Hand Me Downs

Growing up we were pretty poor and often times didn't always have the money to buy new clothes - there were 3 kids in the family - myself, an older brother and a younger sister - my older brother was 3 years older than me and lot bigger - when he grew out of some clothes it was kept around until I could use them - the only problem was everything was too big on me - I remember a particular suit that my brother had - I needed a suit so my parents took out an old suit that was his - went to a tailor to have the suit adjusted - to make the pants fix around my waist he cut material out of the back of the pants and sewed it together - the waist now fit - but my side pockets were so far back I couldn't put my hands in my pockets - had to adjust the length of the sleeves too - when I wore the jacket it looked like I was wearing shoulder pads ready to play football - then there were the nicker pants - in those days kids wore nicker pants - they only went to your knees - you wore long stockings below the knees - well finally the kids started wearing long pants but since I had all these hand me down clothes I was the only kid in the neighbor still wearing nickers - that was bad - but somehow we managed to grow up and have a good life - those were the days

Look at the bright side. Your sister could have been the older one.

And now I’m getting my sons hand me downs.
dad the $300 pair of boats you bought me hurt my feet. Ok kid I’ll take them.

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Originally Posted by sawbill

Look at the bright side. Your sister could have been the older one.

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Been a while since I laughed out loud like that. Thx SB

My father was the only son with 6 sisters, 3 older and 3 younger. He always joked that he hated the hand me downs. His middle name was Francis also. He had it rough as a kid.

outback

Hand me down yup. Fat Cousins clothes to sister girl bicycles it ok just make you tougher in the long run didn’t end up with much education other than hard knocks can run any machinery. And have to coin plus worn out body

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Originally Posted by outback

My father was the only son with 6 sisters, 3 older and 3 younger.

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I'm an only son with 5 sisters.(one older)..I know of his pain. HaHa.

My Mom's sister had a son that was older than me, she would send me my cousins hand me downs. It was like Christmas 3-4 times a year, otherwise I don't know what they would have done....I was hard on cloths and there was no money.

Good story Joe....I know , growing up on Military bases, there were lots of that kind of thing happening in large families. There was no shame back then . No one really cared, to busy having fun in the neighbourhood till the street light came on.

Yes JoePa I can a identify with a lot of what you say. However I did have a bit of an Ace in the Hole, mom was a seamstress, and could do altercation when things didn't quite fit right. I away I suspected hand me down may have effected my attitude towards new cloths. Plus the fact I enjoy comfort and loose fitting clothes as oppose to the tight fitting clothes and up to date fashions. My spouse some times has problems with the way I go out in public, so I have a few refined duds around. I've always had a problem with those who evaluate people by their appearance, as far as I'm concerned, I find them awful short sighted and shallow. There a verse in the Bible that I find does a good job at covering this issue. You can find at 1 Samuel 16: 7. What can I say, at time the old Book does offer some profound wisdom.

You don't stop hunting because you grow old. You grow old because you stop hunting.
- Gun Nut

All you guys were spoiled and a whole lot better off than folk's I grew up with. Hand me downs' were standard practice and did not create much of a fuss, pretty much every family did this stuff. The big fights came when it came to food, I, am not kidding.

The milk was delivered by the milk man in glass bottles and the crème would settle at the top of the bottle. We took turns of getting the "top of the bottle" when we were kids.

The next thing was the "outsider of the bread" the outside slice was generally thicker and we would fight over who's turn it was to get the outside slice.

Dessert was only once a week on a Sunday.

It might not seem a big deal by when you were second from the end of the line with two other brothers and five sisters.....

My ol man was raised in northern Ontario with 6 brothers, “first one up best dressed”. Sad, but that’s the way it was. I’m a only child because my parents didn’t want that for me. I’m very grateful of my parents and cherish every moment I get too spend time with them. They were 19/20 years old when they had me....probably a mistake lol


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Boy it sure was a different life back in those days - no TV, no car, no laptop, no phone, no refrigerator, life was simple and I might add a lot better - the only thing that is better today is the health care one can get - we had an ice box - once or twice a week the ice man would come and deliver a chunk of ice - the sizes varied from a 5 cent piece to a 20 cent piece - you could take the whole ice box and put it into a refrigerator that are available today - a big treat in the summer time was to get a piece of chipped ice off the ice truck - we had a bread man, a egg man, a beer man, a milk man and a produce man come each week - the egg man was always fun to watch because there were two brothers who had the farm and each week they would come to the city to deliver eggs and chickens to customers - while making their rounds they would stop in taverns and have a couple drinks - we were one of the last customers on their route and by the time they came to our house both were pretty drunk - so each week we had some entertainment - like the time one of them fell over into my father's tomato patch and couldn't get hime to stand up and the time they let 20 chickens loose by mistake and trying to chase them all over the road - I still say listening to all the news that is poured out all day just gets you all stressed out for nothing - those were the days my friend -

Joe,

Your last line reminded me.........https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9yLBYjzU7s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OZrNDtRltg

Don't ask me how I remember these as a 6 year old in Scotland, but some songs stay in your mind.

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Originally Posted by Gilroy

Joe,

Your last line reminded me.........https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9yLBYjzU7s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OZrNDtRltg

Don't ask me how I remember these as a 6 year old in Scotland, but some songs stay in your mind.

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My father had a vast vocabulary of songs and a Hawaiian guitar, he claimed he could play and sing for 24 hours and not singing the same song twice. Most were country ballads, and songs he pick up overseas during the war, he was something of a Hank Williams fan. However some of the songs he sang had deeper roots than that. He also had quiet a memory for poetry, which he would recite from time to time, I recall in grade 4, as I was struggling to learn Stevenson’s, My Shadow, for school. He could raddle it off, with hardly a blink. It's quite interesting how one’s long term memory hangs unto rhythm and verse. To day its all repetitive nonsense and incessive drumming. As Johnny Cash put it, “Kids sure play funny music these days They play it in the strangest ways" Oh well, apparently it’s because, “they are trying to be heard above our noise.”.

You don’t stop hunting because you grow old. You grow old because you stop hunting.
- Gun Nut