Remember when.....

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Marion.
When I was young [was I ever?] my Dad used to borrow a shack down the beach. Up to the farm in the morning for milk and bread, can't remember what we had with it, probably jam my mother had made. Toilet in a bucket outside which we emptied down a shaft in the sand. Wake up in the morning and look out the window at the rabbits running around, it was where I learned to swim my father pulling me out of my depth then leaving me to find my own way back, quickest way I know to teach someone, and some of the best days of my life.
But then home again and getting stuck into my Mums Welsh cakes.
Cheers Des

[Braid Anderson]

The last house I lived in before leaving Scotland for Oz in 1966, was Gean Cottage. Just outside Forres (not far from the Black Isle), it was set back from the road on a curved driveway. Inside the driveway were gean (wild cherry) trees, outside was a pine plantation. The walls were 18inch thick stone, and the floors were great slabs of slate. The fireplace was cast iron, with hotplate above the fire, and ovens on each side. So who needs a 'slow cooker'? Rabbit stew came out perfect, rabbits snared in the holes in the pine plantation fence. I still have a picture in my mind, from the last winter before I left. Standing out on the road, just watching the big fat snowflakes drifting down among the gean trees, with the cottage framed against the pines.

[Braid Anderson]

Remember when.....you could spend a farthing, with the little wren on the back.

[Braid Anderson]

You struck it rich when you found the threepenny bit in the clootie dumplin'

[Red Lead Ted]

#1 Marian, Brilliant post and a great thread you have started, The one thing I found missing which we will all remember was winning at the seaside or wherever and trying to get inside the biggest seed in the world...........The Coconut. To this day the only sweet after a meal I cant resist is strawberry jam and coconut tart with a dollop of birds custard made with milk not out of a tin or a carton. My old Dad once gave me a tip which not all of you may know. Try it this never fails when you think the tube of toothpaste is finished and you don't have a spare one run the tube under your hot tap for a min you will get plenty out of it I promise Terry.

[gray_marian]

#15, The irony is not lost on me Terry...An Englishman telling a Scotswoman how to save a few bob

My mother used to tie dusters to our feet and we had to slide around the wooden floors. Boy were we pleased when she finally bought fitted carpets. Now I get my 7yr old grandson to do the same....although his enthusiasm is waning....

[j.sabourn]

A lot of us used to have leather patches on the elbows of our jackets and on the arm cuffs of the sleeves to hide the holes. Thinking back though it cant have been real leather as this would have cost money. So was maybe was some other material and we went around thinking we were posh. Shirts when the collars went used to get another collar sewn on off another shirt. When got bigger the collarless shirt was a godsend especially at sea when could wear a clean collar with a dirty shirt. Then came the plastic collar which could just wipe down, followed by the disposable paper ones. These were good inventions. Buy a shirt now without a collar and they call them grandad shirts. Dont think they know all shirts were once like that, wish they would bring them back into fashion, would save the wife some work, I am very considerate on what she has to do, Ha. Maybe somewhere back in history the term collars and cuffs in reference to homosexuals derived its origins, and was not purely rhyming slang to puffs. Think I was 14 before got my first long pants. JS

[Braid Anderson]

#15....talking about tips, my father's tip was "never eat yellow snow." He was a joiner and cabinetmaker, and was on Prince of Wales, when she sailed after Bismark. They hadn't finished the work, so had to go along. He said "That's why you should never take half an hour to be five minutes."

[happy daze john in oz]

Life was so simple then and even when times were tough we managed. I remember how we used to sit around a candle in the winter, and when it got realy cold we would light it.
We were so poor one day my mum gave me abutton and said go next door and see if they havea shirt they can sew on it.

[j.sabourn]

The all famous one when asking for tips was Son be kind to your Mother. John could of started a new fashion there could of sewed the button on to a T shirt or a vest if had one. JS