It's Saturday. What did Saturdays mean to you as a child ?

Head to the base for our weekly haircuts, then a matinee at the base theater (cartoon, Serial, then a Western usually)
while mom shopped at the BX and Commisary.

Back home.

Later, we would sit down and write Dad a page to be included in mom's letter to him, on whatever ship
he was on.

Remember riding my bike alone a lot, just exploring anything of interest.
Huge rockhound, my room was filled with any rock that caught my eye.
 

hollydolly said:
unfortunately that is true.. :( people who know me or have known me for many years are always telling me to write a book, even my husband would say it.. but in reality it would be too depressing !
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That's the thing; having to deal with the emotions that result from writing this down can be overwhelming! Some people I know have been able to write what happened to them through a fiction story (I know of at least one case), and he was able to get his thoughts down without becoming too emotional. Just an idea....
 
I used to think I had a hard time as a kid, but @hollydolly, you've really been "through the wars". My parents were so inflexible it's a miracle they didn't break. They were always right and everyone and everything else were wrong. From an early age, I could out argue them so anything that could be construed as a criticism or 'cheek' usually resulted in a beating. I was usually glad to get out of the house and I would walk for miles.
That aside, I remember many of the same things. The washing tub and washboard (much loved by skiffle groups), putting wet clothes through the wringer and a pulley in the kitchen. We still have my late M-i-L's washboard and a pulley in the utility room.

On Saturday afternoons my mother and aunt would go shopping. We didn't have a fridge or freezer, so shopping was an almost daily event.
 
Capt Lightning said:
I used to think I had a hard time as a kid, but @hollydolly, you've really been "through the wars". My parents were so inflexible it's a miracle they didn't break. They were always right and everyone and everything else were wrong. From an early age, I could out argue them so anything that could be construed as a criticism or 'cheek' usually resulted in a beating. I was usually glad to get out of the house and I would walk for miles.
That aside, I remember many of the same things. The washing tub and washboard (much loved by skiffle groups), putting wet clothes through the wringer and a pulley in the kitchen. We still have my late M-i-L's washboard and a pulley in the utility room.

On Saturday afternoons my mother and aunt would go shopping. We didn't have a fridge or freezer, so shopping was an almost daily event.
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yes that old regular beating for asking a relevant question, and being accused of being 'cheeky''... yes that happened on a very monotonous basis, sorry you had to go through that too Capt... :( as soon as I would question anything they said or did.. my father would shoot out of his chair belt or boot in hand.. they were just incapable of debate or even logic .. so as you say it was looked on as insubordination..therefore deserved a good beating.. ..he broke my back once ... kicked me till I couldn't stand any longer, for simply being in the way when I was ironing
 
Jules said:
Saturday morning meant chores. My mother, stepdad and I did them and it was all done within a couple of hours. There’s much to be said for smaller houses with only one bathroom.

Afternoon meant bowling league. Playing with friends. Evening was Perry Mason.


Did you watch my pet, “Juliette” after?


You still do!
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No Jules - I don't remember that program.
 
Saturday matinee. Audie Murphy movies mostly. My allowance bought the movie and a Milky Way candy bar.
Had a pocketful of Morgan Silver Dollars that were SO HEAVY!
Rolled up jeans, white bobby sox, pony tail, my Dad's old oversized white shirt.
Had to walk to town a half-block behind my Brother and his friends.
As soon as I got home, I ran down to my Yellowstone River!
 
hollydolly said:
yes my mum had a washboard too, because that little single tub washer couldn't cope with heavily stained items. so she'd scrub with a big bar of sunlight soap..on the wooden washboard

The wringer on the washer wasn't capable of taking anything thicker than a tea-towel or vests and socks etc.. so most of the washing had to go through the big mangle ..so I would get the job of turning the handle with all my might to get folded sheets or thicker items through..

61v+6K4elWL._AC_SY355_.jpg
..oh what joy some weekends were... :rolleyes::rolleyes::D
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Good old Sunlight Soap - I still use it .
 
hollydolly said:
I think in that respect we had the very opposite Remy. I'm not sure to this day that they would have been totally unhappy if we got lost on the way back home
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It was all posession and control on my end. I'm really sorry that you had parents on other end of it.

I remember my oldest brother told me that in Germany when he was a kid, they ran around like wild animals. I also remember my mother telling me how she would go stay with her widowed aunt in the mountains and she had friends there and they'd run around all day. She said how free it was until everything started to change. I didn't say anything back to her but I remember thinking "I haven't had a free day in my life being raised by you."
 
Saturday mornings would be shopping with mum; me stuck outside the shop guarding the pram loaded with shopping, scowling at mum through the window as she laughed and chatted to everyone. We would have been done and dusted in half the time if she hadn't been such a chatterbox :rolleyes::)
 
Trish said:
Saturday mornings would be shopping with mum; me stuck outside the shop guarding the pram loaded with shopping, scowling at mum through the window as she laughed and chatted to everyone. We would have been done and dusted in half the time if she hadn't been such a chatterbox :rolleyes::)
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I often had to go shopping for the groceries on Saturdays with my mum.. but I was a teenager by then. My father had a car but he would never even consider driving to the supermarket, so my mum and I would go and shop for 6 people.. and walk all the way because no buses went in that direction. Coming back the shopping was so heavy to carry, that my mum would start singing ''it's a long way to Tipperary''.. trying to spur me on..:)
 
hollydolly said:
My brother a year younger than me ..only job was to put the bins out.. and he moaned and carried on about that. I on the other hand, had to cook and clean and every single night without fail, regardless of how much homework I had, had to wash the dishes for 6 people, and make hot drinks for the parents.. I did that from the age of 7..until I left home for good.....on Sundays or again during school holidays we had to polish the floors..or mum would polish them, and tie rags to our feet to skate around to shine them up...

There was a lot of washing to be done and she only has a single wash tub.. so everything had to go through the wringer.. an then bcause at that time we lived on the top floor of sandstone tenements.. we had to carry basket loads down 6 flights of stairs.. then of course, being Scotland rain was never far away ..so we'd have to be prepared to dash down again to bring all the washing back in from the communal drying green.. and then hang it all up on the Pulley in the kitchen

like this...
caledonian-clothes-airer-one.gif



Then of course came the dreaded ironing... :rolleyes:
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It built character? 🤔 I would guess so for the silver lining you need. 🙂
 

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