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?

My neighbour is in her early 60s and she remembers the "turban man" coming round to the houses. This is what it says on the tin, a guy wearing a turban, with a suitcase full of things like dusters that he sold door to door. I've never heard of such a thing!

Having a snowball at Christmas....advocaar and lemonade . Sorry about spelling.

And lime and a glacier cherry!

I wouldn't say I was working class because my dad was middle class and my mum was working class - she got rid of her accent though and didn't sound anything like her brothers and sisters. Can relate to the rubbish tube shower thing though. I also remember it being such a faff to phone anyone. We got a phone but my best friend had a phone wth a party line so we were never allowed to speak for long in case the neighbours needed it. Other friends didn't have a phone - I knew all the numbers of local phone boxes and we would cal l those and ask a passerby to get the person required.

Also nobody in my immediate family had been to university so I had no idea how to apply and my school were useless. I felt like a fish out of water.

Diluting tinned soup.

My mum used to add milk to Heinz tomato soup to make it go further, I was in my late 30's before I realised that everyone else just had it as it came out of the tin.

And then of course there was that time I had lunch with a Duchess (I was interviewing her for my girls brigade badgework - honestly, I have no idea how I ended up there!). She was lovely and invited some boys my own age (16ish) just to be sociable. They asked me where I 'summered', and then looked completely shocked when I told them that I normally worked all summer in the local supermarket. I think it was an education for them as much as me.

I grew up in a “posh” suburb but wasn’t posh. Then my Mum won a car when I was 6 - neither parent could drive and didn’t think they could afford to keep the car. My Mum didn’t work, I was eldest of 3 kids. My Dads boss gave him a pay rise so they could keep the car. Both learnt to drive and we then would go on a weekly trip to the supermarket.
I remember a whole large loaf of bread and a full packet of butter being used every day, even as a teenager.
I remember not having a fridge, milk was left out on the doorstep in winter and in a bucket of cold water in summer, if there was any left at the end of the day it was thrown away.

Love this thread!
Pop man, the telly lady, stray dogs everywhere, phone boxes (not all working!), lots of absent fathers and lots of mums aged between 15-18. Everyone smoking, kids sent to buy fags and matches for grown ups, playing out, sharing bedroom, being posh for going to college and doing A levels...

And being very much on my own in having qualifications / applying to uni / going to uni...

I thought my Nan was posh because if we went there for Sunday tea she had a choice of red and white cheese! She also had tomatoes and cake, we never realised at the time it was a treat for us not everyday fare🤣

I lived with my grandparents, slept with my Nana. Both had a 'po' under the bed even though there was a lavatory upstairs. And a paraffin little nightlight by the side of the bed. They grew up on a mountain with no facilities. Water was collected from the pistyll further down the mountain. Popa brought us a bowl of Brŵes for breakfast, bread with an oxo cube, hot water and butter.

I grew up in America and when we visited my cousins in the country in the summer we loved it if it rained because the drainage ditch alongthe side of the road would fill up and we could swim in it. (It was about a meter deep and 1.5 meters wide.)

Also all my clothes were handmade by my Nana. I was mocked at primary school for my lovely sweet dresses.

Some of these have made me laugh out loud! Fags, regularly given as an Xmas gift, collecting bottles to take to the off sales for cash, can't remember ever having wine! ( Methodist upbringing). Spuds with every meal, a lot of lard. Moving out of the mining village where the whole family lived to town, and the neighbours shouting at us for playing in the street. First friend at secondary school, still mates 50 years on, whose dad was a gp, and wasn't happy about our friendship as I had a common, or local, accent. Desperate for shop bought clothes.
We often talk about the first time...you saw broccoli, avocado, pizza, peppers, aubergine etc.

We played out until the street lights turned on....giving my Mam “3 rings” on the telephone to signal I was walking home from my best friends house.

Shopping at Kwik Save

I still have ptsd from all that beige, prison style food.

Packs of sweet cigarettes . We used to pretend to smoke and try to look grown up and sophisticated. Then eat them.

Having top of the milk on pies instead of cream

From age four collecting Hubba Bubba bottles on the beach to get the deposit to buy chips or an ice cream.
Scrumping.
An outside lavatory.
Getting dressed in bed.
Sharing a bed with two others as a child
My mother ‘never being very hungry’ if there’s wasn’t enough to around.
Summer holidays spent roaming the beach, going to UBM games sessions and not wearing anything on our feet for about six weeks.
Hand me down school shoes that rarely fitted properly.
Eggs bread. Lots of eggy bread.
Searching for coins for the gas meter.
Shared bathwater once a fortnight.

I suppose i would have been described as working class my dad was a coach driver. But my parents owned our house,we had a car and i was an only child so i ate real salmon for tea.lol

Also my dad was far easier going than most girls fathers in 50s 60s and he treated me like an equal and never talked down to me like many fathers of his generation and class And he never went to pub, got drunk smoked and people used to say" your dad is a gent."

I always think my upbringing unusual in 50s and 60s made me the bolshie person i ve always hated class distincion and felt we are as good as next person.The class thing in UK is what is wrong with the counntry,it needs to change.

My Nan also had a “po” under the bed for night wees, when we visited I used to have to sleep in with her and was always mortified to hear her using it

Tinned veg - peas, carrots, sweetcorn, potatoes . Meat paste sandwiches. Juice and a biscuit for breakfast.

Hot water bottles. Playing out for hours and calling for your friends. Second hand & home-made clothes, long party dresses (always homemade). Sharing bath water - all totally normal.

Neither of my nanas had back gardens - just a yard opening into the back alley - and both had outside toilets. The twin tub was brought out once a week and all washing was done then. Both had a “front room” which was only ever used at Christmas when all the grown ups would get pissed , play cards and smoke until you couldn’t see into the room. We had to sit on the “kids table” to eat and once presents and dinner was done we were left to our own devices.

We lived in more salubrious conditions as my dad was in the RAF, but we were def WC. I wasn’t even aware of the existence of many vegetables until I went to university and met my husband (mangtout, Asparagus, avacado....there’s quite a list), had never tried curry (foreign food) and I’m not sure I had pasta until I was about 15.

I just assumed everyone was the same [shrug].

Buying single cigarettes from the corner shop. They were separated out in Tupperware boxes, sorted by brand and you could buy a single B&H for 10p.

Eating Instant Whip and Angel Delight for desert.

We used to get a food parcel at Christmas time and in it was a block of butter. I didn't like it, it tasted a bit sour. I was well into adulthood thinking I didn't like pure butter. I think this butter was probably well past its best even rancid. For years I thought marge in massive tubs (the type you might actually use for baking) was normal and nicer spreads like vitalite was posh. Butter was for really posh people as it must be an acquired taste.

My mum cleaning the oil from the chip pan by sieving through a clean pair of old tights. We got a sack of potatoes every two weeks when the benefit was paid and it had to last for all 9 of us. Bunnying the electric meter so we could use the same 50p over and over. Bath night sundays then nit check while watching fraggle Rock or that’s life. One type of shampoo for everyone even though we all had a different hair type. Only getting a new toothbrush when we visited the dentist... which was only good for about a week as one of my brothers would invariably say they had used it to do something gross.