20 things your child will never do or understand

[Jacqui Harvey]

Sitting in my Nan's house while my parents went to the Pictures.   I loved her old fashion fire place which she blackened every week and polished. It had a shelf at the side next to the fire that a black kettle sat on and it would "sing"  as it was always full of boiling water.   She did not get a T.V. for a long time and we listened to the wireless and played whist, a card game she taught me,  it came in useful years  later as Secretary of the P.T.A. we organised a Whilst night and one table was short of a play and I stepped in.   

[echogirl1]

Jacqui's comments about her nans house, made me remember my own memories of my nan.  We used to go to her house on Saturdays while mum and dad were working, she always made scrag end of lamb stew, with pearl barley and lots of veg.  She cooked it in a massive great pot on the top of the cooker, for about 4 hours, it was so thick you could stand the spoon up in it!!  She used to do the washing every Monday, the kitchen used to be full of steam as everything went in the boiler.  When I was about 7 years old, my grandparents got a telly, it was so exciting, all the neighbours came round.  It had to be total silence on Saturday afternoons when the football results were on, so she could check her "pools", woe betide anyone of us who dared to speak.  I always remember when we visited she always gave us a sixpence (a good sum back then) which she translated into 5 new pence when I visited many years later with my own son!! He was not impressed.

[Bluwise]

I remember my granny tying her flowery "pinnie" around me, giving me bucket of water, an old rag and a lump of sandstone and sending me out to do the front step….all so she could have a natter with my mum without me chattering on and interrupting.  My other gran would never let me speak - an old fashioned grandma -  children should be seen etc.  My gramps used to draw little pictures on the blank edges of the "Liverpool Echo" and we would play "guess what it is" for hours on end until the edges of the Echo were full - i suspect the pictures got a little bigger with each page……..

[Bluwise]

Yes, and the commissioner always wore his full uniform with gold braid and his cap, and walked up and down the queue outside to keep us kids in order.   My Cinema was the Palladium in Seaforth.

Oh my - I lived in Thornton as a child - not many miles away at all.  Our two cinemas were the Regent in Crosby and the Odeon at the top of South Road

[Jacqui Harvey]

I went to School in Crosby and used to go on dates to the Odeon.  My Mum worked in Lloyd's Furniture Shop which was in South Road, she was the Manager of the Bad Debt Department in the offices upstairs.  We used to get the bus together in Seaforth when I went to school and she went to work..  When I was 17 we moved to Maghull.

[teetee]

Spending the day on the London buses on a "Red Bus Rover" during school holidays and trying to get home at the end of the day with a pack lunch of cheese and mustard pickle rolls.

Spending weeks pleading mainly with mum but dad when he wasn't working for a new bike for Christmas and being over the moon when I got one even though it was second hand!

Getting my first pair of Levi jeans and having to sit in the bath in what eventually became cold water to get them to "shrink fit"

My first brown paper wage packet as a 14 years old for my Thursday night and Saturday job in Dolcis in Oxford Street with the commission for selling the shoe protection sprays

Being told I had to go and see the Headmaster at my Grammar School and always managing to avoid the cane for doing something wrong

Being told off by my older sister for jumping of the bus platform before the bus stopped on the way to Saturday morning pictures

Winning as 5 year old's the fancy dress competition with my cousin Karen as Adam & Eve as a Warner's Wagtail at the Isle of Wright holiday camp.....still would need the same size leaves!!!

[mercury]

Have thoroughly enjoyed this thread.. I was 60 years old yesterday and can relate to most if not all of this...We were happy to have second hand furniture when we got married... Our suite was 15 pounds...A G. Plan polished radiogram.. A Hotpoint  washing machine. £5.. The second hand shops used to do really well but Now Ikea has come on The scene.. Our Son would never have second hand... We rented a 2 up and 2 down with a cellar head kitchen.£1.50 a week. We had a gas meter which was a shilling. We bought our first new item with our first wages.. A fridge which we kept at the side of our bed.. It had a bread bin on.. We used to stay in bed on a Sunday reading the papers and eating huge door step ham salad sandwiches made with uncut loaves and Lurpak butter...
We too used to go out to our local park during the holidays.. We were sent to our local shop for a quarter pound of potted meat for sandwiches and then we all clubbed together for a bottle of tizer.....Before aerosols my Mum used to send me to the local hairdressers to have her bottle filled with hairspray and then there was Flit. which was in a metal pump spray for spraying the roses... Our neighbour had fly papers hung on their ceilings...
I remember walking home from the infant school at 5 years old which was about a quarter of a mile because it was safe to do...
My son who is 32 came to visit us recently and we spent 10 mins convincing him that there was such a thing as a trolley bus and that people actually had outside toilets and that some still do...

[Colwyn]

It took ages to get home from primary school as I played marbles along the gutter of the road. Mind you, it was a quiet road; just the A4 from Bristol to London.

[mercury]

And your parents would never be in fear of you being kidnapped and murdered..

[Colwyn]

Ah yes, I had forgotten FLIT. My Dad used it to kill all manner of insects - especially in our scullery. It smelled horrible. Just the thing for knocking down mosquitoes. Or perhaps not, since it contained 5% DDT. Bit of a surprise we lived through its repeated applications.