocktail!

foxie48

I was complaining to my mother about not having something that a friend had and she replied, "You don't know how lucky you are, you eat chicken, midweek!" I guess this must have been in the late 50's.

Growing up late 40's/50's we always had beef at the weekends. Anyone having chicken was really pushing the boat out. Funny how things change.

And wasn’t that rump steak tender and delicious leeds22
I can remember it well.
I haven’t had prawn cocktail for years but last Friday I was out for a friend’s birthday and the starter prawn cocktail was £14, I was amazed.

Happy days, and for me so much nicer than today's square of something with drips, squiggles and foam !

What a super thread! My great treat (birthday and really good exam results) was ice cream at Paul’s restaurant in Ealing Broadway, served in a silver dish with a seriously delicious wafer biscuit.

I remember the first time my boyfriend and I went for a restaurant meal, we had just got engaged (dumped him a year later) and he ordered spaghetti bolognese ( can’t remember what I had) We were so inexperienced, he was horrified when he found a green leaf in his meal!!! Niether of us knew it was a bay leaf, but we both left our food in disgust, too niaive to complain!!!

I learnt to bake at an early age and I could make a roast dinner,but I once decided to make Coq Au Vin without actually looking up the recipe .
What a disaster !
I basically put a large chicken in a saucepan and boiled it in wine .
It wasn't ready by the time the guests arrived.
One of my friends took the chicken out of the saucepan and cut it up into smaller pieces then fried it .
We managed to make a wine sauce and it was OK if not bright pink .
By the time that it arrived the guests were well and plastered.

leeds22

A posh night out for me in the late 60s was a Berni Inn: prawn cocktail, rump steak and black forest gateau + a schooner of sherry. Still love a prawn cocktail!

Exactly what was a treat for DH and I in the early 70’s. I wonder if Berni Inns had anything else on the menu!

Flippinheck

My grandparents lived in Cosham, Portsmouth. Their house had a large, brick built shed that covered the whole width of the bottom of the garden. This was where the washing was done. I clearly recall helping turn the handle on the big mangle which squeezed huge amounts of water out of towels and sheets. These were then put on washing lines which I’ve never seen anywhere else but were apparently a feature of some naval towns. Essentially they were double decker lines: two lines, one lower, one high, attached to very tall poles with a pulley system which hoisted the top line to roof height. Must have been interesting in high winds.

Interesting. We also had a mangle and our washing line was like that - you lowered the line, pegged the washing out, then pulled it up over a pulley that Dad had fixed next to my bedroom window, so that the washing was up in the air out of the way. This was in West Bromwich in the early 1950s..! Dad was been in the Fire Service, and had been stationed at Plymouth at the beginning of the war - so maybe that's where he got the idea..?
I always thought it was a really good idea, as I could play in the garden even when the washing was out 😃

My funny (although not for my sister) story was when I was 6 and she was 8. I was always a tomboy and liked playing football in the street with the local boys. A ball was kicked under the only car in the street so I crawled under the car to get it out. My sister went running into my Mum and said ****’s under a car. My mum thought I had been knocked over and came rushing out only to see me fine, albeit a bit grubby. My sister got a good telling off which I thought was hilarious. Horrible child that I was . Still love my football

Usedtobeblonde

I am somewhat amazed that I can remember getting electricity to our village.
Before that we had gas lamps and you had to be very careful not to poke the match through the mantle or you would be in real trouble.
I think it was about 1948/9 when electricity arrived and a company came round and put in about 5 light fittings and a couple of sockets for £25.
Real olden times.

I was born in 1951 and when I was about 8 or 9, I can remember staying in villages in the North of Scotland that did not have electricity.

If I am right, the hydro-electric schemes that brought electricity to anywhere north of the north end of Loch Lomond did not start until about 1966.

