What stories/memories have been passed down the generations to you?

[Susu49]

Inspired by a couple of threads, what stories/anecdotes/memories have been passed down the generations to you from your family (or other people you've met)?

Don't have many in my family, grandparents weren't really ones for discussing the past but I remember stories of the bombs falling in London, my grandpa walking a date in an air raid because she wouldnt go to a shelter.

I'm really fascinated by the oral history that's passed down and it doesn't get recorded anywhere! I'd love to hear yours...

My grandmother told me that her grandfather — who came to New York from Germany as a very young boy, on his own, in the 1870s — had been reading James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales before the trip, and was really disappointed that America didn’t look the way he’d imagined it from those stories. (He was 11.)

It’s not massively meaningful but it’s kind of nice to imagine him explaining this little scrap of personal childhood memory to his own daughter decades later, and then her telling her daughter (my grandma), who eventually mentioned it to me.

My Great Aunt told me about my Grandfathets visit to Germany in 1937/38 with his Youth group. They spent time with the Nazi Youth and were shown all the good things happening there.

It was a great demonstration in how good marketing can sway opinion...

He came back from the war an ardent pacifist and did a lot of good work for Catholic/Protestant relations.

My nan told me about when she was evacuated as a young girl in the second world War. She went to live on a farm and her job was to collect the eggs from the chickens as she was too young for any other jobs.

I am so thankful that I got into family history age 11 and was able to harass all my elderly relatives and record some fantastic memories that would have been long lost by now.

Watching Crystal Palace burn down. The reaction to the declaration of WW11, my great grandmother’s response being “oh my god, my boys”. Funny stories of the things my grandad got in trouble for as a boy. Even funny little songs they made up.

I traced my dad's paternal line back to the 1400s. I have newspaper articles about various ancestors throughout time including one who was fined 2s for being drunk in charge of a horse and cart.

Hmm, my grandad was in WW2 and said that when in France they learnt how to say ' deux oeufs, avec des frites'... I. E. Egg and chips please.

The French must have been 🤔

They were stationed in a famous old hotel on the Champs Eylsee at one point

My Nan was in the women's land army working on farms in Cornwall had a great time going to dances with Americans had to tuck trousers into socks when doing the hay, one day had a new girl and she refused to tuck trousers into boots as it looked ridiculous she stood on hay and hundreds of mice ran up her trousers one of the men had to pick her up turn her upside down and shake her till all the mice fell out of her dungarees! My nan said she had never laughed so much in all her life!

My mum says her dad told her his family came from Bologna to London with all their money hidden in a barrel organ. This would have been 1890s maybe. Either one of his aunts or one of his sisters worked as a seamstress at the Royal Opera House.

That's hilarious!

My mum remembered sheltering under a railway bridge with her parents when a German aircraft flew over Kirkcaldy in WW2

@BooksAndHooks that sounds fascinating, can you elaborate a bit more? Must be amazing to know people who watched Crystal Palace burn. What did your grandfather get in trouble for?

I know I had great uncles and grandfather's at the Somme & Ypres but they died before I was born and I don't think they liked to talk about their experiences.

I had one relative who was a fireman in the London Blitz and recounted stories of seeing limbs lying in the road after a raid

@dipdye that's so beautifully British, I love it!

@aroundtheworldin80moves that must have been some trip. Do you know anything of his war time experiences?

@LemonJuiceFromConcentrate is travelled on his own? Do you onow why?

@Primrosefields that's such a sweet story, I hope they were nice to her. I remember my granny told me she was evacuated to a lady who worked in the Ashdown Forest during the war and taught her how to identify all the trees and flowers and birds. Sadly as a lifelong Londoner, she'd forgotten most of it when I knew her! You're so lucky to have family referenced in newspapers - I love stories like that :)

@SiulaGrande I bet they had an interesting life, can't imagine having all your possessions on your back like that! Was yours a theatrical family back then?

