[MinParticipant]

Picking up on an earlier thread I thought we could all have a go or multiple goes at this one in fact this could become the longest thread if we try really hard folks.
Besides which it takes our mind of the mundane MM matters.(purely temporarily you understand)
So here goesMemory lane aahh

I will see you and raise one ( is that the expression of card players?)
Does anyone remember going to the co-op for your mum and buying a quarter pound of 99 tea. I remember watching with fascination as the assistant put it in a little blue bag then neatly and precisely folded the top in over under so not a single leaf would drop out. Then the butter, crickey we must have been rich but it was served from a butter barrel which sat on a slab of marble and they dispensed it in greaseproof paper, again folding it to make the equivelent of a pakt of Lurpak.
I loved it when buying sugar they managed to scatter some granules on the counter and I would lick my fingers to pick it up, cos rationing had just come off.
I used to carry a quarter stone of potatoes home almost every day ( I was one of 6)
No doubt that is why was always so skinny. mmmm maybe I need to abandon the car in the far corner of the supermarket. But then they give me a trolley.
What can you add to this one ?
Love Min

[eveParticipant]

Hi Min
I am the youngest of 7 as I have grown older I realise why we were all sent to Sunday school.We lived in a 3 bedroom house with just a tap in the kitchen and outside loo.even if you were dying you were sent to Sunday school,I thought it was for our mortal soul,not for my parents.

Believe it or not Min our tea came from the ships,My dad had a friend who swept the tea that was left on floors in ships and my time as a child was spent sieving this tea to remove,nails,bugs and any other foreign bodies,tea tasted ok,Dripping or margarine never ever butter:-P

[brochoParticipant]

Hi Min I loved dripping on bread nothing like it now though One of the smells I remember vividly is bacon in a big sainsburys store . It used to fascinate me watching bacon and cheeses being sliced to order love Bridget x

[jmsmythParticipant]

Hi Min

I was the 2nd of 7 children and my mum let me at the age of 11 get the bus into town (cost hapepenny (half penny)to go to Littlewoods to do shopping. They sold groceries then. The only thing I remember buying was Goblin Meat pudding!! I thought I was the big girl.

Eve as Min days I raise you one. All seven of us went to church in the morning, Bible class , during the service, sunday school in the afternoon and church again at night (and vaguely remember going to Fellowship, but not for very long). When you think about it haveing 7 kids you would do anything "to get your head showered" as we say in Northern Ireland.

Jean x

[tomParticipant]

Well some good uns so far 😀

My Trip down that lane is:::: I am one of six son's that Mum and Dad had and I recall sleeping four in a bed (and we still had bed wetters:-0 sorry brothers) and the blankets that we had were old army coats:-D yes Billy Connely was correct ha ha.

One now dry Tom "Onwards and Upwards" xx

[jmsmythParticipant]

Hey Tom I remember ours were Navy coats over the bed and we used to fight amongst ourselves and the winner got them!
Jean x

[tomParticipant]

Hi Jean

I bet the winner got the sleeve Lol

And do you Remember Co-op Stamps? just cant remember why what or where they came in handy but we used to wait for them to come out of the machine ha ha.

Tom xx

[jmsmythParticipant]

Tom can't remember the stamps but we had Co quarter did you have it? Bought things in Co Op they put it in your book and every three months it had to be paid. My birthday – August fell in Co quarter so that was the excuse for not getting a good present. We always knew when it fell as none of the mums and dads were talking. Its coming back, you also got a dividend depending on how much you spent – I think that was the stamp!! Oh boy it's great this walk – good idea Min.
Love Jean x

[eveParticipant]

Any one remember green shield stamps,i know we saved books of them,cannot remember were we got them from??? or what they bought.

As you know i come from Liverpool,known as scousers,but did you know there is a stew that they call scouse you had it on Mondays made from left over meat from Sunday,and on Tuesday you had blind scouse which was the same pan of stew with no meat left just gravy and more vegetables added.A piece of meat to feed 9 people lasting 3 days.!!!!

