Could we all travel back to the old times?

anonymousie

Hmm...

I'm a mere youngster of 41 but have had times as a student when I handwashed smalls (and took the big stuff to the laundrette admittedly) before the delights of a twin tub. Wouldn't like to do that for a family of 5, however I bet we'd make sure the clothes lasted longer eg if DS actually washed his neck his shirts wouldn't be black:o :rotfl: . I also handwashed and mangled clothes for a rather pernikerty old duck as a home help, so I do have the skills (and scrubbed the floors! they don't do that now).

i think the washer and dryer would be hard to live without as a family (though as a couple/single it would be doeable..).

My student flat had gas fires that you leapt out and lit and hour before you wanted to get up too, and he windows did freeze at night!

I think I could do seasonal/make do cookery OK though it might be a little dull as a diet. My parents had times in the 50's where they counted how many rabbits the bus hit going home, and if it was above a certain number, Dad would go out on his bike and see how much he could salvage to eat, so I have learned from that.

I have a sneaky feeling that we are going to need these skills before too long (or are children will, at the point they have passed into history). As the oil starts to run out and the prices rocket the "beans flown from Kenya" and the ready meals that so many rely on will shoot up in price. I also wont be able to tumble dry stuff etc

Mind you I now suck my teeth (as my mother used to) at "have you seen the price of a loaf these days " etc so maybe I'm an old fossil:rotfl:

What do you lot think?

ceridwen

anonymousie wrote: »

I have a sneaky feeling that we are going to need these skills before too long (or are children will, at the point they have passed into history). As the oil starts to run out and the prices rocket the "beans flown from Kenya" and the ready meals that so many rely on will shoot up in price. I also wont be able to tumble dry stuff etc

What do you lot think?

I have not so much a sneaky feeling....but a stomach-sinking feeling that this could be the case. I am hoping not. Hope for the best...prepare for the worst about sums up my attitude. I honestly dont know if I could survive if the "s..t hit the fan"...and I hope I dont have to find out. What - to me - would make the vital difference I feel if it does come to it is if we are all helping each other through and there is a greater sense of community than there is at present.

D&DD

I think many people would struggle if because they are just not taught 'skills' anymore at school or in the home..
Labour saving devices are all well and good but as previous posters state they have seen things washed by hand or done it themselves..many kids growing up today would not know how to do this even :eek:
I do my best to teach my kids a rounded way of life but it is so hard in this day and age where they dare to presume they'll never need to know anything other than which button to press that'll do the job...

ceridwen

D&DD

I just love that smiley - how do I get it?

thriftlady_2

I reckon I could manage food wise no probs but life without a washing machine is just not worth contemplating.

Justamum

I've been saying, jokingly, that soon we will all be returning to the horse and cart the way fuel prices keep going up!

I definitely could not do without my washing machine. When I was single and living in London I washed by hand and it's not so bad for one person. Then about 5 years ago we moved back to South Africa (thinking about going back permanently in the next year or so, but I digress). We had to wait a few months before our stuff was delivered so I was washing by hand (for 4 of us) in the bath. It would take all flippin' day! I didn't have a mangle so it went on the line absolutely sopping wet, but did dry quickly because of the heat. There are now 5 of us, so not a chance any more! My mum used to have to wash clothes for 6 of us in the bath because my dad didn't seem to think it necessary to buy her a washing machine! She eventually got one in the early 70s though - twin tub and a mangle.

We used to have single glazing and no central heating and in the winter would go to bed with a couple of layers of clothes on plus sheets and blankets and a couple of eiderdowns. In the morning there was a layer of ice on the inside of the windows.

As others have said if I had to go back in time and live like they used to do I would have to be rich with servants (though I never had a maid in SA, and people thought I was strange, because I find it hard giving instructions to people!)

I couldn't do without internet either - how else would I get all the useful tips from everybody on here?

Budgeting and cooking from scratch etc wouldn't be a hardship as we do it now anyway, and walking more would do me good.

