history of living

[gfrancie]

Sunday roast chicken with my in laws. It was fairly calm as the rest of the family wasn't there. It was a good time for the kids to just have one on one grandparent time. I read most of the paper, and then discussed presents with my Mother in law. We admired the work my Father in law is doing in primrose cottage. He and my brother in law have removed all the plastering in the lounge of primrose. It is down to the stone. (built in the 1600s) There was even a secret hole/hiding spot found. There was talk about turning it into a cupboard, but in the end the decision was to block it up again but with a time capsule. My in laws did find old bits of newspapers from the late sixties in the hole. (used for insulation) We had a good giggle over some of the things advertised. "Women aged 25-40 for position with man's wages". Complicated small village life escapades involving the police, and a fancy fancy place that advertised having dishwashers. My Mother in law said she never saw a proper dishwasher until the early 80s. She didn't realize they had been invented before then. It is one of those things that shows a stark difference between the US and UK in terms of what was available to the average person. She remembers when it was a super massive deal when washing machines became widely available. When she was growing up her Granny would wash all the clothes by hand and there was always a battle to get things dry before the soot set in and turned all the laundry on the line, completely black.

I went to the Christmas bazaar thingie yesterday. I ended up buying a pretty hand-made dish, and some vintage penguin paperbacks. (CP Snow, and some Waugh) So it wasn't a bad haul. Mr. Jenner was sitting with the kids (who were having cupcakes. Miss Biscuit described hers as, "It is pink and it was BEAUTIFUL AND it had a strawberry." She waved her arms around doing a lot of gesturing so that you would understand how amazing this cupcake was in her eyes.) and ended up chatting to a little old lady who was related in some way to the family that once owned my in laws' place. She recalled visiting there as a girl about 70 years ago and the big room (now the games room) being filled with great long tables. (this was the dining room once upon a time before another room was turned into the dining room.)

Comments

[land-girl.livejournal.com]

We had a dishwasher in 1972. It wasn't very good, though. My grandparents, in Finland, had one first.

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

oooooooh you were fancy.
I don't think dishwashers were decent in general until the late 80s.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

You should read the Catherine Aird book, A Most Contagious Game, about finding a British priest's hole with the skeleton. It is a lot like Tey's "Daughter of Time," with the invalid who discovers the hole trying to work out the history of the skeleton.

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

I saw a play not too long ago that had a whole plot that involved a priest's hole. It was pretty cool story. Alas this wasn't a proper priest's hole.

[amamama.livejournal.com]

Time capsules are cool! I like the sound of primrose cottage, I love old houses (so living in one that's merely 56 years old is kind of meh). Maybe you'll post picures? *hopeful*

I remember when we got our first dishwashing machine, it must have been early 80s. And I can remember having to heat water on the stove and bathing in a tub on the kitchen floor. But that was only the first year we lived in the house where I grew up. The sisters who lived there before hadn't bothered with a water heater. Or maybe there was one of those hanging on the wall in the bathroom? No idea, I just remember that one bath where the hot water came from a gigantic coffee pot. That first winter we all (mum, dad and I) all slept in the same bed, it was so cold and the house had such a draft that the bedclothes froze to the wall... That's pretty exotic, thinking about it now. Makes me feel really ancient. ;-)

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

The rest of the place was built in the 19th century but the oldest part is kind of cool for all the details it holds. (the beams have wormholes that show obvious sign of having been on a ship once upon a time.

I lived in a house as a child that didn't really have insulation. When there was a blizzard, there was ice on the inside of the windows. It was fun though.

[needlediva.livejournal.com]

I loved that house.