General Chat

Yes, my father also repaired all our shoes on his only days off - Saturday and Sunday. We had a huge garden too, which he had to dig over - and I used to moan about having to pick the blackcurrants!!!!!!!!!!!! Sylvia

Ahh the memories all of the thing already said plus i remember my dad had his own last for repairing our shoes, being put up on the back of the carthorse at the end of a days work, my little legs stuck out straight because it was so wide like sitting on a table, yes the good old bad old days. David

As a child going up to bed with a lighted candle (a definite no,no these days) ... my Mother swishing the blue bag in the final rinse of her weekly washing prior to being boiled up in a copper in the scullery, hair washed with rain water ... we didn't have mains water, that was hand pumped from a well, oil lamps for our lighting, the privvy was at the bottom of the garden and yes, newspapers were torn into squares and threaded onto string and hung from the door (we didn't hang about too long down there in the winter!) Oh yes! can anyone remember 'the corned beef legs'!) where people used to sit too close to an open fire grate and their shins would end up with big red blotches resembling corned beef, the list goes on. Audrey.

Alan, Yes, I'd almost forgotten being sent to get the accumulator charged. We had somebody nearby who put them on charge in his garage. Also remember Cardinal polish. Brimstone and treacle. lovely or not???????????

I remember white-stoning the front doorstep. I don't know if that is the right word for it, but it was an awful job.Also whitening canvas plimsoles. Sylvia in Perth WA

I remember my grandmother making rag rugs when I was a child. any old clothes of servicable colourful material was cut into strips and threased with a bodkin onto backing. I would love to make one now. Toast made in front of a roaring fire. There were no fridges so food was kept on a slate in the larder, Jams and preserves were covered with a crochet cover. Sterilized Milk...Yuk. Using a mangle to get the water out of the weekly wash, Oh and remember the man coming round each night to light the street lamp. Lynn

Polishing the brass's on a tuesday, putting red cardinal on the window sills and donkey stoneing the front and back steps. Maggie

Lighting the morning coal fire,using kindling wood, and newspaper,after cleaning out the ashes left from the night before. Going out early in the morning,and collecting mushrooms.Following the rag and bone man,to collect the horse droppings for dads garden. Following the coalman,hoping he would drop some coal from his bags. Helping mum put the washing through the wringer. I could go on and on. And yes, I did do all those things,and remember them well.

Washing days in winter when all the house was full of steam and there was damp washing everywhere Taking dinners that were in a basin and tied up in a hankie to the factory Being asked to run errands by this old lady who lived near school I used to feel very sorry for her because I thought she was poor and lonely When I grew up I found out that she owned one of the most well patronised drapers shops in the nearby town Donkey stoning the steps and swilling the windows Heating the flat irons up to do the ironing Toasting bread over the coal fire it would carry a health warning today Dressing up and dancing round the streets with our maypole on the !st of May Bren

We used to have to pump our own water when I was a kid. Dad's little 'pump shed' was attached to the side of the kitchen and he used to stand in there in all weathers pumping away until the water dripped onto the back porch roof from the overflow above the door. One of my earliest memories is of the sound of my mum's wedding ring clinking against the water pipe in the kitchen as she tapped her hand against it. That was her signal to dad in the pump shed that the tank was full! If we wanted to get into dad's good books we would go and pump 'a couple of hundred'. A hundred pumps filled about an inch of the tank. I think he was a bit lost for something to do once we had mains water laid on ! Magsx

You girls/boys can only envisage what it was like to do these things. I for one, actually had to do many of these things. I had to take a dustpan and collect horses manure when the milkmans horse had left some in our road. I had to go into the park and gather wood after a storm for the open fire. I also had to tear up newspaper for the toilet. I used to have to clean the brass number and letter box on our front door. I also had the job of sweeping our front footpath. In the summer there would be hundreds of blackcurrants to pick and in the winter clearing the snow away. I had to walk to school, which was about 20 minutes away, 4 times a day. I wouldn't change my youth though. No, that's not true. I wouldn't want to live in London in a war again. Sylvia

chopping sticks lighting the fire every morning , carrying water , taking an accumerlater to charge for the wireless filling oil lamps for the night time and many more jean

My mum & granny darning socks, using a mushroom. Also, my sister and I had quite a lot of hand-me-downs from older cousins, my mum was quite a good seamstress in this way, and used to alter them to fit us. Once, when I had been passed a double breasted suit, which was then out of fashion (try wearing one of THOSE at boarding school!), she cut it down into a single breasted one, and it passed muster very well indeed! Philip

Taking old clothes to the Rag and Bone Man in exchange for a balloon! Lynne

What about baking your own bread? My grandad also used to make his own pasta-took all day but the end result was 100 times better than the dried stuff in the shops. He would also mince beef in a mincing machine, and smoke fish and bacon in a special hut he constructed in the garden. This was all in the 1970's- so not that long ago!!!!

Also remember that when my mam was pulling the chickens innards out she sometimes found an egg, she thought it was her birthday!! Thank God for supermarkets!!

Hi Maureen, I had to clean up by myself, but I used to pull the feathers out one by one and put them in his pillow, he'd have hysterics and no one could blame me 'cos he must have had a leaky pillow. Revenge is sweeter when you don't get caught. By the way I remember the chickens and my kids wouldn't know what chicken tasted like either, I tried it once and threw up all over the chicken, another sore bum and had to buy a new chicken out of my pocket money, my mum never understood me boo hoo

Oh Lynn I have already concluded that if I lived years ago I would definitely be the local slut in the true sense of the word - scrubbing the front steps! beating the carpets! polishing the lino! I have a major moan when I get the steam iron and D...son vacuum out! Mind you forget all the cleaning rigmarole - I remember when we didn't have a hairdryer - Dad used to towel dry our hair then comb the knots out - OUCH!! Absolute torture! Emma x

Anne Marie, that reminded me of pillow fights with my brother and sister! When we burst the pillow we got a good hiding and then had to clean all the feathers up!!

Undoing the pillows and taking all the feathers out, washing the covers then restuffing them and sewing up the cover, hated it until i discovered that my younger brother was terrified of feathers, then i had my revenge 'cos he used to poke my doll's eyes out with a knitting needle, and he never got told off 'cos he was only 5 and a boy. revenge is sweet and such a good laugh, until you get caught, can still feel my sore bum