What in your view is common ?

Haven't times changed? What my mother called 'common' (clothes, food, behaviour etc.) is generally quite acceptable now. I think she really needed to feel superior (pathetic, really) - so was always pointing out the 'common'!

When you are a child everything common is appealing.
We lived in an estate (council estate, not country estate) and there were so many families I couldn’t mix with because they were common.
Holidaying at Butlins, I admit I’d rather stick pins in my eyes now, but at the time it seemed the best fun.
Children who didn’t go to Sunday school, another very good reason to want to be common.
Minced beef, I have absolutely no idea why that was common.
Working mothers, whose homes would obviously be dirty.
Women who would stand around chatting as if they had nothing better to do.
White socks, I begged for white socks, but had to have fawn.
I could go on, I could probably write a book.
My dad used to stick out like a sore thumb, making me learn the piano, never going to the pub, football or working mens club, taking me to the library on Saturday mornings, even when we had a car, still walking everywhere possible, I guess he thought he was trying to do the best for us, and maybe he was.

Thinking back on my childhood two occasions stand out regarding the snobishness of some of my family ( not my mother who was a nurse and treated everyone the same ) . We owned a shop and I would chat to the girl we employed quite often if she was not busy. One night we decided to go to the pictures together and an aunt , who was on hilday with us , said that she did not regard this girl as a suitable companion for me . We went anyway.
One day I wans sent to the chemist shop run by another maiden aunt. I thought I was the bees knees dressed in my anorak with badges on and black trousers. When I got to the shop my aunt took one look and asked if my mother knew I was out dressed like this.
We had a family who had been tinkers ( that is what they called themselves ) but decided to live in the town . They used to get really annoyed when lost children were brought to their door as people always thought they must belong to this family. The best of this was the children usually were found to belonged to our GP.

Juliet27

I grew up on Dandy and Beano comics. I used to read them sat under the counter of the newsagents my dad owned and then put them back on the top to be sold. Common or what?!!

So did I , i had a reltive who worked for the the publisher D. C. Thomson and he got them half price. At Christmas I got to choose which of their annuals I wanted probably the Broons.

Chestnut

Re Turkey Teeth there has been a lot of publicity about them lately. Young people (even those with with perfect teeth) are being told (by Turkish dentists) they need to have them all replaced with veneers or crowns. As the price is so modest they rush off to have them done, and have often either been misled or sometimes return with the most horrendous pain and abscesses. Then they have to use NHS dentists to sort this disaster out. Some of them are quite ill and yet say later they don't regret it! It's madness. The thought of a young person with good teeth having them filed down to tiny stumps and then covered over is appalling. You just wonder what their teeth will be like when they reach 60+ years.
All you have to do is Google 'turkey teeth' to see details and pictures. It's horrible.
Here's a BBC article: BBC Turkey Teeth

I do know someone with turkey teeth!
I never realised it was a phenomena until reading this.

Just as described - too white, too straight, and lots of problems with them.

Fishnet stockings
White stilettos
Ankle chains (anyone wearing all three of the above was definitely "no better than she ought to be"!)
Eating fish & chips in the street
Eating anything on the bus
Having obviously bleached or dyed hair.
Having any colour of hair in a "beehive".
Chewing gum
Bomber jackets
Being mutton-dressed-as-lamb
Talking or laughing loudly in public
(For a woman or girl) going into the pub alone
Kissing in public
Letting your children play outside after about 7pm

Somehow or other, my kid sister and I navigated our way through this minefield but it wasn't always easy. There were times when we couldn't do right for doing wrong but, if you'd asked our mother to describe herself, she would have claimed to be a very moderate and tolerant person!
(Don't misunderstand: we did love her but she could be difficult to live with).

