Nostalgia from grandparents house

[IceDiscoSkater]

I have just been thinking about all the lovely memories from being a child and staying overnight or visiting my grandparents or great grandparents houses.

Mid to late 80’s

An overnight stay would always involve being allowed to stay up much later than at home to watch entertainment shows like blankety blank or a rented VHS tape.
We got a pound each to spend at the ice cream van ( the Icey we called it ). A pound was LOADS back then , we used to get ice cream and mix ups. My parents would never have allowed this , it was SUCH a treat.

During the day at one set of grandparents we were taken up the town centre to the shopping mall and would love to go into Boots the chemist to look at all the toiletries.
Sometimes got taken to grandparents bowling club for a cheese and ham toastie , and were allowed to press the buttons on the puggy ( slot ) machines.

If I stayed at my great Grans, I was sent to the local shop with a little hand written shopping list on my own ! To go and buy and collect the small amount of shopping - this made me feel so grown up. Looking back obviously this was so dangerous for a lone child at a young age , but I loved it and was always given extra to buy a Twinkle comic.

We picked raw rhubarb from the garden and GP let us stick it in sugar and eat it raw.

I remember their avocado bath suite and they used to buy us Matey bubble bath and it was such a treat to get to use the fun bottles.

Just lots of lovely memories...

All just little simple things we remember but seems these days the little things are things that will stick with us the most

Getting nostalgic on New Years Eve

My nana had lots of Ojo de Dios hangings on the walls, my favourite was the purple, silver, and green one. She also had corn dollies, including one shaped into a little witch complete with hat and broom. In the cabinets and on the shelves were African statues, carved ivory, jade figures, bits of coral and shells, little silver birds. She had lived abroad in various places when she was young and newly married. There were always treasures to look at and she would let us try on all of her jewellery and play with it.

We had sugar sandwiches as a snack, rhubarb dipped in sugar, and licorice sticks from the pharmacy which were literal sticks of licorice root. She used to let us dip them in black treacle. We made ginger cake from the Be-ro cookbook.

She would send us to the shop with some money and a note for the shopkeeper explaining that we were her grandchildren and very sensible, please could he give us a half bottle of Gordon's and twenty John Players. Shopkeeper would hand them over without question, would tell us to take them straight home to her and to remind her that she needed to pay for her papers by Sunday. She smoked a lot and used an ivory cigarette holder like something out of a film, she kept her cigarettes in a black leather case, and one of our games with her was to take it in turns to blow out the flame of her lighter after she'd lit her cigarette. Younger brother and I once got in trouble for snapping up all of her cigarettes to see what was inside them.

When my grandmother died I was lucky enough to get the chance to take photos of her house - the cupboard under the stairs where we played hide and seek, the ornaments on her bedside table...small things that don't mean anything to anyone else but bring back a flood of memories.

My nan and grandad had a front room that we weren't allowed to go into. No idea if they ever actually used it. My Nan collected brass ornaments and had a clock with brass fittings that had a thing and swung around (can't describe it). It was her pride and joy. My grandad made wooden ornaments for the garden. He once made me a wooden zoo- it was amazing!

My grandma had a talcum powder puff that she used on us after the bath. Looked like a fluffy hairbrush. Real pampering. Also tea with 3 sugars while we watched Columbo.

My nan still lives in same house that has all my memories. I've not seen her in over a year due to covid that breaks my heart.

My grandparents house was just lovely - I’m so lucky that my Nan is still alive at 93 and I can still go there - still all the same furniture and carpets, nothing has changed at all.

She so elderly now she doesn’t cook etc but as a child, what a treat it was going there. Grampa used to grow all his own salad stuff, the table would be properly laid for tea, lovely sandwiches, home made cake and tea. They would really talk to me and actually listen to what I had to say. Nana taught me how to sew and knit and play the piano.

If I slept over their house I’d be bathed and put to bed in their lovely cosy spare room with heavy blankets on the bed, falling asleep to the music of news at 10 on ITV. Up in the morning the table would be laid and nan would be bustling about making breakfast, cereal to start then cooked items or toast.

Nothing was too much trouble and I always felt so special, loved and safe.

Whenever I visit I try and take pictures of the place as I know one day, It won’t be nannas house any more. 😔

I was just sitting here thinking the same thing.
Every NYE I would be sent outside at midnight to "first foot" them before a tour of the neighbours NY parties.

Would typically end by 5am and my grandparents were out again by lunchtime for round 2 with family. They were hardcore!

Lovely post.
And funny- as we have just been playing cards, and they smelt of my Nans house. Took me right back to proper NYE

Chips made in the deep fat fryer and wrapped in home made newspaper cones “like from the shop” in front of The A Team and Dr Who.
My dad being told off for losing his temper with me and being pampered. Sharing a bedroom with my cousins and having a great time.

Yes to the sugar sandwiches and brass ornaments

Our sandwiches we were allowed butter and sugar.

My grandads brass ornaments were big Clydesdales horses.

