UK Disability Resource of Disabled Needs

pam · Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 2:11 pm Post subject:

Annie what brilliant memories!!
What about the 'dolly tubs' and old the old mangles for squeezing out the water afterwards proper finger nippers they were!!
I can also remember our first television! Pam

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Pam.

Annie · Full Member Joined: 15 Mar 2008 Posts: 216 Location: kent

Hello Pam,
we didn't have a dolly tub, I spent the first ten years of my life in a farm cottage with a privy and well in the garden, we had a big stone copper in the corner of what Mum called the skullery, you lit a fire underneath and boiled the sheets etc, we did have the mangle though, first tele I ever saw was my aunts, we didnt have any electricity either, we all crammed into her tiny living room to watch the coronation, then joined in the village celebrations, I still have photo's of my cousins in fancy dress, then back to gas light and buckets, mind you lots of people lived the same way then.
No lights upstairs which is why granny made a good show undressing,
Annie

pixie · Site Admin Joined: 16 Jun 2007 Posts: 1851

We lived on a houseboat on the Thames until I was 12 and had no washer so we had to go to the wash house on the caravan site the boat was moored along side.

On the boat we also had no bath. During the week it was a wash down at the sink and sometimes, when we were small enough, we bathed in a tin bath next to the fire in the saloon (living room).

Every Sunday evening we went to the public baths on the caravan site and put a tanner in the heater to fill the bath. I had to share it with my brother who was 3 years younger than me. Yuk

The walk home wasn't pleasent in the winter with wet hair and pj's on. It was about 1/4 mile to walk.

Those were the days.
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Speeds · Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 9:41 pm Post subject:

As usual no time but have to post

1. Washing up bowl outside Auntie's caravan to bath brtoher and me when we were about 5 - in Swanage - have naked photos to prove
2. Great Aunt who loved in cottages in Stowmarket area - no bathroom - prvvy - hole over bucket opposite house. Used to visit and HAVE to use the loo

- when you are 7 a non flush loo is sooooo exciting - nowadays I would have to be past bursting to use it

3. I remember the old mangle washing machines and old TVs

I am sure I will think of some more - keep them coming - your stroies are brilliant
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Karen, Dominic, Thomas, Zola and Belle

http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_hues/

Annie · Full Member Joined: 15 Mar 2008 Posts: 216 Location: kent

A boat on the Thames sounds fantastic, mind you it probably wasnt for busy Mums, my cousins grandmother died in the 70's, she lived in the cottage her parents lived in back in Victorian times and that still had the privy in the garden, you are right Speeds, my kids used to insist on going to the loo there because they were so fascinated by it. I had got soft by then and used to try not to breath in.
When I was young the local council used to send round a kind of tanker to collect the contents of the buckets, hows that for an unusual job. That ceased as more people got mod cons and our cottage was condemned in 1955, then we got a brand new council house, no more tin bath in front of the fire, first thing my brother did was manage to lock himself in the bathroom,
Annie

pam · Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 8:59 am Post subject:

Some brilliant memories here. Our village was mainly terraced when I was born - but we were allocated a semi council house brnad new it was and I was born there. As for the toilets - well I have only realised in recent years that this 'new' house had a bathroom - but we as children had a PO under the bed and actually used that??

Why? I have asked myself whenthere was a bathroom next to us? I have come to the conclusion that mum and dad found it difficult to adjust hense the PO's.

I never had a bath in the tin ones but we used the larger ones which we still had for sailing on the pond in cockety bobs field as we caled it.

Pixie how exciting is that!! - to live in a house boat!
What did we 'play' with folks - not pc's that's for sure!!
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Pam.

pixie · Site Admin Joined: 16 Jun 2007 Posts: 1851

It was a great life on the houseboat. As kids we loved it. It was hard though with no proper heating or bathroom and only a small galley (kitchen). It was always damp and we had drip bags up along the inside when it rained. Not nice when one would overfill and pour out onto you!!

I used to love looking out of the portholes at night when the pleasure boats went past and everyone on board was party'ing away. The boat would rock with the wash from the big boats.

I was a tomboy and loved climbing trees and making dens in the willow trees.

We didn't have much in the way of toys except our bikes we needed to ride to school and along the towpath.

Some good memories there but also some scary ones when the Thames flooded and also when it froze over.
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Annie · Full Member Joined: 15 Mar 2008 Posts: 216 Location: kent

The boat sounds lovely, as to toys etc, like Pixie I cant really remember any real exotic stuff, skipping ropes, marbles, blackjack, two ball, hula hoops, bikes like Pixie, second hand in our case but they went, the boys used to fish and we all learnt to doggy paddle in a cut of the river, I dread to think what else was floating about in there, roller skates, carts built out of pram wheels and wooden boxes, rafts that usually sunk, hop scotch, indoors, board games, cards and books and Radio Luxemberg.
Most life revolved around hops in this area, the big event of the year was hop picking and the big party at the end over on Whitbreads, the influx of Eastenders etc, Mum worked in the hop fields so I learnt to tie or twiddle hops at an early age, no health and safety in those days, most local kids spent a lot of time in the fields while Mum worked and most 'helped', one big event was the big shire horses coming down from the London brewery for a holiday, fantastic to watch them roll on the grass in sheer joy and gallop about loose in the field when they first arrived,
Annie

pam · Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 3:48 pm Post subject:

We used to make a train whilst on our roller skates it was great fun zooming down the hills. Oooopps and no helmets on either!
I loved playing 2 balls and could even manage to juggle 3 - 4 on a really good day you know - under the leg stuff! We also used to do shows - in our back gardens - singing and dancing stuff then charge our friends a penny to come and watch.

Pam
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Pam.

pixie · Site Admin Joined: 16 Jun 2007 Posts: 1851

I was never any good at jubbling but I used to love throwing the balls up at the side of the house. It used to drive my parents mad.

We used to swim in the Thames back then. It was cleaner, well I hope it was.
Used to fish too but I could never take the hook out. I used to scream for my Mum or Dad to come and do it whenever I caught one.

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