1950's Childhood.

Found it. theglyptodon.wordpress.com/2012/08/21/polio-caused-by-ice-cream/
I remember my mum refusing to buy ice cream when I asked because she believed it was a risk.

I believed that chewing gum thing too! I also believe that potatoes would grow out of my ears if I didn't wash them properly In my strict Catholic school we were told that if we didn't cross the road in a straight line it was a sin. The number of times I worried myself sick over that one and couldn't wait until I went to confession to be absolved.

I was told that if an earwig got in your ear it would burrow into your brain and you would need to have surgery to remove it - I spent many nights with my hands over my ears in case one got in while I was asleep!

I never heard the ice-cream thing, but I remember in 1947 all the swimming pools were closed because of polio.
The boy next door, my friend Laurence, got it and had a leg brace after.
We went to visit him in bed!

We played for hours with a piece of string - Cat's Cradle.
We played for hours with a piece of clothesline - Skipping.
We played for hours with chalk and a stone- Hopscotch.
We played for hours with 5 small stones - Jacks.

Who needs expensive toys?
Did you have a trolley made with old pram wheels and a plank? Steered with a piece of rope?

I never heard that rumour about ice cream, but we always gave the bottom of the cone to the dog anyway, and she didn't get polio or TB!
"Step on a crack, break your grandmother's back". Happy to report that my grandmothers' backs remained intact.

Mishap re your 'cabbages boiled to death' .... the inevitable small slug or similar found in them

AlieOxon, yes I remember the local pool being closed because of polio.
KatyK, those nuns have a lot to answer for. I believed it all at the time too. Apparently they "knew" we all had black stains on our souls. Luckily so many fascinating things over these 10 pages. Brought back lots of happy memories.

I remember being told eating apple pips gave you appendicitis.

Those nuns.....it seemed that everything (including breathing heavily) was a sin, I didn't stand a chance of redemption as a 'non-Catholic' in a convent school - two thirds of the girls were fee-paying N-Cs and condemned to everlasting hell according to the nuns. They didn't seem to mind taking the fees off our parents though!

My first school was a CofE school run by nuns, not catholic - boy did those nuns scare me to death. My parents took me away from it thank goodness.

This has been a very interesting thread.

I remember being table head at junior school and told by the headmistress I would have to eat everyone's leftovers (gristle and lumpy custard included) if I allowed them to leave anything.

Yes - school was a tougher place in the 50s - being rapped on the knuckles with a ruler was normal practice; and silence in class was the rule. And the board rubber would be thrown at you if you misbehaved.

The ghastly mess of dipped ink pens - all those blots and squashed nibs!

We were slapped on the back of the legs, hit across the hand with rulers, 'slippered' with a gym shoe and refused permission to go to the loo (and when you were allowed to go, you had to ask for one sheet of Bronco toilet paper). No nuns! In secondary school, the preferred sanction was a board rubber accurately thrown at the offender. Then there was corporal punishment, ie caning that was entered in the book. These were good schools with good reputations.

I thought apple pips DID give you appendicitis! Don't they? I still wouldn't dare swallow one.
Yes, all those mortal sins that you could commit just by thinking something!! Dear oh dear.
I'm laughing to myself at the threat of having to eat everyone's leftovers.
And those awful rulers on the back of the hand. I also got caned on the hand. If you spat on your palm first it hurt less.
At least some things have changed for the better.

Lilygran, I was refused permission to go to the loo at infants school. This little 5-year-old unfortunately couldn't hold it back. They had to deal with the result and I had to wear a pair of boys' pants for the rest of the day.

Never mind apple pips and appendicitis, A far more dreadful fate awaited.

That was if you swallowed your chewing gum it would tangle itself around your heart and kill you.
(Somehow I knew right away that was impossible)

I was never rapped over the knuckles with a ruler, but my piano teacher had one of those giant thick pencils, and used to rap my knuckles with it when I played a wrong note. My knuckles got a lot of punishment!

Number so did mine, but it was a ruler! Ours was not a 'harmonious' relationship in any respect. In the end, my mother took him to task in no uncertain terms, and found me another, less brutal, teacher.

The same headmistress who threatened me with everyone's leftovers also rapped me over the knuckles with a ruler.
I hate her to this day.

Bread and dripping (Mmmm !)

Swapping paper "scraps" at school (pictures of angels and cherubs etc)

Metal roller skates

Using a pen with a nib and dipping into the ink at school

third of a pint bottles of milk with a straw

Saw someone with what was probably cranberry juice and I remembered raspberryade, can you still buy it ?

Who`s mum, and, or, gran used to donkey stone their front steps? It was a matter of pride to have a beautifully scoured doorstep.

Yes I remember the pride in a well scrubbed doorstep, especially if you lived in a long terrace where all the doorsteps were clearly in view. And a good housewife would be the first to have the washing on the line on Monday mornings. Washing was never done on a Sunday, that was taboo and frowned upon.

I sometimes got the job of scouring the doorstep. We used the donkey stone - if we could get hold of it - to draw 'beds' for our hopscotch type games.

Our hpopscotch pitches were drawn using the pieces of shale that were in with the coal when it was delivered and "dumped" on the pavement at the front gate. We kids had to help cart it round the back to the coal place in buckets, and we`d toss the pieces of shale under the hedge till we needed it.