Oh pleeeeeease let me have one!!!

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.

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!!

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!!

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!

too BIG for me not gig!

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

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'

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?

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 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

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.

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.

nana I think Cuban heels were named after male (Cuban?) dancers' shoes.
katyK. Did the sisters of charity have those wide winged headdresses/veils ? I found them quite scarey. Our nuns were a French order, so they were mostly French with a few irish sisters. Detention was usually spent learning a French poem. Hence my fairly good repertoire !

I was raised Catholic and when I was 13 my mother bought me an outfit to wear to mass.

It consisted of a tweedy suit, a straw hat with artificial flowers, American tan stockings and cuban heeled shoes.

I guess you will all understand that the shoes were the only part of the outfit I liked.

When I was earning money I bought myself a pale pink suit with a mini skirt and as many shoes as I could afford. Freeman Hardy and Willis sold high heeled shoes for 39/11. 49/ll and 59/ll.

It seems to me that on GN there are either a disproportionate number of Roman Catholics on here or there was something about the way catholic schools and churches etc, operated in the 1950s,60s and 70s (and long before) that sits very firmly and not always happily in the memory of those who attended them.

Probably a topic for another thread.

I was thinking the same thing Nelliemoser. In my case the memories are mixed but on the whole I wouldn't change much of it. Maybe a Catholic education makes people communicative. Maybe another thread would be a good idea.

Going back to the shoes for 39/ll 49/ll and 59/ll I realise that they were quite expensive because my first salary was four pounds ten shillings a week and 39/ll was one pound ten shillings. Hopeless at maths but that sounds like a large portion of my wages, especially as I gave mum thirty shillings for my keep.

It was so great to be earning money and not having to ask my parents for things. There was a saying in the 50s and 60s

"Those that ask don't get."

We had a slightly different saying, Falconbird - ask don't get, don't ask don't want.

Brings it all back, the tales of liberty bodices, cuban heels,net skirt petticoats, gondola baskets etc. We GN are all quite scattered but had very similar things that we remember so fondly. Mum took me to buy my first pair of heels, black cuban, and I thought they were the bees knees. But my first bra! disaster, it was an old one of Mum's, and it was a peculiar shade of pink. Oh the shame, I hated getting changed for PE. When I was old enough, I got a Saturday job in a shop called Shirleys. They sold all sorts of very old fashioned underwear, like long drawers with elasticated legs round the knees, nicknamed passion killers. My school knickers were dark green, fleecy lined and bought large to last, oh the horror

Oh I remember those fleecy lined knickers. Ours were navy. PE shorts were navy wool, and had to cover the knees for modestly. They were pleated too. Mine got a bit too short as I grew and a nun seeing me in them said they looked like " neekers" ( she was French) and I must get a new pair. I think mum managed to buy a pair at a school uniform sale. All our stuff had to be bought from the shop in Victoria Street and must have been a nightmare for those of us who were not well off.

I was put in Liberty bodices at primary school. I'm surprised at so many of you who mention them as I was sure I was the only girl in the school, in the world indeed, who wore the horrible things. I still managed to get lots of colds, or whatever it was that these evil garments were meant to keep us safe from. I can't imagine our little GDs agreeing to wear anything they'd rather not wear. I think some of our mums were either over protective or very domineering.

My first pair of high heels came from good old Freeman, Hardy Willis. I'd saved up my Christmas money and was determined to get a smart pair of what were quite modest high heels; then came the dreaded moment of taking them home and showing my mother. Panic over, she was ok about it and said they looked sensible. Bit of a put-down, I must say, but I became bolder, and higher, after that.

There was a dress in the window of our local shop. It was white with deep pink roses over it, and it had a sash to tie at the back. It was the most beautiful one I had ever seen. I must have been 8 or 9 at the time. I needed a dress for the Sunday School Anniversary and pleaded with my mother to let me try it on. She would not, she said it wouldn't suit me and bought a similar style dress with little yellow roses on it instead. The dress disappeared from the window shortly afterwards, and I saw a girl from my school wearing it. I suppose the real reason for me not having that dress would be that we were three sisters, who all needed dresses, and it was too expensive.

My first heels came from the late lamented Dolcis chain - red with a little bow, round toes and very little heels. I was so proud of them. When I was 17, I saw a gorgeous pair of cream shoes with what were then called 'Louis' heels and luckily my mum also thought they were gorgeous. They saw me through the first year of University.

Tanith. I desperately wanted some of those red shoes when I was 10 and after much pestering I got them! I felt so grown up with the little heel!

My first heels were lovely cream shoes with a rather pointed toe. I loved them, but they were rather uncomfortable and pinched my toes. I bore the discomfort because I loved them so. I think I was 16 and bought them with the wages from my Saturday job in Woolworths. I received the princely sum of 19s 6d., and when we got a pay rise £1.01.