The Things I Don't Miss

[YnysMon]

What’s semi set? I’ve obviously been ignoring something! 

I don’t think our ‘school ladies’ were up to semi-set. Blancmange and custard didn’t seem that different in Anglesey.

Not that I would disparage our dinner ladies. Most of the meals were good.

I think we fared better nutritionally than most of the current generation anyway.  Though I might not be the best judge. I noticed at the time that I tended to eat most things, whereas a lot of my fellow school mates seemed to be putting a lot of it in the bin. Either I was greedy, or more used to just eating what my grandparents said I should.
 

[Mouldy]

11 hours ago, Victoryv said:

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  not knowing what happened to Lord Lucan, scooters, mother enforced crew cut, plastic sandles, nylon sheets, the Simkin brothers(its a school thing), national health glasses, skinheads, aztec bars.

Cant think of anything else of the top of my head!

Nor can I now!!!!!😉😁

Nylon sheets from Brentford Nylons!  Always seemed to have them in the b&b's I went to with my parents on holiday.  Used to jump into bed wearing nylon pyjamas, slide across the bed in a shower of sparks and fall off the other side.

What memories?

[hazelgirl]

15 hours ago, Jayfire said:

Oh Lyndersy...I just do not know where to start with all that could be said about this 

Then don't Mr Fire 

[Timbo]

Instant coffee, Brian Walden, Israeli Antiquities Authority, American archaeologists, Milk Marketing Board.

[TheQ]

9 hours ago, YnysMon said:

  Though I might not be the best judge. I noticed at the time that I tended to eat most things, whereas a lot of my fellow school mates seemed to be putting a lot of it in the bin. 

 

Put it in the Bin?  you were NOT allowed to put food in the bin, if you refused to eat it, you got the cane.. (you normally tried to find someone who would eat it, if the teachers weren't looking, but they were always patrolling up and down..)

Custard pink or off white, lumpy on top, watery at the bottom,

Fish.. bones glues together with something grey and inedible,

Mashed spuds, runny liquid grey with slightly lighter lumps in it.

School milk, was not frozen, in the winter it was curdled, where they stacked the crates next to the radiator to melt them..

the classic school dinner was mashed spud, fish, and cauliflower... inedible grey inedible grey and inedible grey

 

packamac

Shorts at primary school all year round (grey of course)

ONE channel on TV , BBC1  Black and white 405 line with plenty of ghosting,  the Hebridies  didn't get 4 channels 625 line and Colour until all at the same time in the early 1980s.

Radio 2 247metres well I didn't dislike it, but it was the only channel you could get in the hebridies..

The meal theme continued being ex military, the worst being RAF Swinderby being the square bashing camp.. and Alamein Brracks the former RAF Driffield, where you got back from RAF Staxton Wold to find the place in a total mess, and the only choice being sausages as the squadies had eaten anything of vague interest..

 Military meals are now cooked by outside contractors, one camp I was at that was good for food was RAF Boulmer when cooked by the RAF. But  now it's run by Sudexo they hit the head lines when photos of the food and the complaints book were published on line..

 

[grendel]

at my primary school you sat there until you had eaten it, I was once forced to eat fish which I am allergic to, I protested I was allergic, my sister protested I was allergic, i was still forced to eat it upon which I promptly threw up all over the canteen floor, they never forced me to eat fish again after that.

[Lulu]

30 minutes ago, TheQ said:

School milk, was not frozen, in the winter it was curdled, where they stacked the crates next to the radiator to melt them..

Which is probably why I cant stand milk to this day. Ugh that smell. 

[webntweb]

12 hours ago, YnysMon said:

 I noticed at the time that I tended to eat most things, whereas a lot of my fellow school mates seemed to be putting a lot of it in the bin. Either I was greedy, or more used to just eating what my grandparents said I should.
 

Mum made really nice sandwiches. One of my classmates mum also made really nice sandwiches but he rarely would eat them so I used to eat them for him.

Then I would swap mine for half of someones dinner money and off to the local corner shop and buy a ciggy or two.

[addicted]

School dinners! Oh yuk! Powdered potato, forks that were tangy  and tasted of fish and worst of all some sort of awful cheese concoction the smell of which was enough to make me heave. As previously said one was obliged to eat everything served and I wrapped the ghastly cheese slop  in a paper towel and shoved it up my sleeve hoping to slide  it past the teacher on sentry duty at  the returned dirty plates station but she spotted the large bulge at my wrist  and enquired as to what it was I had no alternative but to come clean and tell her the truth  I think she had been expecting an elaborate  invention and the truth so took her by surprise she let me off.

