Happy birthday .

Thank you!

Happy Birthday to you Maids. I used to make tracks on my candlewick bedspread, little paths by pulling out the threads and making up stories in my head

That's really close but my memory says it's not quite right.

...but then again, my memory is not that close either

Happy Birthday!

Pickles ointment? You can still get it, though not widely.

I work with elderly people and sometimes still see chilblains. They are actually a very early form of frostbite, when a toe, finger or heel has been white with cold for a bit too long and it has caused some tissue damage. I think one of the reasons they used to be more common is that leather was so bloody hard, so everything on your feet was prone to getting rubbed and irritated. I joined the police in 1982 and my unforgiving uniform shoes used to make my feet bleed every day (they were pretty old-fashioned even then) until I realized that you could get away with something a bit more normal from clarks.

Thank you both, I had a lovely day! Yes Mrs Teapot, I used to pick out the threads too...drove my mum mad but was ever so tempting...once you started you just couldn't stop!

Edit - Just asked my husband if they had candlewick bedspreads and he didn't know what I was talking about (his family had more money than mine) so I googled it and can see they go for about £70 per bedspread now! I can't imagine my parents had that kind of money to pay when I was younger (dad was a shipyard worker and mum stayed at home to watch the 7 of us), how times change!

Snowfire still available.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...1FHG5ARQ46M6ZX

So pleased you did.

Omg, I so wished I had saved mine in good repair. Suffice to say they had so many tracks and little stories that they were probably bare

OMG 7 of you

'Frozen toes' + a hot fire = chilblains. I had no idea they were an early form of frostbite!

Snow.....as daft a name as it sounds, it rings bells. I think that's what my Mum called it....snow

Thank you.

Jack frost never calls nowadays.

yeah, we are all too spoiled now!

Happy belated birthday maidinscotland hope you had a great day.

Aww thanks gregrichards!

I actually still use a candlewick type bedspread that came with my house. It's old, pink and a bit tatty (like me) but I put in on top of my duvet cover (I don't use the duvet itself). The cats prefer it and it protects my duvet cover from claws.

Another thing I remember being given at my gran's was a ceramic hot water bottle.

Does anyone remember these?
http://www.nelsonsauction.com/2012-s...ttle_small.JPG

It had a rubber ringed bung in the top, and it was wrapped in a teacloth for insulation (and to prevent direct contact with skin!).
Granny really did live in the past, I think and clung on to antiquated equipment and artefacts. She even used a real whole goose's wing to dust the dresser and ornaments.

Happy birthday maids glad you had a lovely day.

Thank you

My first flat at 18 shared with my sister had 2 rooms and a shared outside toilet. We used to take our washing to the laundrette in a suitcase and once a week had a bath at the public baths.

omg !!!!!

You recall the Alpine Man - The Ginger Man !!!!! Not Irn Bru type ginger but he came once a week and and your mammy or nana would send you out with the empties and you would feel dead special 'cos you had "proper" fizzy juice and had been witnessed going from the ginger lorry to your hoose.

BTW - I'm wearing my house coat (not a dressing gown but a proper winter coat) The boiler is misbehaving AGAIN.

The sleeping bag with arms coat is wonderful./

It's amazing how people coped in the past. I lived with my parents until I was 24 and the house was really old fashioned.

There was no central heating or double glazing, just two fires downstairs, the only way to warm water was an immersion heater, you couldn't have a bath, well you could if you could stand an inch of water. The wind blew in through the windows and doors, I don't know how we didn't freeze to death.

I wouldn't want to go back to those days, got the heating on full.

We used to warm up our nighties on the boiler in the airing cupboard before we put them on and always took a hot water bottle to bed in winter. We got central heating in the 80's but my dad guarded that thermostat and only occasionally set it to 15 degrees for an hour if it was very cold. He also didn't turn on any of the radiators upstairs to save money so it didn't make much difference to our life really.

It wasn't just our houses which were cold. We drove in the ice and snow in cars with just a tiny bit of heat blowing through the heater on the dashboard and no power steering either. Our car had a hole in the footwell of the front passenger seat so there was always an icy puddle there in winter and Dad used to drive along with just a tiny hole to see through because it took so long to clear the windscreen of ice in the morning.

Very interesting thread. I didn't know what some of the things mentioned were so I googled them and asked my Mum. She evidently had both candlewick bedspreads and she and her sister had candlewick dressing gowns. When they got a kitten it sucked the bedspreads.

They had a thing in the kitchen that pulled down from the ceiling and they hung clothes to dry on it. They also had an electric dryer in the hall with wooden rungs in it and you could dry clothes in that. They had a telephone before Mum was born and, as most of their neignbors didn't have one, hard to believe, they used to come and use their phone.

When Mum was very little they used to go out and leave the back door open and people like the Milkman and Bread man, they had bread delivered, would come in and make themselves tea. Different world.

I used to have one of those dryers. I think they were called drying cabinets. Nothing like the modern tumble dryers, these just heated up and clothes would emerge dry and as brittle as bone!

Given the cost of heating a home many still cope like that.