ur toilet paper was newspaper cut into squares! Surprised noone has mentioned the milk at school, bought in from the gate about 9-45 & still warm fron the morning sun. I was an "apple monitor" & it was my job to go get the box of apples & open it. I thought it was great coz I was able to select the apple with the most ????? (brown like rust). Thats the ones that go to the pigs now as unsuitable. (ahhhh Russet) I remember getting my first pair of shoes when I was about to start at Wairarapa College. Only other footwear was an old pair of gumboots handed down through all 10 of us kids. And I was allowed to grow my hair instead of the old clippers style crewcut. One of my favorite memories is of the unlocked cars with the keys in the ignition & the houses with windows open & all doors unlocked.
My Gran had squares of newspaper in a sack bag by the 'dunny'. There was also newspapers on the bench next to the seat and we were expected to rip some more squares and kind of crumple them to make them softer if we were there for what was called 'a long jobbie'.
We were also epected to bring home the tissues that were around the apples for the same purpose.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Mum and her nana, ALWAYS wore their singlet under their bras...It was many years before they changed. Does anyone else remember doing that....Also I remember things with little buttons on, that we wore,under jerseys, i think they were called bodicetops or something...there must be some items of clothing we could reminice about.....
We had a vegie garden and fruit trees, I remember wrapping apples to last the winter. Cheese and even butter was cut off a large block by the shopkeeper and bacon was sliced as you waited. Biscuits were in large tins and you had them weighed out too. There was always a tin of broken ones that sold cheaper.
The butcher would skin and joint your rabbit as you waited. Rabbit stew was loved in our home.
After the war my mum kept a couple of pigs at a time and I well remember the hams hanging from the ceiling on the landing at the top of the stairs. When the pigs were ready to be butchered the butcher would call and pick them up. The fishmonger would come round the streets in a van on friday mornings selling his fresh fish.
The only things that came wrapped were little blocks of dates in cellophane. Yummy. Mum made jellies with fruit in them which we took to school in jars and sandwiches. If I remember we had those tin lunch boxes which are becoming fashionable again. We might have some sultanas or peanuts and milk was provided at school.
I still remember going to the corner shop on a Sunday when half the shops shelves were covered up as the products were not allowed to be sold on a Sunday.
We had a vegie garden and fruit trees, I remember wrapping apples to last the winter. Cheese and even butter was cut off a large block by the shopkeeper and bacon was sliced as you waited. Biscuits were in large tins and you had them weighed out too. There was always a tin of broken ones that sold cheaper.
The butcher would skin and joint your rabbit as you waited. Rabbit stew was loved in our home.
After the war my mum kept a couple of pigs at a time and I well remember the hams hanging from the ceiling on the landing at the top of the stairs. When the pigs were ready to be butchered the butcher would call and pick them up. The fishmonger would come round the streets in a van on friday mornings selling his fresh fish.
The only things that came wrapped were little blocks of dates in cellophane. Yummy. Mum made jellies with fruit in them which we took to school in jars and sandwiches. If I remember we had those tin lunch boxes which are becoming fashionable again. We might have some sultanas or peanuts and milk was provided at school.
I still remember going to the corner shop on a Sunday when half the shops shelves were covered up as the products were not allowed to be sold on a Sunday.
Sitting in Dad's huge garden eating the peas. Roaming all over the native bush area at the top of the street we lived in from early morning till tea time. Sledge tracks, swinging vines and secret huts.
Walking along the sewer pipes running down the Ngaio gorge. Mum would have had a fit.
Going to the local bug house, rows of wooden seats and wooden floors to roll our jaffa's down. Always seemed to be cowboy movies. In the exciting parts everyone would stamp their feet on the floor.
Gob stoppers and a huge bag of lollies for 3d.
The bread with the best part being the kissing crust. I also recieved a smack for eating the middle out of the bread on the way home.
Building go carts and sledges out of old bits of wood.
In the winter walking home from school in the pouring rain and mum would have a nice hot bath ready for us and hot milo. School was a good 4 miles away we always had to walk.
Sunday school, we would be given 3d each for the collection. Only went once and I had the bright idea that we should go to the dairy spend the 3d on lollies then go to the park. Took Mum a long time to catch on.
Sure we had a big vege garden but we also had the Chinaman with his horse & dray loaded with lovely fresh fruit & vegies. However my older brother thought it would be fun so he tied a Jumping Jack cracker to the horses tail & lit it. They caught the horse at the top of the Golf Links hill with a very empty dray. Of course none of us knew anything, we thought the horse had just bolted.
Walking along the sewer pipes running down the Ngaio gorge. Mum would have had a fit.
Going to the local bug house, rows of wooden seats and wooden floors to roll our jaffa's down. Always seemed to be cowboy movies. In the exciting parts everyone would stamp their feet on the floor.
Gob stoppers and a huge bag of lollies for 3d.
The bread with the best part being the kissing crust. I also recieved a smack for eating the middle out of the bread on the way home.
Building go carts and sledges out of old bits of wood.
In the winter walking home from school in the pouring rain and mum would have a nice hot bath ready for us and hot milo. School was a good 4 miles away we always had to walk.
Sunday school, we would be given 3d each for the collection. Only went once and I had the bright idea that we should go to the dairy spend the 3d on lollies then go to the park. Took Mum a long time to catch on.
Sure we had a big vege garden but we also had the Chinaman with his horse & dray loaded with lovely fresh fruit & vegies. However my older brother thought it would be fun so he tied a Jumping Jack cracker to the horses tail & lit it. They caught the horse at the top of the Golf Links hill with a very empty dray. Of course none of us knew anything, we thought the horse had just bolted.
I am in my early sixties and one thing I remember very clearly is that on a Friday night Dad used to take the three of us down to the greengrocers and get the veges and fruit for the week. It was a real treat to walk down and if we were very very very good we would get a bottle of Thompson Lewis raspberry. My nana was in Hutt Hospital for many weeks and we used to visit every Sunday - Mum would go into the ward and Dad would take us to a milkbar and buy us one mallowpuff each. It was so exciting to get a mallowpuff and something we looked forward to.
I remember the milk carts with the horses and women racing out to pick up the droppings for their gardens.
Mum used to make the most wonderful individual potato top pies and also Dad's favourite dessert - Apple Amber. She did so much bottling and preserving as well as working full time.
We used to listen to the radio and occasionally were allowed to listen at night - remember Night Beat anyone? When television was first introduced my grandad was one of the first in the street to get a set so everyone used to go to his place to watch.
What about the school milk that used to sit in crates in the sun and then was given out by the milk monitors and you had to drink it, no excuses would be accepted by the teachers. YUK!!! I grin when my grandchildren tell me about the camps they go on. The most exciting thing we did was go to Denhards Bakery and get shown around and at the end of the tour we were given a slice of bread and a lump of dough.
I remember the milk carts with the horses and women racing out to pick up the droppings for their gardens.
Mum used to make the most wonderful individual potato top pies and also Dad's favourite dessert - Apple Amber. She did so much bottling and preserving as well as working full time.
We used to listen to the radio and occasionally were allowed to listen at night - remember Night Beat anyone? When television was first introduced my grandad was one of the first in the street to get a set so everyone used to go to his place to watch.
What about the school milk that used to sit in crates in the sun and then was given out by the milk monitors and you had to drink it, no excuses would be accepted by the teachers. YUK!!! I grin when my grandchildren tell me about the camps they go on. The most exciting thing we did was go to Denhards Bakery and get shown around and at the end of the tour we were given a slice of bread and a lump of dough.
I was born in 1922, and what lovely memories many of you have written. We bought our flour in White linen bags, The sugar bags were heaver weave, and Mum used to soak them and made the boys trousers from the material. It came up nice and soft, and she lined them with flour bags. Now the flour bags were beautiful material and Mum boiled them up in the copper and the brand name was bleached off and it was a lovey linen. We used to make pillow slips from them, also embroider supper cloths.
Everything was home grown, all preserves were done over the kitchen table and we had a wood and coal range to cook on. It had a wee boiler on one end that heated the water to do the dishes.
The old black stove was polished once a week , us children sooted the range on Saturdays and we polished the stove till it shone. We had a big cast iron Kettle that was continually boiling and singing away on the stove all thew time.
At night we all sat round the old coal range opened the oven door and warmed our toes on the rack , and we sang song. No Television, no radio, we did have a piano and everyone joined in the singing.
Mother was a Mother and we were all brought up on love. We had no pennies to go and spend like young ones do today, and we all helped with the chores, it was Life, and we had big singsongs with friends and neighbours.
We all sat at the table for meals too, and never did we leave unless we said 'Please my we leave the table' we all helped to prepare the vegs, and made beds, swept and polished lino floors. Oh I could go on forever. Milk was delivered by horse and cart into our billy each day about thrippence a pint we used to let it sit overnight and skim the most beautiful cream of the top. Yum! it was for real.
All our soap was hand made in big bars, our beauty wash for our face was Oatmeal soaked overnight, Yes we had beautiful skin.
We got a pig and it was home cured and cut up and hooked and covered with cloth and hung from the beams in the kitchen, and I can still remember the taste.
When I was a kid in Wairoa in the 50's my father worked at several butchers shops. He got free meat!! Just imagine we had the best of everything he said he would never eat a sausage that he had not made. Mum would cook a wing rib of beef roast with lovely gravy, home grown green beans (Scarlet Runners) boiled new potatoes sooooo yummy. For pudding was raspberry and apple pie with her homemade pastry which just melted in the mouth. We had black pudding fried with onions mmm, lambs fry and bacon (more yummy gravy). My grown up kids today still remember Grandma's cooking and going up to Wairoa on the railcar. They couldn't have been very old probably 10 when I would put them on the railcar to go to see Grandma and Grandad, told them don't move out of your seat till you get to Wairoa.(from Napier). Mum would take my daughter on the back of her bike down town and over the river to her job gardening. Such special memories. Also down to the Wairoa beach to have a barbecue and cook potatoes.Collect cow manure for the garden. Look out for the cattle that were down by the beach, I was always scared of them.
God yes the night cart man. We used to sit down by the front fence watching himm come along the road and waiting for it to spill. It was the most gross thing we could imagine. And worrying whether we'd be off or on when he open the trap door to change it. God horrors someone seeing our bum! We used to have two cans and dad had to change it mid week. We crumpled the apple tissue paper (all apples were individually wrapped) or really really scrunched up newspaper squares too. We used to go to town with dad every Friday night and one week one of us stuffed far too much newspaper in the can and he couldn't get it out the trap door. 3 kids and no one would own up. We were threatened with not being allowed to go to town if the culprit didn't own up. I said I did it so that we'd get to town. Years later my sister said oh she'd done it alright but I used to tell lies all the time. Jees, when I look back now I could slap her as we ALL got the belt if he knew just one of us did wrong and he couldn't pin it down.
The 'po' under the bed that poor mum emptied every day tho from memory some of them were pretty full. Grandad had a little cupboard beside the beds in his house especially for the po but we didn't, they were just under the bed with a folded newspaper on top. Man oh man. Gosh we had no idea that she had to cart them out to the out house way down the garden path.
We too had to be excused from the table. We sat around it and read from the bible every night and recently said to dad, I am not of your religion dad but I readeth well! He smiled.
Everything was home grown, all preserves were done over the kitchen table and we had a wood and coal range to cook on. It had a wee boiler on one end that heated the water to do the dishes.
