bandrui

I have my Great Grandfather's death certificate... cause of death: exhaustion. (He was the fruit producer in Evesham.)

Boodles

The immigration officials will allow him in on a 6 month visitors visa, but, if he says he has come there to settle, without the correct visa, they will refuse him entry and bounce him back on the next flight, which he will have to pay for.

jasper123

Oh cheers all this is music to my ears, yes those were the days when I think I was the most happy, my mum boiled all the white sheets in the boiler, I would give her a hand feeding them through the mangle ---- that was fun
we didn't have a toilet at the end of the garden but my Nan did, but we did have a bath tub in the kitchen with a very slow running hot water ascot, it took a very long time to get enough water in the tub, Mum & Dad shared the same water (separately) and me and my Sister shared another bath of water (separately) yes Saturday night was always bath night, ------- Oh those were happy days, especially the open coal fire, ----- do you remember those so very cold cold days that you would come home from school or work and you just dashed in front of the fire to get warm quickly,
do you remember when the coal men delivered the coal to the houses, they had to carry a big sack of coal half the size of the man ----- so heavy ---- and they had to carry sack after sack through the house all the way to the freaking end of the garden to the coal shed and they would bend forward and empty the coal right over there heads, I remember this cause I used to do that Job for the first 6 months after leaving school, I was 14 but close to 15 years old £2 & 3 shillings and sixpence per week, all paid in a little brown envelope coins and all --- remember them?
Oh and dont forget the bread & dripping sarnies, dont forget the salt

cheers

You are younger than me and I only got paid £1-17-6d. per week. I say only but I could do a lot with that money then. I could buy a ticket to New York for £95 I think. Yes paid in cash. That was different than with a job I had in San Francisco where we got paid by check and we dived into our cars to the bank so we could get the cash before the last ones to arrive who had their checks denied because their wasn't enough money left in the employers account.

I'm digressing but we found that when our employers took taxes out of our check and they failed to pay those taxes to the IRS we had to pay again those taxes. Unbelievable. We would show the IRS the deduction had been paid but they didn't care. Pay up or go to jail.

bandrui

I loved those times. Every house had a coal shed. My mother and Grandmother would be talking about this new stuff called coke and then anthracite.
We had a stove in the kitchen and Mum would get the kitchen nice and warm before we got up so that we could have our breakfast in there before we went to school. I have always loved an open fire. I would sit with my feet in the hearth and my Mum would say to me "For goodness sake Linda. If you sit any closer to the fire you'll be up the chimney."

It's still number one on my list for a house... an open fire. Nothing like it on a cold winter's day. Substitute sunshine for the winter. Those were the happiest days of my life. Life was so simple then.

cheers

Rod, did you have any sisters who stood in front of the fire and they got what they called chilblains on their bare legs. That maybe the wrong name.

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/chilbla...roduction.aspx

bandrui

My first summer holiday job was pea-picking, 8/- a big sack . Back-breaking work and I used to cycle there and back 8 miles each way.

cheers

Your mother had a lot of love for you to get up early and get the house warm before she got you up.

On the open fire. I wanted one but after looking at the interiors of a lot of homes I see they have variations of a stove and I think this is because with an open fire 80% of the heat is lost up the chimney, hence the replacement and popularity of the president day stove.

bandrui

Yes, a stove is good. I have a fireplace with doors that has a fan so puts out quite a bit of heat but stoves are best because they heat with radiant heat as well.

I'm outside with my chainsaw today and chopping firewood. Just in for a tea break.

jasper123

No but Ive heard that term used often when I was a kid, chilblains, didn't really know what it was but I thought that only old people got them,

Mummy in the foothills

Can you buy coal now days? I know Dh would love to have a real coal fire when we move back. Me I grew up with a gas fire, both parents worked so we had one put in when mum went back to work when I started school. Dh's family didn't, they all had coal.
They are so good at heating the place up I think if coal is availible then we should do it.

OK I looked it up and apparently you can still get the coal delivered, and can have a multifuel stove, we have one that can burn Wood or Coal here, but have never found coal delivery anywhere local to us here in the US

cheers

My first job was throwing newspapers then when I returned to England I picked spuds on a local farm then the next year they promoted me to tractor driver at 13 or 14. Then I delivered milk early in the morning before school. I must have been about 13 or 14. At one point I delivered meat from the butchers on Saturday. Those kids going to school at Eton don't know what they are missing.

bandrui

Looks like it:

http://www.ukcoal.com/coal-today-tomorrow

bandrui

Throwing? I used to have a paper route before school but we had to put them (magazines and all!) in the letter box. Did you grow up in the States?

cheers

Yes you can but it is a pollution, smokless free coal or so I'm told