Things that remind you of your grandparents

[RosesAndHellebores]

Mine died 20 years ago and would be 110ish now but I still miss them so much

The bolster on the bed
An old silky jacquard pink blanket that went under the eiderdown
Warm milk with a teaspoon of grated nutmeg
The sweet bowl next to the fruit bowl
Shape with jelly
Pies
Gin and Its
A kitchen that wasn't always spotless
Whiff of horse, hay and Goddard's linament and occasionally Shalimar
Complete no nonsense attitude but so so kind
Every time I look at dd: petite, blonde, blue eyed and the image of grannie (and named for her)

Christ. Never in my adult life have I met anyone else other than my gps who actively used antimacassars.

horlicks .
Sugar sandwiches.
Feeling cosy and loved .
Wrap around aprons.
Grandads irises he loved to grow ..purple ones
Showing my age but...sixpence pocket money each week.

Butter curls. Old Spice. Bowls of shaving soap. Coltsfoot rock. Tin baths in front of the fire. My grandparents were Victorians.

Horses, dogs and sherry.

I miss my grandmother so much.

Lemon drops
The smell of Nivea cream on my grandmother’s cheeks
Knitted cardigans
Homemade jam
A tiny golden cross on a golden necklace
Wearing an apron
Miss Fenjal

White rice.
Flora margarine.
Judge Judy.
Cheap "Take a Break" style magazines.
Having the fire on in the middle of a heatwave.
Lace doilies/decorations on the backs of all the chairs.

Maternal grandparents - the house was always so HOT! The smell of the fire in the hearth. My grandmother always smelled of 4711 Cologne, my grandfather smelled of Wrights Coal Tar.

Paternal grandparents - my grandad died when I was seven but I remember him giving me sweets in a cup - Tooty Frooties. Whenever I smell them I think of him. I have far more memories of Granny - milk jelly set in a fancy mould - grandad would "secretly" jiggle the table so that the jelly wobbled and so we called it wobbly jelly. Whatever meat she cooked for Sunday lunch she always gave me Yorkshire Puddings. When I stayed with her we always had bananas with our cornflakes. A bowl of cornflakes with banana is like a time machine for me.

Gosh. This thread is bringing back so many memories. I have thought of some more, all of my mother's parents, as they lived closer and we saw them much more often.

• My grandfather's mustard coloured corduroy trousers,
• my grandmother's bun. She had very long hair but it was always up in a bun, held up with lots of hairpins,
• my grandmother's appalling driving. She apparently passed on her 7th attempt (some time in the 1940s or 50s) but probably should never have done. She couldn't reverse, which wasn't very helpful given that they lived in Devon which has lots of very narrow single track roads. My grandfather didn't drive and he used to warn her to slow down when she went over 40 mph!
• my grandmother's car. Before getting a mini in the 1970s she had a little Morris Minor (I think) with a plastic rear window and indicators that flapped up at the sides,
• beds with eiderdowns,
• toothpaste in a tin,
• the cast iron mincer used for mincing leftovers from the Sunday joint

-bubble and squeak

• my grandmother never setting foot outside without a hat and gloves
• my grandfather never setting foot outside without a shirt and tie,
• 'helping' my grandfather with the fire. I used to love using the bellows,
• going for walks along 'the prom'
• grape hyacinths in the garden. Geraniums in the porch
• the bath with claw feet
• various items of furniture, including a cane-backed three-piece suite which must have been bought when they married in 1923 and which I now have,
• various ornaments, including the brass candlesticks in the shape of a cobra, which I used to enjoy polishing,
• Pears soap,
• my grandmother's terrifying bread-cutting method. Instead of cutting it downwards, onto the board, she used to stand the loaf on its end and then cut the top off, slicing towards her body!
• my grandfather's stories about his time in the army in India during the First World War. I remember only finding out after he died that he had also been in the trenches. Neither he, nor my other grandfather, who had also been in the trenches, ever spoke of it.

Oh, and The Lady magazine!

@WakeUpSchmakeUp thank you. I was welling up writing it. I forgot to even mention how funny my grandad was. He had a slapstick style of jokes and pretending to trip over like Charlie Chaplin and had nicknames for everyone; like "bonfire man" next door (who often had bonfires).

My dad's parents (tea dispenser grandparents) came for Saturday tea once a fortnight. We'd have:

Table set with the tablecloth & placemats.

Tinned pink salmon salad (red if it was payday) with cucumber, lettuce, tomatoes, spring onion & sliced hard boiled egg - using one of those egg slicer contraptions. Radishes & pickled onions in dishes to help yourself.

Brown bread & butter, cut diagonally.

Tea in the naice teapot, cups & saucers.

Trifle for afters.

We were all Salford working class through & through but always had the fortnightly 'for special' tea. My mum's mum (nana) lived with us and got a bit narked by the fuss as they only lived 10mins away.

