Name a chore....

Going to the coop for my Mum and giving her coop number. Remember it began with a 6 ,but don’t remember the rest. Still go to my local coop regularly and show them my Coop card instead of a number!

I've loved reading these posts. I used to go down to the Co-Op office to pay in some money for what might have been the Divi I still remember the number, 845. I didn't have to do many chores really, the odd trip down to the village shops and sometimes to get 10 Woodbines or 10 Park Drive tipped for our dad. When I got to about 11 though, I had to do the ironing always on a Sunday afternoon until I left home and then my younger sister took over. At about 8 years old though mum used to send me down to her good friend Mrs.Williams house to dust her front room and then she'd send me to collect eggs from another friend. Also on a Saturday morning about 7 or 8 I'd go with my best friend to her nan's house to get some meat for her from the Co-Op butchers. For that errand we got offered a sweet from the sweet jar in the cupboard. I don't know why but I always said no thank you when really I did want a sweet. My friend used to say to me when we went " well if you don't want one, take one and give it to me" I suppose that's what I did after that. We got off lightly in the way of chores. There were six of us at home then and as I've got older I do wish I'd have done more for her. I never ever heard her moan throughout her life about what she's had to do. My dad neither. I was born in 1954 and none of the gadgets about then to make life a bit easier for people. The washing done in the 'copper' in what was called the wash house room of the house. then the mangle. and the washing had to hung out on the line even on freezing cold days in the winter for a blow. Then bring it all in, as stiff as a board and then it went on the clothes horses. They don't know they've been born some of them do they. lol

I can remember helping to unpick old jumpers and cardigans bought at the jumble sale (remember those?) and winding the wool into balls ready for my mother to knit into ‘new’ jumpers and socks.

Walking up the road to get a gallon of paraffin for the "Beattie" oil heater in the bathroom!

Going with my friend to help clean out the horses at The Express Dairy round the corner from where we lived!

Neither to be allowed (or required) these days!

My brother and I would be given the job of snipping off what our neighbour called 'them there bennets', the long grass stalks which remained after mowing. I was never sure whether it was the recognized term or a made-up one. I did hear that it was a corruption of 'bents' but can't see either on Google.

No bathroom, so.my job was to white wash the outside loo every week and because no bathroom, I remember being washed in the sink as a kid,and being frightened of the Geazer, that was the hot water heater

Yes, Dogsmother, I too loved to take out babies in their prams, and yet I would NEVER have trusted a schoolgirl with my baby, the thing that brought it home to me was when the very baby I had taken out, grew up, and a schoolgirl herself, asked if she could take my baby out, and oh no, I was horrified and wouldn't let her ! Your post just reminded me !

Turning the mangle handle.
Shelling peas.
Watching the toast under the grill, often not very successfully, which was then scraped.
Turning the handle of the old singer sewing machine while my mum turned the sheets outside in.

We never did "chores" my mother never worked and everything was done by the time we came home from school.She was a bit of a perfectionist too so ironing and sewing etc were her territory.
I do remember a friends mothers telling her we should be "doing our bit around the house" she said they'll have homes of their own to "do their bit " in so let them enjoy their lives.
I did enjoy cooking so I would be allowed to make sunday dinner or cheese puddings for supper from about 11 or 12 .Apart from that ,although she taught us basic sewing so we could have put a button back on or turned up a hem, she did it all.

Yes I too was sent for said cotton! I couldn’t do it and asked the lady in the corner shop who sold everything, for “negro brown” thinking I knew better!

We had a go at all the jobs here. From the sweeping of the stairs to the cleaning of the silver.
The one thing that sticks out for me that I did but would NEVER allow any child to do was knock on neighbours doors and ask to be allowed to take the baby out! Anyone who had a baby......I just loved to push that prom and be in charge of a baby for however long I could and sometimes they( mothers) would give me a bottle and allow a wh9l3 afternoon I have no recollection of changing nappies.
It was just something we did in my neighborhood.

The co-op dividend number is engrained in me. 90126, has not been used in 55 years but there it is, firmly planted in my head!

nannypiano, when I was around 8 I had a key to my aunt’s house, and used to go there after school to light the fire. At the beginning they always left it set, but soon I was lighting it from scratch, and it wasn’t long before I was making dinner too. For this I got 2/6 cash and a 2/6 savings stamp!

My little brother was born when I was 12, and by that time I could do any household chore.

My parents had a guest house. My job was to clean the sinks in each bedroom and house bathroom, making sure the taps were clean underneath as well as what I could see. My elder sister got the job of cleaning the toilets so I suppose I shouldn't complain. ?

For a while on Sundays, I was in charge of sorting out magazines, newspapers etc. and disposing of the out-of-date ones. I was 'sacked' after a while for reading them instead of working. I was then in charge of cleaning brass and silver - and there was a lot of that about! I still quite enjoy cleaning metal but, there is very little of it in my home now.

Pudding peas,loved it. And cleaning out the hearth,

Going to the shop for the messages many times a day.

The chore I hated most was cleaning and polishing the shoes. My brother and I had to take turns doing it, on a Sunday morning. All the polishes and brushes were kept in an old wooden mushroom box. We had to collect up everyone's shoes, wash and dry the soles, and then polish the uppers. I don't imagine any children these days do that. In fact, I can't remember the last time I polished a pair of shoes.

I darned the socks using a wooden mushroom. Made all the curtains when we moved house. Dusted but my mother complained I dusted around things. My dad a naval man taught me to iron shirts. Yes, cleaned the brass sometimes. I inherited the brass, something I could have done without.

Helped turning the mangle, shelling peas, and lots of other jobs as and when.

My mother had been a maid from a very young girl and she didn’t want me doing housework. She was very pleased when I became a nurse.

I did next to nothing as a child because my mother classed me as useless and she could do everything so much faster than me. I have no idea how I ended up being so capable and independent when I was mollycoddled throughout my entire childhood.

Remember doing a lot of the above items but also used to go to the corner shop for the old lady next door. She would give me an empty jug and some money and I used to ask for Mrs (name)'s stout. The jug would be filled and I'd take it back to her. Can't imagine that happening nowadays, I was in infant school at the time.

Hoovered

Hovered,

Also cleaned out the fire and hovered for gran.

Cleaning the bath with Chemico paste.I loved doing it but my mother always came in later to do it properly!?