Things Your Grandmother Had

Hannibal_Smith

My grandmother had a big metal basin in the kitchen that she would use for washing us. She'd sit us on the kitchen table with a towel under us and put our socks and vests underneath the bowl of warm water so that when she put them on us they were lovely and warm.

She also had a parlour that she used for good occasions, or for shoving us into when the grown ups were talking about someone behind their backs :pac: In the parlour was a side board of all her good plates etc and there were these small little glasses, I suppose they were for sherry, but they were never used. They were multicoloured with little gold kind of Paisley designs on them. We used to pretend we were posh and play with them like they were wine glasses. Then you'd have to shove them back in and crash the sliding door of the cabinet shut when you heard someone coming because you'd be killed if you were caught playing with them lol

She also had a clear kind of plastic cover on the hall floor to protect the lino from people walking on it. Said piece of plastic would slide all over the floor, so we used to run and jump on it and see how far you could surf down the hall on it. We would have been killed for that too

Then she had the picture of the Pope on the wall and would always bless herself walking passed it.

JupiterKid

My grandmothers were born in 1902 and 1915 respectively. My older grandmother passed away when I was 10 and was the one who had the dinner gongs. She had my mother in her early 40s and I remember her as quite old and infirm. But she doted on me as I was the youngest grandchild. My younger granny had a lot of furniture and ornaments from the late 1930s and 1940s. Lots of dark wooden furniture from that era including a fearsome big black Hoover that reminded me of Darth Vader. She also doted on me. I was spoiled!!:o

My Dad when visiting my grandparents would give out about their old style electric bar heaters as being dangerous. But they loved the instant heat off them. Elderly people seem to need more heat in their homes.

I have a beautiful walnut bureau that was my Great Grandfather's and dates from about 1885. I inherited it and it is a prized possession.

childsplay

Headscarves. Nana always wore a headscarf. Frocks and Carrolls cigarettes.

Winterlong

My granny had a gambling habit long before they were fashionable.

andekwarhola

When we were kids, we found a lovely old chamber pot (porcelain or ceramic) in my late nana's house (she lived into her 90s) in South Tipperary as a kid. We thought my Da was winding us up when he told us what they were used for.

She had a lovely, big open hearth as well. Even to this day, certain smells like turf or wood fire put me in mind of it.

When we were kids, the whole experience of going down there from the city for your holidays was brilliant and you'd just run amok.

My aunt lives in the house now and the house and garden have been completely renovated/modernized and it always makes a bit sad when I'm in it.

.red.

Milky Moo's. She always had them.
We'd collect her on a Saturday evening for mass and back to hers after for tea. There was always a bag of milky moos on the table and she used to keep the little red sticker for me to take home. Could have wall papered my bedroom walls I had so many of them.

Aglomerado

One of my grannies lived in the middle of the Burren, in a 3 room cottage with no running water. There was a Stanley range set back in an inglenook. All the furniture was wooden and painted in the same colour scheme, dressers, sideboard, sugán chairs and a big old cupboard which had a folding bed inside for extra guests. The floor was bare stone. Clothes were washed using a washboard and basin although there was a curious electric contraption for getting rid of the excess water (not a mangle).

Water was retrieved from a rainwater tank beside the house. To go to the toilet, you just found a handy corner in a nearby field.

The house was spotlessly clean from top to bottom and always smelled really nice, turf and wood fire smell.

This was in the 1980s.

corner of hells

I can vaguely remember my great grandmother passing the 70's , she was living with my grandmother at the time and my dad having to dispose of an ancient Smith and Wesson style revolver that was found on top of her wardrobe. It's in the Shannon around Lanesborough.

Other than that my granny had the usual stuff , an outside bog , a barrel for collecting rainwater, a psychopathic Jack Russel etc.

Shenshen

Neither of my grandmothers are Irish, though both are Catholics.
My grandmother on my mother's side used to always have a tin of snuff in the dresser when I was very little (would have been during the 70s). Occasionally, she'd let us try some.
She must have kicked that habit a long time ago, though, I haven't seen any snuff in her house in decades now.

