What are your childhood memories of your grandparents' house?

oh gosh have got teary reading other people's- let's see if I can do mine without just dissolving or something

our nanna's:

fire
smell of windfall apples
smell of Grandad's whisky
smell of facepowder
never ending toast plate
6 million jars of homemade jam
fresh bread on Sundays from Jewish baker's. With onions, and seeds on and everything (impossibly exotic to us)
Nanna playing her only party piece- Lullaby of the Leaves- AT FULL VOLUME
N&G whistling completely different songs in the same room at the same time
everything involving shrieking. Lots of it
beautiful lovely magical enchanted garden you could hide in
the bunch of keys for "the Labour 'All"
tobacco tins full of nails

Granny's

fresh paint (can smell stairs up to the flat she moved out of about 35+ years ago
pipe smoke
wine
gravy (they were the High Livers)
the feel of the artexy stuff in the hall
the pattern in the kitchen lino
the noise the boiler made in the bathroom- and the alarming WHOOOSH of flame
Ajax/vim
Granny off to listen "to my jazz" in the kitchen (obv too frivolous for Grandpa )
singing. Lots of singing. And scalding hot tea you could trot a mouse on. For seven year olds

my grandparents were my favourite people in the world

thanks fro the thread

White bread and Penguin biscuits, which we were never allowed at home for one set.

Coldest loo in the world and picking broad beans for the other. And my grandfather carrying on shooting (game, not people!) from his bedroom window, with the bed pushed up next to the window once he was too frail to get up much.

home made soup no matter what time of the day or night we arrived

Coal fire

trips to Whitley Bay to play on the slot machines

Being alllowed to play with my grandma's jewellry box

Mint imperials

Rag and Bone man

Watching wrestling every Sat afternoon with my grandma

Duchess

My own DC don't have anything like what I had but my future DGC - well. They will have the world on a plate as will yours

Very vauge memories of GRandad sneaking me to the shop to buy a lion bar.

Nana staring into space, she never got over losing her baby.

Cold damp squaler, nana spent most of her time at ouR house tbh, her house was unfit but it was where she lost her boy so she insisted on going home to sleep.

We have those blankets nomorewine! Inherited from my Nana/Grandad. Green with ribbon - and very warm. Only get ocasional use because mainly duvets now.

Too many to mention, It was a wonderful house ( listed 15 century 'mansion' ) Had been a working farm ( so tons of farm equipt and barns and things to play in) Horses, lakes. Fields and fields.
And the aga, and the gas cooker standing right next to it :) And the massive formica topped kitchen table with the meat hook hanging from the beams above it.
The kitchen cupboards filled with royal tea cups, watching my grandmother in the kitchen when i should have been in bed, by looking in the mirror on the spiral stairs that reflected up by my door.
Breakfast with the postman.
The open fire in the living room and feeling like you couldnt breathe when it got too hot.
The joy of walking down the drive with either grandparents to collect the paper/look for duck eggs/collect conkers/pine cones.
The fear of needing a wee and having to use the downstairs loo in dec ( hallway was full of hanging turkeys)
Christmas around the huge ( 20 seater) table. The best christmas's i shall ever have.
ah - i miss them alot. I wish my grandmother was still around.

Ah did someone mention blankets with satin ribbon on the edges. I love those! Nan used to tuck me in really tight on the sofa bed with them when I stayed. I loved the weighty feeling of the blankets and the feel of the ribbon bit.

I stayed with her after an operation when I was about 20 and she tucked me in exactly the same as she used to do when I was a kid.

I still have a sneaking cheek rub with that ribbon trim whenever I find some. :)

I can also remember watching the Morecambe and Wise Christmas special with them - and the famous McEnroe/Borg wimbledon final!

lovely thread - one day some of us will be GPs and hopefully we'll realise what huge potential there is for us to provide loving, fun environments that will fill our gcs with funny little detailed quirky memories. oooo I can't wait.

Cold downstairs loo
Coal fire
Grandstand on tv
Meat paste sandwiches and Battenberg cake

Pink synthetic silk counterpanes on the beds, and crawling into bed in nana and grandad's room when we woke up in the morning.

A tupperware tub with biscuits/chocolate in and the idea of 'elevenses'.

Baking little cakes. Nana making marmalade.

Trying to crawl up grandad when he was sitting in his chair and boink him on the nose before he 'woke up'.

Sitting in the back garden on warm summer afternoons and watching ants scurrying over the shallow concrete steps.

Day trips out to Southport.

Playing patience and gin rummy in the evenings, and nana 'slipping into something more comfortable' (taking girdle off) every evening straight after tea.

