Chitchat thread #24

[greenishfing]

oh..and GF…a younger girl neighbour ended up in hospital when her forearm was grabbed by the electric wringer …very badly scarred poor lass.

Scary! Obviously, I was right to be wary.

I also remember at probably age 7 or 8 ironing handkerchiefs. The mens larger hankies into squares and the ladies smaller hankies into triangles. My mother was obviously training me from a young age. She would probably be appalled by the cobwebs that now cover my iron!

I also remember my paternal grandmother trying to get me to embroider initials onto handkerchiefs and either crochet or tatt edgings for them. Even then I thought it was a pointless exercise. My gawkiness was I think generally blamed on my left-handedness.

[Bren In Pots]

I can remember ‘helping’ mum to wash, we had a copper with a fire underneath, rinsing was in the big sink after that was the scary mangle.
We moved when I was 12-ish to a house with gas and an electric washing machine.
We did miss the Aga though.

[mothhawk]

I've just got a memory in my head of my mother on wash day, always Monday irrespective of the weather, in the early 1960s. She had a single tub electric washer with an electric wringer on top. If I was there it was my job to start feeding the hot sudsy clothes through the wringer. I can still remember being petrified that it would grab my fingers and take them through too.

My mum had a similar one and I hated the mangle because it had a hair trigger safety bar front and back and if you knocked it the side of the mangle popped out and the rollers separated. It always made my mum cross when that happened (and it was nearly always me that knocked it) because it was very fiddly and time consuming to put it all back together. Filled and emptied with a hose that you did once for the soapy water and twice or sometimes three times for the rinse water.

[Jay22]

Evening, Bren would that have been in the 60’s? I remember what we called a boiler but sounds exactly like your mum’s copper. Remember the deep sink and the mangle too.

Well it’s been pouring today and chilly…going to admit to putting the heating on for half an hour earlier! It’s June for goodness sake!

Anyhoo, have a good evening. Hope you get some sleep GF.

Thanks for the memories everyone! x

[Bren In Pots]

Jay I’m sure a copper and boiler were the same thing.
We do have a dolly tub and tin bath that a neighbour gave us years ago in case we needed to empty the fish pond oddly It’s still behind the shed somewhere.