benjamin1945 14,083 Posted January 17, 2016 Report Share Posted January 17, 2016 The Dreaded Liberty Bodice Jill,..........still sends a shiver thru me,..........i had summat similar to you as a baby,..........and was the only Lad at School that wore one,loved PE and all sports at school but changing was a nightmare............but even today don't feel right without wearing a tight 'T' Shirt under my shirts. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jill Sparrow 8,622 Posted January 17, 2016 Report Share Posted January 17, 2016 You too, eh? I have to admit, you're the only male I've ever encountered who wore a liberty bodice! Thought they were an all female preserve! I voiced my dissatisfaction loudly every time we emerged from Ford's with new ones but mum would say I should think myself lucky as the one she had worn at my age was stuffed with cotton wool in the winter months...mum had pneumonia as a child and the insulated liberty bodice was my grandmother's response! Apparently, as the spring and summer advanced, the cotton wadding was removed by degrees until just the garment itself was left. So we should consider ourselves fortunate! It's one way of being wrapped in cotton wool! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benjamin1945 14,083 Posted January 17, 2016 Report Share Posted January 17, 2016 Yes Jill,i never met another Male who wore one,so you can imagine the 'Ribbing' i used to get............like to think it was character building,probably why i enjoy lots of Banter............ tell you what Jill if they still made em i'd wear one now on cold Winter mornings............lol. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jill Sparrow 8,622 Posted January 17, 2016 Report Share Posted January 17, 2016 A classmate of mine at Berridge, Alison Smith, lived in one of the Victorian houses a few doors up from Merriman's shop on Berridge Road. She was always fashionably turned out and was the object of my envy due to her perfectly straight, chic-bobbed hair. Well, just look at the unruly riot of tresses on my head! Of course I was jealous. Alison turned up one day in a pair of shiny patent, kitten-heeled shoes with a petersham bow on the front. I was livid, covetous, GREEN with envy! Told my mother all about it at lunchtime and begged for a pair of my own. All I got was an old fashioned look. Whilst mum bought our clothes, shoes were my father's domain and my sister and I would be marched off to Clay's footwear on Alfreton Road. They had displays of silver lurex dancing shoes in the window! I salivated over those. No chance! "Very sensible choice, sir," the chap would wink to my father as he wrapped yet another two pairs of black, round toed, clodhoppers in a brown paper bag. To add insult to injury, he'd hammer metal segs into the soles when we got home to make them last longer. My older sister, a Peveril pupil at the time, complained bitterly about looking and sounding like a carthorse clopping down the road. It fell on deaf ears. The response was always the same:"When you're at work and you can afford to buy your own shoes, you can wear what you like! While I'm paying, you'll have good, sensible shoes!" And thus it was! Bet Alison Smith has corns! 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jill Sparrow 8,622 Posted January 17, 2016 Report Share Posted January 17, 2016 Benjamin 1945, they don't make liberty bodices any more. I know this for a fact because to my everlasting shame, I made enquiries with a view to keeping warm in winter! It's all Damart these days! Most people have never heard of the liberty bodice! When I've described one, they think I'm making it up! 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
katyjay 4,584 Posted January 17, 2016 Report Share Posted January 17, 2016 Ah the dreaded liberty bodice. Rubber buttons and all. Vest (shimmy) next to the skin, then liberty bodice, then a full underskirt, all worn till June, no matter how warm Spring was. Cast not a clout till May is out. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
LizzieM 8,784 Posted January 17, 2016 Report Share Posted January 17, 2016 I never had to wear one thankfully, were they like a bullet-proof vest?! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
FLY2 10,096 Posted January 17, 2016 Report Share Posted January 17, 2016 Liberty Bodice.... Contradictory really. Liberty means freedom, but Bodice implies constriction. Strange. Â I remember being told that I had a Romper Suit made out of an old parachute. Probably why I'm called FLY. LOL 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jill Sparrow 8,622 Posted January 17, 2016 Report Share Posted January 17, 2016 When you consider what Victorian women and children wore, the liberty bodice was precisely that...freedom from whalebone or metal stays! My grandmother wore a Spirella corset and she was a suffragette in her younger days! Perhaps I got off lightly with a liberty bodice, although my family would tell you I've inherited grandma's feminist leanings. There's no reason why you can't denigrate male chauvinism and be warm at the same time! Is there? 