Over 50's club

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Rosehip Aug 2023 2:59pm, 7 Aug 2023 29,609 posts	0 Rosehip I love the glut and then change, either because it’s childhood memory or food just tastes better fresh and in season and when you’ve been looking forward to it Runner beans at the moment, I eat them instead of pasta (with meatballs tonight) Iwill live off my small patch for a while then it’ll be the next batch of carrots and the first cabbages.
Velociraptor Aug 2023 3:02pm, 7 Aug 2023 64,850 posts	0 Velociraptor My parents "discovered" broccoli for the first time when they went to South Africa to visit relatives and it was served to them, and Mum was delighted to find out that this fairly palatable and immensely slimming novelty vegetable was also available to buy frozen at home. Gran lived with us by that time. She'd grown lots of vegetables when she had her own garden, but never broccoli, so she disapproved of it. The stalks were tolerable but that slimy green stuff gie'n her the boak.
3M Aug 2023 3:27pm, 7 Aug 2023 21,807 posts	0 3M I think keeping the Mild in it sounds quite reasonable, angelrose. Together with the bitter and the stout. Ah, twin-tub washing machines. And long wooden laundry tongs! Every Monday was wash day (very traditional!). The rest of the week it had a board over the top and doubled as a work surface. Again, my grandparents' upmarket model had a built in Mangle that removed most of the water and fed the clothes straight into the spinner, which you then put a little rubber mat on to stop stuff catching on the lid.
Flatlander Aug 2023 3:29pm, 7 Aug 2023 2,851 posts	0 Flatlander I can't remember whether or not we had a fridge when I was young. Quite probably not. Like Fenland Flier says, no supermarkets then, so no big weekly shops but several smaller trips a week to local shops and the literal corner shops to buy perishables as we needed them. Daily doorstep milk deliveries from the corner shop. I do clearly remember my Mum preserving gherkins by pickling them, and runner beans by packing them in layers of salt. The late 1930s house that I bought had a north sided pantry under the stairs with a proper pantry window (small, restricted opening, with a fine mesh screen over the aperture). When I moved in, it was effectively a meter cupboard, and I've used it as my tool cupboard.
Flatlander Aug 2023 3:43pm, 7 Aug 2023 2,852 posts	0 Flatlander Definitely no washing machine when I was a child. Only a hot water tub to boil the clothes, a scrubbing board half immersed in the water, scrub the clothes on it with a proper scrubbing brush, and then squeeze out the water with the attached mangle. Dry the clothes on the outside clothes line (not the best solution in smoggy London ) or indoors in the winter on a clothes horse in front of the open fire. The hot water tub was also used to boil water to be used for our baths, transferring the water into the small tin bath tub that we then sat in and tried to wash ourselves without flooding the floor ! As a treat, my Mum once in a while would send my brother and I to the local baths about a mile away to have a proper clean.
Derby Tup Aug 2023 3:45pm, 7 Aug 2023 60,784 posts	0 Derby Tup My mum had a twin tub. Wash day was Monday; all day Monday
Hanneke Aug 2023 3:46pm, 7 Aug 2023 108,285 posts	0 Hanneke That sounds familiar Flattie, not the communal baths, but the wash room situation. No bath but next to the washing area was a shower type cubicle for washing oneself. My mum got a "washing machine" which was a tumbler on a stand that you hand cranked to spin the clothes around to clean them. You filled it with hot soapy water. Drain, rinse, repeat. More effort than the scrubbing yourself I'd say...
Hanneke Aug 2023 3:48pm, 7 Aug 2023 108,286 posts	0 Hanneke Then my mother got a twin tub, when we moved to a house with a bath and a boiler and central heating. She filled it from the boiler, so the thing lived in the attic next to it 😱
Hanneke Aug 2023 3:49pm, 7 Aug 2023 108,287 posts	0 Hanneke She got a hoover then too... I was 6.
Hanneke Aug 2023 3:51pm, 7 Aug 2023 108,288 posts	0 Hanneke Not a Hoover, it was an Electrolux! Before that, she used some kind of roller thing, not electric.