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Common words from your childhood,that woukd have to be explained to your Grandchild.

(276 Posts)
littleflo Wed 14-Mar-18 10:05:49

I am at a total loss sometimes when I hear my Grandchildren speak. Words that they use in every day language are a mystery to me.

However, during the recent cold snap, I mentioned I wore a Liberty Bodice when I was younger and I had to explain it to them. They had also never heard of Fish Kettle.

Are there any words you remember that would have to be explained to the children.

GrandmaMoira Thu 15-Mar-18 14:51:23

My children and grandchildren would not recognise a lot of the food we were served at school dinners - ox liver, shaving foam, macaroni, tapioca, prunes.

judypark Thu 15-Mar-18 17:28:35

Milk Stout, think Ena, Martha and Minnie in early Corrie.

judypark Thu 15-Mar-18 17:45:01

Broilers (tough cheap old chickens)
Brawn (boil a sheeps head for 4 hours, it smelled vile and then squash it all down)
Mutton chops , the meat and facial hairy variety.
Brown Windsor soup.

NonnaW Thu 15-Mar-18 19:06:02

Oh yes, I remember my dad saying about going tats!

Jalima1108 Thu 15-Mar-18 19:09:13

What is Milk Stout? I never knew!

judypark Thu 15-Mar-18 19:16:29

Jalima, Milk Stout was a dark sweet rich beer containing lactose, it was very popular with older ladies who drank it for a medicinal purposes apparently.

Jalima1108 Thu 15-Mar-18 19:17:53

Thank you!

I have drunk Mackesons (to build me up when I was ill, apparently) and Guinness (once only) but I thought that milk stout was a Coronation Street invention grin

Jalima1108 Thu 15-Mar-18 19:18:54

Oh! Mackesons is milk stout.
Well I never!

Chewbacca Thu 15-Mar-18 20:35:27

Tripe and cow heel. Makes me shudder to think of it now but I can remember my mother soaking slabs of white tripe in bowls of milk and then eating it. Cow heel pie that had a glutinous, slimy gravy that set solid on your plate when it grew cold. Urgh!

tinaf1 Thu 15-Mar-18 21:30:14

Bread & dripping

SmorfOrTerf Thu 15-Mar-18 22:06:32

Reading this I really think I need to de-clutter.

I have a threepenny bit on my bedside table.
I have a game of Jacks
I have a darning mushroom
I have a cheque book

and when I did Business Studies in the 70's part of the course was Computer studies - guess what - we had no access to a computer grin

FarNorth Fri 16-Mar-18 21:36:12

At least you have a bang-up-to-date username, SmorforTerf. grin

JaneD3 Sat 17-Mar-18 05:27:41

I still use my Nan’s singer treadle! It outlived my electric machine.
As nesh as a gas mantle
I will smack your bottom until it bleeds buttermilk - a threat never carried out!

littleflo Sat 17-Mar-18 08:51:26

In 1970, she I was in hospital, after giving birth to my first son, I was given Mackeson.

AlieOxon Sat 17-Mar-18 10:16:47

Tooth powder?

And - toothpaste and other creams in metal tubes that actually worked! Hey, maybe we could go back to metal ones and save plastic....

chicken Sat 17-Mar-18 17:26:13

Meatsafe--hanging in the yard on a north wall.
Sunlight soap bars-- left to harden on a high kitchen shelf.
Flour and water paste--for paper chains.
Playtex girdles--with little holes to let the sweat out!
Communal bath houses.
Tinned cream---does anyone remember the Bell cream maker that made "cream" from melted butter and milk?I've still got mine tucked away in the back of a cupboard in case it ever becomes a valuable antique!

pollyperkins Sat 17-Mar-18 17:35:23

Reading this and tve school di ner thread it has occurred to me that as a child I would hardly have recognised most of what my GC eat today! We never had pasta except as a sweet milk pudding, ditto rice. Id never heard of mango, kiwi, blueberries (though we has what we called wimberries picked on the moors) and cerainly not papaya. Likewise pizza, bolognese sauce, hummus, quinoa, smoothies, yoghurt and lots of other things. My GC would be amazed!!

pollyperkins Sat 17-Mar-18 17:36:18

I suppose it was really whinberries? Aka bilberries.

JoyBloggs Sat 17-Mar-18 19:19:34

chicken My auntie had a Bell cream maker. I used to love helping her to make cream when I was staying with her. It tasted pretty good as far as I remember.

BBbevan Sat 17-Mar-18 19:46:16

pollyperkins, as a child I used to go up the mountain behind my grandma's house and pick whinberries. She would make a superb tart. I suppose the nearest we have now are blueberries. But they do not come close to the taste of whinberries.

rockgran Sat 17-Mar-18 20:13:43

Packing for coach holidays - Gibbs Dentifrice, Quickies cleansing pads and Cussons talc. I can smell them now!

sodapop Sat 17-Mar-18 21:17:06

Wright's coal tar soap, very distinctive smell.
White fire perfume in a red bottle.
Funny how smells are so evocative rockgran

mrsmopp Sat 17-Mar-18 21:32:21

I've laddered my nylons.
Put the washing through the mangle.
She back combed her hair.
I'm saving up for a new radiogram.

mrsmopp Sat 17-Mar-18 21:43:00

No daytime TV.
BBC1, BBC2 and ITV.
Listen to the wireless.
Transistor radios.
Ghetto Blasters.
Teddy boys.
Mods and Rockers.
Brylcreem.
Hair lacquer.

FarNorth Sat 17-Mar-18 21:48:32

Mystery Tours