sucked in twice

[Brissles]

YES YES YES, its those candy striped flannel sheets I remember too AND pillow slip to match. Inside bedroom windows frozen, oven door open to warm up the kitchen, and liberty bodices to wear as well !

 

[Vienna]

It`s like a trip down memory lane for some of us but the younger forumites might think we`re exaggerating. Not so. Our house was an old terraced house, the sash windows rattled, the net curtains froze to them in Winter, only the downstairs had carpets, upstairs was lino and rugs, my Dad got up at 5am to light the downstairs coal fire, my Mum warmed our school clothes in the oven and until i was around 9, our toilet was at the bottom of the yard. It was no joke wearing your duffle coat and wellies to go to the loo and trying to balance a torch in the loo so you could see the toilet roll !

 

[Akimbo]

We had central heating installed in about 1970 and it was like living in a tropical climate by comparison but before that we had to warm my nightie over a fan heater to put it on without frostbite, and yes we had lino upstairs too, I'd completely forgotten. I used to try to get in bed with my big sis but she'd have none of it! A hot water bottle was essential for about 10 months of the year!

This is starting to sound like the Four Yorkshiremen sketch! "...we lived under a tarpaulin in't road..."

 

[boffy]

those were the days. we used to have the dreaded paraffin heaters. the amount of house fires there were. then my mum had night storage heaters fitted. what a fiasco they were lol

 

[Toril]

When I was a child we used to have a coal fire in the lounge and also in the dining room and apart from a coal burner in the kitchen that was all the heat we had. I can remember having to breathe on the windows in my bedroom to melt the ice that formed overnight during the winter. That's when we used to have 'proper' snow (3 feet was the norm) unlike nowadays when the U.K. gets three flakes and grinds to a halt.

When I got married in 1973 we didn't have heating and so our present for our first Christmas, from my parents, was a duvet.

I'm wondering if being brought up with no heating is the reason that I now sleep in a 4.5 tog duvet in the winter and why I don't feel the cold.

 

[iloveshopping]

No Toril, I lived in houses with only a coal fire in the sitting room and I now sleep with a Cozee home bottom sheet, a 15 tog feather and down duvet. Last night I was wearing a microfibre top, a pair of thermal long johns wiith a pair of micro fleece pyjama bottoms over them and bed socks. I also had a quilted cover over the duvet and as standby in case I felt cold a slanket. Oh forgot I had a hot water bottle and I had a foam topper on the mattress which traps the heat. I feel the cold! We didn't even have frost here in Surrey last night

 

[Silver Fox]

I still have my Mum's stone hot water bottle---no need to use now with the central heating & electric blanket! I love a coal fire but when it was the only source of heat you had to freeze until it got going.

 

[Toril]

No Toril, I lived in houses with only a coal fire in the sitting room and I now sleep with a Cozee home bottom sheet, a 15 tog feather and down duvet. Last night I was wearing a microfibre top, a pair of thermal long johns wiith a pair of micro fleece pyjama bottoms over them and bed socks. I also had a quilted cover over the duvet and as standby in case I felt cold a slanket. Oh forgot I had a hot water bottle and I had a foam topper on the mattress which traps the heat. I feel the cold! We didn't even have frost here in Surrey last night

I must be related to an eskimo then. :wink:

 

[iloveshopping]

I look like an Eskimo in the day time with the amount of clothing that I am wearing!

 

[thatu]

iloveshopping, you're my kinda gal!

 

[alter ego]

I love my CH bedding.

I'm starting menopause now, but have had awful night sweats for the last 15 years (doctors have always refused to look into it, adamant that I'm menopausal. Last year, new GP did bloods and my hormones were normal. So much for other GPs blaming menopause!). In cotton, even the high count really soft sheets, I'd sweat so much and toss and turn so that the cotton would ruck up under me in a hard, wet ridge. Very uncomfortable, forcing a full bed change in the middle of the night.

With CH, I still sweat (though not half as much, amazingly), but when I wake, I'll flick the sheets back, head to the loo and by the time I'm back, the moisture has evaporated - no bed changing! Plus it's really soft and comfy - and I find it keeps my whole body warm, but not too warm. Doesn't make sense, but as someone with a "faulty thermostat" (one GPs description), I can flip from a boiling sweaty mess to freezing cold in a nano-second. My feet also never warm up in normal bedding, but stay warm in CH (no warm feet = no sleep for me).

