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Did we smell?

My sister and I were discussing this the other day,certainly our personal hygiene was a bit hit and miss back then and our under garments weren't changed as frequently as they now would be.
I think it was the case that probably we all smelled a little bit so no-one noticed it.
Apart from the extra smelly of course.
 
I remember the Izal toilet paper,it was crisp and shiny but a great step up from the squares of newpaper that hung on string behind the door.
If you bent over,someone could read last weeks news.
And those great red smelly squares of carbolic soap,positively stone-age by todays standards.Ha ha,the boys that swore at school had their mouths washed out with it.
Those were the days hey.
 
The only people I remember being smelly,were old men,(must have been the pipe's and stale beer).
However,now that I am in the prime of my maturity,I make a special effort with hygene,wouldn't want to frighten my grandchildren off.
 
rozipoz,

That was very true, in those days underwear was only changed about once a week!!! Makes me shudder now but how many pairs of pants did you have then......one, two maybe?

I was lucky at Sir Josiah Masons Orphanage we had "liners" in our navy blue drawers............but I know my grandparents only own two pairs each.........one to wear and one for spare.

I don't think it was so much about hygiene as it was about people not being very well off and didn't own many clothes.

I only ever had my hair washed once a week and a bath once a week, even as a teenager and once I started work I was made to PAY for my bath, 6d in the gas meter and run the water from the gas gyser........ how different from today's hygiene and luxery.
 
Too right Rowan,I only ever had two pairs of navy blue drawers,cotton which soon faded and with a small pocket in them.
I remember I had games and decided to wash them but as they hadn't dried,decided I would place them under the grill.
You can guess what happened,criss,croos scorch marks all over the rear.
I don't know why we bothered with showers,we were all so shy we would cover our bodies and run through just once,pathetic.
We had nothing but everyone was in the same boat and I think we were much happier then,or maybe itjust seemed like it
 
celia,
The contiuing saga,of the outside toilet.This was ours,the brewhouse each side,the miskin with the cricket stumps drawn on the door and toilets each side,not nice when you have a severe case of ratophobia.
It's my little bro.in the slips.
 
Yes, Ray, I remember it well. Our up the yard was just the same, miskins, brewhouse and shared toilets. Great places for hide and seek though eh? If someone had the washing hanging it was even more fun.

Maggs.
 
I had a swing on the doorframe of our outside toilet in our backyard, made somewhere local (Small Heath) - very fuzzy memories. I was devasted when the landlord knocked it down and built us a bathroom! keeping clean at 7/8 yrs was not a priority! Funny he only did this to 3 of his houses in our entry.

Middle of our street was back to back etc, they had shared outside toilets right up until the demolition.

My Mom used to say; 'Our Mom used to say, soap and water cost nowt!'.

Jan
 
I was chatting to a lady the other day and she told me had a shower at least three times a day. When I was little we had the tin bath in the kitchen on a Friday and I was always last in!!
rosie.
 
i remember my 2 older brothers and my self fighting to see who got to the big kitchen sink on a friday night first to have a strip wash to go out dancing happy days
 
Talk about smell. Reminds me of an incident that happened in the 1950s. I use to go to a record shop in Brum to chat up a 'bird' that worked there. One Satuday I went to Woolworths and had a Sausage and chips lunch. Then I went to the record shop, pretendind to look at records, but in fact only interested in this lovely young thing. Went to her to buy a record, I didnt really want, and SHE SAID "Hello you must have just had SAUSAGE AND CHIPS" Never went back there after that!. Embarress(ed), John Crump OldBrit. Parker. Colorado USA
 
We seem to have gone a long way off the topic of this thread!!

I remember when Dad had his first bottle of aftershave, I think it was was called Cedarwood, I still like Old Spice though. Was it Henry Cooper who used Brut?.
rosie.
 
I used to wear Blue Grass too. Loved that perfume - still do. My favourite in the 60s was Estee Lauder Youth Dew.

In the 50s it was Coty L'Aimant. At school it was Phul Nana!

Judy
 
My mom smelt of Californian Poppy or for special occasions Evening in Paris, as a youngster I thought the dark blue bottle so romantic,LOL.
 
As mentioned by Alberta "Evening in Paris" and "California Poppy" were so popular in days gone by. Later on my Mother loved 4711 and I think that you can still buy it.
Coty L'Aimant was very popular with my Mother also.
 
