collecting pennies from the gas meter

Great nan very thought provoking I was born in the 50's,dad being 11 years older than mum who was a bride at 19 married in 1946,and although we had food on the table your words of humiliatingly poor struck a chord as other peoples cast offs where order of the day,Dad luckily was always in work,shoes with no soles that had cardboard in them that got soggy when it rained there was no violence as such in our house but mum who was used to better things was very bitter and jealous of those better off and I was the lucky recipient of all the ''clumps and slappings'' of a depressed frustrated woman to say beatings would stretch it a bit far but they were not chastisement more an outlet for mum who wanted a blonde hair blue eyed child who was slim pretty and something she could show off as an acheivment to prove her standing in life,she certainly didnt get that with me,short,fat,squints, and glasses at 8 months old and a liking for sitting on kerbs getting dirty....my brother was born after me and to her relief was the pretty child she craved...when being pointed out in a school play as the little fat girl my mum promptly disowned me and kept quiet....interestingly enough my brother never got any hand me downs or second hand bits ...

I remember when we were living in Family Quarters, the TV was coin operated. The TV would be turned off when the adverts were on so the money would last for my Mum to watch Coronation Street on a Wednesday as there was no more money until pay day.

grannyactivist - your post makes me feel so sad for the child you were. My mother was warm and loving and although my dad was rather remote there was no violence in our house. We were just short of all the little 'luxuries' that most people take for granted now - toothpaste/brushes, night clothes, toilet soap, toilet paper, a cooker (just an open range, but the two ovens were wonderful for bread). My sister used to wash her one dress, knickers and socks out every night and she was complimented on her hygiene at school when she was about 12. She saved up her 6d. a week pocket money to buy her first toothbrush.
MY dad had managed to bring several grey blankets out of the RAF, and our mugs all had LNER on them - we lived opposite a shunting yard. I drank out of a jam jar during the war. All the older children in the street would climb over the 6' high wall every night and fill bags with the coal which was stock-piled for about 100 yards. It was never going to be used as they were phasing out steam-driven trains. The Railway police would flash their torches as a warning and then walk very slowly toward the coal to give people time to get away. All the houses had one fire in the kitchen/living room - there were little black grates in the bedrooms, but fires were only lit there if someone was seriously ill.

Before anyone says we were a thieving lot - if you saw your children cold and hungry you might quickly forget your principles.

I have said we were not hungry-poor, but humiliating-poor. My mother cleaned house for a Jewish family who had a girl a bit older than me. I got some hand-me-downs from her, but often they were out of season or totally unsuitable party dresses (we didn't attend or hold any parties) I still vividly remember going to school in July in fur boots which had been passed on to me, and being bullied by the better-off girls. I can actually remember one girl saying 'You will live and die in those boots'. It was all a powerful incentive to succeed and make sure my own daughters had all the things I had only dreamt about.

then the tubes of toothpaste came out and ITV came into being and there was a TV jingle that went ''wonder where the yellow went,when you brush your teeth with pepsodent'' thought grin appropriate talking about teeth.

Crimson - I certainly remember Gibbs toothpaste as my maiden name was Gibbs and so my nickname was toothpaste for a while! Well, it made a change from Gibby.

My father insisted on wrights carbolic! Yuk!

Oh yes - I remember that deodorant! My stepmother bought it for me and it was the unperfumed one - how disappointed I was....

yes that was it crimson,remember my first deodorant was body mist in a sqeezy pink bottle,not unlike the bottles of that stiff laquer you could buy.

Gibbs toothpaste. It was pink [I think].

I remember sunlight soap,also we used to have the red lifebuoy carbolic soap to wash in,toothpaste was a powder in a round tin...used to love the little Dolly blue bags to go in the white washing.

Round our way women were judged by the whiteness of their washing!

On another subject - Dads taking stuff home from work. It was almost a cottage industry where I lived in the heavy woollen district of Yorkshire. Dad brought home rope and small spindles to make skipping ropes, lots of wood offcuts for firewood, leather machine belt offcuts for shoe leather (he had a cobbler's last an soled all our shoes), blanket ends to sew together to make blankets, or for Mum to shrink and dye and make dressing gowns for us all. Oh and spindle band, also known as 'touch' a sort of knitted string, to use on bonfire night to light fireworks

Was it donkey stone? My mum used to get it off the rag and bone man to do the front step with, and the back step was painted and polished with Cardinal Red.

