Ask yer Granny!

esio_trot

mardatha wrote: »

Reading this has made me wonder if you can still buy pinnies anywhere!? I remember seeing my granny wearing a sack for a pinny, tied round her middle.

Definitely can! I got one from Tesco (one of the big 'home' shops) a few months back. Nothing fancy, just black, but sure it was only about £6 - was part of a 3 for 2 deal on tea towels/oven mitts/etc too.

I've enjoyed reading this thread and now want to adopt a granny! No grandparents left unfortunately.

mama67

mardatha wrote: »

What did all our grandparents work at? Mine were coalminers on the Glasgow Irish side and on the fishing boats on the Fife side. The women on both sides were in service or on farms. The Irish side before they came over here god knows what they were LOL nobody ever told me The Fifers worked on farms in the busy times or when the fishing was poor.

I don't know what my paternal grandparents did, I would think based on where they lived something to do with farming; but my maternal grandparents were smallholders and my maternal ggf was head shepherd on one the larger estates in Lincolnshire (Grimsthopre).

DH grandfathers were, paternal Scottish miner from Dalkieth near Edinburgh, his gm had 13 children and the eldest became the father figure as gf died when his father was only months old, right towards the end of WW1.
His maternal grandfather was an Irish trawlerman/fisherman who was one of the oldest to serve in the Royal Navy in WW2 again with 13 children.

redlady_1

Mine worked the land. Nan was unskilled and worked bulb cleaning or flower cropping. Grandad also worked at the post office. But there is alot of farming and land work in the family.

Mum had meningitis at 14 but recovered fully to become the poison dwarf! :rotfl::D But I love her socks off. She is affectionately known as the dwarf because I can fit her under my armpit!

redlady_1

I went to see the tribe at the weekend and we were talking about families. It seems I can trace back to my great great grandma who my nan remembers and there was a small picture of in the kitchen!

On my dads side my grandad ran away with the sunday school mistress and it was all over the papers. Such a scandal. He went home in the end and 9 months later my uncle was born.

angelaloveschocolate

I've already posted about my Granny previously, but if you dont mind I'd like to tell you a little about my lovely Aunt, who is loved and repected for her happiness and kindness by everyone who has ever known her.

Celia lost her Husband 5 years ago when they were both the ripe old age of 89. Up until his death Celia was his full time carer and was great at it, still able to cook, clean and see to meds etc. Yes, they had a home help but Celia managed most of the domestics on a day to day basis. As they had married in their forties, they never had any children, but were blessed with many nieces and nephews. I don't know if you'll agree with me or not but the way I see it, women have a very physical job being housewives and mothers, and this keeps us fit and young! And an 89 year old carer is proof of that!

Celia took a fall a couple of weeks before her husband died and broke a small bone in her back. Since then she has had constant pain and this has slowed her down considerably. She now uses a zimmer to help her move around. Having said that she does still get around, in fact when I called this morning she was standing at the sink peeling potatoes lol, you just cant keep a good girl down! On a Sunday she gets a taxi to her home house (family home were she was raised) to visit her batchelor brother and sister and cook lunch for them all.

I have recently bought some bits of clothing for her and when I hung them in her wardrobe I could see the clothes I bought previously still hanging unused with the labels still on. I asked her about this and she said that she keeps her good set of clothes, to wear to her home house on a Sunday and takes them off immediately that she gets back to keep them good. Now thats frugal by todays standards but this is the way that Celia has lived her whole life and if we all think back to our childhoods most of us will have had Sunday best clothes. So Celia has one set of Sunday clothes and probably only another two or three sets of everyday clothes. And this is all she feels she needs or wants.

I noticed in her bungalow today that it was a nice temperature for me but perhaps a little cool for a 94 year old, but she tells me that she has her blanket to cover her knees and shes more than happy. And indeed she is happy. I never met anyone with such a twinke in their eye at the propsect of a bit of news. She has a memory of an elephant and remembers every detail of any conversation and able to relay the particulars of her neighbours goings-on.

I left her house this morning and I knew that she was happy but I felt sad that the bungalow should have been warmer and she should have had more clothes hanging in her wardrobe, but this is how she has lived all her 94 years and shes not going to change now!

So, Mardatha, you are right our Grannies and that age group do have a lot to teach us, and the lesson from Celia is attitude. No matter what life throws at you, you chose your own attitude so why not chose a good one.:)

grandma247

VJsmum wrote: »

One of my aunties got meningitis as a 6 month old in the 1940's. She survived but it left her brain damaged, she is 65 now but is very childlike in her ways. Thinking about it i haven't ever seen anybody else with the issues she has. It is like she is 12 or 13, she can look after herself physically (washing etc) but couldn't be trusted to live alone in terms of food. She holds fairly rational conversations but in a childlike manner.

It is a shame.

my Bil is like this except that he can cook for himself and with minimal help from a few people he lives on his own in a large bedsit and looks after himself and his home. He is 62 but I reckon he is also like a 12-14 year old. he was born at home with the cord round his neck. At two years old he got a very bad case of measles but never went to hospital.

