Meaning of abbreviation ‘BBs’ in a 1940s Book

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g "I think in my early childhood (early 1960s) I wore a liberty bodice. I have a dim memory of fiddly buttons."

I was born in 1957 so a young child in the early 60's like you. My mum insisted I wore a liberty bodice and I hated the damn things. They were quite uncommon then, as opposed to say the 1940's, and most other girls just wore ordinary white vests. But I suffered terribly with tonsillitis and chest infections. I remember well the palaver of putting them on with all the fiddly buttons!

Absolutely DLS fan! I love the Cazalets too. There was a wonderful TV adaptation of Something in Disguise in the 1960s. I would love to see it again, but have never been able to find it. EJH's life had a lot of sadness.

Well, I did laugh at myself, didn’t I?

I answered your question based on my knowledge, and based on your question, and was informed I had had the wrong end of the stick for more than 50 years. Pretty funny I’d say.

Only it turns out that Mrs McDowall wasn’t wrong after all. India rubber has two meanings - and the non-galoshes one apparently is used in What Katy did at School. So my “mistake” wasn’t a mistake, and I’m deprived of a funny story to tell.

You’re the one who is behaving weirdly on this thread. 🤷‍♀️

Yes indeed.

We now seem to be in an era when many goods are seen as ultra-disposable. It's rather alien to me.

oooh are you another secret DLS fan along with SheilaFentiman (and me, tho not obvious from my name)?

When I was a child I thought all the children in the books I read were wearing coats made of towelling (flannel coats you see!)

As a teacher of MFL I could tell a student who had read books from years gone by bc they knew words like content and tranquil (which are cognate in French... but no use if you don't know the English word)

I missed your post Piggy or I would ofc have bowed to your greater knowledge.

I loved WKD and actually bagged a 1950s copy in a charity shop the other day.

I remember having to look up clothing terms like trousseau and tam o'shanter as a kid. Probably one of the Railway Children with the hat and Anne Shirley getting her trousseau together.

My goodness, all these posts later of bickering when I said straightaway that the were galoshes! Nice to know you are listened to... (qualified WKD reader with an American family...)

Indian rubber is very specific.

In the US if you just say rubber it causes hilarity ...

I would still say rubber for eraser and rubber gloves for cleaning; I remember rubber sheets for protecting beds. Our boots were Wellingtons or Galoshes.

And on similar lines, someone making up a child's bed and "putting a rubber under the sheet" in case of accidents.

Yes, context is all! They seem to have used it for anything made of rubber. I have an example, can't remember where from exactly, of its UK use for waterproof training pants, in a child's memoir that went something like "my first pair of knickers without a rubber on the top".

My second example tho - from WKDAS - must be an eraser as it was a gift - a pretty one too

My granny used to take her corsets off and scratch. She also had a knittted bag in her long knickers to hold her hearing aid batteries. It was the 1950s, but she was born in 1883.
My mother only wore corsets on special occasions.
The pull on pantie girdles (sic?) replaced them, but never for granny.

No, actually, that is about galoshes, too -- the joke letter is supposedly from a robber who stole Philly's galoshes from under his bed and ate them, and is now sending an uneaten fragment back to make amends. (P had had a nightmare about thieves eating his galoshes after Cousin 'School of Pain' Helen told them an overly-exciting story about robbers.)

My parents married in 1943 and when they moved into their own home after the war their furnishings, crockery, cutlery and so on were all second hand. Many items were in regular use until my mother’s death in 2000. I still have a few bits and pieces.

Yes. You've just reminded me that as a child reader I was totally puzzled by Dr Carr's instruction to Katy, on leaving her and Clover at the school, to 'Never study till your head aches.' 10 year old me thought he was telling Katy that she should wait until she had a headache before starting to study... 😀

Just laugh at yourself like the baked beans woman and move on. It's not that deep. You don't need to keep trying to justify a trivial mistake.

Bust bodices - old term for bras and not, as I understand it, the same as Liberty bodices (which were more like vests).

I have a friend who was a surprise baby born in the 1940s when her mother was 46, so her mother was much older than most. She recalls being taken to Harvey Nicolls in the early 1960s as a young teenager and dying with embarrassment when her mother announced loudly to the assistant "Jenny has come to be fitted for her first bust bodice", by which she definitely meant a bra.

Yes. It meant galoshes in the book, but as a British English term it means pencil erasers, which is why some of us understand the term to mean pencil erasers. The context of clothing was not apparent from your first post.

Just checked the text of What Katy Did at School and an india-rubber is given as a gift (stationery) but also Rose Red recommends the girls wear their india rubbers and an umbrella (boots).

Ah yes agree, that's about wellies then.

This is surely about stationery tho?

"Philly had a bit of india-rubber in his letter, which was written with very black ink on a big sheet of foolscap"

So I guess it means both?

Except its an American book from the 1870s, not British.

"Katy sighed, but submitted. Later, as the Spring came on, she had a fit of over-anxiousness, and was always sending Clover down to ask Debby if her bread was not burning, or if she was sure that the pickles were not fermenting in their jars? She also fidgeted the children about wearing india-rubbers, and keeping on their coats, and behaved altogether as if the cares of the world were on her shoulders."

Could it be BB guns? Airsoft toys for small boys, popular post war.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BB_gun

"Katy sighed, but submitted. Later, as the Spring came on, she had a fit of over-anxiousness, and was always sending Clover down to ask Debby if her bread was not burning, or if she was sure that the pickles were not fermenting in their jars? She also fidgeted the children about wearing india-rubbers, and keeping on their coats, and behaved altogether as if the cares of the world were on her shoulders."

Obviously talking about clothing, not stationary.