ootside toilets....first home and all that..ha

I was just reading through this and thinking how many gransnetters, like me, had interesting childhoods, then I realised how many, like me, are from the North East! My dad was a pitman too and I remember sitting on the stairs with my sister while he had his tin bath in front of the coal fire, my mam washing his back with the black water streaming down. At one house we lived at, we had a line of earth closets at the end of the yards. The smell is in my nostrils now - it was horrendous! Everything would just drop into the darkness below and the stench would get gradually worse. Then every so often a truck would come along and a couple of men would jump out and shovel it all away. I wonder what the actual job description was - not what we called them, that's for sure! My mother wouldn't use the closets - she'd walk half a mile to the nearest public conveniences instead. I was only born in the mid-50s, but feel we had more in common with the Victorians than with the children these days!

I'd forgotten about the ships in Hull Docks. My grandma lived on Marfleet Lane which was near the docks and the ships horns seemed to go on forever. I listened for them last year but didn't hear a single one

My mum had a dolly tub and posher until she could finally afford a twin tub. After that she used to drain the washer into it and use the water and a stiff yard brush to swill the yard. My aunty still uses a posher to wash her net curtains.

Mum worked in a chippie and the owner used to let Dad borrow his van. The first thing Dad and my uncle did was swill it out to get rid of the fish water and smell. Then they'd put in two sofas and we'd all pile in and go to the seaside....usually Flamborough or Spurn cos there were no shops and so nothing to spend money on Four adults and six children....no seat belts or other safety stuff but we survived and had some great days out lol.

Used to run to the end of the street to see a car. Milk, coal and veg was delivered by horse and cart. Always a race when the horse defecated, ladies racing with shovels to get the manure for the roses. Milk measured out with metal measures from the milk churn.Coal as has been said ,tipped in the street women, as the men were at work. shovelling it up and" building" it into the coal house, being careful not to dent the bathtub,
Isn't it amusing when visiting these museums and seeing stuff you are still using. Telling the guides how the bonnet was used to cook bacon,describing how to peg a rug. Telling them how prospective boy friends quizzed you on your knowledge of a darning mushroom, (did you know what one was) and did you live within walking distance , or did you live on a good 'bus route. More to follow,time for tea

I thought Sting did come back to his roots quite regularly. Last time I heard his brother still ran the milkman business and his daughter was singing in one of the Gateshead pubs, with Sting listening. My son plays in a band on Tyneside and they used to rehearse in a pub owned by Sting's brother.
Sting was in Durham Cathedral less than two years ago with Katherine Tickell. Most people on here have moved away from their roots, so why shouldn't he? Yes, he's made a lot of money, but he gives a lot away.
It's a bit like saying that Anita Roddick should not have done what she did and helped the Yamamoto Indians.

Yes we used to play on bombed buildings. Never thought about what it meant until now.

I would certainly believe every thing your granddad said, even in the 40s being a small child I can remember how hard some things were, we played in "bombed buildings" it was just words to us children, It didn't dawn on me for a while as to what they were

Great expression Gillybob a champagne socialist is exactly what he is.

Did anyone see the Michael Portillo programme yesterday that featured Berwick and Ashington?

Yes Glass he has totally forgotten where he came from (Sting that is not my grandad who is long gone). Sting is a typical champagne socialist. It gets on my nerves whaen he bleats on about the environment too! Blimey we are practically related too!

Yes it was hebrideanlady My grandad was dragged brought up "by God and good neighbours" he knew Catherine Cookson. His life and upbringing was like stepping into one of her novels. Some of the stories he told were almost unbelievable and terribly sad.

Glass - I agree re Sting

My paternal family came from Tyne Dock and my maternal family from Wallsend.

Yes but gilly he has all but forgotten where he came from hasnt he, apart from this money making musical, me cynical never!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He could well be right. It was a bit dodgy at "chucking out times"

hebrideanlady My grandad used to say he knew people from Tyne Dock that were so rough (and hungry) they would eat their young!

I was disappointed to learn that Stings musical will open on Broadway
Jendurham. Surely given his "Geordie" roots and the subject matter, the show should have been opened (or at the very least previewed) in the North East.

Are you going to see the Sting musical, Last Ship, Gillybob?

Goodness what a small world, I know Tyne dock

We lived in a street adjacent to Tyne Dock Jendurham and I can remember the ships horns too. I also have vivid memories of seeing the launch of the Esso Northumbria from the bottom of the street.

We used to get a gold fish off our ragman, you had to take a cup to bring it home. I took my mothers best shoes because I really wanted a fish. My mother to say the least was annoyed and the poor little fish only lasted a couple of hours

Galen - I think proggy rugs were what I would call rag rugs. All these memories - I remember when the milkman's wagon was horse-drawn and we had a coal man. That was in the 50s. And we used to have a rag man appear about once a month, once again with a horse drawn cart. If you gave him rags he would give you a baby chick (imagine that these days). We used to bath these poor little chicks in a washing up bowl and then let them run around the garden. Needless to say they didn't survive for too long.

Are proggy rugs what I know as rag rugs? Not a Brummie but Black Country,we had gasunders too.
I also remember Izal sanitised stamped government property paper in both the hospitals and the civil service!

the last time I was at Beamish I had a long chat with the lady who was making the mats .Happy days

I can remember when I was a kid in Hull the coalman running over our dog in his horse and cart. He picked it up and brought it in for us to bury in the garden. He knew where it belonged.
Becoming a smokefree zone was a good thing. I can remember the peasoupers seeming to last all winter. My husband wondered why on earth he'd come to Hull when he arrived in thick fog. He'd been born and brought up in pit villages but never experienced anything like it.
One of the sad things is that, when we left Hull, I can remember there only being one ship on the Humber at New Year. When I was a kid, you could stand outside at midnight and hear all the ships hooting. It seemed to go on for a long time.

This has brought so many memories back for me , If the coal was dumped on a Monday it caused major problems because most of the woman had done the washing in the "washhouse" using the copper. The washing was then hung across the back lane, When the lorry arrived the driver didn't care about the washing . I was always brought in then so I wouldn't hear the "fish wives" swearing

Nanav, my mother-in-law makes proggy mats still. She is 91.
She gave us one when the kids were little, because we only had concrete floors. At Beamish you can have classes in making proggy mats.
Not only that, but she has only just got rid of her chimney sweeping brushes. She can remember being asked if she was a lad or a lass as only men were chimney sweeps!