 

 

Carole

[hazelgirl]

I know I used to have primary school dinners in the very beginning but I couldn't tell you if there were good, bad or indifferent, however as I got into mid to late primary around the 8 or 9 age mum decided to send me with a packed lunch  omg that god awful teddy shaped ham (well meat of sorts) on a sandwich and the blomange type munch bunch yogurts, yakety yak, palmed off or binned they went. I was too scared to tell her I didn't like them so suffered for years and a penguin bar mostly lol. Never any fruit or healthy like, I know nowadays packed lunches are inspected to check all is acceptable 

[HEM]

19 hours ago, ChrisB said:

I know it was a long time ago but The Winter of Discontent was 1978/79. The 3 day week was from Jan 74 to March.

I thought it was early in 1975.  I remember because I was trying to write my M.Sc thesis in "advanced Computer Science" at the time.  I'd been booted out of home because my parents were looking after my dying grandmother & I was staying at my other gradndmother's & aunt's on the North side of Manchgester (Chadderton).  This was of course well before the days of text processing  - luckily one of my aunts was secretary at a hospital & she typed up my whole thesis - as long as we had power to be able to see in the evenings.

This was early 1975 as I started gainful employment in May that year.

There had however been a Winter of power cuts whilst I was an undergraduate.  1972?

[HEM]

1 hour ago, addicted said:

School dinners! Oh yuk!

I second that.  At senior school the meals were awful & you had to take them (pay for them).

Many years later (the school had changed from being a 'direct grant' school to a 'private' one) I revisited & was invited to stay for lunch in their new canteen - a WORLD of difference.

Last April (2019) my wife & I had a short vacation in the North-West & we were given a guided a tour of the old school.  But they didn't invite us to stay for lunch!

[hazelgirl]

14 minutes ago, HEM said:

I thought it was early in 1975.  I remember because I was trying to write my M.Sc thesis in "advanced Computer Science" at the time.  I'd been booted out of home because my parents were looking after my dying grandmother & I was staying at my other gradndmother's & aunt's on the North side of Manchgester (Chadderton).  This was of course well before the days of text processing  - luckily one of my aunts was secretary at a hospital & she typed up my whole thesis - as long as we had power to be able to see in the evenings.

This was early 1975 as I started gainful employment in May that year.

There had however been a Winter of power cuts whilst I was an undergraduate.  1972?

Not far from me is Chadderton, only 4 or 5 miles up the now built M60 

[grendel]

I was lucky as I lived so close to my secondary school, i went home for dinners.

 we were also lucky in as much as we were on the direct high voltage feed from the main substation to the hospital, so we lost power a lot less frequently than most, and usually at convenient times for the hospital.

[hazelgirl]

2 minutes ago, grendel said:

I was lucky as I lived so close to my secondary school, i went home for dinners.

 we were also lucky in as much as we were on the direct high voltage feed from the main substation to the hospital, so we lost power a lot less frequently than most, and usually at convenient times for the hospital.

Oh secondary school was a whole different ball game G, by then my Mum gave up making sandwiches because we lived in the pub and she just gave me money which I very wisely (or not) spent on as much chocolate and crisps as I could stretch it to, even though the canteens at the school were very good I have to say.

[VetChugger]

Not all school dinners were cr*p! At my secondary school we ate very well indeed. The school had its own kitchen with a dedicated team of "dinner ladies". We had the very same dishes as many have already mentioned but of a different class completely. We had wonderful meat and potato pie with a proper suet crust and proper gravy, once a week we would have a roast dinner with all the trimmings, We even had tasty salads accompanying meat dishes. The only ones I couldn't stomach were the liver and onions (although the gravy was lush) and the steamed fish. All my life I have only ever liked fish with batter on and chips!

[HEM]

1 hour ago, hazelgirl said:

Not far from me is Chadderton, only 4 or 5 miles up the now built M60 

They lived on Broadway not far from where the A627(M) ended.  My father originally came from Oldham.
At that time we lived in Bramhall & later my parents moved out to between Northwich & Knutsford.

Long time ago...

Another aunt taught mathematics in an Oldham Grammar school for girls.

