Crochet and knitting has made me think about my need to create rather than buy ready made all of the time. I do appreciate that I have the luxury of choice in this matter, compared to bygone days when making everyday items was more likely a necessity. I went to live with my Nan for nearly 5yrs, in the early 60s, after my mother passed away just after I'd started school. She and Grandpop were amazing people and I'm certain that my knowledge has been all the greater for having them take part in such a developmental part of my life.
Although I probably wasn't aware of it at the time, my grandmother was the original recycler. Before the days of recycling bins, and fast food, my grandmother could find uses for things that others simply threw away.
She was a recycler before it became fashionable. .
"Waste not, want not!"
"It will have a use someday."
"Keep your money in your pocket for a rainy day."
"Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves."
If they couldn't afford it, they didn't have it. I don't think they ever borrowed, they saved!
Nanny was good. If a second life could exist for an item, she would find it.
- Plastic bags were washed and turned inside out to dry.
- Buttons were always removed from a garment that could no longer be worn. I still have a button jar. Old habits die hard.
- Grandpop's shirt collars were removed and turned round when they became worn
- Socks and stockings were darned.
- Sheets that had become thin in the middle were given a new lease of life by cutting down the middle, and joining the edges in a new centre seam. Maybe not the most comfortable to have a ridge in the centre of the bed, but it made them last a bit longer. Nanny would pin them in place and out would come the trusty singer sewing machine which I still use. She would guide it through and I was allowed to turn the handle.
- The rag bag was kept hanging inside the coal cupboard door, and the contents would either be used for dusters, or cut into strips to make a mat for the loo, by knotting them onto a piece of sacking. I even remember going to bed on special occasions with my hair tied in rags, and waking up with a head full of curls the next day
- Jumpers and cardigans would be patiently unpicked and unravelled. I was often allowed to help. The yarn would be kinked from knitting, so the next step was to wrap it in hanks around a chair back. The 2 ends would be tied to stop them coming undone. They would be washed and hung to dry. This made the kinks fall out, and then the long process of rewinding into balls. I would sit with my hands apart holding the skeins, while nanny would wind, and wind, and wind.
- There was little food waste to my recollection. Used tea leaves from the teapot went on the garden, and any food bits that had to be thrown away was wrapped in left-over newspaper, and popped in the bin, or onto the fire in the winter, depending what it was. There was little in the way of packaging to dispose of.
- The chicken carcass was always boiled for stock, and there was an enamel mug of beef dripping in the fridge.
- I remember shopping with Nanny almost daily for fresh meat and veg. None of this weekly shopping and it's inevitable waste that we have nowadays.
- Nanny's small store cupboard was for emergencies only. She always kept a tin of salmon for sandwiches in case someone turned up unexpectedly. I remember there being tinned corned beef (with a key on the top of the lid for opening it), sardines, peaches and evaporated milk but I wasn't aware of much else in the way of 'fast' food that she bought.
- There was a Sainsburys on the High Street, but you waited at the counter and they would get you your goods from the shelves behind them. Imagine trying to do that these days!!
- Nanny made her own chutney, jams, pickled onions and Christmas pudding.
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In fact, life was so different from today that those who haven't experienced it might find it hard to even imagine.
Despite the fact that there was n little in the way of Health & Safety, or children’s rights, it was a much safer environment than we can ever imagine these days. We were taught discipline at home and at school, and corporal punishment was freely administered for bad behaviour. If you got told off at school, you'd be in trouble again when you got home for embarrassing your parents!
People felt safe to walk the streets. There was very little vandalism or graffiti. Telephone boxes were fully glazed and contained a set of local telephone directories, and a pay-box full of pennies.
Young people, on the whole, respected those in authority such as the police and teachers, and would get a clip around the ear if they were caught misbehaving.
The kitchen was filled with products such as Omo or Daz washing powder, and a packet of starch and a kettle that whistled was a permanent fixture on the gas stove.
Most adults smoked and there were ashtrays in every room. Most homes didn’t have a proper, separate bathroom. Toilets were usually outside.
There was plenty of wholesome food, freshly cooked, and the woman of the house was always baking.
On Sundays it was usually a roast dinner, and the leftovers were made into stews and pies to eat later in the week.
Every Saturday morning, I would go to the cinema. I was given 2s 6d (12.5p). Two shillings to get in and sixpence for and ice-cream. When the film ended everyone stood for the National Anthem and stayed until it had finished playing.
Old-fashioned sweetshops had counters jam-packed with boxes of Black Jacks and Fruit Salad chews (4 for 1 penny). Large jars of lemon sherbets and cough candy which would be weighed by the quarter of a pound, and poured into small paper bags. And every Friday my Grandpop would buy me a bar of Galaxy chocolate on his way home from working at the NPL in Teddington. He cycled every day.
It is hard to identify the Britain of today with how it was back then. The whole appearance of the country has changed, particularly in inner cities where so much building and development work has been done over the years.
There was something cosy about growing up in the last decade in which most children retained their childish innocence to the age of 12 or 13 and enjoyed a carefree life full of fun and games. The stresses of adolescence and adult life could wait. We were lucky.
I frequently tell my children that I'm amazed they've survived given all the things they tell me they're not supposed to do with their own children. We're raising a generation of softies, wrapped in cotton wool, protected from anything remotely risky. They think they're street-wise but believe me they're not. They have no experience, so how can they be. Sitting watching TV, or playing imaginary games on an Xbox does little to prepare you for the real world.
We didn't have childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets (you were taught to keep out) and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. You learnt not to fall off too often, I still have the scars on my knees to prove it! We'd go on the swings in the playground, and try to swing right over the bar. Like that was going to happen, but if you went high enough the chain would go slack!!...and there was no safety matting underneath either.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
We drank water from the garden hose and survived.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, Xboxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on the TV, no video tape movies, no mobiles, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and played with them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and learnt to be careful!
We've produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we dealt with it because that's how it was!
We needed these experiences in order to learn, mature and grow as individuals.
