Memories - early or general

The wooden clothes horse used to make a great tent. Ours used to fit nicely on the outside window sill, a few old blankets thrown over and a bit if old rug, in the summer hols we used to play for hours with our dolls and tea set, bit of hedge in a jam jar for flowers. We used to make up plays.

Hi Kaga, I have just re-read your recollection of having to hold your arms out so your mum could wind her skeins of wool. That reminded me of a favourite topic of my sister and I - our mum's knitting skills, which, bless her, left a lot to be desired. One amusing incident was when she spent ages knitting herself a bobble hat. She persevered with it for days, and when dad came home from work one night and put his head around the door to say hello she proudly put it on. He took one look and uttered, b***** h***, NODDY. Poor mum sat and unravelled it there and then. She also had a go at some gloves, the end result meant more hilarity. One finger on one of them was too long, and the third and fourth were almost joined together. I think there was even an extra finger on the other. I don't know who they would have fitted. Upon knitting a my first baby's dressing gown-cum-sleeping bag - it folded at the bottom to make the sleeping bag - she missed out part of the pattern and we had such a laugh when we realised she had knitted it about a yard too long ! For a little baby !!

Hi Janey, yes my pullovers covered my knees, but I was glad, they were warm in the winter, and protected my knees on the coconut matting when I played on the floor.

Yes Janey you`ve certainly put your finger on something. My wife was an enthusiastic knitter (and generally very good) Lived in Coundon used to buy wool from the shop nearly opposite Elds. She did "offers" and would keep balls or skeins until they could be afforded. Results for my 2/3 year old daughter. One dress a little too long - daughter was described as looking like an Arab in a nightshirt. One heavy knit coat so long it nearly reached the floor - she took the scissors to it and cut the bottom off that one, why it didn`t unravel, I don`t know. She knitted me a jersey once for my birthday in secret - running short of time and not wishing to break the secret, she retired to the loo and did it there - she missed some good TV programmes, which diverted my attention - she won and delivered on time.

Still on the topic of knitting, in the mid 60s I used to send away for lovely chunky wool so I could knit my new hubby the sweaters that were in fashion at the time. One of them was in ginger wool with a black and white flash around it. I was so proud of it and he loved it. At the time we had a twin tub washing machine, and you know what is coming ... yes, little new housewife me decided to wash it in the twin tub rather than by hand. I was devastated when I took it out. The body had shrunk to less than half its original size and the sleeves were almost twice as long .... would have fitted a monkey! He had only worn it a couple of times too. Needless to say I never put hand knitted sweaters in a washing machine ever again. We still laugh about it now.

I have just come across the following and couldn't resist circulating this as it is so true: EATING IN THE FIFTIES and SIXTIES Curry was a surname. A takeaway was a mathematical problem. A pizza was something to do with a leaning tower. All potato chips were plain; the only choice we had as whether to put the salt on or not. Rice was only eaten as a milk pudding. Calamari was called squid and we used it as fish bait. A Big Mac was what we wore when it was raining. Brown bread was something only poor people ate. Oil was for lubricating, fat was for cooking. Tea was made in a teapot using tea leaves. Sugar enjoyed a good press in those days, and was regarded as being white gold. Cubed sugar was regarded as posh. Fish didn't have fingers in those days. Eating raw fish was called poverty, not sushi. None of us had ever heard of yoghurt. Healthy food consisted of anything edible. People who didn't peel potatoes were regarded as lazy. Indian restaurants were only found in India. Cooking outside was called camping. Seaweed was not a recognised food. "Kebab" was not even a word, never mind a food. Prunes were medicinal. Surprisingly, muesli was readily available, it was called cattle feed. Water came out of the tap. If someone had suggested bottling it and charging more than petrol for it, they would have been a laughing stock!! But one thing that we never ever had on our table in the sixties ..... "Elbows or Phones".

