Things you thought were normal if you grew up working class

[Anycrispsleft]

Inspired by that "thought it was posh, turns out it wasn't" thread, I wondered if anyone else remembers stuff from a working class childhood that you thought everyone did and actually no it was just us?

Mine is playing with stray dogs. I was an adult before I realised that approaching strange dogs is meant to be dangerous. In my estate there were two strays (and one owned dog that would escape his garden) and they would chum along with us when we were out playing. We'd feed them crisps. (Luckily for the dogs I think we figured that crisps were more appropriate food for dogs than chocolate, as they were more salty and a bit like meat.) It would never have occurred to us not to befriend any other creature of the street. There was precious little else to do, why wouldn't we add a dog or two into the pack?

@Stillfunny A scramble used to be where when the bride came out of her parents house her parents used to chuck “new” coppers for the kids as she got in the car. I think it was a good luck thing

@groovergirl Yes to ornaments! My mum used to save her 20ps up to buy new ones.

Ornaments like gold jewellery were a sign of well to do ness I think.

Being brought up to believe that “you’ll Labour all your life so vote Labour” I genuinely thought that anyone who voted conservative was evil

To be fair my parents still think this, it was only when I met perfectly nice normal people through my job in a bank when I was in my 20s that I realised that conservative voters weren’t automatically bad people

Going to the public baths with the neighbours kids and all piling in the one bath. Realising my sister was a grown up because she got to have a bath on her own after she scrubbed the rest of us. I remember banging on the wall for more hot water and cheering if we got it.
Sharing a bag of chips when we went to the pictures. Asking men to pay for us if we had no money then bunking the mates in through the emergency doors. Then getting chased round the picture house if we were spotted. Renting pushbikes for sweets and always thinking of ways to make money.

We used to let our dog out in the morning and he'd wander around the estate all day on his own. Everyone knew him. He'd come home in the afternoon. I only started walking him when I was a teenager and wanted to get out of the house.

Bin -liner dresses at halloween! I remember those well! I just remember being cold most of the time. We used to love the occasions when we went to the cinemas because it was so warm in there.

@Akire As a teenager in the 90s I always felt like things were out of my reach. Certainly aware others had far more access to things than I ever would. Slow seeping levels of inadequacy. Not among close friends who had similar life experiences but in the same class at school certainly.

This, totally. The 'knowing' that I didn't fit in with the lifestyle of most of my schoolmates.

I had the striped bedding at some point. There was also ancient lemon yellow and bubblegum pink candlewick bedspreads. I used to put my clothes next to my bed and put them under the covers to warm up in the morning, before getting dressed still under the covers because it was too bloody cold otherwise.

Ice on the inside of the windows and mould in the corners. No central heating and not allowed to switch on the plug in, radiator only for 20min before bed. I was permanently cold all autumn, winter and spring.

Hand me downs from mum's friends children and camping holidays in a tent. Shared bath water, which I find so disgusting now. No house phone. Going round the supermarkets to compare prices to decide what to buy from each shop. Lugging the bags back down the street and round the corner to the car to avoid paying for the public car park right outside the shops.

No presents unless it was Christmas or birthday. Presents were mostly everyday essentials, one thing you wanted the rest socks and knickers and school pencil sets etc. We got a party though, in the garden or house with childish games and cheap buffet food that was a massive treat because we weren't allowed much sweet junk food.

Apple and sugar sandwiches. Home cooked meals. Rice pudding with jam.

Flimsy plimsolls from Woolworths for school PE lessons. Cheapy trainers made from hard plastic and worn with everything. One pair of red patent party shoes that I was only allowed to wear to a party and wore until they were so tight I couldn't actually get my feet into them, then passed to my sister. Boring sensible school shoes only for school.

One coat, to comply with whatever the school rules were. My friends with better parents going to school with no coat and getting told off or having their one non-school-regulation coat confiscated for a week if they were caught wearing it. I envied those coats.

The politics! Meetings around our kitchen table that would go on until really late and get quite heated.
The word 'solidarity' having a kind of religious quality. 'Bosses' being by default morally bankrupt.
No alcohol; mum and dad (and most of their friends) were firm believers in temperance as an integral part of working-class struggle.
Cast-iron principles (and subsequently 'missing out' on things we could probably have been able to afford but my parents would never condone on account of spurious political or ethical provenance).
Lots of marches and rallies.
Rattling collections for distant workers' communities facing hardship.
Perpetual analysis of moral failings of politicians.
Parents doing night classes and distance learning.
Horrendous workplace accidents among my dad's friends.

My mum's multiple income streams,.
r

@Grenlei

Playing outside.

I thought all kids played outside in their streets when they were little

When I went to uni I found out this wasn't the case (when you live effectively in a stately home, there's no street to play in).

Ditto fights. Everyone in my school had at least one fight. Not the people I went to uni with!

