Ask yer Granny!

prepareathome

WeegieWumman wrote: »

prepareathome: I once worked in Cochrane's for the longest two whole days of my (then) young life! LOL

I am not surprised you found them the longest, so much work to do to serve someone even with just a quarter of tea.

WeegieWumman

I want to know how your legs went tartan, and did it ever go away if you stopped sitting so close to the fire?
Maradatha,
If you kept away from the direct heat the fireside tartan would gradually disappear over a period of time as the skin renewed itself and the 'heat damage' was gradually repaired.

WeegieWumman

Someday, i'm going to read the instructions for using quotes etc. (but not today!!!)
oooops! I've just seen it and i'll try it out next time

WeegieWumman

Another memory I've just had is watching my grandad shave. He didn't believe in disposable razors and wouldn't use them. He had a leather strap and set of cut throat razors that his mother had bought him when he got married.

My FIL also used a cut-throat razor. My SIL used it on her armpits without the aid of a mirror. Aaaarrrghh!!!

WeegieWumman

OMG! Martin Lewis and the rest of you lot are going to be the ruination of me!
I forgot all about making dinner. Thank goodness the main course is defrosted. A quick custard in the microwave thrown over a wedge of ginger cake will suffice for afters. As long as it's something sweet, my DH will continue to love me

Margaret54

Hi everyone Loving this thread so much, great reading! rosieben I got one of those books from my ds which he sent me when he was travelling up until last year. There are many of them, and I think too they are such a great idea. Mardatha thanks so much for starting this thread.:)

maryb

I remember tartan legs!! I used to get home from school and light the gas fire which was our only heating and sit as close to it as I could because once my mother got home I would never get near it. So I ended up mottled. Katie Boyle (anyone remember her?) published a beauty secrets book in the 1960s which had a recipe for treating those marks - and it worked!! But can't for the life of me remember now. I think I remember it involved magnesium powder (dry Milk of Magnesia, I suppose) mixed with lemon juice to make a paste. Would that make sense? (Probably find it's caustic and couldn't possibly have been that). Or could it have been Epsom Salts?

meritaten

I love this thread (I think I have said that before?)
I love hearing the expressions used by the grandparents! I am so used to the ones my GPs used that I dont really think about them as a novelty! and the different ways of saying the same thing!!!!!!!!!!!lol.
one my mum used a lot with me, was 'Walk Tidy!' as I had a habit of scuffing my toes! failure to use 'proper English' (in her opinion) had her saying 'Talk Tidy!' but if she thought what you said was nonsense she would say dismissively ' Dont talk wet'!
as some of you may have guessed from these expressions I am Welsh Valleys (South East Wales for you forreners). most of these expressions have been published in a series of Book(lets) which are screamingly funny, even to us Valleys folk! I can't remember the authors name sorry, but I know that one title is actually 'Talk Tidy'.

my nan had an expression 'handsome is, as handsome does' - which puzzled the heck out of me until I grew up and started dating!
Ive already said about the 'stewed murks and cauliflower' and 'bees knees and beans' before.
I use it sometimes to flummox the grandkids.
another favourite was 'a clean house never gets dirty'. and her version of cleanliness is next to godliness ' a clean house is better than going to church'!
one that really made me laugh tho...........'a stitch in time - saves more later' and from a trained seamstress that cracked me up!

Winchelsea

A stitch in time saves nine - or so said my mother! She did it too - buttons stitched on when they were loose, so were not lost, thin socks darned before they went in holes.

mardatha

See - this is teaching us stuff too. I'm so sorry but I forget who posted the fabulous one about the granny who had the coal fired range, and it had an oven and a hotplate and heated the water, etc all from one coal fire.
Now we hear of another fabulous "gadget" they had, the stone sticking out of the chimney for the kettle. Also a sort of crockpot/slow cooker! I think one day we might have to go back to these things and love reading about them thank you SO much ladies !