Easier to be OS in the olden days?

meritaten

parsniphead wrote: »

The world seems so busy now. Even for myself looking back to the 70's everything is so cluttered and quite frankly messy. I hate driving at the best of times but with all the street signs, road signs street furniture etc I find it a total sensory overload.

I think that's also why I shop at Ald1. I don't want to have to wander aisle after aisle trying to choose from 42 types of beans. A bean is a bit although my DH would disagree being a bean snob.

I know progress brings many good things which most of us wouldn't like to be without but it's also given us piles of old carp and rubbish to.
We have a local living history museum called The Black Country Museum. It's a fantastic place to visit ( not just for the traditional fish and chips) but just to see inside houses not stuffed full of quite frankly useless rubbish. They have the most homely houses I have ever been into especially as I'm a sucker for a rocking chair and open fire. Trouble is it takes ages to get mum out when she starts talking to the guide about her home as a child.

I still wouldn't want to be without my washing machine though.

we have something similar near Cardiff - St. Fagans. The Museum of Welsh Life. it has a whole row of houses and the first one is furnished very simply as a house of that era (early 1800s I think) then as you progress up the row you get to the last one which I think is 1950s/60s. I walked in and immediately said 'OH God, I've just walked into Aunty Ceridwens!' rofl.
my own preference was for the first house - it felt so 'right' to me.
I think like the other OLD-stylers - I COULD cope if we had to 'go back to basics', but I do love my creature comforts (and not having to make up a coal fire on a freezing cold morning is one of them) and the tinternet of course!

Gigervamp

Meritaten, I love St. Fagans and that row of houses is really interesting. Love the one with the bath in the kitchen with a worktop that folds down on top of it.
I also love the smell of the coal and woodfires in the old houses, although they're very dark.

Bathory

Predaleko and Lessonlearned - my condolences to both of you.

One thing I do notice with the olden days is that things were built to last. My grandparents only had second hand furniture but the wardrobes and the marble topped dressing table that they had looked so nice (weighed a ton as well). I also remember an old 'furniture style' gramophone that played the old bacolite records.

When I was growing up I had my own Waltham record player which I must have used for 20+ years. I used to pile 6 or 7 78 rpm singles on top of each other that use to drop when the pick up arm swung back and forth. May not have done the vinyl much good though. The b&w tv was disguised as furniture with doors on the front and a white dot would stay in the centre when it was turned off. I remember closedowns reminding us to switch off. Is this because it may have blown up.

I was speaking to my Aunt, who was born 1943, who said in her day they use to have chicken pox parties so all the kids got infected and then they would be immune!.

CRANKY40

I was talking about rubbish today too with my dad's cousin who is almost 20 years older than me. It was bin day. Where have these giant plastic tubs overflowing with black bags and goodness knows what come from? We used to have one small plastic dustbin when I was young (think early 70s). There were five of us in our house and that one small bin was enough. Now we're choking the planet with packaging and junk.

Incidentally my small son probably has some more expensive toys than some children his age. He gets a pension from the MOD so he pays for his own clothes (nothing posh, usually Asda or Tesco) saves some and is allowed to spend a bit if there's something he really wants (he has his own laptop). If I told him that he could have his dad back instead of his toys he would pile the lot in the middle of the room and swap right now. He hasn't believed in Father Christmas since his dad died just after his fifth birthday when he asked me could Santa bring his daddy back. When I said he couldn't that was the end of that so he's also grown up knowing who pays for things.

Predaleko and Lesson Learned, if you need any help with any paperwork or anything else, give me a shout. Been there, seen it done it as have a few others on this thread. Five years on from the death of my husband I'm a lot tougher than I used to be but nowhere near as tough as I would have had to be 50 years ago say.

meritaten

Gigervamp wrote: »

Meritaten, I love St. Fagans and that row of houses is really interesting. Love the one with the bath in the kitchen with a worktop that folds down on top of it.
I also love the smell of the coal and woodfires in the old houses, although they're very dark.

Yes, I have been there several times and the 'row houses' are my favourites!
The smell of coal fires is something I grew up with (my father was a miner btw, and so was my OH for over 20 years). my nans house which I grew up in till the age of 10 had an 'extension bathroom'. but before that was built we had the 'tin bath'. and I can remember the side by the fire getting red hot! us kids were bathed first, then my mum, Dad had the privilege of working at a pit which had 'pit head baths'. but sometimes he came home all 'black' because they weren't open between shifts and he had done a couple of hours overtime. mum was NOT happy! it was a lot of work to fill the tin bath and emptying it was a major undertaking! The garden plants must have loved it though!

meritaten

gigervamp - you may find this interesting. When we moved into our new 'council house' when I was 10. There was this massive chair on the landing. our neighbour said it was a 'Bardic' chair belonging to the previous owners husband. she got in touch with her, and rather than paying for the chair to be sent to her - she donated it to ST.Fagans! so the chair that was in our house is displayed in our national Museum! There was also loads of 'stuff' belonging to him in the attic - which mum sent to them. No idea what it was - it was all written in Welsh!

Gigervamp

Things were definitely built to last in the old days, even as late as the early 80s.
I have a Black and Decker drill that my dad bought me 30 years ago when I first left home, that's still going strong. I mentioned it to a friend who worked for them and he said they're made with built in obsolesence now.

I also have my nan and grandad's bedroom set. A double wardobe, dressing table and large chest of drawers. The drawers have dovetail joints. You only get dovetail joints in hand built furniture now.

Meritaten, the smell of coal fires takes me back to my childhood and sitting in front of the fire watching the flames flicker and dance and making pictures. Also, toasting bread and crumpets and roasting chestnuts.
We do have a fireplace in our house, but we can't use it as the chimney needs lining and we can't afford to get it done. So I compensate by putting candles in there.
It must be lovely to know that the chair is now in the museum, rather than being chopped up for firewood or in landfill.

meritaten

lol - yes, making toast on those huge forks and if it fell off..............it was always the last slice of bread!lol and roasting chestnuts on the coal shovel, my granch used to do that for me - mum didn't like them. as I remember it granch never bothered cleaning the shovel first either, so you got dirty fingers as you peeled them! 'all adds to the taste' he would say if nan scolded him.

cuddlymarm

Oh toast and crumpets toasted in front of the fire, yummy I do miss having a real fire.

parsniphead

Hello pixie dust.:hello:

St Fagans sounds lovely. Perhaps a trip to a different part of Wales is due.