Meaning of abbreviation ‘BBs’ in a 1940s Book

[EllieQ]

I’m reading Confusion by Elizabeth Jane Howard, which is set during WW2, and was puzzled by the abbreviation ‘BBs’ in a scene where one of the characters is thinking about the usual shopping list she would have for a trip to to London - the line is ‘BBs for Clary and Polly’ who are teenage girls.

Google hasn’t helped as I’ve just got results for Bulletin Board Services (know as BBS) or the BBC. I’m assuming it’s something underwear or toiletry related, but can’t figure it out! Does anyone have any idea what it could stand for?

Erasers, for removing pencil marks. We always called them rubbers when I was at school in the 1970s.

No, it was a clothing item. The book is american and written in the 1870s.

Indian rubbers are shoes - like galoshes.

I remember this from What Katy Did!

My childhood reading is the only reason I know what galoshes are!

I have never , however, really known what a Liberty bodice is.

Baked beans Lolol

My grandmother, born in 1906, who lived for a good part of her life in the same Sussex/Kent border area as the semi-fictional Home Place, always said that Elizabeth Jane Howard was extraordinarily talented at recalling period details in the Cazalet Chronicles. My grandmother's recollections of local shops, recipes that graced family tables etc were reflected very accurately.

Oh wow! I just believed what my teacher told us (not in the context of What Katy Did though). Every day is a school day, thank you!

In the 50s I wore both Chilpruf vests and liberty bodices - wool and rather scratchy. The liberty bodices had little rubber buttons, which I think were meant to attach to nether garments - I have a vague idea they liberated one from suspenders but might be wrong. Fortunately my mother drew the line at using the buttons.

When I was a teenage girl i was always puzzled by a status quo song with the lyrics “STs showing, you really got me going” I could not work out what they were singing about. My mum would write STs on a shopping list for Sanitary Towels but I didn’t think that they would be singing about period products. Only recently I saw this question in an interview with Francis Rossi and it was Stocking Tops. Well, that makes more sense!

Yes I wore a liberty bodice and a chilprufe vest. I don't remember extra buttons for suspenders but I remember the little rubber buttons down the front.

Moving on to the 60s my school uniform had lisle stockings which had to be worn with a a suspender belt or girdle. The misery of cold chapped upper legs in the gaps above the stockings....the original chub rub 😯 See also, those divided shorts we wore for hockey.

Oh yes, my mother and aunt would talk about STs and "the curse" and it made me cringe! Another cringy outdated euphemism was "spend a penny".

@TeaAndStrumpets Oh yes - those divided skirts, and thick stockings, and the ominous snap and dangle of a broken suspender - glory days.

I'm loving hearing all these details from people's memories!

😊 😂

My MIL took it one stage further by telling me my toddler was "pennying".

My grandmother referred to the whole business politely as "I just need to go through", which I confused for a while with "goes through you like a dose of salts", but apparently was a hangover from "going through the back of the house to get to the outside privy".

BBs were bras. Loving the idea of a special trip for baked beans! However they were not actually allowed baked beans at home and only had them in cafes.

i also would assume India rubbers were eraser rubbers.

could they have been rubber boots for walks when it had been raining a lot? I guess they would not have had wellington boots in America?

I wore a Liberty Bodice in the late 50s and early 60s before graduating to a normal vest, and then a bra as a teenager. I never knew the BB abbreviation though.

I love this thread - what a great puzzle and the solution totally makes sense. For sure the coy abbreviation meant it was either underwear or sanpro.

Also enjoying it bc this series of books is where my username comes from - always loved this feisty character :)

How old are Clary and Polly at the time? I had a liberty bodice aged about seven in the 1950s. I don't remember bust bodices, but my mother and grandmother still wore boned corsets.

In the 1950s? Wow. I had no idea.

So while Britain was fighting the Second World War and the late Queen was getting her HGV licence and repairing trucks, older women were wearing boned bodices? <mind blown>

They’re about 16 or 17 in this book. I’ve noticed than none of the adult female characters mention liberty bodices as part of their wardrobe (thinking about the scene where Polly empties out Sybil’s chest of drawers, for example), so I wonder if liberty bodices were mainly for children/ teenagers at the time?

That is really lovely to hear. I do feel that the books are describing a lost way of life, especially in the first book as it’s set before the start of WW2 and all the changes that would bring.

I suppose they were sticking to the clothing and underwear they had been brought up to wear. I know my mum (born late 1940s) always used to wear a petticoat/ slip when I was growing up (80s-90s), which my sisters and I thought was old fashioned at the time, but it was how she had been brought up.

Lovely thread with some interesting info!

@EllieQ nice to hear you're enjoying the books. I found them quite engrossing.

I'm not sure about the boned bodices. There was a lot of latex involved from the 1940s on. This site shows a timeline of women's bras and girdles made using latex (i.e. rubber), which must have been an improvement on boning because the rubber held everything in place but had a bit of stretch in it too. Probably not very comfortable, though. I assume it could all get a bit sweaty.

https://www.playtex.co.uk/blogs/our-story/brand-history

Same. Right until now I thought they were talking about erasers.