Things Your Grandmother Had

LordSutch

snowflaker wrote: »

Things Your Grandmother Had

Bunions.

s3rtvdbwfj81ch

Graces7, I love that smell.

My grandad used to smoke a pipe, and the smell of that, along with a cup of sugary tea,made with leaves ALWAYS in that house, they had a tea-leaf dispenser on the kitchen wall, kind of like the things you see for dispensing coffee grounds a coffee shop these days, and they always drank their tea from bone china, there was an everyday set, a set in better nick for when there'd be a gang around, and a "Good" set for the priest or Charlie Haughey when he'd call!

whisky_galore

Giving out disappointing treats...boiled sweets, clove rock and the most disappointing ice cream of all time. The Golly Bar.

s3rtvdbwfj81ch

Strange thread, and I wonder what my own 3 year old will answer in 35 years when he's the age I am now, about my own mother's house.

Everything there seems relatively "normal" to me.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

A walk in linving-room library. Seriously - thee was a room where you could not see wall - just books everywhere. For all I knew, they might have been holding up the ceiling.

And a black-and-white tv that took about 30-40 seconds to "warm up" after you turned it on.

Widdershins

My granny was a very modern woman and I don't remember seeing anything old fashioned in her house. She liked reading and seemed to enjoy Dick Francis crime novels so there were those by her bed. She grew an amazing garden, so the house was cloaked in roses and clematis and there would have been flowers in vases inside the house in the Summer time. She had some souvenirs from her holidays, like a conch shell that you could ''hear the sea'' through if you put it to your ear, and dried gum nuts in a vase. Somewhere in her house there was a manuscript of a childrens' book that she wrote.

Then there was the other grandparent, Goblin Grandad..meh.

Widdershins

If I ever have grandchildren, they'll have something to talk about 'cause my house is full of weird stuff Not least myself
I'll be the Weird Granny.
I kind of collect some of the old kitchen and domestic implements some peoples' great grannies might have used. I have two elderly friends with museums of artefacts from old Ireland and I know someone who supplies props for period dramas and films. His collection is jaw dropping.

The thing I miss is the stories. I never asked my granny enough about her job during WW2, or anything else really.

More threads like this, please

Graces7

jmayo wrote: »

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".

Do you remember the ad jingle? "andrews. andrews for inner cleanliness!" and yes, worms were a catch all diagnosis... goody was a way to use stale bread;mush up with "connie onnie." ie sweetened condensed milk and very soothing to small empty tummies when times were very hard.

Lorelli!

Widdershins wrote: »

The thing I miss is the stories. I never asked my granny enough about her job during WW2, or anything else really.

Ye I've thought about that, how I would like to have had more conversations with them about their younger lives. I've heard some things and stories in later years about them and realised that they weren't that different to me at all. It just felt like they were because I was so young and they were old

cefh17

Her own paintings up on the wall, as a teen I got her painting lessons for her 80th birthday because it was something she always talked about wanting to try. At the end of her course a woman offered to buy the paintings from her at the mini exhibition they had, she politely declined and promises the first to me, it's still up by the front door in my house

Graces7

Caylee Sparse Dust wrote: »

Graces7, I love that smell.

My grandad used to smoke a pipe, and the smell of that, along with a cup of sugary tea,made with leaves ALWAYS in that house, they had a tea-leaf dispenser on the kitchen wall, kind of like the things you see for dispensing coffee grounds a coffee shop these days, and they always drank their tea from bone china, there was an everyday set, a set in better nick for when there'd be a gang around, and a "Good" set for the priest or Charlie Haughey when he'd call!

Oh that is good to read! For me it is the smell of horror due to my abusive father who smoked and always stank of it.. THANK YOU!

And oh yes, the "best china"!

Samaris

My grandmother also had a lot of stories and information about the generations immediately preceding hers, not to mention my long-dead grandfather's family. I regret that I wasn't hugely into family history until after her stroke and so didn't really ask her as much as I wish I had. Same as my dad, it sometimes takes only one person passing on to lose a lot of the family history, especially if they are the "only one left" from a particular family or area or generation.

zmgakt7uw2dvfs

If your grandparents are still alive and elderly, interview and record them. You won't regret it.

JupiterKid

Layla Proud Shark wrote: »

If your grandparents are still alive and elderly, interview and record them. You won't regret it.

My sister did that with my grandfather before he passed away in 1999 at 91 years of age. He was a great storyteller about life as a young lad in Coleraine, Co. Derry in the 1910s and 20s and then later in Portrush and Belfast in the 1930s. His stories of the Blitz bombings in Belfast in 1941 were both frightening and fascinating at the same time. She still has to get round to transcribing these recordings and I will certainly help her. This is now more urgent since our parents are gone too.

My late dad remembered the last years of WW2 even though he would only have been 5 when the war ended. His own stories of life in the 1950s and 60s were amazing. For instance, he remembered when the M1 Belfast to Lisburn motorway opened in 1962 and bombing along it on his motorbike on the opening day. He also remembered the horrific discrimination against Northern Catholics, the civil rights movement and the start of the Troubles in 1969.

