Author Topic: Days of not so old  (Read 24893 times)

bilsat

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Days of not so old
« on: March 01, 2009, 06:47:59 AM »
We hear about "the old days" but what about the newer "old days" say the 50s ..........80s
We lived in a house with the outside toilet which ment you got wet and cold sometimes if you wanted to go, but this toilet was part of the house next to the kitchen wall not down the yard.
It got so cold in the winter the alarm clock would stop during the night.
The coal was stored inside the kitchen in the "coal hole" a small area with a hole in it  behind a door.
All electric power came from a "y" adaptor on the living room light.
The wind used to lift the curtains when it blew.
Windows would jam shut most of the time.
Heating was one fire in the living room.
The landlord came every Friday for the rent.

And Yes I still live in that house 60 years later!

oznow

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Re: Days of not so old
« Reply #1 on: March 01, 2009, 08:59:45 AM »
           Great story Bilsat , Use to love our outside toilet in the winter time , My Mother use to put the parafin heater in there to stop the pipes and toilet cistern freezing up and it was the best place in the world .... far warmer than in the house .... never wanted to come out .

 Oznow  O0 .

denise

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Re: Days of not so old
« Reply #2 on: March 01, 2009, 09:09:51 AM »
Bilsat,hope for your sake it is all modernised now :)

roy one

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Re: Days of not so old
« Reply #3 on: March 01, 2009, 11:40:18 AM »
most of us in brum had much the same set up one coal fire in the house no hot running water down the yard for the loo 4 or 5 share the loo gas lamp in the yard your door never lacked nothing to nick a red step to your front door penny in the gas meter  for the cooker most had a wire running form the house to a pole in the garden for the radio if you had one up the yard for your dust bin you put the ash on the ice in the winter the snow would melt on the roof then in the night it would freeze and so would you a pop bottel filled with hot water to take to bed help to keep you warm extra coat on the bed ice in the sink in the morning hand made run made out of old coats and sacking and they call it the good old days
each day is a blessing and I bless each day when it comes

Phil

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Re: Days of not so old
« Reply #4 on: March 01, 2009, 11:51:06 AM »
bilsat

As I was born in the late 40's all my personal memories are of the same period as you, anything I know of prior to that are memories that have been related to me or I have read them somewhere.

Our house in nechells was of a two up and one down design. When we first moved in there were 4 of us, my sister, my brother, my mother and myself. We had one electric light downstaitrs, one electric light upstairs and one gaslight. In the scullery an area of about 3ft x 5ft there was another electric light. This was where we washed ourselves, prepared our food and did most of our laundry all without the benefit of hot water. All our hot water had to be boiled on the tiny little gas stove at the bottom of the stairs in the little 10ft x 10ft living room.

The gas stove was the only improvement made in the 10 years that we lived there. They installed it shortly after we moved in and removed the old cast iron range, Our toilet was up the yard in a bock of five shared by the 10 houses that made up our court. There were also two wash houses (brewhouses), These were used infrequently because of the extra cost of fuel to heat the boiler.

When it came to heating the house or doing the washing in the winter it was no contest. Anyway the washing could always be boiled in a bucket on the gas stove.

In the ten years we lived there, my mother met my stepfather and had two more kids (luckily we moved before she had the last two). That still made a total of 7 of us in that little house. So when my stepfather moved in his 3 sisters from Ireland, I was on the way back to my grandmothers in Balsall Heath. Which at that time compared to Nechells was a wonderland.

And none of this was in the early 20's or 30.s, but in the 50's and 60's.

Phil
Phil died in 2020. RIP.

oznow

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Re: Days of not so old
« Reply #5 on: March 01, 2009, 02:25:53 PM »
             Gee that touched a memory cord the front step ...... that cardinal red , everyone took pride in the front step all the women in the street would spend ages   scrubbing the step and if you had been good you could sit there for half an hour before going to bed ..... just to see the people going by ... In the days before we had a T V  .

Oznow   :) .

roy one

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Re: Days of not so old
« Reply #6 on: March 01, 2009, 03:43:56 PM »
be for my sis past on we used to get cod liver oil and moult and orange juice from the welfare in hope street i often sat and eat a jar of that stuff and we had n/d/milk that mom would make up for my sisters feed and i would sit on the red step and hold my sister and some times i got to feed her  now im diging deep into my past this was befor i was at school so that year my dad and my sister past on
each day is a blessing and I bless each day when it comes

oznow

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Re: Days of not so old
« Reply #7 on: March 02, 2009, 02:49:47 AM »
         Cod liver oil and orange juice from the welfare I remember that , But I don't remember getting any malt though ........ That orange juice had a real sharp bitter taste to it , Nicer taste than the cod liver oil and now we pay a fortune to buy Fish oil tablets because there good for you .
Oznow .

bilsat

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Re: Days of not so old
« Reply #8 on: March 02, 2009, 06:08:12 AM »
First job when we moved back in was to move the toilet into the bathroom, demolish the coal hole, old toilet wall and brick up one door, this gave us a bigger kitchen. We then had the house rewired,central heating, double glazing installed and last year had the walls filled with insulation.
Now we are happy.

denise

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Re: Days of not so old
« Reply #9 on: March 02, 2009, 08:38:42 AM »
Good news bilsat ;D

oldgoose

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Re: Days of not so old
« Reply #10 on: March 02, 2009, 01:20:23 PM »
I suppose that to most of us here the 50's and 60's feel like yesterday, but to young people they are the 'old days'.
I was lucky I suppose, when I was 2 we moved from a house with 'oilcloth' on the floor and an outside toilet, to a pre-war semi with an indoor toilet and bathroom, with the 'coal hole' outside.
However we still had the sort of things that kids nowadays have probably never heard of.
'syrup of figs' for the bowels
tinned fruit and tinned carnation milk on a Sunday teatime
Listening to 'sing something simple' on the radio on Sunday evenings
'oilcloth' on the floor in all rooms but the front room, where we had a carpet that didn't reach the edges of the room
A big old pan to boil teatowels in
A mangle in the garden to squeeze the water from the newly handwashed clothes
No fridge, so milk etc. was stood in bowls of cold water in the hot weather
Old gas fires that made popping noises and you had to be careful that the flame didn't go out and leave gas to build up to either explode or gas you
A baker delivering bread and cakes as regularly as the milkman came round and also the Alpine 'pop' man
Toasting bread on a long fork in front of a coal fire
Tv starting at 5 and ending at 11 and only one channel to watch - the BBC
The list is endless................................................................


 

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