The old black stove was polished once a week , us children sooted the range on Saturdays and we polished the stove till it shone. We had a big cast iron Kettle that was continually boiling and singing away on the stove all thew time.
At night we all sat round the old coal range opened the oven door and warmed our toes on the rack , and we sang song. No Television, no radio, we did have a piano and everyone joined in the singing.
Mother was a Mother and we were all brought up on love. We had no pennies to go and spend like young ones do today, and we all helped with the chores, it was Life, and we had big singsongs with friends and neighbours.
We all sat at the table for meals too, and never did we leave unless we said 'Please my we leave the table' we all helped to prepare the vegs, and made beds, swept and polished lino floors. Oh I could go on forever. Milk was delivered by horse and cart into our billy each day about thrippence a pint we used to let it sit overnight and skim the most beautiful cream of the top. Yum! it was for real.
All our soap was hand made in big bars, our beauty wash for our face was Oatmeal soaked overnight, Yes we had beautiful skin.
We got a pig and it was home cured and cut up and hooked and covered with cloth and hung from the beams in the kitchen, and I can still remember the taste.
When I was a kid in Wairoa in the 50's my father worked at several butchers shops. He got free meat!! Just imagine we had the best of everything he said he would never eat a sausage that he had not made. Mum would cook a wing rib of beef roast with lovely gravy, home grown green beans (Scarlet Runners) boiled new potatoes sooooo yummy. For pudding was raspberry and apple pie with her homemade pastry which just melted in the mouth. We had black pudding fried with onions mmm, lambs fry and bacon (more yummy gravy). My grown up kids today still remember Grandma's cooking and going up to Wairoa on the railcar. They couldn't have been very old probably 10 when I would put them on the railcar to go to see Grandma and Grandad, told them don't move out of your seat till you get to Wairoa.(from Napier). Mum would take my daughter on the back of her bike down town and over the river to her job gardening. Such special memories. Also down to the Wairoa beach to have a barbecue and cook potatoes.Collect cow manure for the garden. Look out for the cattle that were down by the beach, I was always scared of them.
God yes the night cart man. We used to sit down by the front fence watching himm come along the road and waiting for it to spill. It was the most gross thing we could imagine. And worrying whether we'd be off or on when he open the trap door to change it. God horrors someone seeing our bum! We used to have two cans and dad had to change it mid week. We crumpled the apple tissue paper (all apples were individually wrapped) or really really scrunched up newspaper squares too. We used to go to town with dad every Friday night and one week one of us stuffed far too much newspaper in the can and he couldn't get it out the trap door. 3 kids and no one would own up. We were threatened with not being allowed to go to town if the culprit didn't own up. I said I did it so that we'd get to town. Years later my sister said oh she'd done it alright but I used to tell lies all the time. Jees, when I look back now I could slap her as we ALL got the belt if he knew just one of us did wrong and he couldn't pin it down.
The 'po' under the bed that poor mum emptied every day tho from memory some of them were pretty full. Grandad had a little cupboard beside the beds in his house especially for the po but we didn't, they were just under the bed with a folded newspaper on top. Man oh man. Gosh we had no idea that she had to cart them out to the out house way down the garden path.
We too had to be excused from the table. We sat around it and read from the bible every night and recently said to dad, I am not of your religion dad but I readeth well! He smiled.
If we did have any market gardens in our area, I can't remember them!
But I will always remember my Mom saying about if you wanted good fruits & veggies, to go to a Chinese store!
the copper was out in the shed along with the concrete twin tubs and quite often, the out house aka toilet.
It would be near impossible to get a building permit to have a copper today what with all the consents, fire restrictions etc. Plus you'd only wake up one morning to find it had been nicked.
When we first got married, we bought an old house that had said copper, tubs and out house in a shed which was normal for the area. Part of the shed held the coal supply as well unless you were lucky enough to own a coal bin!
The newer homes had septic tanks.
My gawd you peeps who have never had an out house, don't realise when you go to the loo, what we had to put up with. No sewer for waste water etc - everything went down into a septic tank. I doubt whether many sections today would be big enough to put a tank down! Writing this, I now wonder where in the hell did our wastewater from the house go! Maybe there was a septic tank there afterall!
The nightman called once a week to change the loo container. Yep, we sat on a flat piece of board with a hole in it. We scrubbed it out with hot water and carbolic [I can still remember the smell!]. In summer, we often also hosed it out.
Yep, we had potties in those days. Do you think we were crazy to go out on a freezing night to use the outhouse? If you have to go and do #2's, then you had no blardy option!
Potties came in enamal or ceramic and often there were little night stands they were kept in. [Next time you look at your bedside cabinet, remember where they originated from :-)) ] Come morning it was trot out to the outhouse, empty them then rinse them out!
For washing, I had to cart hot water from a tap on the outside of the house to the shed when we finally got it electrified and were able to put an agitator washer in.
But oh, rinsing out in cold water in winter was something else.
Whilst we had an electric stove, we didn't have electrified hot water so had to keep the fire going 24/7 for hot water [wetback fireplace to heat the hot water]. It didn't take too long before we installed a unit which we were able to control to keep it going day and night.
Because the sewer was supposed to come through within 12 months of us buying the property, we decided to just sit it out.
Finally some 2 years later, the sewer was being put in which meant we added onto the house, extending the kitchen[complete with Formica cabinet doors and benchtop], adding a laundry and toilet and installed a very large electric hot water tank.
But I will always remember my Mom saying about if you wanted good fruits & veggies, to go to a Chinese store!
the copper was out in the shed along with the concrete twin tubs and quite often, the out house aka toilet.
It would be near impossible to get a building permit to have a copper today what with all the consents, fire restrictions etc. Plus you'd only wake up one morning to find it had been nicked.
When we first got married, we bought an old house that had said copper, tubs and out house in a shed which was normal for the area. Part of the shed held the coal supply as well unless you were lucky enough to own a coal bin!
The newer homes had septic tanks.
My gawd you peeps who have never had an out house, don't realise when you go to the loo, what we had to put up with. No sewer for waste water etc - everything went down into a septic tank. I doubt whether many sections today would be big enough to put a tank down! Writing this, I now wonder where in the hell did our wastewater from the house go! Maybe there was a septic tank there afterall!
The nightman called once a week to change the loo container. Yep, we sat on a flat piece of board with a hole in it. We scrubbed it out with hot water and carbolic [I can still remember the smell!]. In summer, we often also hosed it out.
Yep, we had potties in those days. Do you think we were crazy to go out on a freezing night to use the outhouse? If you have to go and do #2's, then you had no blardy option!
Potties came in enamal or ceramic and often there were little night stands they were kept in. [Next time you look at your bedside cabinet, remember where they originated from :-)) ] Come morning it was trot out to the outhouse, empty them then rinse them out!
For washing, I had to cart hot water from a tap on the outside of the house to the shed when we finally got it electrified and were able to put an agitator washer in.
But oh, rinsing out in cold water in winter was something else.
Whilst we had an electric stove, we didn't have electrified hot water so had to keep the fire going 24/7 for hot water [wetback fireplace to heat the hot water]. It didn't take too long before we installed a unit which we were able to control to keep it going day and night.
Because the sewer was supposed to come through within 12 months of us buying the property, we decided to just sit it out.
Finally some 2 years later, the sewer was being put in which meant we added onto the house, extending the kitchen[complete with Formica cabinet doors and benchtop], adding a laundry and toilet and installed a very large electric hot water tank.
some other stuff i remembered: the teapot with the cosy on it,the big box of wax matches, hot cocoa at school (in a plastic cup), the POSB money boxes, (and the squirrel) Our bank books at school, (we used to bank 6d every tuesday).ahhh that kissing crust on the bread. ad toasting bread on a fork over the open fire with Butter,cinnamon and sugar on friday nights.
The Strand Milk bar, with its juke boxes , the Queens visit and putting on Best Nylon frocks (lol) Standing up at the pictures for the national anthem , which was "God save the Queen "
and our "pets" were mice catchers or "guards", not just a pet !!
My brother making a crystal set and listening to the radio on it
My daughter who is visiting from the US at the moment has spoken about the things her Grandad Jack, an old Irishman used to make. He was a dab hand at making wooden toys etc - a craft that seems to be lost today. I've been encouraging her to write what she can down.
AFAIK, we didn't have undies made of flour bags!
Bodices - omg, yes, I remember those too with those flat fabric covered metal buttons!
Sewing machines - I can vaguely remember my Mom using a treadle machine before she updated it to an electric model which fitted into her Singer cabinet - the highly carved cabinet with the drop piece for the head and the 3 cabinets down the side.
Years later, she traded it in for another model singer with a zig-zag. Gosh what a boon the zig zag was. Pinking shears were part and parcel of her sewing kit along with a monsterous pair of heavy scissors [which my daughter now has!].
Yeah, clothes were home made in our day. Cardis, jumpers, hats etc were knitted. I still have many of my Mum's old knitting patterns, her canvas needle carrier, the bakerlite ball to put the wool in. And who from back then, can't forget putting two kitchen chairs back to back to ball up a skein of yarn! Nope, wool didn't come ready balled in those days!
About two years ago, I pulled out a skein of wool that was ? years old, still in tip top condition and did exactly what she did.
I still have a handknitted shawl, layette and other pieces mostly made by my late Aunty - darn, they must be in like 1ply wool as they rows are so fine w/intricate patterns. Who can remember those hats with little bunny ears which were my fav!
My Mum used to embroider tray clothes, doiles etc some of which I still have. When she died, she had things like dresser hair catchers that I regret not taking [didn't know what they were back then].
It was a very special treat to have a cardi bought from a store.
Coats were bought but handed down!
Going back through pix with my daughter, women were dressed nicely when they went to town! And it appears most wore hats. Hats seemed to be part of a man's going out wardrobe. I can recall men tipping their hats - something that I relished when I went to live in Texas where it's still done as is the handshake!
Women did go out and buy a nice dress or two and definitely more an 'ensemble' for a wedding - and of course the obligatory matching hat, gloves and shoes. Yep we all wore gloves well into the 60's! In fact, they were a mandatory part of our high school uniform both in summer and winter. As were panama hats.
From my view, things really did start changing in the 60's when ready made wear became more accessible and affordable. By then, sewing machines had taken on a new dimension of their own - I used to demo machines for Singer and saw the rapid changes there.
Knitting machines came and went.
Those little brown suitcases we had for school with the flip lock!
No backpacks. Though at high school leather satchels were popular but buggar the metal zips which often broke!
It was nothing to polish our shoes and do the satchel at the same time!
The Strand Milk bar, with its juke boxes , the Queens visit and putting on Best Nylon frocks (lol) Standing up at the pictures for the national anthem , which was "God save the Queen "
and our "pets" were mice catchers or "guards", not just a pet !!
My brother making a crystal set and listening to the radio on it
My daughter who is visiting from the US at the moment has spoken about the things her Grandad Jack, an old Irishman used to make. He was a dab hand at making wooden toys etc - a craft that seems to be lost today. I've been encouraging her to write what she can down.
AFAIK, we didn't have undies made of flour bags!
Bodices - omg, yes, I remember those too with those flat fabric covered metal buttons!
