remember when we first got our wringer machine. But I also recall that mum still used the old copper boiler for sheets and towels. The sheets would then go into the concrete tubs filled with cold water and some Bluo?? bags, to whiten them!!
My mum used to be an oven and fridge cleaning fanatic. On the stove she used something called Atamax that you painted on with a brush and it was very strong- burnt your hands and if you got it on aluminium it made a mark you couldnt get off.
Remember Chemico, not sure if it is still available but it was pink gritty sort of cleaners in a round pot, also sandsoap, a greyish block, used to use it when scrubbing the door step, doubt many doorsteps get scrubbed these days.
the mincer and the bean slicer which you fastened on the table! I still have a flat tip on my index finger from putting it in the miner when I was 4 "to see what would happen".
remember xmas puddings with the threepences wrapped in tin foil. What about pressure cookers, still remember the whoosh when the vent went up. Cloth nappies, almost a thing of the past now although my eledest daughter used them
wasn't the toothpaste in tins called Dentifrice? I thought it tasted horrible.What about that powder you sprinkled in your hair if you didn't want to wash it? Little peice of sunlight soap in a shaker thingy instead of dishwash liquid?
Crafts and homemade gifts were a big thing in our house. Knitting cardigans or jerseys, crocheting or tatting doiles and dresser sets, or edged initialed hankies and flannels, tapestries as gifts were common amongst the relatives.
As a kid in the UK I can remember these disgusting green tiles on the kitchen walls. No carpet in the bedrooms. Toilet paper like greaseproof. Huge earthenware hot water bottles. I had the most beautiful really old musical box
cuckoo clock and granfather clocks. Used to visit houses with those tall clock with the big chains. we had a chiming clock on the mantle piece. Photos were also next to it. Mum said never put a mirrot above the fire place - for obvious reasons . we had a sitting room for all those visitors and a living room for us monkeys to play around in. 3 bedrooms. single beds with wire wove and kapoc mattresses!! Mum used to make our beds bringing in the coal from the yard, cooking on
coal range - using the boiler outside to wash, dressing chickens
I remember our house had a coal range and mum used that as well as a gas oven. She'd have soups, casseroles or rice puddings on the go all the time. There was an airing rack above it and our socks and undies would be aired out there. I also remember the big old wooden radios, such a lovely deep tone they had.
Your curly hair comment reminded me of how mum would tie my hair in 'rags' at night so that I had these gorgeous ringlets the next day. My hair was dark, fine and straight, but now when I look back at photos it seems always curly
And I loved the enamel jug full of hot cocoa being kept lovely and warm for we kids when we got in from school on a winter's afternoon. That and the freshly baked Golden Syrup biscuits cooked in the oven on the coal range! Yumm
Yes to come home wet and cold from school and warm up in front of the coal range.And yes hot soup at the ready.hot scones and pikelets. We always had the big black erns on the pot belly at school filled with cocoa for our lunch.all had our own mugs and as I likes the little lumps of powdered mild that settled on the top ,I was allowed up first ,and the teacher would skim them off and put them in my mug
in our kitchen (where we had pretty much all our meals unless we had company) there was the most comfortable couch piled high with pillows, the arms were wooden & scarred from years of kids kicking against them. It was just the best place to cuddle up when you weren't feeling well. Or, sitting on the little seats beside the coal range. Great isn't it when you can remember what was on the mantlepiece 50 years ago but can't remember what you did yesterday.
Poultice?? Not sure of the spelling here, but did anyone's mum apply a poultice to your back or chest when you were ill? I can barely recall that now, but have a fleeting memory of really hating it. Probably because it was always related to being sick.
Growing up in wellington in a house in Roseneath (mega money now) we had two bedrooms, lounge and sitting/dining room. The lounge was mainly kept for best while the sitting room had an oak table and chaiurs with drop out seats and a roll arm couch which was used as a horse (sitting on the arms) and was great. We had a gas fire with those funny sort of white plaster for want of a better word grills. Front door opened into hall and had a glass window in the top which let in the light, we used to try to jump the dust in the air that the light rays threw up. Had a big collection of china horses sitting on the window ledge, used to love arranging them and playing with them. Remember parents used to have folk around to play canasta. All a long time ago now.
