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)

Really salty gravy (Nanna added salt to the water she boiled veg in and then used it to make gravy), fresh peas from the pod, strange wooden handled forks, damart dresses

@BikeRunSki - mine too! And a pen as well. We thought it was very rude.

Weirdly the smell of gas (as in cooking with gas) we never had gas at home and I do now and sometimes you don't light it til a second after you've turned the knob and the smell takes me back to Nan and Grampy's house, don't worry I don't stand there huffing it! Also Anchor butter, tinned salmon sandwiches, Jonathan Creek and cut up Dairy Milk chocolate handed round on a plate. I loved their house, it was so warm and welcoming and calm, especially compared to ours which was always filled with shouting.

Mostly food and smell based for me

Malted milk and coconut cream biscuits
Maraschino cherries dunked in babycham
Braised steak with boiled potatoes and lots of vinegar

Imperial leather soap
Brut aftershave and the smell after grandad had his 30 minutes completing the sun crossword in the bathroom every morning after breakfast

Having the dog lick our feet while playing cribbage at the table

The bed being warmed with a weird metal bedpan that plugged in and just contained a lightbulb to generate heat . Also being tucked in under many flannel sheets, silky edged blankets and a candlewick bedspread. It was impossible to turn over or even poke your feet out of the covers

The garden full of gnomes and the pond with frogspawn.

The smell of cigars.

Flat caps.

Lavender soap.

Seabrooks crisps.

Jam sandwiches on white bread.

Toast with marmalade.

@iklboo

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!

She sounds like a legend!

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER

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.).

I have such similar sunday tea memories. My bowl is long gone too 😢

Not having anything faintly like a fitted kitchen. My gps had whatever a council house brand new straight after the 2nd world war had came with and never upgraded. A freestanding cooker and a walk in pantry. A Formica kitchen table.

Eating breakfast in the kitchen and everything else in the dining room.

My GM used to make really tasty mince served with toast triangles. And also tinned mandarins in jelly with evaporated milk to follow.

She used to knit herself hats and then teaze them with a little wire brush (like a nail brush) so the wool went all fluffy. They were usually knitted in a shade of mauve which was her favourite colour.

She always wore laced shoes with heels as she was barely 5 ft tall. She used to let me wear her shoes indoors when I was about 9 as they fitted my feet perfectly then.

Her hair was silver and long and worn in a neat bun at the base of her neck. I always wanted to do her hair, but she would never let me.

My other GM died when I was 3. I have vague memories of her pushing me around the garden in a wheelbarrow.

I was a very much loved grandchild. One GM had 2 grandchildren and the other had 12.

nevernotstruggling- are you my sibling/cousin as you've just described my nans kitchen.

Olbas Oil
Fox’s Glacier Mints
Garden gnomes
Brylcreem

@Rainbowandscarlett

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

That choked me up. What a lovely man.

Wilfred Pickles Have a Go on the radio on Saturday dinner time, while eating pot pie (the local name for steak and kidney pudding).
Always a drawer full of Chocolate Penguin biscuits of all different coloured wrappers, my brother, as soon as he could walk ,would make a bee-line for them every visit.
My grandpa always working in the garden, wearing his flat cap.The smell of cigars which he always smoked on Christmas Day
My grandma sitting by the window in her front room every Sunday afternoon and watching the neighbours going past in their best clothes, while she drank tea and smoked Sovereign cigarettes.
I never knew my other grandpa, hardly saw my other grandma but I remember her laughter, her red hair ,and her 1950's twirly framed glasses.
I am now a grandma and a greatgrandma and hope my descendants will have good memories of me.

Pain Perdu (which we called pap air do)

Tarte tartin

Silk scarf

Bof

French in Aus

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!

Mine used to do something similar. She'd butter the end of the loaf first so that the slice would be ready-buttered. Then she'd hold the loaf under her arm like a rugby ball, and slice from the outside inwards. It can only have been her weapons-grade lingerie that kept her from sawing her left boob off.

