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!

I agree - I really, really hate getting on a train for a journey under two hours and seeing (and, ugh, HEARING AND SMELLING) everyone around me rustle around getting out their "picnics" for the journey.

My family are terrible for this, carting around juice and sweeties for so much as a bus ride or a stroll around the lake. Even as a child I felt embarrassed because it made me look and feel scruffy and animalistic shoving food in my gob in a public place.

I always believed that you don't eat in public outside of restaurants and train dining cars. Obviously I make an exception for a 5-hour journey as dining cars are hard to come by these days. But munching crisps and sandwiches on a quick train trip is unnecessary, and a bit anti-social.

No wonder we have so many health issues in the UK, people are given to believe that they'll starve if they aren't constantly putting portable food into their mouths at all times.

My Dad (born 1912, blue collar worker) would wear a suit to go out for the day to the local seaside town. We weren't allowed to walk along eating an ice cream - we went into a cafe and ate it from a plate (not a dish!) with a spoon. I thought it was the height of sophistication. I still can't eat walking along, but will allow myself to eat sitting on a bench.

I just can’t understand why though? Why does it bring down the reputation of a school if a child is seen eating a chocolate I’m uniform in the street? Or an apple?

surely this can’t be a thing these days?

There was a terrible dread in my house of being common

I’m a 1950s baby. Eating on the street was viewed as common, I don’t recall seeing canned drink till the late 1960s and drinking straight from the can would have been frowned on. Eating in front of the telly was never allowed in our house; it was in the dining room with a cloth on the table or nothing. Chewing gum was a vile American import according to my Dad. Make up on teenagers was frowned upon though I can’t imagine my parents calling anyone a prostitute for wearing a bit of lipstick. It sounds rigid but I had a great childhood and my parents were liberal for People of their generation.

I wasn't allowed to drink out of a can anywhere because I might cut my mouth.
Eating and drinking in the street was "common" and "uncouth".
Wet hair after swimming would mean I would "catch my death of cold" or "catch pneumonia and die".
Those were my parents' rules.

And I also went to a private girls' school like many others on this thread and it was forbidden to eat or drink in the street in uniform because it was uncouth and not befitting of the school's reputation. Everyone was terrified to try it in case they got found out and bollocked.
There were frequent assemblies on the matter with the "shocked" headmistress relating tales of how girls had been seen eating sweets at the metro station and apparently members of the public had phoned the school and complained.

*@RiojaRose , back in the 60s at least, a woman who had ‘too many’ sexual partners was generally called a slut.
She’d be called a prostitute only if she was being paid.
That was within my circles, anyway.
It’s ages since I’ve heard the word ‘slut’, or read it, either.

We had to sit up stairs on a bus if we wanted to eat. Not that we did, as we didn't have the constant need to snack or drink.

I just can’t understand why though? Why does it bring down the reputation of a school if a child is seen eating a chocolate I’m uniform in the street? Or an apple?

surely this can’t be a thing these days?

It looks ‘bingey’, lacking self-control, grabby, unwilling to wait. Unwilling to have proper meals or snacks at home, in a cafe, or at least sitting down on a bench. It spreads crumbs, grease and litter around too.

Quite a few people go to baby and toddler classes and bring out the food, making for a lot of clearing up for the person taking the class. They could have had it before coming in.

Eating fast food on the trot at random times, instead of planned meals at home or at school, is probably one of the causes of the rise in obesity.

In my family moving while eating was something that only animals (especially cows) did and we were supposed to be above that.

Painted toenails were beyond the pale, according to my mother. One of the first things I did when leaving home was to paint my toenails.

Drinking from a can was basically putting rat wee over your mouth ( according to my DM who insists rats run all over the top of cans while in transit) She still washes every can lid before opening it.

I'm never going to be able to drink from a can again 🤢

Eating or drinking in the street was considered common/rough and drinking direct from the can, at any time, the same, but my mum would never have uttered the word "prostitute"

Yes, definitely 'common' (I was born in the 50s)

Prostitution wouldn't have been mentioned as I wouldn't have been expected to know what that was!

