Could we all travel back to the old times?

Kimberley

A lot of you could if your used to this now, but do you think we could travel back and return to the old times when we had no choice but to scrimp on our spending? How would we cope without a washing machine etc, do you think we would survive going back and doing without these luxuries?

I do wish sometimes i could travel back in the tardis and visit the Victorian times for a day, that would really be cool. I did hear of a documentary on TV where 3 families did, does anyone know when it's on?

Kimberley

Oh well time to go to the shop now, forgot it's early closing, see you in a mo

Spendless

Kimberley wrote: »

Oh well time to go to the shop now, forgot it's early closing, see you in a mo

ahh well now that is Old-Style early closing see how easy you'd think "oops forgot that used to happen":p

aaroncaz

A couple of years ago, Channel 4? did some, where familes had to live in the houses of certain periods, and live the the same life, there the Victorian House, the 1940s, sure there was one in the US as well, i used to enjoy them.

jcr16

um if i am totally honest then proberly not.


But if i never knew what a washing machine was , dishwasher , bread maker etc. then i prob wouldn't miss them. it only because there considered the norm now that we are used to such thing's.

Jayar

An emphatic NO. No way.
I'm old enough to remember the days before washing machines and I remember every Monday when my mother would start the mamoth task of doing the family wash. We had two sinks, one for washing and the other for rinsing: with a mangle in between, and wet clothes are VERY heavy. Everything had to be spotless before they were lugged out to the washing line because the neighbours would criticise if they weren't. Then, if it was raining, the clothes were draped over all surfaces in the house to dry.
While she was doing this, our tea had to be prepared. It was always soup made with boiling beef then the beef with tatties and turnip. Of course this was on top of the general housework. I remember she always used to carry round a duster so she could "dust as you go".
I just do not know how she managed and to reiterate, No way would I do without our more modern convenient time saving appliances.
Thanks for reminding me though
Oh edited to add. I also remember her telling me that when my grandmother died she was truly an old woman at 60 years of age. Of course, it wasn't only the hard work that aged her, but it must have been a contributing factor. Heck I'll be 60 mext month and would be horrified if anyone thought of me as old.
Rant over

mary43

I remember the hard work my gran had to do.............light the boiler in the shed every Monday morning for washing (rain or shine).........ironing done with a flat iron (no such thing as polyester cotton -everything needed ironing), loo that was down a cobbled yard and consisted of a large bucket housed in wood panelling and emtied once a week.Chamber pot under the bed and a jug and bowl of cold water to wash. No water to the cottage so we fetched it from a pump up the lane or grandad got it from the well and we had to wait till it had been boiled before it was drinkable. (Thank heaves next door cottage eventually got water on and had an outside tap gran could use). Grandad worked on the railways and had three allottments on the go. Gran took care of the huge cottage garden and the veg and fruit bushes and trees. They made their own wine and there seemed to be dandelion heads and other stuff drying out in the sun all summer.
Don;t think I'd want to go back to that way of life as such but I have to admit I remember everything tasting so much better. Dinners were cooked on a small range (cleaned once a week) and we fetched milk from the farm, eggs were collected every day from the hen house.
Parts of the lifestyle seemed blissful......no rushing about to a timetable,long country walks to walk off dinner so regular exercise........how did they find the time and energy for everything. (Gran also took in washing )

But todays lifestyle is too far the other way...........chemicals added to everything........we never know whats been tampered with and whats not;
endless cleaning stuff that doesn't do what it says on the container, ready meals that lack any kind of taste (well to me anyway); and rush, rush, rush everywhere. No-one has time for anyone else or so it seems and our kids are growing up in a 'designer label', throwaway society. Throw away a polystyrene chip carton, discarding friendships.........etc.
I do love my automatic washing machine, my central heating, my phone and my computer.............but they give me time to spend doing other things that hopefully give me a better quality of life.

I'm only basing this on my own experience as I see it.

PasturesNew

There was a programme that finished just last week about 3 families who lived in a turn of the century row of 3 terraced cottages in Wales under 1927 conditions.

The husbands had to walk about 4 miles across country to the coal mine to work. One hurt his hand and was on half pay doing surface work. Some days they got there and were turned away as there was "no work today".

Landlord would come and inspect the house each week and collect his rent.

Took hours each day to make enough hot water for the blokes to have a bath when they got in.

2 families took in a lodger. Landlord charged them extra.

Then they had to catch rabbits/skin them to eat. And they had to kill the "pet" chickens to eat.

It was called Coal House: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0084vvn

soappie

I, for one, would not like to go back in time unless it was to be the treasured daughter/wife of an extremely rich person so all I had to do was summon a servant to cater for my every whim.

I've known hard times - living in a freezing cold council house with only two open fires for heating and few 'mod cons'. The freezing cold - getting dressed to go to bed. The sheer time it took to do the washing (soak it in the bath for a couple of hours, scrubbing shirt collars with a nail brush, rinse, rinse, rinse, wring as well as you can - taking hours to dry in the winter etc. etc.)

~grumpy old woman mode on~

The yoof of today, they never had it so good, they EXPECT to have a washing machine, a fitted kitchen, central heating etc. when they set up home. They would really struggle.

~grumpy old woman mode off~

luxor4t

I remember getting out of bed onto cold lino and seeing the ice on the inside of the single glazed window pane. We only had carpet (a square) in the best room. Mum would shout up from the kitchen where she had poked the fire into a blaze and we would rush down to find our clothes warming on the fireguard. We stood on small hand hooked rugs to dress as the quarry tiled floor was so cold.
Four layers - wool vest, homemade petticoat, homemade frock and granny knitted cardigan- because there was only the kitchen fire during the week. If it was really cold there would be a huge debate about lighting the parafin heater on the landing, but this would only be on for an hour before we went up to bed - this was the only upstairs heating. My parents saved for ages to have a gas fire fitted in the best room.
Dad would be leaving for work on his bike and we would wave from the pantry window before trekking off to school.
Mum spent the day washing, cleaning and cooking. She sewed and knitted our clothes, and her own,as a hobby.
These 'good old days' were in the early 1960s!

annie123

I'd travel back only if I could be a lady of leisure:j with housekeeping staff.

No more 50 hour week at work plus 7 hours of trevelling time, only to come home to cooking, cleaning etc

Days off spent batch cooking, shopping, repairing and cleaning etc with maybe 1/2 day to myself with my family.

OMG....no internet:eek: couldn't live without it now....

No thanks. I stay right here:D

back to clearing that bookcase........