1950's Childhood.

How many girls got pregnant because boys were too shy to ask for durex?
Taking the point that you had to ask the sales assistant, in the days before self service. I vaguely remember a clip from A Kind if Loving when the boy went into the chemist, lost his nerve and came out with a bottle of Lucozade or something similar.

I was about 15 and a sensitive soul when our next-door neighbour asked me to buy a pack of Tampax when i was doing my mum's shopping. This was, of course, in the days before you could pick up a product and take it to the check-out. You had to go to the counter and ask for it! Oh the embarrassment! I had only a very vague idea what Tampax was and what you did with it as my mother was far too embarrassed to even think about it.

Talking to someone today about betting, reminded me of the bookies runners, before betting shops were legal. Ours was known as Little Johnny, a small man with a hunched back, he`d knock on the back door, whoever opened it would give him the money wrapped in a bit of paper with the bet written on it, then he`d, hopefully, be back the next day with the winnings.

thanks, I was very self conscious in those days.
And mum would always say 'tell him its for Mrs Taylor!!' But I never did, i couldn't see the point.

Your belly comment made me lol Mrs mopp! I'd have felt just the same.

We had the front doorstep painted cardinal red and it would be polished often by me and my sister so we could have the tin for hopscotch when we emptied it. The back door was donkey stoned till it ran out and we had to wait for the rag and bone man to come back with more.

My friend reminded me of the bonfire that was built in our road in the 50s. It was over a gas main pipe, unkown to the neighbours, who only realised when it was all swept away next day. Lucky we weren't all blown to kingdom come!

That's so funny mrs mopp.

Mum, sending me to the butchers to buy some belly pork.
Me, terribly embarrassed, "i'm not saying 'belly' to the butcher!
Can we have mince?'"

Asking the butchers for sawdust for my rabbits' and mice cages and going round Romford market picking up discarded cabbage and lettuce leaves for them also.

Lying in bed at night listening to Radio Luxembourg on my transistor radio.

Oxfam week at school when we paid to go to the lunchtime disco.

Honeycomb on a stick, coated in chocolate and wrapped in polka dot paper.

Rossis icecream, with swirls of fruit sorbet, served from a stainless steel iced bowl. It's still around but doesn't taste the same these days.

making mud pies.

Throwing them at a sketch of Mickey Mouse my father drew on shed door.

Hopscotch

Finding chalk in garden and drawing on pavement.

Dusters on feet and polishing the floor.

Using my aunts mangle

Walking down a country lane unafraid to local pond.

Catching tadpoles

Bob a Job week.

Making dens in hedges that surrounded school playing field (bottom of our garden)

Using said school's long jump pit as our sand pit

Helping dad plant peas (well going behind him an picking them out of holes)

Next door neighbour's bread on a Friday.

Local butchers and asking for 'Piece of topside about 8/- please

licorice comfits

sweet tobacco

tiger nuts

lying in bed and hearing parents and next door chatting over the fence on a summer's evening with blackbirds and thrushes singing in the trees.

roller skating

tennis in the road when Wimbledon was on

Coronation and watching on neighbour's TV

Coronation glass mugs (so tiny)

School milk, warm in summer and frozen with top pushed off in winter

new packs of crayons where you could stand them up in holes in box.

School Assembly and 'The Hebrides' and all sorts of classical music.

Harvest Festival at school with a massive sheaf of corn made out of bread surrounded with REAL vegetables and fruit, not tins of soup.

Yes mrs mop to all you have mentioned,Bread n Dripping loved that on a Monday after the beef dripping in the roasting tin,Give that to me now and I would turn green I think lol lol.���� loved my little bottle of milk cos mum couldn't afford to let us have just milk to drink being six of us it was to expensive ,and the tin Bath was really a round washing tub for soaking clothes in lol lol,so nothing as posh as a tin bath. An aunt used to knit the socks.��☺️����

Hi annodomini ...lol I was one of those dolly cream scrubbers of stone steps,when I was only 9yrs old..at the time my mum used to teach us to respect and Help the senior citizens on our street,run errands ect"....I in turn taught my sons to help people whenever they could regardless of their ages . Yes those days were hard but the people were More caring, polite,and helpful shame for the kids of today no Guidance in many cases.

I have so enjoyed reading all your memories it took be back to a very different era when life seemed so simple.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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!

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)

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.

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.