Butterandjam, your post does bring back some memories of my youth, although our facilities were not so dire. I grew up in a new Council house with a bathroom. Water was heated either by the kitchen based coke back boiler or the electric immersion heater. Such luxury. However, when I was a newborn we had shared the Grandparents' house with its unheated "attached" loo just outside the back door and a pull out bath under a kitchen work surface. There would have been 5 adults, me and my and my sister (two years older) sharing the facilities in the tiny three bed terrace.
My mother told me about "rags" left soaking in a bucket and how lucky I was to have Dr Whites. Of course, the Dr Whites had no "waterproofing", so periods were still a time of anxiety. They still had to be disposed of discretely, wrapped and smuggled to the dustbin (Father mustn't see) or in the winter slipped into the Coke boiler where they would hopefully, eventually, be cremated.
No showers in school when I was a kid. Sweat during games and you stayed sweaty. Still had to wait for the end of the week for clean clothes or half /end of term for gym slip, jumper and sports gear to be washed. We weren't allowed to take sports gear home during term time. Baths were once a week. No exceptions allowed. Daily top and tail was the norm.
As for my toilet or bathing facilities breaking down now, I can go back to top and tail or sponge bath and I take comfort in the fact I still have water tanks, but the lack of a toilet would cause a real problem. When the inlet valve failed and leaked it took several days to get it fixed and I had to constantly empty a strategically place bucket. I was dismayed to find I couldn't turn the water to the toilet off but luckily the leakage was small. However, if the toilet were unusable I don't know what I could do. The new Aldi up the road has toilets but isn't an all-night store! The nearest public loos are a bus ride away and also closed at night. Of course, I could use a bucket, but where to empty "solids" when needed?
