Things you assumed were normal

[meredithgrey1]

DH bought some weetabix to have for breakfast a few days ago and I was amazed to see him preparing it by just pouring cold milk on and then eating it like that! I can't eat weetabix now but when I was little my mum would pour the milk on, then microwave it, then mash the biscuits in to create something similar to porridge. I assumed at the time that this was the only way to eat weetabix but my husband was appalled at the very idea and after a quick google it does seem like I'm very much in the minority. So it got me thinking, what are some things that you thought were normal, but then you realised that you/your family were the only one(s) doing it like that?

Just grated cheese and an egg mixed up then spread thickly on the bread

Pepper on fresh strawberries. A little sprinkle of black pepper really makes all the difference.

Also a weird one: dettol baths. When I was tiny my mum used to bath me in dettol. My Nan convinced her this was the right thing to do, as Nan has OCD. I suddenly realised how odd it was that other people didn’t have white bath water. This stopped when I was 4. I mean I get sterilising the baby equipment, but the actual baby? 😂 I don’t have any skin issues just in case anyone is concerned, it was always heavily diluted!

We used to have Dettol baths also, usually after swimming in a local outdoor pool. (Nb, it only used to be a capful or two of Dettol in the bath, not a bathtub full of Dettol).

Lovely nostalgic thread when I was growing up, whenever we had spaghetti and meatballs we sang a song that started “on top of spaghetti, all covered in cheese, I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed”. I thought every family did the same but apparently not!

Rice pudding with prunes...

As a child it was home made rice pudding and had to be with soaked and cooked dried prunes .
(But tinned rice pudding and tinned prunes also good, )but you dont want too much prune juice or it al goes a bit brown
Mind you I haven't had this for about 40 years now!

We also loved the dried mixed fruits with rice pud, or just custard. It had peaches, pears , prunes and packed in a block with a dried apple ring on the side of the package .. Yum. ( I wonder if you can still get those? ).

We had the orange jelly whipped up with tinned mandarins and evaporated milk too, we called it 'orange fluff' and it was served in little stemmed glass dishes with extra segments of mandarin on top we though it was rather posh so it was one of our favourite desserts!

Cheese and salad cream sandwiches and crisp sandwiches were also good .. and often w the whole family would sit down to a meal of pilchards on toast.. the pilchards were mashed and spread on the toast (thin white bread) then tomato slices put on top and slices were put back under the grill to warm through.. We loved it !

@Moltenpink ahhhh I think we did! I’m singing the song in my head and I don’t know where I got it from!

@Standrewsschool that's normal, DP loves a good dettol bath after a sweaty day at work x

There would always be one child out of a group (e.g.at school) who smelt constantly of TCP, now I know why :o

I know the meatball song! But we never ate meatballs.

I thought Lucy was a normal boy’s name when younger as father had a mate whose nickname was Lucy. So when I met a girl at ballet with short hair called Lucy I assumed she thought she was a boy.

When we were ill as children, my mum used to make us something called ‘Pobbies’. It was warm milk in a bowl with sugar and cubes of white bread everyone I have mentioned it to since has been

My grandad used to have pobs too back in the day! So it's been a thing since the 1930s xx

I remember Dettol baths, carnation evaporated milk (sometimes over tinned peaches or tinned fruit salad), milk jelly (as opposed to blancmange) and being allowed to eat a cube of jelly.
I used to like to lick the inside of Knorr soup packets too, once they'd been used. Did this recently and got very funny looks from DH.
Did anyone used to pull the wishbone after having roast chicken/turkey? We were told that you had to hold and pull it with your little finger only.
And if you sneezed at the same time as someone else (and then said "bless you" at the same time, you had to say, "post first my letter" to ward off bad luck!

Oh my god, it’s an actual thing!!

I’ve just googled it, not sure why I didn’t do that before now, I just assumed it was made up!

Just like when I found out the word “outwith” isn’t used in England. News to me...

Pepper on fresh strawberries. A little sprinkle of black pepper really makes all the difference. The Spanish do that.

We used to have something called cornflour mould with coca-cola flavoured jelly. Favourite pudding growing up.

I used to love polishing shoes. I was a Sunday evening chore before school on Monday.

Heard of Pobs but never had them (although I can imagine they'd be just what the doctor ordered during illness). Nice and bland.

It was a chore rather than I was although my mother might say different

The rest of the meatball song goes;
"It rolled off the table
And onto the floor
And then my poor meatball
Rolled out of the door."
I think we learned it at Guides.

"It rolled down the garden path
And under a bush
And then my poor meatball
was nothing but mush.

I buried my meatball
and covered it well
and then my poor meatball
went straight down to hell

A hundred years later
An apple tree grew
All covered with meatballs
And spaghetti too!"

Yes, we learnt it in Brownies.

It was so tasty, as tasty as can be.
And then the next summer it grew into a tree!

I CANNOT believe that you learned a song with the word 'hell' in brownies

Well I never made it to Guides, so it must have been Brownies! Either that or in the school playground - I learnt some well dubious songs in the school playground (junior school, too!)

we sang: A hundred years later
A meatball tree grew
And now there are meatballs
For me and for you

@Threelionsandalioness I also used to have shortbread with bream. My DGF did it and it was only when I was about 13 that I realised no one else did it.

Never warmed the shortbread though...

Shortbread and bream - now there's a thought - not a good one!

(I know it's a typo - just amused me)