I think it helps that I also bought a wool duvet from the Wool Room (they have 20% off at the mo). That thing is amazing. I had a Hungarian Goose Down duvet that was beautifully soft and light but I'd heat up slowly and overheat when I finally warmed up, yet wouldn't heat up at all other times (bad description, I know). With the wool I'm warm like I've never been before - like a core warmth that's supremely comfortable and doesn't overheat. OH loves their wool pillow, too (I love my very flat memory foam pillow but am just starting out with a wool protector to stop my head overheating).

I'm thankful that I've finally found a bed and bedding that works for both of us and helps us both get a decent sleep.

 

[alter ego]

I look like an Eskimo in the day time with the amount of clothing that I am wearing!

Me, too, ILS. At 4 layers. And I'm never without fingerless gloves.

 

[Turandot]

No CH for me either ,hot sweats and static so has to be cotton and a very lightweight duvet.

As for getting sucked in it can happen when you least expect it. Today I was watching the Michelle Hope outlet show ,I don't like her clothes ,never have ,much too frilly ,but I nearly ordered a sleeveless top in a bright shiney colour because it was reduced quite a bit.

Luckily I came to my senses and switched over !!! I don't know what came over me.....

 

[Brissles]

I still have my Mum's stone hot water bottle---no need to use now with the central heating & electric blanket! I love a coal fire but when it was the only source of heat you had to freeze until it got going.

Ooooooh the number of times I remember sitting while burnt newspaper confetti floated about, as Mum or Dad "drew" the fire with an open newspaper in front of it, and then it caught fire !!! Having to share the bathwater was another memory, AND the only toothpaste available was the pink tablet in a tin ! we also got through drums of talc as deodorant wasn't widely used. Tinned fruit with tinned cream for Sunday tea was the treat of the week, and having a Saturday job on the biscuit counter (remember the display tins with glass lids) in Woolworths earning the princely sum of 18 shillings (90p) - but then a pair of Bengal Bronze or American Tan tights were 1/11d. I'm talking 1965 here.

Really weird remembering all this so clearly from 50 years ago. 50 years from 1965 was 1915 - and what a difference in lifestyle.

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

I remember buying my very first pair of tights as up until then it was stockings and a suspenders belt. Not as exciting as it sounds as they were a grotty washed out flesh tone colour and roll on panty girdles.

The tights were so expensive I could only afford one pair which were kept for special occasions. 1966 and very short mini skirts really needed the tights but the costs were far beyond anyone I knew as we were on Saturday pay only.

 

[candycane]

Don't have Cozee Home bedding but I have looked at it. I fancied the fleece bedding set at Christmas but it sold out so saved me money. I bought a flannel duvet set and wow, so warm and lovely. However, as we have one very spoiled JRT who sleeps on the bed I'm afraid the amount of dog hair stuck to the duvet cover was enough to make one weep (my fault I know). After a good vacuum and a good wash the set was just not the same as it seemed to have lost it's fluffiness and cosiness. Bit of a waste of money compared with the poly cotton sets I've had for ages and still look really good (and dog hair doesn't stick).

CC:mysmilie_7:

 

[grovesy]

We had an open fire when I was growing up and in the winter we used to bank it up and rarely let it go out!

 

[Whatsgoinon?]

We had an open coal fire in the living room, another one in the kitchen with an oven above it, the main bedroom had a small gas fire on the wall and the back bedroom had a coal fire. The only time I remember that being lit was when my older sister and I came down with flu and Dad carried the old wooden box TV upstairs to the bedroom and when the Dr arrived he called us the 'luxury kids'...not at all, it was a council house

I can also remember a contraption my Mum had to dry clothes in the corner of the kitchen, it was a large open top metal box which was about 3ft tall, that had rows of wooden rods slotted in the top, you used to lift a rod out and drape your clothes over the rod and slot it back in the box, there was no thermostat and we very often switched it on to get warm before she lit the fire...good old days!!

 

[Brissles]

Yes, we had fires lit in the bedrooms - when I was ill, or when Mum produced another baby (there were 3 of us) - we were definitely Call the Midwife children !

 

[thatu]

Did anyone else have the racks that you pulled down to hang your clothes on in the kitchen? And a real, proper pantry with a stone floor and shelves lined with oilcloth or something? And turning the mangle ....