One for the older members, and young ones can laugh.

[geetee]

Here's a few more down "Whatever happened to ..." from Memory Lane:

o Whipping tops? The local shop even sold "Window Breakers".

o Jacks? That was where you .... ! I have to apologise because the Rules are too complicated to explain to adults! Sorry!

o Marbles? At least three different games were on offer.

o Skipping ropes? For the "gurls" obviously as was Hopscotch!

o Stick and Pen? Hit a small stick with a big stick and then try and get round a course before someone crippled you!

o Winter Warmers? A tin can with a wire handle and holes punched in it. Filled with anything that burned to keep you warm in winter.

o Guising? A Derbyshire pastime this. Four lads went out roaming around pubs and clubs around Christmas to put on a small Play that comprised the characters of St. George, The Saracen, Beelzebub and The Doctor. A great little earner for those 11 year-old kids whose parents didn't mind them being out pub crawling until 11pm!

I (Beelzebub) still call Keith (St George) my friend. :thumb: :thumb:

Happy Days! :whistle: :whistle:

Now that sounds like a proper childhood.

my uncle used to tell me that when he was young he used to go around all day with a hoop and a stick, keeping it rolling as he went.
One day he left it outside the shop and it was pinched.so I asked him what happened then.
"Well I had to walk home didn't I!"

You never see kids playing with hoops nowadays, too many cars about!

 

[Gunge]

geetee, they'd probably have to wear a seat belt as well, turn their phones off etc. Gaah, modern life ain't what it used to be!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

One thing we didn't have back then was Black Friday, i wish we didn't today its driving me nuts.

 

[Dutto]

.............

You never see kids playing with hoops nowadays, too many cars about!

Great response from your Uncle and he actually talked a lot of sense! :thumb: :thumb:

Sounds daft but you could run/trot/walk for miles bowling a hoop whereas actually walking? Are you mad? Whoever went out for a walk? Not me!

BTW Most of the "hoops" were cycle rims that had seen better days but the "crême de la crême" were the discarded rims from the wooden wheels used on horse-drawn carts. They made a much better noise and were much coveted.

There definitely weren't "too many cars about" 'cos me and a mate used to collect Car Numbers in a small pocket book that we shared. (I think my mate got it as a Christmas present. Lucky sod!!)

We lived at a place called New Houghton (which is still there on the main Mansfield to Rotherham road) and our interest was sparked when we found an ancient AA book in a bin.

The book had a list of all the UK car and lorry number plates in it and where they all came from. All I can remember now is that FAL (my Dad's 1939 Morris Eight was FAL193) came from Mansfield (a whole four miles away) but I well remember the excitement when we logged a car coming through the village and discovered that it was registered in that mystic and far off land called Scotland! :thumb: :thumb:

We collected car number plates until we grew up and at age ten (or thereabouts) switched to collecting British Road Services lorry serial numbers. Again, there was a book published (another Christmas present) which listed the BRS serial numbers and their location.

In those days parents didn't mind their kids sitting at the side of a main road for hours on end. I don't think this was because they were careless of our safety but I do know that even the kids knew all the "weird" people within a two mile radius; and we could outrun 99% of them! :lol: :lol:

Happy Days! :thumb: :thumb:

 

[Pirate_Pete]

The first takeaway I remember besides fish & chips.

In about 1978-79 I used to go into Bristol on a Saturday morning.
There was a Wimpy which at that time was like a cheap restaurant.
But you could buy take away burgers there. There was one bloke
cooking them. He had a toaster to toast the buns. Sauce was optional.
That was it burger and a bun, nothing else.
And you still had to wait, so not so fast really.

 

[marlon]

The first takeaway I remember besides fish & chips.

In about 1978-79 I used to go into Bristol on a Saturday morning.
There was a Wimpy which at that time was like a cheap restaurant.
But you could buy take away burgers there. There was one bloke
cooking them. He had a toaster to toast the buns. Sauce was optional.
That was it burger and a bun, nothing else.
And you still had to wait, so not so fast really.

Wimpy restaurants are still about Pete, but not so common any more. You can still get that bendy sausage thingy in a bun

 

[Dutto]

Working in Saudi Arabia alongside a coloured engineer from America I finally got round to asking what "soul food" was when he complained for the umpteenth time "They don't serve no soul food in the canteen over here."

"Soul food is the bits of animals that the white folk won't eat." he said "Things like belly-pork and the liver from pigs."

I thought I knew what he was talking about so I listed a number of the bits of offal that my Mum used to serve up.

"Oh right." I said, "Things like cows udder, pigs brains, tripe, pigs feet and chitterlings."

"God no!" was the reply "I wouldn't feed any o' them to ma dawg!"

By the time I had explained a few of the other delicacies my Mum deemed fit for human consumption he had gone a funny colour ...

... so I wasn't surprised that he left the Dining Room when I described how my Dad was responsible for removing the eyeballs and de-snotting the pigs head before it was boiled. :lol: :lol:

Happy Days! :thumb: :thumb:

 

[Pfeffer]

Ah I'm starting to feel poorer and poorer. I still eat my own chickens to this day and if properly prepared I can chuck down quite some organs too.

