Marvellous tales - thank you!
Yes, I remember the rind on cheese being extra hard, (hence the term 'Hard Cheese' but from years before), I think you could just grate it, but it wasn't as hard as Parmesan rind is these days, although I still try to grate it and after forty minutes, get a bit fed up and go and do something else...
I remember a chum's mum making cheese melt in a pan on the stove by covering it with water too, which seemed a bit weird but worked! We didn't have a fridge until about 1956/7, and up to then, Mum had a marble slab in the pantry for anything which needed to be as cool as possible.
My dad - many years later - liked to buy half a stilton, for the Wintermass, scoop a hole in the middle and feed it with port, and that really did go down a treat!
But back on topic, I suppose kids' taste buds just didn't cater for the strong flavours I know mine certainly didn't!