Mekkin' Do

tiffy · 22-02-2004, 14:55

Does anyone still remember or even practise some old ways of mekkin' do?

Do you have tips for the kitchen that you can remember your Grandma using?

Do you have a great cleaning remedy that even Kim and Aggie haven't used?

Do you use 'Grandmothers remedies for illnesses ?

What about gardening tips, still use Foggy's tips?

Mo · 22-02-2004, 15:49

Tiffy how many people darn these days? I can remember my gran sitting with a big pile of mending on her lap and using a huge darning needle to fill in the holes. It used to feel really uncomfortable to wear the repaired ones especially if the darn was around the toe area.

She also used to sew those leather patches on my school cardigans at the elbows to stop the wearing through.

Bars of soap were bought months in advance and stored until they were rock hard before using them. That way they lasted much longer.

We used to have a hobbing foot ( made of heavy metal with 3 foot shaped bits attached) which was used for repairing shoes. This could be fixing new heels or more likely sticking on new soles.

PopT · 22-02-2004, 22:22

I remember the old 'Mek Do and Mend Days'. The old man used to cut up tins to use them as patches to repair amost anything. Either soldering them on or nailing them over holes.

Another common usage was the pot repairers that you could buy. These were a small bolt through two metal washers and two inner cork washers. When a metal cooking pot or kettle had a hole in it the washers were bolted through the hole to make it leak proof. Can you imagine that today?

The cast iron kettle was permanently sat on the trivet attached to the grate of the fireplace. Inside the kettle was an Oyster shell which they said kept the water clear and free from rust. I still can't work that one out, maybe someone can illucidate?

tiffy · 23-02-2004, 08:43

I know of putting a pebble or marble in which collects the chalk deposits from the water and so preventing the kettle from furring up. Lots of people still do that today so I'm told.

My dad also had a hobbing foot, maybe my brother has it now.

Tell you what I do remember when as a teenager we had the power cuts. My dad got his car battery and headlights out of the car, rigged them up indoors and positioned mirrors everywhere to reflect the light. Almost all the neighbours came knocking asking if we'd got our power back cos they hadn't!

rainbow2411 · 25-02-2004, 20:33

I have memories of pegging rugs using strips of material cut from old coats ect. One of my jobs as the youngest was to undo the wool from jumpers that we had grown out of so that mom could knit a "new" one. My dad had a hobbin foot and would mend ours and most of our neighbours shoes.

coddy · 26-02-2004, 12:27

Hi. My dad used to have a cobbler shoe as well, also I used to have to help unravel old jumpers for my mom to make new ones and I even remember having dresses made from old dresses of my moms. I remember her darning socks with one of those mushroom things and I remember coming home from school when I was really little and she was washing with a tub, rubbing board, dolly peg and wringer. Never had a car but went on holiday every year on a coach or a train. Do you remember Sunday tea? was it always tinned fruit and bread and butter. At least way back then it was butter and not margarine like most of us use now! And my mom made a cake every Sunday for tea without fail.

Mosherchik · 26-02-2004, 13:12

Well Im a young un and still practise the subtle art of darning...havent quite got me head round how to work sewing machine. My Gran has passed down her heritage of hoarding to me, so that every button, or scrap of cloth or anything interesting is kept...just in case

Best practise we used to do was darning holes...not in socks...but in tights

Is there a difference between mekking do and mending and just bodging??? my mate fixes the seams on his trousers through use of a stapler, and I have done similar in the past also.
xxx

Mo · 26-02-2004, 14:00

Quote:

Originally posted by coddy
Do you remember Sunday tea? was it always tinned fruit and bread and butter.

Yes I do now you mention it and do you remember that horrible Carnation milk we used to have on it because we couldn't afford real cream?

rainbow2411 · 26-02-2004, 15:05

Yes I remember fruit & carnation cream sunday tea, mom used to make a small tin of pink salmon do for everyone by mixing it with some breadcrumbs & butter to make a paste for sandwiches (no jars of Shipmans for us) they were served with a bowl of thinly sliced cucumber and onions in vinegar, wonderful.

coddy · 27-02-2004, 11:39

Carnation milk, ugh. I had almost forgotton. I would only have my tinned fruit without the juice as I couldnt bear the sight or the thought of the carnation milk mixed in and curdled with the juice from the tin. We had small tin of salmon too and that cucumber and onion in vinegar. Never come across it anywhere else.