Mum's lot

Playing with the pastry cutters in Grannie's hessian bag. Sneaking into Walpole Park through the back fence. Cross Spiders in the garden. The spooky cellar. My Uncle's baby shoes that Grannie still kept in the drawer. The Piano and gradad going mad at us cousins all playing chopsticks and playing with the pedals. Grandad shouting 'DOOOOR!' at us cousins.
The lovely warm coalfire in the living room. ( and me once sitting IN it cos I thought the stool was in front of it and it flipping wasn't - had to sit in a cold bath ! ) The 'Top Room' Grannies wonderful cooking. My Mum's old room.

Dad's lot

Fresh rolls on the back gate delivered daily from the baker. Eating watermelon on the balcony. Gradpops listening to Opera. Mosquitos. Swimming in the lake. The downstairs open bit with the big long creepy crawlies climbing on the walls and my baby brother crawling after a huge spider. The Rose garden. Sunburn. 30s decor. Citronella. The Italian version of 'It's a Knockout' on the TV. Aranciata. The big metal gates. Walking down to the village in the heat with the wonderful smell of Cyprus trees all around.

Happy Happy Happy Days

Granny M's: Fagsmoke, everything tasting faintly of fagsmoke, including the Sunday Roast
Tinned ravioli, Cadburys mini-rolls and a glass of milk
The smell of the bureau where we kept some toys in the bottom drawer - now have this in my house and it still has the faint smell (yes fagsmoke is in there!)
Mint imperials

Granny and Grandad's: Utter silence but for the ticking of the grandfather clock.
Smell of the garden shed - wood, mustiness, canvas/hemp sacking, oil, lawnmower smell combined.

dancing (on my own) to the Sound of Music played on a crackly record player in a g-plan teak unit.

hiding from Uncle John (my wonderful step-grandad) inbetween 4 cypress trees and him always pretending not to know I was there

the smell of tomatoes in the greenhouse and the sound of the gravel on the greenhouse floor

the pottery rabbit and frog that lived in the rockery - sometimes being allowed to paint them when they had become all flakey

ovaltine and cheddar cheese biscuits

readers' digest

butter tartlets from the bero book

the feel of the rather odd woollen textured sofa

my grandma's wonderful charm bracelet

My Nanny was always standing in front of the Rayburn in her flowery pinny.
She inevitably had some home knitted cardigan or jumper ready from Womans Weekly and it was waiting for me.
The huge pink hydraenga outside the back door with the battered gnome.
The huge black shed which always seemed to be full of interesting things.
Sorry blinking through the tears now.

My Granny and Grandad had a beautiful garden, lovingly tended by Grandad.
The box of battered toys that had been my Dad and aunties.
A box of small butter knives in a typical 1950's box with coloured plastic handles ; every family meal my cousins and I spent ages deliberating which to choose to eat with.

I'm lucky that at 42 I still have my 91 year old Grandad .

My DCs grandparents are much more fun and loving than mine were.

Thank youChaosTrulyReigns just thinking about those times has cheered me up enormously. I only hope my kids have such vivid memories of our parents in another thirty years.

smell of mothballs
boredom relieved by unpinning and repinning anti-macassars on the chair arms
great custard

It was much better when they visited us: endless games of scrabble with my grandmother punctuated my grandfathers snores

whenever 'keeping up appearances' comes on I can hear Gran chuckling and the click her dentures made when they knocked together. It was the last time I saw her.

For many years every week going through her 'visiting' coats and handbags to retrieve the things she had left in them, I would go around the house and collect them all up and put them back in the dressing room, along with stray scarves and hats. I'd tip them on this magenta satin covered eiderdown, the bed was so tall when I was younger I had to take a run at it. The lipsticks went back onto the dressing table glass tray, same with compacts powders. I had to pile the medicine strips up for mum to sort out and I got to keep the money. The handbags all smelt the same inside as she used to spray a hankie with her scent, even the money smelt of it.

And the rows of shoes! she must have had thirty pairs.

My sister has some of her jewellery, you can still smell her perfume on it when you open the package, it takes you back thirty years in an instant.

My God do I wish I was as glamorous as she always seemed.

Maternal:

Ticking of their Grandfather clock (which some utter bastard stole after the house was burgled....Grandad was staying with us at the time to get over the death of my nana.

Crossroads theme tune - nana watched it religiously.

Ryvita - her fovourite snack.

Grandad taking out his false teeth and gurning to make me smile.

The china piggy bank where they would save all their change for me so I could open it each time I visited and count it.

My grandad taking me to Peter Pan's Playground (Brighton) each time we visited. He would buy a couple of cans from the off license and watch me play, and then we would go into the arcade and play the penny falls machines.

Paternal:

Grandad died when I was born. Have vivid memories of Grandma though.

I shared a room with her when I stayed. She would get up early each morning and we would snuggle up in bed together and drink tea/coffee and eat digestive biscuits (so decadent!) and read her Readers Digest magazines.

She loved the The Archers. The theme tune makes me think of her.

