those were the days

[john sutton]

My mum used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread butter on bread on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get food poisoning.

Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in ice pack coolers, but I can't remember getting e. coli

Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake or at the beach instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then.

We all took PE ..... and risked permanent injury with a pair of Dunlop sandshoes instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors that cost as much as a small car. I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now.


We got the cane for doing something wrong at school, they used to call it discipline yet we all grew up to accept the rules and to honour & respect those older than us.

We had 50 kids in our class and we all learned to read and write, do maths and spell almost all the words needed to write a grammatically correct letter......., FUNNY THAT!!


We all said prayers in school and sang the national anthem, and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention.

I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself.

I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations. We weren't!!

Oh yeah ... and where was the antibiotics and sterilisation kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed!

We played “King of the Hill” on piles of gravel left on vacant building sites and when we got hurt, mum pulled out the 2/6p bottle of iodine and then we got our backside spanked.
Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10 day dose of antibiotics and then mum calls the lawyer to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.








To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a dysfunctional family.

How could we possibly have known that?

We never needed to get into group therapy and/or anger management classes.

We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac!

How did we ever survive?

LOVE TO ALL OF US WHO SHARED THIS ERA.

AND TO ALL WHO DIDN'T, SORRY FOR WHAT YOU MISSED.

I WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR ANYTHING!

Pass this to someone and remember that life's most simple pleasures are very often the best.

AAAAh, those WERE the days!!!!

[Jim Brady]

Spread butter!!! gosh John you were posh we only got marge or drippin.Chop chicken!! maybe at Christmas,my mother used to go out on the front step on a sunday and sharpen the knife on the sandstone windowsill to crack on to the neighbours that we had a joint.No quite honestly I had a good childhood never hungry and always well dressed.Nobody in my area was what you would call well off but everyone was happy with their lot and nobody was there to tell us that we were underprivilidged.Maybe hard going being a kid from a big family but then you soon grow up start work a couple of you go away to sea leave your Ma an allotment and when you come home you have an nice home to enjoy.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Doc Vernon]

Oh so true John
All that you have said refers to so many of us of that era.and like you say we never suffered with much at all!
I think we were made of tough stuff mate,no moddly codling by the Mum or Dad!
Did all those things you mention,and a bit besides! haha!
Got our heads pushed under the desk at school so when we got the cane up came the head and bang!! Ouch!!

Had our Morning Mealie Pap (Maize Meal) before heading off to School,in shorts and bare feet,on dirt Road walking for up to 4 Miles each way ! Rain sleet or Shine!
As we say

Ja dit was die dae


Yes we lived and survived the best Era that came about,and i too say

---

I WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR ANYTHING!


AND TO ALL WHO DIDN'T, SORRY FOR WHAT YOU MISSED.

Yea Yea!!!! i say!

Thanks for the memories!!

[cappy]

so sad can remember my ma sticking a feather in a big potato and telling us kids it wasn't a turkey at xmas it was a Peruvian woodcock and they cost more than a bleedin turkey

[Richard Quartermaine]

Our home was unlined asbestos-fibro with a wood stove, a 1,000 gallon water tank whose contents were very, very precious, on 8 acres of bush land two miles from the nearest shop, over a mile from the bush school, all dirt roads and no electricity and no public transport. No refrigeration and in the summer the temperature would rise over 100 degrees Fahrenheit and the corrugated iron unlined roof dripped in the winter when it got below zero and any warmth caused condensation.

Except for a visit to the distant hospital in mid 1930s when I was about three or four when the dog bit my hand in his rush to take a newly emptied sardine tin off me, my mother fixed any medical problems with bread or soap poultices for boils and infections and Sunlight soap and warm water for skinned knees and the like.

Until I left home when I was 13 I had a bunch of mates, all living living like me, all with our chores but running and climbing and swimming and having the time of our lives. I remember we all got 'a half-hearted good talking to' for the night we raided the farmer up the road's ripe water melons and he traced the black seeds down the road and at the front gate where we stood around yarning and spitting out seeds. We had to do it - the barsteward poisoned our dog that went courting his on heat bitch.

Above all, when asbestos is in question places get evacuated, there are cries for compensation when nothing has happened. No mention that it is white or brown asbestos or dangerous blue. As Lisa Minnelli sang - "Those Were the Days My Friend".
Richard

[john sutton]

Involuntary Muscle Contractions


A professor at the University of Georgia was giving a lecture on 'Involuntary Muscular Contractions' to his first year medical students .


