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What a good idea...
- Thread starter Astoness
- Start date
M
Mossy
Guest
Not a bad idea cleanliness is next to Godliness
Mossy
Mossy
Louisa
master brummie
Astoness I think it is a very good idea.
I remember when I was at Cromwell street school in the 50's, each morning after assembly the head mistress would always inspect each childs hands for cleanliness or dirty fingernails, their shoes to see if they were clean and polished and she also checked whether you had a handkerchief.
Those who didnt were taken out of the lineup. I never knew what the consiquences of disobeying these rules were as my mother always checked us kids over for the above items before we left the house for school.
In junior school we were taught how to use the handkerchief and to move away from anyone sneezing and cover your nose with the said hankerchief. We all had to all chant a rhyme ' Coughs and Sneezes spread diseases, please use your handkercheivses' or something like this.
I think everyone in those days was careful about germs because antibiotics which were expensive and new were only used for bad infections so people still relied on the old trusted methods of cleanliness to protect their families from germs as much as possible.
In Birmingham there was of course the scares of smallpox (I think this is the correct illness as I remember being inoculated with my brother at the GP surgery on Nechells park Road) and TB (which we were also inoculated against at school when I was about 14 ) but anyway keeping things clean was a way of life in those times.
We washed our faces and hands or even had a bath (in the tin bath in front of the fire) with Lifebouy soap or coal tar soap, only when we were teenagers did we discover the perfumed soaps. Hand washing was with cold water as few houses had hot running water.
For the floors in the house we used bars of rough carbolic or bars of Fairy soap, a drop of dettol disinfection if you had any , plenty of very hot water in a bucket, a scrubbing brush and an old towel as a floor cloth oh and newspapers to step on while the floor dried.
Clothes especially white cotton ones were soaked in an enamel bucket with a lid or the boiler with bleach and or washing powder. We also had a special saucepan which had been mended with a metal washer which we used to boil large cottton mens handkerchiefs especially when the flu was doing the rounds. This killed off all the germs and kept the washing white at the same time.
In the senior school we learnt how to top and bottom a house and clean it methodically in all the corners and on the tops of wardrobes etc and to look after food properly to avoid food poisoning.
I remember when I was at Cromwell street school in the 50's, each morning after assembly the head mistress would always inspect each childs hands for cleanliness or dirty fingernails, their shoes to see if they were clean and polished and she also checked whether you had a handkerchief.
Those who didnt were taken out of the lineup. I never knew what the consiquences of disobeying these rules were as my mother always checked us kids over for the above items before we left the house for school.
In junior school we were taught how to use the handkerchief and to move away from anyone sneezing and cover your nose with the said hankerchief. We all had to all chant a rhyme ' Coughs and Sneezes spread diseases, please use your handkercheivses' or something like this.
I think everyone in those days was careful about germs because antibiotics which were expensive and new were only used for bad infections so people still relied on the old trusted methods of cleanliness to protect their families from germs as much as possible.
In Birmingham there was of course the scares of smallpox (I think this is the correct illness as I remember being inoculated with my brother at the GP surgery on Nechells park Road) and TB (which we were also inoculated against at school when I was about 14 ) but anyway keeping things clean was a way of life in those times.
We washed our faces and hands or even had a bath (in the tin bath in front of the fire) with Lifebouy soap or coal tar soap, only when we were teenagers did we discover the perfumed soaps. Hand washing was with cold water as few houses had hot running water.
For the floors in the house we used bars of rough carbolic or bars of Fairy soap, a drop of dettol disinfection if you had any , plenty of very hot water in a bucket, a scrubbing brush and an old towel as a floor cloth oh and newspapers to step on while the floor dried.
Clothes especially white cotton ones were soaked in an enamel bucket with a lid or the boiler with bleach and or washing powder. We also had a special saucepan which had been mended with a metal washer which we used to boil large cottton mens handkerchiefs especially when the flu was doing the rounds. This killed off all the germs and kept the washing white at the same time.
In the senior school we learnt how to top and bottom a house and clean it methodically in all the corners and on the tops of wardrobes etc and to look after food properly to avoid food poisoning.
