What our parents did that wouldn't be seen now

My parents likewise never took a test, as the tests were suspended during WW11.

Having said that, they both drove very well, and continued to do till their 70"s and 80"s, my father in particular would think nothing of driving from B"Ham to Suffolk when he was past 80.

I think I have that trait in my genes as I love driving STATESIDE, we usually do 3.000 to 4.000 miles each trip!!

When you say STATESIDE nonu do you mean USA?

My dad never could learn to drive, although he rode a motor bike in the army, so we never had a car.

We all had baths in front of the fire in a big tin bath. I was first!

I didn't live in a house with a bathroom until I was 18.

People who had cars when I was young were terribly posh!

I don't know what a kaolin poultice was but I can remember having one put on. It was hot and it hurt. Think I had swollen glands.
I can remember my Dad rubbing my chest with goose grease too.

Kaolin poultice - it had a very pleasant smell. A sort of grey paste which you warmed up somehow and placed over the infected place on some lint. It was supposed to "draw out" the poison.
One of the remedies that was tried on my knee before the gentian violet.
I still have the scar!

Kaolin is a kind of clay used in making porcelain, and in papermaking to give a shine to the surface of the paper, and in face packs.

It was heated over hot water and spread on a bit of cloth to be bound on to a wound that was going septic, or a boil that was swelling up. The wamth would bring the boil to a head and the clay would absorb the toxins and moisture and draw the pus out of the wound. The warmth was comforting too (unless it had been heated a bit too much!).

You can still buy jars of kaolin poultice, believe it or not (on Amazon, of course)

Yes I can remember it - both the smell and how it felt - a bit hot at first but after OK. Not sure how effective it was although better than nothing presumably.

Nonu doesn't go to the US whitewave when she says Stateside she means she loves driving on the RIGHT side of the road, it suits her to do this as she loves a challenge!

ROSES, I DO go to the good old US of A when I say ^STATESIDE !
a lot!
Poor NONU couldn't fathom yr post BUT I will ^CHUCKLE anyway!!

Ah - Kaolin - named for the Kaoling mountains in China where it was to be found. We call it China Clay, and produce it in Cornwall mostly... I must have see a million tons of it during a stint working on a weighbridge at Par harbour in the mid sixties... It is mostly used as a filler, in paper, paint and plastics, and is used to settle the stomach - the workers at the Clay dries would gnaw on a lump of dried clay if they had a stomach ache - or a hangover...

Can you still get a Kaolin and Morphine mixture I wonder?

Yes, at Boots - but they keep it under the Pharmaceuticals counter and they'll try to persuade you not to buy it!

What about ipecacuanha syrup?!

Ipecacuanhawas in Anne of Green Gables when the baby had croup wasn't it?
Morphine is addictive and I am surprised they sell it at all.

When I was in hospital with pneumonia at the age of 6, the whole of my chest was covered in an enormous kaolin poultice. This was a few years before penicillin became generally available. I have no idea whether the poultice contributed to my recovery!

I'd imagine the percentage of morphine in the Kaolin & Morphine mixture is infintesimal these days.

I went to 19 schools and I do not remember my mother ever walking us to school. Like Glammy my kids were born in the late 70's, we were walked to school, we did have car seats and no smoking in the house. I do remember having a lovely big Silver Cross pram [2nd hand cost £5 ], someone gave me a push chair and that was quite big. So when the McLaren umbrella buggy came out it was wonderful. A quick flip to collapse it and on the bus you went. Now these Bugaboos are huge and take up the whole aisle on a normal bus .
I remember kaolin poultices, we were taught how to make one up and apply it when we were nurses Good for a nasty cough.

Had quick google and it contains morphine hydrochloride 0.458mg per 5ml dose. Is that a lot or a little??

Jess will know!

It was very remarkable how quickly a kaolin and morphine mixture worked for a tropical tummy bug! You didn't need many doses to get the runs under control!

The danger of leaving a child in a pram outside shops and even forgetting it in Liverpool in the seventies was not child abduction but the generous donation of another child's dummy if your child was crying. The donation was always from a snotty sticky child. Our local library refused to let a pram in.

Our library wouldn't even let a small upright pushchair in. So I took it outside and toddler roamed around taking the books off the shelves.

The library I took my toddlers to did admit pushchairs but the children's books were upstairs. Our NHR wrote letters of protest, but I moved south before any response was received!