Really interesting documentary on YouTube oldstyles might like

CapricornLass

Actually just thought - we possibly wouldn't know the techniques for getting the most out of the 'technology' of the day that made surviving in the slums easier. Cooking a pudding in a cloth in a pan, anyone? I have done it twice in my life, but I was able to refer to my grandmother's written instructions to my mother as to how to do this.

They would also seat all sorts of things that we wont touch now - and probably wouldn't know how to cook either. Pigs ears, cheek and tails, half a sheep's head complete with brains. I have a pre-war cookery book from the WI courtesy of my Grandmother, that has a recipe entitiled How To Make A Sheep's Pluck (the lights) Make A Dinner For 5 People For Three Days. Another thing that hasn't been mentioned is that the breadwinner got the pick/all of the meat/protein that was available, as he had to be strong enough and fit enough to be able to go out and earn.

[Deleted User]

I remember using a home made 'haybox' back in the 1970s when the three day week was on.Basically you brought the stew up to bubbling boiling point then covered it (in my case my home made 'hay box' was my children's toy box with lots of cushions on the bottom and round the casserole pan and on the top I had a duvet pushed down tight to hold the heat in.I left it overnight and in the morning the meat casserole was cooked. I had an oval yellow enamel casserole pan which everyone seemed to own in those days. If the electric went off (as it often dd without warning for three hours) and I needed to reheat my stew I would nip down the road to my friend June's house and bung it in her gas cooker

We are still firm friends after 47 years of ups and downs of death,divorce,illness,children being broke and unemployment .

I remember her saying 'It'll never work will it ?'
but I can remember my late Mum using one when I was a little girl and it did :):) she was so surprised at how tender the meat was and it cost so little to cook with.

Has anyone else used a 'haybox ' at all ??

thriftwizard

I remember using a haybox in the 70s strikes too. Mum was working, so quite often I cooked after getting home from school, power or no power! Not to mention the fact that she hated - and still hates - cooking... But she'd hung onto my father's fishing/camping stove throughout the loss of our home and furniture when he died unexpectedly, so we were able to heat things up although we couldn't have cooked for long on it. Haybox cookery was for the weekend - she was a Deaconess so worked weekends as well as her weekday job.

It stood me in good stead when my friend snaffled a Wonderbag that had been donated to their charity shop, and was about to go into the bins as the sorters thought no-one nowadays would use one, once they'd worked out what it was! It gets used several times a week, to cook up peelings overnight for the chickens, to do casseroles if I think I'm going to be late back & DD2's already using the slow-cooker for some Middle Eastern bean concoction, or to ferry stuff 25 miles to Mum's.

maryb

I made a thermal cooker stuffed with polystyrene beads and I use it a lot, especially now with autumn coming on and turning to more warming food. But what I really love it for is rice. Twice the volume of water to rice, bring to the boil and leave for half an hour. It always comes out beautifully fluffy, every grain separate

moneyistooshorttomention

Just watched the second episode of "The Victorian Slum" - even more :eek: than the first one.

I was alternating between thinking "A couple of those women are wearing eye make-up - not very authentic:rotfl:" and thinking "Ah! That rather explains the modern day attitudes of some people I hear of/read about that puzzle me rather". Namely that one re the single parent mother who "did a moonlight flit". Puzzled at why the shopkeepers weren't throwing 40 fits at her affecting their lives.

On the other hand - more understandable the others werent sympathising appropriately with the shopkeepers - because they'd had the "it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good" side of that equation (ie keeping the money they were due to pay her in wages for her sub-contracting).

Not quite so puzzled at different attitudes to the one I was brought up with "You will pay your way and not owe anyone anything" that my parents brought me up with and I still have. Though I'd still be cursing visibly - and expecting the appropriate sympathy and support if I were in the shopkeepers position - rather than shrugging my shoulders and accepting it.

I guess attitudes of the great grandparents percolating down the generations helping to explain a way of thinking very different to my own.

charlies-aunt

Really enjoying the Victorian Slum programme and quite surprised how many things still resonated in my childhood in the late 50's.


