To ask what stuff you did as a kid that now seems weird and/or wildly inappropriate

[CheeseyToast]

For whatever reason, today I was reminded of being three years old and lunching with the street cleaner. He drove a little cart/sweeper thing and would take his break sitting on the grass outside our house. I called him The Jigger Man.

When I spotted him, I'd run inside and say, Mim! The jigger man is here! Can I take my lunch outside?

She'd give me little sandwiches wrapped up in paper and I'd rush out to sit beside him on the grass.

Oh I loved my jigger man picnics.

Was I a complete weirdo or did other kids do stuff like this?

When I was at secondary school in the seventies, me and two lads used to wait at the bus stop and sometimes the Science teacher used to pick us up in what passed for the school mini bus. There were no seat belts and the back doors were tied together with rope. Sometimes I had to sit and hold the doors closed. Never thought anything about it as we set off down the bumpy, narrow, country lanes, stopping off to pick up other unfortunates on the way until it was packed.

Most Cringeworthy (I hardly dare post this) was staying with my lovely aunt in the countryside for holidays in the late sixties. There was a large shared garden with next door and I spent hours running round chasing the chickens and playing with the neighbours large black standard poodle whose name I used to shout with abandon and he would often get into my aunt's kitchen. His name was nig*.

For several years I wrote pleading letters to Jim'll Fix It. Thank God I never got a reply.

ForgotwhatIcameinherefor My primary school began with 'H' too! I wonder if we were on the same trip? I can't remember the coach driver's name but Steve does ring a bell. Did your headmaster's name begin with 'B'?

Well after thinking about my childhood in the late 70’s early 80’s I’m surprised I’m not dead in a ditch or in someone’s basement!
When I was 10 I would bunk off school with my best friend Anne and get the train to London for the day. At 13 I had a Saturday job with “Eggy” the egg man and would deliver eggs with him. At the end of the day He would ask me to sit on his lap and get my £5 wage! Dodgy a shit now I think about it.
When I was 19 I hitched around America on my own. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Cosmiccowgirl84 we used to
Sing that song too!! The teachers never battered an eyelid to it! Lol

One thing I remember is our town 'sargent'. He used to go into the nursery and primary schools. He seemed to know every child in the town and all the parents.

If any kids were naughty our parents would threaten to tell him. If he seen us up to mischief he would say 'do I have to go home and tell your parents?' And that would be our que to stop.

Now we have no idea who are police officers are- I think ours come from the next town? It's such a shame.

My friends step dad had a gold Capri which we thought was wonderful

He let us stand up and put our heads out of the sun roof
I am sure we were on a motorway at the time or maybe an A road

My friends mum was in the car behind and even by 70’s standards this was ridiculous and her looking very angry

One night my sister, friend and I (12, 15 and 15) snuck out of our house when our parents were asleep, trekked through a valley and thick rural countryside for 45 mins to a main road with a lantern for light, got to a main road and hitch hiked to the nearest town. A couple picked us up and worriedly asked if we were okay and we pretended our car had broken down even though we weren't old enough to drive). We then went to a discotheque and dumped a whole jar of shrapnel onto the counter from our money boxes for the entry fee. They wouldn't accept it but we got it changed in another bar and returned. We danced all night and then around 4.30am talked some random person into driving us home and went back to bed. Our parents still don't know about this to this day!

Friday lunchtime in year 6 - we were allowed to go to the chippy to buy lunch instead of the usual sandwiches . Only had to cross two roads to get there.

When I was six, after light was switched off at bedtime, I took some coins out of my money box and sneaked downstairs. I put my coat on over my pyjamas, opened the front door quietly and left it on the latch. Then in the pitch dark, I walked up the road in my slippers to the little "open all hours" shop nearby, and bought some sweets. Nobody in the shop looked remotely bothered! Then I ran home, let myself in and raced triumphantly into our living room where my mum was sitting watching television. "Got you some sweets!" I said proudly. Oddly the main thing she was worried about was me crossing roads in the dark.....

Being taken to the pub by my mum and dad which meant me and my sister sat in the car with lemonade and crisps while they went in for a few drinks.
The art teacher who sent a boy to the shop during a lesson every week to buy cigarettes.
Drinking sherry at Christmas from the age of about 7/8.

A bit older but when I was 15/16 our GCSE art teacher was in a band and we would go to dodgy pubs to watch his gigs and he would buy us beer never creepy with anyone, as far as I know. This was only 11 years ago but imagine now!

In primary school they started doing hotdogs for lunch once a week, I was in Y7 and in charge of slicing all the rolls and then managing the stall and cooking the sausages. I missed quite a lot of class time doing the prep etc. No idea if it was just to get rid of me as I was quite ahead of my class and annoying.

In secondary school I did some horrendous crap, when I was 14/15 I went home from the pub with a French guy to his bed sit. I was drunk as anything (as I was every weekend from 14 to 17) and had no idea where I was. I had to persuade him to drive me to where I was supposed to be staying the next morning. He then stalked me for six months and regularly threatened to kill me or him. I thought it was hilarious at first.

