Do you remember.

[nosy nellie]

Do you remember when we had christenings and women had to be churched.Does it still happen.

Listening to the wireless.

Leaving babies outside in the pram.

The chair inside the door where the insurance man used to sit.

Long orders at the bar in the pub and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHdfZ9P2pCM# singing without a karaoke.

[Plain Talker]

When I was not long born, in 1964, my mother trekked across Sheffield, from one side of the city to the other, to her own mothers, with me. I'd have been about 10 days/ 2 weeks old. She wanted to show me off to friends and family.

 

MY gran went totally ballistic at my mother for expecting to be allowed in my gran's house without being "Churched". Had it not been for the long distance she'd trekked, my gran told her, she'd have been turned away.

 

For the uninitiated, "Churching", (Or to give it the full title "The Churching Of Women, After Childbirth") was a ceremony that was held, shortly after the birth of a child, to give thanks for the safe delivery.

 

These days, the Churching and the Christening of the child (if the parents bother to do this) are done within the same ceremony.

 

My youngest nephew was a year old before my sister had him Christened (which I found rather odd as she is a pagan) so what reaction my late grandma would have had over that, goodness only knows!

 

I think she'd have had a blue-funk over it. (Although, I do know, my youngest aunt never had her two children Christened, one's now 35, the other is 23, so grandma would have had a blue-funk about that, too, presumably, had she still been with us!)

 

Listening to the wireless? Yeah I still listen to the wireless, though there are wires to it, these days :hihi:

 

Babies outside in the pram? These days, the poor little beggars would probably choke on the traffic fumes!!!

 

We didn't have a chair for the insurance man. We had the man from the "pru" that used to come, and "Tom" who worked for Wigfalls, and collected the weekly payments from my mother for the carpet and the washing machine we had.

 

I'm too young to remember long orders at the bar!

[Allen]

The wife tells me that her gran actually turned her mother away when she visited with (the wife in a pram) her newborn without being churched. They didn't speak for years after that.

 

Still listen to the wireless now...just call it the radio instead.

 

It isn't that long ago (is it?) since the Insurance man stopped calling. Thinking about it...probably about 15/20 years ago when we had to accept other payment methods.

 

I remember the sing songs (with a piano) in a few pubs in the 70's.

Saturday nights (if I remember correct) was a good sing in the pub (can't remember name) on Loxley New Road.

 

I always managed to dodge the long orders at the bar, lol.

[nosy nellie]

I remember my grans neighbour brought a chair out and made her daughter sit outside because she had not been churched,when I had my children the first thing you did was go and be churched.

[Plain Talker]

The wife tells me that her gran actually turned her mother away when she visited with (the wife in a pram) her newborn without being churched. They didn't speak for years after that.

 

So it wasn't just my grandma who was a funny-ossity then...? I was aghast when my mum told me the story of her mum trying to turn her away with me as a barely fortnight-old baby-in-arms because my mother hadn't been churched. I thought it was a rarity, and that it was just my gran being awkward. I know there doesn't tend to be much love lost between sons in law and mothers in law, traditionally, but my father does describe my mother's mother as being a bit of a so-and-so, and "her way or the highway" in attitude.

[chimay]

I remember my mum leaving me and my baby brother in his pram outside Littlewoods down Attercliffe. He was only a few months old and I was probably jealous of the new arrival but I have clear memories of asking passersby if they wanted a baby. When my mum came out of the shop and saw what I was doing she didn't half slap my legs. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on which one of us you talk to, there were no takers.

[cleegirl]

I remember my mum leaving me and my baby brother in his pram outside Littlewoods down Attercliffe. He was only a few months old and I was probably jealous of the new arrival but I have clear memories of asking passersby if they wanted a baby. When my mum came out of the shop and saw what I was doing she didn't half slap my legs. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on which one of us you talk to, there were no takers.

i know just how you felt i was 12 when my brother was born and the green eyed monster was ripe in me he was about 3 months old mum insised i take him a walk in his pram i got just down the road where there was some swings my friends were on there so i joined them put my brother against the fence and went off to play .now i don tknow if i genuinly forgot or just left him but i went home leaving him there ,i was i serious trouble but one of the neighbours did return my brother safely home so all ended well , my thought is these days could have been amuch more serious outcome

glad to say he has forgiven me

but yes my mum had to be churched within 3weeks of the birth my gran would have not let her in

[Joanl]

I had my son in Singapore and was churched by the Padre at the camp chapel. This was in 1964 and he told me then it was an unusual request nowadays.

 

Listening to the radio yes, all the time. Well, telly wasn't on all day then was it. My mother though couldn't understand how they "had the cheek to call them wirelesses" when she was cleaning round the back of it.

 

I remember my cousin taking her little sister to the shops and leaving her outside the shops she was in....while she went home. Ooops!

[Plain Talker]

I had my son in Singapore and was churched by the Padre at the camp chapel. This was in 1964 and he told me then it was an unusual request nowadays.(snip)

 

:D Ah, that must explain his affinity for things oriental, Joan! :D

[nefertari]

My Dad was very funny about that too, I can hear him now saying ''Has that 'babbi' been churched !! ?''

Even though our family are Muslim, after the birth of both my children I took them in our local church and simpy thanked God for bringing us both safely through.