She made us Lancashire hotpot to have for dinner on the first night every time we stayed. We would have it with pickled red cabbage.

A lot of your memories chaos are the same as mine - but of my parents' house. They are v old though. As am I

Ledbury granny (dad's mum) - living room smelled of cedar wood, scary barky little dog, long low-ceilinged dining room with shiny wooden floor and an engraving of the Canterbury pilgrims on the wall, dark study with Benin brasses hanging up that used to watch me, narrow box staircase and small wobbly-floored landing, ivory sewing box on a table that I was only allowed to play with under supervision, first edition copy of Struelpeter on a bookshelf that scared the bejaysus out of me all of one Easter visit, green enamel saucepans with leaves on the, being made to drink coffee and eat broad beans, being chased by geese in the back paddock when DB and I trid to take a short cut back to the house from the lane.

Malvern granny (mum's mum) - tiny 1930s bungalow with dry little garden, beautiful roses everywhere (mermaid climber and peace and princess elizabeth standards), little boy on a bird bath, path behind the herbaceous border that smelt sometimes when the gardener had disturbed the compost heap, smoked very very thin bacon, white bread cut fine, unsalted butter, lapsang souchong tea, knights castille soap, granny keeping her hairspray in the waste paper bin in her room in case the aerosols exploded , biy shiny sofa that we weren't allowed to touch with our fingers or wear shoes on, massive 'radiogram' with a mahogany case that I never heard used, ants on the lawn.

My 'nana' (Mother's mother)

I grew up in a extended family,from about the age of four,which was fantastic.I loved it,and would like to raise my future children as part of an extended family too, so her house was my house and vice versa,but I'll include the time I spent with her while my parents were at work.

Making soup together.I swear Scottish people,or at least Glaswegians,have a soup obsession. And how she always kept a raw carrot for me because I loved to eat them,still do.

Baking cakes together,usually rock and fairy cakes. Also making tablet.

Cats,cats and more cats. We always had cats,usually several at a time,and we fed strays and rescued them, as soon as I could hold a bottle or eyedropper I was feeding kittens. We also took in pregnant stray cats,let them have their litter,get the mothers neutered,and found homes for them all. I loved always having kittens in the house. We had dogs,fish and hamsters too.

Being given whole sticks of raw rhubarb which I dipped into a paper bag of sugar,and ate.

Going to the Swallow cafe together where she had a coffee,and I had an ice cream float,usually ginger beer or cream soda.

Watching quiz shows together.Countdown,15-1,100% etc.

Making ginger cordial,I loved that stuff, it burned your throat it was so strong,but it was delicious,at New Year,and steak pie too.

Having tea or coffee together with a cake,usually a Danish pastry or gingerbread man in my case.

Her giving me pocket money so I could buy my comics every week.Dandy,Beano,Mandy and Judy,Bunty and Animals of Farthing Wood magazine.

Going into 'town' together.We walked into Glasgow together, and got a taxi back, we lived less than 15 minutes walk away from the city centre,and the first stop was always to buy me a new book, then usually M&S. And watching the street artists.

At weekends watching Channel 4 reruns of old shows. Munsters,Mork and Mindy,Happy Days, Lone Ranger etc.

Her buying me my first Tamagotchi,before I'd even asked for one.

Playing out in the back garden and her throwing me down a jam sandwich,or piece and jam, as we called it, like in the song,usually on plain bread.

Getting a double nougat from the ice cream van,with raspberry sauce.

Visiting the local shops,her in her rain hood with her trolley,where she knew everyone,and chatting to them.

Making the amazing lasagna recipe together, that she got from the Italian deli across the street. I wish I had it now.

Going home for lunch,as we lived not even ten minutes away from my first primary school. She'd have soup,again with the soup,sandwiches or egg in a cup waiting for me.

Once a week,on a Friday she'd collect me from school and treat me to a sticky bun.

Going to the cafe my mother was the manager of, where my nana also helped out at times, and chatting with the mounted police officers who reguarly passed by,and feeding their horses.

Going to the museums with her,especially the Transport museum and The Kelvingrove.

Getting bottles of Barrs drinks delivered,and being allowed to order the flavour of my choice.

Going for walks together.

Her taking me to the video store to rent videos every week. I almost always chose the same videos,Strawberry Shortcake,and an animated version of Dracula. I must have worn them out.

I'll stop now,though there are many more. She died in May this year,and I miss her so much.

It's amazing how many of my memories are food related.

4711 cologne
The paraffin heater in her conservatory. I loved the smell of it.
Playing with one of those balls on a strong that you swing from your ankles and jump over, on her concrete front drive.
Her saying 'sausages' with her false teeth taken out.

Other grandparents: the smell of creosote on their fence.
Garibaldi biscuits in a tin on top of the fridge.