Spudgun

Great Granny had an outhouse and no indoor toilet and used to drown kittens in a water tank, horrible woman
Granny had a potty and only got an indoor loo in the 90s she was sweet I miss her

Morpheus

they had a small holding on an acre in loughshinny, my memories are of finding her on sunny days in the centre aisle of the glasshouse, working at the base of tomato plants in the loamy soil, or in the field with my grandfather working on the potatoes, the smells and colors in the glasshouse and her smiling face, or seeing her in the kitchen of the house with a flour covered apron on, preparing apple and blackberry pies. Back kitchen door was always open and the fire was lighting year round. She had "the sweets press" for us grandkids - bags of crisps or a biscuit and always fresh baked homemade soda bread under a teatowel on the kitchen table. She died in 1993 and i still remember the sound of her voice, I feel blessed for that. My own mother sadly passed away a year ago from the big C and when i think about it, when I have kids, they unfortunately will never know theirs.

bodice ripper

Layla Proud Shark wrote:

If your grandparents are still alive and elderly, interview and record them. You won't regret it.

My grandma would hate that. I put a photo of us together on Facebook once, and a neighbour remarked that they had seen it. She wasn't pleased.

Instead, I spent extended periods living with her, and I tell her stories everyday to whoever will listen. And they always listen. She has excellent stories.

padd b1975

A statue of a dog at each end of the mantlepiece.

A large t-towel draped across the telly to keep the dust out.

Proper steamed bread pudding.

Sunlight soap.

A high Nellie bicycle with the most comfortable leather saddle ever made.

Religious paraphernalia for when the priest called on the first Friday of the month.

Being force fed cod liver oil-none of your fancy capsules!

Hundreds of headscarves.

Tapioca pudding.

MilesMorales1

A barometer.

HalloweenJack

Rosery beads.

*still has

decky1

she had a big range [Agga]? And when she got a new batch of chicks she would put any sick one's in a sock and put them in the oven part to bring the to life again. she also had some great sayings eg if someone was mean she'd say 'they wouldn't give you their piss to scour[clean] pots. what a great lady---always remembered .

The_Captain

An inherent belief that any young girl molested by an adult man was a little slut who led him on, even if she was only 7 years old.

I'm glad she's dead, all in all.

Hotblack Desiato

Floor ashtray, even though neither she nor my granddad smoked.

A B/W TV with the tuner knob that went thunk-thunk-thunk.

A mangle.

Parkinson's - from quite a young age so my grandad had to do a lot of the work of raising 5 kids as well as a full time job.

They were both born in 1900, lived in an 'artisan's cottage' in Sandymount that originally had no bathroom and an outdoor jacks. Would be worth serious money today.

karaokeman

My nanny is still alive but I have many fond memories of borrowing her VHS copy of The Last Unicorn.

mohawk

I actually knew some of my great-grandparents. They used to give me money when we visited. So 'twas worth the trip even though you had to sit down an be quiet.
My granny is still alive. Angry bitter woman who I avoid like the plague. Will literally live forever driven by pure hatred of all that is good in the world.

She has one of the mirrors with her and grandads family crests.
There is the holy water fountain by the front door, the sacred heart lamp. Her marriage certificate is framed and hanging in the sitting room.
cabinets which proudly display the Waterford crystal and good china. Also has fancy cutlery for Christmas.

Rumpy Pumpy

A painting I drew as a 4 year old on the inside of her kitchen door.

A patterned carpet that was great for running little diecast cars around.

Awesome beef stew. Potatoes from the range. Heaps of butter and salt. Milk was the drink.

A keen sense of politics. She married a proper old school FG man (long deceased), but once told me upon arriving home with a cheap copy of the Irish Times from college - "that's a paper for blueshirts and protestants".

Beasty

A butter churn

She also had one of my granddads, which was quite a co-incidence as the other grandma had the other one!

Oh, and one of them (I'm not prepared to reveal which one) had a criminal record....

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

One of my Grannies lived in a tiny round house referred to locally as the pepper pot house. I seem to recall only two rooms and they were packed with books - classic fiction and factual books. She smoked a small clay pipe. I was always enamoured by her rocking chair. My other Granny loved in a small farmhouse and, besides the smell of fresh bread baked daily, the terrible taste of goat's milk, and wonder of all the preserves in a pantry room, my abiding memory is of the two metal buckets inside the door that we had to take to the pump and fill before we headed home.
Strange as it seems now, we thought our house was so modern in comparison because we had running (cold) water in the house and a flushing toilet outside.

kittensmittens

The "Church Collection"
Dont know if anyone remembers it but it was a box of envelopes that you HAD to put money in EVERY WEEK and it was collected from the house.
My nan didnt like the church collector so always made me go to the door with it.
Also, super sers, headscarves and immaculate knockers (brasses on the hall door were always polished to a blinding gleam), by me but on her orders instructions

Beasty

Ah - the pantry - don't think I saw a fridge before my 10th birthday