Genealogy Chat

Talking about mangles - it brought to mind a tale my uncle recalled to me recently of how his mum (my nan) used the mangle for another purpose one time ... just after the war when times were hard they used to buy horse meat steaks but they were often quite tough, so she would put them through the mangle to "tenderise" them a bit and it was my uncle's job to catch the steak as it fell out of the rollers.

One day he wasn't quick enough to catch the steak and it fell smack on the dirty floor. Nan, not wanting to waste food in times of need, merely picked it up, brushed it off and said "That one's your fathers!" LOL

Athena

Goodness me, this brings back some memories, mangles and coppers :) but those things didn't half bite, many a time I nearly lost my fingers, but coppers were the best for nice white nappies, am I ever showing my age :)

Frances

I remember my maternal grandmother had a copper in the kitchen which had a fire lit under it to make the water hot for the washing which was then boiled. When we visited when I was very young if I had any toys out of my bag she would say at lunchtime 'clear those up my girl - or they'll be in the copper file'.
They also had gas lighting! We don't realise how relatively easy life is now - but of course my grandmother did not work apart from in the home.