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Childhood Memories

Wendy,

I could provide you with a job for life! :) I'm not really a chores person, they get in the way of other things I'd far sooner do at this time in my life!

Maurice :cool:
 
I remember the water in the outside loo freezing over in the pan. Nan wore wooly socks over her stockings. I can see her cooking with her old coat on with her apron on in the kitchen with a small woolly hat too. Fetching in the frozen rigid sheets and the steam coming off the small mangle in the yard, she had to put her foot on it or it slipped. I liked to play with the roller adjusters they reminded me of aeroplanes no idea why, they were grooved and cream and blue. She had a big mangle in the kitchen for sheets. It had an aluminium cover which served as a worktop.Nan called alloominum!
 
Pete,

I didn't say I was watching BHF - and I wasn't! :)

But to get this back on thread, I used to love watching my dad repairing shoes with the three-legged iron last, a hammer, and some "rivets", as he used to call them, but were actually tacks. But shoes were always repaired in those days, not intoday's throw away age. One thing that he planted just after the war was a Cox's Orange Pippin apple tree, which I think he ordered from some advertiser in "The Smallholder". When we left the house in 1950s and it was then in it's second year of fruiting. It was still there last year on Google Street View and it must now be over 75 years old.

Maurice :cool:
 
I think that's the idea, Alan. Put on a boring programme and at the end of it is a good time to put out bad news as most of the public will either be asleep or watching some "enthralling" reality show on the other channel! :)

Maurice :cool:
 
As a nipper, me & some mates would ride our bikes to Walmley, sometimes scrumping, sometimes knocking the conkers off a massive tree, & sometimes creeping round to the lake at the back of Penns Hall Hotel for some fishing. I always fancied buying a house in Walmley but never did. Se la vie.

True love never dies, but sometimes wobbles.
 
I used to work with a guy who, because he had holes in the soles of his shoes, used to take four or five punched cards and cut them to shape as insoles!

Maurice :cool:
 
sospiri said:
Pete,

I didn't say I was watching BHF - and I wasn't! :)

But to get this back on thread, I used to love watching my dad repairing shoes with the three-legged iron last, a hammer, and some "rivets", as he used to call them, but were actually tacks. But shoes were always repaired in those days, not intoday's throw away age. One thing that he planted just after the war was a Cox's Orange Pippin apple tree, which I think he ordered from some advertiser in "The Smallholder". When we left the house in 1950s and it was then in it's second year of fruiting. It was still there last year on Google Street View and it must now be over 75 years old.

Maurice :cool:
sospiri said:
Pete,

I didn't say I was watching BHF - and I wasn't! :)

But to get this back on thread, I used to love watching my dad repairing shoes with the three-legged iron last, a hammer, and some "rivets", as he used to call them, but were actually tacks. But shoes were always repaired in those days, not intoday's throw away age. One thing that he planted just after the war was a Cox's Orange Pippin apple tree, which I think he ordered from some advertiser in "The Smallholder". When we left the house in 1950s and it was then in it's second year of fruiting. It was still there last year on Google Street View and it must now be over 75 years old.

Maurice :cool:
Click to expand...
Grandad repaired nan's best court shoes with a last. They lasted for years. Hr repaired all our shoes till the modern shoes came in. And He would re tack the carpet up the stairs.
I still have Nan's cast iron mint chopper, I refuse to throw it out, it comes in handy, as a tool and grandad's stool he made at school. I either have to kneel these days or sit on it to paint and things or just lie on the floor.
Click to expand...
 
Does any one now why shoe repairers are called snobs ? We have one in Chelmsley Wood shopping Centre, he also cuts keys. Eric
 
sospiri said:
Wendy,

I could provide you with a job for life! :) I'm not really a chores person, they get in the way of other things I'd far sooner do at this time in my life!

Maurice :cool:
Click to expand...

Hi Maurice , I still enjoy getting stuck into jobs I need to do.. but not so energetically as when I was a kid haha I have trouble sitting and looking at a job that needs doing, maybe I need to chill out haha The one chore I still really enjoy is the gardening , I love my garden :)

Wendy
 
Bob,

I can't beat that rich man's price that you offered to Wendy - does that include First Class air fare?

Wendy,

No one wants to work on our patch of land. I won't call it a garden because it consists of around two inches of poor topsoil on top of solid limestome for the most part. Even the guy round the corner is reluctant to put the plough over it unless we've had lots of rain. Pomegranates and almonds seem to grow OK, and the Greek white onions, because they need very little water, but it's extremely hard work trying to cultivate it. But like most plots of land, weeds grow well! :)

Maurice :cool:
 
My dad used to come home from work and take his Hungarian Goulashes off, as he called them....

I remember the smiley rosy faced coleman who called Nan missus, carrying a sack of coal up the long jitty then up the garden on his shoulder to the back door almost, at my grandparents. Dump it on a piece of corrugated iron to stop it getting wet. I think they covered it up a bit. Nan had a special coal shovel which she shovelled it in to the tall scuttle, I used to 'help' with my little spade and take the slack to fill in the gaps. Nan would moan and say he had given her a load of nutty slack? I liked it when it was wet and it spat when lighting it. Nan used tongues on the big pieces. I struggled to balance it, it was heavy and she said I was cock 'onded or boss 'onded. I can smell it now.
And the bin man hoisted the heavy bin up on his back. Nan couldn't lift it even when it was empty she sort of rolled it. Bins always at the bottom of the garden, not like now, under the windows. Ours are still kept at the bottom.
We had an egg man, a Betterwear man, bread man, milk man, laundry man. Chimney sweep. A lamp lighter till I was about 5. No mod cons! Insurance man. All stayed on the doorstep.
 
mw0njm. said:
the overcoat on the bed. i could do with that coat now
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I do sometimes, put one on. Well a toweling robe!.

