When I wer a lass/lad (game)

Going to the Italian greengrocer with a bowl and tea towel to collect ice-cream to go with our jelly for a birthday party and then running home before it melted.

Sorry Grannyknot I should have said "blazer" which was a sheet of metal with a handle on which leant against the fire. The paper went over the top to cover the sides and the fire then blazed away. It got the fire going quickly but hopefully not so quick as to set the paper on fire !! Dangerous times we lived in!!

Did anyone else use one ?

grannyknot we used a shovel stood up in the fire opening then you put a piece of newspaper over it to draw the fire and get it going . I assume a blazer is something designed for the job . You had to watch the paper until you saw it start to go up in flames then grab it and scrunch it up to put the flame out ! I was under 11 when I did this and thought it quite normal !!

Thanks anya, I had never heard of it.

nina maybe here it was called something else, a Gestetner machine perhaps.

Spending a tanner on sweets (if I was very lucky).

Sorry posts crossed tiggy

tiggy and f77ms

Amazing the things we used to do that would now be considered dangerous. I had a friend who would iron her hair to straighten it

And this

We had a "blazer" but I don't know if it was called that. We did the blazing newspaper thing too, though.

In high school we used to hear the clatter, clatter, ping of hand-operated "computers" in the class next door.

Oh my I'd forgotten I used to iron my long curly hair and I have the scars on the back of my hands to prove it

Putting blocks on bike pedals because you had to grow into the bike.

We just used a long poker as a blazer. I didn't know the word blazer, or bleezer until I went up to Northumberland.

Sitting in front of the fire in a tin bath.

Having just one light bulb in the middle of each room.

Any one use the center light fitting to plug in the iron ? before that we had shaped brick things to heat in/on the fire to slip into the hollow smoothing iron , I often wonder which was the most dangerous

You judged the heat of the iron by spitting on it ! if it sizzled you were away

Using a flat iron - until I was 5 we had no electricity and I'm not that ancient .

Having an evacuee and taking gas masks to school every day with sandwiches in case we had to go into the shelter.

Gas mantles.

These weren't in general use but I did live in a house with gas mantles, in early married life.

christinefrance, your mention of blocks on bicycle pedals reminded me that my sister's husband put a block on her clutch pedal when they first got a car because it was an awkward reach for her (she's v small). He didn't drive so it didn't affect him.

Typing documents in triplicate without error!!! No 'delete' button available

We had gas lights and cooker in the back of the house and electric in the front room , no idea why . Upstairs had one room with electric and the others had gas , we were terrified of the gas , this was a rented house after the War and we had moved to Northern Ireland ,it had been a boarding house and some of the tenants had installed the electricity . In Scotland we never saw gas lights at home but I remember my Gran in a Tenement in Glasgow had . Buying Gas Mantles was a tricky job

Coupons for sweeeties

Grannyknot yes I've heard of a Gasetner

I had blocks on my bike pedals.

Recording pop music from the radio on my reel to reel tape recorder....always a disappointment