Things that mumsnet thinks are v.middle class or just geographic?

[Lovelysummerdays]

Every once in a while I come across something that I did or had in my very working class childhood on a rough council estate that is apparently middle class but is just bog standard or was to me. Easy examples

Skiing, you learn on a council run dry slope in primary school.

Porridge, you have it with salt and it’s a quid or so for a bag that lasts ages.

Oatcakes, they are cheap default snack better than crisps easier than a sandwich with a mini cheese.

It did make me wonder if there are there things that people in other parts of the UK grew up with that are really average (to them) which I’d of thought of quite posh as a child.

We had a 1960s car in the mid 1980s. I think it was more my parents' taste than cost.

I don't think people would think a 20 year old car was posh now but the styling was so different between the two eras then that kids at school thought it was really posh.

They also thought it was posh that I was an only child and that my mum worked as well as my dad. Also my parents were in their mid 30s before they had me, about ten years older than everyone else's parents.

It wasn't good to be posh then though, I was just called snobby.

Then we moved to a middle class area and people thought I was working class and common, and had to learn a new code. And accent, even though it was five miles down the road.

You can't win!

I think it’s maybe a quite Scottish thing I was Edinburgh in 80s/90s. My kids go skiing at a (state) primary school which has a dry slope in the grounds. It always make me smile, I do wonder how it came about in planning. It’s such a good idea to make use of it but I just can’t imagine it being built nowadays.

Yes, I wonder if it’s the only primary school in the country with its own dry ski slope. We have a dry ski slope in our city too and whilst our school offers “after school ski clubs” as a paid for extra curricular activity, I’ve not known skiing to be on the PE curriculum at any school I’ve ever heard of.

And yes I do tend to associate being a skier with being wealthy. Eating porridge and oatcakes not to much.

That's because you lived in a city. There are advantages to that, although I realise parts of Glasgow were also very run-down.

To me skiing is for posh folks. I can't imagine many council estate kids get lessons on the local dry slope?! There's only a couple I'm aware of across the whole country.
Skiing itself as a holiday is very expensive. All the kit, ski passes, the food and accomodation at a lot of resorts in places like France or Switzerland seem very overpriced.
I went once on an forced works trip. My posh boss pad and it was compulsory. Gawd it was awful! I'm sure some people enjoy it but I'd never ever consider it working class.

I think a pond is a pond because it is man made. Rather than the size. I didn’t know anyone who grew vegetables as we all lived in flats. The school caretaker has raspberry bushes in his garden that we’d steal from. I think the nearest allotments were a good mile or two away but I don’t know anyone who had one. I do have a garden now and a greenhouse but I’m rubbish at growing stuff.

"Gawd it was awful! I'm sure some people enjoy it"

Compulsory skiing is awful. I don't like sports, especially dangerous ones, or being cold. I'm quite glad it's so expensive I'll never have to do it!

I grew up Scotland. Learnt to ski on dry ski slope with my family. And did standard grade PE at school and skiing was one of the subjects. Again, on a dry slope. It was just another sport/activity and just pretty normal to ski on a dry slope. Admittedly it definitely wasn't a poor town I grew up in but neither was it massively affluent.

Porridge with salt!!! Is that because it was cheaper than sugar or fruit?

Rugby. It's a posh boy sport in Ireland. It's really not in S.Wales where DH is from. Causes much cultural confusion.

It’s the only one I’ve seen although a nearby private school has its own ski slope. Lessons are loads more expensive though.

Porridge is traditionally made with salt in Scotland. I couldn’t eat it as a child because I wasn’t allowed to add sugar.

I don’t think they had sugar or fruit back in the day. Apparently people would let porridge set and take a slice for lunch. I think you can grow oats in places where other crops wouldn’t survive so it’s a ye olde dietary staple.

I'm guessing you are Scottish op, and there are cultural differences around the country. Having access to a council owned dry slope is brilliant but they simply don't exist in many places, porridge (with salt ick, brown sugar yum) is I think a rediscovery thing, I was brought up in London on porridge!

But remember that we aren't a homogeneous group, so what is normal in some houses is weird in another. My dc grew up thinking eating homemade sushi was normal because I've always made it, they were bemused when kids called them posh for having it in their packed lunch (this would be 15 years ago)

I don’t think they had sugar or fruit back in the day

Isn't your OP about council estates and class divide in recent years?

Not 100's of years ago when sugar was expensive and fruit was seasonal? 😕

Me and a friend always joke that growing up in scruffy North/East London boroughs in the 80s and 90s we very much lucked out with free music lessons. I don't know whether it was countrywide but our London boroughs seemed to absolutely throw money at its music department at the time. We both had free lessons for years, up to grade 7 in my case, including music theory, and were part of many (free) orchestras and ensembles.

Agree with this one, growing up our only local supermarket was a Waitrose so everyone shopped there, regardless of class/income.

Learning to ski on a dry slope is not the same thing as an annual family holiday in Verbier or Courchevel in the February half term.

It’s a traditional foodstuff though. Which influences the way people have it today. Less so now though my kids like sweet porridge 🤢

Me too, in state academy in Glasgow we had access to dry ski slopes, in school a swimming pool, cross country fields, tennis courts, badminton courts, rugby pitch, glass reading rooms and could study The Classics and learn any instrument. Social mix was from wealthy to deprived and everyone mixed. However this was not the norm and local authorities have since sold off much of the land to developers. My friends at private schools never went onto the same successes as friends from my own school.

I haven't thought of Gateways in years! I'd forgotten that supermarket existed.