A new 'tougher' thread... and so it continues

BitterAndTwisted

Austin_Allegro wrote: »

O/S fans might be interested in a book called 'Our Hidden Lives' by Simon Garfield. It's a collection of real diaries from the postwar era; it's very interesting to see how people coped with REAL austerity (not the nonexistent type we have today). One of the people is a single lady who decides to rent her cottage out to walkers. The other is an elderly gentleman called Mr Brush who goes on holiday to a cottage by the sea. There is no toilet in the cottage - so he and his wife have to walk five minutes to a public convenience. Imagine that today - he would probably be arrested for hanging around it so often! Still, they didn't seem to mind.

Unfortunately (or perhaps not, Every cloud has a silver lining etcetera) I have my own experiences to go by, so I don't rally need to read any books about it to know. What you're describing is very familiar to me. And I was born in the mid-fifties, when we allegedly "had never had it so good". For some, the having it good took an awful long time coming. Eh, we were poor but we were happy. Read: too young to know any different as everyone around us lived like it and we had no telly, so we couldn't know what other people's lives were like.

To be honest, I wouldn't be doing any walking five miles to a public lav, not even today. A spade is a cheap and easy thing to acquire.

Those days are gone and maybe for the majority never to return. I do hope so.

Mrs_Chip

Nuatha - the problem is that we have nowhere to run the van from here - we have a big car park on the harbour (where we leave it) but we are not allowed to trade on there , council rules. Daft thing is that council don't actually own the carpark (long story) but we don't want to fall foul of the bureaucrats before we start trading. Car park would be perfect, so it's a great shame.

Austin_Allegro

Mrs_Chip wrote: »

Oh sorry to hear about your fire - I think the gas people are getting much more strict with things generally I think.

When I say 'big' I mean 'normal' :rotfl:. I bought a Baumatic range cooker from eb*y, one big oven and a smaller second one, but I don't know how useful that will be until I get to play with it!

ETA - Thanks AA, I' sure you are right! I have all the Hidden Lives books, they are great, Mr Brush was one of my favorite characters! There must be a huge amount of info in the Observance archive.

Wow, I didn't know it was a series! My favourite entry by Mr Brush is 'Sunday morning. My wife went to church. I went to the WC'.

Mrs_Chip

I think the other two are called 'Private Battles' and 'We are at War', all extracts from the Mass Observation. I think there is another on pre-war too,but I might be wrong about that! Anyway, perfect reading for nosey OSer's like me, I find them fascinating. What was most astonishing to me was how many people wrote of their anti-war/govt feelings - school history was pretty much that everyone was pro war.

shegar

VJsmum wrote: »

Have you tried Rooibos tea (redbush)? It is the only one i drink (at home anyway). Naturally caffeine free and tastes very similar to "proper" tea. I started drinking it one year when I was detoxing and just couldn't give up normal tea. Now I don't drink anything else - at home anyway. We even took some with us to South Africa (where it comes from :rotfl:) to make sure we didn't go without!

I have just bought a load on the "buy one get one for a penny" deal from Holland and Barrett, along with a years supply of vitamins and cod liver oil. I spent £70 but saved nearly that!

Thanks for the YHA heads up - I will check it out.

Talking about tea , I drink about 13 to 14 mugs a day, I love my co op tea, its got such a nice flavour, second best tea I like is Yorkshire,I dont take sugar, me too always take my co op tea bags when I go abroad, thats the first thing I want in the morning is my3 mugs sitting down watching the birds before I do anything.......

born_blonde

I agree shegar, big mugs of tea, 2 before the school run and oh 4 or 5 after. I've just bought back into use a very old metal teapot last used in the Womens Hospital in Nottingham and that closed over 30 years ago. I've a cast iron fire in the kitchen, on all day and 4 tea bags, 2 pints of water topped up from the kettle also on the fire keeps me going all morning!
To be fair I don't drink tea or coffee after noon.

modern_millie_2

Hi, just popping out of lurkdom to say I love those mass observation books too - currently reading one called Our Longest Days - Herbert Brush is in there, also Nella Last and Maggie Blunt, plus a few 'new faces' I haven't come across before. Put things in perspective, don't they? Also been reading The Forest Trilogy by Winifred Foley - memoir of her chidhood in the Forest of Dean in the 20s, her experiences in service, and return to the Forest with her family in tne 50s. Fab.

Mrs Chip, have been meaning to say for a while, I am not too far from you - don't want to say exactly as v. small village - want to wish you luck with your venture, really good idea. Lower Fishguard is lovely, isn't it? Underrated I think. And we had some of those choc mints from the Co op too - couldn't leave them on the shelf at 25p!

Mrs_Chip

Hi Millie - another one for the Wales Posse ! - yes Lowertown is grand, in a totally not trying sort of way - nothing here, a bit scuffy round the edges, but lovely.
Thanks for the good wishes, let me know if you think there would be any interest in a chip van coming your way! :rotfl:

shegar

born_blonde wrote: »

I agree shegar, big mugs of tea, 2 before the school run and oh 4 or 5 after. I've just bought back into use a very old metal teapot last used in the Womens Hospital in Nottingham and that closed over 30 years ago. I've a cast iron fire in the kitchen, on all day and 4 tea bags, 2 pints of water topped up from the kettle also on the fire keeps me going all morning!
To be fair I don't drink tea or coffee after noon.

Oh that sound so old fashioned and so homely, I dont normally drink tea after tea time, I then go on to diet coke..............Ive got a brown enamel 3 pint tea pot on my range, its so old fashioned and shabby chic I just love it all, I actually did pick that up at the dump, we dont use it,its really for show, im such a old fashioned person, and love all theold kitchenalia, I collect cornishware blue and white crockery.........

BitterAndTwisted

I was sorely tempted by a little one-pint traditional brown glazed tea-pot in a charity shop yesterday for a pound. Thing is, I already have a blue one a bit bigger, enough for three or four cups rather than two and couldn't justify it purely to sit on a shelf and have yet another thing that needs to be dusted. Sweet little pot.