@Susu49 he never spoke a word about them apparently. He was in the Far East the whole time, possibly a POW camp at one point. He died before I was born.

The story of how my Nana was engaged and saw my Taid walking down the street in his army uniform - love at first sight. She quickly ditched the fiancé

My grandad wanting a "rabbiting dog" when he was young. He came from a poor family and rationing meant meat was scarce.

My Taid and how poor they were when he was small. His dad died young. He took a few pennies for bacon bones and the butcher took pity on him and gave him the bones, a joint of meat and then called him back for his "change" (the pennies he'd come in with). Having to stand with his mum in front of the local councillors to request aid and them being utter twats to her.

My Granny telling me that she sat by a girl in school whose mum had died and her dad obviously couldn't cope. The girl smelled and used to pick nits out her hair and crack them on the desk with her thumb nail

My grandad grew up in a rough part of Newcastle. His dad died in the First World War and he lived with his mum and grandma. His grandma was a local legend who would buy items from Fenwick and sell them to the neighbours on tic. She was by all accounts tough cookie.

My grandad used to bare knuckle fight on the docks to earn some money.

He fought in the second world war and picked up Italian and Arabic quickly whilst stationed in Italy and Egypt. He was quickly made an officer which was unusual for someone with his background.

When he got back to the U.K. he met my Nan and moved to the north west. He was by this point a trained engineer and ended up being a company director. He was always generous to a fault with his family.

I am on my way back from my 98year old grandfather's funeral so I will share a couple here from him.

Firstly, the time I asked him what the best invention during his lifetime was and he said 'electricity'

Secondly, the pictures he has shown me of him and his team working on the war time telephone exchange in Norfolk. It looked like a few people stood in a room full of a dozen fridges!

Finally a story I will never forget. My nan (his wife) and her family when she was young lived in a small old cottage in a small Suffolk town. One time, their drinking water started tasting really odd and they had to stop using it. Turns out it was a problem caused by heavy flooding and rainfall in the local graveyard... Just slightly uphill from my nans house!

I've got quite a lot of stories from my grandparents. My grandad loved telling stories. One of my favourites was about his great aunt.

Now Great Aunt was known for her social occasions, and she took under her wing a young lady (Emily) who had risen up in life and wanted to take her place there.
So one day Emily asked Great Aunt to come to her first social occasion, and at the end asked her if everything was right.
Great Aunt said everything was "just so" except for one thing. "The sugar lumps," she tried to explain delicately. "You know when men go to the toilet, they um handle... you know... and they don't always wash their hands afterwards. Then they may touch the sugar lumps. You need tongs for them."
Emily nodded and agreed to get them, so my Great Aunt was a little bit surprised the next social event to see the sugar lumps with no tongs. So she went quietly up to Emily and murmured in her ear. "The tongs... where are they."
Emily nodded proudly and took my Great Aunt to the toilet where the tongs were hanging gracefully from a little ribbon next to the toilet.
🤣

Less pleasant memories are my granny memory of being in an air raid. Down their road they used to shelter in the basement. When they came out the houses on the other side of the road had bomb damage. They went to try and move the rubble so they could open the basement, but discovered the water main had taken a direct hit and filled the basements and almost the whole sets of families had drowned.

And one I learnt on the other side of the family, which I heard about fairly recently, told by someone who was there. My grandad was a desert rat. They were living under bombardment for some time, when a young lad, probably only in his teens got so upset he decided he was going to run towards the guns and try and throw a grenade at them. My grandad chased after him and brought him back despite heavy bombardment at risk to his own life.

Sometimes I wonder about writing these down, but am afraid that I don't remember exactly what was said. Is it better to remember what I do recall, which isn't necessarily accurate, or not at all?

It is amazing having the newspaper articles. The great great grandfather who was drunk in charge of the horse and cart also got in trouble for throwing cabbages with his friends in their early 30s at an elderly bride on her second marriage as she left the church with her new husband. Haven't been able to find out the backstory yet.