Mosherchik · 27-02-2004, 16:58

Quote:

Originally posted by Mo
Yes I do now you mention it and do you remember that horrible Carnation milk we used to have on it because we couldn't afford real cream?

I love carnation milk, used to drink it from the tin like a strange person...also there was that other cream stuff in a tin...Tip Top was it called? Beautiful! Ah memories of Soreen malt loaf with lashings of Stork marge on it, and dripping butties, that was our sunday tea. Never got into the whole dripping butties though, theres something wrong I feel with having bread smeared and inch think with animal goop....ick

Jayne · 27-02-2004, 17:14

Tip Top, that brings back memories - can you still get it? We used to have it lots - I think my dad always used to put it in his coffee

rainbow2411 · 27-02-2004, 17:24

I remember that tall necked milk was good for coffee (but never Camp coffee ugh) the only drawback was that little bit of "skin" that always seemed to find my cup.

superCol · 27-02-2004, 22:04

Quote:

Originally posted by Mosherchik
[BI] dripping butties, that was our sunday tea. Never got into the whole dripping butties though, theres something wrong I feel with having bread smeared and inch think with animal goop....ick [/B]

Now't wrong wi' drippin'. When I was an apprentice at 16 I used have to go and get a dozen or so drippin' 'cakes for the morning tea break. Good stuff it was too. Kept you going.

Also, it was all we had to eat on a Thursday during the 60's as my parents didn't get paid 'till Friday.

tiffy · 27-02-2004, 22:04

You're bringing it all back now - treacle sandwiches, brown sauce on bread. Remember the fancy sugar bowls, milk jugs and gravy boats our mums would use and the cutlery - those fish knives!

Funny how not many kids care for a good old cuppa preferring fizzy pop instead - can't beat the old stuff though - dandelion and burdock and yes taking back the empties for a few coins not the plastic bottles and cans that litter the shopping precincts today.

Two pennorth worth of chips and when we were at 'big school' we learned that if we bought an uncut loaf and had it halfed - we could eat the bread from the centre and take it to the chippy to have it filled with chips and scraps.

Makes you realise though when you remember all this how hard our mums worked in the home and how great the local shops were. Twin tub washers and grills high up so that you could keep an eye on your toast while standing in the kitchen doorway and watch a bit of telly at the same time. Think I'll go and live with my mum again....................

rainbow2411 · 27-02-2004, 22:30

Don't forget the scraps that went with the chips

PopT · 28-02-2004, 09:12

I'm sure a lot of the old timers will remember the 'Monkey Runs' where the lads and lasses would parade up and down an area checking the talent out.

The lads invariably walked from Herbal Drink Shop to Herbal Drink Shop. The usual tipple was a hot Sarsparella drink or an Oxo drink. This was before coffee bars and there were nowhere else to go unless you risked under aged drinking in pubs.

It all sounds so simple and boring now but in those days this was the thing to do on a Sunday evening.

Mosherchik · 29-02-2004, 11:10

You'll get me started on Ox tongue sarnies and potted beef! ick

nowt like good ole yorkshire cooking, used to have a big yorkshire pud, then meat and two veg and a pudding for Sunday's dinner, lard content = cardiac arrest! dont do it now tho, dont think we could manage it! xxx

rainbow2411 · 29-02-2004, 12:08

Sunday dinner aren't the same without "round the horn" "rays a laugh" the "billy cotton band show" and "family favourite" with Jean Metcalfe and I can't remember the man and was "life with the lions" on on Sundays I think so and Jimmy Clitheroe, can't remember the name of the show.

Mosherchik · 29-02-2004, 12:17

Round the Horn...Kenneth Williams, marvellous! Mum's got some on tape. Quite like Just a Minute but not listened to it for a while, Clement Freud does my head in, as does Paul Merton sometimes on that!
Sunday Radio tends to consist of Parkinsons Sunday suplement...Yawwwwwwn and Steve Wright's love songs...yeurch!
xxx