What would my Granny think of OS?

Plum_Pie

What I notice when I talk to older people (ie. 65+), is that regardless of wealth, they know the value of a penny!

Queenie

dolly_day_dream wrote: »

....

Where is the happiness in rushing from place to place trying to please employer, spouse and family? Quite!!!! Totally hear you!!!

... I appreciate that this is not an option for everyone. But I would urge everyone to think what is best for them not what 'society' is saying that people ought to do. If you are working because the money buys you extra possessions consider what you could do with the extra time you could have instead. Time is perhaps the most precious comodity of all. I know that I see the difference at school between those children whose parents spend time with them and those who just spend money on them.

Sorry I'll get down from my soapbox now and get my coat:o

Don't aplogies! Take your coat off and sit back down, you're among like minded others methinks

I remember one of my dh's colleagues asking me when my youngest two were 5&6yo, who I'd originally met in my capacity with voluntary work, "So, what do you do?" "Do? I'm still with the vol work ...... " "No, no, I mean, for WORK!?"
I actually felt enormously deflated and to be honest, undervalued. My dh worked constantly changing shifts and I'd been doing community vol work around that. I chose to have children, why would I pay someone else to bring them up? (That's my personal choice/opinion and I don't criticise others who choose/have to do differently, so no flaming please )

If you factor in the *cost* of going to work, especially when childcare costs are added on top, it doesn't necessarily work out that you gain that much financially at all but by golly do you work a heck of a lot harder for the priviledge!!

DawnW

mrbadexample wrote: »

I can remember when my Mum & Dad bought their first tumble dryer - it was when I got into the school rugby team, and I needed my kit ready between training on Friday night and the match on Saturday morning. Would've been about 1981.... :eek:

I am ashamed to admit I have never had a tumble drier. I have thought about it once or twice, but couldn't afford it when the kids were little, and won't afford it (the extra electricity) now! I use a washing line in the garden, or an old fashioned airer when it is raining (sometimes do the draping over radiators thing too).

COOLTRIKERCHICK

i must admit.....i have a smile on my face reading all the posts.... but also a bit of a lump in my throat...as all the talk of grandparents......has made me realise how much i miss them......they died quite a few years ago.....

but i can still remember.... staying over..... and listening to the things they used to say... about what it was like when they were small etc.....

i can still remember the smell in the house when my gran done her baking on a saturday.......

and the smell of the clothes in the back bedroom airing cupboard.....

all i can say is appreciate every second that family/loved ones are around you.....

i am sure my grandparents would chuckle and be amazed at the microwave oven......and yes def.... the ready meals.... and the mixed salad bags.....

dianadors

I loved my grandparents house. They cooked on a range at the side of their fire, and boiled pans actually on the fire. The house was filled with the aroma of baking and cooking. They lived in the kitchen/ dining bit of the house and only used the "best room" at Christmas (although in winter when I went for the day to get away from my brother and sister, Grandma would light a fire for me so that I could be in there on my own - it made me feel so special! ) I was really lucky because they lived around the corner from us. I think the only electricity they used was a couple of light bulbs! They grew most of their own veg and I cant remember them ever decorating the house! They had the same wallpaper for the 35 years that I was lucky enough to have them.

sammy_kaye18

Im absolutely loving this thread.

Im one of the baby of the boards (22 btw) and i got to know my great grandparents until fairly late in their life.

One of my great grandma's Dolly who was born 1900 totally built her own garden - from what i can remember it was a figure of 8 in one half she had all her veg and in the other half she had all her fruit. She lived by herself and died a spinster but she was so self sufficient. I use to love helping her harvest all her fruit and veg and can remember sitting on the back doorstep shelling peas with my little sister. She only left her home at the age of 93 to go into a nursing home because her hands were failing her and she was struggling to care for herself. She never had any heatign just a wood burner in the front room and an argor (sp?? no idea!) how she managed in Glenrothes,scotland through the winter ill never know! she made all her own clothes, she eventually got electric but never used it. Cant even remember her havign a washing machine. I do remember the long walks (and i mean LLOOONNNNGGG) that we used to go on and as a treat she'd save up and buy a piece of steak and turn it into the best damn steak pie you'd ever tasted in your life! She was a real survivor through the war etc and sadly died at the age of 96. God i miss her

My great grandfather on the other side was also very independent. To my recollection i never saw him eat meat (pork,beef etc) - only fish. he grew all his own veg, fruit and he used to every saturday go into the garden and dig up a bucketful of worms then spend all day sunday fishing after he'd done his morning chores. He always had fish. He never wasted anythign either - composted alot. From what i can remember he had a bomb shelter in his back garden too! = ( he was an ex soldier, lol remember being told once that he escaped a POW camp in Italy, and that he had a little girl help him when he was little - feeding him etc adn he used to hide under her bed. Think he hid in St Pauls cathedral roof too at one point and then got lost for like 3 years (presumed dead) and then british troops found him walking done the road one day. Sadly he passed away about 3/4 years ago too. I miss him so much.

he passed everythign on though and now my grandparents are very OS , nothign is wasted , all their veg is home grown, fruit, herbs, nothing is taken for granted. And they have passed this onto my father which in turn i think has rubbed off on me - so ill always be thankful for what they taught us

lil_me

Oh yes, pies. That was my Grandads thing rather than my Grans. Gran took poorly with cancer when I was about 6 and was very ill, so Grandad always cooked. He made amazing pies, his Chicken and Ham was my fave, they were so nice the local butcher bought them from him, paid him in meats aswell as providing ingredients, Grandad wouldn't accept cash for them. I just wish I'd got the recipe from him, he used to start baking very early, about 4am and by the time we got up if we were staying with him there was a lovely smell through the house.

