UK Disability Resource of Disabled Needs

Annie · Full Member Joined: 15 Mar 2008 Posts: 216 Location: kent

Yes we did all those things as well, the school playground always had a huge slide when it was icy and most of the streets, remember the school milk, I can remember one winter when the little bottles all got frozen solid, when I was at infants and primary they used to make us drink it. We had to go out as well whatever the weather at breaks, guess we learnt to run about to keep warm
The Working Mens Club was very much part of village life back then in an old hut like structure, now replaced by a new building just known as the club, I remember the seaside trips and later on theatre trips, there was a local group of men who would always be in the Club but I dont think here they were ever as huge as the northern ones,
Annie

pam · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 8:14 am Post subject:

I agree about the milk bottle tops Annie and remember mum getting in the milk only to find the tops raised up as they were frozen or a hole in one bottle where the birds had pecked to get a drink. We had a shop in our village which gave food etc on the 'tic' Mum had a red book and would send me down there if we ran out of anything the total would be added into the book and would be paid at the end of the week when dad got his wages. I think most people in our village shopped there on 'tic'. There were no super markets then. I took my young brother there on one occassion in his pram. Got back home with the shopping and mum asked 'where's our Andrew?? whoopps I had left him outside the shop! I must have been around 12 then. Pam
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Pam.

Annie · Full Member Joined: 15 Mar 2008 Posts: 216 Location: kent

Leaving your brother is one thin Pam, I have a friend who left her own baby pram and all outside the bakers, he survived though and is grownn up and married these days.

It was the bluetits who used to peck the tops of of milk bottles, they used to drink the cream of the top.I remember that it hit the papers when they suddenly started doing it all over the country. It doesnt happen so often these days for sdome reason, perhaps because not many people have milk delivered any more. Our milkman when I was young had a motorbile with a side car adapted as a milk float.

Tic was part of life back then, the shop keepers knew who they could trust to pay them, some people were denied, when we were out in the wilds our groceries were delivered once a week on a Friday and Mum ordered a week in advance and paid when they were delivered. In those days the rent man called as well, the farmer when we lived in the wilds and the council man when we were rehoused.
Annie

pam · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:46 am Post subject:

As a young teenager I worked on a milk round for 3 years. I remember having to stand on the back of the van with its doors open when we got stuck on ice or snow, and on severalt occassions borrowing my 2 younger brothers sledges to pull the milk to parts of the village which was blocked by snow - it was heavy work I can tell you. We used to have a break half way through the morning and have a bacon butty and a warm drink before refilling the van with milk and eggs for the next villages delivery. Tommy the man I worked for/with had a son my age and i remember one day walking through the dairy with a full tray of eggs to put into the van and tommy's son calling my name and throwing something towards me - it had the effect of making me jump - he laughed - but stopped as the full tray of eggs fell to the floor as I jumped! lololool Boy - was he in trouble lolool He is a retired police inspecter these days and although Tommy (his dad has been dead many years his mum is still alive and I still visit her. If John is there we still laugh over his prank which went wrong. lolol Pam
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Pam.

Annie · Full Member Joined: 15 Mar 2008 Posts: 216 Location: kent

It sounds as if you really enjoyed your job, I did a paper round when I was at school, at times here the mist used to be so thick in the morning that you couldn't see more than a few feet, very few people had cars and you could hear bikes going along a few feet away and just make out the lights.

The mist made you soaking wet as well, my brother did an evening paper round and did far better than me, he used to get tips in the pubs especially on a Saturday night, mostly I just got them at Christmas, at one house the dog used to grab the paper as it went through the letter box and I tried hundreds of times to get up the path without him hearing, I only managed it once, when the boy I took over the round from showed it to me he said that if the dog was out at one particular house to just throw the paper on the doorstep and run, it never was though. Not everybody had letter boxes and I had to leave papers in all sorts of strange places,
Annie

pam · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 5:07 pm Post subject:

Annie I remember the dampness of the mist and how wet and cold I got through it. My boss wore the fingerless gloves - me - no way told him i would look like Scrooge lolol Now i'm older I think they would have been better than the woollen mittens I wore. I also got lots of tips at Christmas time and one year bought myself a new coat. I remember the small breed of dogs snapping at my ankels and once got bitten by a goose!!
One year we did a round for another milkman and as I came back to the van from a large house a dustbin man told me to watch out for the dog as they didn't go through the gate. Oh ! I said now I realise that why when this dog bounded out at me the lady gave me a 'funny' look as I patted the dog and spoke to it. lololol Must have been my charm?? Or -- the dog was so surprised that I didn't turn tell and leg it out through the gate. lolol
I have another funny story but will tell that in another post. Pam
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Pam.

Annie · Full Member Joined: 15 Mar 2008 Posts: 216 Location: kent

The fingerless gloves were probably better for holding milk bottles than mittens, at one time one of my girls adopted them but they were a fashion item then.

The worse dog in the village when I was young belonged to the local undertaker, it was tiny and ran loose around his garden, whenever any body passed it used to fly out of the drive and snap at their ankles and also attack every dog that passed, I am not sure what it was but it was about the size of a small rat and a complete nuisance.

I dont know if I have better tolerance these days but I am sure it used to be colder in those days, I remember shivering in a school skirt and socks in the winter, my girls are lucky that they could wear trousers,

Annie

pam · Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:53 am Post subject:

It is definately warmer in winter Annie. I certainly don't use gloves like I used too.
As we come up to the summer school break I remember long days playing outside in the fields at the back of our house, going for picnics and long walks with mum. Whip and Tops as well as hoola hoops got a good playing with. We also picked the heads off roses - put the petals in water and thought after a couple of days we had a lovely perfume to wear.lololol
With my own daughter We would take the dog on long walks through the fields and woods ending up at the senior school with a bucket and spade plus bowel of water for the dog. My daughter would play for ages in the sand - which was actually for the schools the long jump games. lolol
Wellll we don't live near a beach.

On rainy days as a youngster we would colour and do really big jigsaws which took several days and all the family would pass by - stop - and try and fit a peice or two before carrying on what they were doing.
as well as reading. i also remember melting down old records and making dishes with them - think how much money I may have lost doing that??
My two brothers would play with their cowboy and indian figures on the carpet or army figures these were small and I would often tread on them - of course I wouldn't have any slippers on would I!
We had a budgie named Peter (of course)

and he was very tame - was always poddling about on the floor and I was sure one day he would get squashed under someones foot. He used to love grandads bald head and would sit for ages pecking at it - couldn't have hurt though as grandad never complained. I've no idea what he was after on a bald head

There were no pc's or playstations-wees etc then Ludo and snakes and ladders where the in thing!! Pam
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Pam.

Annie · Full Member Joined: 15 Mar 2008 Posts: 216 Location: kent

Yes sounds like my childhood, we used to walk miles, my brothers favourite indoor toys were his Matchbox Toys, these days they are worth a fortune but I dont think his would be they got lots of use.

We played the usual board games and also lots of card games, Mums's family knew loads of those, Mum said she learnt most of them from my Great Grandmother, Mums parents had a pub and the old lady looked after the girls, she had fairly severe arthritis and was't very mobile so played card games with them which were passed on to us and our cousins.

We made paper mache (if thats how you spell it) models, we made the paste by boiling up flour with water, I always had a paint box on the go as well.

We didnt have a budgie but often kidnapped the cats kittens, she would come and get them back after a while, strange any outsider touched them and she would go mad, poor cat she even got dressed in dolls clothes on occasion and invited to dolls tea parties. One of my prized possesions was a real china dolls tea service, we used to make tea in it and visitors like Granny used to drink it, very brave of them, especially Granny as she favoured real builders tea in a pint mug, must say I like my tea like that, my late Dad always used to describe weak tea as '' Water bewitched, tea be buggered'',

Annie

pixie · Site Admin Joined: 16 Jun 2007 Posts: 1851

I also had one of those bone china tea sets. I loved it but was never allowed to make real tea with it.

My Dad used to call weak tea, Maid's water.
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