This! Absolutely... MC friends are.. one a year minimum. Even juniors. Kids just started them for no reason. Got punched in the jaw once for jumping further than a tougher girl in the long jump. We were both 11!

Always played out on the road. Never played in garden. Semi-rural location but mainly just on the actual tarmac!

I grew up in a very working class mining village. My dad had an office job so we were considered quite posh although were probably not much better off than anyone else. I remember:

Wedding "hoy outs" (scrambles)

No car until I was a teen. My dad used to cycle to work with clips on his work trousers.

Putting plastic bread tags on bike spokes as couldn't afford spokey dokeys

Playing out all day in local fields , coming home at dusk

When we got a phone put in after a medical emergency, neighbours would knock to use it and leave coins on the windowsill.

3 rings

Rubbing butter on bruises to make them better

Street parties for Halloween, kids would wear black bin bags and have carved turnips

Sledging down hills on black bin bags

Walking everywhere possible, buses only to be used if over 3 miles.

Holidaying in a relatives touring caravan once. It took a bus, two trains and a bus to get there and as we had no transport we stayed on site.

Getting new pex socks for Christmas from my "aunty" who worked in the coop shoe shop

Calling neighbours aunt

Having the insurance man, pools man, avon lady knocking

Freeman's catalogue

Tupperware and Pippa Dee parties that the ladies would feel obliged to go to and save a few pennies each week from child benefit to order the cheapest item there thus keeping up appearances.

Darning tight and socks with wool

Asking for 5p or 10p worth of sweets, not a quarter in the corner shop

The pop man, fish man etc driving around the streets

Returning glass pop bottles we found in the street to claim the 2p deposit from the shop

Dressing in the living room in front of the fire as it was the only heated room

Wiping down the streaming windows every morning as we only had single glazing and hardly any heating.

Sharing a bedroom with my brother in winter as his room was warmer (mine was a tiny extension with a similar vibe to a conservatory for heating)

Terraced back lanes you could play in as no one had cars. Dogs roamed all day, no one walked them

Birthday parties at home where you would borrow chairs from neighbours, eat sandwiches, pineapple and sausage hedgehogs and homemade buns (cupcakes). Party games were played using props such as old newspapers and you stacked up all the singles you owned on the record player for music.

Mums didn't work, unless they were a dinner nanny

Looking back my mum was very into keeping up appearances and having us clean and tidy and as well dressed as she could whilst having no money spare. Clothes were more expensive then than they are now despite the wages being a fraction of what we currently earn. No credit cards or overdrafts, if you didnt have the money it didn't happen.

@inappropriateraspberry

Who had this bedding?

Yes. And horrible Bri-nylon sheets that were slippery so that the blankets slid off the bed - mine were bright orange 😳 (child of the 50’s/60’s here) All finished off with a chenille bedspread of course!

Man in a van that rented videos, sweets and tobacco.
We usually had a broken washing machine or an old car engine in the garden

School socks turning blue or pink depending on what your mam washed them with😁. Keeping them held up with elastic bands for school .
Nicking empty bottles from back of shops to cash in for sweets.

We never went on a proper holiday. Our 'holiday' was going to visit relatives, the MC children in my class were going to Tenerife, we went to Toxteth.
We couldn't afford to buy food at motorway service stations so my mum would make a flask of tea, and a flask of Bovril, and we'd sit in the car park having a drink.

On the very rare occasions we ever went in a cafe then we knew to ask for the cheapest thing on the menu. As an adult I still automatically do this. We'd be told to take a few extra sachets of sugar, and when nobody was watching, to pass them to mum to put in her handbag.

Having it drilled into us to never tell anyone our private business because it would be round the estate in five minutes flat.

I have over forty cousins, most of them are intelligent. None of us went to University.

cateycloggs the introduction of myxomatosis had a knock on effect on predators like foxes. I saw my first wild fox when I was 18. My dad nearly crashed the car in shock!

Being taken to my Gran’s house on a Sunday morning because she was cooking meat for Sunday lunch and she would give me a slice off the end of the joint when it came out of the oven. That was the only time I ever got meat because we couldn’t afford it. I was never invited to actually have any of the lunch though - just that one slice of meat. Gran would also give my parents a cup of coffee made with milk instead of water, which was terribly posh because we couldn’t afford either coffee or milk.

Surprised how many people have said about ice on the inside of the windows. We were incredibly poor and I thought it was just me who experienced that. We didn’t get gas central heating till 1999.

@Loopyloututu2

Mother taking us up to the high street to use the public phone box and taking a Dettol soaked cloth to wipe it down before using it.

Your mother sounds dead posh! And ahead of her time

What about family "do's" at the local legion/labour club and the mad scramble when the DJ announced the buffet was open? All the aunties would bring a dish to contribute and would usually consist of a variety of triangle sandwiches, cheese n pickle on sticks, pork pies, sausage rolls, crisps n nuts! The birthday/wedding cake would be the dessert and you'd be trying to balance it all on the flimsy paper plates. We had to wait for "the men" to get seconds before anyone else could
Oh, and little boys sliding across across the dancefloor on their knees!

