I think a lot of it is what you get used to as background levels. Nowadays most people take a shower every day, I was used to washing "the bits that show" every day and a bath once a week. Go back even further and hot water is something you have to boil up in a kettle.
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Did we smell?
- Thread starter rowan
- Start date
I Am Nico
master brummie
How we miss it when something goes wrong. had a B&B with no hot water so I boiled a kettle twice and washed my hair in the sink. and my feet washed various bits with a flannel. then my feet in the sink. We used to have flannels for different bits as i remember. We were more organised then I think, We had to use our brains.
Smudger
master brummie
People often refer to "The good old days" with nostalgia, but back in those days the smells must have been pretty awful. I used to carry a posy with me, no matter how "camp" i looked, & may i say, i had a bath once a year whether i need one or not!! Seriously though, can you imagine when people emptied their waste products out of the window onto the streets below. Yuk! Good job there were no skyscrapers back then.
H
Happyguy
Guest
Well, i didnt smell for sure. Our Mom made sure we were always spotless clean, good old Lifeboy Toilet soap and a scubbing brush did the trick, strip down swills were the order of the day, and a bath on Friday night weather i needed one or not LOL.
1950/60s memory.
1950/60s memory.
hi smudger
did you ever have the big long bar of green carbolic soap or did you have the red bar of life boys soap we used to get was on offer
meaning old gal barns at the bottom of our terrace would always seem to run out when we had the ration tokens
mind you we had some posh people up our terace ;i wont name them because they might be on the forum,
but will not come foreward to say they come from old cromwell terrace but any way ; there was ten of us in our little one up and one down
house and a little scullry no bigger than an out side toilet beleive me ;and we had to step into the scullery to step on the stair case to get to bed
as we stepped into the scully on your left was the brown sink and facing you was the old gas stove ; and almost touching it was the stair case and as you step into the scully door frame thats where we had to keep our coal which we had to buy from diggers the news agents ;and dents hardware if he ran out ;we kept a long tin bath on the fench betwen old gal marshall and our garden ; sunday nights was our bath night in front of the fire one by one one mother had bathed us when we was little kids and it was out of the bath and the old man would be sitting there having all lined up with a spoon of cod liver oil
when we got bigger by the age of eight and nine we all went down to victoria baths on a sat morning ; and we all went into seprate baths those big sunken bathes with huge bras taps and the attentants would only put a little water in them we had to tell him if its okay and not to hot our old man would be pacing up and down the corridor shouting to us are you okay ;
we may have been poor but we was always kept clean; and we had the green carbolic soap later we had the life bouys soap the red one ; wow we thought ;
and our house never smelt either our mother gave up her life for us ten kids when the old man died in 1959 of lung cancer ;
she was brought up from a wealthy family but she turned her back on them and they turned there back on her
well at least her father did ernest jelf when her mother died in 1953 she used to come regular and bring her presents and take her shopping
whilst he got his bussines and women running around with and taken hem abroad his own daughter he shunned because he never liked my father
Astonian;;
did you ever have the big long bar of green carbolic soap or did you have the red bar of life boys soap we used to get was on offer
meaning old gal barns at the bottom of our terrace would always seem to run out when we had the ration tokens
mind you we had some posh people up our terace ;i wont name them because they might be on the forum,
but will not come foreward to say they come from old cromwell terrace but any way ; there was ten of us in our little one up and one down
house and a little scullry no bigger than an out side toilet beleive me ;and we had to step into the scullery to step on the stair case to get to bed
as we stepped into the scully on your left was the brown sink and facing you was the old gas stove ; and almost touching it was the stair case and as you step into the scully door frame thats where we had to keep our coal which we had to buy from diggers the news agents ;and dents hardware if he ran out ;we kept a long tin bath on the fench betwen old gal marshall and our garden ; sunday nights was our bath night in front of the fire one by one one mother had bathed us when we was little kids and it was out of the bath and the old man would be sitting there having all lined up with a spoon of cod liver oil
when we got bigger by the age of eight and nine we all went down to victoria baths on a sat morning ; and we all went into seprate baths those big sunken bathes with huge bras taps and the attentants would only put a little water in them we had to tell him if its okay and not to hot our old man would be pacing up and down the corridor shouting to us are you okay ;
we may have been poor but we was always kept clean; and we had the green carbolic soap later we had the life bouys soap the red one ; wow we thought ;
and our house never smelt either our mother gave up her life for us ten kids when the old man died in 1959 of lung cancer ;
she was brought up from a wealthy family but she turned her back on them and they turned there back on her
well at least her father did ernest jelf when her mother died in 1953 she used to come regular and bring her presents and take her shopping
whilst he got his bussines and women running around with and taken hem abroad his own daughter he shunned because he never liked my father
Astonian;;
I Am Nico
master brummie
US un must a bin ooh la posh too, we had a bath in the kitchen with a lid, ii the small kitchen it was filthy inside and we never used it. We had a copper feeding a zinc bath each, coming down in size to me. Then we saved up and had a bathroom built on around 1961 with bare plaster walls and a toilet in it! Built where the coal shed was and the old outside loo. My mate was the 13th child and they never smelled either I don't know where they put them all as their house was smaller than ours downstairs. The girl in my class who smelt was an only one as was I then, and she always looked sad. I fee sad now for not feeling sad for her then.