Our family belonged to the Independent Order of Rachabites - a sort of Temperance friendly society which promoted abstinence from alcohol. In return for the payment of very modest weekly "subs", we benefited from health and sickness cover for my dad, an annual summer day trip to the seaside (when most of the village would board coaches for a day out at Mablethorpe and all the children got a stick of rock on the way home) and they also put on a splendid Christmas party for members children. We had to take our own knife, fork, spoon and cup to the party with us - how quaint that seems now - perhaps a throwback to the days when such things were treasured possessions?


Our house was a post war new build in 1952-53. The kitchen had a large enamelled ranged with a back boiler, side oven and little swing over pan rests for cooking and a huge pantry. Earlier built houses in the lane had no mains water supply - just a tap in the back yard which was spread from the spring and bucketed into the house.


Happy memories for a child but it must have been grim for Mothers!

Butterfly_Brain

Other shows well worth a watch are the coal house, the coal house at war, the 1940's house on you tube
Then look up poverty in the uk in the 1970's, some really heartbreaking stories on there

moneyistooshorttomention

I was thinking that the 1970s could still have been a pretty poor decade for those who got married in the 1960s for instance - as some unplanned children would have had the chance to turn up before the Pill/abortion of the 1970s came along. So I can understand how a 1960s marriage could still be a pretty poor on - impacting through into the 1970s and maybe even 1980s.

But now, of course, we've gone from the normal decades of the 1970s and 1980s to the just-about-passable decade of the 1990s and the problems of the early 21st century and I do fear that even some people who are hard-working/taking advantage of our modern-day contraceptives etc could be thrown into poverty for reasons not to do with themselves (eg high housing prices and zero hours contracts in jobs).

I was just sitting there thinking about the financial situations of people I know (ie middle-aged) and, basically, we've had to have either decently-paid careers or jobs (despite a noticeable number having some sort of help - a house bought for them/an inheritance they could buy a house with/etc). It's a shocking thing to know that if I hadn't had a bit of help (by sheer good luck of "right place right time" in my case) I might be poor:eek:. The combination of being single (ie only one income coming in), poor pay and living in a dear city was too much for me to overcome and buy a house - if it hadn't been for that bit of help from good luck.

I do wonder how I would have managed if I'd been a generation younger and wonder if even people who "plan and try" and don't get any help manage these days unless they get partnered-up and have the skills to have a career instead of jobs.

mrsmortenharket

You've just watched that. I love social history.
I'm not sure that there is poverty around like that today. But there is a severe housing shortage isn't there.
They were very strong women. I can't imagine anyone lace picking for so long for such a small amount of money nowadays.

[Deleted User]

In 1955 when my sis-in-law was pregnant with her DD she used to do what was called 'home working' to make extra cash, I was 12 and used to help her in return for some of her home made toffee one week she had to sit and put spokes into bicylce wheels, it was a fiddly job and quite tough on your fingers. She earned 10/- for a pair of wheels (50p) this took most of the day, with a bit of help from myself . Another time she had unpteen small plastic figures that had to be painted.These were small toys that were soldiers or similar and sold in Woolworths etc. Not too bad if they were mostlt in kharki uniform ,then the faces had to be painted and eyes and mouths picked out.The worst ones were the ones in scots kilts etc as every detail had to be picked out on these tiny figures. We would line them up in rows and too all the battle dresses first then let them dry and then do the kilts. She was paid 1d per figure which really was appalling money,but I would help her and my eldest brother did some when he came in from work in the evening. All the money earned went to buy the baby stuff.We also made lampshades for a local factory to earn extra cash. Bless her she did all she could just to boost their income as my eldest brother was on quite low wages at the time. looking back I can remember sitting in their two roomed flat trying to keep our spirits up buy guessing what the baby would be and she will now be 61 next month bless her.Her Mum sadly is long gone now but I still have fond memories of her Mum making toffee to keep us going while we painted those blasted figures with tiny pots of Humbrol paint. :):)