Sewing machines - I can vaguely remember my Mom using a treadle machine before she updated it to an electric model which fitted into her Singer cabinet - the highly carved cabinet with the drop piece for the head and the 3 cabinets down the side.
Years later, she traded it in for another model singer with a zig-zag. Gosh what a boon the zig zag was. Pinking shears were part and parcel of her sewing kit along with a monsterous pair of heavy scissors [which my daughter now has!].
Yeah, clothes were home made in our day. Cardis, jumpers, hats etc were knitted. I still have many of my Mum's old knitting patterns, her canvas needle carrier, the bakerlite ball to put the wool in. And who from back then, can't forget putting two kitchen chairs back to back to ball up a skein of yarn! Nope, wool didn't come ready balled in those days!
About two years ago, I pulled out a skein of wool that was ? years old, still in tip top condition and did exactly what she did.
I still have a handknitted shawl, layette and other pieces mostly made by my late Aunty - darn, they must be in like 1ply wool as they rows are so fine w/intricate patterns. Who can remember those hats with little bunny ears which were my fav!
My Mum used to embroider tray clothes, doiles etc some of which I still have. When she died, she had things like dresser hair catchers that I regret not taking [didn't know what they were back then].
It was a very special treat to have a cardi bought from a store.
Coats were bought but handed down!
Going back through pix with my daughter, women were dressed nicely when they went to town! And it appears most wore hats. Hats seemed to be part of a man's going out wardrobe. I can recall men tipping their hats - something that I relished when I went to live in Texas where it's still done as is the handshake!
Women did go out and buy a nice dress or two and definitely more an 'ensemble' for a wedding - and of course the obligatory matching hat, gloves and shoes. Yep we all wore gloves well into the 60's! In fact, they were a mandatory part of our high school uniform both in summer and winter. As were panama hats.
From my view, things really did start changing in the 60's when ready made wear became more accessible and affordable. By then, sewing machines had taken on a new dimension of their own - I used to demo machines for Singer and saw the rapid changes there.
Knitting machines came and went.
Those little brown suitcases we had for school with the flip lock!
No backpacks. Though at high school leather satchels were popular but buggar the metal zips which often broke!
It was nothing to polish our shoes and do the satchel at the same time!
I'm in my early 50's:
Flicking the silver tops off the milk bottles
Bath once a week
Washing the cloths once a week
No fridge at one house and the milk was stored in a brick pipe buried in the ground
Went out saturday morning to play with friends and came home only for food or when getting dark (aged 7).
No TV, parents played cards and monopoly with the neighbours.
The radio was great.
The Archers. Kids stories and puff the magic dragon.
Only thought to lock the house when going on holiday.
Fresh bread on Sunday with lots of butter.
The 70's colours..Hot orange, brown, yellow often all together.
Pictures 10 cents and don't forget the Sherbet
Sand shoes and roman sandals
Making up games
Cowboys and Indians and cops and robbers
Bullrush
TV starting at 6.00 PM and closing at 10.00 pm
All the kids piled into the car with no thought of safety
At 5 I was put on a bus for school. The next day they had to chase me around the house before I would go again.
35+ kids in each class and all quiet
You wait 'till your father comes home
Clothes line made of one long piece of string with a post in the middle to adjust the height.
Black and white photos that you spent ages posing for
Stamps that you had to lick
Mum ironing clothes with the iron heated on the coal range
5c for a Whitaker chocolate bar and only allowed because we were on holiday
Mum painted the old Vauxhall green, and with a paint brush
Parents kept "secretes" from us kids. We were too young to know lots of "stuff" Now they know everything.
Making bowls from old 33s records. Put them in the oven 'till they went soft then you moulded them into shape.
Making carts to go down steep hills
Mum got dressed up for town
The school principal was always 85 years old.
Condensed milk was 21c and I would sometimes put it on mums "Tab" at the 4square and eat the lot then hide the empty tin.
Flicking the silver tops off the milk bottles
Bath once a week
Washing the cloths once a week
No fridge at one house and the milk was stored in a brick pipe buried in the ground
Went out saturday morning to play with friends and came home only for food or when getting dark (aged 7).
No TV, parents played cards and monopoly with the neighbours.
The radio was great.
The Archers. Kids stories and puff the magic dragon.
Only thought to lock the house when going on holiday.
Fresh bread on Sunday with lots of butter.
The 70's colours..Hot orange, brown, yellow often all together.
Pictures 10 cents and don't forget the Sherbet
Sand shoes and roman sandals
Making up games
Cowboys and Indians and cops and robbers
Bullrush
TV starting at 6.00 PM and closing at 10.00 pm
All the kids piled into the car with no thought of safety
At 5 I was put on a bus for school. The next day they had to chase me around the house before I would go again.
35+ kids in each class and all quiet
You wait 'till your father comes home
Clothes line made of one long piece of string with a post in the middle to adjust the height.
Black and white photos that you spent ages posing for
Stamps that you had to lick
Mum ironing clothes with the iron heated on the coal range
5c for a Whitaker chocolate bar and only allowed because we were on holiday
Mum painted the old Vauxhall green, and with a paint brush
Parents kept "secretes" from us kids. We were too young to know lots of "stuff" Now they know everything.
Making bowls from old 33s records. Put them in the oven 'till they went soft then you moulded them into shape.
Making carts to go down steep hills
Mum got dressed up for town
The school principal was always 85 years old.
Condensed milk was 21c and I would sometimes put it on mums "Tab" at the 4square and eat the lot then hide the empty tin.
In my 70s . Nickers made from the flour bags .sugar bags made into over cloths No fridges freezers. just the safe built on the cold side of the house. for meat milk and butter. Worked really well to. Butcher came delivering meat tuesdays and fridays. Fruit man came round once a week. Bread delivered mon wed and frid. Such big vege gardens. killed our own sheep and wasnt till in the 60s.we bought our first freezer and killed our own beef and pork. We lived 12 miles from the nearest shops. Mum washed in the copper. I am the 7th in the family and Dad got his first car and first washing machine the year I was born.
The butcher came in a van twice a week and if it was a long weekend he would call only once for that week.My mum would buy cornbeef then as that kept well in the safe .( no fridge )
Newspaper was used for the toilet and sometimes for a treat we would have the tissue paper that was used to wrap the apples in.Dad used to dig a hole and empty the toilet tin once week into the garden.
As a child i remember walking to school with my friends and a tummy full of warm porridge. Looking forward to the little bottle of milk we received when we got there. Getting a flick round the ear if i was cheeky. Playing pom pom, hide and seek and scrumping apples on the way home. Dad grew all our vegetables and we helped by killing the slugs and snails at dusk. Blackberry picking was a family outing and making preserves was fun. Walking 5 miles to the train station, each with our own suitcase, to catch the train to the caravan park by the beach once a year. The excitement at Christmas because we were allowed soda pop and peanuts. Making a wish whilst stirring the Christmas pud. Finding a sixpence in the Christmas pud. Cakes were for Birthdays and Christmas only. Shopping was done once a week and everything cooked from fresh. We also had a grocer visit our street once a week in a van. The milkman delivered daily. Butchers had sawdust on the floor. I recall the excitement of owning my own twin tub - it took all day to do the washing and you hung it out on the line or on an airer in front of the fire. Baths were on Sundays - strip wash during the week. No one had a shower except at the school gym
The butcher came in a van twice a week and if it was a long weekend he would call only once for that week.My mum would buy cornbeef then as that kept well in the safe .( no fridge )
Newspaper was used for the toilet and sometimes for a treat we would have the tissue paper that was used to wrap the apples in.Dad used to dig a hole and empty the toilet tin once week into the garden.
As a child i remember walking to school with my friends and a tummy full of warm porridge. Looking forward to the little bottle of milk we received when we got there. Getting a flick round the ear if i was cheeky. Playing pom pom, hide and seek and scrumping apples on the way home. Dad grew all our vegetables and we helped by killing the slugs and snails at dusk. Blackberry picking was a family outing and making preserves was fun. Walking 5 miles to the train station, each with our own suitcase, to catch the train to the caravan park by the beach once a year. The excitement at Christmas because we were allowed soda pop and peanuts. Making a wish whilst stirring the Christmas pud. Finding a sixpence in the Christmas pud. Cakes were for Birthdays and Christmas only. Shopping was done once a week and everything cooked from fresh. We also had a grocer visit our street once a week in a van. The milkman delivered daily. Butchers had sawdust on the floor. I recall the excitement of owning my own twin tub - it took all day to do the washing and you hung it out on the line or on an airer in front of the fire. Baths were on Sundays - strip wash during the week. No one had a shower except at the school gym
remember the excitement when we got a washing machine, also when we got a fridge as we used to keep things in the "safe" which was a cupboard that vented to outside with a mesh covering that would stop the flies etc getting in. The farmer from the "White Swan Dairy" - which is now White Swan Rd - used to come everyday in his horse and cart and we used to run out with our billies for our milk and cream. The horse knew the run and used to just plod along with the farmer in the back if the cart. The section at the corner of Duke st & Dominion Rd was the home paddock for the Ash farm and used to have a haystack and a horse in it!! We grew just about all our vegetables and the next door neighbour had chickens and they used to give us some of their eggs. The only packet food I can remember was Jelly and that was a treat mainly for special occasions. Everything else was weighed out. Another treat was buying the broken biscuits from the grocer. My mother made all our clothes and also sewed for others for what the ladies used to call "pin money." Our butcher was Mr Shaw on Dominion Rd. and he used to buy his animals and kill them himself so he could be happy with the quality he was selling. We had power cuts in Auckland and there was a time when we had to cook our dinner on pots over the fire!! I also remember when pantyhose came in and the relief on being able to ditch those awful stockings and suspender belts. I think we were much healthier then as the food was not processed or sprayed etc. like it is today.
We had the typical ¼acre, large vegie garden .. grew nearly everything we ate any excess my mum sold to the local shop (country town/village). They did buy in potatoes, enough for the whole year from memory. Had chickens for awhile and gooseberry bushes.
Chicken was definitely only eaten at Christmas and occasionally on someones birthday a real treat.
Sweets, chippies and high sugar foods were usually kept for special birthdays (in our neighbourhood)
Mum and all my aunts and grandparents had their own vegie gardens, fruit trees and all did bottling, preserving, jam making as well as chutney, relish and sauce.
Tomato Sauce was Watties or Oak and only bought on special occasions. We mainly had Plum sauce. Same as Fizzy drinks (fanta was my favourite) and Ice cream.
Only bought biscuits were Huntly and Palmers crackers and granny always had choc thins for us kids (we were allowed 2 sandwiched together so didn't get chocolate on her good furniture).
Mum cooked the obligatory meat and 2 vege, with a roast on sunday midday. Puddings were bottled fruit and custard or cream, steamed pud again with either custard, cream of milk. Rice pudding or sago, tapioca, flaked rice, semolina.
We didn't have a lot of fresh fruit unless it was in season.
Trips to the Hawkes Bay for Stone fruit in January and down to the Horowhenua for strawberries and Raspberries too. We had a lemon tree and neighbours had feijoa's. Plums we got from the roadside as did the blackberries, grapefruit came from an aunt, another aunt had bee's so we got our honey in 10lb biscuit tins. Best honey available.
