General Chat

as you do, and wondered what my ancestors would think of me washing up food packaging before I put it out for the dustman

Are there other things we do these days that you think they would find odd?

Urgently answer mobile phones when with company and merrily chat away to the caller. Granny would have been aghast! - I know I am!

Going to the supermarket. Flying to have a holiday - in fact having holidays. Cars. Where do you stop :-D :-D :-D

It depends on which ancestors you mean Pat :-D

I'm with you on that one Island, or they sit scrolling through social media rather than chatting to the people in the room with them

Standing at the kitchen sink and turning on the hot tap would have been a luxury when I was a kid

All hot water was heated in a kettle on the gas cooker or big saucepans and a zinc bucket

No putting the clothes in the washing machine,it was a zinc bath balanced against the outside wall on a trestle and a scrubbing board in it

The hot water supplied by the zinc bucket and saucepans from the gas cooker

Saturday night bath time to was a zinc bungalow bath in the scullery and again the hot water heated on the cooker


Must say mums washing of both the clothes and us kids was ace !!

Man on the moon! :-D

Kentishmaid, I think you'd have to explain what "food packaging" means. :-)

I can remember when the only packaging was paper/cardboard, for things like sugar, butter, cheese and eggs. Everything else was unwrapped and just went into your shopping basket.

As cans and bottles have been around for a long time I would hope that my ancestors wouldn’t see anything odd in it. Except for the posh ones that had other people doing it for them ;-)

Yes Andysmum, and that food packaging didn't go in the dustbin.

I think one of the biggest things our ancestors would find odd is the amount of waste these days.
It's not a habit I have but (pre covid) clothes shopping as a regular day out with 'the girls' :-0

I think they may find it odd to have such a think as a food waste bin. Many of them would have not been able to throw away edible food waste.

That's true Andysmum, hadn't thought of that

Growing up peelings went on the compost heap. Or one could put food scraps in the pig bin - which was at the bottom of the next road.

Fresh food was often wrapped in paper which would be kept for other uses and fruit and veg went straight into the shopping bag.

Oh yes, Andysmum - loaves of unsliced bread wrapped in tissue paper!

The amount of plastic, I think would be shocking, and actually buying water (again in plastic bottles) when we have clean stuff from our taps!
Tap water may have a few chemicals in it, but it doesn't contain typhoid
Plastic bottles have plenty of chemicals, but it appears if the water is 'healthy' paid for water, no-one considers the chemicals seeping from the plastic :-D

True folks, people would have certainly had far less food waste

The other thing that comes to mind is Velcro,

I always think of my Mum when I have to throw out clothes as she used to remove all the buttons and keep them. Wonder if anyone still does that?

I did until fairly recently, when the manufacturers suddenly learnt how to sew on buttons so that they didn't come off!!

Also, buttons these days are so dull - I inherited a tin of buttons from my Mum and they were all different, with patterns and shapes that you rarely see now.

Going to the toilet indoors!

We used to live in a flat and had 6 flights of stairs to go down to get to the dust bin room, that was in the early 1980s and so I washed tins, jars etc and poured salt on food peelings and still do.

I had my Mum's buttons till recently. Then a friend of my daughter in law started making framed family trees and other novelties using old buttons and scrabble tiles so I donated them to her.

I’ve always washed cans, bottles, jars. I suppose I assume my mother did too. I was shocked once when I discovered my almost OCD sister in law don’t rinse out her cat food tins.

Salt on food peelings is a new one. But I suppose it was because it is a preservative.