in grannys day

THIRZAH

My grandma had a copper too and a mangle. She used to put something called a blue bag in her whites and was disgusted with my mother because she didn't bother.

They lived in a big old house with two staircases. The kitchen was built on the back and the bathroom had been added later and so was beyond the kitchen. There was also a scullery. There was no running water in the main bit of the house just in the bits that had been added later.

Grandma did have bread, meat etc delivered. They grew their own veg and kept chickens.She bottled fruit, made jams and chutney.

She also made most of her own (and our) clothes plus things like curtains , bedspreads etc. I still have an eiderdown she covered- the cover is beautiful with Italian quilting.Somebody told me that during the war my mother was the best dressed child in the village because grandma was so clever at making her clothes. She used to cut down old clothes to make new ones.

The house was always spotless. I can't remember her having a vacuum cleaner when I was small although she did get one later. My grandfather was a farmer so was home for lunch everyday

I wish I had half her skills and energy

Bogof_Babe

Loadsabob wrote:

I think we're sometimes a bit poorer for all our gadgets!

How very true!

And - I am intrigued by the Dairylea/crackers/beans/sausages recipe - and the risotto one, so if you feel like posting them......;)

tootles_2

When I was a little girl at the end of he war we used a gas copper, dolly tub and posser for the washing......... Daz or Persil were the powders of choice although sometimes Grandma used Omo. Whites were boiled up in the copper after being well poshed in the dolly tub, everything was rinsed in the dolly tub, whites had a little blue bag added, put through the mangle we had in the shed and hung on the line. The water from the copper was used to wash the kitchen and shed floors when the washing was finished. My Grandmother never had a washing machine, my mother had one towards the end of her life and I finally managed to persuade her to get an automatic in 1986. the ironing was done on the well protected table top in the living room. We had a Revo electric cooker in the kitchen, it was still in use in 1968, when it went to the local museum into a domestic item display for items from the 1920's. It was till in excellent condition and cooked like a dream.

Grocery shopping was done at the local Co-op once a week, we had a butcher round the corner and it was my job to go in on Wednesday on my way to school to order the meat for Sunday, fruit, veg, fish and eggs were bought in the market on a friday morning. Sunday's joint lasted us for at least 3 meals, hot for lunch, cold for Sunday supper and minced or sliced cold on Monday.

My job on Saturday was to polish the table legs which were kept bandaged up, I had to take the bandages off, polish and buff the table legs and then put the bandages back on again, the table top was protected by a special cloth and a chenille cloth, this was replaced with a table cloth and mats for meals.

We had an open fire in the living room, no heat in the bedrooms, I can well remember ice on the inside of the windows in the winter, we had a carpet square in the living room and the best sitting room, lino on all the other floors. We had a well in the garden and the pump was still on the sink side in 1968 when my mother modernised the house after my grandmother went into an old peoples home.

My Grandmother had the most beautiful salt and pepper grey hair, she washed it in rainwater from the well with a teaspoon of Daz dissolved in the water and rinsed it with vinegar, and then water with a little of the laundry blue bag in it!!!! We had an eziot water heater over the sink, and also in the bathroom for hot water. Baths were taken once a week, usually on Saturday night, hot water to the wash hand basin was from a kettle boiled on the stove in the kitchen.

During the war the local park was dug up for allotments and we grew most of our vegetables there, I can remember being taken in the pram with the garden implements to the park and having to walk home because the pram was full of veg.

My father was killed during the war and my mother went out to work to support herself, my grandmother and me, so I was brought up in a house of women who were frugal because they had to be. Many of the things my Grandmother did I still do, although I do not wash my hair in Daz!!! Grandma had trained as a tailoress and had a treadle machine in a big shed at the bottom of the garden, she made suits and dresses. When I was about 5 she started to teach me to sew, although she would not let me use the machine...... if I made a mistake it was undone and done again until it was right. She taught me to sew with what she called felling needles, they are very small, even today I cannot sew with a big needle. I have often watched her lay fabric down on the floor and chalk out a jacket or skirt and cut it out, very rarely did it have to be altered when the person came for a fitting, unfortunately I have not inherited this skill although I do sew, not clothes any longer, I did keep my children in clothes when they were small, but I now make more decorative items.