Bread was only white and uncut baracoutta with the Krissycrust yummy, milk came in glass bottles delivered to the gate and with an inch of cream on top, nice on porridge or if lucky on your fruit at tea time. had an aunt who could slice bread as thin as (you could literally see through it). Only had butter or dripping for your sandwiches (margarine was prohibited), we did get peanut butter as a treat from time to time.
We had a twin tub washing machine, rather than the agitator one. Polished wooden floors were considered to be for poor people (couldn't afford carpet).
Drying clothes was out on the line or Mum got Dad to string a couple of lines up in our garage for winter, otherwise she hung things over the fire screen in front of the fire or put them in the oven to dry (until she melted some socks).
Mothers stayed at home, very few married women worked, so they baked, preserved, sewed and gardened as well as ran Plunket, WDFF, etc.
I never had newly bought clothes until I left school in the 70's and could afford to buy my own, everything was homemade or passed down through the families. the exception being shoes and underwear.
Much much more I can remember like the milk bars (I was too young to be allowed to go). Saturday night baths for church on Sunday.
We had the typical ¼acre, large vegie garden .. grew nearly everything we ate any excess my mum sold to the local shop (country town/village). They did buy in potatoes, enough for the whole year from memory. Had chickens for awhile and gooseberry bushes.
Chicken was definitely only eaten at Christmas and occasionally on someones birthday a real treat.
Sweets, chippies and high sugar foods were usually kept for special birthdays (in our neighbourhood)
Mum and all my aunts and grandparents had their own vegie gardens, fruit trees and all did bottling, preserving, jam making as well as chutney, relish and sauce.
Tomato Sauce was Watties or Oak and only bought on special occasions. We mainly had Plum sauce. Same as Fizzy drinks (fanta was my favourite) and Ice cream.
Only bought biscuits were Huntly and Palmers crackers and granny always had choc thins for us kids (we were allowed 2 sandwiched together so didn't get chocolate on her good furniture).
Mum cooked the obligatory meat and 2 vege, with a roast on sunday midday. Puddings were bottled fruit and custard or cream, steamed pud again with either custard, cream of milk. Rice pudding or sago, tapioca, flaked rice, semolina.
We didn't have a lot of fresh fruit unless it was in season.
Trips to the Hawkes Bay for Stone fruit in January and down to the Horowhenua for strawberries and Raspberries too. We had a lemon tree and neighbours had feijoa's. Plums we got from the roadside as did the blackberries, grapefruit came from an aunt, another aunt had bee's so we got our honey in 10lb biscuit tins. Best honey available.
Bread was only white and uncut baracoutta with the Krissycrust yummy, milk came in glass bottles delivered to the gate and with an inch of cream on top, nice on porridge or if lucky on your fruit at tea time. had an aunt who could slice bread as thin as (you could literally see through it). Only had butter or dripping for your sandwiches (margarine was prohibited), we did get peanut butter as a treat from time to time.
We had a twin tub washing machine, rather than the agitator one. Polished wooden floors were considered to be for poor people (couldn't afford carpet).
Drying clothes was out on the line or Mum got Dad to string a couple of lines up in our garage for winter, otherwise she hung things over the fire screen in front of the fire or put them in the oven to dry (until she melted some socks).
Mothers stayed at home, very few married women worked, so they baked, preserved, sewed and gardened as well as ran Plunket, WDFF, etc.
I never had newly bought clothes until I left school in the 70's and could afford to buy my own, everything was homemade or passed down through the families. the exception being shoes and underwear.
Much much more I can remember like the milk bars (I was too young to be allowed to go). Saturday night baths for church on Sunday.
It's the butchers' shops I remember from the 1940s and 50s. White tiled, with the great carcases hanging from hooks down one side of the shop where you tried not to brush them with your clothing as you walked past. Good animal anatomy lessons for wide-eyed children. The sawdust on the red-painted floors that you trudged through, with the blood from the carcases dripping onto it. The strong meaty smell
The family home kept chickens and excess eggs were rubbed with Ovoline and preserved in stone crocks. We never suffered when eggs were on ration, as they were from during the War to 1950, I think - sugar was rationed till then, too.
My mother is now nearly 90 and was an early recycler - people who had been through the Great Depression and the War learned that "wicked waste makes woeful want" so we saved string, passed on outgrown clothes to others and accepted clothes in our turn, turned our sheets sides to middle to make them last longer, and turned the collars on our shirts.
I am in my 70s and remember cuttting a slice off the Taniwha soap bar to put in the soap shaker for doing the dishes. Placing it on top of the dishes in the sink and pouring hot water from the big black kettle that was always simmering on top of the old coal range. The irons were always placed on the side of the stove ready to be placed on the hottest part of the stove on ironing day (once a week).
Our tubs in the wash house were made of wood with the old wringer ready for action and the blue bag. On bath night there would be a special boil up of the copper and the big water dipper would be used to fill the kerosine tin (with homemade wire handle) with the hot water and then carried into the house where the bath was..there was only cold water over the bath and sink. No electricity. Light at night was from a kerosene lamp with mantles. Candles were used to go to bedrooms and it was an outside tin can toilet with a night cart man collecting. Horse and cart milk delivery from a can using pint and half pint dippers.Iceblocks hadn't been thought of so we, on occasions when it was a frosty night, would mix vanilla in some milk and place in an enamel plate, to freeze.What a treat. The war was on and butter was rationed so the drainings from after a roast (left to go cold) was a treat on the end crusts of loaves with pepper and salt. The school gave us an apple a day and a small bottle of milk. My grandmother used to make carraway seed cake and I used to love sitting with her on the back verandah whilst she podded peas or sliced up the beans. We had porridge and top cream and brown sugar. Mum used to make pikelets on a girdle iron.
The family home kept chickens and excess eggs were rubbed with Ovoline and preserved in stone crocks. We never suffered when eggs were on ration, as they were from during the War to 1950, I think - sugar was rationed till then, too.
My mother is now nearly 90 and was an early recycler - people who had been through the Great Depression and the War learned that "wicked waste makes woeful want" so we saved string, passed on outgrown clothes to others and accepted clothes in our turn, turned our sheets sides to middle to make them last longer, and turned the collars on our shirts.
I am in my 70s and remember cuttting a slice off the Taniwha soap bar to put in the soap shaker for doing the dishes. Placing it on top of the dishes in the sink and pouring hot water from the big black kettle that was always simmering on top of the old coal range. The irons were always placed on the side of the stove ready to be placed on the hottest part of the stove on ironing day (once a week).
Our tubs in the wash house were made of wood with the old wringer ready for action and the blue bag. On bath night there would be a special boil up of the copper and the big water dipper would be used to fill the kerosine tin (with homemade wire handle) with the hot water and then carried into the house where the bath was..there was only cold water over the bath and sink. No electricity. Light at night was from a kerosene lamp with mantles. Candles were used to go to bedrooms and it was an outside tin can toilet with a night cart man collecting. Horse and cart milk delivery from a can using pint and half pint dippers.Iceblocks hadn't been thought of so we, on occasions when it was a frosty night, would mix vanilla in some milk and place in an enamel plate, to freeze.What a treat. The war was on and butter was rationed so the drainings from after a roast (left to go cold) was a treat on the end crusts of loaves with pepper and salt. The school gave us an apple a day and a small bottle of milk. My grandmother used to make carraway seed cake and I used to love sitting with her on the back verandah whilst she podded peas or sliced up the beans. We had porridge and top cream and brown sugar. Mum used to make pikelets on a girdle iron.
I was 1 of 6 children living up the road from Glen Innes. Groceries came from the 4 Square or down a weekly trip on foot with baby and sibling on the pram to wander through the small shops (no big supermarket) along Line Road. I remember cheese was cut from a block and honey was big sticky cubes in small boxes. Groceries delivered back to home later in big brown boxes.
Our mum did ALL the baking of cakes, biscuits, slices, sponge cakes and took great pride in them (she was famous for her sponge cakes layered with real cream and preserved berries). A rarity was a store bought cake from the Ernest Adams shop down in GI.
A real treat was small newspaper wrapped packets of fish n chips on a Friday evening to be eaten on the walk home with our mum or we'd be given 50c to take to the back door of the Kohi factory to get broken shortbread - (closest we got to store bought).
Or dad was from Hokianga/Kaeo and our Nana lived along Tamaki Drive and her garden was a half acre section edged with every type of fruiting tree and underplanted with beautiful Dahlias, the interior planted out with ROWS of veges. In those days Nana's place was the centre of the family and weekends were mostly there with all the rellies and our cousins.
Planting, harvesting and preserving all that food was high priority, with lots of card playing, smoking, cups of tea, eating by the adults in between. Our job was to get up the trees and pick collect the fruit, the mums loading up huge galvanised bathtubs with the fruit & veges for pickling and preserving or drying (potatoes & pumpkin) and the dreaded rotten corn into jars in the spare shed under the grapevines. These were happy, satisfied days.
am 55 and I grew up in Titirangi Auckland. We lived a good 15 min walk from the Village but a little closer was a small corner shop owned by Mr Barber. It was attached to the Toby Jug Restaurent. You bought sugar and tea (loose tea) by the pound, biscuits weren't prepackaged in those days they were all in tins and you bought howver many you wanted. I think they were Bycroft biscuits then. Bread came fresh every day and I loved those loaves that you broke apart. I ate the middle out of one of those on the way home from the shops once. Butter was bought by ounces or pounds. We bought meat from the butcher (sawdust on the floor). Until the first supermarket opened there we bought groceries from the 4 square and there was a proper hardware shop where you bought nails and screws etc by weight. My Mum worked full time for most of my childhood but baked everything herself and all meals from scratch.
a lot of people still have gardens or are returning to gardening as a healthy option, plus a lot of women have careers which cuts down on the time it takes to do and make these things.
Let the memories run and listen and learn.
I remember my mum using the copper for the weekly wash, my Uncle would clean and polish it out every Christmas then cook the ham in it, ahhh the smells were wonderful and it would take him all day to do it. Best Ham Ive ever eaten.
When the milk arrived it was always a fight to get to the 'top' milk for our porridge as this was the creamiest part.
When we picked up the bread on our way home from school we would prize the loaves apart and get little hands down into the 'kissy' bit and pull bits off, I remember hollowing out one half once and getting a hiding for it- which I deserved.
Dad hunted so we always had venison, ducks, wild pork etc on the table. Mum kept chooks and tons of fruit trees and my Grandad had a huge vege garden. Seafood involved family and cousins etc and a whole day at the beach where a fire would be lit and the kids cooked spuds in the ashes while the gathering went on.
Same with whitebaiting when mum and the aunts (and kids) would spend hours on the river bank.
Wild blackberries were plentiful and delicious, kids always arrived home scratched and tired with purple lips and fingers.
Entertainment was a singsong around the piano accompanied by any instrument people could lay their hands on.
We loved to make pompoms using the cardboad with the hole in from the top of the milk bottles and did french knitting with cotton reels with 4 little tacks around the top.
Nobody got bored, there were always tadpoles to catch, lupin tracks to explore, swamps to conquer and trees to climb. I
Our mum did ALL the baking of cakes, biscuits, slices, sponge cakes and took great pride in them (she was famous for her sponge cakes layered with real cream and preserved berries). A rarity was a store bought cake from the Ernest Adams shop down in GI.
A real treat was small newspaper wrapped packets of fish n chips on a Friday evening to be eaten on the walk home with our mum or we'd be given 50c to take to the back door of the Kohi factory to get broken shortbread - (closest we got to store bought).