Cigarette shaped chewing gum - we'd parade around with these and then if an adult told us off we'd laugh maniacally satisfied we fooled someone
Drinking left over booze from glasses at wedding parties with adults laughing
My Dad smoking furiously in our tiny car and all the way through the 3-4 hour journey
Playing in the badly secured building sites - someone I knew died crushed by a concrete falling on them
Going to the river in the winter and standing on the frozen ice - again someone from school drowned
Being left on my own after school from 7 years old with my 10 year old brother in charge. He'd ditch me and I'd go and try to get on the roof of a 10 storey tower block out of boredom
Doing dares on our 9th floor balcony by sitting on the balustrade without holding to it

Feel a bit freaked out having listed this stuff. It was all in 70s and 80s and I came from a perfectly respectable family

I can remember hitch hiking a lot from when I was about 16, this was in the 70's, also going in the pub from about 14 and nightclubs and the X films at the cinema, they used to occasionally ask your age but never used to check.

My uncle had a pick up and we often traveled in the back, mostly sitting on the floor but he always allowed one of us to stand up and feel the windstorm high speed as long as we’re holding tight from the radio antenna

What an interesting post.

When I was three I had a wildly passionate and purely platonic relationship with the local impresario of thoughts, colours and deeds.

We would spend hours making delightfully fleeting toys from reeds and hay.

When he was finally removed from our street by Zeus's own fates I felt like I had lost a family member. A distant family member. Say a second cousin I would only see at weddings and the occasional family Christmas. But, a family member none the less.

After that I reviewed an electronic zombie moneybox and completely forgot about him. Well, until now. Your post had relinked memories from the dawn of my experiences.

But, your experience with the 'jigger man' sounds fucking weird. Perv!

Me & my sister were always excited about staying over at our Grandma's as she used to give us liquers in little glasses. We were primary age & it was alcohol, like creme de menthe which was green & there was a thick yellow one & Croft's sherry that was dark brown :) we loved them!!

I remember at primary age being expected to go swimming in my knickers as I’d forgotten my swimsuit and at secondary school my teacher used to smoke his pipe in a cupboard (a sort of walk through cupboard joining two classrooms)

Early-mid 90's (in Australia rather than the UK). At the age of 5 or 6 would be routinely sent to the shops for milk and bread for which I had to cross a main road. I would take my little sister with me in the pram.

From the age of 7 or 8 would cycle to school (about 1.5 miles) but would cycle on arterial roads. Very nearly died twice after serious accidents on the road (one in year 3, so about 9, the other in year 5 so about 11).

Would wander the neighbourhood to play in construction sites. There was also a large overgrown field at the back of our back garden that ran the length of about 4 houses and me, my sister and brother used to play there all the time with the neighbours, never mind the spiders and snakes that were rife in the area.

Used to go on holidays in Queensland with my mums friends. From Sydney it was an 8-10 hour drive. We had a big van with 6 seats and a mattress in the boot and when we were sleepy we'd climb into the boot and have a nap while mum drove us up the highway at 70mph+. We used to wear a bicycle helmet for "safety" although what my mum thought it would do is utterly beyond me...

There was a tree in our front yard that was the perfect route onto the verandah roof. From there my brother and I would climb onto the tiled roof, from where you could see the whole neighbourhood (our house was at the top of the hill). There was a school across the road which we used to go to on the weekend and climb all over the roof as well.

We had a trampoline and at around 5 or 6 my friend and I would put it on it's side and then run at it and hang on while it flopped into it's normal position. One time it wasn't set properly and it fell down on me and broke my ankle.

I was a reckless teenager - I do remember speaking to a friend at school who had called my house to ask to speak to me. My dad's response was "we don't know where hidden is, sorry." And to go back to sleep. I was out at some party about which my parents knew nothing, on the far side of sydney suburbs.

Can't see any of this happening with my children in London now. I don't think my parents knew where I was most of the time...

Mummadeeze what an adventure - are you sure you didn't dream it?

We used to go out on our bikes round the estate named first thing in the morning before anyone was out and about! (8 yrs old)
We also used to go to shoe shops, ask for our size then run out of the shop- we got such a buzz from going up and down the high street doing this!!

Naked** not named!

NameChanger22 funny you should say that about the candle wax. Back in the 70s my parents used to invite friends over to dinner in the evenings - classic prawn cocktail, sherry and Black Forest gateau affairs, straight out of one of Margot and Jerry's occasions - and the leftovers always included Edam cheese. Now I was underwhemed by the cheese, but I did like the leftover wax. Not to eat, I hasten to add (though that stuff was tasteless enough you often were hard pressed to tell the difference). I collected it up, softened it against the radiators and rolled it up into little shapes.

I made a voodoo doll of my primary PE teacher once after she shouted at me. The fact that she left the school some time later under a cloud (I got the nasty inside story when I was about 18) was entirely unconnected...