Oh pleeeeeease let me have one!!!

I am lapsed. Lots of my cousins in Ireland are still staunch Catholics but me and my siblings are not. I had to smile recently when I went to a school reunion at my Catholic junior school. Some of the nuns who taught us were horrors and I found out at the reunion they were an order called The Sisters of Charity. What a joke.

Ah we thought we were the cat's PJs in those shoes didn't we Bella - any idea why they were called Cuban heels - mine were black. And the fabricated sins........ are you still catholic? I lapsed many years ago and so did most of the people I know who went to catholic schools in the late 1940s and 1950s..........they instilled fear in our hearts. Think things have changed now for the better.

Yes it was rather cruel to a little girl. Strange how these things stick in your mind. Bella I fabricated sins for the priest too! I used to think 'well I really haven't sinned this week'. So I would say 'I was cheeky to my mum' and then as I knew I had lied to him 'I told lies'. Then it was three Hail Marys and a Glory Be and I was absolved

Yes I had them too, as you described. Also recall the confessions and fabricated " sins " for want of something to say. What a horrible neighbour to make such a comment katyK

Yes I spotted you ninathenana - I could name change - assume you can do it on here like you can on MN.

Oooh confession Katy sorry I'm digressing here but I can still remember the words "Pray father give me your blessing for I have sinned. It is 1 week since my last confession. I accuse myself of: (nearly always said the same thing, telling lies/being disobedient - neither of which were true! But you had to say something didn't you and I never missed mass or anything major, so after the sins...."for these and all my other sins which I cannot now remember I am heartily sorry, humbly ask pardon of god, penance and absolution from you my spiritual father. Then the priest waffled away in latin and said something like "for your penance say 3 hail Mary's - go in peace my child."

Mind my cousin has a funny story about confession. Her parish priest was a bit unusual in that he became very friendly with some of his parishioners and was always invited to family parties etc and can be seen on many of the old photos) and she went to confession when she was about 8 or 9 and he said "Who is this, are you Joan East's daughter" and she was!! Bit of a law unto himself that one.

Sorry for digressing, but what a nasty neighbour to say that to a little girl who was proud of her new dress. I recall having my very first pair of "Cuban heel" shoes (no idea why they were called that) but as far as I recall they had a thick square like heel and raised (so a bit like high heels, but not really) I was hoping everyone in church would notice!

Anyone else remember those shoes?

nananina My family were Catholic too. I also spent a lot of time at mass, confession etc. We did have new clothes sometimes for Sunday best. I remember once when my mother was in hospital having one of my 6 siblings, my father bought me a dress (I was about 7). Now this was unlike my dad as he wasn't exactly the fatherly type. I was so thrilled with this dress. I walked up and down the street hoping someone would notice me. A neighbour came out and said 'oh I see your dad's been to the jumble sale'

Welcome nananina
This could get confusing especially when people shorten our names

too BIG for me not gig!

Thank you for the welcome Elrel and yes of course I remember liberty bodices and the rubber buttons - but think we only wore them when very young. Katy - loved your description of the posh little girl in your road with the plaits and white hair ribbons and gleaming white socks, holidays and a car. A car! Phew..........My family were Catholic so I spent a lot of time in church and at Easter most children had new clothes but we didn't - or I can't remember any. I wanted a little costume (like an adults but child size) they had little jackets and pleated skirts and better still a little straw hat decorated with flowers for Easter Sunday mass.

Grandmac - I had pinafore dresses too, corduroy ones, with a jumper underneath in the winter, for school, but did have summer dresses. The lady next door used to make all our dresses and I remember standing for ages in her little cottage having these dresses "fitted" - they were very simple, candy striped or gingham, nothing fancy. I also had a "windcheater" that I loved and was horrified one year when I found it hadn't been packed when we went on holiday. Incidentally we had 1 weeks holiday a year, always at Colwyn Bay and we looked forward to it for months on end. We had no car, so used to go on a coach which I hated because I was travel sick. In place of the windcheater was a red blazer, that I hated and was too gig for me, so my mom put some ugly "tucks" in the shoulder - it was hideous!