She also had a large kitchen garden full of vegetables and herbs. In summer, whenever we arrived in the car, my brothers and me would leap out of the car, run to the garden and pull up radishes. We'd rinse them under the garden tab and eat them right there and then. Best radishes ever, they were. She also had an apple tree and two cherry trees that were fantastic for climbing, and eating the fruit while sitting up in the tree.

She had a small galley kitchen, with just one chair at the end next to the door. I never fully understood what that chair was there for, it was old and rickety and hard, and covered with a pillow that had gone all stiff and hard, too, over the years. When we were little, we would take that pillow off and sit around on upturned pans using the chair as a table, and she'd give us hot boiled potatoes with butter and salt while she was making dumplings and cooked dinner.

Graces7

Caylee Sparse Dust wrote: »

My granny had this really cool ashtray that was a kind of bowl like thing on top of a single leg stand. At the top of the the bowl was a pull-up handle that opened the ashtray, you'd butt-out the cigarette and drop it inside the bowl, then close it up again.

Just googling here, it was called a "floor ashtray".

She had a "good room" too.

My other granny had a glass cabinet full of creepy porcelain dolls, and a "Crying Boy" painting, not sure which one.

That brings back memories; used to play with it, pushing it up and down, I can still smell that dreadful stale ash stink.

Graces7

Thumpette wrote: »

One of my grannies is still going but all she has is an evil disposition. (Oh the stories!)

My other granny died at 57 in 1993. She used to live right next door to us and mind us while my parents worked. She was great at knitting- used to knit the Aran jumpers that then went onto being sold in shops for a small fortune. I always remember the wool coming in these big reels and then I'd help roll it into balls.

The main thing I remember is her food. She wasn't a great cook in retrospect. She used to make this stew and potatoes and then heat it in a thing she had which looked like a microwave but was a little electric grill/ oven. It was always dry and a bit burnt but I loved it. It had a particular flavour. One day a couple of years ago I tasted hp fruity sauce and there it was! The secret ingredient!

Lovely thread OP. Have such lovely memories of my Nanny. She had a tough life, sent to Scotland to pick potatoes at a young age, forced to pretend he first son was her brother for most of her life and burying her youngest daughter at 9 months. She was great fun though, warm and with this michievious laugh- the life and soul.

and she got paid amost nothing for all that work; been there done that .

and yes a lovely thread; thank you OP

Graces7

snowflaker wrote: »

My nanny died at the end of last year.
My other grandmother died long before I was born.

Nanny I remember 2 things from my youth- washing 24/6 with the twin tub and the smell of Ariel washing powder.
Baking bread. She used bake a lot -while she could.

And pink Germoline - she'd get it out of the press if you had a cut or graze

Summertime making rhubarb and gooseberry jam!!!

Washing was by hand in the scullery and then through the mangle. Used to get roped in to turn the handle and of course each chlld would put their curious fingers in the rollers to see how they worked. You only did that once! Experiential learning

PandaPoo

My granny used to have a picture of Mary, the eyes would stare at you no matter where you were in the room. Always freaked me out.

She used to have a giant bucket in the garden with a net over it for collecting rainwater. She would use it to wash our hair, that's how she washed her own hair for years.

She had a family of knitted dolls too, they were gorgeous. I always wanted one!

PandaPoo

Oh and carbolic soap. The smell!

eviltimeban

The "good room", which was the front room, and was always cold.

A hatch between the "breakfast room" and the sitting room.

Batch bread.

A record player that was a big box, about four feet tall, with what seemed to be a massively complicated radio. Used to love spinning the dials.

A sewing box full of sweets, and we'd get one when we were leaving.

Sacred heart picture on the wall. And a strange Lourdes window decoration.

An outdoor toilet (and this was in Dublin!)

Piles of Reader's Digests.

A lava lamp.

bodice ripper

My grandma is currently very unwell in hospital. I can't bring myself to go in her house at the moment. She is the only member of my family who really has any old photos of my family, which are all over the gaff.

I am fortunate to still have a grandma, given that I am 35. I hope I continue to be fortunate.

JupiterKid

The housework our grandmothers would have had to do would have been so hard and tiresome. Washing clothes by hand and other difficult chores. The advent of washing machines, electric cookers, vacuum cleaners, dishwashers and other labour saving devices must have been a godsend to their daughter's generation.

