To ask for post war slang for having a period/menustrating?

[Thelowquietsea]

For a story that I'm writing. I'm not sure what slang would be most relevant in 1950s Britain to suggest a woman was menstruating.

Any ideas? Woman is lower middle class.

My mum always used the term " the curse" . She'd say "I've got curse pains today" , or mutter "Curse has started." My aunt used to say she had "come on." I used to say that as well "Oh,no, I've come on...."

'monthlies'

‘Aunt Flo has arrived’ is the one that I know

I am 10 years post war. It wouldn't have been mentioned in polite company, or perhaps euphamistically, like 'time of the month' muttered sotto voce. However, my mother (born 1932) told me that she used to call it 'being on the rag', as rags were what women used prior to st's. (And 'st' is not an abbreviation you hear much now). We were never told about periods at school. I remember being bemused by the brown bags that used to hang on the back of school loo doors and wonder what they were for.

I was about to say Curse as per Judith Kerr's memoirs. Monthlies also sounds right from Call the Midwife.

Got the painters in.

Thank you! It's not being mentioned publically. It's a thought.

The decorators are in

The mouse is hiding

My favourite from Life on Mars was "riding the cotton pony"

My mum started at 12 in 1949. Always called them monthlies as in "I've got my monthlies." This is London mind. There might have been regional differences?

Dmum (71, London) always refers to it as the curse.

My mum, born end of WW1, used to write "in a delicate condition" to excuse me from swimming !

Same phrase was also used for pregnancy, so I wonder what my teacher thought the first time

Auntie Flo, Time of the month, i’ve Got my period.

Our underwear in the 50s was called ‘the unmentionables’. Neither my mum nor my Nan would hang the unmentionables on the garden line. They had to be dried inside away from the Male neighbours. My Nan had a second clothes horse with a sheet on it so the my brother would not see her undies.

'Had a visitor' according to my mother who never spoke of such things.

This brings back memories! STs - vague padding in a net covering, slung with little hooks from a piece of elastic round the waste. Wall mounted incinerators in public toilets, including schools, so you came out of the toilet clutching your little paper bag, hoping there was no-one else around, and put it in the hopper of the incinerator. Nasty burning smell of said incinerator, and occasional mishaps when whole toilet area was filled with smoke.

Belief that tampons could only be used by non virgins, so even if we girls in late 50s, early 60s were happy to use tampax, our mothers were quite likely to jump to conclusions.

Coming on

Oh, I'd forgotten STs that hooked onto a waist belt !
I had those age 12-13 until adhesive STs became available

In Scotland so could be different but my Granny would say she had her 'usuals'.

My Londoner grandmother called it a monthly too.

my nans used time of the month or my monthlies

A teacher I worked with at the start of my career, who retired a few years ago, said The Lady of Shalott always used to provoke giggles when she was a schoolgirl because of the line “the curse is come upon me” 😄

I really wish I'd asked my grans what words they had for things, while they were still here. I still sometimes use some.if their phrases for a laugh or because we are remembering them. But it would have been good to know more about life before I existed.

No idea where he got this from but my husband on the odd occasion would ask am I " on your moons" literally never heard it before in my life