Re Turkey Teeth there has been a lot of publicity about them lately. Young people (even those with with perfect teeth) are being told (by Turkish dentists) they need to have them all replaced with veneers or crowns. As the price is so modest they rush off to have them done, and have often either been misled or sometimes return with the most horrendous pain and abscesses. Then they have to use NHS dentists to sort this disaster out. Some of them are quite ill and yet say later they don't regret it! It's madness. The thought of a young person with good teeth having them filed down to tiny stumps and then covered over is appalling. You just wonder what their teeth will be like when they reach 60+ years.
All you have to do is Google 'turkey teeth' to see details and pictures. It's horrible.
Here's a BBC article: BBC Turkey Teeth

Never heard of Turkey teeth
My female manager has many many tattoos and is far from common, a lovely sane and a good manager
My Nan had a little list
Women smoking in the street
Anyone eating in the street
Woman with too much make up on

Not sure I have any lists
Women (mostly) who swear loudly or shout loudly at their kids in the street
Workers standing outside their workplace in their work uniform smoking

Right, I’m off to Bargain Booze (other cheap liquor stores are available) for a can of Tennants. I may drink it in the street as I walk home, would that make me common?

(Not really, I can’t walk that far

Yup got that in one Blondie

JaneJudge

anything that brings enjoyment to the working classes

Ah of course the working classes can't possibly enjoy things the upper classes do can they? And yet there's Billy Elliot, the Pitmen Painters, Brass bands playing classical tunes. In fact the working classes are the same as any other group. Some like one thing some another.

Absolutely! (in response to JaneJudge and MissAdventure.

Oh, and in response to the comment about white stilettoes being 'common', they were - in certain circles - known as 'harders'. I'll see if anyone can work out why...

Nail. Head.

anything that brings enjoyment to the working classes

I was brought up to think eating in the street was common, now everyone seems to eat on the go. I always think the big lips and thick make-up and slug type eye brows look common. ?

When I was small, my cousin and I played with the local doctor's children, who had 2 aunts, who called us "the common children". I didn't like them, or their comment. They ended up as poor as church mice. I was so glad.

It's strange, because we had the thread recently about grandchildren and their behaviour, and opinions were split there.
Either let the little darlings run free, with no restrictions, or ask them to behave properly.

...but simply the correct way to behave.

Mmm, I wonder who determines that?

I must be common because I wear red lipstick and always have. Give me someone considered common any day. I can't abide people who think they are above everyone else. Two penny toffs or fur coat and no knickers as it's said in Liverpool.

Again, with exceptions, that is how everybody was bought up, surely?
Our parents wanted us to show our manners, to be polite, to have respect.

They didn't want others to have the opportunity to find us wanting in those things.
Saying that, somebody posted here once about getting her fingers slammed in a door, and her mum being cross that she made a show of herself by screaming.

Glorianny Your mother sounds like mine - and her mother, who was of Irish immigrant stock, brought up in deep poverty in rented rooms in Bermondsey. She could have fitted in anywhere, at any level of society because she respected all and expected them to respect her.

As you say, It wasn't a question of being a snob or of thinking anyone was less than her. It was a question of behaving properly and having respect

Iam64 If you mean me, I am not suggesting anything as I have no idea of the percentage!

You seem to get suggesting those poorer people are in the minority

I agree Glorianny that many poorer folk are brought up to be polite, clean and respectful in their ways, and they would not dream of behaving in a rude, slobby or dirty manner. This is not an attempt to be 'posh' (see the posh thread) but simply the correct way to behave.

I don't think when she said something was "common"my mum was looking down on anyone. She just knew that you are judged by others. She came from a very poor background, had little education but was brought up strictly and told there were standards you shouldn't let slip. She was anxious for her children to do well and set the same standards. With my mum the things seemed in built, she always behaved like a lady. In hospital once someone thought she was probably raised in a stone cottage in the Cotswolds, when I said it was a back to back terrace in Hull he couldn't believe it. It wasn't a question of being a snob or of thinking anyone was less than her. It was a question of behaving properly and having respect.