My parents used to tell me about growing up in the 1950s with no television. I just couldn't imagine life without TV. :eek:

Youngsters now probably can't imagine life without smartphones, tablets and the internet. Life goes on and technology advances.

But hopefully people will always remember at least one grandparent and their cherished possessions with fondness. They had a lot less than we do now but in ways they had enough to be happy with.

Shenshen

She also had an old sewing machine - a big black heavy thing, on a stand with a foot pedal that moved a large wheel which could be connected up to the machine via a leather belt. Usually, the belt was off, and we'd play around with the pedal and wheel quite a lot.
She taught me how to sew on the thing, not that I remember how to do it these days...

seamus

One grandmother died when my mother was four. She had a stillborn child and then was put in recovery in a ward where four women had dysentry, she contracted it and died.

My other grandmother I kind of remember her house. It had that decor that was really 1970s - lots of browns, greens and grays - and hadn't been updated. She grew all sorts in her garden out the back, mainly rhubarb and gooseberries, but also blackberries and raspberries. I think she had a "good room", but I don't entirely recall. Whenever I was there, she had a living room, which was basically the walkway from the rest of the house to the kitchen, with a small TV in the corner. The odd time we went over for Sunday dinner, there was a larger room at the front of the house with a settee and a dining table, but no TV, that was never otherwise used.

When I was around 6 or 7, she had a "senior moment" which resulted in her setting her kitchen on fire and completely destroying it. So she agreed with my Dad that she wasn't able to cope on her own anymore, we converted our our living room into a completely self-contained granny flat and she moved in.

Somehow she managed to make this single room (plus kitchenette) a microcosm of the house she had just left. It had the same smell and feel as her house and despite being newly painted and decorated it, her furniture still made it feel distinctly 1970s.

There was definitely a picture of Jaysus on the wall (the woman went to mass every day until she was in her 80s). No red light though. She also had a number of Mary/Jesus/Baby Jesus statutes both in the room and in her bedroom. Bit creepy tbh. I think all of their heads were broken off and glued back on.

She was diabetic, so there was always a packet of "sweets" lying around that you'd never see in the shops - one you'd get in pharmacies. Also boxes of needles and vials of insulin hanging around where anyone could get them. Clearly child safety wasn't top priority
She used to break the tips off old needles and let us use them for sucking up water and spraying it around

All my grandparents were gone by the time I was 12, so I don't really have any particular sentimentality about them. They were all "old" when I was growing up, and so not particularly engaging - they didn't have the energy. The grandmother who lived with us would come in and speak to us often, I have good memories of her, but she was an incredibly reserved woman, personally very cold. I hindsight she really enjoyed having grandchildren to talk to, play cards with and bake for, but I never recall getting a hug from her or having a proper heart-to-heart conversation.

So for all intents and purposes from my perspective as a child, she was the nice woman who lived in our house, as opposed to a family member.

Malari

Peacock feathers! She always had peacock feathers arranged in a vase in front of the fire (because it never lit, as it was in the "good" room that was never used).

We weren't close, and she was a bit of a cow to be honest. She died when I was a teenager. All my other grandparents died when I was a very small baby or before I was born.

mfceiling

Lorelli! wrote: »

She also had a dark wooden cabinet with loads of ornaments. One I loved was a little girl with a tear down her face. My mam has that now. In the cabinet, she also had photo albums which i would take out every now and then.

She had these little tacky novelty cactus plants that she got as a holiday present from one of the other grandkids which I loved and snowglobes. She also grew rhubarb and blackberries in the back garden.

I think we are related.

Lorelli!

mfceiling wrote: »

I think we are related.

Ok! I can't even keep anonymous on an anonymous forum :pac:

Were you the one who bought the eh tacky cactus plants? Only messing!

whoopsadoodles

My paternal grandmother died when I was young, she had a crap life. Really crap.

My maternal grandparents are still alive and kicking, though my grandfather is in earlyish stages of alzheimers which is heartbreaking to see. They don't have many "things" they live in a very tiny house, I grew up in one on the same street and my folks still live there. There's no "good room" as there's just one living room off of which there are two bedrooms and a scullery kitchen. The bathroom, which used to be just an outdoor toilet, is just off the kitchen - which is fcuking rank imo but that's what they've got. The only thing that was memorable from me growing up was my nan's collection of "aynesley" which we would get her as gifts for big occasions. I vaguely recall getting her a piece for her ruby wedding anniversary - many, many years ago. I'd imagine it's probably all in the attic now because it's not in the sitting room any more. My nan is very house proud and would be sick if someone called to the door if a cushion was out of place. But not in a Mrs. Bucket way - in a panicky and not wanting to be judged for being poor - kind of way.