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
Astoness, you've set me thinking about the 'chip & pin' key pads in shops etc.
I know one supermarket where they look a bit 'tatty' and not so clean. I wonder what today's TV News and Papers would have made of the Asian Flu in 1957, and the Hong Kong Flu in 1968. These killed a lot more people than the current Flu epidemic, but we were young then having our fun. The only 'scare' that worried me was the Polio one in the 50's, and I remember standing with workmates in a long queue near the Council House for a jab.
oldmohawk
I know one supermarket where they look a bit 'tatty' and not so clean. I wonder what today's TV News and Papers would have made of the Asian Flu in 1957, and the Hong Kong Flu in 1968. These killed a lot more people than the current Flu epidemic, but we were young then having our fun. The only 'scare' that worried me was the Polio one in the 50's, and I remember standing with workmates in a long queue near the Council House for a jab.
oldmohawk
Louisa
master brummie
OldMohawk You are so right.
If we stop and think there must be quite a few things which we all use or touch in our everyday life which could be cross infected by numerous other people using them before us.
I know when I was at work that a phone cleaning company used to periodically come round to disinfect the phones maybe we need a similar scheme for chip and pin keypads.
I must admit I have been more cautious lately about what I touch when out and use a dettol wipe or a tissue to touch any buttons in lifts or even to clean the supermarket trolley handles.
I have never given much thought to the pin and chip buttons in shops and banks which most of us use and I think you are right and this too is an area of cross contamination which should be looked at with the present flu problems.
If we stop and think there must be quite a few things which we all use or touch in our everyday life which could be cross infected by numerous other people using them before us.
I know when I was at work that a phone cleaning company used to periodically come round to disinfect the phones maybe we need a similar scheme for chip and pin keypads.
I must admit I have been more cautious lately about what I touch when out and use a dettol wipe or a tissue to touch any buttons in lifts or even to clean the supermarket trolley handles.
I have never given much thought to the pin and chip buttons in shops and banks which most of us use and I think you are right and this too is an area of cross contamination which should be looked at with the present flu problems.
maggs
master brummie
Yes it would Lyn, but perhaps someone would have the bright idea of it being against human right's.
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
Just wondering what 'funny looks' I'd get in the supermarket, if I started to clean the key pads before I used them, and to be fair after I used them. Could wear disposable gloves - maybe if things worsen we might be told to do this. I've got some £ coins in my pocket!!!
It's a risky old world
It's a risky old world
maggs
master brummie
I had that Hong Kong flu in the 1960's, and was so ill, I really thought I was going to die, it took a month before I felt any better. When I think I was only in my twenties, I can imagine how it would kill and old person. Are there any figures saying just how many people lost their lives to that particular one?
louisa...thank you very much for your memories...i enjoyed reading them....as suggested by a few members there must be all sorts of things we touch when we are outside...bus rails...chip and pin pads...money....anything in a shop that has already been touched by someone else.. the list is endless...but we cant stop living and letting it turn into some sort of paranoia..i always carry a litlte bottle of that antibacterial hand gel in my bag....put some on before i go out and either wash my hands when i return or slap on some more hand gel....
astoness
astoness
maggs
master brummie
I do exactly the same. The hand gel is permanently in my handbag. It's handy if there is no way of washing your hands before eating. Does anyone remember when GPO as it was used to come around to all offices on a regular basis and take the telephones to pieces and disinfect them..those were the days weren't they?
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
According to the Daily Telegraph site, 1 million people died and by September 1968, the virus entered California, carried by troops returning from the Vietnam War, and by December had spread through America. The following year it spread through Japan, Africa and South America. Deaths around the world peaked in December 1968 and January 1969 with the elderly being hit hardest. However, the flu remained virulent and hit hard again the following winter. 30,000 people in England and Wales died from it, including 2850 in one week in January 1970.
Seems like you were lucky Maggs.
oldmohawk
maggs
master brummie
Thanks for all those facts and figures Old Mohawk. It must have been my age that saved me. I do know that I have never felt so ill in my life as I did at that time. It was extremely nasty. I was vomiting constantly with it. Lost weight being unable to eat. Let's hope we never get one like that again.