General Chat

proud ............. something is sticking up above the rest.

I forgot myself a couple of years ago, over 40 years after leaving the UK ....... I was at the dentist having a new crown put on a molar. He told me to bite down, and then tell him how it felt.

I said "it feels proud"


oooooooooooooops


he (an Italian Canadian) said he hadn't heard it said that way before, but he guessed what I meant :-)

Someone mentioned "kecks"


I hadn't heard that word in Oldham ............ but OH is from Chester, and he has always said "kecks".

Glaswegian
Packed Lunch ....Piece Box
School Snack.... Play Piece

just of the subject slightly,

do you remember people wearing clog's,
i can remember the sound of them on the cobbles.
a chap up the road from us used to wear them to work.

and do you remember the "knocker-upper", and the lamplighter?

Both often wore clogs


The lamplighter would come round in the evening, round about dusk, to light the street gas lamps, and then again after dawn to put them out.


The "knocker-upper" had a long pole, and he used to come round to wake up men on shift work that started in the very early morning. He used his pole to knock on the upstairs bedroom window.

He would be paid an amount, either by the mill or by individuals, to make sure he woke you up at the correct time.

Soon after you heard him coming down the street, you would hear the clogs of all the workers as they made their way up the street to the mill.


They were very common in the mill towns, and also in train crew towns such as Chester and Crewe



"I'll knock you up in the morning" or "I'll give you a knock up in the morning" were common phrases when we were going to go somewhere early with a friend.



We left for Texas 4 or 5 days after our wedding, and OH gave me very strict instructions on the journey over not to EVER say the phrase "knock up" in the US (or indeed in North America).


Of course, I forgot and said one of those phrases to someone within the first week



Blushes all round



"knock up" over here means get someone pregnant :-)

Really remembering stuff now - great to read other people's words too!

Liverpool -

Cocky Watchman - I have heard this used in the last ten years to mean security guard but in the sixties we used it to refer to the parkie who came round to check that only under-12's were playing on the swings.

Shaddle - this was an amazing piece of apparatus at the swings that looked like a big long see-saw but it hung on four big metal rods. You stood at one end holding onto two of the rods and made it go like a swingboat or a battering ram. Lord knows what happened if a little kid got in the way - guess that's why you don't see them any more.

Like Martyn I remember clogs .Strong black leather laceups with irons like horseshoes on the soles.They made wonderful sparks when striking the flags (pavements). I dreamed of owning a pair.

I wore "BUTTONS"- Liberty bodices, a short padded undergarment which fastened down the front with many rubber buttons hence the name.

Brossen
My grandma use to say, "yar Ada is brossen.". - Our Ada is fat. (Afraid I'm a bit brossen myself these days)

Thresher meant threshold. It could be difficult when you moved if all you wanted was a piece of wood to keep the draughts out and a machine to cut the corn arrived

to CAMP. ie to gossip -

sand delph - a quarry in Lancashire

I had an aunt who always asked for a QUARTRON of sweets. I used to cringe when she said this. I was such a little "jumped-up- un".

If you opened a drawer to look in it your mother would say "don't go rooting in there please!"

edit: Lancashire

ooooh Sue

my mother would say the same thing to me!!! :-D

keep thissen to thissen



keep things private, don't get involved

Sylvia: hee hee hee hee, it's funny how our mothers were the same! :-)

Ooh, just remembered: if our Nana wanted us to hurry up & get on with something or just to walk faster she would say " 'eck-'eck ".

I saw one of my neighbours going across to the shop the other day, and instinctively because we are both northerners instead of just saying Hi & because I had seem him twice in 24 hours I said "Aye-aye!" Does anyone else use that expression?

OH uses "Aye Aye" from Chester area.


I didn't use it

Re: keep thissen to thissen, I think that is something that my mother-in-law's father from north Nottinghamshire might have also said.

Translates literally as "keep thyself to thyself".

He also used to say "Put a bit o' watter round face an' if yer goin' out, don't forget to put wood in 'ole!"

goin t washhouse--going to the launderette,

are ya flecky--if you had a itch,

my granny used to call us chucky eggs when we were little,also a giddy kipper,

Very first post reminded me that my dad used to say to my baby sister, "What's up with you, nazzy-pants?"

Mum used to say 'stop mithering' if we were pestering her.

If we were being naughty, Nana would say 'do you want a lander?'

This was in Cheshire.

Mum always pronounced Co-op as Quorp and it was years before i realised they were the same thing.

Nowadays I'm so posh I wouldn't even look down into a drain (joking ha ha) but in those days in Liverpool we looked down the grid.

As in:

Where d'you live?
Down the grid.
What house?
Pan o' scouse.
What number?
Cucumber.
What street?
Pig's feet.

It stopped nosey kids from finding out where you lived then coming round yours and being a pest keep asking if you were coming out to play.

flags---pavement.
bowgie--home made go cart,you won't see them very much these day's..
tarrah--bye.

I was called a giddy kipper as well :-D


have we had "smarty-pants"?


...... when someone thought you were being too clever with them, or answering back.

goody two shoes,
someone who alway's told on you.

also my children were,
lad--boy,
lass-- girl.

they used to say oh what a bonny baby.