I have great memories of spending Sundays in their house. My sister and I would go to 11.30 mass with my Grandad, we would walk down the "long way" so he could go to the shop to get the paper. Outside the shop was my Grandad's pal Tommy who each week would give my sister and me a 50pence piece. In the shop then, the shop keeper who knew my Grandad well would give us a free treat as well. I often bought a pyramint. Yum. During lent, all of these treats were brought back to their house and put in a jar until Easter. We never ever got through them all of course, but sure we didn't know that! To the pub then about 12.45 and we'd get a lemonade while my Grandad played Darts. We'd head over then to my Nan at 2 when the pub closed and would get a full Sunday dinner. Off then on an adventure, maybe just to Dun Laoghaire to walk the pier, or the Dart then in all its magical glory could take us as far as howth. My grandad loved to take photos and we have so many of us as kids on a Sunday afternoon! Sunday was my parents day off

My nanny was always the one with the fizzy drink, or the trip to McDonalds. I remember actually finding fizzy drinks in my own house once and being absolutely delighted, asked my mam if I could have some and she said no. I couldn't understand it at all. Following weekend then she threw a surprise birthday party for me

Thanks for making me think of those things OP. I'm all warm and fuzzy now.

jmayo

My granny introduced me at age of about 3 or 4 to Poit?n and Andrews Liver Salts.

No not together although thinking about it, it would be one interesting combination.

I actually loved the fizziness of the Andrews.
Of course I didn't realise it's ultimate function.

She was great believer in power of poit?n, usually taken as punch.
She also used to make a bread milk mixture called goody.
Can't believe I also liked it.

My granny also had a fascination with worms and everything was diagnosed as "he has worms".

Graces7

JupiterKid wrote: »

The housework our grandmothers would have had to do would have been so hard and tiresome. Washing clothes by hand and other difficult chores. The advent of washing machines, electric cookers, vacuum cleaners, dishwashers and other labour saving devices must have been a godsend to their daughter's generation.

My parents used to tell me about growing up in the 1950s with no television. I just couldn't imagine life without TV. :eek:

Youngsters now probably can't imagine life without smartphones, tablets and the internet. Life goes on and technology advances.

But hopefully people will always remember at least one grandparent and their cherished possessions with fondness. They had a lot less than we do now but in ways they had enough to be happy with.

Before TV we played board games etc as a family, or played out with friends . Hobbies; my older brother did beautiful intricate marquetry, developed and printed his own photos and built intricate model planes. There were normal occupations. We had radio too of course. and radiograms

Lady Haywire

One of my grannies is still going strong, will be 98 in a few months time. When she's in a good mood she'll tell stories about growing up, her tales around the Big Snow are amazing, hard to believe almost!
Only moved into a nursing home there in January but before that she lived on her own She had a good room alright, though wsn't allowed into it very often. It had a large picture of a girl crying with a smashed vase & a lassie type dog looking at her sorrowfully. There were National Geographic magazines kept in there from the 1980s (they were all kept for some reason!) so I'd be given a few at each visit to read through. Still have them in my bedroom somewhere.
My other granny lived right next to us, the house used to be a shop and was old in itself (before famine for sure) so the windows are very deepset. Used to climb into them and read :pac:
In the good parlour there were old cabinets full of the good delph, including a set given to her aunt when she went to America, surprisingly she returned to Ireland so the 'set' came back with her. Another cabinet had loads of photos and newspaper clippings, I'd spend hours at them.
The upstairs in the house was really dark and the floor creaked like mad ( no building regs's when it went in!) so I was always nervous of going up there, though it was full of interesting things, an old travelling chest, christmas decorations etc. They're still there, the house is mine to use but I'm not ready to settle into it yet.
The one resonating memory from that house is the tick-tock of the big grandfather clock with the lead weights, which was wound morning & evening. It didn't tell the time but it was still kept going as it was a gift to my great grandfather and mother as a wedding present from his side of the family.
I recently took it away and got it restored so now it chimes the hour and tells perfect time.

blue note

My grandmother had a box brownie camera which she got as a teenager. She was born in 1912, so I think she got it in the late 1920's. Her mother died when she was young and she was largely raised by a neighbor who didn't have kids and I think they doted on her. Her father called to her every day but didn't raise her as such.

