Back in the good old days

[jaysay]

Watching the Telly this morning it was saying that temps got down to -10 last night around here, which started me thinking about when I was a kid. In the good old days there was very few houses with central heating, no double glazing, baths or inside toilets, no wall to wall carpets, just a little square next to the bed if you were lucky, how the hell did we survive. It was tatas every morning, windows were covered with Jack Frost, then it was down the yard to the outside bog, tin bath in front of the fire and if you were cold in bed it was Dads old trench coat thrown over your bed. Schools were never shut because it was to cold, it was a matter of keep your coats on this morning its a bit parky in her today. Oh how we loved those good old days

[MargaretR]

When I was a newly wed in 1961, the terraced house I lived in was heated by one open fire in the living room. Loft insulation non existant - lino on bedroom floor.
When hubby was on nights I wore a coat, socks and gloves to bed and I could see my breath vapour in the air in the bedroom.
It never ocurred to me that it would be better to sleep on the sofa

[beechy]

first house i ever bought had no bathroom
and a long drop toilet
t was just my luck to get caught walking passed the bridge pub
in accrington with a tin bath on my back,you try and better yourself
needless to say all my mates laughed for months
still it beat try to climb in the dolly tub

[entwisi]

As a lad I remember not being able to see through my bedroom window due to teh ice..... on the inside!

Thing is even now I find bedrooms too hot, I like to keep a window open if at all possible and even throw the covers off in winter but Julie is teh opposite and needs to be roasting hot or she winges

[Lilly]

Originally Posted by MargaretR

When I was a newly wed in 1961, the terraced house I lived in was heated by one open fire in the living room. Loft insulation non existant - lino on bedroom floor.
When hubby was on nights I wore a coat, socks and gloves to bed and I could see my breath vapour in the air in the bedroom.
It never ocurred to me that it would be better to sleep on the sofa

We moved into our first house in 1998. It was an end terrace and very hard to keep warm.

It had a built on kitchen and in winter the taps would be frozen.

We could see our breath in the bedroom too.

This is in 1998 so only ten years ago.

[garinda]

When I moved into my present house four years ago it didn't have central heating.

Since there are neighbours on either side, and the idea of making up real fires sounded romantic, I thought I'd be fine.

I moved in in July.

I lasted until December, and then made a frantic call to the plumber, and was thankfully sorted with full central heating by Christmas.

It must be because I'm all skin and bone that I feel the cold so much. That or living in balmy London for seventeen years had sent me soft.

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by beechy

first house i ever bought had no bathroom
and a long drop toilet
t was just my luck to get caught walking passed the bridge pub
in accrington with a tin bath on my back,you try and better yourself
needless to say all my mates laughed for months
still it beat try to climb in the dolly tub

The long drop was something else weren't they beechy, a bit of a ****** if you came home legless and dropped your false teeth down the hole

[Less]

Originally Posted by jaysay

The long drop was something else weren't they beechy, a bit of a ****** if you came home legless and dropped your false teeth down the hole

My brother was 4 years senior to me, we had an Aunt with a long drop toilet outside, I had no fears using it until he, sneaked out one cold dark evening and told me about all the creatures that lived in there and got their revenge at night for what we dumped on them during the day.

I was 36 at the time but the fear has never left me!

[Caz]

a bit of a ****** if you came home legless and dropped your false teeth down the hole

Oh blimey Jaysay!! ya comedian.

[MargaretR]

When my mum and dad had an indoor loo installed, my gran made a special visit to view and experience the novelty.
Her comment was -
"Useless! - you splash your bum"

[Lilly]

Originally Posted by MargaretR

When my mum and dad had an indoor loo installed, my gran made a special visit to view and experience the novelty.
Her comment was -
"Useless! - you splash your bum"

LOL. My grandparents had a toilet in the back yard aswell as one in the house.

Mt grandad would not use the indoor toilet as he said it was disgusting to poo in the house.

[beechy]

the outside loo was a bit of a bummer
i remember not being able to have a loan for
a triumph dolomite because we had no inside loo

[panther]

Never Had a outside Loo...thankgod!!

But remember when i was a kid scraping the ice of the windows...from the inside
Having an hot water bottle in me bed with a sleeping bag and about 4 layers of covers, lol

[West Ender]

In the freezing 40s we had some awfully cold Winters. 1947 was a b*gger but my best memories of it are having loads of fun in the snow. I can't ever remember feeling cold but I suppose we were just used to it.

Hot water bottles were the norm, then, and we had the stone ones with a screw-in stopper on the side. I was about 9 years old when I got up for school one morning and my hot water bottle slid off the end of my bed and on to my bare foot. The foot swelled up like a pudding and I couldn't get a shoe on so - yay! - a day off school.

I was about 15 - so 1958 - when my dad, unaided, installed central heating in our house. It consisted of heavy iron radiators in every room, pipe-fed by water heated by his coke-burning boiler - situated in a glass outhouse he had built at the back of the kitchen. It did keep the house warm but it gurgled and belched all the time and every night, when he went to "riddle his clinkers", you cloud hear the sound of his riddling all through the pipes.

[wadey]

The long drop was something else weren't they beechy, a bit of a ****** if you came home legless and dropped your false teeth down the hole"
My mate did just this and his Mum tied a sieve to a broom handle and fished them out!!!!!!