Winter doom and gloom

[Potstubsdustbins]

Rary, I worked at a cement plant just outside Buxton in the High Peak darned freezing in a winter, the warmest place was out side along side the rotary kiln, the snow never got within 10 feet of it before it evaporated.

[mothhawk]

...Those were the days of single glazing...one coal fire (in the lounge) in the house(also for heating a small tank of hot water)...hot water bottles....single glazing....

Oh my gosh, yes, hot water bottles - who has them nowadays? - eiderdowns and blankets (no duvets back then), and frost covering the windows.....on the inside. Getting ready for bed in front of the fire downstairs, then dashing upstairs as fast as possible to get into bed, still wearing my dressing gown.

Ah, those were the days........

[Greenleaves]

I still remember a tin bath in front of the fire....every Sunday....yes I know it's nearly teatime...or dinner if your posh

[Thelma Sanders]

I still remember a tin bath in front of the fire....every Sunday....yes I know it's nearly teatime...or dinner if your posh

Ours was Friday nights and the water was for 4 of us - we survived but I'm really glad I don't have to share like that nowadays. The thought makes me shudder!

[Jay-ell]

I'll leave my sowing until it gets a bit warmer

I'm typing with my gloves on - it COLD

[veggiechicken]

It's sowing now. VC it's all your fault. Yours and Sputniks.

I'm typing with my gloves on - it COLD

That'll teach you for trying to blame me!
My Nana blamed the Sputniks too - for disturbing the atmosphere. My Grampy, however, said the weather was always better before they built the Flyover (a bridge over a roundabout on the local main road).
I would never have argued with either of them

[Potstubsdustbins]

Tin bath once a week, bowl of hot water and a flannel the rest of the week and wash the back of your neck you could sow spuds in it.

It must have been an iffy world back then but no one seemed to notice.

[Nicos]

Oh my gosh, yes, hot water bottles - who has them nowadays? - eiderdowns and blankets (no duvets back then), and frost covering the windows.....on the inside. Getting ready for bed in front of the fire downstairs, then dashing upstairs as fast as possible to get into bed, still wearing my dressing gown.

Ah, those were the days........

I used to get undressed and dressed in bed...having cuddled the clothes first just to warm them up a bit!

Those fern ice patterns on the windows were soooo pretty....I enjoyed scratching round them with my nail.
Yeh....no bedtime TV for kids in those days!

[veggiechicken]

Same here Potty!
I don't think deodorant had been invented, It was a bar of Lifebuoy or Fairy and that's your lot! Couldn't change your clothes every day either as it took too long to wash and dry them,
I remember a girl in school that nobody would sit beside and we called her Smelly Beryl - poor girl. I'm ashamed now that we were so unfeeling.

[rary]

Oh my gosh, yes, hot water bottles - who has them nowadays? -

Me ....,..

[Jay-ell]

What about good ole carbolic - the stuff that would ware away the stone steps at the back.

Anyone else remember getting bathed in the kitchen sink as a nipper? Would have been easier if the crockery had been taken out first but you couldn't afford two lots of soap and water.

[veggiechicken]

Were you in the sink before or after the dishes - or even at the same time?

[rary]

Ours was Friday nights and the water was for 4 of us - we survived but I'm really glad I don't have to share like that nowadays. The thought makes me shudder!

It was the same in my family and unfortunately the dirt seemed to jump onto me, my brother and sisters were always telling my mother "he needs scrubbed" which usually led to me getting the scrubbing brush used on my hands and legs, and on bath night I was always last to get using the bath, my sisters wouldn't go into it for some reason if I was first and by the time I got using it the water was cold

[JanieB]

We had relatively “modern” facilities at home, but when we stayed with our grandparents it was different. My paternal grandmother had a sort of add on outhouse with a proper bath in it and an old noisy gas geyser to heat the water. We had to go out of the back door and into the outhouse. The door was an old ledge and brace type and very draughty. There was no electricity in there and no windows. We bathed by candlelight. The loo was next to it. We used to get into trouble for picking the limewash off the walls.

My maternal grandparents had a proper, rather grand, indoor bathroom. There was a hot water tank next to it that my grandmother refused to use because she’d once found a dead rat in it. Hot water was lugged up from the copper in the kitchen. It took some filling as the bath was enormous. We used one end of it as a slide. There was a Mabel Lucy Atwell poem hanging over it - “Please remember, don’t forget, Never leave the bathroom wet” etc.

Both bathrooms were very cold in the winter. I’d have preferred a tin bath in front of the fire.

[DannyK]

One of the troubles now a days is the standard of driving, a lot of folks have never driven in snow and have a laissez faire attitude toward it

You mean like this idiot!

He's one among many. Common sense says don't venture on an ungritted hill.

Around here they go up over the kerb rather than reverse park. They also go onto full lock whilst stationary. Couldn't have done that with my old Volvo estate sans power steering!