Mil told me she used to pay into something so she could have a midwife attend the births at home. Her babies were born in the late forties and early fifties. Her first was a little prem and weighed 4 1/2lb but she stayed at home with him (one above was her second).

meritaten

my nan told me that when she was fourteen her mother arranged for her to go to Bristol to work for a Doctor and his family. she hated it - NOT the family, but being away from Dave! her love of her life and her nieghbour! her employer was a very kind woman and after six weeks of nan crying non stop wrote and asked her parents to come and get her! apparently Gran was furious - so her (partner) nans dad came and brought her home. Its only my impression but I think Gran made Nan pay dearly for this! she was then apprenticed to a dressmaker. she sewed beautifully - but also told me that she hated it, but it was better than being apart from her Dave.
Nan told ME a lot about her early life - she never said anything to her daughters though! I adored Nan - and I think she loved me too. She wasnt the cuddly type - but I got cuddles and kisses from her - I think we were kindred spirits and she always encouraged me to stand up for myself (but my temper and independent behaviour were definately inherited from my fathers side of the family!).

monnagran

I love reading about other people's families. My goodness people had it hard in the past. Good old days? Perhaps if you had money they were.
My Dad's Mum was a character and a half. A tiny little bundle of dynamite. Her husband, my Grandad who died long before I was born, was a steward on the liners. He didn't get paid a lot but at the end of every trip all the stewards lined up to see the passengers off the ship, with their hands discreetly held out for the tips. My Grandfather was a proud man and hated this custom so often wouldn't do it, meaning that my poor Grandma had less money to feed her growing family. Grandma gave birth to 6 sons, one of whom died as a small child, and she brought them up very strictly. It
didn't do much good, they were none of them angels.
How she managed the way she did was a miracle. She was a tartar with food. A good cook who could make an appetising meal out of virtually nothing. Dad used to reminisce about pig's trotters, salt cod, brawn, and as a special treat, a pigs head! However, the boys had to eat everything on their plates or it was served up again and again until they did eat it. My dad was as stubborn as she was and family lore has it that on one occasion a plate of cabbage was served up to him so many times that in the end Grandma had to give in. I think it was the one and only time anyone got the better of her.
And tough! She had to go to the dentist to have all her teeth out, but anaesthetic was 6d extra so she had them all pulled without any any pain relief at all, then walked home and cooked the boys' lunch.
3 of her 5 surviving boys won scholarships to the local Grammar School and how she managed to supply them with books and uniforms I can't imagine but she did. They all did well in life, I don't think they would have dared not to. My dad was 14 when his father died, and there were 2 younger boys behind him, so he left school and started to help support the family.
Grandma was indomitable and I loved her. After having 6 boys, her first grandchild was a boy. I was the first granddaughter and as such very special.

meg72

RAS wrote: »

I remember that; fortunately someone told mum that it was best to tie up the hanks and wash them briefly to relax the fibres before winding them into balls.

Which meant that I did not have to sit still for HOURS whilst the jumper was unravelled and then re-wound into balls; it became two jobs at different times.

Did anyone else learn the joys of extending jumpers? One from mum and ny adopted granny.

Unpick the sleeves and both cuffs from the body from the bottom; on the sleeve until you get to a decrease row and then unpick one more row. Knit a couple of rows and then decrease and re-knit the sleeve, with more rows between the decreases to lengthen the sleeves. Use the wool from the cuff on the main body to extend the main part.

If you have left over wool from the original knit, use that to knit new cuffs onto the sleeves and body. Wash and the the new cuffs become less obvious and the sweater is a size or two longer.

If there is no left-over wool or the sweater is second hand, find a contrasting colour. Pull the body back a couple of inches and take the wool from about 4 rows to extend the sleeves. Knit a stripe in the contrasting (4-6 rows), then one in the body colour and another in the contrasting colour. For kids on a growth spurt, if you have enough wool knit a body colour stripe and then finish in the contrasting colour, using it for the first couple of rows of the cuff. Finish the cuff in alterating stripes.

Do much the same for the sleeves.

If the stripes are 4-6 rows and alternate, this can look quite smart although the tell tale is the lack of contrasting stripes in the neck band. I remember one lad whose gran or mum had not quite got it and ended up with a two inches green stripe on the sleeves that was not matched on the body.

My Nan used to extend my jumpers and cardis with crochet. She just used a contrasting wool or cotton and crocheted a couple of inches on the sleeves and bottom.I loved it twas like having something new to wear.She would let down hems of dresses and skirts and sew a border of lace or ric rac to hide the fade line.

Kaz2904

These people make beautiful pinnies and I was lucky enough to get the ginger one from DH and the children for Mothers day this year. http://www.ulsterweavers.com/shaped_aprons/
I had seen a really pretty one in a shop in town but knew it would be too expensive. DH went in there one lunch time to look at it- £30 :eek:. He said that the lady came over to ask him if he was ok, he replied "Oh, I was looking at getting this for my wife from the children......" and her face lit up "........but they can't afford it!":D to which her face fell. Oops.

My Grannie never worked once she was married. I don' know what she did before then. My Grandad used to say he saw her walking down Ayr high street and knew she was going to be his wife. Shortly after they married, they moved to Glamorgan. They then moved back to Ayrshire (Barassie, near Troon) and he worked for customs. I don't know if he worked at Troon harbour or Prestwick airport but I would imagine that he was at the harbour as he was a Navy man when he was younger.