Didnt do me any harm and other stories.

chucken1

Its a wonder we survived at all *shakes head*

OldGoat

Thats an outrage! I had to wait till I was 7 for my first taste of beer.

Spread

When my mother was 18 (born 1910) she was told by the doctor to drink a bottle of Guinness every day for six weeks. This was because she was supposed to be run down. She passed on in 2000, so it can't have done her any harm.

Rubecula

Spread wrote: »

When my mother was 18 (born 1910) she was told by the doctor to drink a bottle of Guinness every day for six weeks. This was because she was supposed to be run down. She passed on in 2000, so it can't have done her any harm.

My mum was told to drink it to help build up her iron in her blood after having me, and my siblings. She still had to have the iron injections after me apparently and she called me a real pain in the A*** because of it. Bless her, it was an insult sheathed in love. She passed on in 2002, and it is me who loves Guinness now. (Especially the bottled Original) as it was the first stuff to get me drunk... I can't remember how old I was but not very. I don't think it did me or my mother any harm to be honest.

Bearhunter

Spread wrote: »

When my mother was 18 (born 1910) she was told by the doctor to drink a bottle of Guinness every day for six weeks. This was because she was supposed to be run down. She passed on in 2000, so it can't have done her any harm.

My mother (slightly younger, but not much) got the same advice and she always said she absolutely hated it. Mind you, that hasn't stopped her having it very day since and still she claims to A) hate it; and not be a drinker.
Mind you, this was the same woman who rubbed whiskey on my gums when I was teething...

OldGoat

Bearhunter wrote: »

Mind you, this was the same woman who rubbed whiskey on my gums when I was teething...

I got brandy.
I remember inventing a toothache (at the age of 10) and getting a glass of rum to hold over my tooth. I could swear my mum really thought I was going to spit it out.

mariaalice

I walked two miles to school when I was 4 and my 'minder' was 6!!, ( she lived over the lane from us and she had to bring me and her sister to school when we started ) that was just the way it was, today that would be considered some sort of neglect.

My other half grew up in Wales, the nearest catholic school was two bus rides away and from the age of 4 he did the journey by himself, again at the time no one though anything of it, yet today people would be up in arm at letting a 4 year old get two buses by themselves.

looksee

My dad had a motorbike and sidecar. Occasionally my mum would ride in the sidecar with my small sister, and I would ride pillion - at age 7 ish - and it never even occurred to anyone that a helmet might be a good idea. I loved it!

I wouldn't really recommend it but still...

policarp

Whole milk straight from the cow. No pasteurisation or homoginisation(sp).
Nowadays it is illegal to sell whole milk AFAIK, and all we're getting is milky water. Bring back the good old days when you could have a nice splash of creamy milk on your porridge in the morning. . .

chucken1

Gosh ya I remember going to Mrs Dxxxxx for the milk. I had a little enamel bucket with a handle. (Probably explains my obsession with collectimg enamel ware now :eek:)

Remember real country butter?

EDIT: Water from the well at my nana's,was literally from the well. No pump. Down with the bucket,out came water!

Rubecula

chucken1 wrote: »

Gosh ya I remember going to Mrs Dxxxxx for the milk. I had a little enamel bucket with a handle. (Probably explains my obsession with collectimg enamel ware now :eek:)

Remember real country butter?

EDIT: Water from the well at my nana's,was literally from the well. No pump. Down with the bucket,out came water!

That sounds a hard life. (Simple and to my mind sort of idyllic too)

I remember the huge 'range' in the back room at my gran's place. All black with red quarry tiles on it. Heavy oven doors that closed with a satisfying clunk. Huge brass fender that I had a close encounter with, (The bang on the head must have done some damage LOL) it had leather cushiony bits in places that as a kid were just right to sit on in the warmth of the fire. Gran had a toasting fork that she used to use to do crumpets for me as a treat. She could also swing it round really fast to impact on me arse if I was playing up.:D

Happy, if somewhat painful, times.

policarp

Didn't Guinness supply maternity hospitals with free "snipe" bottles of stout in the good old days. They were smaller than a half pint bottle and a little more potent than normal stout IIRC.

OldGoat

Remember when could get a beer after donating blood in Pelican House?

Actually, remember when you could donate blood? It's been years since I gave my last pint. Apparently I haz the 'Mad Cow' because I lived in the UK for a few years.

Beruthiel

Back in the day when my Da was a cool biker, myself and my mother would be carted round in the sidecar.

Baby Beruthiel, biker chick:

Nonmonotonic

Even looks like death in a bottle!



http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2518/what-happened-to-mercurochrome

Poor Uncle Tom

A spoon of this cured everything....

