Plum Duff

[Rowls]

It's only a fortnight or so since we celebrated Too Much Plum Duff Day but today I happened across this tweet:



It's simply amazing what just over 100 years of progress looks like.

It's been a couple of tricky years (it always is in harder times) but it's well worth putting things into perspective and being grateful for what we have.

https://twitter.com/bo66ie29/status/1743766760342303071

[dsr]

Nice frock that the lad on the left has. Poor kid!

[ecc]

Almost Victorian Values.

[Westleigh]

No iPad,no mobiles a belly full of food and they’res as happy as Mr Happy from Happysville.

[Rowls]

Almost Victorian Values.

Exactly this ^^^^

Help the poor & Help the poor to help themselves.

Enfranchise the people.

Work hard.

Balance your responsibilities to society with your individualism.

Put others first.

Be charitable.

We're not anywhere near as Christian as a society these days but their reforming zeal, the breathtaking rise in living standards they achieved and the rise in prosperity is testament to their values.

[Westleigh]

Nice frock that the lad on the left has. Poor kid!

I thought this gender whatever it is was a new thing.

[Rowls]

Nice frock that the lad on the left has. Poor kid!

Very likely to be his "Sunday best" too.

[dsr]

Very likely to be his "Sunday best" too.

And he hasn't any plum duff. Has he scoffed it already?

[Commy]

That was during the first world war. I bet those lads ended up fighting in the second.

[Rowls]

And he hasn't any plum duff. Has he scoffed it already?

Hmmm, he doesn't have that "plum duff glow" that we're all so used to witnessing on Boxing Day.

Perhaps he's there with an older sibling and the Plum Duff was dished out on a per family basis.

[Rowls]

That was during the first world war. I bet those lads ended up fighting in the second.

It's daft to nostalgise the past. Who'd swap places with any of the nippers in that photo?

[Vegas Claret]

looks like West Ham away

[Foshiznik]

Is that ClaretTony’s school picture?

[dsr]

Hmmm, he doesn't have that "plum duff glow" that we're all so used to witnessing on Boxing Day.

Perhaps he's there with an older sibling and the Plum Duff was dished out on a per family basis.

If he had an older sibling stuffing his face with the family plum duff, then the picture would have involved a little lad jumping on top of his brother or sister demanding his fair share - not a little lad standing there peacefully!

[bfcmik]

Is that ClaretTony’s school picture?

No, CT took the photo

[tarkys_ears]

Oooh yeah they were the days!

We never locked out doors, no iPhones or social media, just abject poverty in the real sense and kids dropping dead of easily preventable diseases...

Good old days!

[Pearcey]

Wonder if they had food banks back then? Maybe things aren’t that different today. This is just a veiled political right wing post. Boring!

[Herts Clarets]

All I can think of when Plum Duff is mentioned is Blackadder goes Forth and General Melchett eating Baldrick's offering, with questionable raisins....

[Rowls]

This is just a veiled political right wing post. Boring!

That's the problem with expressing political opinions. Once people know your opinions, they assume you're constantly making party political points.

It was the plum duff reference that first caught my eye when I saw the twitter post. Then it was the smiling faces on the little kids who are so evidently delighted to receive something most of us wouldn't even dream of thinking of as being some kind of "luxury".

Fortunately, in this thread nobody needs to second guess because I spelled out the point of it overtly: We should be grateful for what we have in life.

That's not political at all.

It's a motif I post constantly and something I believe in strongly. We should practice gratitude on a daily basis for everything we have.

Even if we have relatively little. It doesn't mean that we have to settle for our lot, it doesn't mean we can't strive to have more. Practicing gratitude simply makes us more satisfied with the things we do have and puts our lives into that context. It's a great way to ground yourself emotionally.

Practice gratitude daily. It will improve your life.

[Buxtonclaret]

Yep.
Most of them have caps to doff.

[mdd2]

Great picture and I think by 1917 the food crisis in UK was getting worse. I know of a man who was a chil in those times telling me there were times when they has bread and cheese; but just ate the bread and smelt the cheese a few meals before being allowed to share it and eat it.
The pioneering work of Elsie Widdowson and Robert McCance ensured we had a better diet during WW2 when nutritionally the Nation had never been as well off. In less than 100 years we have managed to move from semi starvation to obesity as the biggest health crisis.
Difficult as life is we do not see pictures of starving people at food banks and in those days there were soup kitchens rather than food banks.
And thanks for the plum duff as I never knew exactly what it was until now.

[bobinho]

All I can think of when Plum Duff is mentioned is Blackadder goes Forth and General Melchett eating Baldrick's offering, with questionable raisins....

The custard wasnt too clever either…

[elwaclaret]

There would not have been such need in Burnley at that time. Burnley was a boom town growing experientially in the 1860’s-1900. Burnley would still be thriving and prosperous in the main until the Great Depression of the 1930’s when the cotton trade finally hit full implosion with India now able to work American cotton and over selling to the East finally killed the eastern markets for high quality heavy weaves.

These sort of images were only eradicated when the welfare state arrived in the late 40’s and fifties… and are a big part of the reason Churchill lost the post war election; the populace trusted him with the war, but not to look after the peace.

[bobinho]

It's only a fortnight or so since we celebrated Too Much Plum Duff Day but today I happened across this tweet:



It's simply amazing what just over 100 years of progress looks like.

It's been a couple of tricky years (it always is in harder times) but it's well worth putting things into perspective and being grateful for what we have.

https://twitter.com/bo66ie29/status/1743766760342303071

My nana used to make something similar called “college pudding”, or at least that’s what she called it. Suet based with raisins etc. I loved it. Anyone else heard of this?

[Claret86]

Great picture and I think by 1917 the food crisis in UK was getting worse. I know of a man who was a chil in those times telling me there were times when they has bread and cheese; but just ate the bread and smelt the cheese a few meals before being allowed to share it and eat it.
The pioneering work of Elsie Widdowson and Robert McCance ensured we had a better diet during WW2 when nutritionally the Nation had never been as well off. In less than 100 years we have managed to move from semi starvation to obesity as the biggest health crisis.
Difficult as life is we do not see pictures of starving people at food banks and in those days there were soup kitchens rather than food banks.
And thanks for the plum duff as I never knew exactly what it was until now.

A bit later on but my grandma was born in 1930 in St helens. One of 8 kids, she told me one Xmas all she got was a brush.
Not saying people should be happy with an increasing wealth gap, but I know I'm guilty of not stopping and smelling the roses once in a while

[FigSlice]

Plum Duff is traditionally made with dried fruit- currants, raisins etc. Not a cheap option in WW1 and not one to be wasted. Perhaps it was made with plums, rather than dried fruit, there was a big increase in plum production in the Vale of Evesham in WW1, apple and plum jam was a staple for the troops. Diet was a concern. National Kitchens were set up in 1917 to provide a cheap nutritious meal for workers. Set up in Burnley by Lady O'Hagan and Dr Clegg. Unfortunately the scheme was not a success. People used to "bread and scrape" were wary of what they regarded as fancy food and they were no different to charitable soup kitchens.