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?

I thought paint came in thermos flasks.My dad worked in the shipyard and every time a ship was being finished or refitted there was loads of paint suddenly walking out of the yard hidden in old thermos flasks.
Trouble was it was always one of three colours, battleship grey, pea green or salmon pink.As a lot of local men worked in the yards it meant just about every house interiors were one of those colours.
They also made things in their meal brakes to take home the same day, fire shovels and metal fire blazers and pokers were very popular.

I grew up in a mining family in Yorkshire.

We owned our (mortgaged) semi detached house.

Leisure was library trips, museums, country parks, walks, seaside etc.

We were encouraged to do well at school, stay on to do Alevels, and go to university, which I did and now have a first in a STEM subject and multiple professional qualifications.

I didn't, but lots of my friends in similar families did dancing, music lessons, etc.

I learned to drive and was given money for a car when I was 17.

All perfectly normal to me and my peers, but l guess that's not what people want to hear is it?

Yet again, Mumsnet says 'working class' and the cast of Bread or Shameless pops up.

@BarbaraofSeville

I grew up in a mining family in Yorkshire.

We owned our (mortgaged) semi detached house.

Leisure was library trips, museums, country parks, walks, seaside etc.

We were encouraged to do well at school, stay on to do Alevels, and go to university, which I did and now have a first in a STEM subject and multiple professional qualifications.

I didn't, but lots of my friends in similar families did dancing, music lessons, etc.

I learned to drive and was given money for a car when I was 17.

All perfectly normal to me and my peers, but l guess that's not what people want to hear is it?

Yet again, Mumsnet says 'working class' and the cast of Bread or Shameless pops up.

The bragging thread is >> there

Or as my mother would say 'Oh what a load you shit!'

My mum dominated the house and we had ITV on all the time, and commercial radio. No books or classical music or anything.

Gosh, no classical music? How frightful!

My father was very strict about manners and speech. Elbows off the table, talking mouthful never, no slang at all, pronounce enforced. I do speak ok for the area I grew up in. My friend (partner) speaks well but thats because the school he attended was private that then changed to public (teaches stayed on). As a result he recieved an excellent education for the area. I got a shock when I started working in a factory, I thought I was common but I came accross rather posh. It's such a smorgasbord out there

What is this English fascination with 'speaking well'.

Once you're coherent, I don't give a fuck.

Only the first person to wake up could have a bath. A good 2” of water before it got cold and stayed cold until the boiler reheated overnight.

ismiseeire

I don't think it is just and English thing- UK wide as far as I can see.

I used to play ashtrays and get my mum to flick her ash into my hand 😂.
We would have a Christmas display of all our posh food we collected (twiglets, peanuts, tinned salmon etc)

I'd say we were privileged working class. My dad was a postie, mum was a SAHM but they didn't marry and have me until their mid thirties so were more financially secure than they might have been if they'd started a family younger. We were still on a tight budget though.

Weekly baths with the immersion heater (my mum still has one and hot air heating...bleaurgh)
TV with no remote control and eventually a VCR from Radio Rentals
Sheets and blankets for a good couple of years after everyone else had 'continental quilts'
My dad bringing his wage packet home and keeping it in an empty puppadom box for mum to help herself for bills etc once he'd taken a few quid for personal expenses
Dad's weekly treat on a Saturday night being a can of bitter and a slim panatella...I used to lie in bed and wait for the smell of cigar smoke to drift up the stairs...still love it now
Panda pops and salt and vinegar crisps outside the pub on the occasional sunny afternoon
Playing in the street or the fields/Woods behind our house...so long as you were back for lunch/tea no one worried where you were much
Homemade fancy dress costumes...my mum insisted on buying ones for DD when she was small to 'save me the hassle of making them'
The mobile shop...we lived on a new estate with little infrastructure when I was small...they sold great Christmas decorations, some of which are still going, and chocolate ladybirds filled with fondant cream.
Takeaways were a once a year treat if my dad's sister visited withher family
My uncle (single and childless) chipping in so I could go on residential school trips (but not the abroad ones...my first holiday outside the UK was my honeymoon to Australia at 27. I thought schoolmates who went to Benidorm were the height of sophistication).
Holiday in the West Country every year in our clapped out Morris Marina with navy pleather seats that burnt your arse in sunny weather, to a caravan owned by a mate of my dad's.

It wasn't so bad, but reading this thread makes me wonder why we are quite so nostalgic about it all.

navy pleather seats that burnt your arse in sunny weather
Oh yes, why did anyone think this was a good material for car seats?

Can anyone remember the itchy bus seats, if you had bare legs it was horrible

Ismiseeire
If you heard some of the children near me you would be shocked it's like another language. The only people who can understand them is another kid who speaks the same way, or maybe their mother.I expect!

Can anyone remember the itchy bus seats, if you had bare legs it was horrible

Yes, and the plastic covers for the headrest.

My parents encouraged us all to continue with education & go to university. The opposition came from my school teachers who thought we were aiming too high. We were subtly reminded that university wasn't for the likes of us. The mc teachers at my school didn't like the wc pupils going above their station.