The past is a different country. They do things differently there.

[LizzieW]

I used to live in a small town with a railway station.  We used to go and stand on the platform to wave to the drivers of the steam trains.  One day, I was even lifted on board by the driver and helped his colleague put coal on the fire in the engine!  Nobody on the platform thought it was strange at all.  I must have been about 6 or 7 at the time.

The other thing I did when older and doing a paper round was to meet the postmen (they always delivered letters early in the morning then) and I would give him the newspapers for one side of the road and he'd give me the letters for the other side of the road.  It meant letters and papers delivered in double quick time.

Lizzie

[Lydart]

You couldn't do that now !    Jobsworth and all that !

[kerryb]

I remember summer evening when my uncle cut the grass for silage we used to put a stick in the end of a feed sack with a rope tied round it, fill the sack with hay, tie the sack to the back of the trailer, sit on the sack and get pulled up and down the field by the tractor and trailer.

Bet you couldn't do that now with health and safety rules.  Nobody ever fell off, got a bit of a sore bum though because the hay would gradually fall out of the sack!

Kerry

[Shropshire Lass]

We used to use a furniture removal lorry to go to Guide camp.  All the tents and other baggage went into the back and we made ourselves comfortable on top of it.  The flap was put up but the main door was left open so we weren't in the dark.  The journey in the lorry was a great start to the week!

Monica

[Gadget]

My cousin married a commercial traveller who in the early days dealt in clothes before moving on to biscuits 

Anyway, he had a little black van with all the clothes in the back on two rails. We all used to go to Rhyl in it for day trips - that's 5 adults and 3 children, our picnic, our swimsuits, buckets and spades,  towels, flask, etc. etc. and the clothes that were still in the van

Gadget

[Abiam2]

Does anyone remember the concentrated orange juice?  It came in a rather flat bottle and had a blue scew top cap. 

Perhaps someone here can remember a Blackcurrant cordial very thick and concentrated (NOT RIBENA) we used to have it as a treat on blancmange.  I have been trying to remember the name for years!  Sad isn't it?

Also were you taught to tear the sugar and tea packets down the sides to make sure you got every grain, leaf from inside the double wrapping?  I was still doing that when I got married in '64.

I also suffered the 'You'll grow into it' syndrome!  I was at the Grammar School and the boys from the Secondary Modern would shout out -  'Here comes Polly Long Frock'!  And they were right I remember the bottom of my gaberdine mac clipping my heels as I walked.  Fortunately I grew quickly but it still lasted at least 3 years.  So I suppose my mother was right as those school macs were so expensive in relation to their income.

I never suffered the Corset but remember well the 'Roll on'  with rubbery suspenders.  And no liberty bodice for me just evil wooly vests and I was almost envious of the girls whose parents could afford to buy them.

I've just watched the 'Four Yorkshire men' sketch - very funny and I wonder are we guilty of doing the same thing?  I think not as all these posts are true and well remembered by anyone born in the 40's.

Let's have more,
Regards, Abiam

[Subaru]

I know it's not that long ago, but I couldn't go back to tea-leaves

I always forgot about them being in the bottom of the cup, and got a mouthful every time

Rosemary

[chinakay]

Yeah, well, some people haven't forgotten about tea-leaves in the bottom of the cup, even though I haven't used loose tea the entire time we've been together, and he still leaves a quarter-inch of cold tea in the bottom of the cup, which sloshes out all over the wall when I load the cup into the dishwasher, and bellow at him to please not do that, and he tells me his mother made tea with loose tea when he lived at home even though that was like 35 years ago....oh, what's the use....

Just venting a bit

Cheers,
China

[Ecneps]

I know it's not that long ago, but I couldn't go back to tea-leaves
I always forgot about them being in the bottom of the cup, and got a mouthful every time

We still use them, but with a strainer, then you don't get dregs 

Barbara