[Victoryv]

Now where was I, oh yes,

fish paste sandwiches, fizzy pop, the bay city rollers, punctures, the Simpkin brothers, again (some things never leave you), saturday jobs, P.E.teachers, marzipan, Mrs Bubb(next door neighbour), Austin Allegro's, school ties, socks that never stayed up, deely bobbers, oversize tartan hats, multi coloured doc martins, BSA Bantams, anybody with the name Nicholas at school, itchy fracture pots, younger sisters, tank tops, Mums wet paperback pastry, laundrettes, fibreglass curtains, shag pile carpets, Sindydolls, Cyril Lord carpet adverts, "these are carpets you can afford" no we couldn't!, liquorice sticks (what's brown and sticky? a stick!) hand knitted jumpers, busses, the Simpkin brothers, Popeye bubble bath, Birds mild coffee( I ask you, what's the point?) Wimpey bars, Blue Nun, Brut, anybody good at sport (school), anybody no good at sport (school), lager and lime, beakers, paintings of dogs smoking and playing snooker, babycham, fishing, mirrored sunglasses, the Simpkin brothers, bicycle chain oil on your new 501s.

Still, there was a lot to love.

[hazelgirl]

23 minutes ago, Victoryv said:

Now where was I, oh yes,

fish paste sandwiches, fizzy pop, the bay city rollers, punctures, the Simpkin brothers, again (some things never leave you), saturday jobs, P.E.teachers, marzipan, Mrs Bubb(next door neighbour), Austin Allegro's, school ties, socks that never stayed up, deely bobbers, oversize tartan hats, multi coloured doc martins, BSA Bantams, anybody with the name Nicholas at school, itchy fracture pots, younger sisters, tank tops, Mums wet paperback pastry, laundrettes, fibreglass curtains, shag pile carpets, Sindydolls, Cyril Lord carpet adverts, "these are carpets you can afford" no we couldn't!, liquorice sticks (what's brown and sticky? a stick!) hand knitted jumpers, busses, the Simpkin brothers, Popeye bubble bath, Birds mild coffee( I ask you, what's the point?) Wimpey bars, Blue Nun, Brut, anybody good at sport (school), anybody no good at sport (school), lager and lime, beakers, paintings of dogs smoking and playing snooker, babycham, fishing, mirrored sunglasses, the Simpkin brothers, bicycle chain oil on your new 501s.

Still, there was a lot to love.

Fish paste  surely that nastiness is against the law anyways 

[MauriceMynah]

@HEM Jim Callaghan was PM for the "Winter of Discontent" but Ted Heath was PM for the three day week. that might help sort out the years and the confusion.

[grounded]

Planting celery plants for 10 bob a1000 as a school holiday job. Buy a fag and a match for thruppence from the school tuck shop. Ice on the inside of the windows. Outside loo in Winter. Outside loo in summer. Tin bath in front of the fire and ranking lower than the dog. T-square across my backside in tech drawing. Ruler across my knuckles in just about every other class, except history when it was a board rubber against the head. Oh, and Georgie Baker, Gym master, twisting my nipples for forgetting pyms.

Chris

[grounded]

Sorry, for Pyms read Plyms. We didn't have to ply him with posh booze. 

What else don't I miss? Being put in charge of a ward of thirty patients, on my own, all night as a first year student nurse. Nearly breaking my back to have them all up and dressed for when the day staff came on at 7am. Oh, and not being able to start before 6am. Crazy days. No-one would believe it now.

Chris

[addicted]

Going to the pictures each Monday night all for the princely sum of a shilling. (5p)  1 penny bus fare,  ninepence to get in the cinema, and if I was happy to walk home after threepence bought a bag of chips.

 

 

Carole

[annv]

Hi Hazelgirl Ditto you just reminded me we were on a hospital circuit and in the 70's never got cut of when rest of town and always had mums dinner, even when my brother's and sisters were born as a home help came and did dinner while mother was in bed with babies, do they still have them, home helps?. John

[ChrisB]

On 04/02/2020 at 13:22, HEM said:

I thought it was early in 1975.  I remember because I was trying to write my M.Sc thesis in "advanced Computer Science" at the time.  I'd been booted out of home because my parents were looking after my dying grandmother & I was staying at my other gradndmother's & aunt's on the North side of Manchgester (Chadderton).  This was of course well before the days of text processing  - luckily one of my aunts was secretary at a hospital & she typed up my whole thesis - as long as we had power to be able to see in the evenings.

This was early 1975 as I started gainful employment in May that year.

There had however been a Winter of power cuts whilst I was an undergraduate.  1972?

A lot of folk muddle the 3 day weeks, power cuts and the Winter of discontent. The later was caused in 78/79 and was caused by James Callahans attempt to control inflation by strict wage control of the public sector. This set the sceen for Mrs Thatchers victory later in 79. Thatcher had learned the lessons of the last 10 years and built coal stocks to an all time high so when the NUM kicked off in 84/85 there was ample coal above ground. It was the movement of this coal from the colleries that caused the violent picketing.