Great Grandma, I probably miss the most. Stubborn, sensitive and hilarious. We bought her new pans for Xmas, and new knives as she was using pans without handles and razor blades to cut meat (at the age of 90) but she refused to open them as she thought they would be wasted as she didn't have long left. So I went round and threw all the old ones out! Also a lamp was an old mug with a hole in and an old lamp fitting, that went in the bin too. If something broke she would not buy new. MAKE DO was about her favourite phrase.

She smoked every day until she was 94 and would walk a mile at 90 years old to save 10p on a packet of cigarettes, hence what you all say about money saving. Unfortunately she became more dependant on others after then as she was mugged 4 times in a month (when coming out of pharmacy after being to post office) she didn't say anything until the last time when she had her arm broken! So a few family members went with her the next time, but didn't walk with her, just watched, and caught 4 of the little swines who'd done it trying to again! Needless to say they wouldn't be doing it again.

What upset me the most, yes ok it was dealt with, but she lived there all of her life, went to the same shops each days she went out, same bread order every time from the bakery, aswell as various others, same meats from market, always baked 24 buns on a Sunday (cakes to me but she was from Leeds). These little idiots stopped that and she had to rely on others, I think that was when she gave up, keeping going kept her going. She'd buried all but 2 of her 9 children by then, and 2 of her Grandchildren. 90 years old at her birthday party we hired a pub, no dancing on the dance floor was on a big sign, so my Great Grandma got on the table and started dancing!

Hardup_Hester

Queenie, the clothes dryer was called a Flatley, my mum & dad had one as we lived in an upstairs maisonette, mum used to put it on at night & we'd leave the bedroom doors open to let the warmth spread.
Both my Nan's were very OS, but not my mum. She was a career woman, she didn't do housework or cooking. It makes me laugh when I think back, there was never any food in the house nor anything we take for granted these days, no soap, no clean clothes & I didn't own a toothbrush till I started work, the place was probably a tip, tho I didn't notice. Still don't notice mess even now.
Looking back, it is very different from how I bought my kids up.
In most of my childhood photo's I'm the one who stands out, always looking unkempt & I remember being told off at a friends house for grabbing too much food, probably because I was hungry, lol.
My mum cooked roast chicken with potatoes & peas every Sunday, we only ate the breast the rest was thrown away, occasionally she cooked smoked haddock in milk or some stewing steak, but never cooked any thing to go with it. I have no idea why she was like this, her mum was a good plain cook & you always knew what day it was from what you were eating, roast on Sunday, cold on monday, rissoles on tuesday etc.
Oh well enough of my rambling
Hester

Uniscots97

Went to see a rather posh new flat, lovely new built block, marvelled at the open part glass staircase, the lovely new fitted kitchen and laughed when I saw what was suspended from the kitchen ceiling................a pully (a clothes drier, kind of like long wooden slats strung together that can be raised up to ceiling out of the way and lowered to put wet clothes on to be dried)...........I was gobsmacked. The last time I saw one of these in a big city it was in the high rise flat I spent the first few years of my life in (I remember these from the late 70's, the block was built around the end of the 50's).

lambanana

I lived with my grandma (and my mum) and grandma taught my how to cook, good job as my mum can't and as soon as my grandma was too ill to cook I started doing all of it, cooked my first christmas dinner at 15 to thank my grandma for doing all the cooking the rest of the year! There were a few things she made which she never taught me though to my mum's horror! She wants this thing my grandma cooked which was stuffing and other stuff all baked in a tray and cut into slices only I don't know what other stuff went into it and my grandma's sister says she hasn't got a clue either! The other thing she never taught me was pastry because she said I was too heavy handed but her pastry was excellent and all the other ladies at church used to order her apple pies! I miss the meat and potato pie and corned beef pasties most.
My grandma would absolutely be proud of me for cooking proper food and saving pennies.
I'm not sure about my paternal grandmother as I didn't know her as well, I do know that (they lived in Ireland) they had a pig and one day my dad and his brothers and sisters came home from school to the smell of bacon as my grandma had actually butchered the pig herself! They also put cabbages in with her flowers at her funeral...very strange people!!


Apparently I broke my mum's first automatic washing machine (before she bought that she used a laundrette) I stuck a pencil in the drawer, she hadn't even used it yet! My mum nags at me that when I have children I use terry nappies and goes on and on about how much she loves the sight of fresh nappies drying on the washing line! Sadly we no longer have mine, they were given away along with my baby clothes to miners wives (so yes I'm another baby on the OS board!)