What are your childhood memories of your grandparents' house?

Such a lovely thread.

My grandparents had all died before I was a year old so I don't have any of these lovely memories But I love reading about them all, there's something lovely about the old-fashioned-ness of them.

What strikes me about these memories is that I imagine at the time they didn't seem special, just mundane and every day. Someone said above they hope our dc's and grandchildrens memories will be more than watching strictly and going to Ikea. But that may well be a special memory to them. It's no less meaningful than going to the corner shop and watching Basil Brush or whatever.

Formica in the kitchen.

Her goblin teasmaid.

Cuddling her in her big bed.

Finding my mum's teenage diary!

The mincing machine that bolted to the kitchen table.

A little table cum tray thing on wheels that she used for eating while watching telly.

The snooker was always on. And the wrestling - she wouldn't belive it was all staged.

Grandpa coming home from hospital for visits. He was very frail with cancer but he wouls still bounce me on his knee. His argyle socks. The little pots of jam he'd bring me. He callef me 'tuppeny hap'ney'. Nana used to say 'well I never did'.

the 'hot press'
dark wood furniture and panelling
the smell from the guinness factory and the river
tea in cups and saucers

My Nanna & Grandad are still with us :) and they are the best.

Heavy duvets.
2 flat sheets (one fitted and one used as an extra blanket).
Green bath/toilet/sink.
Lovely little garden.
Bird watching (with grandad).
Watching the water babies, railway children, fantasia and the amazing mr. blundon.
Nanna's pink olay lotion (which she has used for many many years)
Home cooked food.
Christmas memories.
Brooches and pearly long chain necklaces.

At one dearly missed grandma's house I remember the taste of her scrambled eggs - I still haven't managed to replicate it - think it must have added cream and fried in butter.

Sleeping on the put up bed in her lounge hearing the trains rumble by.

her massive walk in cupboard in the kitchen where she kept everything from eggs to bread to jam.

Her jewellery and make up - so fascinating to a little me. She loved to secretely put some make up on me when my mum wasn't looking and I loved wearing her heavy gold jewellery.

Her glass display cupboard resplendent with pictures of all her grandchildren and the special one of me - a large framed one of me and my auntie when I was a toddler. My mum and dad and auntie fell out when grandma died and I don't know what happened to that picture. I t would mean the world to me if I ever found it.

Her telephone table - the glass shelf containing address books and the top part containing her old fashioned telephone. Do they still make telephone tables? CAme with a lovely soft stool to sit on.

Her big soft double bed.

G-d I miss her.

Dad's parents died when i was quite young (about 5) but Granda had a little clubhouse in his garden with a mini golf/putt putt course, a dart board... Grandma was sweet but i hadn't a clue what she was saying half the time apart from 'darlin' in her thick Irish accent. She used to make us pretty fairy costumes. They once had a hog rotisserie in their garden for great aunts birthday. The pig had an apple in it's mouth and great aunt wore lavender and a lavender coloured hat with Lacey gloves.

Mum's parents (Nan & Pa) were like my other parents. Almost every childhood memory has them in it.
Nan would make me poached egg on toast and cut the toast into soldiers only she would not slice it clean off- just 2 slivers down the centre so the butter would melt just so.
She made a passion fruit cake for every occasion.
They cooked bread steaks on the BBQ (french toast for those who don't know) but a savoury version- you eat with tomato sauce.
Nan would take me to the mall for a jam doughnut.
Pa would wake up at the crack of dawn to do the paper round...
Then tinker around in the car port with his jazz record blasting out and the smell of oil on his hands.
They had a canary.
Pa loved to do the gardening and then read a book or newspaper out in the court yard.
Sometimes nan would bring him a sandwich outside. I can see him eating it in my mind right now.
I would play with his hair and he would patiently let me put it in ribbons and bows.

They both played lawn bowls and both were very good at it.

My pa gave me away at my wedding.
He was an ANZAC war hero. His ashes were scattered 2 days ago by the RSL rowing team at Currumbin beach (QLD Australia) on ANZAC dawn service.
I couldn't be there but i said a prayer for him at 5am at ANZAC square in London.
I miss my Pa.

My gran's smiling kindly face and beautiful white hair

The 'parlour' with the out of tune piano

A cabinet full of lovely ornaments and fine china

a coffee table with a scene from 'Swan lake' on it

The downstairs toilet had a few little steps down to it, never known any other like it!

pickles, celery and Blue ribands

My granddad shaving by the window with his electric shaver in living room

cousins to play with

card games after tea

I want to cry now...........

Playing their piano,which is now in my house, but 16 years later still smells of theirs when I open the top.

