What can you remember about your Grandparent's house?



As I lived with my grandparents on my dads side for a large chunk of my childhood this isn’t a question I can easily answer.
On my mums side in Hertford I rarely saw them. My other grandmother died a year or so after I was born and visiting wise I was shipped off to my mum and dad for a week to go on holiday down there then back to living with my Sunderland grandparents after that. Yes it was an odd family dynamic.
When visiting Hertford my grandads house had this odd smell. Can’t really describe it. He had fairly bad emphysema so I have vivid memories of him coughing up phlegm quite a bit! He would smoke herbal cigarettes (no, not what you’re thinking) that he got from the chemists shop. They smelled absolutely rank. The milk he got delivered was UHT and came in a funny shaped bottle.
He had a large, to me, back garden where he grew all sorts of fruit and vegetables. There was a tree right at the back that I would climb all the time.
That’s about all I can remember at the moment. There will be more stuff that if I racked my brains though.
 
One bed semi-detached bungalow with steep steps from pavement to front door.
Grandad's trench coat on the rack in the passage
Rug on top of lino floor
Plate mince pies
Lentil soup
Nana stepping over me as I played with my matchbox cars on the floor
Don't remember music or tv, not sure they even had a tv.
 
Hate rhubarb. My Granda had it in his garden. We'd get a massive piece and dip it in sugar. Rank. Even worse was when my Nana made it into crumble. Just bitter pink slop with some tasty crumble on top.

Oh i dont like it either mate. Used to pick for her so she could do crumble
 
Nanas (Hylton Lane) Homemade butter and bread, immaculate gardens front and back, knocks at the back door and whispering going on ( I think she was a money lender, definitely had something going on with Joplings money), Saturday nights tucked up on the settee watching Dixon Of Dock Green and Showjumping.
Nanas (Shields) Chain smoking, sending me to Seppy Bartrams for tabs on tick, hurling racist abuse at the coloured Insurance man
🤣🤣
 
Them brushing their teeth with salt, no toothpaste.
A great big coal-fired range with an oven adjacent to the coal fire, with dampers and brass fittings etc
Watching Sir Winston Churchill’s funeral on the telly.
Being taken to the launch of a ship called the Borgsten
Smell of Geraniums in the porch waiting for the bus to come up Sea Road
Grandad’s pocket watch in his waistcoat.
Villa orange pop kept in the under stairs cupboard.
Snowball cakes from Milburns
Grandma chopping up mint from the rockery and making mint sauce.
Grandad laughing at my cousins yellow bubble car 😊
A feeling of being safe as a little kid with two lovely people
Happy times
 
my parents actually still live in my grandparents (dads side) house but they died before I was born so it’s just been ours. I can’t really remember much about my mams parents house, they both died in the 80’s. From what I remember they had the usual weird stuff, those daft horse brasses things that hung on the wall, pictures made out of string, freaky dolls with knitted dresses that went over spare toilet rolls and a piano. I remember getting knacked for sliding down the stairs and smashing the glass on the electric meter that was right at the bottom. Oh and a tab burns on the plastic toilet cistern off my nana and a rusty mangle in the garden.
 
Them brushing their teeth with salt, no toothpaste.
A great big coal-fired range with an oven adjacent to the coal fire, with dampers and brass fittings etc
Watching Sir Winston Churchill’s funeral on the telly.
Being taken to the launch of a ship called the Borgsten
Smell of Geraniums in the porch waiting for the bus to come up Sea Road
Grandad’s pocket watch in his waistcoat.
Villa orange pop kept in the under stairs cupboard.
Snowball cakes from Milburns
Grandma chopping up mint from the rockery and making mint sauce.
Grandad laughing at my cousins yellow bubble car 😊
A feeling of being safe as a little kid with two lovely people
Happy times

Home-made mint sauce…smell of lamb chops as a Sunday treat.
 

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