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Genealogy/memories

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

(119 Posts)
lynne Sun 15-Sept-13 15:36:16

First 6 years of life spent in a Scottish tenement.....but remember so well for some reason...toilet on the stairs shared with all of the families on the landing (or platy) newspaper cut hanging on a nail ...bedsettee in the kitchen/diner/living room/bedroom area for parents then the bedroom for us kids...mousetraps at ready..smile

gillybob Mon 14-Oct-13 22:07:57

We still have baitboxes here in the North East hebrideanlady. The young lads who work with us still have their "bait" at lunch time although the sandwiches are a little bit more exotic these days. smile

glassortwo Mon 14-Oct-13 22:11:11

Well it is the DM, but just what I thought.

glassortwo Mon 14-Oct-13 22:11:41

I still put my DH bait up smile

gillybob Mon 14-Oct-13 22:15:51

Oh Glass you don't do you? Mine would starve if he waited for me to put his bait up! Mind you we have a microwave at work which is VERY handy !

glassortwo Mon 14-Oct-13 22:17:56

grin when I remember wink he would also like his socks and undies left out...I am afraid he would have to go sockless and commando for me grin

Hebs Mon 14-Oct-13 22:20:39

I have always said bait no matter where I have lived. In the Midlands it was snap and to an ex Scottish husband it was pieces

Jendurham Mon 14-Oct-13 22:26:06

My son works at Meadowfield, Maggiemaybe, just down from Langley Moor. My husband was brought up in Ashington and Broomhill. His grandads were both miners, but his dad was a builder, repairing houses for the NCB in Northumberland.
Gillybob that's a bit desperate, trawling the DM for a seven year old article.
Not even my mother would have shown me that to try and prove a point.

harrigran Mon 14-Oct-13 23:19:43

glass putting his bait up used to have another meaning too grin

Hebs Mon 14-Oct-13 23:21:22

Please tell because I used to put bait up

harrigran Mon 14-Oct-13 23:27:59

heb euphemism for nookie grin

Hebs Mon 14-Oct-13 23:31:40

Yes when I think about it. But I just never thought of it. Thanks

Maggiemaybe Tue 15-Oct-13 12:55:35

I'm sure it was Meadowfield we kids all used to walk to in a big unsupervised group for Saturday matinee films, Jendurham. Sometimes I think I must be imagining things though, as it seems so unlikely that we took pop bottles with us to get cheap tickets! I definitely remember sitting enthralled with a Western playing at full volume and missiles flying over our heads thrown between the big boys at the front and the big boys at the back!

gillybob Tue 15-Oct-13 13:04:43

"That's a bit desperate" checking the age of the article so you can criticise me for it Jendurham and what on earth has your mother got to do with it? confused

gillybob Tue 15-Oct-13 13:06:44

Blimey I have never heard of the "other meaning" harrigran no wonder DH looks pathetic when I keep tell him "if he wants his bait he will have to do it himself" grin

Jendurham Tue 15-Oct-13 13:50:13

You are being a bit ridiculous now, Gillybob. You gave me a link to an article, which I looked up even though it is the DM.
The fourth line, even before starting to read the article, gives the date.
Can't help it if I read what I'm asked to, can I?
You obviously do not remember anything previously written either. My parents always read the DM and my mother used to give me cuttings from the DM until she died in 2006. That's what my mother has to do with it.

gillybob Tue 15-Oct-13 15:14:46

Sorry if you think I am " being ridiculous" jendurham there was no need for that comment but I don't want to fall out or argue over something that was supposed to be a fun thread , so let's just move on. smile

Jendurham Tue 15-Oct-13 15:37:43

I don't think there is a cinema at Meadowfield now, Maggiemaybe. There's a newish leisure centre, where my grandson sometimes plays football, and a climbing wall on the industrial estate which is great for birthday parties. I drive through Langley Moor and Ushaw Moor. Lovely views of Deerness Valley. Grandson's football team is Deerness Valley.

petallus Tue 15-Oct-13 16:01:22

Going back to toilets, I was just thinking this morning how much more healthy and private it was when we had them 'up the yard'.

I wonder if future generations will think it's odd that we have them in the middle of the house, right next to the kitchen or living room.

A bit like my surprise when I read from Samuel Pepys' diary that he would relieve himself in the middle of the night in the corner of the fireplace. Not sure whether it was for a 1 or 2, probably both.

vampirequeen Tue 15-Oct-13 20:02:31

Our school toilets were outside too. In the winter the water in the cisterns froze which meant they no longer flushed. Then the contents of the bowl would freeze...I'll leave the rest to your imaginations lol.

Joan Tue 15-Oct-13 22:17:25

Yes, our junior school lavs were outside too. Quite a walk to them, and they were the long drop type with a tippler at the bottom that scared us if it tippled while you were sitting there. You weren't necessarily alone though - the seats were two holers....Oh, and no toilet paper there - if you knew you needed it you got some from the staff room. Two squares.

I kid you not!

I was there 1949 to 1956.

Joan Tue 15-Oct-13 22:20:27

I mean there at school - not in the lav!

Grammar school was the ultimate luxury with nice warm and private indoor lavs. However, even though we were at that age, 11, coming up to puberty, there was no provision at all for our sanitary needs - no bins - nothing.

gillybob Tue 15-Oct-13 22:21:08

Imagine having to go to the staff room to ask for loo paper Joan the shame of it and what if you didn't mean to have a poo and you did? what then? shock

Jendurham Tue 15-Oct-13 22:56:40

Nothing private about outdoor toilets where we lived when my eldest was a year old, Petallus. They were in a row, next to the coalhouses. Each house had a toilet, then a coalhouse. The whole street knew when you were going as they were across the tenfoot, kids playing, miners off to work, mothers shopping or hanging out the washing.

gillybob Tue 15-Oct-13 23:05:02

No wonder I some people grew up to have "toilet issues" . I find it almost impossible to "go" if anyone is in earshot which must be a hangup from way back when. I seem to remember the door to ours, had a huge gap at the bottom and the top too.

harrigran Tue 15-Oct-13 23:51:56

School toilets down the yard and being expected to take yourself off at 4 years old, they were horrible and in the winter unbearable.