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.