Odd things - do you remember your mum doing these in the 60s?

[Waltons]

Putting a drop of water on a tin can before opening it, because if an air bubble came up through the water, the can might be blown? (I think that was the reason?)

The only bottle of olive oil in the house was absolutely TINY, and labelled "Olive Oil. BP". I think it cost a fortune, and was kept in the first aid cupboard. For earaches, perhaps?

I wonder what younger women are making of this thread?

OMG I sound like Little Dorrit.

My mum made jam in a Massive steel bowl ( bucket?) On the stove it really stunk!

We used to save the milk bottle tops & send them in to the Blue Peter appeal.

Oh so many memories, weren't our mothers, grandma's, aunts etc strong and resilient women?

Anyone else had a wooden clothes drier thing fixed by ropes to the ceiling in the kitchen by the fire? You pulled on the rope to lower it, put clothes on to dry in the warm air and then pulled the ropes to out it out if the way afterwards

I can remember being taken to Tupperware parties. Oh, the glamour.

My mum was a Tupperware lady! She had a big blue suitcase of the stuff that she had to cart round to the parties (no car) and when she gave it up we had it all in the kitchen cupboards for years afterwards. Wish I'd hung on to the orange peeler.

7951. Our co op divvy number

I still keep the paper from the butter to use instead of foil to stop things burning.

Did anyone's parents have a real thing about never throwing away leftovers? My parents would keep even a teaspoon of leftover food to used if it was still OK. I suspect it was a hangover from extreme poverty and/or living through the war. When my mum died, me and my uncle wondered whether we should distribute the old tin foil which she'd kept to reuse. (Some inheritance!)

My mum used to tell stories about what her aunts and grandma did which she found weird. She could have had her own thread on just this topic. (Never cutting the bread the day you bought it because it was 'too fresh' , or cooking the greens from a cauliflower on a different day to the cauliflower as a separate vegetable.)

EastMidsGPs -- yes we had one of those clothes driers. Actually my friend just got one recently.

Gas fire????
Such luxuries weren't known when I was small - we used to wake up to ice on the inside of the windows in winter. The only source of heat was the fire in the kitchen.
It was bloody cold! Plus we only had Lino on the floor - you didn't hang around getting dressed.
I can remember a paraffin heater when we moved elsewhere (my uncle stuck a plunger in the front of it and came down the hallway saying 'I am a dalek, I will exterminate you'.
Mum didn't use a bottle of blue, but we did have a twin tub (I had a single tub with an electric mangle on the top when I was first married, due to XH being a stingy bastard).
We had one of those kitchen units with sliding glass doors at the top, a drop down bit in the middle (with shelves in) and cupboards underneath. (Much sought after now.) And also a Cocktail Cabinet with walnut veneer!

Niggit thinking of your mum and you.

We had a coal or wood fire in our living room which we learnt how to light, keep going and respect from an early age. We also had a paraffin fire in the bathroom which we were allowed to light but the Lacey filament thing was so fragile! We had to go to the garage across the road for coal and paraffin and he always gave us a sweet each because he knew my mum didn't have much extra bringing us up on her own.
Oh and getting dressed under the covers was a skill! I can remember loving getting duvets but being sure that our blankets were warmer!

Oh, and my job every week was to fill in the football pool coupon. Such responsibility at such a young age.

And bricks baked in the oven, wrapped in towels and put in the end of the bed. Made a hell of a noise if they fell out!
Winkles purchased in a pint scoop and picked out of shells with a pin to be eaten with bread, butter and vinegar.

As a kid I didn't have broccoli, we never had Chinese or Indian. It was all basic northern working class food. Corned beef hash, meat and potato pie, stew and dumplings, liver and onions. Boiled potatoes or mash. My mums home made potato cakes were amazing. I do cook a lot of the dishes she made and one of my biggest regrets is not getting her recipes off her before she died.

Lovely thread

We had a special gadget to put over the milk bottles to stop the blue tits pecking the tops. We had Ski yogurt delivered by the milkman once a week, and a grocery van each Saturday. My DSis and I each had a threepenny bit to spend on sweets. We also had the bread man, and the coal men came a couple of times a year.

On the kitchen wall we had a thing like an upside-down rocket filled with tea leaves. You pressed a large button and one portion of tea went into the pot which you held underneath.

We also had the olive oil for earache, it was never used for cooking. It came from the chemist, as did the oil of cassia used to flavour biscuits. Spaghetti was the only pasta shape available, and was considered a bit exotic and daring.

Washing was done in a big tub then put through a mangle, always on a Monday. Tablecloths were starched (a clean one each day), and had a hierarchy depending on who was eating at the time.

DMum would wear an old dress (although it was called a frock) all day with an apron, then go upstairs to change into a better frock before DDad got home from work.

mumslife I still regularly use some 1960s Tupperware, I think it's indistructible.

Mum used to wear a headscarf when I was little (what was that all about) she doesn't wear one now and she's in her 70s.

We used to go to Bejam every Thursday night and buy exotic things like cheese and tomato pizzas in packs of 5 and croquette potatoes. Coleslaw was in tins from Heinz.

Grandpa used to do Spot the Ball which I found baffling. Nan had the wall mounted can opener and scales, and would also butter the end of an unsliced loaf before cutting the slice off. genius!

Candy stripe flannel bed sheets. Rubber hot water bottles. Gripe water. Ralgex for backache.

Wonderful thread.

Tea leaf rocket. Nan's was red.

Remeber so many of these too

The main one that sticks out is being constantly freezing in the winter, the only warm room was the living room with its gas fire (and a huge metal baby fire guard around it that took up half the living room). I often used to sneak my school uniform on before bed so I didn't have to get changed in the morning.
Did anyone else have a 'pop man' that used to come round selling barrs fizzy drinks? My nana always bought cream soda and dandelion and burdock and she'd let us take the glass bottles back to the pop man to get 10p!

Well it was a coal fire in the living room until I was about 6 and that was the only heating apart from the paraffin heater. Then we moved and there was a gas fire in the new house. And a bathroom and inside toilet, neither of which we'd had before!

Sparklingbrook my DMum used to butter the loaf first, then slice it. She always stood the bread on end so that she was slicing horizontally. Did yours do that? I always got the impression that slicing it downwards was considered slovenly, and as for ready sliced bread......

I've got a wooden suspended airer, it's brilliant.
I remember my mum having only one or two "going out" dresses, mum and dad were very close and only went out once or twice a year without me. The dresses were really glamorous (to me) I remember a lovely lurex one.
Getting special outfits made at the dressmakers. (Even though mum was a very competent seamstress)
Having lunch at store cafes being the height of sophistication.

We had the 'Alpine' pop man Earl. Or rather we didn't as we weren't allowed pop.
We did have bread delivered though.