Ask yer Granny!

Memory_Girl

mardatha wrote: »

Oh fab grannies , terrific ! My mum's name was Elizabeth, and she once told me she was the 3rd Elizabeth as two had died before her. I found them on Scotlands People. One died of a hernia at 3 weeks and one of pneumonia. Do you think we would be as tough as our grannies if we had to be?

I think with the wisdom on this thread we may learn to be - and unfortunately may NEED to be shortly.

MG

Mrs_Vimes

The al fella (Grandad) was the booky and the booky's runners were my aunties. The bissies (police) tended to stop the lads (my uncles) and take the money off them. They never stopped the girls. (Talking about the 1940's and 50's. You had to have more than one job when you had 15 kids to bring up).

ginnyknit

My Mum was a bookies runner too! Thats why her education ended so early but as we have since discovered she is severely dyslexic (tho a whizz with figures) school would have been hell for her. Granny mac used to walk miles and miles to work until she had an accident and got paid off, she hid all her money well and even sewed it in her corsets. We all look identical in my family so one grandchild would turn up and Granny Mac would promise them money for something - in my case a car - then another would turn up the next week and get given a wad of cash. It was a bit of a !!!!!! as out of 25 grandkids I was the one who did all the shopping and cleaning etc and got nowt :mad:

Mrs_Vimes

ginnyknit amazing how times change. I have one auntie who never learned to read though she hid it well. Most of the kids were taken out of school a year early because "there was a mistake on the birth certificate". Strangely enough they all had very good numeracy skills (working out the odds and winnings on bets.)

You sound like a good person - your reward will be in heaven. (Though you may have to walk there.;))

seajaxx

mardatha wrote: »

Oh fab grannies , terrific ! My mum's name was Elizabeth, and she once told me she was the 3rd Elizabeth as two had died before her. I found them on Scotlands People. One died of a hernia at 3 weeks and one of pneumonia. Do you think we would be as tough as our grannies if we had to be?

I've used Scotland's People too, and had the same type of thing with several Neil's that had died in the same family in the same generation. It's a great site. Found some very sad things, branches of the family moving from the countryside, and then into the town (after the main breadwinner died) only for 80% of them to die of typhoid or flu or something else once they'd got there. A set of my husband's great grandparents that died of 1918 flu within an hour of each other.

Not my granny, but my Auntie Annie, born in the early 1900's (my own granny died before I was born, so it's Auntie Annie, Auntie Daisy and Auntie Eva I remember- my paternal grandma's sisters. Auntie Annie used to have knotted string in the dresser drawer that she would bring out for us to un-knot if we were being obstreperous. (I rather enjoyed it) The next thing on from that was a "clip 'aroon the lug" (which never came) and the next threat on from there "a Skelpit leathering) -a threat which was never fulfilled! She would iron and keep brown paper in case it was needed and had sealing wax in the drawer. she would save newspapers, and plait them into "straws" which were used to light the fire.... I own up, I beg MIL's papers to do the same thing with as we don't buy newspapers ourselves. If we were good, we used to get to go into the back bedroom (there were two main rooms to her tennament flat- the back bedroom, the main room (with a coal bunker below the window), and a scullery- she used to sleep in the "cupboard" bed against the chimney piece in the main room. The back bedroom was only ever used for "company" sleeping over. Underneath the high bed in that chilly room were huge piles of Beano's, Dandy's and oor Wullie and Broons comics she'd kept.
She, or someone in the family rag rugged, as she had a hearth rug that was raggy. She used to save postage stamps and, if they were interesting, pass them on for our stamp albums, the rest went to charity.
Aunty Eva and Aunty Daisy were both deaf and dumb. The worked in jute mills when they were younger, where that was not a huge problem as the jute workers had their own sign language because of the din! They were sent away to the school for the deaf in Edinburgh around 1908 (they would have been around 9 or 10), which must have been a huge wrench from rural Scotland-brought up in Brechin! They would have huge arguments with each other in sign language, and then be "not speaking" to each other for months at a time! When Aunty Daisy died, my father (being the only male in the family) cleared her house out. She had tinned chickens, peaches, ham, all sorts of things, all from twenty years ago hoarded. My father still has a lovely chair, bought pre-1939 war he still uses that he inherited. Both of them crochet'ed for Scotland! I still have an old McVitties biscuit tin with bone and steel crochet hooks I inherited from them. I was only 10 when they went, so they were expecting a lot I remember yet them teaching me fingerspelling so they could understand what I was trying to tell them. My first word was E-G-G and I was so proud!
Another lady I would like to honour is my Auntie Jean, who, while not a "real" auntie, was my mother's workmate at Valentine's in Dundee. Around 40 years older than my mum, and a spinster, she used to come for Christmas lunch, and go out for tea with my mother. She used to write for the "Frances Gay" poetry books to make a little money, but her real job was as a secretary (before she retired). Kind as kind could be to wee children, she would always slip us a few pennies for a sweetie, or listen to our troubles. She was a frugal woman, on a pension that would have been more if she'd been a man, she had lost her sweetheart somehow (whether during the war or through illness, I don't know). She was blind, but could understand when a child needed a cuddle. Her sister and husband came back from Canada to look after her. They were lovely too, (my P.5 project was on Canada and they were so helpful) but I didn't know them as well. They were a lot younger than Jean, but it was Aunty Jean I loved!
I was about to start going on about some of the people I remember from childhood. The first world war veterans who had limbs missing who used to sell papers in the town, or the lady down the road from us who, at 100 (in the 1970's) still wore long victorian/edwardian dresses, (I'd have loved to know her story) or the people at the Black Watch veteran's home at the top of the road that we used to haunt because they were so kind to us (and also taught us so much) but that's hardly "my Granny" more surrogate granny, and I think I've taken enough liberties with off topicness re. Aunties instead of Grannies. It was just lovely remembering them all to be honest.

meanmarie

Lovely thread Mardatha...I am jealous of those of you who had grannies....mine both died more than 20 years before I was born, so have nothing to remember them by.