Or dad was from Hokianga/Kaeo and our Nana lived along Tamaki Drive and her garden was a half acre section edged with every type of fruiting tree and underplanted with beautiful Dahlias, the interior planted out with ROWS of veges. In those days Nana's place was the centre of the family and weekends were mostly there with all the rellies and our cousins.
Planting, harvesting and preserving all that food was high priority, with lots of card playing, smoking, cups of tea, eating by the adults in between. Our job was to get up the trees and pick collect the fruit, the mums loading up huge galvanised bathtubs with the fruit & veges for pickling and preserving or drying (potatoes & pumpkin) and the dreaded rotten corn into jars in the spare shed under the grapevines. These were happy, satisfied days.
am 55 and I grew up in Titirangi Auckland. We lived a good 15 min walk from the Village but a little closer was a small corner shop owned by Mr Barber. It was attached to the Toby Jug Restaurent. You bought sugar and tea (loose tea) by the pound, biscuits weren't prepackaged in those days they were all in tins and you bought howver many you wanted. I think they were Bycroft biscuits then. Bread came fresh every day and I loved those loaves that you broke apart. I ate the middle out of one of those on the way home from the shops once. Butter was bought by ounces or pounds. We bought meat from the butcher (sawdust on the floor). Until the first supermarket opened there we bought groceries from the 4 square and there was a proper hardware shop where you bought nails and screws etc by weight. My Mum worked full time for most of my childhood but baked everything herself and all meals from scratch.
a lot of people still have gardens or are returning to gardening as a healthy option, plus a lot of women have careers which cuts down on the time it takes to do and make these things.
Let the memories run and listen and learn.
I remember my mum using the copper for the weekly wash, my Uncle would clean and polish it out every Christmas then cook the ham in it, ahhh the smells were wonderful and it would take him all day to do it. Best Ham Ive ever eaten.
When the milk arrived it was always a fight to get to the 'top' milk for our porridge as this was the creamiest part.
When we picked up the bread on our way home from school we would prize the loaves apart and get little hands down into the 'kissy' bit and pull bits off, I remember hollowing out one half once and getting a hiding for it- which I deserved.
Dad hunted so we always had venison, ducks, wild pork etc on the table. Mum kept chooks and tons of fruit trees and my Grandad had a huge vege garden. Seafood involved family and cousins etc and a whole day at the beach where a fire would be lit and the kids cooked spuds in the ashes while the gathering went on.
Same with whitebaiting when mum and the aunts (and kids) would spend hours on the river bank.
Wild blackberries were plentiful and delicious, kids always arrived home scratched and tired with purple lips and fingers.
Entertainment was a singsong around the piano accompanied by any instrument people could lay their hands on.
We loved to make pompoms using the cardboad with the hole in from the top of the milk bottles and did french knitting with cotton reels with 4 little tacks around the top.
Nobody got bored, there were always tadpoles to catch, lupin tracks to explore, swamps to conquer and trees to climb. I
Our unpasturised milk was delivered and ladeled by hand by the milkman into a Billycan left out on the front step. When bottled milk was made compulsory it was 4 pence [4 cents] a pint!
We had free apples at primary school and a free 1/2 pint of milk each school day. Our mother baked all our meals at home - we never ever went to a restaurant. On Sunday afternoon walks we knew our fathers mood - if he was in a good mood we got a 1 penny ice cream - if not then we got a 1/2 penny ice cream! Sweets of any king were a rarity in our household. Aunties spoiled us rotten at birthday times. We listened to 2ZB to hear the radio "Auntie" tell us where out presents were hidden - great fun! We had the advantage of vast empty padocks all around us in Lower Hutt - we used to take off and be away playing in the open air most of the day - or swimming in the Hutt River at Melling Bridge. I got a bicycle when I went to secondary school - needed it to deliver the Evening Post newspaper. Borrowed 12 shillngs and 6 pence from Mum to buy the bike - and paid it back a 1 shilling a week from the 2 shillings and 6 pence I earned on the delivery run. Sure, we had accidents - cut fingers, sprained ankles, measles, mumps, scarlet fever and the like. These were treated as "part of our growing up" and treated mainly at home. No running off to the doctor because a toe was sore!
I grew up on the outskirts of inner city auckland, the IGA van came around to deliver grocerys, you dropped your shopping list off thru the week, the vegie mans truck came weekly, the milk came in bottles, in rural areas in holidays we got it in billy cans. Fish n' chips for school lunch on a friday was like the ulitmate treat (we always ate fish on fridays) nearly everything was home made, including our clothes, Butcher shops were much the same as real butcher shops today. 5 jaffas for a penny. McD's, KFC, etc didnt exist.
remember the family outings to pick blackberries & mushrooms in season...off we would go with a picnic lunch (jam sandwiches, & fruit cake), & pick buckets of blackberries...they would be made into jam, or preserved for pies in the winter...the mushrooms would be eaten fresh, or preserved for stews etc later...
Us kids would go to the local milking shed, each morning, with the billy, & get milk straight out of the cow...still warm, with a thick crust of cream on top! Nana used to have a scoop for getting the cream off the top...when she got a milk seperator, we would fight for the privilege of turning the handle & seeing the milk & cream coming out of different funnels...lol
Our bread came each day from the local bakery....still hot from the ovens...we would each get a slice, with butter & golden syrup melting & dripping from the heat...YUMMMMMMM
The butcher would be phoned with an order, & shortly after the butcher boy would pant into view on his bike, to deliver the meat...poor wee bugger would always have bruised & scratched legs, from peoples dogs humping his leg...LMAO
The only packet food I remember was Jelly, which we had as a treat, every Sunday night with bottled fruit & cream!
Biscuits came in large tins and were weighed as requested for customers, supermarkets hadnt yet been invented, flour sugar etc all had to be weighed for the customer. Meat and veg was the norm and food was roasted in dripping or lard not cooked with oil as we do now so probably the fat intake was much higher than today. Wholemilk was the only option and came with several inches of cream on the top. Butter was the only option as no margarine available in NZ anyway. I remember being served yoghurt in my teens when that first came on the market and thinking it was quite exotic. Most mums baked so there was not the wide choice of chocolate biscuits etc we have now. I can even remember my mother mincing up liver and making dog biscuits
We had free apples at primary school and a free 1/2 pint of milk each school day. Our mother baked all our meals at home - we never ever went to a restaurant. On Sunday afternoon walks we knew our fathers mood - if he was in a good mood we got a 1 penny ice cream - if not then we got a 1/2 penny ice cream! Sweets of any king were a rarity in our household. Aunties spoiled us rotten at birthday times. We listened to 2ZB to hear the radio "Auntie" tell us where out presents were hidden - great fun! We had the advantage of vast empty padocks all around us in Lower Hutt - we used to take off and be away playing in the open air most of the day - or swimming in the Hutt River at Melling Bridge. I got a bicycle when I went to secondary school - needed it to deliver the Evening Post newspaper. Borrowed 12 shillngs and 6 pence from Mum to buy the bike - and paid it back a 1 shilling a week from the 2 shillings and 6 pence I earned on the delivery run. Sure, we had accidents - cut fingers, sprained ankles, measles, mumps, scarlet fever and the like. These were treated as "part of our growing up" and treated mainly at home. No running off to the doctor because a toe was sore!
I grew up on the outskirts of inner city auckland, the IGA van came around to deliver grocerys, you dropped your shopping list off thru the week, the vegie mans truck came weekly, the milk came in bottles, in rural areas in holidays we got it in billy cans. Fish n' chips for school lunch on a friday was like the ulitmate treat (we always ate fish on fridays) nearly everything was home made, including our clothes, Butcher shops were much the same as real butcher shops today. 5 jaffas for a penny. McD's, KFC, etc didnt exist.
remember the family outings to pick blackberries & mushrooms in season...off we would go with a picnic lunch (jam sandwiches, & fruit cake), & pick buckets of blackberries...they would be made into jam, or preserved for pies in the winter...the mushrooms would be eaten fresh, or preserved for stews etc later...
Us kids would go to the local milking shed, each morning, with the billy, & get milk straight out of the cow...still warm, with a thick crust of cream on top! Nana used to have a scoop for getting the cream off the top...when she got a milk seperator, we would fight for the privilege of turning the handle & seeing the milk & cream coming out of different funnels...lol
Our bread came each day from the local bakery....still hot from the ovens...we would each get a slice, with butter & golden syrup melting & dripping from the heat...YUMMMMMMM
The butcher would be phoned with an order, & shortly after the butcher boy would pant into view on his bike, to deliver the meat...poor wee bugger would always have bruised & scratched legs, from peoples dogs humping his leg...LMAO
The only packet food I remember was Jelly, which we had as a treat, every Sunday night with bottled fruit & cream!
Biscuits came in large tins and were weighed as requested for customers, supermarkets hadnt yet been invented, flour sugar etc all had to be weighed for the customer. Meat and veg was the norm and food was roasted in dripping or lard not cooked with oil as we do now so probably the fat intake was much higher than today. Wholemilk was the only option and came with several inches of cream on the top. Butter was the only option as no margarine available in NZ anyway. I remember being served yoghurt in my teens when that first came on the market and thinking it was quite exotic. Most mums baked so there was not the wide choice of chocolate biscuits etc we have now. I can even remember my mother mincing up liver and making dog biscuits
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Kilbirnie-Lyall Bay Community Centre oral history project.
Life history interviews with seven long-term residents of Kilbirnie and Lyall Bay. All participants have had long associations with the houses they lived in at the time of the interviews. Two still lived in the houses they were born in, another had lived in his house since he was four years old and two others were the children of the builders and lived in houses built by their fathers. Participants were born between 1910 and 1932 and discuss the houses they live in, often family homes; the shops and services available when they were children; changes in the two Wellington suburbs; family life, routines and relationships; their activities as children; and major events such as the Centennial Exhibition and the building of Wellington Airport at Rongotai.
Kilbirnie-Lyall Bay Community Centre oral history project.
Interviews by Hugo Manson
Commissioned by - Kilbirnie-Lyall Bay Community Centre in association with the Kilbirnie Library
OHColl-0403
1993
6 interviews - 17 tapes C60
Alexander Turnbull Library : Oral History Collection
http://ead.natlib.govt.nz/kilbirnie/OHColl-0403view.html
Kilbirnie-Lyall Bay Community Centre oral history project.
Interviews by Hugo Manson
Commissioned by - Kilbirnie-Lyall Bay Community Centre in association with the Kilbirnie Library
OHColl-0403
1993
6 interviews - 17 tapes C60
Alexander Turnbull Library : Oral History Collection
http://ead.natlib.govt.nz/kilbirnie/OHColl-0403view.html
Sunday, January 17, 2010
1950s memories Food and Other
19 Funny now we 50+ kids survived entertaining ourselves with very little in the way of toys and assets. We had the first telly in the street and I can say that was mark for life beginning a radical change. We were able to see what Americans were doing, how much they had in their homes, how they travelled. Up until then it was just peoples stories of travel etc.
Friday school lunch was a pie and donut for 1/6d. The rest of the week was strawberry jam or luncheon sausage sandwiches.
Our mother made all our clothes, from blouses, shorts, school dresses, gym frocks to trousers, undies etc. The only thing I remember being bought from Rendalls or Farmers was singlets and white socks.
