What where the worst things you had to endure as a child?

[John915]

Good evening

I remember that Izal toilet paper, it was awful stuff
Frank.

I remember Izal too, it just didn't do the job it was intended for did it 

The secret of using those papers or newspaper was not to sit idle on the loo. While waiting to use it you had to take the required no of sheets and scrunch them up then roll them between your palms. They went all soft and pliable and worked 200% better without skidding off the target area.

Oddly, when visiting one of my aunts and uncle there was always 2 lots of paper. Nice and soft for my aunt and izal for my uncle who wouldn't use anything else until the day he died.

John915

[Kleftiwallah]

63 and I'm still trying to come to terms with my childhood. . .

Cheers,   Tony.

[Viktoria]

 Carol, do you know something we do not know--- ought we to be stockpiling loo paper amongst other things?

 Actually San Izal did smell of the disinfectant, which is a derivative of coal tar I  think, a carcinogen  !!!!!!!

We were happy, we could manage and adapt and make do and mend. We were all in the same boat as you say, it must be a bit easier when you are not struggling in isolation.
 My grandson stayed with us recently  for a few weeks due to work circumstances. I had a whale of a time mending his work trousers and darning his work socks. I like darning. He was so interested and pleased .He`s known me knit and sew for him from being a little boy .I`m sure my daughter just chucks things away.

 Coats etc were re-cycled for other garments and then ended up as hearth rugs, but I  know one person  who said the rug was first used on the bed if the weather was particularly cold, before being put down in front of the fire. These rugs went through a revival and were seen as the latest  "must have " in trendy kitchens fairly recently. You can con some people really easily can`t you!
 Despite lots of wonderful things which make life easier  today, I still feel my generation had something good which has gone and won`t ever come  back.
 In the words of the song :-" I`m glad I`m not young anymore".    Viktoria.

[Jennaya]

My older relatives were having a discussion recently about the best inventions in their lifetimes. The general consensus was indoor flushing toilets. They could go back to some of the other old things but not the toilets.

[Barbara348]

Oh Lawdy, couldn't agree more !!!!!!!

Barbara.

[SwissGill]

Thank you for all your posts. It's given me quite an input both sad and funny.

Gill

[Countryquine]

As a child in the 60s my Dad would cut my hair - all the other girls in my class had long hair, or were lucky enough to have aunties or the like who were hair-dressers.   It would always end with me bawling my eyes out and usually sneaking off to cuts bits off here and there so I could blame Dad for ruining my hair.  I was a miserable little wretch!   A bit of history repeating itself, as my Granny always said my Granddad would stand my Dad on a chair and cut his hair.   Dad wouldn't stand still and it usually ended with Dad running out and down the street with a towel round his shoulders, sporting a real or imagined cut ear!  Always seemed like the end of the world to me at the time, but how lucky I was to have the childhood I had (even if we did have an outside toilet with paper squares on a nail

I remember Dad telling me about an accident he had when he was a small boy of about 3, when a boy on a butcher's bike came hurtling down the hill and ran into him.   He had a lot of damage to his face and lost all his baby teeth.   I am sure I recall him saying he was in hospital for six months, and my Granny only got to visit once a month.   That must have been so hard for all of them.   

Thinking about today, my other Granny was ten when her older brother was killed in action.   

Bad haircuts?   Nothing coming over me, was there???

[Minoumin]

I attended Culcheth Hall Boarding School for Girls in Bowdon at age 7, 1949, and remember having squares of newspapers hung up instead of toilet paper.

I wonder if my Mum knew this, she had to pay a relatively large sum for my education there.

My Mum went to Culcheth Hall school in 1944 when she was sent to Cheshire during the war.  I have a copy of the school prospectus, the school badge from her blazer and a copy of the Culcheth Hall Magazine.

[SwissGill]

Hi

Do you know how long she stayed there?

Maybe she had gone back home before I attended in 1949?