Remember when again...

[Wiggy]

Dates only available at Christmas - that's a new one!!     I wonder why - was it part of post war rationing?

I bet they are available all the time now?  Yes?? 

I bought 500gms of Tunisian dates yesterday - they are delicious - not quite as sweet either as they still have their pits in!

[deeiluka]

Christmas Day memories.....one that comes to mind is visiting both sets of of grandparents. We'd visit my Dad's parents during the afternoon and the most boring time was had by all. Children should be seen and not heard,  so it was sit on a chair and not speak unless spoken to. If we were lucky we'd have a glass of cordial so weak that plain water would have been preferable and a couple of pieces of broken biscuit. Just before we left, we'd each receive a Christmas gift, which was always something like a cake of soap, or a new toothbrush. My parents often received back a gift that they had previously given my grandparents!   

Oh the relief when we departed and headed for my other grandparents for Christmas night. My mother had 6 brothers and usually most of them would be there also with their families.....so lots of cousins and we'd run riot. Such fun we had. Eventually after a wonderful evening meal of delicious finger foods we'd settle around a large Christmas tree and "Santa" would arrive with a sack full of gifts for us....gifts that were always something each child was excited to receive and really appreciated. Then it was a singsong of Christmas Carols around the piano. It was a wonderful way to end Christmas Day.

[Jean McGurn]

This thread has brought back so many memories especially the items in the stocking. In the late 40's I always had a pomegranate in mine as well as the orange. Have vague recollections of eating it with a pin to dig out the pips.

Funny thing was I only ever saw them at Christmas don't remember any others in the family eating them either but then maybe that's probably the old memory box 

Jean

[deeiluka]

We never had any sort of fruit in our Christmas stockings....probably because we had so many different fruit trees growing in the garden. We did always have a blown up balloon tied to them, and as we grew older an Annual such as Girls' Crystal etc.   

[Wiggy]

All this talk of fruit reminds me of my very first introduction to the mango - when I was 22 and leaving for England on my first great adventure  (and I am having a mango for dinner tonight too!  )

A nursing friend in Sydney met our ship when we berthed for the day and took me home to her place and we had mango for lunch - she advised me that the very best place to eat mango was in the bath as they are so messy - I have learnt how to cope with them now!        I'd never even seen one before let alone eaten one.   Delicious.

How many new vegetables have you met in adulthood which you never saw as a child?

[joboy]

All this talk of fruit reminds me of my very first introduction to the mango - when I was 22 and leaving for England on my first great adventure  (and I am having a mango for dinner tonight too!  )

A nursing friend in Sydney met our ship when we berthed for the day and took me home to her place and we had mango for lunch - she advised me that the very best place to eat mango was in the bath as they are so messy - I have learnt how to cope with them now!        I'd never even seen one before let alone eaten one.   Delicious.

How many new vegetables have you met in adulthood which you never saw as a child?

Snap Wiggy ......... I got here to live in 1948 ......... my wife to be introduced me to mangoes,rock melon and passion fruit ....... thought I was in heaven.
Joe

[Wiggy]

Nice selection there Joe - specially canteloupe and passionfruit together - tried that??  Funny - we nearly always had them together when we were kids.

[deeiluka]

Passionfruit!
We had neighbours who had a tennis court. Next door to them had a wonderful black passionfruit vine that used to hang through the wire netting to the tennis court side. Every Sunday afternoon my family and our neighbours used to play tennis, and we kids were the ball boys and girls.....when we weren't scrounging passionfruit hanging through the fence and devouring them from the skins.

It's where I got my love of passionfruit.   

[johncrowner]

Someone mentioned Streuall Peter. I had a copy of Streuall Hitler which was published , I think by the Daily Mail,in the early 40,s. Long gone now, but they appear occasionally on ebay. The original one is now worth several hundred pounds, but most now are re-prints