Farmers yearly Hector sale was the place to go. We would take the early tram and then the Farmers free bus in and line up at the door. Mum would go head down butt up into the huge bargin bin barrels.
Im not sure that the 50's were better times, just different. Sure we grew all our own food but travel, technology etc was very limited. The 40's and 50's were a very time consuming era, washing took forever in the old copper, dishes were a chore and there were miles of them, homework took forever having to write and rewrite everything (no computers and printers)..Encyclopedias were out of date as soon as you bought them. Now kids have a vast array of information at their finger tips
I think that its probably about merging things that were done well in the past, such as growing our own preservative, chemical free food and embracing the new technology and using it in the best way we can for our families. But JMO
Friday school lunch was a pie and donut for 1/6d. The rest of the week was strawberry jam or luncheon sausage sandwiches.
Our mother made all our clothes, from blouses, shorts, school dresses, gym frocks to trousers, undies etc. The only thing I remember being bought from Rendalls or Farmers was singlets and white socks.
Farmers yearly Hector sale was the place to go. We would take the early tram and then the Farmers free bus in and line up at the door. Mum would go head down butt up into the huge bargin bin barrels.
Im not sure that the 50's were better times, just different. Sure we grew all our own food but travel, technology etc was very limited. The 40's and 50's were a very time consuming era, washing took forever in the old copper, dishes were a chore and there were miles of them, homework took forever having to write and rewrite everything (no computers and printers)..Encyclopedias were out of date as soon as you bought them. Now kids have a vast array of information at their finger tips
I think that its probably about merging things that were done well in the past, such as growing our own preservative, chemical free food and embracing the new technology and using it in the best way we can for our families. But JMO
13I am almost 65 and lots of memories in these above posts.The packet food that I remember is 'Instant Puddings' My sister and I used to pinch 1 or 2 and mix up,put in fridge,and eat the lot,and then get rid of any evidence, before Mum and Dad got home from the milking.This was after walking home 3 miles from school.I could go on and on and on
14 My monday lunch came in a packet at primary school.. Put my order in before the bell at 9am and lunch was delivered to the classroom at 12.. Yes it was 1 piece of fish and a scoop of chips for the princly sum of 1 shilling....For you young ones that was 10 cents lol....
15 Aaaah yes, the old copper boiling away in the wash-house, holding a handful of wooden pegs for Mum to hang the washing out. Corner dairies, with locked, covered shelves, so you couldn't buy certain things on weekends. Buying a HUGE bag of broken biscuits for 3d, and hoping you would get plenty of chockie ones. Going to midnight movies at the Tivoli theatre in the square. A shilling got me a bus into town, my ticket to the movie, an ice-cream and a "small" lolly mixture at half time. Then the scary walk home afterwards. Later, in my late pre-teens, I got a job as an ice-cream boy at the Chrystal Palace. The ice-creams were frozen solid..how any-one ate them I'll never know. The cone used to be all soft and soggy. Maths weren't too good in the old pouds, shillings, and pence days so my empty tray always went back - short of money lol
16 I was bought up on a farm in the early years of my life. I remember my mother making all our sauces, bottling all our fruit, making and bottling spaghetti, preserving eggs, beans and other veges out of the garden that she had going. Bread was delivered (unsliced) every day by the mailman. Milk and cream was fresh - straight from the cow and dad killed a sheep when the freezer was getting empty. Didnt have to buy biscuits because there is nothing like home made baking and she did the lot.
17 my mum used to feed 5 of us on one med tin of baked beans for lunch on a sat. my hubby laughs and says it mustve been a big tin. it wasnt.i dont remember not having a little on toast. now i could eat 1/2 tin on my own....and fish/chips was a friday thing, for 9pence. for a shilling, i think you got a rasp bun or something....i was a lunch monitor, in form 2, and when to the shop by the school to get the orders, they were put in a trolley, that we wheeled back to school, and the shop man used to give us all the crunchy bits....oh those were the days.....
18 The Sunday afternoon request show on 3ZB. Had to write in for a song to be played and it could take weeks before your name was read out. My 1st bike, with up-turned handlebars, balloon tyres, and fixed hub. 1st job, delivering telegrams from the Post Office in the square. Biking way up Papanui Rd to find no-one home, leaving a note to say a telegram was waiting for them, writing OLN on the envelope and handing it back to the supervisor. The joy of having a phone put in. Still remember the number..75-406. Making a pistol out of wooden clothes pegs. Climbing trees. Skinny dipping in the river on my uncles farm. Men and boys 1st, then women and girls later. Army cadets at high school. 78rpm records, 45's and LP's. transistor radios, a "drive in the country" to go Saturday shopping at Brighton.
Born in 1948 in Merseyside - used to have lamb shoulder - blade end for sunday lunch - timed to have dessert at 1pm to get to local shop to buy block of ice cream - no fridge, of course. Memories of mum with a dolly tub and hand agitator - manual wringer - what a hard job!!
Always had a cooked breakfast - mum never liked fish & chip shops - only ever ate out on big shopping days in Liverpool - Littlewoods or Lewis's. B&W tv with BBC only - I wasn't allowed to turn it on. Chicken was a luxury - we never ate beef unless stewing or pork unless sausages. Had big garden with new potatoes, peas, beans, apples and goosberries - mum's gooseberry tart was to die for!
Used to travel on public bus by myself for 30 minutes each way to get to school as a 7 year old.
14 My monday lunch came in a packet at primary school.. Put my order in before the bell at 9am and lunch was delivered to the classroom at 12.. Yes it was 1 piece of fish and a scoop of chips for the princly sum of 1 shilling....For you young ones that was 10 cents lol....
15 Aaaah yes, the old copper boiling away in the wash-house, holding a handful of wooden pegs for Mum to hang the washing out. Corner dairies, with locked, covered shelves, so you couldn't buy certain things on weekends. Buying a HUGE bag of broken biscuits for 3d, and hoping you would get plenty of chockie ones. Going to midnight movies at the Tivoli theatre in the square. A shilling got me a bus into town, my ticket to the movie, an ice-cream and a "small" lolly mixture at half time. Then the scary walk home afterwards. Later, in my late pre-teens, I got a job as an ice-cream boy at the Chrystal Palace. The ice-creams were frozen solid..how any-one ate them I'll never know. The cone used to be all soft and soggy. Maths weren't too good in the old pouds, shillings, and pence days so my empty tray always went back - short of money lol
16 I was bought up on a farm in the early years of my life. I remember my mother making all our sauces, bottling all our fruit, making and bottling spaghetti, preserving eggs, beans and other veges out of the garden that she had going. Bread was delivered (unsliced) every day by the mailman. Milk and cream was fresh - straight from the cow and dad killed a sheep when the freezer was getting empty. Didnt have to buy biscuits because there is nothing like home made baking and she did the lot.
17 my mum used to feed 5 of us on one med tin of baked beans for lunch on a sat. my hubby laughs and says it mustve been a big tin. it wasnt.i dont remember not having a little on toast. now i could eat 1/2 tin on my own....and fish/chips was a friday thing, for 9pence. for a shilling, i think you got a rasp bun or something....i was a lunch monitor, in form 2, and when to the shop by the school to get the orders, they were put in a trolley, that we wheeled back to school, and the shop man used to give us all the crunchy bits....oh those were the days.....
18 The Sunday afternoon request show on 3ZB. Had to write in for a song to be played and it could take weeks before your name was read out. My 1st bike, with up-turned handlebars, balloon tyres, and fixed hub. 1st job, delivering telegrams from the Post Office in the square. Biking way up Papanui Rd to find no-one home, leaving a note to say a telegram was waiting for them, writing OLN on the envelope and handing it back to the supervisor. The joy of having a phone put in. Still remember the number..75-406. Making a pistol out of wooden clothes pegs. Climbing trees. Skinny dipping in the river on my uncles farm. Men and boys 1st, then women and girls later. Army cadets at high school. 78rpm records, 45's and LP's. transistor radios, a "drive in the country" to go Saturday shopping at Brighton.
Born in 1948 in Merseyside - used to have lamb shoulder - blade end for sunday lunch - timed to have dessert at 1pm to get to local shop to buy block of ice cream - no fridge, of course. Memories of mum with a dolly tub and hand agitator - manual wringer - what a hard job!!
Always had a cooked breakfast - mum never liked fish & chip shops - only ever ate out on big shopping days in Liverpool - Littlewoods or Lewis's. B&W tv with BBC only - I wasn't allowed to turn it on. Chicken was a luxury - we never ate beef unless stewing or pork unless sausages. Had big garden with new potatoes, peas, beans, apples and goosberries - mum's gooseberry tart was to die for!
Used to travel on public bus by myself for 30 minutes each way to get to school as a 7 year old.
8 Who could forget those old agitator washing machines and the twin concrete tubs! My Mum had a washboard she still used for the longest time.
In those days, for baby wear etc, we grated Sunlight soap [Lux flakes were expensive]! No such thing as fabric softners. We used Blueo in the final rinse for the whites!
No clothes driers so it was hang what you could outside to get dry as possible then bring in and hang over the wooden clothes horse to dry off!
I bought my Mum a clothes drier when they first came out. The model which looks like a fridge - Activair. The had a heating element in the bottom so just blew air upwards. Had about 3 sets of moveable racks - darn, nappies used to dry as hard as nails!
Then at some stage along came twin tub machines.
9 Hogget for Christmas Day as it was cheaper and as Dad would say, it had more taste than lamb!
At one stage they had a freezer and it was Dad who would saw a side of sheep [probably mutton] up for Mum to pack. I can remember tearing the kidney out!
Shreddo was bought in a packet. Suet bought from the butcher.
Mmmm. those roly poly type puds!
Puds were often cooked in a steamer or boiled. Can remember Mum washing loads of mutton cloth for puds.
Mum for years, baked her own Christmas puds and cakes. In those days, she would put 3d [three pence] coins in the pud and one only 6d [six pence piece] so if you got the 6d piece, you were lucky!
Puds were served with custard; for tea, we'd have trifle!
Then along came Ernest Adams and as us girls were working, we softened Mum up by buying her puds and a cake!
Homemade mint sauce was a must on the table for many a meal.
Sunday was traditionally a mid-day roast followed by cold meat, pickles and salad for tea in summer; cold meat, mashed spud & pickles for tea. Darn she could slice the lettuce so darn fine and I've never been able to do it the same!
I think every lunch and dinner, the table was set with the bread board, bread knife, loaf of bread and of course, the block of butter.
Sliced bread wasn't on the market then!
With the amount of meat and fats [butter] we used to eat, it was no wonder so many had gallbladder problems!
Traditional roasts for Christmas, were served up until Mom passed away. Now the family is so scattered, I look back and think how nice it was to have 'family' all in one place and why I treasured Thanksgiving in the US - a time for family to be together!
Casseroles, deserts [who can forget those yummy creamy rice puds] cooked in pyrex dishes were in vogue here and there but for many of us, when we went back to work full time, the dishes were consigned to the back of a spare cupboard. Then when microwaves came on the scene, they came in handy again!
For many women over the years, keeping hubby's tea hot meant either keeping it in a slow oven or on top of a pot of boiling water. Oh how microwaves changed that!
When air travel become more accessible [in the 70's] and with immigrants from other countries rather then traditionally the UK, foods changed. Gone were the days of just the old pie cart and maybe a couple of greasy restaurants [hotels catered for the upmarket diner].
