when the posh children in Enid Blyton have an "ice", I always thought it meant "ice lolly"...

[sadpapercourtesan]

...but I was reading "Five Go To Billycock Hill" last night, and they talked about having an "ice" in a tub with a little wooden spoon...surely that's an ice cream?!

Yes, I have too much time on my hands. I should be doing stuff

If you want ridiculous racial stereotyping try Five Get Into a Fix, which is set in the Welsh mountains.

See also Jo the gypsy girl in The Castle of Adventure, Mafumu the adoring African child in The Secret Mountain, and barely credibly, even for the 1940s the black American paratrooper in one of the 'Adventure' series with Dinah, Jack, Lucy-Ann and Philip, who talks about himself entirely in the third person using unpleasant racial epithets eg 'Missy help poor n---r'. Can't remember which book, but I think it was another one set in Wales, where everyone says 'Look you' and is called Efans and is small, dark and beady-eyed.

I also love the five find-outers! Fatty was a much better leader than bossy Julian.

@MyCatHatesEverybody

Five find outers were way better than the famous five though.

This with bells on! My favourite was the mystery of the disappearing cat.

The Magic Faraway Tree stories were the very best of Enid Blyton though. I always wanted a google bun!

The Magic Faraway children definitely were not posh. They didn't appear to go to school at all.

I don't understand how you can live in 2020 and still talk about "ices" without knowing that the almost everyone else says "ice cream". If someone is still using the word "ice" when chatting to a friend who is not Jacob RM they are putting on a posh act.

George owned her own island or at least her family did. They were posh!

@TwentyViginti we say 'tuthbrush' for toothbrush in the West Midlands . I don't think you'll find a less posh accent

I love Enid Blyton books
I'm DEFINITELY not posh.
I always thought they were ice creams though, not ice lollies!

I reread St Clare's and Malory Towers over Easter, partly because of the BBC MT adaptation. I particularly noticed that it's pine-apple, not pineapple.

I might have to reread the Famous Five and the Five Find-Outers again now. I don't have all the Five Find-Outers, though.

I find it annoying when books are updated from shillings and do on. It seems less ludicrous to read they spent half a crown on something than 25p. Half a crown sounds loads, but 25p barely gets you a Freddo these days, and I think that sounds less feasible that spending in shillings would be. Inflation means the actual values are pretty meaningless. I don't expect American children's books to use pounds rather than dollars, though I now realise it's possible some have done exactly that in British editions, and I never realised, but I'm pretty sure it was from reading that I learnt about nickels and dimes.

Does Jennings still get postal orders from his aunt? That would be more incomprehensible than it being for ten shillings. Do 21st century children have any idea what a postal order is?

In the Summer my brothers and I used to take off on our bikes after lunch, which we had at midday, without taking any food or water. We would stay out until 5 or 6 pm. This was in the early 60s. I was about 10, my brothers 7 and 6. We would drink and eat ravenously when we returned, but I can’t recall feeling hungry or thirsty while we were out. We roamed quite widely, our favourite place being the canal towpath - the canal was about four miles from home.

We called ice cream ice cream, but it was always cut off a block and eaten between wafers.

@Puppylucky

I thought ice was short for water ice which was a basic version of a sorbet - so frozen fruit juices basically not ice cream . The Monica Dickens book One Pair of Feet (another great comfort read) about her time as a 'domestic' is really educational about food in the 40's and 50's

One Pair of Feet is about nursing - One Pair of Hands is about work as a domestic.

Huge fan of MD here!

our l-eye-nge instead of lounge misses point of thread

Or for posh, put on a plate with a tablespoon of Ribena poured over.

My dd read all the famous 5 books, them Mallory towers, then asked to board at school.
Be careful what you let them read.

You don't have to give in to them. My parents never did (I asked for the same reason.)

I'm pretty much over it, now I'm 48. Just about.

didn't they eat potted meat a lot. as a child I thought that sounded so nice.
bet it was just meat paste.

@shinynewapple2020 Oh I didn't know that! East Mids here - toothbrush for us!

George’s parents were quite progressive though considering her dad took his wife’s surname (Kirin was her mother’s name/connection) though he then seemed selfishly preoccupied with his work, shouted at everyone, and despite his ‘very important work’ he didn’t earn enough for his daughter to go to school (she only went after she found gold on the island that had been inherited from her mother’s family).

In the Summer my brothers and I used to take off on our bikes after lunch, which we had at midday, without taking any food or water. We would stay out until 5 or 6 pm.

Absolutely, so did we. But I'm talking about the Famous Five going off on their bikes into remote rural areas with tents for a cycling holiday, cycling for long periods a day for a week or more, with the hope of getting food from remote farms and water from springs. (Or the tinned fruit that features such a lot!)

Obviously, only until they happen upon some mysterious criminals. Who virtually always give them lots of tinned food.

I decided Quentin must be autistic (sensory overload, special interests, difficulty with social skills..)

Samcro potted meat is still available in supermarkets. I buy it often. Great on toast with lashings of mustard!

@Kez200

Meet you at drinks.

Means just before a meal in lounge. Presumably for people with many choices of reception rooms!

But posh people don't have lounges. They have sitting rooms if they are normal posh or drawing rooms if they are mega posh. I have read Nancy Mitford, I know about this stuff.

@Aesopfable yes, I thought Quentin must be autistic too.

TwentyViginti I say tuthbrush and I'm as Brummie as they come!

Dd1 has been enjoying the new Malory Towers series on Cbbc. She called her sister a "beastly little girl" the other day

I always wondered about the lavatory arrangements. In one of the 'Adventure' books they were in a cave,( beds of bracken, tinned peaches etc.) but nobody needed to have a wee.