Ooh Janey I can top that, mother knitted dad a cardigan, it was so large and lopsided it disappeared, until I found it covering one of the horses in the farmers field, but we kept it a secret from mum. Almost every day through winter mum would put my pullover over the guard around the fire, it had little pearl buttons, and every day they burnt my neck, but I never complained, have no idea why. Was it the John Bloom twin tub?

I remember as a child us having a pantry with a stone slab at the end for cold storage and also a meat safe, basically a little cupboard with galvanised steel mesh forming the front and sides to allow air flow around the meat, but not flies! Of course in those days people tended to shop daily at local shops for the things they needed for meals, rather than store them at home, especially perishable foods. Thinking about it there were about nine small shops within easy walking distance of our house that catered for most of our culinary needs, with an occasional trip taken to the Co-op in Bedworth for more esoteric items such as my fathers favourite piccalilli sauce! I well remember my Mum sending me to the shop for such as a quarter of ham, four pounds of potatoes or a pound of sausages from the butcher. Our goods from the Co-op shop would be delivered the next day in cardboard boxes. I remember looking for my Haliborange tablets, a delicious once a day treat and my Dad's tin of Cheeselets! I also remember just how well the stuff was packed - a real work of art! We had milk and Merevale bread delivered daily by the Co-op, paid for by checks left on the doorstep. When I was a small child we had no hot water, but did have an inside toilet and bath! Hot water came later via a geyser - luxury! I particularly remember how cold it was in the winter. We had two coal fires downstairs and that was it. I still remember ice on the inside of the windows. Once you got warm in bed you wouldn't dare move in case you let the cold in!

I don't think so, but my mum had one of those. I saw a different one advertised in a sale in a store in Rugby when we lived at Wolston so shot off on the bus to buy it but can't remember the make - might have been a Hotpoint. I believe it was a little more expensive than the Rolls Rapide. It wasn't until 1976 that I got the housewife's saviour - an automatic washing machine. I chose a Bendix as they had those in the launderettes.

Hi Janey, Hi Kaga, Hi all I remember the Bloom stuff, not just white goods either. I bought a John Bloom cine camera from Gamages in London. It worked of a kind. It even had a zoom lens. It cost about £10, which was quite a sum in 1962. It came with two packs of Kodachrome 2 cine film, which gave 4mins picture time each. "Them-wert-days" I was still at school, but had a Saturday job at a greengrocers. It took two months to save that amount. ps My mum had a Bendix washing machine in the early fifties. It was huge, built into a wall cavity.

Does anyone remember the single tub machines with the electric mangle on top?

When I was little we had a copper boiler and a dolly tub and a hand mangle. Then we had an electric washing machine with an alligator !! that wooshed the washing round, with an electric mangle by the sink. The washing went through the mangle into the sink to be rinsed. We eventually had a twin tub which I think was a Kelvinator. Mum never wanted an automatic until she came to look after me after my daughter was born and she used mine. Then she wanted one.

Indeed, when I was an apprentice electrician I was tasked with preparing a job lot of these for sale. They were mainly working but a bit dusty and some had worn out rubbers on the mangle bit. Came complete with a rubber hose to fill it, and then afterwards to put into the sink to pump it out. There was also a metal tray that clipped under the mangle as a sort of drip tray, and which was stored in the machine along with the hose when not in use. You'd fill the machine with water, put your washing in, and add powder. Then put the top on and turn on. This would heat the water then the central prop would agitate the washing. You had to make sure the hose was attached because it would pump out at the end. Then you would press the switch on the front and the mangle would start. Washing was fed in from the back to drain into the tub. I'm fairly sure they were Hotpoint machines.

We had an old one in the mid 70's called the "Coronation Ada" (no prizes for guessing when it was made) It had a very rhythmical noise to it, eventually we had to get rid of it due to getting frequent electric shocks. My grandma was still using a copper boiler and a hand mangle in the 70's. In winter, and other times as well depending on the weather, she dried her washing by hanging it on lines attached to the picture rail in her living room. We often got a face full of damp washing whenever we visited. In summer there was also the extra hazard of avoiding the fly papers festooned around the room, usually full of dead flies and of course poisonous.