I was maybe 8 when the local milk bar opened which also served pea, pie & pud! Who can [from those days] forget the milkbars and the jukeboxes!
I still have several of my Mum's kitchen tools and baking tins!
Before I left the States, my daughter took an array of things, in particular, glass dishes, bowls etc.
My daughter is currently visiting from the US and has been frustrated at the lack of choices in the stores here v what she is used to. I have pretty much adapted back though I do admit to missing cheap veggies 12 months of the year and certain products and foods, but as she has known nothing else, it's been hard for her.
My daughter is finiky in that she uses little product that is in a can.
She makes just about everything from scratch buying from organic etc type stores. She doesn't own a toaster; the only reason she has a toaster oven is I bought one during one of my stays and told her she could do what she liked with it when I left - her hubby put his foot down and said 'it stays'. She would not have a microwave if she had her way [hubby bought one] - she doesn't use it! I think the only other appliance she has is a blender. Every appliance I have sent her she has donated to thrift stores [she reckons I had every appliance that came on the market]. Yeah, she's into 'healthy living'..
Reality is, I may have seen so many changes in my lifetime but they are little compared to what my parents/grandparents went through in theirs. Makes me a lot more grateful of what I've had avalable & been able to take advantage of.
10 The times certainly were different
I remember much of what others have written , but also we had a gas meter in the kitchen and we used to feed 1 shilling coins into it , I'm not sure how long that lasted.. but it was a "priviledge in our house..lol .. and we had a copper in the wash house which was an "outside" room. Mum used to boil the copper for the washing , she used a wash board too ,and for our bath , which wasnt every day. I think it was Saturday nights , so we were bright and shiny for church on Sunday .. lmao. Sunday morning we piled into mum and dads bed and listened to sunday morning requests on the national radio.. I remember Sparky and the talking train , the selfish giant, rumplestiltskin , just to name a couple !
Going to the butcher was neat cause he would give you a savaloy, and there was always sawdust all over the floor and Mum would get the blue stripe meat cos the red stripe meat was too expensive and we used to get Duck eggs for baking.
The green grocer van used to come to the end of the street and he would ring a bell and all the mothers would go out and get Veges, and he sold tuppeny packs of chewing gum.
Across the road from where we lived was the most amazing place called Tiny Town. The man had made this village on his front lawn it had the most brilliant wee things , you had to see it to believe it , and i spent heaps of time there.
It sure was a different world .. much simpler.. much happier ..much easier.. I dont know what my Parents thought tho.. I guess they still had worries , it just wasnt made known to us ..................
11 All of the above - gosh it brings back memories alright. I remember going to the Queesntown camping ground on hol with family of us 5 kids and mum and dad and the milk man came around with a ladle thingee and poured our milk into billy cans up by the camp store on shelves with our name on the billy. No crap in our lunch boxes, no crap after school, no crap as a treat on every visit to the supermarket, no crap as a reward. We didn't have 'rewards' our behaviour was just expected to be pretty good and we got it when it wasn't. We ate healthy and well and I know mum and dad struggled at times. Now mum's gone and I think about those times even more and how they looked after us all.
12 I, too, am in my sixties, but I was the eldest in a family of six, and was expected to help both my mother AND father with the work around the house and farm. Oh, it was much simpler then, but damned hard, sometimes tedious, work for the people who had to stay home and do it. Of course I remember the good times, but I also remember bucketing boiling water from the copper into the bath or the washing machine. I remember scrubbing and polishing what seemed like acres of lino by hand, keeping the Aga going with wood scavenged from round the farm by the kids and chopped by Dad. You had to plan ahead to feed the family and grow your food (we did, anyway) - no nipping down to the corner store.... or even buying ready-prepared food if it was available.
I'm glad I learned how to be truely independant of shops, and I still get a HUGE sense of achievement when I see my shelves full of jams and preserves and wine at the end of autumn, but lets not get all misty eyed about it - our parents worked REALLY hard to keep us fed and clothed!
In those days, for baby wear etc, we grated Sunlight soap [Lux flakes were expensive]! No such thing as fabric softners. We used Blueo in the final rinse for the whites!
No clothes driers so it was hang what you could outside to get dry as possible then bring in and hang over the wooden clothes horse to dry off!
I bought my Mum a clothes drier when they first came out. The model which looks like a fridge - Activair. The had a heating element in the bottom so just blew air upwards. Had about 3 sets of moveable racks - darn, nappies used to dry as hard as nails!
Then at some stage along came twin tub machines.
9 Hogget for Christmas Day as it was cheaper and as Dad would say, it had more taste than lamb!
At one stage they had a freezer and it was Dad who would saw a side of sheep [probably mutton] up for Mum to pack. I can remember tearing the kidney out!
Shreddo was bought in a packet. Suet bought from the butcher.
Mmmm. those roly poly type puds!
Puds were often cooked in a steamer or boiled. Can remember Mum washing loads of mutton cloth for puds.
Mum for years, baked her own Christmas puds and cakes. In those days, she would put 3d [three pence] coins in the pud and one only 6d [six pence piece] so if you got the 6d piece, you were lucky!
Puds were served with custard; for tea, we'd have trifle!
Then along came Ernest Adams and as us girls were working, we softened Mum up by buying her puds and a cake!
Homemade mint sauce was a must on the table for many a meal.
Sunday was traditionally a mid-day roast followed by cold meat, pickles and salad for tea in summer; cold meat, mashed spud & pickles for tea. Darn she could slice the lettuce so darn fine and I've never been able to do it the same!
I think every lunch and dinner, the table was set with the bread board, bread knife, loaf of bread and of course, the block of butter.
Sliced bread wasn't on the market then!
With the amount of meat and fats [butter] we used to eat, it was no wonder so many had gallbladder problems!
Traditional roasts for Christmas, were served up until Mom passed away. Now the family is so scattered, I look back and think how nice it was to have 'family' all in one place and why I treasured Thanksgiving in the US - a time for family to be together!
Casseroles, deserts [who can forget those yummy creamy rice puds] cooked in pyrex dishes were in vogue here and there but for many of us, when we went back to work full time, the dishes were consigned to the back of a spare cupboard. Then when microwaves came on the scene, they came in handy again!
For many women over the years, keeping hubby's tea hot meant either keeping it in a slow oven or on top of a pot of boiling water. Oh how microwaves changed that!
When air travel become more accessible [in the 70's] and with immigrants from other countries rather then traditionally the UK, foods changed. Gone were the days of just the old pie cart and maybe a couple of greasy restaurants [hotels catered for the upmarket diner].
I was maybe 8 when the local milk bar opened which also served pea, pie & pud! Who can [from those days] forget the milkbars and the jukeboxes!
I still have several of my Mum's kitchen tools and baking tins!
Before I left the States, my daughter took an array of things, in particular, glass dishes, bowls etc.
My daughter is currently visiting from the US and has been frustrated at the lack of choices in the stores here v what she is used to. I have pretty much adapted back though I do admit to missing cheap veggies 12 months of the year and certain products and foods, but as she has known nothing else, it's been hard for her.
My daughter is finiky in that she uses little product that is in a can.
She makes just about everything from scratch buying from organic etc type stores. She doesn't own a toaster; the only reason she has a toaster oven is I bought one during one of my stays and told her she could do what she liked with it when I left - her hubby put his foot down and said 'it stays'. She would not have a microwave if she had her way [hubby bought one] - she doesn't use it! I think the only other appliance she has is a blender. Every appliance I have sent her she has donated to thrift stores [she reckons I had every appliance that came on the market]. Yeah, she's into 'healthy living'..
Reality is, I may have seen so many changes in my lifetime but they are little compared to what my parents/grandparents went through in theirs. Makes me a lot more grateful of what I've had avalable & been able to take advantage of.
10 The times certainly were different
I remember much of what others have written , but also we had a gas meter in the kitchen and we used to feed 1 shilling coins into it , I'm not sure how long that lasted.. but it was a "priviledge in our house..lol .. and we had a copper in the wash house which was an "outside" room. Mum used to boil the copper for the washing , she used a wash board too ,and for our bath , which wasnt every day. I think it was Saturday nights , so we were bright and shiny for church on Sunday .. lmao. Sunday morning we piled into mum and dads bed and listened to sunday morning requests on the national radio.. I remember Sparky and the talking train , the selfish giant, rumplestiltskin , just to name a couple !
Going to the butcher was neat cause he would give you a savaloy, and there was always sawdust all over the floor and Mum would get the blue stripe meat cos the red stripe meat was too expensive and we used to get Duck eggs for baking.
The green grocer van used to come to the end of the street and he would ring a bell and all the mothers would go out and get Veges, and he sold tuppeny packs of chewing gum.
Across the road from where we lived was the most amazing place called Tiny Town. The man had made this village on his front lawn it had the most brilliant wee things , you had to see it to believe it , and i spent heaps of time there.
It sure was a different world .. much simpler.. much happier ..much easier.. I dont know what my Parents thought tho.. I guess they still had worries , it just wasnt made known to us ..................
11 All of the above - gosh it brings back memories alright. I remember going to the Queesntown camping ground on hol with family of us 5 kids and mum and dad and the milk man came around with a ladle thingee and poured our milk into billy cans up by the camp store on shelves with our name on the billy. No crap in our lunch boxes, no crap after school, no crap as a treat on every visit to the supermarket, no crap as a reward. We didn't have 'rewards' our behaviour was just expected to be pretty good and we got it when it wasn't. We ate healthy and well and I know mum and dad struggled at times. Now mum's gone and I think about those times even more and how they looked after us all.
12 I, too, am in my sixties, but I was the eldest in a family of six, and was expected to help both my mother AND father with the work around the house and farm. Oh, it was much simpler then, but damned hard, sometimes tedious, work for the people who had to stay home and do it. Of course I remember the good times, but I also remember bucketing boiling water from the copper into the bath or the washing machine. I remember scrubbing and polishing what seemed like acres of lino by hand, keeping the Aga going with wood scavenged from round the farm by the kids and chopped by Dad. You had to plan ahead to feed the family and grow your food (we did, anyway) - no nipping down to the corner store.... or even buying ready-prepared food if it was available.
I'm glad I learned how to be truely independant of shops, and I still get a HUGE sense of achievement when I see my shelves full of jams and preserves and wine at the end of autumn, but lets not get all misty eyed about it - our parents worked REALLY hard to keep us fed and clothed!
memories 1950s
6 Mum doing the washing that took all friggen day with the old agetator (sp), going blackberry picking and helping to make the jam, taking lunch down to the paddock for the men doing the silage or hay, hell I loved it back then, its all changed now.
7 My Mum used to do her own preserving i.e. bottled fruits, beetroot and tomatoes, jams, tomato relish, chutnies; salted beans into large crocks. Also fill large crocks with pickled onions and red cabbage.
Bread was bought at the store or made at home; milk was delivered.
Dad grew most of our veggies - he always had a couple of big compost bins going. If he was away or she needed something, a vendor came from memory once a week in much the way Mr Whippy comes around.
Chicken was a luxury and only bought for special occasions such as Christmas Day. Our refrigerator had just an icebox so it was up to the store when we wanted ice-cream for desert.
My Mom from time to time, did make homemade icecream and chocolate [no fancy machines to help her either].