To be fair - there was a lot less litter in those days <looks back through rose-tinted glasses>

The same is true of bottled drinks when you think about it.

A lot of these old fashioned "rules" did make sense, if not for the reasons stated.

Eating in the street/ while walking increases choking risk, means hands haven't been washed first, increases the risk of getting food/drink down your front.

Snacking generally was a very bad thing when I was young and look where that relaxation has got us.

I haven't read the whole thread, but the things you mention were all on my mother's "common" behaviour list. I'm older than you, and a child of the sixties, my mother was quite old fashioned in her views even then, I'll try and remember the list of other common indicators, to be avoided at all costs by young ladies!!!:

Eating in the street
Drinking from any receptacle in the street
Drinking from the can in a cafe
Picking food up with fingers in a cafe, cutlery was always used
Women talking in loud voices in a cafe ( can you tell we visited cafes quite a bit when I was a child!)
Skirts above calf length
Bare legs
Not covering the handle end of cutlery when using it, or eating with just a fork
Obviously no burping or even worse farting
Shorts ~ long shorts worn on the beach are permitted
Anything other than clear nail varnish
Excessive jewellry especially if it is gold coloured
Vibrant hair dye
Shirtless men
Men with obvious large tummies ( I don't know why this is common, but apparently it is)
Some regional accents
Bikinis on the beach, one piece bathing suits are okay, as are what my Mum calls " two pieces"
Indiscreet make up
Tight trousers or leggings
Leopard skin prints
Pierced ears ~ but discreet clip on earrings are okay, don't quite get that
Tattooes
Fish net stockings

My mother wouldn't use the word prostitute when I was a child, but she has in later life cautioned me against wearing red and black together, as apparently that is a sure sign of a "lady of the night"

The wet hair thing.....Mum would certainly dissapprove of wet hair in public, but primarily because it would give you pneumonia, also walking by the river at night was a terrible health risk.......

One of the most rebellious things I did after leaving home was to walk by the river at night with wet hair 😄

I still don't eat in the street and internally grimace when I see other people doing it. It was definitely drilled into me by school and home that eating and drinking in the streets was beyond the pale. Also, spitting, laughing loudly, using coarse language and being underdressed in public were all not to be done.

I would be perfectly happy not to see these things in public still.

Growing up in the 70s and 80s, in our house, pretty much anything fun, frivolous, attractive or exciting was common.
My only ambition growing up was to be common, in order to avail myself of all the forbidden bounty. Looking down at my ankle chain and painted toenails, I'm fairly satisfied with how far I've come.😀

That is odd- my mum is the same age and isn't like that.

But my nan thought women smoking in the street wasn't classy.

I have a vague memory of my grandmother saying that chewing gum looked common when walking around outside but don't remember anything about drinking from a can 😂my grandmother used to have lots of odd beliefs and superstitions though

Whereas I was told not to eat in the street or drink walking along - I wasn't told it made someone doing this look like a prostitute.

I was told you don't digest your food correctly, though fish and chips at the seaside where different...? That was fine

I used to work for a retail company who had deliveries from the coca cola warehouse. We regularly had trays of cans delivered covered in rodent droppings and stinking of their urine. We also had boxes of crisps and chocolates that had quite clearly been gotten at by rodents. Head office ordered that any with obvious signs had to be disposed of, the rest of the box was to be put on the shelves for sale.

Ankle chains, fur coats and drinking port and lemon were sure signs of prostitution when I was a child….! My mother’s list of things that were common was extensive… eating drinking or smoking in the street, women whistling, pierced ears (especially on children), holding cutlery incorrectly, sitting upstairs on the bus, chip pans, Butlins, Bingo….. etc etc etc!

If my mother even saw me drink from a plastic bottle, she’d kill me. She has to decanter alcohol, chewing gum she would have a fit.

Our headmistress used to instil in us not to eat in the street in uniform, this was 80s

I wouldn't tend to do it now, apart from a picnic or sitting on a bench