Food in the 50's

[strang steel]

I understood cochineal to be the crushed wing cases of beetles, but that never put me off aniseed balls or other red sweets. If they tasted nice I did not care what was in them.

Unfortunately, I hated vinegar and so the delights of anything associated with that liquid passed me by.

However, my mother just refrained from adding vinegar to her tinned salmon. She had a salmon hierarchy; if the vicar came for tea then it would be pink salmon sandwiches, but if the Queen had turned up, it would have had to be red salmon sandwiches because apparently red salmon was more expensive than pink. No one had heard of something called tinned tuna.

On the subject of vicars, or to be more precise - the antics of their wives, when they came to tea; my mother could bake a wicked fruit cake for special occasions. Basically it was a christmas cake recipe without the marzipan and royal icing.

After downing her pink salmon sandwiches, the vicars' wife went for a slice of fruit cake and was in the middle of waxing highly lyrically about how wonderful it tasted, when my mother - flushed with compliments - replied that it was probably because of the amount of sherry she added to the cake mixture. At which point this woman went rather pale, got up from the table and disappeared into the bathroom.

The vicar told us politely that she was strict tee-total.

We had to laugh after they had gone, but there was no hurry to invite them to to tea again.

I don't know whether she was in the toilet trying to make herself sick, but perhaps she did not understand how cooking would have evaporated the alcohol anyway.

[Boris]

Lots of mention of God's Own County on here so lets get one thing straight.

It pee's me off every time some southern git say it so here is the correct version.

Yorkshire born, Yorkshire bred, strong int arm and "wick" int thead.

Now the word "wick" is Yorkshire dialect for BRIGHT, CLEVER, SENSIBLE, or anything in that ilk, not stupid as all non Yorkshiremen try to make everyone else believe.

Also don't forget, Many folks were born in Yorkshire, Many wish they were, and millions of others have no ambition whatever

I now wait for compliants fron non Yorkshire born and bred members

[strang steel]

Well you wont have to wait very long, as you seem to want to hijack a thread on 1950s memories.

I was born in Lincolnshire. I am quite happy with that, although I had no choice - so I don't really care.

I have no idea why some people consider that the county of birth bestows some kind of superiority on them.

I couldn't give a toss who won what ancient battle where, when and against whom.

[geofrancis]

I didn't sign my post Survivers sorry
geofrancis

[mr B]

the good old days , if you saw a darky , 10 to 1 theres a ship in dock getting unloaded


mr B

[geofrancis]

How about life in the 40's we were SURVIVERS If you born before 1940
We were born before television, Penicillin, Polio shots, Frozen foods, xerox,
Contact lenses, ball point pens, dishwashers, tumble dryers, electric blankets,
Air conditioning, drip dry clothes, Before man walked on the moon, Central heating,
was iron plate or a fire brick wrapped in blanket, a duvet was your dads old army overcoat,
A chip was a fried potato, hardware meant nuts & bolts, software was'nt even a word.
We got married and Then lived together " How Quaint"
We existed before day care centres,Group Homes, desposable nappies.
In our day cigarette smoking was fashionable, grass was mown, coke was kept in the cellar,
a joint was what you had on Sundays, Pot was what you cooked it in.
A big Mac was an oversized raincoat, Macdonalds had a farm,
Before 1940 made in Japan meant Junk.
A Recycling unit was a Rag & Bone man, there was four grades on toilet paper.
The Radio Times, Express, Herald, If you were posh the Telegraph,
The NHS was known as the Doctors Bill @ 6p a week,
Being in debt and Illigitimacy was kept secret,
A Porn shop was a Porn shop,
A handkerchief was your coat sleeve, footwear was made of leather, Wood, & Iron.
The Top Ten was the Ten Commandments. Cheers Geofrancis

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

Your comments remind me of a famous cricket joke.

A Southern chap clapped and shouted "Oh, well played sir!" when Fred Trueman removed a batsman's cap with a bouncer during a Roses match. That's against Lancashire for all you foreigners and non-believers!

"Ow!" said a truculent voice at his elbow. "Is thar Yorkshire?"

"Well, no" replied the chap.

"Well, is tha Lancashire then?"

"Errr... no."

"Well shut thi trap - its got nowt to do wi' thee!"

Seeing as most of Fiery Fred's golden years were in the 1950s, I reckon this gets us more or less back on track. And happy days when Fred used to have a pint of bitter during Drinks.

[mr B]

well said BB .... got me to thinking of Len Hutton


mr B

[bricam5]

I was born in 1930 and ( in Hull, anyway ) they were not the " Good old days " for the majority. Of course when I was 9 years old, along came the war which changed everyones lives. But when I started on the railway in '47, I was the envy of many as clothing coupons were still in use and I got, free of coupons:- An overcoat,heavy jacket,cap and two pairs of dungarees plus the jackets. All this plus a job I had dreamed of, working on steam locos.

[locojoe]

I started working as a cleaner on BR in 1953,my weekly wage was £2/16s thats £2.80 todays money
I gave Mum £1/10s, 6s hp for my bike, leaving me a grand total of £1.
lol

[Boris]

Bricam5, you areon the same track as I was born 1930 starte 1947 and the cap wasn't a grease top it was just ordinary material and had the LNER in an elipes on the front, but soon got to be a grease top with oiling the inside motions for fat drivers

[bricam5]

Ah, fat drivers and inside motions, the two don't mix.
When I was a passed cleaner and available for any firing turn manys the time with a C12 tanky, I have had to squeeze between the firebox and the big ends, one foot each side of the pit because the driver could barely get through the cab door never mind the motions.

G5's you could oil from the top if you could get your top half between the frame and the boiler. Again, a position denied to many a driver. Did you ever see a fat fireman??

[kudu]

Has no-one mentioned cod liver oil yet, or did I miss it?

Back then we could afford roast beef fairly often (with Yorkshire, though this was London) but chicken was a treat. So it was mostly rabbit we had.

I don't know whether they were from the Windrush itself, but people we called Jamaicans (were they only from Jamaica?) first came to our street, already a mix of English and Irish, in the early 50s. This must have introduced Caribbean food to local shops and markets, but it never penetrated our house.

As for the local rail scene, it was a busy and varied one. Somewhere here "A Place by the Railway" tries to recapture it.

Kudu

[giner]

Has no-one mentioned cod liver oil yet, or did I miss it?

Back then we could afford roast beef fairly often (with Yorkshire, though this was London) but chicken was a treat. So it was mostly rabbit we had.

I don't know whether they were from the Windrush itself, but people we called Jamaicans (were they only from Jamaica?) first came to our street, already a mix of English and Irish, in the early 50s. This must have introduced Caribbean food to local shops and markets, but it never penetrated our house.

As for the local rail scene, it was a busy and varied one. Somewhere here "A Place by the Railway" tries to recapture it.

Kudu

Oh, the dreaded Cod Liver Oil. As a kid, I used to spend a lot of time with an Irish family next door and when they'd had supper, 'Mam' would come out with a bottle of Seven Seas, by which time I was well past the front door.

[bricam5]

Cod liver oil! Tasted like Champagne compared to the Brimstone and treacle that I was dosed with as a child. Plus I had to wear an iodine locket around my neck. Advertising propaganda was flourishing even in those days.