Great memories. My great grandmother, a tough old girl always in a pinney dress. About the same age as you, my nan would take me to visit once a week, with me knowing she'd take out a sixpence and tell me to go and buy myself a Milky Way from the shop across the road (more like the front room of a terraced house opposite hers) with her booming out "now mind that road" even though the road was pretty much deserted most of the time.
On a golf trip to St Andrews we got the local chippy to deep fry a mars bar, a topic, a Turkish delight and a bounty bar. They were absolutely delicious and the guy never batted an eyelid when we asked him to do it! Funny lot the Scot’s but fine people!
My Nan, Another thing or two I remember about my Nan, is sometimes, I can’t remember exactly why or when, but sometimes, I would have to go to Nans house after school and I would always end up in the scullery (kitchen) and nan would grab a well worn tea towel and my ear at the same time and she would sometimes wet the corner of the tea towel under the cold tap (no hot) and sometimes she would just lick it , then proceed to rub my face until my cheeks were rosy and my face was clean before my mum came to pick me up.. when I say (no hot) there was a Belfast sink with a cold tap only but a geyser would give hot water above the sink and the bath upstairs but only if some one put a shilling in the meter which was once a week when uncle Tom needed a bath to go out courting. The outside privvy had news papers cut into quarters and nailed to the back of the toilet door, it was absolutely freezing in there because of the six inch gap above and below the door, I never stayed in there long enough to need a piece of newspaper. My Auntie Val was still at home and to keep me entertained, I would be allowed upstairs with Auntie Vals 78 Record Player and winding it up and playing records. I remember playing Hound Dog quite a lot by Elvis and I’m pretty sure there was one by P.J. Proby and some Bill Haley too, Nan had some Joe Loss and Benny ,,,,,,,, maybe Benny Goodman. I can also remember this huge piece of furniture being hacked and chopped by me in the back garden with Nans firewood chopper (small axe) for firewood because the 45s had come out and most of the 78s were toast by now. Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,, I loved being up Nans.
As a teenager I had a weekend job in an ice cream and pizza parlour in a village near Banbury. Because USAF Upper Heyford was still up and running there were a lot of Americans round our way. We sold ice cream floats there. It was the sort of thing we never had at home as only had squash, pop was too expensive.
Memories Ozziedog! When I went to town with my parents in the early seventies, we used to go into an Italian run restaurant that had been there forever, and my treat was a coke float.
I remember coke floats as the ultimate in decadance in the 70's / 80's. along with cream soda floats too. Then as an adult i had one (or two) in Lucky 7 diner in Notting Hill. it didn't taste great and made a scummy mess all up the side of the glass - another childhood moment ruined
You've pretty much summed up my memories of my nan and her house there Ozzie. But with the exception of the geyser - all of my nan's hot water was from a huge old kettle, boiled on her gas cooker. Its a fine line between reminiscing (good) and sentimentality (not good). A vivid memory at about six years old of being sat in a tin bath, in front of her coal fire- because I had the misfortune to fall in the reen and come back covered in black slime......... another of nagging my gramp to let me chop some kindling, when he eventually let me, I cut my finger, cried like a baby and my nan then shouted at him for letting me use the chopper. Sorry gramp!
Apples and Oranges for me. The practical Scottish nan, barely used real fire heating, almost never used radiator heating, crabs dying in the Belfast sink. Not poor, not well off but they'd been doing ok as fishing boat part owners before I was born. Other side was new beetle, new self/architect designed house, underfloor heating, 60's latest interior, waste chopper sink, dishwasher. No idea where the money came from, I suspect my Nan's parents set her and her sisters ("My" and "Bebe" 1920's youth) up with permanent investment income for life, all 3 seem to waft around enjoying life, my grandad was an engineer, but seemed to have more time invested in pottering around than working.
I may have told this before, however you’ve reminded me. We didn’t have a bathroom as we now know it . We had a toilet up the garden then when I was very little, it was moved to our coal house at the back of the scullery. In the scullery was my mums gas boiler which was a large cylinder with a gas pipe to it underneath that boiled the clothes clean. There was a boiler stick which was all bleached and smooth that was used to poke the washing about in the boiling water and was also used on my backside whenever I was a bit too naughty, which happened to be every other day in real life. This boiler looked / was like an enamelled water butt with four elizabethan styled legs and a lid but the stick was always hanging out of it and was frequently pointed to. The other thing this gas water boiler was used for was having a bath every Sunday for me and my sister before we were packed off to bed. The boiler was lit (gas) then the tin bath was put in the front living room in front of the fireplace and mum would bucket the water in from the scullery. Me and m6 sister would have a bath with one at each end. Mum would get a silvikrin satchet and put a bit in my hair and most in my sisters long hair and it used to sting when it went in your eyes. Years later I was reminded by my big sister that as was ‘helping ‘ mum in with the washing water, she was studying which end had all the repairs in which was done with a nut and bolt and some washers and bits of rubber and used to scratch your bum to pieces. Consequently she never got in the end with all the repairs and it took me over sixty years to find out. Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,went to Oz then and a different world
