Funny stories that show your age.

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!!
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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.

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.

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

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 😃

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!

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.

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!!!

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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 !

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.

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. 😂

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.

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

😂😂😂

When my mum retired she decided to learn to cook something a bit exotic and managed to get hold of a bulb of garlic. I was visiting her the day when this dish was being cooked and 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. We teased her about it for the rest of her life.

Moth62 we use my parent's bone handled knives all the time, their bread board with the sharpest serrated knife ever and their green enamelled bread bin.
They were all wedding presents in the early 1940s. I love them.

* mixed

My first drink in a pub (just 17) was a port and lemon with a much older BF. I didn’t know what to order and thought it sounded grown up. Fast forward 2 years (now with Himself) and I was enjoying Cinzano & lemonade. Bleugh! 🤢

Newly married I came in from work and Himself decided he’d make our tea, as a surprise. He thought he’d make ‘beefburgers’. He chopped up an onion really small, put it into a bowl and scooped out a TIN of minced beef (M&S ha!) missed it, shaped into patties with a sprinkling of flour. Heated the frying pan …. You can guess the rest. We had stew for tea!

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.

Yes, as a child, but we are going back to around 1955, it was for Christmas. It was most likely to be pork or lamb once a week.

Ooh so did we Grannybags. Having one on a Friday night as newlyweds we thought we were the kids 😂

And watching The Mod Squad on the telly!

We never had alcohol at home so I didn't really know what to do with it.
I must have heard the words "pint of lager" from somewhere ( maybe Coronation Street?)

So I gamely marched up the bar and ordered 2 pints and proceeded to fill the glass with ice.