Rose perfume.
All Indian home cooking smells.
All Indian food that I cook and plenty more are my mum, grandparents and great grandparents recipes. The original book that my mum owns has a lot of ingredients that say an Anas worth. It makes translating the recipes into 21st century ingredients interesting .
Old people with soft Indian accents.
Home made chapattis.
Egg and chips.
Grandad's cake. (A light fruit cake)
Grandma's cake. (A heavy Madeira)
Father Ted's house.
Going to church.
Those silk baubles at Christmas.
Roses in the garden.
They died in the 90s and I still miss them.

I've still got one grandma alive, her husband, my grandpa died 20 years ago, and ride on lawnmowers, farming, very English food. He never ate cattle feed (maize/sweet corn) because that's what he fed his cows.
He was the best at negotiating a deal, and very good at complaining when things weren't right.

Oh the kamikaze bread story just brought back the memory of grannie slicing bread. She used to rest the loaf on her very ample bosom and slice it away from herself onto the kitchen counter! And the ancient bread board with a carved wheatsheaf on one side and a slot for the bread knife.

And all her life she wore long line bras and roll-on corsets with suspenders attached. She only ever wore stocking as she couldn't get along with tights. I recall going with her to buy them from an old fashioned drapers/haberdashery store in a local town which was always quite dark and the items would be retrieved from dark wood drawers and cabinets. I can't imagine now how uncomfortable she must have been.

This is such a lovely thread.

My nana, my grandma & grandad. All gone more than 30 years now. ♥️

Little wrinkled sausages (they were always wrinkled!) and the best mashed potatoes ever. A jar of sunpat peanut butter that was only eaten by us so was possibly out of date as we lived a long way from them and only saw them a couple of times a year. Playing Newmarket card game with pennies they saved all year. But never on a Sunday. No gambling card games on the sabbath - despite no one going to church. And me getting up at 6am every day to be with grandpa as he was an early riser too, and having 'just us' time.

This has made me cry now! I lost my mum in January- I really hope they found each other and she's back with her dad

My Nan used to buy me a t'towel when she went on holiday and I would always take the micky out of her to my mum about it, after she died I really missed those dam t'towels, so my husband now buys me one whenever we are on holiday in her honour 😢

My nan lying on her back on the bed doing bycycling movements with her legs to keep her legs going, when I stayed over.

Her lovely felt hats, not berets , that she wore with a hat pin.
Her green budgie Billy, that could say it’s name and address
Her very cold kitchen/ diner . She had no central heating.
Water pistols made from jif lemons.
Her coal fire till she got gas.
Her tales of when she was in service in 1910 when she was 14, how they had their waist length hair washed once a week and had to sit beside the fire to dry it.
She passed away in the 1980s and was very loving
My only grandfather that I knew died in 1972
He always wore a suit with his watch on a gold chain.
He walked with a limp from being injured in the war, the First World War.
Their house had the bath under the kitchen table till they had an indoor bathroom made.
The toilet was down the yard and they were a bit skinflinty..there was only newspaper for toilet roll 😡
My gran would make apple pie and the bottom would be sludgey because the juice from the apples stopped it from cooking properly 🤮
They weren’t very loving.

@fifthtimelucky
My grandad did the lethal bread slicing like that too. He'd butter the top of the loaf then slice it horizontally

@iklboo

My dad's parents (tea dispenser grandparents) came for Saturday tea once a fortnight. We'd have:

Table set with the tablecloth & placemats.

Tinned pink salmon salad (red if it was payday) with cucumber, lettuce, tomatoes, spring onion & sliced hard boiled egg - using one of those egg slicer contraptions. Radishes & pickled onions in dishes to help yourself.

Brown bread & butter, cut diagonally.

Tea in the naice teapot, cups & saucers.

Trifle for afters.

We were all Salford working class through & through but always had the fortnightly 'for special' tea. My mum's mum (nana) lived with us and got a bit narked by the fuss as they only lived 10mins away.

I remember teas like that at my aunts and my grandmother would be there Celery would be stood in a small water jug Radishes that when cut and left in water made flowers Sometimes it was ham, with hard boiled egg, bread It was often a Saturday and she would put a plate of cream cakes on the table

[quote Geamhradh]@fifthtimelucky
My grandad did the lethal bread slicing like that too. He'd butter the top of the loaf then slice it horizontally[/quote]
Must have been more common than I thought!

My grandmother used to butter it first too. I'd forgotten that.

Imperial Leather soap and Woodsware Iris dinnerware.

@Dowser - YES!! The celery in a jug!

@makesIlaugh

Lovely thread.

Mine are:
Imperial leather soap
Grilled bacon
Tinkle of ice in a gin
Cigarette smoke
Hairspray