Granny wearing her cross over pinny which she'd had since WW2, making jelly and jam tarts. Shredded wheat for breakfast and whiskey in our cups of tea. Papa eating Ryvita and drinking Guiness. The conservatory full of geraniums with the mangle at the end that Granny still used for the sheets - and we used to put worms through when she wasn't watching!
Electric blankets in the winter, the Swiss cowbells hanging by the front door. Playing boule in the garden, going cockle digging when the tide was out, playing with all the gorgeous glass boxes and jewellery on the 1930's dressing table........
And a million others!!!
They're both dead now and the house was sold, but the memories are bright, clear and happy.

and how could I forget...

Nanny always wearing a pinny, polo mints, stork margerine, Grandad wondering why he couldn't win trivial pursuit by only answering geography questions! Grandad's amazing knowledge of everything, Nanny teaching me to play patience and clock patience.

Gran and Grandpa never going out without a hat on - very smart.

Nanny & Grandad's house: Nanny's sweetie cupboard, mars bars cut into slices, the best home made chips ever (done in lard), always a pair of airtex knickers on the line, Grandad always in his room doing crosswords and listening to classical music LPs, Heinz chocolate steam pudding (doesn't taste the same now as it did in the 80s), Nanny knitting, playing with her box of buttons and leftover wool, doing jigsaws and crosswords with Nanny on a saturday night, Countdown on the TV, Nanny always going to bed with her hair in a snood, Nanny calling fromage frais "frommie bergairs", candlewick bedspreads.

Gran and Grandpa's house: Grandpa calling my Gran chick, Grandpa calling me a tater pie, raiding the biscuit tin for the chocolate ones, cricket on the TV, looking for angels in the flames of their coal fire, the smell of the coal fire, Bruno the labrador, mellow birds coffee, oil slicks in your brew from gold top milk.

happy days, all now sadly departed

Oh this thread is bringing back lovely memories

Grandma's button tin and emptying them all out to sort them

"the fairies" visiting and leaving sweets for us in grandad's coat pockets

Conker tree in the back garden - was very sad when it was cut down. Oh and loads of snails used to congregate in the garden too.

Discovering treasures in the bedrooms like old photographs

Dressing table mirror in my mum's old bedroom that you could angle so you'd see your reflection infinitely

Roast dinners - the best in the world

Visiting grandad at his allotment

Mostly from my mum's side. Dad's side weren't very welcoming when we were kids

Jumping out of her understairs cupboard and scaring the daylights out of her
Making jam tarts
Making dens under her dining table with table cloths
Her Quality Street tin full of buttons
How my grandmother could make a Mars Bar last a whole week by cutting it into slices and letting us have 1 piece a day
My grandfather used to wait until my grandmother has dozed off before untying her apron strings and tying them back around her chair
Whenever I went to bed my grandfather would make a crumbling movement with his fingers and say 'oxo'.

My grandfather was such a tease and would torment the life out of us. I'm gutted he didn't get to meet my children

My grandmother is still going strong. She's 96 and when she visited us this summer gave us all a run for our money - playing football on the beach, etc.

playing pelmanism on the carpet at maternal dgm's - that's what she called pairs, you know the card game where you spread a load of animal picture pairs out randomly, face down, then turn them over 1 at a time to try to find the pairs?

Long post, sorry, thinking a lot about grandparents as my last one, paternal grandmother is dying.....

maternal grandmother:
Saturday or Sunday tea from the trolley in the sitting room, always had to have open sandwiches of egg and cress or tongue made with white bridge rolls, then 'something to butter' aka tea cakes, scones or crumpets, and 'something to cut' aka lemon drizzle or coffee and walnut cake.

Sunday lunch in the dining room where never a pan could darken the door - all the veg etc had to go in special china dishes that had been warmed beforehand.

The little bag of soap pieces that she hand-made that used up all the last little bits of bars of soap so they didn't get wasted - that was in the bathroom. Thrifty from 2 wars

the TV that had an embroidered cover which she had made

antimacassers on the armchairs and sofa

sleeping bags on the sofas for dsis and me when we stayed the night

watching granny getting dressed in the morning and marvelling at how complicated it was - what with stockings hooked up to a corset, plus vest and hoooooj knickers, seemed to take forever to get into! Then she wouldn't dream of going out of the house without gloves and a hat.

