Friend (F): Did you not go out tobogganing?
Me (M): LOL! I went ice skating instead. 😉 Snow is for young people, I was out for 30 mins today and an hour on 29th Dec.
(F): You won’t break any records with that!
(M): I don’t want to break anything.
(F): I Don’t blame you.
(M): I stood at the front door several times in the last week and my chest felt it was in a vice, it was not good I can tell you.
(F): Did you go out in the car today?
(M): A friend drove me. It is still very icy here.
(F): A toyboy????
(M): Not this time.
(F): Aaaw!
(M): My little neighbour has a bad chest infection and her water pipes are frozen. I took her down a large jug of water.
(F): Did you hear we’re facing water shortages here in Dublin?
(M): Nothing surprises me any more.
(F): Due to silly people running taps to stop pipes freezing plus breaks in water pipes!
(M): My sister has frozen water pipes – it is outside the house somewhere.
(F): Water pressure has been reduced around Dublin to conserve supply.
(M): Our water pressure is always reduced automatically in the winter months.
(F): We’ve lost internet connection here tonight.
(M): Remember how life was when we were young?
(F): I grew up in old house with no central heating only open fires.
(M): We have become so attached to the internet and central heating, how did we manage years ago? RTE 1 Television [only one station] – from 6pm to midnight or a radio the size of a wardrobe. No mobile phones or computers, sitting round an open fire with our fronts scorched and our backs frozen! Shins covered in abc’s. If you went out to get more coal, someone stole your warm seat!
(F): I remember it well. We had stone hot jars too for bedtime, jaysus, it makes me feel ancient! We had to put them in beds to stop them (beds) getting damp.
(M): Yeah, those days were awful. Frost on the inside of the windows, you got dressed to get into bed and then undressed and dressed again under the bedclothes in the morning! Oh! I remember not wanting to sit on the loo seat because it was so cold!
(F): ROFLOL!
(M): Stop laughing, it was no joke.
(F): You are telling me! I still perch on one cheek sometimes ‘cos of the cold!
(M): I became a dab hand at sitting on my knickers.
(F): I dare you put that in a blog post.
(M): I will too! In the morning.
Funnily enough, Jenny and I were saying the other day that we longer remembered it being that cold as children. Either we got used to it or we’ve suppressed the painful memories. But I do remember being entirely reliant on coal fires and paraffin heaters.
Presumably to keep out the cold your knickers were good thick ones and not the wispy nothings girls wear today.
That should of course be “no longer remembered”
Don’t dare you to do anything? Ooh, I should dare you to kiss me, but that isn’t a hard challenge.
I’ll like to dare you do a portrait. Sit and have someone take a portrait of you, and you do the same to someone else. I’m not talking about a snap, I’m talking about a portrait. A picture which shows an aspect of the sitter.
Accept?
Nick – We wore pink fleece lined, elasticated top and bottomed drawers with enough room for a weeks shopping!
Will – You are on! This idea might take off….. If enough took up the idea (not all portraits of me, but of others) Mulley might allow us to have them displayed at the Irish Blog Awards in March.
I’m saying nuttin’
Steph – Oh yeah! 😆
Don’t I know?
Ramana – Oh No you don’t! 🙄
Outdoor lavs with Buckets to empty if the Lavatory Man didn’t come to empty them… those were the days…. dig a big hole in the field next door heave the bucket of ordure (that’s twice I’ve used that word today) over the bank and empty it.Cover with earth and repeat next time it gets full! Only in very cold weather you understand.
We use those stone hotty bottles as door stops now!
My mother in law tells stories about having jam sandwiches in her knickers to take up stairs to her naught brother.
I wear my wool “knickers” to go skiing or snowshoeing. They are worn on the outside for everyone to see. And I wear wool underwear under the knickers.
The wool “undies” belonged to my mother, & come down to the knees. Don’t know what I’ll do when they wear out completely. I can only buy bikini (or thong) underwear here in the U.S.
BTW, Thongs are now called “Flip Flops”. When they came on the market in my day, they were Thongs. If you walk backwards they come off your feet.
I shocked a young salesclerk when I asked for Thongs—At my age! she was thinking.
Oh Memories, GM!
Though I must say I’m regressing a bit out here in the outports. I have the old wood stove and love cooking on it.
But I remember the fire and the big fork and the toast done on it but I never ever got used to the damp. It seeped everywhere, the blankets were always damp and the hot water jars would give blisters.
I hope it warms up for you soon, I know you suffer from the cold more than most!
XO
WWW
Magpie – Thank goodness we lived in a city and indoor loos were the norm. I never heard of the legs of knickers being used to carry food, but I do know that the space was well used to smuggle shopping bought in Dublin and brought back to the North of Ireland during the years of rationing.
BHB – You should check out the graphic here. There is no reason why you should not buy thongs. For all she knew they might have been a present for a young person.
WWW – Blisters and chilblains! Oh the pain! 🙁 We have a thaw and most of our snow has gone. Bitter Siberian winds have replaced it, and there is st5ill a chance of more snow tonight.
Truly we are spoiled now aren’t we. I had an attic bedroom and remember the ferny shaped frost patterns on the dormer window. There was tongue and groove wood on the sloping ceilings and walls. I remember drawing patterns in the condensation while lying in bed. Funny I don’t remember feeling cold. Reminds me of the definition of a cardigan………Something a child puts on when it’s mother’s cold
Rhyleysgranny, I love your definition of a cardigan! 😀
Funny and very interesting post. I enjoyed hearing how things
were in the past. Somethings that have changed are for the
best, but others would have been better left alone. With
less TV, families talked more and played board games together.
Without cellphones & email, people stopped by for chats more often…
However, I do love the internet. I can talk to all my friends
and family that live far away.
As always, very interesting!
I do love you blog 🙂
hugs~kimme
Kimme,
As you say not all changes are for the good. I too appreciate my computer and the Internet giving me the opportunity to make and meet friend on line at any time of the day.
Never dare you? But it made such a great blog post. Now I’m going to think on it for awhile and you shouldn’t be surprised if I pop up again with another dare–this time how about a double-dog dare?!
Alice,
A double-dog dare? I never heard of that one before.
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