Childhood Revisited

Playing marbles in the gutter. Building a bonfire from any spare wood we could find in the middle of a side road for 5th November, baking potatoes in it and having a box of fireworks which we set off ourselves

Watching Mum make toffee apples and being impatient for the toffee to cool enough to eat them.

Group of us going off for a walk across the fields and not getting back home until we got hungry and nobody worried, we knew not to talk to strangers and we all looked out for each other.

Ours was just bright yellow. I probably lived in a deprived area, we didn't have a car either so couldn't sit in the back without a seatbelt.

Sounds like what we used to call rainbow crystals, but it came in different colours (though I think sort of layered in the big jar in the shop). We used to dip our forefinger in it and lick it - yes, the flavours were very acidic!

Sherbert is powder and comes in a tube withna liquorice dipper.

I think Kali is just sugar crystals with some very sour lemon flavouring, comes by the ounce (!) in a paper bag, you tip it into the palm of your hand and lick it from there. The colouring (oh dear, it gets worse) leaves your hand and tongue bright yellow.

rosequartz my dad cut the toes off my sandals too !

I used to have to get the bus too and from school by myself at 7 as mum worked. I would call next-door when I got home and the neighbour would use her key to let me in.

What's the difference between kali and sherbet, then? We never had kali.

We had sherbet fountains, and you could buy rainbow crystals from a big jar by the ounce.

Oh yes rose Kali - coloured and sore tongues! A couple of years ago an old fashioned sweet shop opened in Birmingham City Centre and DH and I bought a bag of kali and two liquorice sticks and sat on a bench eating it like we did as kids.

Apparently worn by the ancient Egyptians C4,000 BC

Before Clark's sandals.

We could work out the age of the writer of this piece by carbon dating the flip flop reference.

Kali (not sherbert - ugh) licked from the palm of your grubby hand that had just held the pennies with which you paid for it!

Clark's t bar red sandals and short white socks. The toes got cut out of the sandals by my DF with his stanley knife to make them last until the end of the summer holiday.

No flip flops (still can't wear them) - known as 'thongs' in Australia!

Playing conkers, without helmet or goggles. Sometimes your knuckles were really painful afterwards.

Long wool socks in the winter with garters that cut into your leg just below the knee.

Going off to swim in the river, with friends but without parents.

Catching the bus to school from the age of 7 and walking miles home.

ninathenana - I remember camping in the back garden! My brother would often camp with his friends in our garden but he would never let me sleep in the tent with him and his friends. I moaned and moaned until my mother agreed to camp out overnight with me in the tent. When we woke up in the morning, mum said 'shall we have a picnic breakfast in the tent' - 'ooh yes' and she left the tent to go and make it. Then I heard a man's voice (our neighbour) say to her 'had an argument with the old man have you'

I have chuckled at some of the responses on here

It's strange how we can think 'no, I didn't do that' but a memory jog came along:

When I was about 6 or 7, my brother (6 years older than me) had put my Dad's crash helmet on and told me to hit him over the head with the broom. I wouldn't (he was always hitting me) because I knew what would happen. He assured me it wouldn't hurt him because of the crash helmet - so I swung the broom back and hit him on the head, it didn't hurt him! He grinned and said 'hit me again' so I did. 'And again' he said - so I did. He took the helmet off but I had already thought I was going to have the opportunity to hit him again - so I did. Thankfully, I got to the bathroom first and locked the door

We very rarely had sweets. My mother would put cocoa powder mixed with sugar into a newspaper cone, that was our kali (sp) or a stick of rhubarb and a newspaper cone of sugar to dip it in. Sometimes half a pomegranate and a pin!

For my holidays I had some white sunny san sandals (a bit like early jelly shoes) which I promptly got covered in melted road tar on a hot day. Mum was cross! (c 1958).

I didn't know what a flipflop was. I was born in 1946. I don't know when I first saw a flipflop. I have never been able to get a comfy pair. The hurt in between my toes. I did always long for pretty dainty shoes instead of serviceable black school shoes and a navy gaberdine mac.

I wonder who wore the flipflops? My mother said they were bad for your feet. I wasn't even allowed out of the house without socks on! Plimsolls in public were forbidden too.

Yes, we all knew about lead, some toys sent from abroad were taken away at Christmas because the paint may have contained lead. We had gas lighting too until I was six, my mother said she preferred it, it was a much gentler light.

We always had Clark's shoes after my mother bought a pair of smart new sandals for me from someone else. On the first day I jumped off a low wall and they fell apart, when my mother tried to return them they said I must have done it on purpose! After that we were stuck forever with sensible Clark's.

I don't remember going home for lunch during the holidays. I do remember staying out until it was almost dark, so that my parents gave in and bought me a watch so that I wouldn't keep missing meals. During the winter months I would have to walk in the dark through a rougher part of town to go to my piano lessons, at 6pm to 7pm, half an hour either way in all weathers. I was seven. No-one ever even thought to suggest that they should accompany me.

Yes I punched the odd brother after they had lined my dolls up in the garden and used them to practice their cricket bowling skills.

Those were the days!

I used to punch my brother but usually after he'd given me a Chinese Burn

I've never punched anyone either !
I have no idea what my cot was like. I never wore flip flops, I wore jellies and kilty sandals for school.
Definitely disappeared until dark. With my peanut butter sarnies and a bottle of squash which yes was shared by all.
One thing not mentioned. I was allowed several times to camp over night in our garden with my friend from the age of about 10 Can you imagine that happening now.

Yes pop bottles back to the shop for 1d! We had a tin bath in front of the fire. There were 6 kids and we took it in turns, in the same water, cleanest looking one in first! When our shoes had holes in them, my mother used to put the shoe on a piece of a cornflake box and cut round it to make an insole for the shoe. You can imagine how long that lasted in the rain.

Gas lighting.

Dad didn't have a car when we where small but we all did fit into his side-car on his motor bike,my twin brother and I pushed to the back my two sisters positioned on our knees and instructed not to move until we arrived at grandma's house,if it was raining the rain leaked down the back of my neck as I was always next to where the plastic hood was fitted on.No flip flops for us either it was Norvic Kiltie (I think) white sandals from March -Sept for us girls them sturdy school shoes from then until Easter again.

I was 6 and she was two days older. That's what the argument was about.
Most of Holly's post is how I remember childhood in the early 50s except like Ana I didn't wear flip flops either. Sandals with a T-bar and white socks that didn't stay clean for very long. Knees were always skinned.

We used to collect pop bottles and take them to the shop for 1d I think it was. You ate what was put in front of you or you went hungry till the next meal. If you were naughty you were spanked - we never heard of a naughty step.

We had has lighting, no central heating and in winter the ice was so thick on the inside of the bedroom window you couldn't scratch it off. I once scorched my fringe reading in bed but candle light!

give them to us not to use !