OOh yes I remember the rubber buttons on Liberty bodices! They used to get squashed in the mangle and were so difficult to do up!

I had a pinafore dress and had to wear it with a blouse in the summer and a jumper in the winter, and so wished I could have a 'proper' summer dress.

jaxie Aged 5 I broke my leg quite badly and that year got a Silver Cross dolls pram complete with a beautiful china doll for Christmas. Have no idea how my parents afforded it and I don't remember playing with it much but often wonder what happened to it.

As a teenager I had one of those petticoats with layers of multi coloured net (made by my Auntie) and loved it. Now my daughter loves the 50's dresses and wears them a lot with the same sort of petticoat underneath. She works at a primary school and says the children are always coming up to say "I like your dress"

Mostly I desperately longed for a baby sister and finally got one when I was nearly 10. What a disappointment she was! She didn't do anything except eat and sleep!! When she was about 6 months I used to take her to our local shops, go into the Boots, get her undressed and weighed, then get her dressed and repeat the procedure at Evans, and then again at a 3rd chemist. I probably did this at least twice a week in the school holidays. We don't think our Mum ever knew!
P.S. Sister and I now the best of friends.... though she still only eats and sleeps!!

Back to paper nylon - my daughter says why sugar water. No, I don't know why we didn't use laundry starch or salt water instead. On second thoughts the hot iron needed for the starch would have ruined the paper nylon. When I described the hooped petticoats I think she imagined me in a crinoline!

Nananina - welcome indeed. I'm quite new on this great website and still getting used to it. A few years older than you, I had a knitting and dressmaking Aunty and loved my angora bolero. In Wartime early 1940s I had a pair of clogs, like the noise they made. I also had a bonnet, coat and leggings set, lovely and warm for little legs in the winter when trousers for girls, and even long trousers for small boys, were unheard of! You may remember thick stockings hitched to the rubber buttons on Liberty bodices. Buttons which could survive the mangle but bodices definitely mis-named!!

I was wearing a hooped petticoat to a Scottish country dance evening when I felt something around my ankles. One of the hoops had come out of its channel and was set on tripping me up.

When I was a young child I always wanted a pair of those hard plastic high heeled dressing up shoes. As far as I can recall you could get them in pink or lilac. They made you feel like a princess! I also always wanted to be just like a little girl who lived in my street. Her mother would plait her hair and put big white bows at the ends of them. She wore pretty dresses and gleaming white socks and they had holidays and a car. Oh yes, paper nylon underskirts, diamond mesh tights as a teenager and as nina mentions, going out with rollers in so your hair would be ready for the evening, then taking them out and backcombing your hair and plastering it with hair lacquer which came out of a tube that you had to pour into a squeezy bottle. Last year we went to Liverpool and we saw a couple of young girls shopping in the city centre with their rollers in. Oh the memories.....

Loving this thread. Oh "paper nylon" underskirts - and what about those "hooped" ones - awful things. My older sister had one with lots of net layers and I borrowed it. She ran after me and tugged it from me in the street!!

Oh and C & A - what a shop - cheap and cheerful clothes - loved that shop.
Oh and the "concertina" rain hat - horrendous. But does anyone remember those "bonnet type" hats (I think they were nylon in pastel shades) and were meant to go on over rollers in your hair I think. I remember seeing people out on Saturday afternoon with their rollers in, presumably ready for the "dance" on Sat night.

Yes, I do - 'paper nylon' petticoats to hold out long full skirts! Or you could fill them with nylon net petticoats with masses of frills. Both needed sugar water to stiffen them. Thanks for the reminder of happy teenage years of the late 50s, dancing in my 3 tiered C&A skirt, green and white candy stripes, worn with a little white broderie anglaise sleeveless blouse from Dorothy Perkins. And a metal fastened wide green elastic 'waspie' belt - I was deeply offended when someone asked to borrow it on a field trip to Pembrokeshire and s t r e t c h e d it for ever! Luckygirl, thanks for the memories!
What archaic words: petticoat, blouse!

