those were the days

[Lou Barron]

My childhood days was just like what Jim said we only saw butter once in awhile dripping and connyony or a jam butte my mam was a good cook could make a good meal anytime we never went hungry

[cappy]

funny how things spring to mind but when we had rice pudding with currants my mam always called it darkies in the cottonfield and there was no racial thing about it but it was a good description regards cappy

[alf corbyn]

hey richard, i always thought you wos a pom mate, not a dinky die aussie.

cappy i like the term your mother used. we always called it ******* in a snowstorm.when i was akid ****** was a general term everyone used. my mate had a big black curly haired dog called ******.

[leratty]

Chicken, God we loved that however it was generally only served for visitors or on seriously special occasions. For a family of five I did not get any white meat until I left home, interestingly have not eaten the leg of wing since & happily am married to a lady who prefers that sector so I get to eat my white meat. Cane, well sometimes it was a tad over the top but yes absolutely agree it never caused us any problems as did not the way John recalls the food prep or being hurt etc. We were never bored never, there were so many things to do every day when back at home on holidays. I reckon we, our generation that is had a mighty good childhood sure with some privations or missing out on things but still better I feel than today's kids many of whom seem beyond spoilt & coddled so many can not even walk to school mother drives then picks them up . Just unable to amuse themselves without some electronic game or having the best of electronic gizmos, mob ph's, Ipads, you name it.
RichardQ, yes that sure taught us the value of water conservation still with me too I never leave the pap running when cleaning my teeth to this day.
Agree as to food when at sea it was generally plentiful & better than boarding school quality + with lots of tab nabs too (: In the main I felt I sailed on good feeders & the roast & steak once a week were always good at least to me in those days. Only real bum feeder I was on was a B.A. Flyer, Brazil Star, a shocker. We even went down the I think No 5 hatch near our accommodation at night with knives & a cooks butcher book to hack off some meat that was how hungry we were! Yet when on another of their ships, sure a small one the food was top notch.

[Ivan Cloherty]

All this talk about chicken reminds of the old adage, 'why is a sunburnt girl in a bikini like a roast chicken?'.................the white bits taste the best!

[Roger Dyer]

Hi Louis (the Amigo),

Your reference to 'school dinners' triggered a memory of a time when, wherever possible, most British school children had access to a partly subsidised Government scheme, one that sought to ensure that, on school days at least, each child would receive the benefit of a 'proper' meal' which, in the years of austerity immediately following the war, some parents found difficult to provide. It was a time when 'rickets', due to malnourishment, was for some a reality.

At most of the schools I attended (which, due to the nomadic existence of my dear mother and I, there were several) the large, often draughty, school hall doubled as a canteen. The fare provided, varied somewhat each day, both in taste and stomach-filling capability, however, from the safety of my mature years I can afford to reflect with gratitude, but at the time I didn't realise just how fortunate I was.

Our meals would be served to us by two or three 'dinner ladies' all wearing pinafores, one of whom would invariably be a large, jolly soul with an endless repertoire of comical expressions with which to regale us. One of her companions, thin, doleful and seemingly mute, would wear a scarf on her head, like a turban, in a vain attempt to disguise the curlers she'd left in her hair that morning. Usually her name was Minnie or Ada. As far as the food was concerned there would be good days and some that were not so good. On bad days, dinner might consist of two thinly sliced pieces of meat (of indeterminate origin) that lay on the plate caressed by a portion of overcooked cabbage, curiously grey in colour, accompanied by a solitary piece of carrot and a dollop of white mash stuff that we assumed was potato, but sometimes were never really sure. Over the top of this they dribbled a liquid of minimal viscosity that we knew was gravy because it was Tuesday. |To follow this culinary delight, 'afters' would invariably consist of tapioca pudding (humourously referred to as frog's spawn) which I loathed, or the slightly less obnoxious semolina pudding with a miniscule blob of jam in the centre. The semolina and jam we would stir rapidly to make a slightly more attractive pink concoction, but with the tapioca there was little that could be done. With a resigned air, we would hastily gobble it down safe in the knowledge that a persistent schoolboy hunger would remain thereafter. Good days meant shepherds pie with peas or on rare occasions a tasty portion of meat pie with a crusty pastry top, on which days even the mash that accompanied it tasted like potato. On very good days, the 'afters' that followed might be my favourite, a bulky chocolate pudding covered in a faux-chocolate sauce or, perhaps, a square of apple-pie with custard. It was on days such as this that boys most cunning (like myself) would finish their desert and loiter with ears tuned for the hoped for cry of 'Anyone want seconds'. This would be followed by a thunderous sound of stampeding feet across the wooden floor as we rushed to claim our share of the spoils. It was a happy moment when even the expressionless face of a 'Minnie' might encouraged to smile.

............Roger

[Richard Quartermaine]

hey richard, i always thought you wos a pom mate, not a dinky die aussie.

Fair dinkum, Alf but with my mother two aunts, an uncle and a grandma all from the Bradford woolen mills apparently I had a Yorkshire accent until went to school. Which reminds me. When Grandma went to stay with my aunt on their dairy farm she went to local Waple's store where she told the girl behind the counter -" Ee, lass ah'l 'ave soom't o' that 'n soom't o' this..." The girl's jaw dropped and she called out to the proprietor "Mr. Waples, Mr Waples, there's a foreign woman out here and I can't understand a word she's saying."
Grandma took a deep breath, stood up straight and slammed the door behind her. "Tha knows! 't lass colled me a forena! Ee bah goom! I'm reet insoolted." And in 1940 she came to look after us whilst my mother was sick. I was just about to spread jam on my buttered bread and she looked horrified and scolded, "Tha has best booter tha nae has jam. Tha has jam tha nae has booter".

Born in 1860. She was quite lady.
Richard

[Richard Quartermaine]

RichardQ, yes that sure taught us the value of water conservation still with me too I never leave the pap running when cleaning my teeth to this day.

Oh yes, the same with me. To wash in the white round enamel bowl at an angle to be able to have enough water to cup in your hands.
Richard

[cappy]

ah the wonders of the fur lined cup

[Keith Tindell]

Ah the old school days and dinners, i remember the * anyone for seconds call*well, also the visit by the school doctors, and me in those days built like a racing snake, and painfully under weight, was always given large tins of cods liver oil and malt, which i used to scoff down in big spoons . But happy days as long as you did as you were told, but not always achieved, and the dreaded wait outside the headmasters office, knowing the cane would come out. Kids today do not even believe it was like that, they look in horror, and then smile thinking i am telling porkies KT