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)

Celery in a jug only at Christmas!

Pears soap.

Chocolate blancmange.

Camp coffee.

Lily of the valley soap
A really comfortable guest bed with electric blanket, heavy goose-down duvet and huge plump pillows
Tinned kidneys in gravy, eaten on toast
Porridge with golden syrup
Clarins face creams
Gold floral carpets
A bath with about two inches of water in it!
Christmas puddings full of 50ps and pound coins, each wrapped in greaseproof paper

Marbles
Jars of buttons
Electric fireplace with a grill
Penny sweets in the post

Dairylea Triangles. Always on the table for tea at one GM’s house.
My permanently skint DM would never buy them so they were a massive treat.

Many decades later I still look on them as a treat, will occasionally buy some and scoff the lot myself. Sometimes without even any bread.🐷

That GM always gave us orange jelly with tinned mandarin oranges in, too. After she died I kept the glass bowl - not even a beautiful one - that the jelly invariably came in, and was very upset when dh broke it. (Not on purpose or it really would have been a LTB moment.).

So many things, Cadbury’s chocolate eclairs, cheese & tomato sandwiches, trips to the seaside, holidays in chalets usually Devon, Train trips, eiderdowns, bath salts, nail polish. And so much love.

A certain smell,I can't describe it sort of musty.

Lucozade, slot machines, babycham, feeling of being loved

The fish market in our local marina.... I went this morning and was immediately transported to 5year old me going there with my nanny! We are having dover sole for dinner which she used to make for us every Friday after school.

Lovely thread! So many, many happy things. Milk and biscuits after a walk, Fox’s glacier mints, black thick rimmed glasses to watch the headlines at 6pm, playing catch in the garden with a hard rubber ring, the somehow sweet smell of leftover cigarette smoke, playing Monopoly for hours and mixing ice cream in a bowl (but just at home, not when we’re out!)

Imperial leather soap
Trolls
Baked beans
Marigolds
Tall ashtrays
Brass plates

Imperial Leather soap.

The smell of Pears soap because they lived close to the Levers factory, the sound of knitting needle with the occasional crunch of a Mintoe or humbug, bright egg yolk yellow paint because that's what colour front door she had and lilac wool ... I miss my Grandma so much x

I always stayed over at my Granny's house on Saturday night.

We would watch the Wrestling with Big Daddy in the afternoon and then I went with her to Bingo in the evening.

She was marvellous and doing shadow hand puppets on the bedroom wall, and could also read your fortune from the tea leaves left in your teacup. (Or so I believed!).

Lighting the coal fire involved making paper 'crackers' from newspapers, and drawing the fire out with a newspaper held in front of it.

We would watch 'Songs of Praise' together and sing along to the hymns.

Sunday night tea was fish and chips eaten out of the paper. One time she put the remains still in the paper on the floor for her cat, and was so embarrassed when the minister arrived unexpectedly.

Happy days.

We used to go & watch wrestling at Belle Vue in Manchester. Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks. We had to put my nana in the middle of the aisle because she once ran down to the ring & battered baddie Mick McManus with her handbag.

If she won at bingo she'd call & get chips and potato scallops on the way home. I'd be got up out of bed to share them. Sometimes she won a big prize of....

A fresh chicken!

iklboo I grew up in Clayton, and my 'afternoon Sunday tea' with my grandparents (who lived on the next street) sounds a lot like yours- always the same salad, -with tongue .

I remember when Belle Vue had a circus and a zoo.

(We moved in 77 went posh- new build in Cheadle Hulme with an indoor loo ).

One of my most treasured possessions is a letter my Grandmother wrote to my Mother when I was born. It is in Swedish, and my Mom wrote a translation for me. It is safely away in a memory book my Mom made for me. So special to see Grandma's joy at her first grandchild, and her plans to drive up to see me and help out. It was a day or longer drive on hazardous roads in the mid 50s. She said they would bring a tent and sleep in there. My Grandparents were immigrants to Canada and made of some pretty tough stuff from the hardship of wars and the great depression.

My Grandma died in 1978 and my Mom in 2013.

So many things coming back. My grandparents had a little grey/silver ceramic ashtray purchased by grannie's parents on a day out to the seaside, probably before 1910. On the front was an embossed picture of a young man and young lady, very smartly dressed and prim. When you turned it over and I loved being allowed to do that and grannie and grandad would giggle too (for years and years) the young man had his hand on the young lady's bottom. It was very risqué.

@RosesAndHellebores, my grandfather had a screwdriver with pictures of ladies in swimwear in the handle. When you turned it upside down, her clothes came off. We were equally fascinated and appalled by it as children.

A Midlands accent, although my grandad still had traces of Birmingham, where he grew up.
I heard someone a few years ago, talking with exactly the same accent as my gran. I sat near them for a while, just listening and remembering.

That sounds brilliant @BikeRunSki . Happy Days.

They were absolutely devoted. Grannie was buried on their 65th wedding anniversary. Grandad died just 16 months later. He was lost without her.

(Just realised that it sounds weird, you could hear that accent any time, but I live in the south west and haven’t been back to the Midlands since they died as there is no longer any family left to visit.)

Sunlight soap-for years we used it as soap in the bath
At the ripe age of 40 I found out it’s a soap for hand washing clothes!
Stewed steak and gravy in a tin served with rice
Daz washing powder
Fish and chips
Vosene shampoo
Clover marg
Snooker on the black and white tv
The A-team
Big daddy
Scotch and beef broth
TCP-the smell takes me back
Art-my grandad taught me to draw
Books-so many books-the faraway tree,the wishing chair and willow tree farm
Love-we had so much love in the house I grew up in
My parents are very abusive and my grandad brought me up-I’m the person I am now because of him
I miss him every single day

Tuna and cheese toasted sandwiches washed down with limeade for my Nan. And the song 'catch a falling star and out it in your pocket' for my grandad ❤️

Really good dinners on a sunday. Best Yorkshire pudding. Lemon curd sandwiches for tea.
Getting the 50p each week for pocket money for years.
Playing dominoes. Watching the Antiques Roadshow.
That's about it! It was quite a limited relationship!