Good times!

We still do this at our church social club. Nowadays the dishes are more cosmopolitan and will include Asian/African/Chinese foods but there are always triangle sandwiches and pork pies. We have little boys sliding on their knees and little girls showing off their dresses before sliding on their knees.. And we aren't even in a WC area. It's very suburban with detached houses and sliding gates and people commuting to the City.

Our bar is probably a bit more refined though. We sell lots of beer and real ale but also have a pretty extensive range of wines by the glass and bottle (instigated by me when I was on the 'committee'). Not a snowball or brandy and pep in sight.

@NiceGerbil the electric man would come and empty the meter and if you were lucky you would get some back ( not sure why maybe overpaid ) my parents had a little dish under the meter where they would throw any 50p pieces they got so we could top it up
If i remember rightly you put it on then turned it round and then it would drop in

@Flaxmeadow

I think you've misunderstood the concept of working class....

Yes there is misunderstanding of what "working class" was.

Working class used to mean the industrial districts. Coal mining, textile mills, steel works, factories and all the industries connected to that. In the UK these were centuries old community's were used to managing, and budgeting, on low wages and in some ways we had a healthier lifestyle than the better off do now. Food for example was always simple with less choice but home cooked, healthy and nothing was wasted. Fresh air and exercise was encouraged. Many mines and factories had night schools for hobbies, musical groups or book clubs. Police, social workers, nurses, teachers all lived in the same working class areas as industrial workers did. Most people lived in some type of council housing and we respected the NHS.

It wasn't perfect but it wasn't the loutish, racist, sweary, scruffy, booze addled thing some make it out to be either

Excellent post.

@YouWereGr8InLittleMenstruators

The politics! Meetings around our kitchen table that would go on until really late and get quite heated. The word 'solidarity' having a kind of religious quality. 'Bosses' being by default morally bankrupt. No alcohol; mum and dad (and most of their friends) were firm believers in temperance as an integral part of working-class struggle. Cast-iron principles (and subsequently 'missing out' on things we could probably have been able to afford but my parents would never condone on account of spurious political or ethical provenance). Lots of marches and rallies. Rattling collections for distant workers' communities facing hardship. Perpetual analysis of moral failings of politicians. Parents doing night classes and distance learning. Horrendous workplace accidents among my dad's friends. My mum's multiple income streams,. r

I used to enjoy the marches. I got exposed to so many interesting people and ideas through the various pickets and protests I spent my childhood at.

Frickssake
And we didn't have duvets we has blankets and the patterned cover on the top.( Can't remember what it was called?)
Remembered! Was a bedspread!”

Was it a candle wick bedspread? Used to lay in bed in the dark, picking the bumpy bits off.

Never being in the house "what you in for go out and play!"
Going down the park (that had a river) alone about a mile walk along a main road when we and my siblings were 6, 8 and 10 and being gone all day!
Immersion heaters!
Never getting into a bath of clear water
My mum bringing our nighties downstairs so
we could get undressed in front of the coal fire too cold upstairs!
The coal man coming
Collecting stickers from the milkman to get the Christmas hamper
My mum bringing a bin bag of clothes and shoes back from my nans that she'd collected from various friends and sources and is all scrapping to get the best stuff
Having lemon meringue pie at my auntys wedding and thinking it was the poshest thing ever!
Happy days though!!

@UnwantedOpinionBelow

Supergluing your glasses arm back on if it fell off or Supergluing your shoes it the sole was coming away. Buying fake gucci bags.

I'm probably considered rich by most standards. We own several properties, can afford lots of travel and theatre and have savings. I still superglue shoes/glasses etc and repair anything that can be repaired. I will also buy second hand (especially 'good' jewellery) rather than new. IMO that's sensible not wc.

When I went to university it took me a whole term to get used to living with central heating. I was so used to it being quite cold inside!
I’m in my 40s and if I’m cold during the day I still automatically put my dressing gown on. If DH is at home he gives me a weird look and tells Alexa to turn up the heating.

@NiceGerbil. Our meter used to take shillings (5p), later it went up to 2 shillings (10p) but the cost of a unit of electricity wouldn't have been exactly 10p. It might only have been 8.2p so you were overpaying a little bit every time you put a coin in. So when the meter man came round to collect you would get some coins back to compensate for the overpayment.

Later when I lived in a bedsit the meters were privately owned by our landlord. He paid the electricity bill for the whole property but each room in the house had its own meter. He set the tariff and emptied them so there was no rebate. ☹️ Looking back there was massive scope for financial abuse there but he was a good guy and charged us fairly. The only room that wasn't metered was the communal bathroom. I have never had so many long hot baths as I used to then when they were 'free'.