Realizing this was not the most riveting subject, the professor decided to lighten the mood slightly.


He pointed to a young woman in the front row and asked, 'Do you know what your ass hole is doing while you're having an orgasm?'


She replied, 'Probably deer hunting with his buddies.'


It took 45 minutes to restore order in the classroom...........

[alf corbyn]

what's a chicken?.i don't think I tasted chicken until I went in the MN. we had beef on a grill frame with Yorkshire underneath with currents and sultanas in one half, for afters. every Sunday with a news-of-the world tablecloth, Monday cold meat, and sandwiches for tea if the meat held out Tuesday stew, but we never went hungry,we enjoyed life and never worried about getting sick. if you caught chicken pox or measles you were the envy of your mates who all visited your sickbed trying to catch it.

[Louis the Amigo]

Hi shipmates, Chicken was only for people who had money, and were well to do Beef for sunday dinner maybe a pie with the left overs ? feed a family with a few scrapes of beef and gravy? yorkshire pudding was called {batter pudding} in my home or lamb/mutton with home made mint sauce and stew in winter with dough boys no waste in them days.Pork was for christmas time. never had a turkey growing up , Had goose a few times and rabbit, but never done without I knew plenty of children who had nothing to eat at home except bread and dripping. or jam with tea drunk out of jam jars no coal to burn in winter and stole from shops/others to get a bite to eat. Times were tough for many.

[Jim Brady]

There is lots I could say but just a quick one.Playing cricket or football in the street and your Ma would call you a few times for your dinner.Eventually she would shout how many times have I told you your dinners going cold to which you would reply "Hey Ma how can jam butties go cold"!!!
Regards.
Jim.B.

[John Arton]

When we came back from Gibraltar in 52 after dad had rejoined Blue Star, there were no houses to buy where my parents decided to settle in the Lake District, so they rented.
The first house was built in the 2700's and had no heating, electricity and a hand pump only for water. Baths were taken by heating water on the range fire and taking it in a tin bath in front of the fire. We had a fox living in a big shed in the garden which became friendly with us kids. In winter the whole house flooded as it was built into the side of ta hill and down one side ran the road. The house is still there to this day and is now worth a fortune. After 1 year there we moved to a farm cottage which again had no electricity or sanitary fittings. It was a chemical toilet for through the night or brave the cold for the outside netty, hole in a plank above the soil bank.
In winter we were snowed in for days and on occasion it was so deep that you could not get across the back yard to the outside netty. Came down one morning to find two foot of snow in the kitchen that had come down the huge farmhouse chimney.
Still for me it was a wondrous place, chickens, geese and ducks wandering in and out of the house, helping the farmer with the hay making, plucking chickens and generally mucking about on the farm with my mate the farmers son, that is until I accidently poured pitch tar over his blond hair which meant he had to get it all shaved off, friendship over. Again that house is still standing and again its worth a shed load of cash now.
After that my parents eventually managed to purchase a brand new house, still in the Lake District. Next door to this house (which I was to spend the rest of my youth in until going to sea) was an old abandon bobbin mill that had been water driven. Me and my brother spent endless hours exploring this place. All the machinery was still in place and there was even a little mini rail rod that took the timber logs from the storage area into the mill where they were cut up and then turned into bobbins for the cotton mills of Lancashire.
Again it was farming country so summer was spent on the farm, milking, hay making etc.
Out in all weathers with only a ganzie and scarf to keep you warm and thick socks tucked into your willies. Never had a day off school and cannot ever remember being ill even with measles, though I do remember one lad having a violent appendicitis attack when we were in primary school (one room school and one teacher who took you from age 5 up to 11 plus) and having to be rushed off to hospital.
All in all an almost idyllic childhood. We never had much dosh what with father dying when I was young so mum having to go out to work to keep the roof over our head and feed 4 growing children.
We lived out doors after school come summer or winter and throughout I cannot remember any of my class mates being ill beyond the odd bout of flue.
Grammar school doing P.E. in bare feet, playing rugby on playing fields that were rented from farmers so had to be aware of cow pats when tackling and invariably having only lukewarm showers at the best to was off the mud after games.
Looking back I guess it sounds a bit like the Larkins family, hard, not harsh like a lot of other members here. I guess our upbringing is reflected in our children who grew up with us giving them everything we never had...perhaps we spoilt them but I know my two turned out o.k even if the mobile has to clutched in hand at all times and communications appear to be solely by Facebook.
rgds
JA