brenda barr
master brummie
Like a lot of us astonites we never had a bathroom ..it was always the old tin bath in the kitchen luckily we had an ascot water heater, but we also had to have kettles of water boiling to help keep the water warm, infact the morning l came to America l had my bath in the kitchen and l was so nervous l threw up.....those were not happy days......l don't ever remember anyone smelling unless it was mothballs....there was one girl in my class at school that smelled and when we undressed for PE it was even worse her underwear was grey never white .. Brenda
Hi Brenda ;
Very True Us Astonians And Astonites Never Had Bath rooms It Was Tin baths and yes we never had an ascot water it was kettles after kettles
but it came in handy for me one year when i was about eight years old ; our mom was having another baby ; cor she was like a rabbit breeding
people used to say core blimey does your old fellew want his own foot ball team;
when she went to the hospital stay at the Q,E, dad Looked after us got us up and off to school ; but one day i never came straight home
from school ;and went to the serpent ground after the fair had packed up and gone scouriing for chalk orniments or odd pennies or the odd coconut
and on this day it got dark quickly and we was sliding around on a frosted patch just close to aston parish church railing co,s thats the way we got
through the grave yard i slipt on ice i was wearting shorts and unknown to myself i had two gashes on my kneees
and they was pouring with blood any way we went home to lichfield road in the dark
incidently i did find a coconut and took it home; as ui said got home looked through the chinks of the curtain seing my brothers and sister sitting down with the old man i thought i m now in big trouble i walked in and it was now 7 oclock and i had this coconut in my hand
and i thought what am i gonna tell him i ve been to colins house and put the coconut in the tin bath on the fence
yes he roared at me and gave me a clip around the ear ole and i cryed and he said up to bed no tea right he sid i was crying
then i blarted out to him ; dad ; i found a coconut and he said well where is it then i said in the tin bath he said goe out side and bring it in ;
so then he said get me the hammerhe cracked it open and i never got sent to bed for that but he told my mother bwhen he went to visit her in hospital;
good old tin baths then he done away wewith them its cheaper to take you lot up to victoria rd swimming baths and get in those bathes i think it was a penny each and we all had our own baths instead of waiting for each other to get out the bath and get in after each other astonian;;
Very True Us Astonians And Astonites Never Had Bath rooms It Was Tin baths and yes we never had an ascot water it was kettles after kettles
but it came in handy for me one year when i was about eight years old ; our mom was having another baby ; cor she was like a rabbit breeding
people used to say core blimey does your old fellew want his own foot ball team;
when she went to the hospital stay at the Q,E, dad Looked after us got us up and off to school ; but one day i never came straight home
from school ;and went to the serpent ground after the fair had packed up and gone scouriing for chalk orniments or odd pennies or the odd coconut
and on this day it got dark quickly and we was sliding around on a frosted patch just close to aston parish church railing co,s thats the way we got
through the grave yard i slipt on ice i was wearting shorts and unknown to myself i had two gashes on my kneees
and they was pouring with blood any way we went home to lichfield road in the dark
incidently i did find a coconut and took it home; as ui said got home looked through the chinks of the curtain seing my brothers and sister sitting down with the old man i thought i m now in big trouble i walked in and it was now 7 oclock and i had this coconut in my hand
and i thought what am i gonna tell him i ve been to colins house and put the coconut in the tin bath on the fence
yes he roared at me and gave me a clip around the ear ole and i cryed and he said up to bed no tea right he sid i was crying
then i blarted out to him ; dad ; i found a coconut and he said well where is it then i said in the tin bath he said goe out side and bring it in ;
so then he said get me the hammerhe cracked it open and i never got sent to bed for that but he told my mother bwhen he went to visit her in hospital;
good old tin baths then he done away wewith them its cheaper to take you lot up to victoria rd swimming baths and get in those bathes i think it was a penny each and we all had our own baths instead of waiting for each other to get out the bath and get in after each other astonian;;
farmerdave
master brummie
What with Astoness and Astonian, we now have Astonite. The latter sounds like a rock or mineral, e.g. bauxite, calcite and malachite. Definition of Astonite: a rare mineral found only in the north-central region of Birmingham. It has a hard shell that is impervious to water and is able to withstand many knocks and scrapes. Characterised by an inner-core which is soft and warm. I'm from Hall Green, but Hall Greenonian or Hall Greenite, just doesn't have the same ring. Best wishes. Dave.
B
BernardR
Guest
Astonite in fact joined the forum February 2nd, 2008.
brenda barr
master brummie
l have tried to send you a reply but your e-mail keeps coming back....if you try George Ellisons and Tufnal site here, you will find some info on the painting by Dame Laura Knight....Brenda