Do you remember washing the can-can petticoats in sugar water, and having wasps buzzing round your knees?

Oh yes, a 'proper' party dress. In the mid 1950s I longed for a 'net over taffeta ' party dress, readily available at the now defunct C&A, but didn't get one. 'Common' I think!! I did at some point get a deep pink taffeta without net which I liked. I can't now recall what seemed so great about the net layer anyway.

I always wanted a proper nylon party dress with layers of petticoats but needless to say i never got one. My mums friend who lived in London brought
one down once but it was too small. Mum gave it back and suggested she changed it for something more practical. I also longed cor long hair but i would be marched off to the barbers to have it cut to above my ears. I was always told that the more it was cut the more it would grow.. From the age of 14 i grew it down to my waist and have never had it shorter than shoulder length. Mum was still nagging me to get it cut short when i turned 50.

Oh yes - the dreaded bra race. I was definitely last! My Mum simply could not grasp the idea that my desire to have one had nothing whatever to do with the size of my boobs (I was about as skinny and flat-chested as it is possible to be and still be breathing!) but wanting to be like everyone else.

My DD1's first bra is in a drawer upstairs - it is a 28AA. She treasured it and wore it with pride!

When I was in the juniors, Potty Putty became the must have item. It was a brown rubbery substance which came in a little plastic pot. It had no real use but it was stretchy if you pulled it slowly and snapped if you tugged sharply at it, you could make a small pocket shape and blow air into it, seal it up and burst the bubble with a loud(ish) pop. If you pressed it onto a newspaper the print would transfer onto it but best of all it was very bouncy when rolled into a ball. It's main drawback was that it would get stuck in your hair and had to be cut out. I begged my mum for a pot of this wonderful stuff but she came home with a pack of modelling wax.(hmm) Can't do Smileys cos I don't have square brackets on my keyboard (are they hiding somewhere?)

I also wanted a Tressy with hair that grew but had to make do with a Troll with long white hair.(which I loved).

We weren't allowed gobstoppers either Nfk for the same reason! Yet another thing I longed for but couldn't have .

Ohh, sorry - welcome Nananina!

i remember taking pop bottles back. But mum put a stop to it as I once bought gob stoppers with the money instead of the permitted Sherbert Fountain and Black Jacks. She was convinced I would die choking on a gob stopper. Sherbert Fountains with the hollow liquorice straw are now banned I notice - Health and Safety. Choking hazard!

New to gransnet - been on MN a long time. 1944 baby here! Loved this thread - and brought back so many memories - angora boleros (my aunt knitted them - she called it rabbit wool...) Birthday sandals - weren't they made by Clarks - always wanted the red, only got the brown, and brown lace ups for winter. Oh and the long navy blue gabardine mac that used to be scratchy round the knees.

Someone upthread glamama (sorry not right spelling) hated ringlets. I longed for ringlets. We were a Catholic family and most families sat in the same pews every Sunday for Mass. We sat behind a girl called Lynn Davies, and she had beautiful dark brown ringlets.....I used to try and count them, but there were so many. I (and my sisters) all had short hair - always - the local barber used to cut our hair.........I asked my mom how to do ringlets "Oh you have to put them in rags" she said and that was the end of that!

Surprised no one mentioned food. Like most children I loved sweets, and chocolate (still do!) and of course they were on ration till the late 50s weren't they. I remember looking in the sweet shop window at chocolate boxes, that I think were empty. My aunt who visited occasionally used to bring us bars of Cadbury's Dairy Milk - oh the thrill! I remember once going to the post office (I was about 9 or 10) and withdrawing a 6d saving stamp and buying a packet of Sunpat Raisins. I can still remember the man in the post office saying "You're going to do yourself well aren't you..........."

Anyone remember taking pop bottles back to get a few pennies back.

I too was denied jelly shoes which were "plastic rubbish that would ruin my feet".
The other thing was a black nylon bomber jacket which was " cheap rubbish that had no lining and did not cover my bum'.