I could go on for hours.........

Queenie

Really enjoyed reading your post tootles!!

Wash day in our Granny's day wasn't such a complicated business as nowadays. First they didn't have the range of fabrics we have and also, the real point is .... they didn't have as many clothes!!!! :rotfl: (Work clothes + sunday best?)

I recall my own Mother washing the bedding on a Saturday ... she had 2 sheets per bed. Saturday morning, she'd strip the bed, wash the bottom sheets only .. replace the bottom sheet with the top sheet ... and then the washed/dried/aired sheet become the new top sheet. OOooh, the old tricks of the trade

She didn't get a washing machine (twin tub) until the '60's .. by which time she had already brought up a large number of children (I refuse to say how many because by modern standards it would sound positively greedy!!! ) )

Ticklemouse

I also enjoyed reading your post, Tootles. I was born in the 60's but still remember things as you've described - all home made clothes, meals stretched and stretched, reusing and recycling wasn't the thing to do to save the environment, it was to do with getting the most out of everything and most importantly, making ends meet. However, as my Grandma kept up with the times and bought nylon sheets (remember the static?) I hated it years later when she recycled them - into hankies!!

My Grandma didn't use Daz in her hair, but did always use Palmolive soap. I don't think she had shampoo until her final few years when it was bought for her.

Queenie wrote:

I recall my own Mother washing the bedding on a Saturday ... she had 2 sheets per bed. Saturday morning, she'd strip the bed, wash the bottom sheets only .. replace the bottom sheet with the top sheet ... and then the washed/dried/aired sheet become the new top sheet. OOooh, the old tricks of the trade

Hey, Queenie, I remember this happening when I went to Uni and lived in halls. You only got one clean sheet a week and this is what we were told to do with them. If you wanted 2 clean sheets, you washed the other one yourself

Curry_Queen

Ticklemouse wrote:

Hey, Queenie, I remember this happening when I went to Uni and lived in halls. You only got one clean sheet a week and this is what we were told to do with them. If you wanted 2 clean sheets, you washed the other one yourself

They also still do this in hospitals, not just to cut down on the laundry bills, but also due to a shortage of sheets on some wards!

Loadsabob

Bogof_Babe wrote:

And - I am intrigued by the Dairylea/crackers/beans/sausages recipe - and the risotto one, so if you feel like posting them......;)

Ah, well, I think I may have stuck something over the crackers recipe in my little book (but will post it in the recipe thread tomorrow if not!). The risotto is still a nostalgic favourite, and though I've developed my own much more fancy ones over the years, there's something really homely about that one! I'll post it on the recipe thread now!

Edit: In fact, I had posted it here in the tinned meat thread, but am going to put it o the recipe board too, and it's good with chicken, too.

MrsMW

I think Tootles must be my twin, except my mum used Oxydol washing powder.

MATH

My Grandmother never washed her own hair:eek: She went to the hairdressers every Friday afternoon for a set and revisited every Tuesday for a freshen up which I think entailed a liberal sprinkling of setting lotion and a re-set onto unwashed hair.

She had a huge 1950's white and chrome Hoover washing machine with a mangle which she used every Monday for the wash. All cottons were startched and whites were dolly-blued (My Mother always complained that Monday dinner was cold meat and salad cos there was no time to cook). She only washed clothes herself all bedlinen, towels, tableclothes, kitchen linen etc was collected, washed, ironed and delivered back by Snowflake Laundry.

Queenie

:eek: OMG, MATH!! "Dolly-blue" ... the little blue bag ... my mum used that if we were stung by bee's LOL - ok, so she did the laundry with it as well