The OS Doorstep - a helpful and supportive thread in these tough times

GreyQueen

Dashurie wrote: »

All this talk of childhood makes me feel nostalgic and I recognise so much in what others are saying.

I was born during the tail-end of winter in 63, the youngest of 6 children, and I so remember the frost being on the inside of the window-panes, parafin heaters etc... Vic and cotton-wool on your chest if you had a cold. And those awful nylon nighties full of static!

Taking lemonade bottles back to the little corner shop to earn a few pennies, lucky bags, and REALLY having to earn our pocket money...I remember getting sixpence a week.

But the freedom we had! Out in the fields, and nearby woods, making camps, picking bluebells, and later in the year being sent into the fields to pick loads of blackberries from the hedgerows to take home to Mum, and also hazelnuts....if we could get to them before the squirrels. Simple joys and pleasures that I wish more of today's children knew about...

We're about the same age and I could have written most of that myself.......just had a memory flash of brushed nylon nighties, something not thought of in donkey's years.

I did always enjoy the frost ferns which appeared on the inside of the windows. They were so pretty. Of course, it meant that it was baltic indoors but we just got on with it. Don't miss the chillblains, though, don't miss those at all.

Did anyone else have a GlowBaby bedwarmer thingy? Or a Flatley (metal cabinet with slots to hold wooden rails to hang your clothes from, an electrical appliance)? It was a terrible energy hog and not very effective, I think Mum bought it second hand and sold it on as well.

We used to go blackberrying up the lanes from Nan's with a small white enamel can which had been used in olden times to fetch the milk from the milkman's churns when he brought the delivery around on the cart.

And in my childhood there was even a Sunday round at the village when the ice-cream man used to turn up, timing it just so's you had had your sandwiches, and you'd be sent out with a coin and a pudding basin and he'd fill it with fluffy scoops of really dairy ice-cream. Vanilla only, and you'd take the basin back in and have it with tinned fruit, usually. Best icecream I've ever had.

Good times; Nan and Grandad both alive, us four grandkids, the seersucker tablecloth and the mismatched china inc the brown betty teapot with the blue lid with gold edges, gawd knows where that'd come from.......

ETA Pooky, very glad the fluffy kitten is on the mend. Poorly puddytats are such sad little creatures, aren't they, and so bliddyminded when you're trying to help them.

Mrs_Chip

Oh good - if she looks rested she must be feeling better, you can just tell, can't you?

Dashurie

EstherH wrote: »

Awwh yes, we used to go round the neighbourhood trying to get lemonade bottles that we could claim the money back on.
And our neighbours had a party line. We didn't have a phone but my mum definately wouldn't have had one with a party line. I just can't imagine having one of them. Dial a disk, yes, I remember that. And we could dial the local radio station and listen to that on the telephone too. Esther x

We had a party line....we shared it with our neighbour across the road. Mum's instructions to us were, if we picked up the phone to call (very rare occurrance) and heard our neighbour's voice chatting away to someone on the other end, to immediately replace the receiver very quietly and wait awhile before trying to ring out again.

But I'm afraid my older brother used to be naughty and listen in.

lisakay_2

HH, pretty sure your tenancy wasn't referring to the dried vegetarian meals called beanfeasts, but I could understand if it was... We had one years ago and the wind within the confines of the caravan was rancid, a real health hazard, lol.

Also a little envious of people with chickens

I would happily cook and bake for the whole street if someone would come in and clean for me. my most hated job is putting the clean washing away. I'm not a naturally tidy person!!

made a stirfry for tea for us all tonight with some lotty produce. last bit of asparagus went in, some shallot scapes, chard, garlic and broad beans (and some SM veg too). Really pleased with how well everything is doing, think this might be our best year so far if it carries on like this.
planted out more spinach, sowed more beetroot, radish and spring onions today and removed 2 dustbins full of non compostable weeds.

had to have a very hot [EMAIL="r@d0x"]r@d0x[/EMAIL] bath to ease the aches after a full afternoon weeding and going to boot camp last night too.

DH is snoring on the sofa, but if I attempt to turn the football off he'll wake up with a grunt and claim to be watching it!!

so nice to see lots of people posting xx

nan2many

JackieO
I grew up in Woolwich, well Plumstead really and lived there until I married. The memories you evoked for me, I used to go to the market in the square and the covered market. My first job was in a hairdressers just around the corner. We moved to Somerset over 40 years ago but still visit the old hometown occasionally but boy has it changed. We were driving up an often used road only to be confronted with a block of flats so had to turn around and find another route. Progress eh? Does anybody remember liberty bodices, I was often told ne'er cast a clout till may be out when I wanted to divest myself of mine.

Mrs_Veg_Plot

Dashurie wrote: »

I was born during the tail-end of winter in 63, the youngest of 6 children, and I so remember the frost being on the inside of the window-panes, parafin heaters etc... Vic and cotton-wool on your chest if you had a cold. And those awful nylon nighties full of static!

Dashurie we also had quilted nylon dressing gowns.
Popperwell our number was 415. To this day my mum answers with the area name followed by 415.

I also remember my primary school toilets. They were outside across the school yard with a half door set in the door frame so that you could not see who was sat on the toilet but you could see their feet. the toilet paper was that awful Izal that was only fit to use as tracing paper.

As this was the days before wet wipes I remember mum used to put a wet flannel in a tupperware beaker if we had a day out (Sunday school trip to the seaside). It was rank by the end of the day having cleaned three of us up for a whole day at the seaside.

EstherH

Dashurie wrote: »

We had a party line....we shared it with our neighbour across the road. Mum's instructions to us were, if we picked up the phone to call (very rare occurrance) and heard our neighbour's voice chatting away to someone on the other end, to immediately replace the receiver very quietly and wait awhile before trying to ring out again.

But I'm afraid my older brother used to be naughty and listen in.

Haha, that's why my mum wouldn't have one.

EstherH

Yes, brush nylon night dresses and quilted nylon dressing gowns too. But I liked those. I thought I was very glamorous in a night dress instead of pjs and a thick blankety type dressing gown that I had had before.

Possession

Foraging experts: does purslane (pigweed) just look a bit like mini dandelion leaves? I'm struggling to get a good picture of it where its identifiable to me. (Am researching cheap ways to feed rabbits!)

Pooky - glad Lulah is on the mend.

Mrs_Chip

Fuddle - thanks for the link to Attic 24, just had a look and now got crochet envy