Also used as motor oil....

I've bile in my mouth thinkin about it now...

Rubecula

Well they have it in a new bottle now, but I remember as a kid being asked:
"Have you been yet?"

If the answer was no you got a dose of this stuff. I will never taste it again, thank heaven. It was like swallowing liquid slime. Actually that is exactly what it was.

And for the times that you really needed the opposite:
(Kaolin and Morphine.

muffler

The mother made us drink "beat eggs" twice a week. Consisted of a raw egg in a mug of milk and whisked up. Feckin terrible it was.

odds_on

policarp wrote: »

Didn't Guinness supply maternity hospitals with free "snipe" bottles of stout in the good old days. They were smaller than a half pint bottle and a little more potent than normal stout IIRC.

When I was about 7 (early 1950s), the doctor recommended a "snipe" (one third of a pint, I think) of Guinness a day as I was excessively thin - like a rake really, and shooting upwards quickly!

policarp

odds_on wrote: »

When I was about 7 (early 1950s), the doctor recommended a "snipe" (one third of a pint, I think) of Guinness a day as I was excessively thin - like a rake really, and shooting upwards quickly!

Lots of children in my generation were given milk stout, for what reason I can't remember. Someone told me it was to prevent boils, but the main reason was an iron enriched tonic for nursing mothers, so it's no wonder I have a fondness for the "Blonde in the Black Dress".
Diferent times...
Did it help you in any way?

Bearhunter

chucken1 wrote: »

EDIT: Water from the well at my nana's,was literally from the well. No pump. Down with the bucket,out came water!

I remember a similar arrangement at my aunt Statia's. (Oddly enough I was talking to someone recently about getting well water and this person was extolling the virtues of well water, especially if it had frogs in the well. She couldn't get her head around it when I asked her did the frogs get out to go to the toilet....)

Rubecula

Bearhunter wrote: »

I remember a similar arrangement at my aunt Statia's. (Oddly enough I was talking to someone recently about getting well water and this person was extolling the virtues of well water, especially if it had frogs in the well. She couldn't get her head around it when I asked her did the frogs get out to go to the toilet....)

Suddenly I have the urge to gag:pac:

Bearhunter

And without wishing to dwell too much on loo, we had an outdoor toilet in my early years and that was certainly character-building. You didn't linger on a snowy night....

Rubecula

Bearhunter wrote: »

And without wishing to dwell too much on loo, we had an outdoor toilet in my early years and that was certainly character-building. You didn't linger on a snowy night....

My dad did in the terrible winter of 1963. He fell asleep bless him.

Still laugh about it now. Poor old sod had his legs fall asleep and his bum stick to the loo seat. The candle burned out and he was left in pitch dark. Aww blees him, his roar was heard halfway into the next county as he woke up.:pac:

Jellybaby1

Bearhunter wrote: »

And without wishing to dwell too much on loo, we had an outdoor toilet in my early years and that was certainly character-building. You didn't linger on a snowy night....

Having been a child of the tenements from the 50's I was used to shared toilet facilities which didn't do me any harm, but when I went to visit my prospective in-laws for the first time on their farm, and when I asked where the toilet was, I was handed a po in a bedroom! :eek: It didn't do them any harm, but it nearly was the end of me!!:o

Bearhunter

"I was handed a po in a bedroom!"

Ah, the dreaded Guzunder...because it guzunder the bed. Not to be left by the side of the bed for fear of unpleasant early-morning foot baths. When I think of all that modern technology has wrought, I take my hat off and salute those involved with the development of reliable indoor plumbing.

Jellybaby1

No, Bearhunter, it wasn't a Guzunder - it was a commode!!!

Rubecula

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

No, Bearhunter, it wasn't a Guzunder - it was a commode!!!

If you got a commode under the bed you were sleeping a long way off the floor:pac:

muffler

Bearhunter wrote: »

"I was handed a po in a bedroom!"

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

No, Bearhunter, it wasn't a Guzunder - it was a commode!!!

Rubecula wrote: »

If you got a commode under the bed you were sleeping a long way off the floor:pac:

It has to be said........it was a piss pot :cool:

Jellybaby1

Actually it should be said that it was somewhat of a collector's item, wooden chair type thing, very nice piece of furniture, I just didn't cop it until the seat was lifted up and the 'facility' was lifted out and handed to me:D Still, things have moved on now and it doesn't exist anymore more's the pity, it might be worth something now. It looked a bit like this one:

http://www.antiques-atlas.com/antiques/antique-furniture/armchairs-occasional-chairs/Commode_Chair.php

Rubecula

When I was living with my gran, she had one like that. I used to keep my toys in it LOL:)