To give the men their due in regards to popular aftershave lotion. We bought my father Old Spice for Christmas quite often. I remember buying Old Spice Soap on a Rope. This was very adventurous for my Father to use. He would never have bought such items himself.
 
my late Wife's favourite perfume was Chanel No. 5. rather expensive but she was worth it, usually as a birthday/Christmas present. Eric
 
My first recollection of a deodorant was mum's body mist in a plasticy or bakelite lilac bottle shaped like an Orangina bottle.
Dad used Vitalis on his hair and Cossak and brylcreme which made a patch the wall, Imperial Leather Soap, I bought him Cougar aftershavegrandad used a brght blue gel in a marmite shaped jar and perma summat of potash as he had smelly feet. AUnty used 5 7 11 great gran tied lavendar bags around her waist under her clothes. Nan wore Lace, Gran Devon Violets. I was given Brut in a silver cab and jade in a yellow can when I was 14.
We used Fairy soap at home. I have a relative called Hazel who got called Izal at school. We had it at school it never quite did the trick. In war time Nan's dad made everyone laugh as there was no toilet paper to be had and her mom had cut up the thin paper from inside cereal boxes and kept it, and he said it was the first time he had to.....well ...on sugar puffs.
We had a bath once a week we shared the tin bath water before we got a bath installed. There was usually one child in your class that ponged.
We wore vests I think that helped as your body still breathed. Our clothes were made of natural fibres till polyester etc came in and we didn't have central heating. We washed with soap too. I was taught how to wash and how to dry. Watching Bad Lad's army on TV they didn't know how to
wash. We didn't wear trainers in those days, only pumps for P.E. or tracksuits and mum was usually at home to open the windows. No fitted carperts. All these things I believe added to a purer environment and cleaner people.
 
cookie273uk said:
my late Wife's favourite perfume was Chanel No. 5. rather expensive but she was worth it, usually as a birthday/Christmas present. Eric
Click to expand...

That was nice Eric. Nan was happy with what she was given but she used to joke she would have a bottle of Canal or a some ookem floofem? Whatever that was.
She called it scent not perfume. If it was a spray perfume she would call it squirt.
 
maggs said:
Yes, I remember bath cubes. There were some very nice ones too. In this area they made the water a little softer. I would imagine in Brum water they made a foam bath.

Maggs.
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Called bath bombs now I think, and you can get roses that melt, I think they leave the bath black. When we shared the bath Nan would say someone's left a tide mark 'oo ay scrubbed theer bath?
 
That has reminded me of when mum got a face pack a new trend and she had white plaster on her face and she said, don't make me laugh and we did and it cracked. They died out. Like the Avon Lady. My mate's mum wore Blue Grass and Nan had Lemon Grass from Boots I think. Mum had Fiori which she called Ferrari.
Her boss gave her Xanadu which she couldn't pronounce in a purple round bottle like a ball and another boss (she was a secretary) got her a bottle of Paris, a tiny one, she never used it. I recall the bottles having little pads in the top and you dabbed it on, am I correct?
 
Nico said:
That has reminded me of when mum got a face pack a new trend and she had white plaster on her face and she said, don't make me laugh and we did and it cracked. They died out. Like the Avon Lady. My mate's mum wore Blue Grass and Nan had Lemon Grass from Boots I think. Mum had Fiori which she called Ferrari.
Her boss gave her Xanadu which she couldn't pronounce in a purple round bottle like a ball and another boss (she was a secretary) got her a bottle of Paris, a tiny one, she never used it. I recall the bottles having little pads in the top and you dabbed it on, am I correct?
Click to expand...
The Avon Lady didn't die out https://www.avon.uk.com/PRSuite/home_page.page
 
She doesn't come to our door maybe its on the web now? I remember the ad, Ding! Dong! "mummy mummy it's the Avon Lady"
 
can`t remember people smelling when i was young but can remember walking from gower street school to swimming baths and passing hp sauce one side of victoria road and ansells brewery on the other what a smell that was
 
Nico said:
She doesn't come to our door maybe its on the web now? I remember the ad, Ding! Dong! "mummy mummy it's the Avon Lady"
Click to expand...
More likely they don't have the coverage they used to. I vaguely remember getting something through the door in the last couple of years so I assume they must still do house-to-house but I don't think it ever paid a great deal.
 
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