So for us as kids it was a cool old camera to play with. But when I think about it it was something truly extraordinary that she owned as a teenager. My mother told me that she often used to take pictures of neighbors on request as she was the only one on the street with a camera and that would have been in the 50s / 60s. I can't imagine how rare it was in the 1930s.

Graces7

seamus wrote: »

One grandmother died when my mother was four. She had a stillborn child and then was put in recovery in a ward where four women had dysentry, she contracted it and died.

My other grandmother I kind of remember her house. It had that decor that was really 1970s - lots of browns, greens and grays - and hadn't been updated. She grew all sorts in her garden out the back, mainly rhubarb and gooseberries, but also blackberries and raspberries. I think she had a "good room", but I don't entirely recall. Whenever I was there, she had a living room, which was basically the walkway from the rest of the house to the kitchen, with a small TV in the corner. The odd time we went over for Sunday dinner, there was a larger room at the front of the house with a settee and a dining table, but no TV, that was never otherwise used.

When I was around 6 or 7, she had a "senior moment" which resulted in her setting her kitchen on fire and completely destroying it. So she agreed with my Dad that she wasn't able to cope on her own anymore, we converted our our living room into a completely self-contained granny flat and she moved in.

Somehow she managed to make this single room (plus kitchenette) a microcosm of the house she had just left. It had the same smell and feel as her house and despite being newly painted and decorated it, her furniture still made it feel distinctly 1970s.

There was definitely a picture of Jaysus on the wall (the woman went to mass every day until she was in her 80s). No red light though. She also had a number of Mary/Jesus/Baby Jesus statutes both in the room and in her bedroom. Bit creepy tbh. I think all of their heads were broken off and glued back on.

She was diabetic, so there was always a packet of "sweets" lying around that you'd never see in the shops - one you'd get in pharmacies. Also boxes of needles and vials of insulin hanging around where anyone could get them. Clearly child safety wasn't top priority
She used to break the tips off old needles and let us use them for sucking up water and spraying it around

All my grandparents were gone by the time I was 12, so I don't really have any particular sentimentality about them. They were all "old" when I was growing up, and so not particularly engaging - they didn't have the energy. The grandmother who lived with us would come in and speak to us often, I have good memories of her, but she was an incredibly reserved woman, personally very cold. I hindsight she really enjoyed having grandchildren to talk to, play cards with and bake for, but I never recall getting a hug from her or having a proper heart-to-heart conversation.

So for all intents and purposes from my perspective as a child, she was the nice woman who lived in our house, as opposed to a family member.

My other granny, on my mother's side, was always in bed, as she had no legs. "Lost them to sugar," adults whispered. I learned many years later that that meant she was diabetic. I used to try not to stare at the bedclothes, flat as they were, wondering what was..... underneath. She gave birth to 7 children and raised 3. TB took the rest at various ages. This was in the UK. She lived to a good age considering her illness. Well into her 60s

Summer wind

One of my nana's had a stemmed glass with a red liquid in it on her dressing table in the bedroom. It was a trick glass because it could be turned upside down without spilling the contents. When I was very small I wouldn't dare turn it upside down when nana asked me to because I was sure it would spill. There was always milk in a tall jug on the sideboard in the kitchen for baking bread and sultanas (that we always used to eat by the handful) for baking too. The clothes were always washed with a washing board and bath of hot sudsy water. Ther was a big solid fuel range that we held our bread up to on a toasting fork for lovely hot buttered toast.

My other nana had lots of lovely beaded necklaces that she gave me when we visited. There was a lot of fruit trees in their orchard and we always had fun picking fruit and eating it. She had huge dogs that had their own chairs in the kitchen and if you sat in the chair the dog would jump up behind you and put his paws under your bum and keep pushing until he knocked you off:)

Samuel T. Cogley

Grandad on at least 7 occasions on oneside