Name a chore....

Oh yes, and turning the mangle for my Gran on wash days.

Same as you *MawBroon” the stairs every day and also the ironing. I had one brother a bit older and one a bit younger who had no chores and I resented that fact, particularly ironing their school shirts. I had to use an ironing press machine for the sheets, a big heavy thing which I was too little to lift on to the table and I hated the job. Hard work and so boring.

Getting off track here: our Co-op didn't have a Lanson Pneumatic Carrying Cash System, but Cochrane's in Paisley did, and it absolutely fascinated me.

Going to the shops from an early age, about 5 and 6 to buy the newspaper, a packet of woodbines and bread. I was also expected to wash or dry up the dishes after a meal and always from an early age make my bed.

I forgot one chore which I am ´sure no child does now: Tidying the waiting-room after the afternoon surgery and before the evening one, and after the morning one on Saturday. Daddy was a GP with his consulting-room and waiting room in our house. I also opened the front door at 6 p.m. on the dot to let the patients in.

From 11 year old I had a Saturday morning job. 4.30 rise and a walk (. 2 mile) to local dairy farm with ‘the milkman’ where we would load up the milk float( 400 pints ) and do our milk round . We would finish the round about 12 midday and he’d walk me home. Then my chores for mum began...sweep down the stairs with a stiff brush and sweep the carpet runner in the hallway and wash down paintwork at sides of stairs including banisters. Run to local shop to buy a piece of meat for Sunday lunch ( about 8/-)...beef or pork. Chicken I seem to remember was more expensive than these meats ..oddly. Then home to help mum with washing . Then ironed all school clothes for Monday ( 6 kids). Bite to eat and by 3 pm my time was my own and I was out playing in Street. If my mum ever caught me reading a book she would ‘find’ me something to do. I don’t blame her really ...she had six of us and three cleaning jobs for five days a week ....my sick granny to look after and a sick husband ( my dad) two years later. My childhood ended at 13. But it taught me self reliance...resilience... and fortitude in face of life’s crap!

Every Saturday morning sister and I had to go round most of the house dusting the sideboard etc and cleaning the mirrors. Hated this with a passion. One of us had the 'applying' duster and the other the 'buffer'. Obviously the applier had the best of the job so we took it in turns with much arguing as to who'd got the rough end of the wedge. Remember that lavender polish that came in a flat round tin? Eventually it was replaced with an aerosol. We had to take all the ornaments off - we weren't allowed to cheat and go round them. Then we got pocket money.
We didn't do elder brother's room as he was still in bed (he went to work) and younger brother wasn't asked. The latter would sometimes go on an errand to a shop (and got to keep the change) which gave him the life-long attitude of 'what's in it for me?'
Am I bitter and twisted? Not too much - but it gave me a life-long hatred of dusting.

I remember holding skeins of wool while my Nan wound them in to big balls for knitting

Heavens, Saggi, I thought that I was badly done by, but you were slave-driven! Did you keep your wages, or were they absorbed into the housekeeping? I remember being very proud to contribute when I started work at 16. Half my wages to Mum, and the rest went mainly on bus fares and lunches at work. Many children contribute nothing when they start work these days.

Although times could be tough for children, in our day, it taught us life-skills and fortitude. I don't think, on the whole, that it did us much harm.

Cleaning out the grate and resetting the fire was the dirtiest job but the job I hated most was having to sit with skeins of wool. I was a fidget and sitting still for that long was excruciating. Your arms ached. Shelling peas. Taking the pop bottles back. Then my mother died when I was 8 but my eldest sisters had the most difficult job of running the house. I remember that although we had a twin tub, I was once sent to the launderette with sheets and a glass jar of washing powder that fell out of the big plastic bag as I was crossing the busy main road. I was too frightened to go home thinking I would get smacked. I was only 7.

When my father remarried we didn't get any pocket money. So from the age of 11 I had a paper round 7 early mornings a week in all weathers. If I didn't get up immediately, my father would tip the mattress up so I fell on the floor. At 14 I still had the paper round but then got a job Saturday and sunday mornings in the 'sweet shop'. So I returned my bag and went straight behind the counter. I did that until I had to leave school at 15, and then left home just before my 16th birthday as it was awful at home. I went to evening classes to continue my education (my father forced me to leave even though he was called to the school and pleaded with to let me stay on). I ended up with a good career considering I slept rough for a short time aged 15 then went into a tiny bedsit for £5.75 p.w. and a meter that took shillings I didn't always have.

Reading the thread though I think I got off lightly. Some of the jobs grans had to do when very small were horrendous.

We don't appreciate how lucky we are in so many ways now with all our mod cons and yet I would go back tomorrow if I could as so many things have been spoilt. I think somehow we had more when we had less.

My children have had it easy really. Few chores to do. Maybe because of what I went through I've been soft on them. They've turned out well after a few 'blips' but my father would turn in his grave if he saw the dust in their rooms! He used to run his finger over the top of the doorframe if he saw you idling and god forbid he ever found any dust!

And it was always sunny back then wasn't it?????

I got to clean the family silver in the summer holidays. I felt very important being allowed to do it and took pride in my work

Ooh yes, turning the mangle and being satisfied at the amount of water that got squeezed out. Chucking stuff out of the washer into the drier these days just doesn't have that sense of satisfaction

Cleaning the bath with Chemico paste.I loved doing it but my mother always came in later to do it properly!?

Also cleaned out the fire and hovered for gran.

Hovered,

Hoovered

Remember doing a lot of the above items but also used to go to the corner shop for the old lady next door. She would give me an empty jug and some money and I used to ask for Mrs (name)'s stout. The jug would be filled and I'd take it back to her. Can't imagine that happening nowadays, I was in infant school at the time.

I did next to nothing as a child because my mother classed me as useless and she could do everything so much faster than me. I have no idea how I ended up being so capable and independent when I was mollycoddled throughout my entire childhood.

I darned the socks using a wooden mushroom. Made all the curtains when we moved house. Dusted but my mother complained I dusted around things. My dad a naval man taught me to iron shirts. Yes, cleaned the brass sometimes. I inherited the brass, something I could have done without.

Helped turning the mangle, shelling peas, and lots of other jobs as and when.

My mother had been a maid from a very young girl and she didn’t want me doing housework. She was very pleased when I became a nurse.

The chore I hated most was cleaning and polishing the shoes. My brother and I had to take turns doing it, on a Sunday morning. All the polishes and brushes were kept in an old wooden mushroom box. We had to collect up everyone's shoes, wash and dry the soles, and then polish the uppers. I don't imagine any children these days do that. In fact, I can't remember the last time I polished a pair of shoes.

Going to the shop for the messages many times a day.

Pudding peas,loved it. And cleaning out the hearth,

For a while on Sundays, I was in charge of sorting out magazines, newspapers etc. and disposing of the out-of-date ones. I was 'sacked' after a while for reading them instead of working. I was then in charge of cleaning brass and silver - and there was a lot of that about! I still quite enjoy cleaning metal but, there is very little of it in my home now.

My parents had a guest house. My job was to clean the sinks in each bedroom and house bathroom, making sure the taps were clean underneath as well as what I could see. My elder sister got the job of cleaning the toilets so I suppose I shouldn't complain. ?

nannypiano, when I was around 8 I had a key to my aunt’s house, and used to go there after school to light the fire. At the beginning they always left it set, but soon I was lighting it from scratch, and it wasn’t long before I was making dinner too. For this I got 2/6 cash and a 2/6 savings stamp!

My little brother was born when I was 12, and by that time I could do any household chore.