Originally Posted by sallysimmons

It's pretty miserable here, but if I describe it, you might cool down

It's been raining non-stop for 48 hours and it's cold. The sky is a slate grey. Our roads are clear but a few villages round here have been flooded. Yesterday I managed not to set foot outside all day, but today I have to go to the supermarket and we need to go out tonight for a house viewing. It's the kind of rain that no amount of coat can spare you from, so we will be very wet and cold at points today. Plus they say it will keep raining all day tomorrow as well. First truly miserable 3 days in a row we've had since we got here.

Originally Posted by Mummy in the foothills

Oh dear, a bit too much all at once, but I'll take the rain vibes thank you very much. We had a very cloudy day the other day, hot in the mid 90's Awful!
Everyone was going on about it feeling like Earthquake weather.

Well I can say I have no clue about Ivanhoe, or Quartermass, I must be too young
I did however watch Bonanza sometimes, but was pretty young, we went to bed when the Coronation street music started and used to watch "Watch with mother" in the middle of the day. All in black and white. We didn't get a color TV till the late 70's and went many years with non at all, single Mum working two jobs. No money for TV's but she did save like a crazy woman and take us to Spain for two weeks every October in the 60's and early 70's nice hotels on the beach, all meals included I guess her priorities were different. So everyone though I was spoilt even though we went without a lot, had no carpets on the bedroom floors, and all hand me down clothes, no cars, etc etc.

Originally Posted by Jerseygirl

My parents did similar but we had a small car (Morris Minor) instead of holidays etc and we used to have picnics in the countryside on Sundays. Sometimes we would go to Cleethorpes for the day.

lol:

Originally Posted by Jerseygirl

My parents did similar but we had a small car (Morris Minor) instead of holidays etc and we used to have picnics in the countryside on Sundays. Sometimes we would go to Cleethorpes for the day.

I didn't have hand me downs...but my mother was a dressmaker...she used to make a lot of wedding and bridesmaids dresses. She used the off cuts to make our clothes...so my sister and I went to school looking like bridesmaids. My aunt used to knit for people...she made us cardigans out of the bits of left over wool. We always wore multi coloured stripey cardies. Mum would often buy shoes that had been in the window display of the shop. They were heavily discounted...sis and I can remember wearing the shoes...one was lighter than the other.

Originally Posted by mikelincs

Hope you didn't go swimming there, it would really be going through the motions as it isn't the sea, but the Humber estuary, and the Humber was an extremely polluted river..

Originally Posted by Mummy in the foothills

That is so funny, I just see you in bridesmaid dresses and stipy cardies heading to school.
My gran did all the knitting, and she'd unravel old jumpers to make us new ones, and collected buttons, so sometimes you'd have two different kinds of buttons on your cardies. Kids today would be horrified.

Originally Posted by mikelincs

I remember Quatermass, never allowed to watch it as was only a kid, and parents thought it was too scary. We never had a TV till 1957, and the first TV I saw was a neighbour's who invited us and a whole lot more people to watch the Coronation. During my primary school days my mum was a single mum having been widowed when I was 4, however she wouldn't take any benefits apart from the widows pension and child allowance, so to make ends meet she used the front room as a single bed maternity home, got fully registered etc. she started as a help to her sister who was expecting and already had a child and was in a council house so not enough room to have it at home. Mothers giving birth gave her the money to bring us up properly and buy school uniforms etc. over 100 babies were born there, and it was at time when they stayed for 14 days. In those days hospital births were rare and only for women expected to have complications, all others were at home or private maternity homes. One set of twins was born, not expected, and on mother gave birth in the drive way before she could get out of the taxi and into the house.

Originally Posted by Jerseygirl

My parents did similar but we had a small car (Morris Minor) instead of holidays etc and we used to have picnics in the countryside on Sundays. Sometimes we would go to Cleethorpes for the day.

I didn't have hand me downs...but my mother was a dressmaker...she used to make a lot of wedding and bridesmaids dresses. She used the off cuts to make our clothes...so my sister and I went to school looking like bridesmaids. My aunt used to knit for people...she made us cardigans out of the bits of left over wool. We always wore multi coloured stripey cardies. Mum would often buy shoes that had been in the window display of the shop. They were heavily discounted...sis and I can remember wearing the shoes...one was lighter than the other.

Originally Posted by Mummy in the foothills

That is so funny, I just see you in bridesmaid dresses and stipy cardies heading to school.
My gran did all the knitting, and she'd unravel old jumpers to make us new ones, and collected buttons, so sometimes you'd have two different kinds of buttons on your cardies. Kids today would be horrified.

Originally Posted by curleytops

My Mam used to unravel old jumpers & make new ones too. She was always knitting something and we all had lovely jumpers & cardigans. Dad still has a couple in the cupboard that I reckon must be 50 years old, he can't wear them anymore as he's "outgrown" them but doesn't have the heart to get rid. I only wish I could knit half as well as she did - her stitches were so perfect the stuff always looked machine-knit.

Originally Posted by Englishmum

Thinking of all returnees having to cope with the terrible wet conditions in the UK at the moment. I've been listening to BBC Radio 2 (Jeremy Vine show and Steve Wright in the Afternoon) and there are reports of people being trapped in their cars on the A1(M) due to rising floodwaters:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ted-North.html

Keep warm, dry and safe

Originally Posted by lf1

I love all these stories. My gran was a dressmaker and a fantastic knitter.
She once made herself a tweed pinafore and had some leftover material, so she made my wee Cairn Terrier a dog coat. He looked very spiffy in it.

She knitted me many cardis and once I had just put on a newly finished cardi and sat with my back to the fire, within seconds there was a huge hole burnt in the back of the cardi.

She and my mum taught me to knit and I still love to knit. Can't wait until my needles, books and wool arrive so that I can get clicking away.

Originally Posted by lf1

I love all these stories. My gran was a dressmaker and a fantastic knitter.
She once made herself a tweed pinafore and had some leftover material, so she made my wee Cairn Terrier a dog coat. He looked very spiffy in it.

She knitted me many cardis and once I had just put on a newly finished cardi and sat with my back to the fire, within seconds there was a huge hole burnt in the back of the cardi.

She and my mum taught me to knit and I still love to knit. Can't wait until my needles, books and wool arrive so that I can get clicking away.

Originally Posted by Jerseygirl

Times were tough then...but even living on a council estate we were brought up with good values. Both my parents had menial jobs but they both worked hard and were never out of work. They worked hard so that we could have a better life...and we have.

Originally Posted by lf1

Exactly, we were raised to be polite, respectful and well mannered and we also lived in a council house. We never wanted for anything, but we didn't just get new things on a whim. We had school shoes, Sunday shoes and sand shoes. In the winter we had boots or wellies, but would never have dreamt of buying a pair of shoes just because. We only got what we needed. Almost forgot, I had a lovely pair of red plastic sandals at,one point. I wore them all the time and especially when we went to the seaside.