What did your granny teach you?

glitterkitty

My Gran grew up in a bakers shop, so she taught me how to bake cakes! my favourite one has always been orange cake.
I dont really remember my other Nan, she lived in Kent (i'm in the north east) and she died when I was 7 or 8.

sandyann63

My gran taught me how to make lentil soup, that a house should be clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy and that a sandwich of butter and sugar or a boiled egg mashed up in a cup were a great boost when poorly!
My Grampa taught me how to wire a plug and that men were perfectly capable of helping round the house. I complied with his promise not to name any sons after him as he hated his name (Archie), something which I regret as they couldn't have been named after a better person.
My grandparents showed me what true love looked like- fifty years married and still held hands when out together.
They gave me such important life lessons as well as skills and not a day goes by without me missing them.

Mojoworking

liney wrote: »

:rotfl:

My Nan taught me that you dry your smalls indoors, unless you are using a rotary dryer and can peg them on the inside and cover them with the larger clothes. Then again, my Nan's knickers could double as a pillow cases, so there was no way they were going to look pretty!

No mine was a very modern lady and very petite with lacey knicks! She sent me out later to peg them out properly! My apple catchers are most definitely dried indoors

camelot1001

Didn't know one Nan as she died before I was born but the other one taught me not to take laxatives when you came to stay - the water was apparently a lot harder where we lived and it could have upset her 'routine'.
The result was that she more or less 'exploded' one night!!

Apart from that she didn't teach me anything.

katmal

(Link removed by forum team)

It is with thanks to my grandmother that I can sew on buttons, Iron shirts properly, “do” hospital corners & play scrabble.
My grandmother taught me to roller skate, do cartwheels and ride a bicycle.

She taught me to sew by hand and machine.
She attempted to teach me to knit without success, I'm unsure if this was due to her lousy knitting, lousy teaching ability or my uselessness! (I have since learnt & am now a knitaholic)!

She showed me the correct way to hold a bird so it caused no injury, how to pick up a hen & collect eggs. She taught me to recognise & name many birds and trees. (She kept birds for her research job, just weighing, measuring & observing - no testing)

She taught me my times tables, how to roll my R’s and the “Queens English” there were many elocution lessons, “How now Brown cow” and “Around the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran”!!
She taught me that a “pitcher is a type of ewer dear, not something one hangs upon the wall” and “It’s drawing dear not draw-ring, there is no R in the middle”!
It is thanks to her that I shudder when people say bu-er as opposed to butter and I tell people “Kate/Katy has a T in the middle please use it”!

My grandmother inculcated my love of Art, museums, antiques, history, the English language & National Trust properties.
She taught me that one never says “I don’t know” but “I’ll find out”, she introduced me to the art of research, how to look up a word in a dictionary, use an encyclopaedia & go on fact finding missions to libraries & museums.
She instilled in me a love of research and a thirst for knowledge.

We used to play post offices; she would get out paper, envelopes, green shield stamps, an ink pad & date stamps.
She would to empty her First Aid box so I could play “Hospitals”
It was through these games that I learnt the correct way to write & address a letter, tie a sling & put on a bandage.
Without realising it Granny was very forward thinking with her learning through play ideals!

It is from spending time in a car with her that I learnt how to swear and how not to drive!

It is due to my grandmothers culinary skills that I thought gravy was a lumpy goo, pastry was very dry & thick, stuffing came out of packets & had unpalatable pockets of unmixed dry bits.
It was her expertise in the kitchen that meant I believed that food was never burnt just “a little bit brown dear”! (Her terrible cooking taught me how to cook out of necessity)!

Granny was always “hands on” as Mum was ill, Granny took on more and more of our day to day care until finally “being mum” full time.
Mum’s death aged 36 when I was 15 and my brother and sister almost 7 and 5 devastated her but still she managed to cared for us through her grief.

Everything I am, all that I know, my beliefs and values have been inherited from her by observation, teaching, love and a fair few clips round the ear!

My Granny's Mantra was the same as Martin's: Do I want it? Do I need it? Can I afford it?

I thank Granny for everything she has taught and shown me especially since I became a Grandmother myself!

fionajbanana

Nothing from my maternal grandmother. She was useless and burnt everything. Her mother (my g-gm) was a proper OS style granny. Never met her as she died 18-20 months before I was born.

My paternal grandmother, how to make proper yorkshire puddings, custard and cheese sauce.

I learnt more from a friend's mum than I did with my own grandmothers. My friend moved away when we were 14, 200 miles from here.