I can really enjoy some beuschl, (horse) sauerbraten, tongue, heart, battered mutton stomach, tripe soup.. somehow that stuff went from perfectly normal to eat to nasty dogfood. The only thing I dislike is black pudding. You often can't even buy it anymore, maybe some liver but that's about it.

Never had Haggis, but I'd be happy to try.

 

[Dutto]

We are missing a lot of stuff that used to be regularly on butcher's slabs a number of years ago.

I can understand not being able to buy sheep brains anymore (scrapie wasn't endemic when I was a lad) but I haven't managed to buy a pigs tongue for many years.

However, when we were in France in September they had pigs tongues on offer in two of the supermarkets! Problem for me was that they were already cooked in some diabolical sauce so I couldn't knock up a "pressed tongue".

Other stuff commonly on sale in France is rabbit (neatly packed in plastic complete with a Use By date on it) and andouille sausage (which is chitterlings made up as a sausage).

The black puddings they have over there are also a revelation (I particularly liked one that included sections of tongue in it) but I reckon nothing beats a traditional Yorkshire Black Pudding with nice big lumps of fat in it!

They also have dedicated butchers that sell nothing but horse meat. Delicious! :thumb:

Haggis? I'm married to a Scottish lady so obviously I love the stuff and eat it on a regular basis ... :thumb: :thumb:

... i.e. every January 25th! :whistle::whistle:

 

[terrym]

We collected car number plates until we grew up and at age ten (or thereabouts) switched to collecting British Road Services lorry serial numbers. Again, there was a book published (another Christmas present) which listed the BRS serial numbers and their location. :thumb: :thumb:

British Road Services is another 'do you remember', which might be lost on anyone under 50 years old. :-?
Created after WWII in the UK as a nationalised industry like the railways, it had fleets of lorries and vans which (slowly) moved stuff around the country. After a fairly early name change it was eventually split up and sold off in the 1980s.
I also was a number collector as a boy. Vehicle registrations, buses, trains. I can still remember many of the old series vehicle area numbers, sad isn't it?
And from an earlier post a 'winter warmer' for me was to get an old can, make some holes in it, tie a loop of string around the top,it fill it with paraffin soaked rags, light the rags, then whirl it round your head for an hour or so, creating your very own smoke vapour trail, much to the annoyance of the neighbours.
This is when I wasn't burning sulphur in my Dad's shed trying to make sulphuric acid, with the accent on 'trying'.

 

[Dutto]

Sorry, but I just thought of another one!

At Christmas time a duck quite often appeared in the kitchen. (Where it came from goodness only knows but there were plenty of them living in and around Pleasely Dam!) :whistle:

I have two memories of the Christmas duck:

1. They were an absolute swine to pluck and seemed to have ten times more feathers than any other type of bird.

2. During the dressing stage my Mum always removed the duck's "quack" and gave it to me to play with.

It would last me until bed-time (remember when we had those?) but it dried out overnight and by the morning was totally useless.

I suspect that my parents were only too glad of this "limited life" feature after listening to me running around the house for an hour or so going "quack, quack"! :thumb: :thumb:

I wonder how many kids will get to enjoy playing with a real ducks "quack" this Christmas? :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Tomcat]

Damn - all of them, yep, definitely that old. But I do also recall we went out to play and knew to be home for tea or go hungry, used to go for miles with mates building dens and never worried, or when I had a bike, not until i was about 10 mind you, we used to cycle off away for a day with a picnic, that sto say a jam sarnie :) Different times for different folks, dont recall my mum and dad worrying a lot about where were were though. Simpler times with its own problems and challanges that as children we were not so aware of, we remember the good bits more vividly I guess.

 

[Tau]

Had similar, used to walk for miles in woods and forest or cycle to coast learnt to forage so didn't have to come home for tea. By ten that knowledge came in handy for ingredients for country wines, youth was never wasted in the the old days. Except playing with the quack of a dead ducks larynx, even I didn't do that :lol:

 

[geetee]

Damn - all of them, yep, definitely that old. But I do also recall we went out to play and knew to be home for tea or go hungry, used to go for miles with mates building dens and never worried, or when I had a bike, not until i was about 10 mind you, we used to cycle off away for a day with a picnic, that sto say a jam sarnie :) Different times for different folks, dont recall my mum and dad worrying a lot about where were were though. Simpler times with its own problems and challanges that as children we were not so aware of, we remember the good bits more vividly I guess.

In the summer holidays we would go out in the morning and be out all day. I used to walk to the airport (newcastle )about 4 miles away and watch the planes, there was no security then just a small metal fence with a gate and you could stand 20 - 30 yards from the prop planes about to taxi. It's grown in size now about 50 times bigger obviously with massive security.

We used to play football for hours on end 15 a side, game after game until the ball burst. you never see kids out playing in the street now.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Sunday roast dinner followed by the weekly walk with other families from the street whether you liked it or not.

.