To ask if anyone else’s family had this belief growing up?

[Latenightthoughts111]

NC for this as it seems like all my threads lately have been about my family and don’t want them linked

late night thought tonight is about when I was growing up (late 80s born to a mid 40s born DM) I was told that drinking from a can and eating in the street was like being a prostitute

im not exaggerating I can clearly remember being about 10 and told that walking home from swimming with my hair down and wet and drinking from a can made me look like a prostitute! What was this about?? Where did it come from?? Even now I struggle to drink from a can and I don’t think I ever eat whilst walking!

Eating while on the move, I was always taught that it's better to sit down. Something about the digestive system being slow while the body is exercising.

Well this thread is enlightening. My mother never suggested that any behaviours were “common”, or “uncouth”, and definitely not the behaviour of prostitues. I don’t remember the concern about being seen as “common” as being a thing, in any shape or form, either in my family, or amongst any of my friends. But, I’m aware this may come across as a humble brag, but we were all solidly middle class, from families with professional occupations, in quite a solidly middle class area. The idea that we’d ever worry that anyone would think we were “common”, never even entered our consciousness, at least to my knowledge. I suspect that’s part and parcel of the whole class identity thing, which is a funny old concept really.

I can do relate to a ll this. Eating, drinking and smoking in the street was a sign you were easy. As was wearing bright red clothes.

I have been eating on the street, and sometimes drinking straight from a can, all my life. Only this evening have I discovered that some (I guess mostly older) people might think this is a bit off. No point in stopping now though!

I was born in the early 70s to a mother in her late 30s. By the time I was a teenager she was in her fifties - I'm 50 soon and I can't imagine having some of the ideas she had!

All of the above were common but the real sign of prostitution according to my mother were ankle chains worn on right ankles.

Also, wearing a hat. Specifically one with a small veil.

She went pure bugshit when Princess Di bought into the look wholesale.

Mum thought white shoes were common as muck. 'They look like boats' she used to say.
She always took the crusts off sandwiches too 🙄 and changed her clothes into something slightly dressier and a bit of make-up before dad got home at 7ish when they had dinner together. We children had tea at 5.30. I do remember dad going to the chippy on Saturday nights and mum would prepare the table, put plates to warm, butter the bread and get out the ketchup, salt and Sarsons vinegar. Then we'd all settle down to watch TV.

This sounds exactly like me 🤣

1950s’ baby here and we didn’t even have cans. We wouldn’t have dared eat in the street, or be seen out in school uniform without our ruddy berets on and our blazers buttoned up (girls’ state grammar). I was a miner’s daughter but influenced by my Victorian grandmother who insisted that all sorts of things weren’t done, such as wearing makeup or jewellery till after breakfast. The word common was never mentioned though, or prostitution(!), it just wasn’t “the thing”.

I’m partial to an occasional outdoor Greggs now, and have been drinking pints since the early 70s, but still have to go barefaced to a hotel breakfast buffet.

I probably came along much earlier than you did. Although that was never said, I was told that only "common, trashy" women EVER walked with a cigarette in their hands. This was WAY before smoking was an issue. My mum wouldn't even walk from one room to another with a cigarette in her hands. It was put into an ashtray, and THAT was carried to the next room.

Lol! I remember my Mum back in 1963. My parents were enamoured of JFK and the whole Kennedy/Camelot saga. But when JFK and Jackie were at some parade in their honour in Dublin, and the TV cameras zoomed in on Jackie applying lipstick IN PUBLIC, Mum was initially speechless, and then said something cutting along the lines of "a lady does not apply her face in public" and never had a good word to say about her again. When Jackie married Onassis years later, Mum, who didn't like ostentatious displays of wealth, or women who married for money, felt quite justified in her attitude!😀

Yes I sometimes feel like a lot of this stufd was very much cared about by the class my grandparents were/my parents grew up as - sort of 'upper working class' or 'respectable' working class. I think there was a lot of anxiety about being seen as 'rough' or 'uncouth'.

We did all these things... usually with our parents, so not common at all! I grew up in the 60s and 70s!

Almost implying that the parent couldn't provide you with a meal at home so you had to eat in the street so it may reflect badly on them

My dps weren't like this especially it came from the school

I remember people saying that if a boy had a piercing in a certain ear it was to symbolise that he was gay. I can’t remember which side but every single male I ever encountered at the time had the other ear pierced.
Then I saw Jon Bonjovi with earrings in both ears and oh my, I was I totally smitten with his total disregard for what anyone thought about his piercings 😆😆😆😆

I remember the saying red shoes no knickers. I love my red shoes and what the hell does that phrase mean anyway?

never heard that one but my grandmother has some odd quirks. If I brush my hair outside my house (say in her house or in my car when taking her to the shops) she will say its common. She cannot stand it if I do my make up in the car and gets very worked up and embarassed. She never clears a plate at lunchtime so she isnt seen as greedy. I was in a restaurant with her one day, around 6 months ago, and the husband of a very good friend came past. I see his wife weekly but had not seen him for months. We had a brief chat about work and how we were and she was so confused. She thought it highly inappropriate that I had chatted to this man without his wife there and without mentioning his wife. I asked if I should have just ignored him and she no a quick hello is fine but we were both too brazen 😱. She's amazing but is definitely regressing in the last 10 years.

I grew up roughly same as you with similar age parents. I don’t remember being told not to, but have always hated eating or drinking in the street. Think I must have been told it was common but don’t remember. Certainly never had it linked to the sex industry though. Never drank from can either as it was and still is unhygienic. The possibility of mice or rats running over the can when they are stored puts me off. I know nowadays highly unlikely but can’t get the thought out of my mind though 🙈

I remember people saying that if a boy had a piercing in a certain ear it was to symbolise that he was gay. I can’t remember which side but every single male I ever encountered at the time had the other ear pierced

It was the right ear apparently. I can still remember a girl at school explaining this to me when I was about 13 in language that these days would be considered totally homophobic.

Most already mentioned; eating in the street, tattoos, pierced ears, red shoes, gum, coloured bra, fur coat (‘she’s all fur coat and no knickers’). All common.

So also was having no (or tatty) net curtains and watching ITV.

Yes and my mum used to say no smoking in the street; she would go to a cafe or tearoom to smoke but never in the street

I was told all of these things.

This is my answer, all of which I strive towards as I age! My mum and I agree and often laugh about this poem:

jamesmilson.com/2017/04/19/warning-poem-by-jenny-joseph-when-i-grow-old-i-shall-wear-purple/

Did you know what a prostitute was at 10? I certainly didn’t. Think it’s worse to say that to a child than the act itself!

I definitely knew at 10, though I obviously did really understand the implications.

I remember because my DBro who was 7 told my mum she looked “like a tart” when she was getting ready to go out (to the theatre, with my DF), thinking it was a compliment and just meant “brightly dressed woman”. So a 10 year old would know but a 7 year old wouldn’t

Oh gosh yes, my Mum would put lipstick on and a 'clean pinny' before Dad got home! My husband is lucky if I change my joggers......

I don’t really think I knew what sex was so I think it was probably just a tarty woman at the time

Yes! I was always under the impression that my (snobby) mother disliked people eating and drinking in the street because of various comments that she made about others. However, as a teen I walked in eating chips from the paper and she informed me that people would have the idea that this house was "like a Hamburg brothel" !!!