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.

[greenishfing]

Good morning.

Another sleepless night Only an hour now until dawn. I think my internal clock needs resetting. As I can't sleep anyway I've just made myself a mug of coffee as it can't make things any worse, can it?

It's 13°C and drizzling at the moment. I can very faintly hear the hum of traffic on the M1, probably because there is no local traffic or other noise. When the M1 was first built here in Yorkshire I could see the lights of the cars on it going up and down a nearby hill from my bedroom window. I used to daydream about all the exciting places that they might be going ....... and wish that I was going too.

See you all later.

[mothhawk]

Morning all.

It's been tipping down since 6.30 and looks set for the rest of the morning.

Kettle's on for another brew and breakfast is berries and plain yoghurt. I was thinking back to when ski yoghurt first appeared, back in the 60's. I can only recall that there were three flavours - hazelnut, strawberry, and mandarin, which was my absolute favourite. I thought the hazelnut was disgusting. It was quite a treat to have yoghurt as dessert.

[Bren In Pots]

Morning

Rain here not sure for how long.

MH I remember early yoghurts but not the flavours I know some were nicer than others. Then in the 70's I bought a Salton yoghurt maker that i still use today, it outlived the 1 litre pot one I bought from Lakeland.

Hope you got back to sleep GF.

Enjoy your day

[Nicos]

Mornin’ n’alln’all

Ooo…two trips down memory lane this morning!
Yogurts….my first ever taste was just after I got married and a 6 pot yogurt maker was a wedding gift! Loved it.
Motorways?…Back in the early 70’s I bought my first horse from the horse dealer I helped out ( every spare hour after school, weekends and school holidays). She’d got him from Beeston cattle market as a rising 3 year old but had not yet been castrated
. Straight off the boat from Ireland. I instantly fell in love with him as he was an Appaloosa ( spotted black on white) and really calm.
So I bought him with almost every spare penny I had. .
First thing was to have him castrated then turned out to recover.
Next day I found out that he’d jumped out of the field and legged it off ( “ not staying around here if that’s a taste of things to come “ was no doubt in his mind Poor lad.)
Apparently the dealer had a phone call in the middle of the night from the police ( she had bought him of course initially) to say he had been reported cantering along the partially built M56 heading from Lymm to Chester…and at 3am went with her box to collect him for me .( How kind was that?)
Thank goodness he was such an unusual colour for ID purposes! Such a lovely horse too.

So back to today… no real plans for me…just pottering in the garden as it’s not raining and only a slight breeze. Think I’ll check up on the rhubarb which is at the far end of the field.

The washing machine is ordered - and should be with us by the end of next week.
That’s one thing frustrating about being in France- deliveries always seem to take between a couple of weeks and a month ( no next day delivery here, but that’s part of being rural I guess?) At least free delivery is slowly being introduced. I recall 18 years ago having to pay almost as much as the sofa to have it delivered. That’s one good reason to have a trailer for sure!

Right…anyone fancy a quick brew before I head out?
Enjoy your day everyone.

[bramble]

Good morning all. No rain this morning but we certainly got plenty last night.

Nicos, what a lovely story about your horse, what did you call him?.

I guess we dont know how lucky we are with all our mod cons....

Our parents and grand parents had it tough, and we just take it for granted.

Well that's enough for now, have a good day all.

[Nicos]

Bramble- I called him Spock as I was a massive Star Trek fan

When I entered him into shows though they always seemed to mistakingly called him Spot

[Florence Fennel]

Good Morning All Cool and drizzling here. I've just been putting the quilt back on the bed so It's Sod's Law that the heat wave will come back! Have a good day

[Snoop Puss]

Afternoon all.

Me I loved the Ski hazelnut yogurt I had. The very first yogurt I ever had. We were on holiday and it was a bit fancy. My brothers and I regularly campaigned for yogurt thereafter, but they were never forthcoming. By the time I started buying yogurt, I could never find Ski.

I remember the twin tub arriving but I don't remember what we had before that. I used to be terrified of the twin tub and the injunction never to put your hand in the spinner. I used to think it might pull my arm off or even suck me in! Dear me. My mum thought it was amazing.

Managed a dog walk at a fair speed this morning. And a lazy time of it since, though I should really have done quite a bit of tidying as we have visitors arriving tomorrow. Plus I'm off down the valley this afternoon to visit the neighbours. I'll leave Jack at home, as he is doggus non gratis with one of their cats. And it's back to the doctor's tomorrow for blood test results. So not a lot is going to get done between now and the visitor's arrival.

Have a great rest of the day, everyone.

[lottie dolly]

afternoon all,what is it with this sudden bout of knee bashing ladies,are you seeing who can raise the bruise with the most color's,i hope you are all recovering,this weather is so weired,it was so cold yesterday i had to put the heating on last night,then suddenly today mid morning it came out hot,did a little in the garden but,was to hot for me,so came in,the new seeds i sowed are also having a fit,do i grow or not,i am just going to make do with what i have,and not waste the time,as i can spend it doing sumat more usefull out there,out of the 8 dahlia tubers i got,2 seem to be no go,i maybe take them back to B&Q,but first have to find the recite,i have the labels,was weeding the snip patch,and done a little thining of the planting,the roots look very weak,not long thin ones,so hope they pick up,this is the worst year i have had,never mind,nothing i can do,but there IS a lot to sort out still,just so slow going these days,
Old washing clothes methods,the old dolly and tub,the drying must have been the worst part,as for the twin tub.i loved mine when i was first wed,but the best by far is the modern bung em in and switch it on,HOW did they manage and cope years ago,we are spoilt these days,have a lovely evening all

[greenishfing]

Good evening.

The sun did eventually appear today and it was quite pleasant when I went out this afternoon.

One of the places that I called was a local basic cheap supermarket for a couple of necessities. While I was there I unexpectedly found branded mango chutney on the shelf at less than half the price it is in my normal supermarket. Coronation chicken will now definitely be on my menu in the coming days.

I've never been a fan of yoghurt but I remember when my mother was pregnant with my youngest brother she seemed to live on Ski yoghurt. I think it was delivered by the milkman.

I remember buying my first automatic washer, a Bendix for £179, as it was the first time that I wrote a cheque for over £100. The young assistant that served me, a scruffy young female wearing jeans, seemed to be overjoyed (obviously on commision). His superior who had rushed to serve the much older well dressed woman in the store sold her a plug.😂

I also remember that when Mr GF and I were living aboard a wooden boat once we had an automatic washer delivered and the delivery men refused to carry it up the gangplank. We had to remove a deck hatch to lower it into the galley. Fun times😀

I'm sure that I would have failed miserably as a 1950s style Stepford wife. I was never good at conforming.