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 dad made paste sandwiches for lunch every day! Fish, beef, chicken.. all smelt the same!

Paste
Double vom

@curtainsforyou2
I still enjoy a sandwich of
Think slice white bread, cold meat, cheese n onion crisps covered in tomato sauce.

[quote Allmyarseandpeggymartin]@ParkheadParadise My mum had a scramble when she got married!

My grandma drove everybody mad that year asking the household to check their change for “new” coins every time they came in

Everyone came out of their houses to look at a bride back then.[/quote]
When we were out playing and seen a wedding car arriving we would all run after it for the scramble when it left 😄😄
When I had dd1 I made a fortune with all the money that was placed in her pram. I still place money in a newborns pram today.

Mine is playing with stray dogs.

BBC4 recently showed Eric Sykes's 1967 short film, The Plank. It was very eye-opening to see the things that were entirely normal back then but would never happen now. One was the dogs wandering around the streets, which was perfectly normal when I was a kid (late sixties/seventies).

One of our neighbours had a dog (called Scooby, which was a novelty then) that wandered around all the time. Kids had to include her (yes, a bitch called Scooby) in their games, and vehicles had to slow down or stop if she was in the road. The funniest thing was that when the neighbour got home from work he would put a lead on the dog and take her for a walk.

Me dad bringing knock off tins of salmon home from the pub and big bags of nuts.

The nut stall in St. John's market

Thinking you were posh if you ate pasta

My mum still thinks this!

Dad waking me up for school with a coffee when he came in from his night shift

@RaelImperialAerosolKid

I remember at my grandparents house we had ripped up newspaper instead of toilet roll. And electric wires from appliances were just pushed into the sockets and held in with matchsticks - those were the days !

I recall my brother, a qualified electrician, employing that method of 'plugging' something in if he had no spare plug!

I don’t know if it’s just our hospital, but everyone I’ve been an inpatient the food has reminded me so much of my granny and the working class wholesome food she always served us. It makes me sooo nostalgic, but also well looked after, as granny often cared for us when we were unwell.

Would be some meat that was usually cold left over from the roast, with a warm gravy over the top. Some greens boiled to death, or that mixed veg from a tin. Also boiled to death. And then plain boiled potatoes. Afters is tinned fruit salad and vanilla ice cream. This is exactly what our hospital serves.

Clothes for Christmas presents, because that was the one time my parents could afford new clothes. I still include clothes for my kids at Christmas.

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!

Bread and butter with every tea time meal to stop us feeling hungry

We used to play in the backstreet, which was tarmac but had strange random blobs of tar on the surface which used to bubble in the heat of summer. We used to pop the bubbles between our fingers like giant zits
Also, my Dad worked away and my mum didn't drive, so we had to walk to the supermarket to do our weekly shop. We kept a supermarket trolley in the shed which we'd wheel there and back with our shopping.

We weren't poor, but definitely working class. No washing machine, launderette trip for the whole family every Saturday, until mum got a small spin dryer, then she washed everything by hand, and it would dry OK at home. I remember going to school with burn holes in my uniform, because the (nylon) items had been dried on the fireguard in front of the open fire, which spat like mad as dad had picked up waste wood from work, which was full of nails & knot holes (though I still love the smell of an open fire).
No central heating, sheets & blankets weren't very warm but you still didn't want to get up in the morning when there was ice on the inside of the windows, and no slippers, dressing gown or carpet. Queueing up to trade in our Green Shield Stamps for new blankets as ours were old, thin & scratchy.
The excitement when we got a bag of hand-me-down clothes, hating packing clothes & toys up to send off to cousins when parents decided they needed to be passed on. Yes to pp who said you only had 2 of each: 1 coat, 1 pair of shoes (so school shoes worn everywhere) etc.

Council pop aka tap water. I remember my posh friend having bottled water at her house. She gave me one when I visited and I kept the bottle for a fortnight reusing it with tap water. Eventually the label came off and I didn’t get another one until I paid for my own!

Substituting milk for tea with cornflakes.
Sharing bath water
Sharing bedrooms
Sleeping in living room on sofa because you didn't have a bed or bedroom
Having one toilet per household
Bare beds/ no bedding or sheets.

fucking narrowboat holidays.

My parents bought a narrowboat and expected me to be ecstatic at spending every summer in market towns and canal side pubs instead of a a Greek Island.

I went on a school holiday at secondary school. My dad was determined I should go, as he'd never been able to as a boy, so he saved up for ages to pay for it. The evening meals were an eye opener. The other girls changed into a different outfit. And people were asking to be passed bowls of food, and sugar, instead of just reaching and grabbing them. I heard one of the older girls comment on my reaching out, and I was mortified! I also realised other girls had enough pairs of knickers to change them daily!

Semolina with jam for pudding!

In the '50s, we lived in one of the nicer council; house avenues, there was a definite difference, I recall ructions when a 'certain' family were allocated a house and they were horrible. We had the usual lack of things that was the norm, no car, phone etc but my parents didn't drink and were able to buy things like a fridge! Everyone thought we were their new best friends, free lollies, frozen Vimto on a stick. We went to Devon on holiday, unheard of generally, happy hours spent waiting round Cheltenham and Exeter bus stations for a change of coach in the middle of the night.

growing up on a farm and having a pet lamb every year. or 5

getting into the bath after my dad with my 2 siblings

freezing cold bedroom with ice on the inside of the window

walking to school with friends from year 1 onwards

going out at 10am and returning at 10pm in the school holidays, no lunch or dinner, took some jam sandwiches and raided allotments.

went swimming on our own from about 7 years onwards, stayed all day in the pool.

swimming in reservoirs and dams from the age of 10

had to share EVERYTHING, can of pop, bag of chips.

First up best dressed

we weren't as poor as most people though.

What on earth is working class about growing up on a farm or having a narrowboat?

Sliding down the grass hill on a piece of cardboard. Having a "long dress" it a " trouser suit" with flowers on it! Children's parties at the labour club or legion.
No seatbelts in cars and5 kids squashed in the back seat ( maybe sometimes in foot wells,).Dolls with Knitted dresses covering toilet rolls. Horrible IZAL toilet paper at Grandma's and school toilets. Angel delight and icecream made up from.a packet. Having a "dusty bin" ( a plastic bin with a cover on with a face and arms and legs. Getting a "special" for 20p from.the I've cream van ( an ice-cream with an ice lolly stuck in it!)