sitting on her knee and stroking the incredibly soft skin of her cheeks and chin - I must have spent hours like that

having grammar, pronunciation and punctuation corrected endlessly - oh the pain for Harrogate Granny having dgds with scouse accents

then paternal grandmother - actually my DF's step mum but always treated all of us (14 in total) as the same, whether DGC or DSGC, just a lovely woman

lying on my stomach on the bed in the tiny room I stayed in - called the rabbit room becuase it had a rabbit door-knocker - reading tintin books that had been my dad's

scaring ourselves peering over the bannister on the top floor and looking down 3 storeys to the groundfloor

scaring ourselves even more playing murder in the dark with older cousins in the basement

hiding out in the summer house at the bottom of the garden - huge long garden so nobody in the house could see us

playing frantic games of racing demon at the dining table - we could get 15 of us round the table standning up and you each needed a pack of cards for the game to work.....madness. My DGF made that table out of a door in about 1957. Saw it at DGM's house the other day when we were clearing it out for sale - would have loved to give it a home but no space here so it will probably go with the house clearance people

being amazed when, at my aunt's wedding breakfast which was back at the house, DGM produced box after box of M+S choc eclairs as pudding for 100's of people - this was the height of sophistication to me!

so much love and laughter

lambs needing to be fed in the next door churchyard
hairy mint
4711
grandad's flat cap
the smell of a coal fire
mint imperials in a big tin
pink candlewick
tomato plants
crisps sprinkled with malt vinegar
black and white minstrels show
mablethorpe

eyes full of tears now. All my grandparents died in the 80s and my dad last year. Where do all these souls go?

All that button box talk is making me itchy! Anyone else scared of buttons? Or at least used to be, now I just dislike them intensely!

Home made crinkle cut chips

Nat King Cole on nan's radiogram

Ginger beer 'plants' lined up along the kitchen floor that I was terrified of exploding

When 2 of us slept over, nan gave us her double bed and went and slept in the single room. She would wake us up with a cup of tea in bed in a cup and saucer (can you imagine it, we were tiny!). It always had a rich tea biscuit with it, what a treat.

Playing with the 'treasure box' - it was full of her old jewellery. The only thing in the house to play with, but it was enough for us.

Great thread Chaos ...

The chiming of the grandfather clock that wasn't really a grandfather clock

French toast for breakfast cooked in the pan my grandad's bacon had been cooked in, so it tasted all bacon-y.

Bramble jelly on bread for supper.

The warm porch where we'd sit with the sun shining in.

The smell of their caravan we played in & always wanting to use the chemical toilet

Making fairy cakes.

Granny's knitting needles clicking.

The sliding doors to the sitting room.

Watching Lassie films!

The warm bit under the carpet where the pipe was.

Dancing up and down the 'kitchenette' to Scottish country dancing.

There are millions aren't there?! I wonder what dd's will be of her GP's house- she goes there at least 2x per week.

My gran constantly telling the cat to bugger off.

The smell of homemade chicken soup

My Grandad falling asleep in his chair

Massive full English breakfasts every morning.

My Gran farting when we were in the other room but we still could hear her.

Great times

Chocolate Xmas tree decorations
The Shopping Game, Avalanche and Mousie Mousie
Dolls house
baby dolls - Jane and Bethany
Cream cheese sandwiches
jelly and icecream
chicksticks and chips
Chanel No 5
Yardleys lavender oil in the bath tub
Soft nice smelling towels
Winnie the Pooh
Made up games

God I miss being a kid. I miss my Grandad so much. I'm lucky I still have my Nana. She's 86. She's the best nana ever, and my ds adores her too.

I LOVE this thread, it needs to be bumped!

My Mums Side:

Nan getting me up at 8am every sunday to to to sunday morning mass.
Going downstairs and Nan having laid out the usual stork butter, toast and choices of shredded wheat, porridge, tea and coffee.
The smell of Grandad's roll ups.
My nan's house backed out to a river and I remember the smell vividly and her taking me for long walks down there then to the park then stopping off at the sweet shop and giving me a pound for sweets.

My Dad's Side:

My grandad always sitting in the same arm chair with his coaster and cup of tea with his two papers and reading glasses.
The weird musky smell in their house.
Nan putting me to bed and letting me wake up when I wanted as a "treat" then making me a huge fry up with piles of greasy fried bread.
My grandad's little pound coin holder that he'd take out every time we said goodbye and he'd pop a pound in my hand.
Sitting round there every saturday watching big break, the generation game, crystal maze and loving being there with them.
My grandad was always a bit of a wheeler dealer and have fond memories of him always buying lots of silly things to sell on for profit.

Fortuntely both sets are still alive but very old and not the characters they were. My lovely Grandad on my dad's side is in a nursing home and is no longer the grandad I knew and my religious nan has very advanced dementia and is no longer the same lady. Miss them all a lot.

*two who adore him.

I never had a granny :( I'm so glad that DS has two n mn