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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

What type of coke would you immediately think of here?

64 replies

AgonyAgatha · 18/03/2023 21:54

Reading an old childhood favourite to my kids. Come across this passage. My first thought was coca cola. Then they mentioned coke dust and I was a bit confused...🤔What kind of a side business has this council got going on behind their village hall anyway? 😂

Only once the kids had gone to bed did it click that it probably means coke as in coal? (Right?)

There is no mention of this being set in a mining town at all (though the name of the town is mentioned and is apparently in Leicester (having looked it up!)).

So AIBU for having thought there was some Breaking Bad stuff going on behind the scenes or would it have been common knowledge that there would be a pile of coke behind the village hall back in the 90s?

It amused me for a bit at least Grin

What type of coke would you immediately think of here?
What type of coke would you immediately think of here?
OP posts:
Sugarfish · 18/03/2023 22:47

I’m guess coal unless your favourite childhood book was scarface?

Itsnotfairhuff · 18/03/2023 22:47

What would be the Leicester equivalent to Pablo Escobar? Peter Sweep?

jcyclops · 18/03/2023 22:52

Coke is made by heating coal without oxygen in large ovens at around 1000 centigrade for around 24 hours. It is called pyrolysis and removes most of the impurities in coal leaving almost pure carbon. Coke burns better and cleaner than coal. Charcoal is made from wood in a very similar process. Coke is used in blast furnaces with iron ore and limestone in the steel making process.

There used to be several coking plants in the UK in coalfield areas. Orgreave, where the massed battles took place during the miners strike in the 80s was a coking plant. British Steel are currently in the process of closing their last coking plant at Scunthorpe.

Zonder · 18/03/2023 23:13

What book is it, OP? Who is it by? I think I recognise it.

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 18/03/2023 23:18

My village had a small coal mine until about 11-12 years ago. It produced just enough coal/coke to supply the houses left than needed it.

AllllTheQuestions · 18/03/2023 23:19

I’ve never heard of coal being called Coke. I was mighty confused and although I realised it couldn’t be cocaine I didn’t know what else it could possibly be!

it amused me OP. I defo feel like a millennial 😂😂

Testina · 18/03/2023 23:19

How is the town in Leicester?
Leicester is a town. Well, a city.
There was plenty of mining in Leicestershire.
Are you one of these people that thinks only Yorkshire has mines, in England? 🤣

I totally get that someone might not know what coke it, but it’s really odd to read about a huge pile of it behind a village hall and think cocaine or Coca Cola, instead of, “oh - dictionary check needed…” or just read on in case context helps.

Lemonyfuckit · 18/03/2023 23:22

I was born early 80s and new it was coal/coke. I grew up in a village - so not a mining town but loads of people (including us) had a coal fire, and our house had a coal cellar.

LilylilyDaisy · 18/03/2023 23:26

I know coke was another name for coal, it's just one of those general knowledge things that you've either heard of or haven't.

LilylilyDaisy · 18/03/2023 23:30

Having said that, many things I know about I read about and that is exactly the sort of thing that would have puzzled me if I was a child reading it (and hadn't heard of coke). For example I still remember being puzzled by a "soda siphon" which formed a large part of children's book I was reading, which had probably been written in the 1930s. I figured it out, just through interpretation of events but I hadn't ever heard of soda, or a siphon, or why you'd have one lying around in what seemed like a perfectly standard suburban home (in the story).

This is why reading is so important to kids, both fiction and non-fiction!

LilylilyDaisy · 18/03/2023 23:32

*syphon. Can't spell tonight!

LookingOldTheseDays · 18/03/2023 23:35

The description of it being a 'pile' makes it blindingly obvious that this is referring to coke as in coal.

Coca cola doesn't come in piles, and nor does the illegal kind.

LookingOldTheseDays · 18/03/2023 23:36

How is the town in Leicester?
Leicester is a town. Well, a city.

I was also going to ask this!

Fizzadora · 18/03/2023 23:42

My primary school used to have a massive coke pile in the playground used for firing the boiler. It was still there until the school was demolished in the late 80's.
We used to have a Rayburn coke fire - like a sealed stove that ran the central heating my Dad installed. I think he changed it to a gas boiler in the early 80's.

