Have You Ever........

[Barsel]

.....moved to another county and felt like you've moved to a different country? I'm a Lancashire girl and married a man from Berkshire. We moved to his home town in the early '70s and I couldn't believe how different it was. The girls in the bakery shop had never heard of a barmcake and nobody seemed to know what a meat and potato pie is. When I told my nephew to stop mithering his Mum once, nobody knew what I meant, and if I spoke to a stranger in the shops they would try to get away from me and look at me as though I was mad. Sometimes they would say, Sorry, do I know you! We moved back after about 4 years as I was homesick, but I wonder if something like this ever happened to you?

[davebro]

I miss oven bottom muffins with creamy Lancashire cheese (not the dry crumbly). Goin fer't t'go down Bolton market and look for some!

[Mamyalynne]

Toast nice too as long as you keep a watch on them.

[Ken4155]

Why would you wanna toast a watch, Mamy? :-
Stayed a weekend at my father-in-laws brother's house in Walthamstow a good few years back and we took some black pudding down with us. His brother's wife turned her nose up at such a disgusting thing then promptly extolled the virtues of jellied eels!

[NellieMay]

Yes, moved from Wimbledon to Bedfordshire at 15, then Hertfordshire
At 25 then Norfolk at 31. None of my family remain where we started out. They are scattered around up North, Surrey, Canada and Australia. We have been in Norfolk for 40 years and i wouldn't move away. I worked in France and the Spain during my young and single days. I can't remember ever regretting moves or feeling homesick.

[Barsel]

I remember going to stay with a family in Derbyshire when I was about 12 yrs old and everybody seemed to call you 'duck'. Before I was given the first meal, the lady of the house said to me, 'Does thou like savoury duck, duck'. I can't tell you how confused I was! I'm thinking, I don't even know what duck duck is never mind it being savoury. Fortunately, my older brother lived with that family and was able to explain it to me.

[bhg481]

My wife and I are Lancashire bred but moved south to Berkshire in the late 1960s. We were horrified that we were unable to buy Vimto and had to stock up whenever we went back north. Fortunately the south caught up with civilisation about 30 years ago, so now we are able to feed our habit without making a 500 mile round-trip.

[Barsel]

bhg481 Couldn't live without my Vimto, always have a bottle of it in the house. I remember as a young girl going to the herbalist shop where you could get hot Vimto and could drink it there and then in the shop...... and of course Vimto lollies.

[mallyh]

when I went up north to meet mr mallys family people kept asking me to say something as they thought I was a cockney ,I suppose anyone born south of Watford gap is a cockney to them lol

[bhg481]

Our local fish & chip shop made Vimto lollies in moulds the size of tea cup for 3d. We have to make our own now, of course.

[bhg481]

I am only aware of regional accents, so I can identify north-east or midlands but not differentiate between Newcastle and Middlesborough or Wolverhampton and Birmingham. My wife was intrigued when someone asked "Were you brought up in Clitheroe?" Clitheroe used to be right on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border, the town and county boundaries being the River Ribble which runs to the west of the town. It seems this gives us Clitheronians a unique accent which, I must admit, I would never recognise specifically, unlike my wife's colleague.

[Barsel]

bhg481 Do you still live in Berkshire then?

[Zacs-Master]

No. I’m a Yorkshireman. We very rarely move away.

[Old_Geezer]

Not that I recall. Google tells me they're made with the yeast "foam or scum formed on the top of a fermenting liquid, such as beer, wine, or feedstock for spirits or industrial ethanol distillation". Well that's waste not want not. Found out the oven bottom is a muffin. Going to check mithering next, think I've come across it before but no idea what that means.

[237SJ]

Yes, when I came to London from Devon. Especially when my new flatmate and I drove through Southall and he said "My God, is this England?"

[bhg481]

Barsel - we lived near Amesbury in Wiltshire for about 2 years, came to Berkshire in 1968 and we have no plans on moving. We make a pilgrimage north every year just to keep our accents up-to-date.

[jno]

tch, bhg, reminds me of the dyslexic who choked on his own Vimto.

[bhg481]

jno - taking the name of Vimto in vain is a very serious offence. You could be banned from ever travelling north of Birmingham.

[10ClarionSt]

My uncle moved to Devon from Heywood, Lancs in the mid-sixties. He always asked any visiting family to take hime lots of Vimto and Hollands pies.

davebro: REAL Lancashire oven bottoms can still be bought on Oldham Market, or at a shop in Middleton called Applebys'. If you decide to chance the camel ride from Bolton, do it on Monday, as the muffins are freshly baked at week-ends!

[Caran]

I left Pendlebury (Lancs) in 1970 I think. Lived in various places since, Rochdale, Warwick, L,spa, FOD. To name a few.
Last week I was somewhere and a lady referred to me as a northern girl!
You never lose your accent.