Memories of childhood + Updates if any

Everyone school did! It was a measure brought in after WWII, but sadly no one thought to give schools fridges as well! Maybe kids who lived in north of Scotland were ok, but for the rest of us - yetch!

Do you remember the whole “Maggie Milk snatcher” fuss, when Maggie Thatcher took it away?

The policy was actually started by the previous Labour government in 1968, it was taken further by Thatcher and all free school milk was withdrawn by Shirley Williams in 1977.

I was forever grateful to her for that. :wink:

Power of the media! I only remember “Maggie Milk Snatcher”…

That’s a bit of a distortion Tim - Thatcher was principally responsible, because her cuts affected far more children.

Labour started the policy in 1968 with all children over eleven, Thatcher then made it all children over seven in 1971 and finally Shirley Williams stopped all free school milk in 1977, that’s not a distortion simply the truth.

2 Likes

I don’t remember the milk snatcher line because I was 9 but I do remember they took our school bus away (you now had to live more than 3 miles and I was 1.5 from school), a few parents took turns to take us, one didn’t have a car so we walked sometimes.

It’s a simplified version of the truth - the 1968 cut only affected some older children and was uncontroversial - not opposed on health and nutrition grounds precisely because it only affected some older children - local authorities were still reasonably well-funded at the time, the cost of milk was still subsidised, and many in poorer areas (including mine) continued to provide free or subsidised milk - we had it in my secondary school until 1971.
The Thatcher cuts (which also affected school meals) were different because they affected all schools from primary age up, were part of a broader cuts package, and were opposed by the medical profession on health grounds (as were the further reductions in nutritional standards for school meals later pushed through by Thatcher).

I’m no fan of Thatcher but the idea that she was solely responsible for the policy of withdrawing free/subsidised school milk is simply false, yet like many political ‘myths’ it has stuck along with the catchphrase. What Geof has failed to mention is that when Labour came to power in 1974 they had the opportunity to reverse what Thatcher did but chose not to and in fact it was their Education Secretary who ended all free/subsidised school milk.

3 Likes

They do that in Denmark, I loved it when I lived there!

1 Like

We went for Christmas one year (as adults, not children) to Cobenhavn and very much enjoyed the place. It was a bit shocking to realise how much Danish blood must be in the British because so many faces looked familiar, in notable contrast to almost every other European country we’ve travelled through.

1 Like

Nana buttering the small Hovis loaf before she cut it, so that she could put on a mere scraping and not tear the bread and then cutting the loaf wafer thin. :grin:

1 Like

I had forgotten that, buttering before cutting, but can’t remember who did it.

Hearing the word Nana so often these days, especially because all of Fran’s family have always used, and still do, the term I have always wondered at its continued use, because I have always recognised it as baby talk.

My Southampton grandmother was always Grandma, or Grandma Rowie, but my Manchester one was Nanny. I think I was always embarrassed by it and was quite young in rebelling against it, so henceforth, Grandma Lily became just that. :wink: :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Grandfathers were always Grampa Willie, Southampton, or Grampa Reg, Manchester, though because we saw the Manchester branch far more often, the actual names were usually dropped. :slightly_smiling_face:

Grampa Willie was very fierce looking with long and thick eyebrows from under which he appeared to glare at us. Mum said she, as a young woman, was afraid of him because of it. Grampa Reg, his younger brother, was totally different and was always smiling, laughing and joking.

BTW, both my Dad and I inherited the eyebrows and for many years here I resisted my barberesse’s itching to trim them. I always maintained that they were my inheritance and, as such, untouchable. A cheer went up when I finally relented. Had to because they used to get tangled up with my eyelashes and I was fed up with almost poking my eyes out when taking the scissors to them. :rofl:

Including mine, back about 400 years or so though. :rofl:

1 Like

There was a TV character who did that - I can’t remember if it was Dandy Nichols in Till Death Us Do Part, one of Les Dawson’s female alter-egos or the mother in ‘Billy Liar’.

1 Like

Was that Richard O’Sullivans character in Man about the house when he cooked the girls breakfast ?. He did all the cooking.

The person I have in mind was female, though ROS might have done it too.

The OH thinks it was Stans wife from On the busses. I’m not sure.

@Stella Hi Stella (again) just want to say how much I’m enjoying this thread.

Suddenly remembered today - 1950s Christmas decorations - paper chains!!! masses of them strung from corner to corner of nearly every room. Then in the middle of the room, hanging from the 1950s "chandelier " (ie four bits of wood sticking out with shaded lamps on the corners) a large round “concertina” type paper ball that you bought flat and opened out into a circle and fixed with paper clips. You could get them in a bell shape as well.
Real Christmas tree with roots that we bought in Epsom market - Dad planted them each year. Small ones got dug up each year until they eventually got too big. As someone else said, real candles in little metal holders that you clipped to the tree branch. The small candles I think were pink or blue and were twirly. Fairy on the top of course.

2 Likes

Yep, we too… pasted together coloured strips of paper… using a long-handled brush and pot of some disgusting paste, which ended up all over us… :rofl:

We also made our own Christmas cards, using stencils and crayons…

and who remembers the days when kids actually wrote “thank you” notes… for the presents they’d received…
I think ours had to be done quite swiftly, before New Year… I seem to remember Dad was quite strict about that…
Still got OH’s Christmas Bell from 1950… (borrowed the photo, but the Bell is the same and it still works… goes up every Christmas…)

image

1 Like