General Chat

Loved my spirograph and etch a sketch, there was a game called magna doodle too, similar to etch a sketch

I loved my Spirograph and my Sindy....and spent hours on my Britain's miniature garden set...

Wander if anyone can recall making rugs ?

On Cold and wintry days / nights. my mom would always be making things. one of these would be rugs , mostly for the bedrooms.
she would save the coke sacks and then wash them, then she would save any thick material such as over coats ect especually the army ones .
dye to what ever colour she wanted. mostly brown black and blue was what i recall.
she would then make strips how ever long she wanted.
then she would give us all a dolly peg.
Then we would push the strips in and out so that the 2 ends poked out on top. she would direct us to what ever pattern she wanted to achieve.

At the same time play eye spy!! or if it was christmas sing carols.
she would tell a story some times ,,,,,magic.!! she learnt us to knit on other accasions, toffee apples ect. even to making things for tree,s and making streamers for christmas or birthdays.

I swear my one daughter is her spirit when i think of things like that because she does the same things with her children, makes things, with them, if you go to her house its not all about the telly,
she says she got it from me , but no way she is her grandmother to a T.
I did not have that much patience. i may have had energy but my patience wavered sometimes , i have more now with my grandchildren.

anyway Michelle will have to say night night now
loved remembering thank you,,,, Flo :-)

Have been following that thread, I love to hear and read about stories from the thirties or forties which was when my nan was young, makes me feel close to her which sounds strange.

Yes, rationing went on, I think, until at least 1952. I still have one of my Mum's ration books. can remember when sweets came off rationing very clearly. I should mention here that there is another similar thread running which has a lot of similar memories to this one. You might like to read it as well. By Mel, it is called what kind of things do you remember from childhood.

That last memory has really made me chuckle :-D

Speaking of dogs 2 of my sisters used to go out with a piece of string or ribbon and any dogs they found wandering the street they would harness and bring back home hoping my mom would allow them to keep it...needless to say they always ended up disappointed when she made them take the dog back to the place they found it...lol

Gwn , great ,

thats the one!! The farmers in his den! one of me favourites.

I also took neighbours and family children for a walk.in thier prams,

Also for a few coppers to go to the pictures i used to fetch coal or coke,
for me mom or neighbours , coal yard was only down the road so i went with a wheelbarrow .
One day i was going for me mom when me neighbour called me and asked for a sack of coke , well being polite i said ok.
but i wanted to go to the pictures and if i did 2 journeys i would be late,
so i fetched them at the same time , hundred weight of coal in barrow with a hundred weight sack of coke on top.
Has i was coming back wished i had not!! but thankfully my brother appeared half way as my neighbour had mentioned to my mom she had asked for some coke,
so my mom realised i would be struggling sent my brother to my rescue,!

Never tried it again! ha ah. Flo :-D you live and learn.

My nan used to talk about ration books, she said they were still being used in the early 50's and a lot of people used to use their back gardens to grow fruit and veg to sell to neighbours and friends who couldn't grow their own. A lot of people also kept chickens during the war years for meat and eggs.

I think Caz , ( as the saying goes just hit the nail on the head,)

Its because it was after the war! Everyone was looking for a happier future, and a load was lifted off thier shoulders.

They felt free! and so they should do, after such an awful time.
i was a peace baby so i knew nothing of what they must have gone through in that time, but i do recall hardship where money was concerned
but everyone pulled together, i think the war must have learned them that.
(not that i would like it to happen again no way!!!)

But the freedom children exsperienced was marvalous at that time.
i will agree with.

Flo

That is probably it Gwyn.

Another thing we girls used to do, we used to take people's dogs for a walk (for nothing, no payment). I used to walk a black spaniel called beauty and a small curly haired terrier called Susie and a little wire haired terrier called Jackie. But he was a little devil and would slip his lead and run off. He always came home though, little monkey. I also used to (when I was about 12/13) take the next door neighbour's baby out in the pram.

Flo

Were you thinking of The Farmer's in his den.
The farmer wants a wife etc ?

Gwyn

I remember making dens in the woods next to the church, also climbing trees to see how high we could get, silly thinking of it now. I lived in a small village and everyone knew everyone else, I used to go to the shops for the old ladies and did it willingly. The best time was Thursday night when mum let us stay up to listen to the church bells practice. If only it could go back to being like that, I think I had the best childhood born after the war when no-one had much.

Caz

I,d forgotten about whats the time Mr Wolfe ha, ha,

i used to blush at kiss chase!! mind you it never stopped me playing ;-)

even my children played that, harmless fun.

I,m trying to think of another one where we were in a circle and you had to pick a husband , child ect .but for the life of me cannot remember it?
Anyone? boys and girls played it.

Flo :-S

Michelle We were playing kiss chase from the age of 9/10 years old. I guess they are more likely to want the real thing these days rather than a game sadly. :-D

I wish my nephews and nieces could see what we did as children...mentioned kisschase and what's the time Mr Wolf to my nephew the other day and he didn't have a clue what I was talking about

I remember my children playing gutter ball Michelle ,
also i used to let them camp outside, but time has changed from our era and i too kept my beady eye on them.
sad really!!
Like CArol says wished it could all change.

I too let my son have a party in the house . bad idea !! :-| some children

are not bought up as you would expect them to be. :-0 and i too said never again :-( :-0

Flo,,, (enjoy every moment of being a child you only have one go at it)
:-) :-D :-( :-0 :-| :-P :-\ ;-) :-S <3 it all counts.

This thread is bringing back such childhod memories. Those were the days when we could play outside till all hours without fear, just wish my grandchildren could be transported back to that era. Know some will say about medical advances etc. etc. but still think it was a good time to be a child. :-D

Carol

I remember my mom laying on a buffet for our street on the day Prince Charles was married...she said she would never do it again after the house was invaded by children from neighbouring streets lol

We used to play gutterball and marbles a lot during the summer evenings after school and the long break at the end of the school year, if the weather was warm enough my brother and sisters used to camp outside in the garden, my mom always left her bedroom window open so she could hear if they got up to any mischief though.