I remember my mother using green Puritan soap for household cleaning, and a similar one, but Fairy, before they started making Fairy toilet soap. And what was that sometimes white, and sometimes orangey coloured block that doorsteps were covered in after being washed? Housewives were judged by the state of their doorsteps, according to my grandma.

I'd forgotten about using soap powder to do the washing up. Does anyone remember something called 'green soft soap'? Not sure what we used it for, just remember the name. And remember being shocked to read in my teens that Camay and Lux were quite bad for your skin, as I thought they were the height of luxury.

Chillblains! Never had them since, but as a child it used to get so cold in my bedroom I'd boil a kettle, fill a hot water bottle and put it on my feet...

Coats on the bed was the norm in our house - and yes, I DO remember how cold I was as a child: there were many winters when I had holes in my shoes, socks on my hands (no posh gloves or mittens) a too small coat and a scarf if I was lucky. We were four to a bed at one time (no fun when one of the four was a regular bed wetter!), two at the head and two at the foot in a 4' bed. No shampoo; we used soap to wash our hair, no toothbrush or toothpaste , no loo roll and we washed up using soap powder. My sister and I were bought our first nighties by my nana when we were probably about 9 and 11 years old - because when our mum was being battered by our step-father we had to run to the callbox to phone the police wearing only vest and knickers. However did we survive?

I've been thinking about things like this since my central heating has been broken, having realised I just cranked the heat up constantly during the winter. I never remember feeling cold when I was a child, but, as we only had one coal fire in the house we must have been. Oh, we did have paraffin heaters, because I can remember going to buy the paraffin and turning the wick up and the blue [?] light when it was lit. Dad used to say coats on the bed were 'poverty', but it didn't stop me. The shared toilet caused no end of arguements. I've been wondering recently why the newspaper toilet paper didn't block the pipes? Don't remember having a meter man, but do remember going up to the local canal to buy coal off the boats.

I bought my daughters dressing gowns, pyjamas and slippers - we had to sleep in our knickers and vests. I didn't want them to experience any of the privations I had suffered.
My dad worked in a factory that made fabric for book binding. He used to put a bolt of it down his trousers and pay us to 'tread it' in the bath. When the size came out, we were left with lovely soft white lawn. My mother made me a cookery apron and cap out of it and the nun who taught us Cookery remarked on it. I said my dad got it, and she asked me to get some for the school. I duly took in many yards of the stolen fabric, and she paid me and gave me a packet of cigarettes for my dad, saying God would reward him. I am sure she knew where the fabric originated.

But we are still here!

Dad was in the Army in the early 50s and he was in charge of stores when ever he came home he brought an extra Great Coat that we four sisters would use on our bed to keep us warm,we had to use the outside toilet at the bottom of the yard half way down the yard was mums washing line and you had to be extra careful in the dark not to get strangled when you went to pay a visit.

mum had an evening job in a factory,we had only one pair of stockings between mum and me,I would rush in from school so that she could have them for work,one day disaster struck I fell over on the way home and laddered the stockings...no loving words fell on me when I reached home,I got a cuff round the ear for being clumsy.

We were very poor and one evening mum was out and the electricity went. We had no money for the meter so I tore a bit of lino from the floor and jammed it into the meter - and it worked. I seem to remember that it was a trick my mother used on a couple of occasions when there really was no money to be found, begged or borrowed.
The street economy was based on borrowing from neighbours. I was always being sent to borrow things: two cigarettes, a cup of sugar, a spoonful of coffee or a splash of milk were the most common items. Other people were also poor, so sometimes I had to call at three houses before finding someone who had enough to spare what I needed. It was ALWAYS paid back as soon as possible. I do remember often being anxious about things that (happily) children now are able to take for granted.

I remember the ball games and handstands against the wall, PRINTMISS, but we didn't show our knickers - we tucked our skirts into our knicker legs!

Yes I remember the 'electric man' calling and piling up the shillings on the kitchen table, he was very popular in our street and always stayed for a cup of tea.
We used to go off to the woods for the day pack up a picnic and off we'd go without a worry in the world. Our parents never worried about us, can you imagine sending your grandchildren off to the woods for the day with just a few friends

What about the freedom some of us had as children. We could go off for the day, if we wanted, and play in the park, ride our bikes 'round the block' (if you had a bike and a block of course). the boys made their own carts, and enjoyed repairing them when the wheels fell off. The girls did hand-stands, against the wall, showing their knickers, and simple ball games. No 'elf and safety, we just learned the hard way, and enjoyed it.