My mother and her older sister ( who is still alive at 102) were very frugal and made everything...they both knitted and my aunt also sewed and embroidered...I got lots of hand me downs from her daughter, four years older than me.

My dearest wish as a child was to have a 'shopbought' jumper or socks, or a bought cake....never happened as everything was made at home.

I made one of those readicut rugs in the '70s, almost broke my heart and as I remember, cost the earth....had lovely pansies on it.

Marie

pws52

I loved going to Gran's for dinner...always dinner at mid-day, lunch was a cup of tea and a piece of home-made cake at 10.30 a.m.

Pudding was served first and then the meat/veg. This was so that you were 'fuller' and you didn't eat so much meat.If she had cooked stewing meat and there was left over gravy she put slices of bread on the table for 'mop-up'.
I loved Gran's puddings...baked egg custards, steamed puddings and fruit pies. She also did Yorkshire Puddings as a sweet served with home made raspberry or blackberry vinegar. I still do this.

She cooked on the old black range into the late 1970s. How she did this was amazing as there was only one swing out hob thing which went over the fire for boiling. The oven at the side of the fire wasn't huge. The temperature guide on the door had been broken for years so she judged the temperature by sticking her hand in the oven.
The temperature was controlled by how much wood/coal was put on the fire.

After dinner the funnel and a big enamel jug would be brought out of the pantry and the tank which was behind the fire was filled with water to heat.There was a tap at the side of the fire and this was the supply of hot water for the house.

How I miss the toast made on the fire and spread with dripping she collected from the roast beef and roast pork and then sprinkled with salt which she carved from a block.

I wish I had some of the wrap around pinnies she wore. I remember the lovely floral cotton prints they were made from.

I wonder what memories of me my Grandchildren will be sharing when they are as old as me. I tell them stories about my Gran and Mum and hope that they will pass them on to their children.

Thanks for starting this thread, Mardatha ....you have really got the old grey cells working!! And thanks to all for the interesting memories.

suzybloo

Seajaxx the mention of Frances Gay books reminded me my grannie had one that sat on the table at the side of 'her' chair - was it called Frances Gays Friends book or something like that?
I also remember vaguely war veterans selling the evening tele, and was transfixed by their lack of limbs - we always bought a 'tele' from one.

mardatha

pws52, what an amazing post.. and amazing memory!! What you said really has me thinking here. I love the Victorians, them (and the Romans lol -history is my passion). But your post makes me understand why I love them.
Think of that range - one wee fire at the heart, which
heated the room
heated the oven at the side
heated the water in the tank at the back
heated the food on the swing-out hob
THAT is what we need now ! What amazing economy of fuel that is, eh?

[Deleted User]

My Gran whom I sadly never met as she died before I was born had a bit of a hard life .My Granddad married his first wife when he was 17 in 1851 and had 6 children with her She died and at 48 my Granddad remarried to a women 16 years younger than him with in a year.
She produced 7 children for him, and by 1897 when he died leaving my Gran to bring up all the kids. A few had left home and emigrated to Australia,Canada and the US, as apart from the linen works there was little work in Brechin at the start of the 20th century .My Dad got out at the age of 10 as a local chap who, with his wife was childless took a shine to him and asked my Gran if they could take him to Glasgow when they moved there .He was the local chenmist and my Dad had been running errands and delivering medicines for him since he was 8 to make some money for his Mum.By 1900 My Gran had 5 children left in the house under 14 and two lodgers in a tiny 'but 'n'ben 'cottage Where the lodgers slept god knows as it was a tiny wee house.There was no indorr plumbing and every bit of the water came from the well in the garden .My Dad went off to Glasgow to live and Mr & Mrs Taylor put him through Uni and he became a dispensing chemist, a trade he followed for the rest of his life .My Granny was pleased her boy got out and didn't have to go to the local Linen mill to work One of her sons went to the US and she never heard from him again I found out in my research that he died in 1918 in New York in an accident.Only a couple of daughters stayed in brechin the rest of the family were sent out into the world to stand on their own two feet.She was in a wheelchair after the birth of her last son (who sadly died at 18 months when a diptheria epidemic swept through the town )and she brought her family up with a rod of iron even though she had no cash to fall back on how they survived I will never know.No benifits in those days if you didn't work you went hungry.My Dad was a tough little guy though and lived until he was well into his 80s even though he had been wounded twice during WW1 and sefrved in WW2 until he was considered too old at 54.He was 55 when I was born, the youngest of his children.i think coming from such a deprived background made him even more determined to get on and survive whatever came his way. he lived long enough to see the first motor car drive through Brechin and to see a man walk on the moon