Meaning of abbreviation ‘BBs’ in a 1940s Book

Yes. It would seem that it is indeed a British English term for pencil erasers. The rubber boots were called galoshes in the UK.

Sorry for doubting you, Mrs McDowall.

After a google, AI tells us:

India rubbers" (or simply "rubbers") were indeed a type of waterproof footwear in America. They were specifically overshoes or galoshes made from natural, vulcanised rubber designed to be worn over regular fabric shoes or boots to keep them dry in mud or rain.

That would make sense.

I’m pretty sure they do mean erasers (I call them rubbers anyway but obvs not in US haha). What item if clothing was it?

Interesting.

Yes that makes sense.

This comes up as an issue when dating photos. One looks at the fashion and dates that. But in fact it's also important to look at the person's age and ask, is this person wearing the fashions of their younger years? Indeed the very dresses, skirts and coats of their younger years? These things being incredibly labour-intensive to make and not cheap. So photos of older people can feature fashions from decades earlier.

It's the same with furniture. Most people don't replace their furniture very often, so any photo taken in a home rather than a studio can feature furniture from eras long past.

It's one of the things that jars slightly in retro dramas made now – that the furniture is dedicatedly of the era when the drama is set. When in reality the young couple with a small baby in a rented room might have a few of their own bits and bobs (bed linen, plates), but a lot of the furniture could easily be over 50 years old. Solid wood tables last forever!

love those books

In the 1960s my mother used to wear a bra and pants, then over the top of her pants she would have a pantie girdle, then tights or stockings, and a full length slip over the lot. Does anyone remember “bra slips” with cardboard (or so it seemed) cups for “ladies to put their udders in” (as I informed my mother).

Same. Right until now I thought they were talking about erasers.

I'm not sure about the boned bodices. There was a lot of latex involved from the 1940s on. This site shows a timeline of women's bras and girdles made using latex (i.e. rubber), which must have been an improvement on boning because the rubber held everything in place but had a bit of stretch in it too. Probably not very comfortable, though. I assume it could all get a bit sweaty.

https://www.playtex.co.uk/blogs/our-story/brand-history

Lovely thread with some interesting info!

@EllieQ nice to hear you're enjoying the books. I found them quite engrossing.

In the 1950s? Wow. I had no idea.

So while Britain was fighting the Second World War and the late Queen was getting her HGV licence and repairing trucks, older women were wearing boned bodices? <mind blown>

How old are Clary and Polly at the time? I had a liberty bodice aged about seven in the 1950s. I don't remember bust bodices, but my mother and grandmother still wore boned corsets.

I love this thread - what a great puzzle and the solution totally makes sense. For sure the coy abbreviation meant it was either underwear or sanpro.

Also enjoying it bc this series of books is where my username comes from - always loved this feisty character :)

I wore a Liberty Bodice in the late 50s and early 60s before graduating to a normal vest, and then a bra as a teenager. I never knew the BB abbreviation though.

BBs were bras. Loving the idea of a special trip for baked beans! However they were not actually allowed baked beans at home and only had them in cafes.

i also would assume India rubbers were eraser rubbers.

could they have been rubber boots for walks when it had been raining a lot? I guess they would not have had wellington boots in America?

My MIL took it one stage further by telling me my toddler was "pennying".

My grandmother referred to the whole business politely as "I just need to go through", which I confused for a while with "goes through you like a dose of salts", but apparently was a hangover from "going through the back of the house to get to the outside privy".

😊 😂

I'm loving hearing all these details from people's memories!

@TeaAndStrumpets Oh yes - those divided skirts, and thick stockings, and the ominous snap and dangle of a broken suspender - glory days.

Oh yes, my mother and aunt would talk about STs and "the curse" and it made me cringe! Another cringy outdated euphemism was "spend a penny".

Yes I wore a liberty bodice and a chilprufe vest. I don't remember extra buttons for suspenders but I remember the little rubber buttons down the front.

Moving on to the 60s my school uniform had lisle stockings which had to be worn with a a suspender belt or girdle. The misery of cold chapped upper legs in the gaps above the stockings....the original chub rub 😯 See also, those divided shorts we wore for hockey.

When I was a teenage girl i was always puzzled by a status quo song with the lyrics “STs showing, you really got me going” I could not work out what they were singing about. My mum would write STs on a shopping list for Sanitary Towels but I didn’t think that they would be singing about period products. Only recently I saw this question in an interview with Francis Rossi and it was Stocking Tops. Well, that makes more sense!