Name a chore....

Oh this has stirred up so many memories - we too had chores to do (although they weren't called that then) but they were spasmodic i.e. you got one if you said you were bored!! My particular hated job was picking gooseberries for the pie that was about to be made for dinner - raspberries were a delight to pick but gooseberries were horrid !! Unfortunately we had a lot of gooseberry bushes and my dear father loved his pies...

Babysitting aged about 9 whilst parents were at the pub, toasting bread in front of a red fire, pushing a baby in a big Pedigree pram up a hill (about a mile altogether) to get my mother`s shopping on a Saturday. We had a shop nearby, but the walk was necessary for the market.
Lighting my way up to bed with a candle in a holder, later graduating to a bicycle lamp.
Walking about a mile to primary school.

Back in the fifties we didn't have fitted carpets. Mother had a big carpet/rug which left a border of about a foot around the edges of the room, and this was lino. Absolutely hated getting down on hands and knees and having to dust it. Same with cleaning bathroom floor on hands and knees. No arguing with mother in those days, if you didn't do it, it was a box round the ears. And complaints that I peeled the potatoes too thick. I couldn't seem to do anything right.

Oh yes, folding sheets as well, she used to go really mad if I accidentally dropped it, the same with holding the skeins of wool. And making spills out of newspaper for the fire, which were always wrong. Dustpan and brush down the stairs too, and dusting each individual key on the piano. Having to look after the younger children (I was the eldest of 5), when all I wanted to do was read. Don't remember the younger ones ever being asked to do anything.

Helping my dad shovel up horse manure from the road.
Taking pop bottles back from my grans to the shop to buy sweets.
Helping my gran put the clothes through the mangle.
Weeding the garden for a penny a box.
Coming home from work and getting the coal in to make a fire for hot water and heat.
Helping my mum bottle fruit and veg from the garden.

Life seemed so magical then.

Oh yes, stepfather was a miner, and we got cheap coal, but it was dumped from the lorry on the footpath at the front gate. We had to shovel it into buckets and carry it round the back to the coal place, involving many trips.

Tablecloths the same ( best damask ones )
Oh yes, and they were starched too!

I had plenty of time to read and to play as well (no tv, certainly no computers or phones in those days - not even a landline).

My oldest grandchild loves polishing my old silver cutlery kittylester - but the OP was about chores which implies more regular than maybe at Christmas!

Not me, but lots of kids would be sent to the shop to buy fags for parents.

Knocking at neighbours doors to take the Kays catalogue to them.

The job of tearing newspapers into squares, threading a huge darning needle with string and then threading the papers together, for the outside privvy.
Donkey stoning the front doorstep on a Saturday morning.
Going to the corner shop for 3 rashers of back bacon and "a quarter of tea".
And most nights, 5 Woodbines for my dad.

Going to the launderette on Saturdays with the family wash.

10 number 6 are the fags I can remember buying for someone.
I remember repeating it to myself all the way to the shop, worried I might ask for 6 number 10 or something.

Going to 'key markets' for the weekly shop on a Thursday with my mum and dad.

Going to the mobile Co-op van every week for half a pound of sausages - I can still remember our dividend number 44656 which you had to quote every time. Queuing at the corner shop on a Sunday morning for a bundle of sticks to light the fire and polishing the stone tiles surrounding the rugs in the front room. My brother and younger sister never had to lift a finger!!!! It shows now though - both useless at housekeeping

Our co-op had a machine thing, which shot the change down a long pulley type affair..

Drudgery is exactly the right word Urmstongran!
My children had the childhood that I dreamed of; books aplenty and time to read them, they each had a bicycle and had some lovely hobbies. The chores they had to do as children were less about doing 'jobs' and more about pulling together as a family, with each of us having a part to play. A lot of that had to do with them having a wonderful father who set them a brilliant example.

Yes MissA, our Co Op had one of those too! They were fascinating to watch. Called the Lanson Pneumatic Carrying Cash System. Catchy name wasn't it!

Oh, I'm glad you said that.
I wondered if it was a figment of my imagination.
That's quite a mouthful!
Were the till operators up high?
It seemed to have to shoot the money down a long way.

Yes they had a little booth high up in the corner of the shop. Do you remember your “divvy” number?

Laying a fire in the sitting room when I got home from school.
And just before that, rolling up sheets of newspaper then twisting into zig zags, for fire-lighting purposes.

Washing dishes, ironing, dusting, hoovering, weekend shopping and emptying the pee pots from under everyone's beds!!

Laying the fire, feeding the chickens.
I used to give all the chickens names, it was only when a favourite of mine disappeared that I realised we were eating them!

Taking the cinders from the fire and putting them outside to make, over a very long time, a path to the shed

Yep Belladonna not five seven eleven but similar