Who used to get Vicks ointment rubbed on their chest when you had a cold, had to drink, Lanes Emulsion, Milk of Magnesia, Syrip of Figs, Malt etc etc, no wonder I am so healthy today LOL
My nanas
pet remedies were Friars Balsam in a jug of hot water which you inhaled with a towel over your head, lemon barley water in a big jug beside the bed, and one really strange one I remember mum trying on us when we had a cold was tucking us into bed with garlic in our socks. Cant recall if that one worked. I was in bed for nearly 3 months with congestion of the lungs when I was small and to keep me amused mum got some small day old chicks and I used to have them on the bed on a tall sided tray. Not for to long because they grew fairly quickly.
Reminds me of the coloured day old chicks they used to have at Easter time. They would inject the egg with dye and hatch out all these pretty coloured chicks. Boy!! They wouldn't be allowed to do that now.
remember the home baking Mum made. I use to like the ginger biscuits, what a lovely smell, melting moments, Lousie cake with homemade jam, hokey pokey....
always having at least five or six different home made cakes and biscuits in the tins at all times.Or more. Now Your lucky if there is two.Dont cook like I used to,or bottle fruit make pickle and jam.
If I bake these days I either eat it (bad for the figure, wot figure?!) or give it away. Like you I did jams, pickles blah, blah. But, at Christmas, my puds and cakes are in demand from the family
we got married and lived in a small one bedroom flat 4pd per week, we had all secondhand furniture with the exception of a formica table and chairs that we paid off. None of the expensive electrical gadgetry that is a must now. We progressed to a new 2 bedroom house and added another bedroom when we could afford it, if I recall it was a state advances mortgage, house cost $7,000 and section $1,300. A treat each shopping day was a pkt of mellowpuffs which when we were first married cost 1/3 how times have changed.
We married in 1958 48years ago tomorrow we bought a new bedroom suit,dining table and chairs (yes formica) And twin beds ,all new ,Then added as we could afford them. We bought our first TV set in 1968 Black and white with lots of snow.We were sharemilking so didnt have to buy a house.Bought our first herd of cows three years later paying them off and our first tractor.second hand Massey Fergason and other tools to go fifty fifty in 1961
We bought our house in 1970 for $9750. It was tiny, 11 yrs old, a PTY (Putaruru Timber Yards) one, if anyone remembers those. Three years later we built on two rooms at the back (one upstairs) and that cost us $5000 for the shell, and my husband did all the lining himself to save costs. I did some of the plastering in between looking after kids
In my bedroom I had two wirewove beds with wooden headboards and candlewick bedspreads and old eiderdowns mum had covered several times over the years. An old oak dressingtable with a mirror,a bedside table/bookcase Dad had made from an old kitchen table, a freestanding wardrobe and a fireplace with the fancy brass beading surround There was a carpet square made from off cuts so it was multi-striped. The light was on a long cord which was tied to my headboard.The tongue in grove wooden ceiling was miles away. I would lie in bed counting all the knots in the wood. We had a huge old couch in the kitchen, a coal range and table. The scullery had the sink and safe and we had a huge pantry with shelves to the ceiling full of preserves etc. We used our lounge but only part of it unless we had visitors. The setee and chairs were on castors so we could rearrange the furniture.
The lounge was the only room with wall to wall carpet. It had a huge mantle piece with a magnificant mirror mounted above. We had few treasures on the mantle piece that I can remember. Those things were in a china cabinet . The alcove by the chimney was lined with shelves and they werefull of books and magazines etc. We also had a huge old radio in other corner by the chimney until it was replaced by the TV years later.
We started married life with a personality made bed and an old table and drawers.Old mats and wood stove and copper.Now I still have some of my MIL's beautiful old furniture
2412 30-5
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