Also yes to the talcum puff thing ! My nana had one and my grandad had a male version.
I think it might have been Avon

As a small child I was allowed to pour their Saturday night whiskeys ! One splash of whisky then use the plastic cocktail stirrer to mix in the soft drink.
They had a big sideboard with a fold down shelf that we used as a bar , it felt like such a novelty.

We would put the plastic cocktail stirrers into our own soft drinks after and stir them.

Also yes to lots of actual talking and chatting and helping , it was lovely.

Nothing was too much trouble and I always felt so special, loved and safe.
This. I miss this feeling so much and I am sorry my children haven't had the same.

They had a big sideboard with a fold down shelf that we used as a bar , it felt like such a novelty.

Yup to this. And a record player that was part of a stereo with a tape recorder so when we got our first car with a tape player we'd go up with a pack of blank tapes and our records.

Also a shelf running around the top of the room with ornaments and alcohol miniatures on. At some point our older cousins showed us where they'd got to around the room with swapping the alcohol for tea or water

And they had paintings, prints I presume of Spanish/Flamenco dancing women that I once found on ebay and can't find tonight on the internet anywhere.

@Hollybutnoivy

Nothing was too much trouble and I always felt so special, loved and safe. This. I miss this feeling so much and I am sorry my children haven't had the same.

My children have not had this privilege either unfortunately, no parents left on either myself or DHs side now and when they were around weren’t hands on at all.

I consider myself so fortunate to have had my grandparents and to still have my nana even though I’m nearly 50 myself!

I just hope I’m around to have grandchildren myself and pass on that unconditional love and warmth so they remember me with fondness too.

My great Gran had the Gina / Tina painting , the exotic lady with black hair.
Along with floor lamp with fringed shade , would have loved these items these days , so trendy now.

She used to like when I stayed because I changed the tv Channels for her , pre remote days.

Lovely sentiment @Peruviandog

Going to my grans for the weekend, warm lemon meringue pie for breakfast, sleepovers in the front room in front of the coal fire and a ‘midnight snack’. ...

Matey bubble bath

A similar era... grandad reading me Famous Five and the Faraway Tree
Nan making open ham and cucumber rolls, with battenberg and jam tarts on a Sunday evening, in time for the latest Narnia episode.

The green radox in the bath, sleeping in their spare room with a ‘bed spread’

Always a tin of boiled sweets . So much love.

Oh I miss them

I remember trips to the pie & mash shop for tea (I was obsessed and asked for it every day for a week during one visit - my Nan phoned my mum worrying because I wouldn’t eat anything else), feeding the pigeons in Trafalgar Square, being given a purse full of five and ten pence pieces to pay my own bus fare with and always going on the top deck. My granddad teaching me to play battleships but on an electronic version that made the best noises. And they had one of those oil lamps with a Grecian figure in the middle that was the most sophisticated thing I’d ever seen. Certain smells take me straight back there.

@IceDiscoSkater I forgot plastic cocktail stirrers! They had lots of different sorts and I thought they were so exotic!

@Whirlwind14 Yes to the bed spreads

I don’t know the name but the top cover was kind of chunky wavy ribbed style , probably really non safe flammable material nowadays , but it was heavy and cosy to sleep under.

[quote Sn0tnose]@IceDiscoSkater I forgot plastic cocktail stirrers! They had lots of different sorts and I thought they were so exotic![/quote]
Yes , different colours and styles like mermaids made of plastic on a stick.
I think my grandparents collected them from their Spanish holidays or maybe you could buy them in the 80’s ?

Lovely nostalgic feeling now. We only stayed over once at my Nan's house but visited most weekends. I remember her Capodimonte man, 3 bar fire and a bag of sweets always stuck down the side of the armchair.
The kitchen had a ceramic chicken on top of the fridge and a statue of St Martin on the windowsill. She always had one gas ring on on the stove.
The hall had a big cupboard with a cold in stone slab where she kept glass bottled pop from 'the van.'
She always propped the letter box open with a teaspoon (ventilation?!)

I have absolutely loads of memories of both grandmas.

Teasmade, chamber pot, hovis loaf, pancakes, apple pies, ... I can just go on.

@IceDiscoSkater Candlewick bedspread?

Amazing thread!!! I stayed with my grandad every weekend from as early as I can remember until I was 18 and working.
Arriving at 4pm Saturday to a pile of comics, still remember them now, the look-in, Mandy, dandy, beano and beezer.
I'd read these while he checked the football scores and marked the pools coupon.
Tea from the fish and chip shop, I was always sent with a note, it was literally over the road but felt like such an important job.
After tea I'd be sent to get washed and into pyjamas, always a super smelly soap in the bathroom and pjs warmed on radiator.
Then came the Saturday night game shows, he always guessed the end of the price is right correct!
Tea cakes toasted and drenched in butter for supper.
Bed time was the comfiest bed with heavy blankets, I remember hearing the grandstand theme tune before dropping off.
I'd wake up on Sunday as the papers were delivered and he brought me bacon, sausage and tomatoes on a tray in bed.
My god, that's taken me right back there, I adored him, and named my son after him.
Thankyou OP, you've just taken me back there, I remember it like it was yesterday.