Ken68

My granny taught me (at age 92) having been bought up in the countryside 5 miles from the nearest village...how to be self sufficient. Everything from growing own food, using rainwater, fishing and shooting and trapping. Making own beer and wine, in fact MSE at its best. No shops, so no need for money.

[Deleted User]

What lovely memories there are of your Grannies,I sadly had no Gran's left when I was born as my late Mum was 45 and my Dad 55 so their parents were long gone.most of my Aunts lived in either Scotland or the US or Australia or Canada so I grew up minus aunts and uncles and cousins.But my lovely tiny feisty Scots Mum taught me everything I know about how to run a house on buttons, and feed children on next to nothing. Its wasn't that my late Dad was broke (he was a chemist) but during rationing everything was in short supply and my Mum hated the blackmarket and would never buy anything that was 'going the rounds'
She was an amazing lady who to this day I still miss and taught me how to feed children with little in the pantry and when there is an availability of either food or money to get it then always make sure you have a good store cupboard.

Apparently when war was loomimg in 1939 she (having been a teenager during the first war) went to as many shops as she could to stock up on dried food stuff and anything that would keep.She was a very smart lady and had eyes like a hawk.Back in those days of going to the shops the butter, sugar etc was weighed out in front of you and if she asked for 4 ounces that's what she wanted and not over weight or under.I don't think there was a grocer that didn't quake when she came into the shop She was very polite, but also very firm and always got exactly the best value for her money.
She taught us children to be polite at all times and to respect our elders.Her mantra was "Don't do behind my back what you wouldn't do in front of me"
She would help anyone who was down on their luck and many folk had reason to thank her when they had too much time left before their payday.She would never see a child cry without wanting to help, and most of the children in our street knew that Mrs B would always give them a hug and a biscuit if they fell over and hurt themselves.She was the kindest person I have ever met and although strict with us children, absolutely would have walked through fire for us
She taught me to knit,read,cook,clean,wash clothes,make a bed,dance, grow stuff in the garden,wring a chickens neck and draw and pluck it,how to make a shilling do the work of ten and most of all how to love unconditionally your family and friends and to put yourself in the other persons shoes.She taught me respect, and although old-fashioned in lots of ways most of what she taught me made me the person I am today

I am now a Granny myself and hopefully I have passed on something to my seven grandchildren Most of all I would like to think that when I shuffle off to wherever, I will be remembered for the unconditional love I give to my family as to me family is the most important thing in the world and to help each other out and not look for anything (apart from the odd hug) is what I get a kick out of.I adore all of my grandchildren and I look after four of them before and after school and during the holidays so Mum and Dad can work to help pay the bills . My youngest grandson Mikey is 8 and we do have such a lot of fun together I think he thinks of me as a rather older playmate (there is well over 60 years between us) as I have taught him to play cards, and all the boys enjoy a game.I have taught the boys to cook , tie their shoelaces and to care for each other and we are a close-knit familyI take the kids to the Drs ,dentists,zoo,museums and parks and taking care of the boys keeps me on my toe's they have taught me to see life from their point of view and how different it is from my childhood

antk4

My Granny taught me to put the left over water from the kettle in a flask so that next time I boiled the kettle, I wouldn't use as much energy!

monnagran

I just love these stories and realise how important Grandmothers are. My maternal granny (Nan) was a dreamy sort of person who lived a simple life. Nan had been trained as a tailoress - heaven forbid that anyone should refer to her as a 'dressmaker', - and taught me all I know about sewing, most of which I have been at great pains to forget. Because of her I am actually quite good at it, When the children were young and money was non-existent I made all my own clothes, including coats, on an old hand machine on the floor, but I hated it. Still do. She taught me that anything can be made out of something else. While Dad was away in the war she cut up his cricket flannels to make me a coat and matching skirt. History, tactfully, does not record what he said when he found out but I can well imagine.
My other Grandmother (Grandma) was tiny, fierce, with no imagination, who brought up five boys on a widow's pension after the first World War. She was an incredible manager who somehow got 3 of her boys through Grammar school on scholarships - quite a feat from 1917 - 1927. She had a tongue like vinegar and a heart of gold.
The 2 Grannies were good friends although they always referred to each other as 'Mrs M....' and 'Mrs L,,,,'. When they were really old they used to sit together in our garden in deep conversation although one was stone deaf and the other never stopped talking. They used to mishear the most dreadful scandal and my mother used to say wonderingly, "Now whose reputation do you think they are ruining over there?".

Wonderful women.

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