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 wish someone would tell my dog this. Even the paper bag which once contained a Gregg’s sausage roll is a bonus street food snatch day for him. Common as muck.

@Rondvassbu

Yes sounds familiar. Does daisies mean anything to you?

80s child born to 1940s parents. I wasn’t allowed to wear skirts with bare legs, I vividly remembering getting ready to meet my friends (was about 12) and my mum telling me that she and my dad didn’t approve of what I was wearing, it looked common, so I had to change out of my calf-length skirt. I have a photo of me wearing the skirt and I still feel sad and slightly ashamed about it. My mum wore skirts, but always with tights no matter the weather.

My sister used to work in a jewellers and had an enviable collection of beautiful jewellery, which she liked to wear a lot of. My mum thought this looked common as well.

Was never allowed chewing or bubble gum,
I was allowed to get a screwball from the ice cream van as long as I threw the bubble gum at the bottom away.

My cousin who is 25 years older than me walks off if I eat in the street. She also called me a 'hussy' for not wearing tights 😆

My mum is the same age as my cousin and has been known to whip out a sausage roll in the street - probably where I got my loose morals from!.

I think I used to eat sweets in my uniform regardless but there wasn't fast food available like there is now

I think it is a bit unnecessary

Not prostitute no. But we were told drinking from a bottle or can and eating in the street was common and badly behaved.. As children we were not allowed to drink straight from bottles or cans.

likewise painted fingernails.
i can understand that it was not the done thing to eat/drink in the street. still don't like it.
also when i was young i never saw even a man drink from a can or bottle, let alone a woman. and i was thoroughly working-class, so it's nothing to do with m-c niceties.
no one did it. they wouldn't want to, unless in dire straits.
i don't drink from cans.

Same for school rules here except for the pierced ears. Over age 16 only and small plain studs only but <eyeroll> there was the expectation that some of us would be attending formal entertainments and wearing the family jewellery so they couldn't ban ear piercing completely. I am of the vintage where ring pull cans and individual bottles of water or other drinks didn't exist outside of pubs so the drinking in the street thing didn't exist

I was told it was common, however my Dad (born in the 30s) was not happy if I wore an ankle chain, as apparently that was a sign of a prostitute.

And chips, but only on the prom!
My late OH used to moan if I drank from a bottle or can but also moaned about all the washing up!

Soooo many rules! Humans are weird.

We should all be a bit more Dolly

Yep - same as pp though - told it was "common"
Not allowed to watch ITV either 😅

Ice cream by the sea was OK as I recall 😁

Eating in the street where we live seagull and tourists central is a risky endeavour 😮

@Weatherwax13 I remember that too about red nail polish and ankle chains. My grandmother used to say it looked "brazen and hard faced", one of her funny sayings😅

Yes, OP, I recognize this line of thinking.

My grandmother, who was born in 1922, once told me that if I drank beer out of a bottle, I wouldn't find a husband. I was already married so I wasn't too worried! She also would never have, for example, had a dinner and put a jar on the table - whatever was in the jar would go into a proper dish with a little spoon.

The eating outside thing I've encountered as well. I had a lovely university professor, an older Swiss gentleman, who felt that eating on the street was not the thing. And actually, when I was in the army, if we were in uniform, we also were not allowed to eat on the street. Sitting down at a table on a patio would have been ok, but not buying a hotdog and sitting on a wall to eat it, and certainly not walking along drinking a can of coke or eating a doughnut.

I think that sort of idea was actually pretty well established at one time.

When you see the litter around and the amount of packaging fast food generates, I think it was sensible

Mind you I do like Greggs but it would be consumed at home or at a table

I pretty much agree with this. It doesn't really help to develop a healthy relationship with food, and it does create a lot of mess.

I wonder if part of the issue is that people were more aware of the difficulties of dealing with pests, or grease on clothing. There was a time when a grease stain that wouldn't come out meant that a shirt or sweater could no longer be for good wear, and you would need a new one, because people did not have that many clothes. They represented a significant investment so people took care of their things, and no one wanted infestations.

Kind of like ironing sheets, which seems weird today. My grandmother, who hated housework, insisted on it which I thought was strange. I cam to find out as an adult it helped keep down pests.

When I chatted once about it to my elderly university professor who refused to eat in the street, he seemed to think it was an offense against hospitality, eating in front of other people, who might not have anything, without sharing food.

Yes! Eating or drinking in the street was behaving like a prostitute. I was told this by an uncle - he was born in the 1910s, I in the late 50s. My dad was of a similar age to my uncle, mumsomewhat younger, so they didn't say that, but other than ice creams, one didn't consume in the streets and especially while walking. At the very least one should sit down!

My uncle once took me to a pub whenI was 17 or so. I usually drank gin and bitters, but for some reason wasn't sure whether he would disapprove so I asked him to choose for me. He ordered a babycham and lemonade and once I'd had half of the disgusting thing told me it was what all the prostitutes drank "in his day".

Nutter.

Yes eating and drinking in the street was seen as very common. Think it was seen as lazy habits and not being looked after properly at home

So here is a question - was an ankle chain ever a sign of a prostitute?

It doesn't seem impossible.

Susanmartha · 26/04/2022 11:26
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 😄

Great post. The only things I think you've missed are:

"ladies" never go into the bookmakers/bookies. They use a turf accountant to place bets instead and sick to big events like the Grand National.
"ladies" never go into a pub or bar by themselves and definitely don't get themselves a drink.

Anklets weren't a thing back then, but they would definitely have been the sign of a "loose woman". The word "prostitute" would not have been used. It was more about not being seen to be "common" as there was a huge assumption that the whole of society was always watching and would judge you. They had it drummed into their heads that they weren't allowed to do certain things. A couple of years back my Mum said that she wouldn't be allowed to do something and I asked her why and who wasn't allowing her? She didn't have an answer; it had obviously never occurred to her to ask that question or challenge anything. Very sad.

Women drinking pints, my parents would have to be taken away to the asylum if they witnessed this. I just can’t do it even though I’d like to.

I've got another one! I work in care. Today a client mentioned she noticed I complete my notes after visits in my car before leaving. She asked me not to as it will make her look "of ill repute locally". So I shall pop around the corner.

I was told that smoking in the street was for prostitutes. But never told off about eating in the street; but I don’t remember ever eating outside anyway!

my dad always said that we shouldn’t look down on prostitutes: they probably saved lots of other women from being raped