really old style living?

ginnyknit

Being O/S certainly worked for me last night. We had Dgs and he had a mild case of measles - oh no he didnt, he erupted at 5pm -sick sick sick. I had my old sheets cut up in the cupboard perfect for wiping up and throwing away. Then he ran out of clothes here - No I said to DS I have loads of his clothes - luckily there was a bag of stuff waiting to be passed on and I just cut the feet out of a couple of babygro's. He slept a bit in between sickyness last night and we got up at 7.30 - his Mum was only at her friends near us so came and stayed the night rather than take him home in the cold. From putting him on his playmat and him crawling across the room he had pooped and it was upto his arm pits so off to the bath in the spare bath seat we had been lent.

Thank you all for cajoling and nudging us on here, because of that I had meals I had prepared in the freezer so managed to turn out a Sunday roast with minimum effort. I was ahead with my washing and had a spare drying rack of Ds's so all his clothes and a couple of soft cotton throws that I laid him on to soothe his skin were washed and drying before they left to go home. thank goodness for MSE :T

kitschy

Hope your DGS feels better soon, ginnyknit, poor wee mite x

mardatha

Monsoon mode still here, trying its best to turn to sleet. Nothing on earth beats a wet sunday in Scotland :eek::eek::eek:
Staying really OS, google "Tinkers Bubble".... looking at the pics sort of puts me off ROS and makes me want a long hot bath and a big fluffy towel !

mardatha

OH is talking today about the village he grew up in. He says it had lots of shops and 2 farms. You could get fresh fruit and veg from 2 greengrocers or the farms, milk and eggs from the farms, two sweetie shops, newsagent, a baker, a fishmonger, a butcher, a hairdresser, a draper, a Beehive, a bicycle shop, a garage, the Co-op, & even a dry cleaners. The lot. Now it's gone, swallowed up by Edinburgh and there are 2 shops, a Lidl and a chemist.
Have we come further or have we gone backwards ? Was day to day shopping easier then ? Did we eat better food then (in the 50s) or not?

Minihauk

We used to have a thriving High Street. Lots of shops and a real community feeling. We used to shop daily for fresh bread and vegetables, so didn't have much of a store cupboard (lived very hand to mouth as paid weekly, with little pots for dividing money). BUT, my mum didn't go out to work, there was no pressure to have everything today and pay for it tomorrow, and we were happy, and didn't know we were poor! Not many people we knew had any more than we did, if that makes any sense?
I actually think life has become far too complicated. I have to work as I would not want to survive on benefits, and I have no husband to support me, but I am looking forward to retiring and having a much slower pace of life in the not too distant future.

mardatha

I grew up in a mining village and we were the exact same MH. Only one person in the street had a car, but we were not poor. I look at my DIL who spends her life running around like mad from childminder to work to supermarket to housework. Totally exhausting life.
And imagine what a Victorian housewife would say if she could see the washing machines/dishwashers/breadmakers etc that we have -she'd think "Oh imagine the rest I could have had if I'd had that"...and yet we have filled that rest time up with other things and seem to run around more than she did ! LOL

stiltwalker

Our village is the same, all we have now is the most bady stocked village shop in the world - I have a better store cupboard! - a part time post office (and I know we're lucky to have that heaven knows what'll happen when the postmistress retires as it's her front room with a real fire in the winter and everything!) and we do now have a lovely little farm shop which is on its third owner since we moved to the village 3 years ago but this one finally seems to be getting it right. There is a village archive group which organises an exhibition each year and has the most amazing collection of photos of the village in years gone by and the range of shops that there used to be is stunning, there were greengrocers, butchers, a cake shop, a co-op, a carpet shop even

TooDee

Its such a shame how things have gone. In the small town where I grew up in all the useful shops have now closed to be replaced by over priced tat as we are near the Cotswolds.

We are just very lucky to live in near two excelent farm shops, two farmers markets (although they are not often enough to use them for regular shops) we have a good village shop and a garden centre with an ever growing local food section. We also have a great organic free range egg farm up the road and countless good will boxes at peoples gates in the summer over flowing with veg.

We have a fair few good pubs to and the bus services arn't to bad. Its just a shame its so hard to find everything else for life. I couldn't find a lightbulb i needed I shopped everywhere for it and even in the two near by citys I couldn't find a light shop to ask someone where I might find one. I like to use local services where possible but in the end had to go back to the internet.

Its just such a shame with all these good local shops closing down we use the knowledge to.

mardatha

We had a postoffice like that but they closed it, now we have a van that has to come from miles and miles away and in bad weather it hasnt a hope of getting here. The nearest village has 1 postoffice/general store but used to have about 5 shops. I think with modern living we shot ourselves in the foot .

ginnyknit

I miss my post office! I tried to save it but the Post Master wanted his pay off and admitted it when we offered to rally round and try and save it. :mad: Its about a 3/4 of an hour round trip on foot to the nearest or 3.50 on the bus to the next. All we have round here apart from an ailing market and Tesco's are take-aways, 13 to be precise - whoops 14 they built another last week. There are lots of Asian corner shops for emergencies ie toilet rolls but they are not like the corner shops we knew and loved as a child, mainly there to sell fags and booze.