Down memory lane

That recorder! Few sounds are more grating than a class of junior school kids all playing reedy treble recorders.

My memories revolved round the 1940s era after being machine gunned in the hopfields and bombed out twice during the London Blitz.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4587772/Blitz-revealed-defiant-cheery-photos.html

Amazon sell candlewick bedspreads

Franbern It always makes me smile (wryly),when we get these clips about the past saying "Well we survived!!", implying that all modern H&S precautions are not required. Yes, WE did, but those many who did not are not around to testify.

Well my comment was I don't know how we all survived because I agree we lived in dangerous times and thankfully have all sorts of safety devices and protections in place now. 'We' being those who lived to tell the tale.

A lovely blue candlewick bedspread was one of my wedding presents (one of my requests). So proud of it. Lasted many years. As our children moved from cots into beds, we started them all off with the 'new' duvets - but our bed remained with sheets, blanker and that bedspread for a long time.

It always makes me smile (wryly),when we get these clips about the past saying "Well we survived!!", implying that all modern H&S precautions are not required. Yes, WE did, but those many who did not are not around to testify.

My parents insisted on their paraffin heater in their living room - this was in the 1980's (they never had any form of central heating), My Dad was very careful with this, but it did worry me.

There were so many dangers in the past. My Mother was very badly burned when a plate fell off the rack above the cooker and fell into a pan of hot fat, in which she was cooking chips (no lids back then - 1946), only the fact that she wore specs, saved her sight, She was in hospital for months, and was still covered in bandages when she returned home, I was a small child and was scared of her like that - which distressed her even more.

The door handles on cars back then were also a danger. My 17-year brother was dragged some distance by a moving vehicle when a door handle caught on his clothing. He was out with a girl friend, crossing a road, and this car came round the corner far to quickly - my brother managed to push his girl friend out of the way, but the car caught him and his clothing.

Doctors wanted to amputate his leg at the hospital, and my Dad refused permission, (my brother was very sporty). Thank goodness that was the correct decision and after many months he made a complete recovery (not even a limp.

Chestnut

As a child I remember going down to the local shop and struggling back with two gallon cans of paraffin. They were so heavy they cut into my fingers. We had paraffin heaters for some time after the coal fires, thought they were terribly modern.

Yes, I grew up with those.

The mention of nylon dressing gowns reminded me that the burn on my mum's arm was made worse as the nylon ' housecoat' melted into the burn. She had grafts but the scar remained noticeable all her life. I was at school at the time and was met by a neighbour. I also knew that a pupil at my Infant school had fallen from the top of the high slide and was very ill in hospital with a serious head injury. It was announced in assembly & we all said Amen at the end of the headmistress's prayer for him. Never knew the outcome as my family moved abroad.

We never had a paraffin heater, my parents wouldn't have one due to the fire risk. That was a very sad story from the previous poster.

Coastpath

Redhead56 A wave here from another candlewick picker. I also used to pick the woodchips off of the wallpaper. My mum didn't appreciate my efforts!!

We got in terrible trouble for that.

So bad a sin was it, that we weren't allowed to watch 'The Banana Splits' that week until one of us confessed.

We were beside ourselves - I can remember running away and crying and crying over it.

It was my dad who had done it, as he was thinking about decorating and picked a few bits off to see how easy (or hard) it would be.

LtEve I have a couple of embroidered tray cloths EXACTLY like the one in your picture! It belonged to my aunt I believe but may have been my grandmother's, unfortunately I'm not sure. They really are identical to yours.

I really don't know how we all survived the 1950s and 1960s with so many dangerous things going on.

Not everyone did survive.
The news reports of fires caused by paraffin heaters often stated that children had died.

Those blooming Record of Achievement folders!! We were sent hundreds and they were a nightmare to store.

This was the tea tray we shared today, the tray cloth and tablecloth were my Granny’s and probably nearly a hundred years old.
I think my daughter is a bit of a throwback.

My daughter has just bought a vintage eiderdown for her new flat, she's using the blankets I used as a little girl, white wool ones with a pink and blue stripe at the edges. A candle wick bedspread is next on her list, Chums sell them but some saving has to be done first apparently.
She says she's fed up of changing her duvet cover and can layer blankets and use her hot water bottle to cope with her drastically reduced central heating thermostat.

Had them all except the Scholls - my feet were too thin for them ?

Also I remember a hot water heater in the kitchen over the sink. oh an Ascot, my mum craved one rather than boiling up pans of water on the cooker as she didn't like the kitchen coal stove. Finally had an immersion heater installed, she was in heaven.

PECS you poor family how awful.
Today the H&S police would have a meltdown.
We did survive..
Paraffin heaters, remember one in the hall, you never forgot the smell of Esso Blue..
Nylon, quilted dressing gowns, Nylon nightdresses, think I remember Nylon sheets too.
Also I remember a hot water heater in the kitchen over the sink.

What a story Pecs

I really don't know how we all survived the 1950s and 1960s with so many dangerous things going on. We lived on the 3rd floor of a shared Victorian house, using paraffin heaters, and of course no smoke alarms. I understand the hot water boilers were also terribly dangerous and we had no carbon monoxide alarms either.

Redhead56 A wave here from another candlewick picker. I also used to pick the woodchips off of the wallpaper. My mum didn't appreciate my efforts!!

We had a fire caused by a paraffin heater when I was a child. It was standing in the bath ( which was a lidded affair in the kitchen . Above was the pulley full of washing. A nylon stocking floated down and caught fire catching a towel on the back of the door. Mum & grandma put it out as thecfire brigade arrived but grandma lost her eyelashes & brows and had badly burned fingertip. Mum , who was pregnant with my brother, sustained a burn on her arm and the scar was always a reminder of the danger of fires.

I loved my Dr Scholl sandals, they were so comfortable. Candlewick.......one for Bargain Hunt, so retro!!!!!!

We certainly never carried ours, while lit.

We had a paraffin heater in the 60s as we only had a coal fire in the livingroom and one of the 3 bedrooms. It felt like luxury when the paraffin heater was moved from room to room before bedtime to take the chill off.

Then one evening our elderly neighbour had a serious accident with her paraffin heater and spent many weeks in hospital with her legs badly burned. She’d carried the heater while it was lit and the paraffin sloshed out and set her nightie on fire. That was the end of our heater. My Dad decided they were too dangerous and got rid of it.

I really liked paraffin heaters but you often heard in the news about them causing fires.