It was Gran's birthday last week so I took some flowers to the crem. Her favourtie. Gyp. Then I got my guitar out and sang some of her songs, Joshua, Joshua oh what a silly sos you are, (can't remember the next few lines) then Joshu osh you are!
Monkey Cock yer Tail Up, Jesus Loves me Yes I know, The Crossway Sweeper, which used to make me want to cry. Come Little Girl for A Sail With Me up In My Bonny Ball ooo oooon! She didn't have much of a voice but she could deliver a song.
Blame the storm on me!
 
Nico said:
I do sometimes, put one on. Well a toweling robe!.

It was Gran's birthday last week so I took some flowers to the crem. Her favourtie. Gyp. Then I got my guitar out and sang some of her songs, Joshua, Joshua oh what a silly sos you are, (can't remember the next few lines) then Joshu osh you are!
Monkey Cock yer Tail Up, Jesus Loves me Yes I know, The Crossway Sweeper, which used to make me want to cry. Come Little Girl for A Sail With Me up In My Bonny Ball ooo oooon! She didn't have much of a voice but she could deliver a song.
Blame the storm on me!
Click to expand...
Wonderful posts thanks Nico bought a smile to my face and a tear to my eye
 
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Gran also said if she was giving you something, " do you want it in your hand Mrs Murphy, or do you want it lying down?" Can anyone shed any light on this please? Dad said it too but only with Gran.(his mam).
She would la la la to The Irish Washerwoman melody, "With egg an' tomatas all over me garters" which I found a tongue twister.
 
Nico said:
My dad used to come home from work and take his Hungarian Goulashes off, as he called them....

I remember the smiley rosy faced coleman who called Nan missus, carrying a sack of coal up the long jitty then up the garden on his shoulder to the back door almost, at my grandparents. Dump it on a piece of corrugated iron to stop it getting wet. I think they covered it up a bit. Nan had a special coal shovel which she shovelled it in to the tall scuttle, I used to 'help' with my little spade and take the slack to fill in the gaps. Nan would moan and say he had given her a load of nutty slack? I liked it when it was wet and it spat when lighting it. Nan used tongues on the big pieces. I struggled to balance it, it was heavy and she said I was cock 'onded or boss 'onded. I can smell it now.
And the bin man hoisted the heavy bin up on his back. Nan couldn't lift it even when it was empty she sort of rolled it. Bins always at the bottom of the garden, not like now, under the windows. Ours are still kept at the bottom.
We had an egg man, a Betterwear man, bread man, milk man, laundry man. Chimney sweep. A lamp lighter till I was about 5. No mod cons! Insurance man. All stayed on the doorstep.
Click to expand...
I can remember the same such things Nico, lovely memories of family and having grannie around as ours lived with us... it was our childhood, hasn't life changed? I can remember all those house callers except the egg man!
Wendy
 
Nico said:
I do sometimes, put one on. Well a toweling robe!.

It was Gran's birthday last week so I took some flowers to the crem. Her favourtie. Gyp. Then I got my guitar out and sang some of her songs, Joshua, Joshua oh what a silly sos you are, (can't remember the next few lines) then Joshu osh you are!
Monkey Cock yer Tail Up, Jesus Loves me Yes I know, The Crossway Sweeper, which used to make me want to cry. Come Little Girl for A Sail With Me up In My Bonny Ball ooo oooon! She didn't have much of a voice but she could deliver a song.
Blame the storm on me!
Click to expand...
loverly
:sob::sob:
 
Nico has got it off to a tee. And what so endears me to rural Greek life here is very much that - family. The old folks aren't put in a home, it's part of the family tasks to look after them. Perhaps this is why crime levels are so low and people respect each other. I would never want that to change.

Maurice :cool:
 
sospiri said:
Nico has got it off to a tee. And what so endears me to rural Greek life here is very much that - family. The old folks aren't put in a home, it's part of the family tasks to look after them. Perhaps this is why crime levels are so low and people respect each other. I would never want that to change.

Maurice :cool:
Click to expand...
If you did anything wrong Maurice your Gran would batter you!
 
Nico said:
If you did anything wrong Maurice your Gran would batter you!
Click to expand...
French family life is the same but they still have crime. Maybe rural is better? I find they have great respect for anybody especially older people. It's always Monsieur. et Madame, everywhere you come in to contact, unless you say otherwise. Tradesmen and gardeners say bonjour and shakehands always, road workers say bonjour. I am told it is starting to die out with younger people they say they are becoming Americanised.
 
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wendylee said:
I can remember the same such things Nico, lovely memories of family and having grannie around as ours lived with us... it was our childhood, hasn't life changed? I can remember all those house callers except the egg man!
Wendy
Click to expand...
Nan always got a kiss off the egg man. Then I saw a TV series come up A Kiss off The Egg Man.
I forgot the road sweeper with his little cart. Mum and dad had a fish man too. The Rag and bone man's son was in my class
 
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