[MinParticipant]

I remember the cheque number that you had to remember 15527. They wrote in in a book and doled out the divvi every quarter and everyone with a number was a member of the coop.
I remember cos I worked there for a few months when I left school. And as I was a dunce and could not add up I used to loose some of my wages to make up for loses in my till. No cash registers then. and you had to work out in your head how much change to give.
I remember going tattie picking for pocket money too at this time of year and it was back breaking
Love min

[brochoParticipant]

Green shield stamps were amazing when they came out! I still have a few glass plates and a mixing bowl that came from there Mind you the amount you had to spend to get them was astronomical!! My mum smoked Embassy cigarettes and she used to send me up the road to sell the cigarette cards as they did a similiar scheme love Bridget x

[GillParticipant]

What a fantastic thread. Memories? Too many to know where to begin. The smell of roasting peanuts being cooked in Woolies (woolworths to you young uns). Players number 6 cigarette vouchers (stopped smoking years ago but back then when old enough we smoked ourselves to death to get enough vouchers for a genuine teak coffee table for our first home)

As a child I remember Woolworths and Sainsburys both had wooden floors that made a creaky sound and in Sainsburys a lady with a hair net would "carve" off a slab of butter from a huge block with large wooden butter pats and bash it to a block, the butter pats had patterns on the side and would leave an imprint which, on a warm day, would be gone by the time it was unwrapped at home and put into the larder (no domestic fridges in those days. The bottles of milk, one red top and one gold were put into an enamel basin and left out on a windowledge that got no sun). Real butter? Yup

I was an only child, and although we were not rich we had a very decent life style (Dad was Head Floor Waiter at the Dorchester then the Ritz and then the American Servicemen's Club the hours were unbelievably long).

I hated butter and would eat dry bread. Too polite to refuse a slice of bread and butter at friends' houses I would force the offending slice down. Imagine my Mum's red face when, after me coming home from tea with a friend and declaring that thir bread and butter tasted nice, my mum asked the other mum what brand it was and found out it was the cheapest block of Stork margarine you could buy and the friend's mum blushed to the roots in shame.

Thank you so much for this thread Min. It has been a very mixed day here for mm results and I am still trying to digest all of that. How lovely to share some cherished memories with you all.

Gill xxx

[PerkymiteParticipant]

One of my earliest memories is the Ration Book. The reason this sticks out was that my Mum had misplaced it and there was a real panic on to find it. When it was found and put back on the mantel piece where it was always kept I remember, as a very young child, looking at it in awe.

Kindest regards – Vasbyte

David

[eveParticipant]

here is my memory for today
My mum use to buy every week something for Christmas,tinned fruit and things and put them at the bottom of the wardrobe,we were not allowed to touch them.

I can remember thinking if i made a little whole in the tin,I could drink the juice,and my mum would never know i got the old fashioned can opener and put a tiny whole in all the fruit tins,i just took a mouthful out of each.
Christmas came and when she opened all the fruit it was rotten
She went though my siblings to find the culprit,but never ever thought that i did it.
I admitted it to my siblings 5 years ago,that day they found out I was responsible for lot of things they got the blame for,

They are still speaking to me. Eve

[DaiCroParticipant]

Jumble Sales. I still love them today… despite Janet saying she thought I would avoid them like the plague given their significance to my childhood… but I didn't know any different.

The significance? I was the third of seven children (an eight appeared in my mother's second marriage). I can remember three or four of us having to stand in front of various clothes stalls facing outwards with our arms stretched out, while our Mother held various items of clothing against our backs to see if they were a fit.

Generally she was a very good judge and always went for nearly new in excellent condition. To me it was great fun with a cup of tea and a bun. It was also great fun sifting through the purchases and trying them on… on the rare occasions my Mother got it wrong there was always someone in our house or next door who had 9 children – of which several often joined us in line while my Mum and Kitty from next door marched up and down trying to get the best bargain – my Mum was quicker, with a better eye, so Kitty was always willing to buy anything that didn't fit our clan.:-D

I can honestly say, that apart from my first senior school uniform, I didn't have a single new item of clothing from the age of 3 months to the age of 14. And I was happy with the arrangement… and got as much pleasure from the Jumble Sale 'cast-offs' as any store bought clothing.8-) 🙂

Dai.

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