General Chat

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".

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.

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 :-)

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.

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

Someone mentioned "kecks"


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

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 :-)

I remember embarrassing my Mum in the 80's in the Hypermarket by the deli counter asking her if she wanted to buy anything for me Dad's carryin' out. That is, his packed lunch in posh.

we mashed the tea in Oldham

made the door (locked up at night)

made the fire (built up the fire)

I just thought of this horrible old Glaswegian word ( possibly all of Scotland for all I know)
WINCHIN'- Kissing, snogging or dating

This word must be outdated, as I hadn't heard it used since at least the 1970's,
Very recently it was used by a friend who has lived in OZ for about 40yrs!

SueCar
I'd forgotten that we had breathers in our game and called them Kreamoes (sp.? ) but you're right... That's what we called them not far from Portsmouth too.

When my brother b. Hampshire married a girl from Leicester we learned some different words for things.

We made a pot of tea.... she mashed a pot of tea.
We ate crumpets... her's were pikelets
We washed up...she did the pots.

Here in Kent a packed lunch prepared for a worker is a pack-up.
If you miss the alarm and sleep in( as I would call it) they say they over lay.

Gwyn

My Mum is from Manchester......moved to Liverpool when she got married, she has lost most of her slang but it stills there now and again... :-)

Mardy - Sulking

Ice Lolly - Lolly Ice (In Liverpool) ;-)

If you told on someone in Liverpool in the 50's you were clatting on them.

Oh yes, maiden was the clothes horse that opened like a book. We had a pulley, too, which was the one hanging from the ceiling. You can still get those and they are still made of cast iron with wooden slats.

My grandmothers were Gran and Nanna although Nanna preferred to be called Grandma because we had been posh going back in the family. My mum was Grandma and now I am too.

i thought of some more,

owt--anything.
nowt--nothing.
keck's trouser's.
bowt--without.

Sharron
I lived in Liverpool till I was 4 and a half then moved to Hampshire. I think it was Barley in Liverpool when you needed to stop mid-game to pull your socks up or wipe your nose. In south Hampshire it was definitely Kremoes. Not sure how you would spell it.

we used minging as well ...... but my grandmother used it for whining

"stop yer mingin' child"!



sugar piece or sugar butty ...... slice of bread with sugar on it


the end of the loaf (or crust) ............... the heel


our main meal was at lunch time, and we called it dinner

the evening meal (at around 6 pm) was tea or supper


I lived in residence at university, and had to get used to dinner being the evening meal



Over here, starting in Texas and continuing here, we have ....

....... breakfast, coffee, lunch, tea, dinner, and maybe a snack at bedtime.

I think the meals are called the same all over North America

lonning -- lane

marra --mate

mazer-- a wonder

muggles --marbles

"Wor Bobby's a mazer when e's playin muggles wir e's marra doon the lonning" :-D ;-)

A spoonful of cocoa & it was Special Milk sop
:-)

Sharron we called ALL marbles Alley's .....


Joan .....I had bread & hot milk & sugar for breakfast we called them, Bread Slops !!
and I loved it .....cant think why ..LOL

Mind you we HAD nothing else ... :-S

Bread rolls were Tuffs ....