We went to visit a family friend when I was little and he was cooking spaghetti. We had only seen Heinz tinned before and the sight of him putting the hard sticks into boiling water and them melting into a swirl fascinated us. When we were supposed to be renovating our house before we got married we actually spent most of the time with a camping stove boiling ready meals, boil in the bag. Such sophistication.

Windmill1

My mother used to say how her friends and herself (21/22 year olds) enjoyed Vesta Beef Risotto made with Mateus Rose instead of water.

They had driven to the Algarve, pre chartered holidays, and took a load of food with them to save money - including meats vacuumed packed and stored in a refrigerated container (borrowed from the Meat Institute at Langford where one of the six worked).

The drive took 36 hours in a Mercedes estate car with no stops. As one chap drove their female partner would sit on a cushion on the hand brake!

You wouldn't believe what an over-the-top safety conscious adult she grew into!!

She made us the Vesta Beef Risotto + Mateus Rose meal one Saturday when we were teenagers. It was great!!
.

My mother had a recipe, cut out of a women's magazine, circa nineteen fifty something, for duck in orange sauce using orange squash and Bisto. I don't remember her ever making it, probably because ducks were quite hard to come by at the time.

Mrsdof

My funny (although not for my sister) story was when I was 6 and she was 8. I was always a tomboy and liked playing football in the street with the local boys. A ball was kicked under the only car in the street so I crawled under the car to get it out. My sister went running into my Mum and said ****’s under a car. My mum thought I had been knocked over and came rushing out only to see me fine, albeit a bit grubby. My sister got a good telling off which I thought was hilarious. Horrible child that I was . Still love my football

I was helping my mother to dye some fabric when the GD of the lady next door came to ask me to play out. My brother told her I couldn't come out as I was dying. Lady next door dashed round expecting the worst.
We always had cold lamb on Mondays as it was washing day. No time to cook

The first time ever I ‘entertained’ was for my then boyfriend’s teaching colleague and his wife. I might mention that I had never cooked a meal in my life at this point. I decided on stuffed green peppers which seemed doable. Too afraid to try a dessert I bought a SaraLee Black Forest gateaux. The wife asked me if I had baked it myself and of course I said yes. When I cut into it I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t get the knife through until I realised I hadn’t taken off the plastic corrugated wrap which was all around it. So embarrassed was I that I couldn’t eat any of it🥺

When I was in my 20s my parents went away on holiday with my sister, but because I was working I didn't go and a friend came to stay with me for company. We decided to cook a meal but I can't remember what except that we were going to have a cauliflower with it. We put a pan of water on to boil, and placed the whole cauliflower in the boiling water. Imagine our disgust when several large green caterpillars rose to the surface.

foxie48

Food was so boring in the 50'/60'ss, I knew what we'd be eating by the day of the week but it was punctuated by the real joy of having something "special". Oranges and nuts at Christmas, a tin of salmon when we had visitors on Sunday for tea, a piece of beef (usually topside for five shillings, please) that was tender, trifle with bananas, birds custard with proper double cream and sprinkles on the top and fish and chips on a Friday after going to the launderette. There was never anything in our pantry other than a tin of salmon, a tin of mandarin oranges and one of Fussels cream and a little metal tube full of shillings to feed the meter. I stole from that to buy sweets but was caught (obviously) as my Mum knew exactly what was there and had my bag packed and I was put out of the house. I stood on the step howling and when asked by the next door neighbour why I was there, she said, better there than in prison! I wailed even louder until I was let back in.

Blimey, you poor little thing, those were very strict times weren’t they?😲

Gogo84

When I was in my 20s my parents went away on holiday with my sister, but because I was working I didn't go and a friend came to stay with me for company. We decided to cook a meal but I can't remember what except that we were going to have a cauliflower with it. We put a pan of water on to boil, and placed the whole cauliflower in the boiling water. Imagine our disgust when several large green caterpillars rose to the surface.

😂🐛🐛🐛🐛🐛🐛

Vesta curries - remember them well - and Surprise dried peas which were very handy if you didn't have a freezer (and lots of us didn't!)