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jill Sparrow 8,622 Posted January 18, 2016 Report Share Posted January 18, 2016 Last summer, I had a multi fuel stove installed which meant ordering coal for the first time in many years. This started me thinking about the coal fires in my childhood home and the coal man who brought our fuel. His name was Mr Bill Young and he lived in Thames Street, Bulwell. Mr Young seemed endlessly tall to me as a child as he dashed between his cream coloured lorry with sacks of coal on his leather waistcoated back which he tipped effortlessly into our cellar through the wooden hatch in the wall. Once all the coal had been tipped, he would come into the kitchen for a cup of tea and my mother would pay him, retaining the small, square slip of paper which bore the name of his business. My mother was very fond of Mr Young because he was reliable and my older sister thought he was incredibly dishy. My Young made a coal delivery to our house on Saturday 30th November 1957 but he wasn't paid by my mother that day because at 5am that morning she had made a delivery of her own. Me! So, it was my auntie who dragged the poor chap inside to look at the newborn occupant of the Moses basket. Mr Young was a bachelor and gazing at a tiny infant, even one as winsome as myself, was probably the last thing he wanted to do. The truth is possibly that my auntie, who was a stunningly good looking widow with four children, thought she would make a close assessment of our coal man with the toned physique and good looks! Mr Young delivered our coal until 1974 when we had gas central heating installed. No more blazing fires...until now. I believe Mr Young still lives in Bulwell and is connected with its local history society which, in my book, is a very worthwhile occupation! 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MargieH 6,753 Posted February 17, 2016 Report Share Posted February 17, 2016 I used to wear a liberty bodice in Winter when I was at Primary School but also (horror of horrors) thick brown stockings which fastened on to it! I used to get bad chilblains in my toes so think this is why I had to wear them. I remember some of the other children calling me 'lady' because of the stockings, but don't think I was unduly damaged by the teasing. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benjamin1945 14,083 Posted February 17, 2016 Report Share Posted February 17, 2016 Glad i never got 'Chilblaines' Margie................. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MargieH 6,753 Posted February 17, 2016 Report Share Posted February 17, 2016 I expect that you, being a boy, would just have worn thick, warm socks to keep your toes warm? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benjamin1945 14,083 Posted February 17, 2016 Report Share Posted February 17, 2016 You didn't know my Mam...........lol Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Michael Booth 7,359 Posted February 17, 2016 Report Share Posted February 17, 2016 Jill Sparrow (#154, You too, eh? I have to admit, you're the only male I've ever encountered who wore a liberty bodice!). Don't get him talking about tights and high heels. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benjamin1945 14,083 Posted February 17, 2016 Report Share Posted February 17, 2016 Michael keep this strictly to yourself and delete after reading.............but i was the only boy at school who could stand and walk on his Toes in Dancing lessons......................lol...................now delete.......... 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Michael Booth 7,359 Posted February 18, 2016 Report Share Posted February 18, 2016 I couldn't delete it, benjamin, so I tippexed the screen instead. I'm not daft. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jill Sparrow 8,622 Posted February 18, 2016 Report Share Posted February 18, 2016 Wearing my Freudian hat today, I think we should encourage Benjamin to talk about it. It could be therapeutic for him! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benjamin1945 14,083 Posted February 18, 2016 Report Share Posted February 18, 2016 OH NO, Michael you've let me down,you of all people,everybody's read it !!! ive even had likes and Jill Sparrow offering Therapy.............how did i get into this mess............and i did'nt even go to Berridge............... 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Thorny 5 Posted February 29, 2016 Report Share Posted February 29, 2016 I started infants class 1940 .If there was an air raid the teachers would send us to the brick shelter that was built next to the gate.Still rember the fighter planes in the sky .It was from school that i was evacuated to Worksop,hated it .In the junior school about 1944 all us kids would line up for a table spoon of a vitamins and a glass of orange juice provided by the americans.In the senior school Mr milthorp would strap us for not leaning our times table , and Mr kendtick the woodwork teacher would wack us on the bum if we used the woodsaw incorectly .Mr pool? was my class teacher and my best mate was a Robert Pawley.Another class mate was Harry Devonport and Kenneth Basin.At the age of 14 i passed an exam and went to a technical school in the city so lost contact with my school mates .Any body remember the bug hole cinema on saterday afternoons on hyson green?cost sixpence to get in cowboys and indians and dan dare ,loverly stuff ,i got kicked out once for sticking a large lump of chewing gum to a girls hair to the seat in front of me .horrid boy happy days 5 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cliff Ton 9,045 Posted February 29, 2016 Report Share Posted February 29, 2016 Any body remember the bug hole cinema on saterday afternoons on hyson green? What was the cinema's real name ? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
FLY2 10,096 Posted February 29, 2016 Report Share Posted February 29, 2016 Was it The Leno's or The Grand? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
FLY2 10,096 Posted February 29, 2016 Report Share Posted February 29, 2016 I seem to remember a Futurist somewhere along there too, but I could be mistaken. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TBI 2,351 Posted February 29, 2016 Report Share Posted February 29, 2016 The Futurist was in Basford, near the gasworks crossroads. I remember seeing Woodstock there. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cliff Ton 9,045 Posted February 29, 2016 Report Share Posted February 29, 2016 Futurist building is still there - and still under the same name - but not as a cinema. https://goo.gl/maps/jbx64f86p5p Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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