I've nominated this thread for Classics. It's so lovely & heartwarming. I've been choked up reading it - and I don't even cry at Long Lost Families!

I hade my grandad's and my great grandad's war medals. So special. Grandad said from when I was little I had to have them when he died because I was the only one who would appreciate and understand them.

I used to think he looked like Kirk Douglas and loved sitting in his tea while he told me stories. He died when I was 14. He'd have adored DS. All my grandparents would have done but they were all gone before I was 20.

I was very fortunate to have lived with my nan and grandad, both gave me a very stable and loving home, without them my life would have panned out very differently and i will be forever grateful to them both
My grandad is still with us, and is still very active, although he misses my nan terribly

My lovely nan passed 4 years ago and there isnt a day where i dont miss her

We were incredibly close and many things remind me of her, too many to list

Chocolate covered marzipan!!

Her famous stew with dumplings!!..it would cure anything from heartache to your leg hanging off
She showed me how to make it many times...mine will never taste the same

Shepard's pie with a mountain of cheese on the top

Yum yums! Those doughnut things covered in icing!

Youth Dew perfume

The smell of fresh cut grass in her garden in the summer and running around on it with no shoes on!

A truly amazing woman

@iklboo

I've nominated this thread for Classics. It's so lovely & heartwarming. I've been choked up reading it - and I don't even cry at Long Lost Families!

I hade my grandad's and my great grandad's war medals. So special. Grandad said from when I was little I had to have them when he died because I was the only one who would appreciate and understand them.

I used to think he looked like Kirk Douglas and loved sitting in his tea while he told me stories. He died when I was 14. He'd have adored DS. All my grandparents would have done but they were all gone before I was 20.

I nominated it last weekend. Didn't even get an answer. Hopefully you'll find a more responsive person at HQ!

Nothing. The world is not the World she died in (1990 early 50s).

I just remember her black cherry jelly (didn't like it, ate it anyway but unavailable today)

Her money skills, loving personality, sewing skills, ability to make friends at the drop of a hat, her fantastic sense of fun, her obsession with everything in its place, slight martyrdom.

Nothing exists now that existed then.

Didn’t know either grandfather. My mother’s side we have a recipe book that she typed up so anything cooked from that. A teddy bear I own of hers. Dads side her overwhelming shyness- we lived in a different country, tins of quality street - we took one each time we went.

Woolworths, ready made prawn cocktail, smart wool swing coats and orangey lipstick.

Happy Easter everyone - we hope you're all enjoying the sunshine.

Thanks for all the nominations for Classics - we reckon this thread and all the v lovely posts it contains should be preserved for posterity and so we're going to move it over now.

Old Spice aftershave, obscenely loud shirts, a handbag and matching shoes for every occasion and the tastiest chicken casserole on earth are the first thoughts that spring to my mind...not all the same grandparent there, I hasten to add...

Cheers to all the grandparents who've left us with such cherished memories.

Dad's parents - tinned fruit and evaporated milk, homemade blackberry vinegar for sore throats and to put on pancakes

Mum's parents - boiled sweets especially blackcurrant & liquorice

My four grandparents were Mexican-born.

My paternal grandfather had died before I was born.
My maternal grandfather died when I was six but I remember he loved foot-long American hot dogs and washed it down with a 32oz coca-cola in a bottle. He moved to the USA in 1929.

There's a Mexican woman who has a cooking show on YouTube. She has nearly 4M subscribers. She reminds me so much of my two grandmothers. One died when I was seven and the other when I was nine. When I watch this woman, I weep because I miss them both so much. They used to dress like this woman, look like this woman and were always in the kitchen making the same meals.

https://youtube.com/c/DemiRanchoaTuCocina

Clear chicken soup with rice in.
Homemade blackcurrant jam and the smell of blackcurrant bushes.
Blue Ribband biscuits.
The bed made up with umpteen sheets (no duvet).
Bath trays
The sound of the ice cream van
The bright, swirly, loud pattern of the living room carpet