His wife got into trouble when she went into one of the villagers kitchens a Sunday afternoon and stole their cooked mutton joint as well as some coins on the side. She was caught because one of the coins was marked and was identified by the constable.
The most amazing one was my other great great grandfather who was accidentally shot by a 16 year old lad and on his deathbed made sure that the police knew it was an accident. The family made sure the lad and his family were OK and even had the boy as one of the pall bearers at the funeral. I have all the newspaper articles including all the details of the hymns, who was present and what flowers were from whom.
Fascinating stuff. We went to the village and used the censuses and newspapers to retrace the steps. We even laid flowers on the graves, although I did joke that maybe cabbage leaves would be more appropriate for the one great great grandfather.

@MargaretThursday
My granddad was a desert rat too.

My Mum's Mum always told me we had 'some relation' in America. I started our family tree, took me some time but I eventually found a branch of the family who'd moved to America in the 1840s! I traced some relatives over there and found a photo of them all in a log cabin. It amazed me that the story of the American relatives had been passed down but all the detail of who/when/how had been lost. Yet in her more immediate family tree were stories of navvy camps and people lost in pit disasters - not a word about those was ever spoken.

My Dad's Mum was about 10 when WW2 broke out. Apparently her Mum used to send her out to the off licence with a jug to get beer - after the air raid had gone off and planes were in the air She was terrified and used to cry but my Great Gran sent her out anyway.

My nana was 11 & started her period. Of course, she'd never been told about them by her mum. She told the teacher she had a headache & the top of her leg was bleeding. Female teacher had a quick look, saw what was going on and gave nana a looped sanitary towel, telling her to put it on and go home.

Nana put the loops of the towel over her ears, pad on her forehead (for her headache) and walked home.

My parents emigrated from a former communist state which was under the URSS in all but name, when they were teenagers. They regularly tell us how they had to queue from 3-4am for the day’s litre of milk, take the train to the capital city for an extra allowance of bread. As very young 7 or 8 year olds. Freezing in the rationing queues. My dad grew up in the countryside and the party would come every autumn to take 90% of your harvest, of the animals you had been taking care of all summer, of everything you had basically. ‘For the people’. Expect the people never really saw much food.

They were both a little bit too young to go out in the 1989 revolutions but they both had friends or neighbours who died in the revolts. These are people who are now in their late 40s. So fairly young. It still feels very recent to them.

My grandad fought in WW2 (first for Germany, then on Russia’s side…) and died when I was young but he had lots of notebooks with detailed records of the war that we all read through.

Growing up in Spain I heard all this oral history about Franco’s dictatorship from everyone around me - neighbours, ‘local grandparents’, older teachers.

Many stories, but one that has always stayed with me is my grandmother (a young woman then) hearing the newsboys calling "Titanic Lost" and people running to them and crowding around to buy papers. She said they were incredulous, it must have been rather like we felt on 9/11.

This is a good idea for a thread. Thanks for starting it. I'll have a think and see what I can add, but for now I'm loving all these stories.

@iklboo

My nana was 11 & started her period. Of course, she'd never been told about them by her mum. She told the teacher she had a headache & the top of her leg was bleeding. Female teacher had a quick look, saw what was going on and gave nana a looped sanitary towel, telling her to put it on and go home.

Nana put the loops of the towel over her ears, pad on her forehead (for her headache) and walked home.

This is brilliant — hilarious although also a bit heartbreaking. I hope nobody made her feel awful about it and she was able to find it funny herself!

My grandad was in the trenches of World War 1, and was standing guard outside a tent with a very young German captured soldier inside, due to be shot. He could hear the lad sobbing and saying something that sounded like "Mama!" Grandad told the boy to run, and pretended to his commander that the boy had attacked him. He lost a stripe as a result, but said he never regretted it.