Well when we moved to Hei Hei, the nearest grocery shopping was at Stills General Store over in Hornby which meant a long walk there and back if Dad was away which was quite often because of his job.
One car/Mum never learnt to drive.
There was a small rather expensive range available at Patel's Garage but we avoided buying there. Back in those days [the 50's], stores weren't allowed to sell certain items including toilet paper on a Sunday so Patel's had a smaller side store with a separate entrance for Sunday trading. From memory they were caught several times selling prohibited items!
At some stage, a fish and chip shop opened so that became a meal once in a blue moon.
At a later date, a strip 'mall' of stores was built locally in Hei Hei which included a grocery store and a 4 Square - both stores delivered!
There was a habadashery store and a radio store along with a Post Office and Chemist. Then a butcher and a newspaper/book store. Can still remember going to the book store to pick up my weekly comic! I still have my Mum's cane shopping basket.
Lunches were homemade but at least once a month, we were allowed to buy our lunch. This was either a pie or fish and chips [had to be ordered before class commenced]. My sister was one year, in an old classroom that was heated by a barrel type wood heater - they used to put spuds in it.
Biscuits - my Mum had been a cook so she baked everything. However now and again she would buy a box of Aulsebrooks broken biscuits. We'd all sit around the table sorting out the 'good' ones and putting them in cake tins; the rest went into other tins to be made into fudge.
Cake - a very special treat if one was bought!
Drinks: Tea [leaf no bags in those days]; bottled coffee with chicory, cocoa and I think Milo/Bournvita was around too.
Sodas - All I can remember was Ballins!
I still remember the day Pepsi first hit the stores.
We made our own ginger beer!
Breakfasts were usually toast, Weetbix or porridge.
We had supper before going to bed. In winter, we had this large blackened kettle that was filled and heated over the open fire in the lounge [which also was connected to the hot water tank].
Many a night we made toast over the fire using a long handled toasting fork!
In those days, there was no such thing as tv so we had our favourite radio programmes to listen to at night. Somewhere in my young school days, a thing called the Hit Parade started once a week on the radio!
The only cans I can remember were spagetti, baked beans and tomato sauce!
Other than sweets [candy], I can't remember any chips or the likes.
When I got married in the late 60's, I still continued with preserving and making relishes. In fact, I still today make my own tomato relish [and did so the whole 20 years I lived in the US!]. I gave up preserving in the 70's when canned fruit etc became more readily available.
When freezers became part of our lives, we switched to freezing veggies for the winter; and of course, supermarkets by then had changed our lives as we could buy meat in bulk to freeze.
I used to make my own bread during the time of bread strikes!
BTW I am in my 60's....and it's after 2am....
7 My Mum used to do her own preserving i.e. bottled fruits, beetroot and tomatoes, jams, tomato relish, chutnies; salted beans into large crocks. Also fill large crocks with pickled onions and red cabbage.
Bread was bought at the store or made at home; milk was delivered.
Dad grew most of our veggies - he always had a couple of big compost bins going. If he was away or she needed something, a vendor came from memory once a week in much the way Mr Whippy comes around.
Chicken was a luxury and only bought for special occasions such as Christmas Day. Our refrigerator had just an icebox so it was up to the store when we wanted ice-cream for desert.
My Mom from time to time, did make homemade icecream and chocolate [no fancy machines to help her either].
Well when we moved to Hei Hei, the nearest grocery shopping was at Stills General Store over in Hornby which meant a long walk there and back if Dad was away which was quite often because of his job.
One car/Mum never learnt to drive.
There was a small rather expensive range available at Patel's Garage but we avoided buying there. Back in those days [the 50's], stores weren't allowed to sell certain items including toilet paper on a Sunday so Patel's had a smaller side store with a separate entrance for Sunday trading. From memory they were caught several times selling prohibited items!
At some stage, a fish and chip shop opened so that became a meal once in a blue moon.
At a later date, a strip 'mall' of stores was built locally in Hei Hei which included a grocery store and a 4 Square - both stores delivered!
There was a habadashery store and a radio store along with a Post Office and Chemist. Then a butcher and a newspaper/book store. Can still remember going to the book store to pick up my weekly comic! I still have my Mum's cane shopping basket.
Lunches were homemade but at least once a month, we were allowed to buy our lunch. This was either a pie or fish and chips [had to be ordered before class commenced]. My sister was one year, in an old classroom that was heated by a barrel type wood heater - they used to put spuds in it.
Biscuits - my Mum had been a cook so she baked everything. However now and again she would buy a box of Aulsebrooks broken biscuits. We'd all sit around the table sorting out the 'good' ones and putting them in cake tins; the rest went into other tins to be made into fudge.
Cake - a very special treat if one was bought!
Drinks: Tea [leaf no bags in those days]; bottled coffee with chicory, cocoa and I think Milo/Bournvita was around too.
Sodas - All I can remember was Ballins!
I still remember the day Pepsi first hit the stores.
We made our own ginger beer!
Breakfasts were usually toast, Weetbix or porridge.
We had supper before going to bed. In winter, we had this large blackened kettle that was filled and heated over the open fire in the lounge [which also was connected to the hot water tank].
Many a night we made toast over the fire using a long handled toasting fork!
In those days, there was no such thing as tv so we had our favourite radio programmes to listen to at night. Somewhere in my young school days, a thing called the Hit Parade started once a week on the radio!
The only cans I can remember were spagetti, baked beans and tomato sauce!
Other than sweets [candy], I can't remember any chips or the likes.
When I got married in the late 60's, I still continued with preserving and making relishes. In fact, I still today make my own tomato relish [and did so the whole 20 years I lived in the US!]. I gave up preserving in the 70's when canned fruit etc became more readily available.
When freezers became part of our lives, we switched to freezing veggies for the winter; and of course, supermarkets by then had changed our lives as we could buy meat in bulk to freeze.
I used to make my own bread during the time of bread strikes!
BTW I am in my 60's....and it's after 2am....
1950s memories Food and Other
1 I can remember the old IGA van coming out to the farm to deliver our groceries, god knows what the labels said back then. The old Rawleys man use to come around and the family Priest for tea. Going to church on a Sunday was the highlight of the week lol. We probably didnt worry too much what food pkts said as Mum did home baking all the time (home made pies, youghurt etc) and Dad had a vegie garden
2 I will be 50 next year, hubby will be 50 in a couple of weeks.
No, there wasn't a lot of stuff in packets. The only thing I really remember was when the cake mixes came out and Mum thought they were great. I remember getting a packet mix birthday cake and I hated it!
Every week we would do a grocery shop. There were no big supermarkets, just corner shops like Keystore and Four Square. You bought your veges fresh, usually from the kiosks at the side of the road that belonged to farms, or you grew your own. Meat came from the butcher, again once a week you would go down with the list and bring it home. If you were lucky, you got fish n chips once a week. Fizzy drink was for special occasions, probably around twice a year, Christmas and birthdays. We bought that by the crate from Ballins, swap a crate they were. We had around sixpence or 5 cents spending money for lollies, again, once a week.
People ate good, healthy food. We had the meat and 2 vege type meals. My parents had immigrated from Holland so we had a lot of good Dutch cooking as well. I can't remember any families or friends that ate very differently. We usually had dessert as well, it would be icecream, or sponge cake, cream, custards in winter.
Our lunches were homemade, we didn't have packet biscuits much. In my class of 48 kids, only one girl brought packet biscuits to school and she was the envy of everyone else. There was only one type of potato chip available and that was Smiths, which I love and you can only get in Australia.
We didn't eat chicken much. It was very expensive and was kept for Christmas or New Years Day dinner.
People bottled excess stuff out of their gardens in Summer to take them through Winter. There wasn't a lot of frozen stuff available, it was mostly cans, or dried, both of which we had when we went camping.
Grocery stores were only open Monday to Friday. If you ran out of something you waited till Monday. No one bought from the dairy, far too expensive and usually stale. We did have Sunday bread, fresh bread from the dairy on a Sunday. Yum.
We had milk and bread delivered every day.
I don't remember ever being hungry and food tasted great.
3 Takeaways was Fish and Chips no more than once a week and usually on a Friday night. I was brought up on meat and 3 veg and eat whats on your plate or go hungry and yum who can forget the Sunday hogget roast. Chippies and lollies were a treat not everyday.
4 Gosh that brings back the memory, just a couple of things different in my life back then was we went to the Greengrocer for vegs and fruit, and we only had milk delivered every day to the letterbox not bread. I chuckle nowdays when I see the panic buying at the supermarket if they are to be closed the next day which is about three days a year because we managed fine when they were closed from Friday 5.30 till Monday 9am
5 I miss them as well...sunday roast.....sunday bath lol.....baking day thursday.....fresh home grown veggies fruit iff the trees and rows of bottled fruit and home made jams in the store cupboard
2 I will be 50 next year, hubby will be 50 in a couple of weeks.
No, there wasn't a lot of stuff in packets. The only thing I really remember was when the cake mixes came out and Mum thought they were great. I remember getting a packet mix birthday cake and I hated it!
Every week we would do a grocery shop. There were no big supermarkets, just corner shops like Keystore and Four Square. You bought your veges fresh, usually from the kiosks at the side of the road that belonged to farms, or you grew your own. Meat came from the butcher, again once a week you would go down with the list and bring it home. If you were lucky, you got fish n chips once a week. Fizzy drink was for special occasions, probably around twice a year, Christmas and birthdays. We bought that by the crate from Ballins, swap a crate they were. We had around sixpence or 5 cents spending money for lollies, again, once a week.
People ate good, healthy food. We had the meat and 2 vege type meals. My parents had immigrated from Holland so we had a lot of good Dutch cooking as well. I can't remember any families or friends that ate very differently. We usually had dessert as well, it would be icecream, or sponge cake, cream, custards in winter.
Our lunches were homemade, we didn't have packet biscuits much. In my class of 48 kids, only one girl brought packet biscuits to school and she was the envy of everyone else. There was only one type of potato chip available and that was Smiths, which I love and you can only get in Australia.
We didn't eat chicken much. It was very expensive and was kept for Christmas or New Years Day dinner.
People bottled excess stuff out of their gardens in Summer to take them through Winter. There wasn't a lot of frozen stuff available, it was mostly cans, or dried, both of which we had when we went camping.
Grocery stores were only open Monday to Friday. If you ran out of something you waited till Monday. No one bought from the dairy, far too expensive and usually stale. We did have Sunday bread, fresh bread from the dairy on a Sunday. Yum.
We had milk and bread delivered every day.
I don't remember ever being hungry and food tasted great.
3 Takeaways was Fish and Chips no more than once a week and usually on a Friday night. I was brought up on meat and 3 veg and eat whats on your plate or go hungry and yum who can forget the Sunday hogget roast. Chippies and lollies were a treat not everyday.
4 Gosh that brings back the memory, just a couple of things different in my life back then was we went to the Greengrocer for vegs and fruit, and we only had milk delivered every day to the letterbox not bread. I chuckle nowdays when I see the panic buying at the supermarket if they are to be closed the next day which is about three days a year because we managed fine when they were closed from Friday 5.30 till Monday 9am
5 I miss them as well...sunday roast.....sunday bath lol.....baking day thursday.....fresh home grown veggies fruit iff the trees and rows of bottled fruit and home made jams in the store cupboard
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