CC4712 · 18/03/2023 23:49

Why would you even post this OP other than for attention??? 🙄

Testina · 18/03/2023 23:54

CC4712 · 18/03/2023 23:49

Why would you even post this OP other than for attention??? 🙄

Yeah, it’s a bit, “oh I’m so funny, because: drugs!!!” isn’t it?

Like the first time your child finds out about cocaine (Y5 DARE Programme maybe?) and sniggers in Tesco after school saying, “can I have some coke 😉😉😉” in the drinks aisle.

PlateBilledDuckyPerson · 19/03/2023 00:09

CC4712 · 18/03/2023 23:49

Why would you even post this OP other than for attention??? 🙄

Why does anyone post anything on here? No one posts hoping they will be ignored.

I can see why it would be confusing if you'd never come across coke as a fuel.

Original poster
AgonyAgatha · 19/03/2023 18:30

Well what a bunch of misery arses this thread attracted.

Firstly - wikipedia says it is set in Cuddington, in Leicester. So fuck off with the "how is it IN Leicester?" crap.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sleepover_Club

If you'd read my first post, I did figure out it meant coke as in coal. But I've not seen a piece of coal since about 1993 and I think the only time I've ever heard of coke as in coal was in a chemistry lesson circa 2004! So no, it wasn't the first thing on my mind.

But that shouldn't matter because the whole point of the post is because it made me laugh and as I was sat alone after putting the kids to bed, I thought I'd share here.

As if every other thread on this website is the height of sophistication. But don't worry, I'll avoid boring you all from now on and keep the board free for the next 100 threads of parking dramas or penis beakers.

OP posts:
BertieBotts · 19/03/2023 18:35

It must be coal because the dog is called snowball so presumably white which is why it's so terrible that he's coated in black dust.

It would have confused me when reading it today TBH, because I wouldn't have made that connection either. It does seem archaic, and while it's obviously neither cola nor cocaine I probably wouldn't have realised what it actually meant - I would have put it down to something old fashioned probably, or googled it if the kids were curious.

GMOOH2023 · 19/03/2023 18:36

We're just back from staying with a friend in North Wales. He still has a coal fire - uses it every day in winter.

Saucery · 19/03/2023 18:39

My parents still have a coal fire. Get it started with coal, seasoned logs on top. They are rare, but not consigned to history yet Hmm

cardibach · 19/03/2023 18:40

AgonyAgatha · 18/03/2023 21:59

Fair enough. I just thought it was funny. But it wouldn't have been obvious to me as a child either; I didn't know anyone who still used coal.

How old are you, 2? People still use it now!

cakeorwine · 19/03/2023 18:41

Context

If you aren't sure of the meaning of a word, you can use context to either work out the meaning or work out what it isn't.

A big pile of coke! That a dog went into Grin
That's got to be worth a few million. And I feel for the dog.

But I would think coke as in a form of coal.

Ktime · 19/03/2023 18:48

AgonyAgatha · 19/03/2023 18:30

Well what a bunch of misery arses this thread attracted.

Firstly - wikipedia says it is set in Cuddington, in Leicester. So fuck off with the "how is it IN Leicester?" crap.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sleepover_Club

If you'd read my first post, I did figure out it meant coke as in coal. But I've not seen a piece of coal since about 1993 and I think the only time I've ever heard of coke as in coal was in a chemistry lesson circa 2004! So no, it wasn't the first thing on my mind.

But that shouldn't matter because the whole point of the post is because it made me laugh and as I was sat alone after putting the kids to bed, I thought I'd share here.

As if every other thread on this website is the height of sophistication. But don't worry, I'll avoid boring you all from now on and keep the board free for the next 100 threads of parking dramas or penis beakers.

Coke dust would have confused me too. Not sure why you got such vociferous viciousness on such an innocuous post Confused Must be Sunday evening blues.

ErrolTheDragon · 19/03/2023 19:50

Tinysoxxx · 18/03/2023 22:43

This is the % of homes that had some sort of central heating in the U.K.
It rose quickly in the 1980s and 1990s.

And some of those ran on solid fuel of some sort anyway.