I'm 'only' 44 but life has changed drastically since I was a child.

recovering_spendaholic

I was a child in the sixties and seventies and well remember having no central heating and scraping the ice off of the inside of the bedroom windows in the winter. We had only one fire in the whole house and that was in the living room - and we weren't particularly poor either - it was just the way it was! We walked everywhere and although there were no labour saving devices as we have now it didn't seem to be that we had no time because we didn't spend all day on computers, mobile phones, computer games and watching endless Telly and so on. I remember my childhood as being wonderful and fun and would gladly go back - my Mum was at home with us and always had time to help us with homework and so on, instead of having to work all hours outside of the home just to be able to keep up with our consumerist society. So yes, I would gladly go back to the sixties or seventies.

apple_mint

In the 60's my Granny was still using flat irons (and continued to do so in the 70's & 80's) and had an outhouse with two large sinks and a mangle for doing her washing in (it was a council house). It was bigger than most people's kitchens today!
The outside loo was stocked with newspaper :eek:. Whilst the upstairs bathroom had 'proper' toilet in later years, the outside one never did.

No fridge - just a pantry with a 'stone'. Milk bottles stood in a bowl of cold water. Davenports used to deliver Grandad's pale ale and Granny's sherry Pop was delivered every fortnight (just for us kids) and you would get money back on the bottle.

Grandad grew all his own veg. Lettuces and salad stuff were grown in between the roses in the front garden. Not an inch of space was wasted. He just continued to garden as he did during the second world war and the subsequent 1950's continued rationing. He kept a ferrit (so rabbit was regularly on the menu ).

We always used to visit them every Sunday because Mum & Dad were so hard up (4 kids) they couldn't afford to give us Sunday lunch and tea (Grandad always made sure there was roast beef and Yorkshire pud at lunch and for tea, ham sandwiches and fruit salad with evaporated milk). We walked five miles each way to spend the day with them. My poor brother was often subjected to a 'short back and sides' hair cut with my grandad's hand clippers :eek:

They were still alive and living this lifestyle when I married the OH and Granny and Grandad's food is legendary in his opinion They were never in debt and always had good food. They never kept up with the Jones's and poor Granny was horrified when they eventually got a colour TV because she could see the colour of blood. Goodness knows what she was watching ... :rolleyes: The 'News' probably.

The thing is, they had enough to live on comfortably by the time I knew them (today's empty nesters). My parents on the other hand were raising 4 children on a single low income. Granny and Grandad obviously recognised this (having 3 of their own at one tme) - hence they fed an extra 6 people every Sunday for many years.

Charis

I also lived in a house with one fire in the living room and no other heating. Once a week the boiler went on for our baths and we were allowed to have a fan heater on in the bathroom for half an hour before we bathed. It had to be removed for safety once we got in the bath. In the winter of '62/'63 when it snowed and snowed, I had one pair of lace up shoes and by the time I had walked to school (1½ miles each way) my feet were wet through.

I thought we were quite well off because most of my cousins and my nan lived in rented property with outside loos and nowhere to wash your hands. The shared kitchen was often in a part of the property that was technically someone else's domain.

My nan had no mains electricity, just gas mantles. The floors were covered in brown lino and the stairs were bare wood. They got bombed in the war and lost everything. What they did manage to replace was in little heaps because they had no proper storage when they were rehoused. I always felt they were waiting to be moved on to a proper home. Eventually they were, but it was a twenty year wait. I have never forgotten the day that I saw a rat run into the kitchen from the allotment next door and I have never since seen one so huge.

If this generation had to go back to living like that they simply couldn't cope. Most of them don't have the skills to cook from scratch, sew their own clothes or even sew on a button. A good number have never seen anyone else do those things. It would be as alien to them as hunting for your own food would be to me.

Charis

apple_mint

We have a real support mechanism here ... MSE and OS. I don't know about anyone else but I've learnt so much from using the Internet and the MSE site. We may not have so many local communities as previously, but we certainly have an online one