Sunday 1 March 2020

Things we took for granted.



We are all brought-up with everyday objects that become as much a part of our daily lives as our own parents.

That dented tin that your mother kept her Tea in, the pudding bowl she used to cut your hair, or the old vacuum cleaner than began to smoke after a few minutes use. These things can often suddenly become important again, years after they've disappeared.

Having seen an Antiques programme recently on TV, I suddenly missed the old wooden tray that my family used for decades. It was very similar to the one above, with slightly different handles, and no circular stain. I wonder what happened to it? I expect it went to the saleroom along with all their other 'stuff'; I can't remember. I wish I'd kept it.

Some of the things I now miss the most were for use outdoors. The heavy garden roller, the big old water tank on heavy metal wheels, all those gardening tools for very specific jobs; all are now things from the past. Who, these days, buys a garden roller?

I do have a wooden tray, but it's a cheap modern thing on which I painted a Blackbird, in order to try to make it look nicer. I don't like it, and have now decided to look-out for a replacement; hopefully like the one above.



41 comments:

  1. We got a lot of these 'souvenirs' when my parents moved into an oldies village. My brother got the chipped custard jug, i brought back a very heavy cast iron sandwich maker, the very stained family casserole dish and whatever else old and light i could fit in a suitcase.
    We used to have a big old concrete garden roller. Heavy as hell to push. Not an essential anymore. Most dont have enough garden, or time to roll it

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    1. That's why all our lovely old Victorian garden kit got left behind; I moved to Brighton. No garden!

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  2. Could the tray be in a Brighton attic?

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    1. Unfortunately not. I imagine it went to the sale in Shrewsbury.

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  3. I for one would buy a garden roller, the fact I don’t have a lawn is a mere bagatelle. I have just struggled home with what a friend describes as a crowd control barrier for a Victorian football stadium. A wonderful garden roller could oh so easily be its sidekick.

    LX

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    1. It was a beautiful object; all cast iron with a big circular maker's name plate in the middle of the handle. Built to last!

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  4. I had to google garden roller.There are things that have never been seen here.

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    1. I suppose it's a rather 'British' thing; we love our perfect lawns.

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  5. We had that tray too. Now I don't possess one at all. I took the carving knife when we cleared mum's house. Has been in daily use for at least 60 years.

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    1. It was an object on which one could depend. It was always there, ready to be of service. As dependable as a favourite penknife.

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  6. I am lucky to have a glass fronted bookcase that grandma had...not sure where the other two went.
    So much depends upon who did the sorting.
    I have very little of my father's stuff...mother got rid of most of it. But that was her way.
    I think of the moves made, downsizing in stages from a smallholding, in the past 22 years..like you there are a few things we could use now!!

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    1. We now have more than enough 'stuff', in fact we really need to start decluttering. Some hope!

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    2. Even when one does, stuff creeps back in!!

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  7. Cro, those trays were very popular.... keep an eye open at vide-greniers.... I have seen a few... from very nice ones on brocante stalls [at brocante "'OW MUCH?" prices] to ones in need of a lot of TLC at acceptable 2€'ish prices.
    You'll find one.....

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    1. A cheap French one would be nice. It'll be vide grenier season before too long; I'm looking forward to it.

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    2. It has already started here!!
      Yesterday March the Oneth!

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  8. I remember in my grand daughter's room seeing an old cigar box and realising it had once belonged to my grand father, the moment shook the heart with recognition. We had one of those grass rollers, not something that went easily into the removal van!

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    1. I had a job just to move our roller, let alone pop it in the boot of the car. I think it was a two man roller.

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  9. I took one just like it to the dump a month ago. It was left by the previous house owner as part of her fireside equipment 'tidy'.

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    1. Wot... the tray? Pity I didn't post the above a month earlier. I might have made you an offer!

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  10. No garden roller here I'm afraid, but we do use an old biscuit tin that was my mother in law's from many, many years ago. The picture on the lid has faded until it is barely discernible but my husband refuses to part with it. He still keeps his biscuits in it.

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    1. Certain things are irreplaceable. However, my late mother in law always used a part-broken glass butter dish, when my wife showed interest in retaining it; I put my foot down!

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  11. My grandmother's beautiful furniture was spoilt by damp when the farmhouse was left empty for years after she grew too frail to stay there alone. Walnut drawing room furniture, velvet chaise longues, fine dining table and chairs - all gone. The one little piece I would have really liked was an ornate oak and brass coal scuttle. It sat by the pretty stove she had in her sitting room, and every time I see something similar, it brings the whole place back.

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    1. Those old coal scuttles have become 'ornaments' these days. Hardly anyone has coal fires any more. Here we use wood exclusively, and our UK town is a smokeless zone. Perhaps we should use them as Champagne coolers.

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  12. Ah 'stuff', 'things' - important to our parents but disappear with them - and the same will be true of us Cro. Food for thought..

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    1. Best to get rid of it whilst we can. The things I treasure are no more than junk to my lot.

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  13. I remember those massive garden rollers .... I can see the cast iron sides with the makers name .... the iron work was either left natural iron or painted green. My sister has most of the ‘heirlooms ‘ .... I have a few bits .... a Norwegian birch peg wooden tankard, my dads RAF leather flying hat and goggles, a tortoiseshell matches holder with Claridges matches in it and my Grandmother's initials on the front .... I could go on as most people of our age could !!! I might do a post about a few of them. I do have a wooden tray that you could have but it’s not as nice as the one pictured ..... it’s dark wood with bevelled sides which make the handles if you see what I mean ? I think it’s more post war. XXXX

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    1. Our tray might even have been a twin of the one above. I've looked again at the handles, and now think they are the same. I wish I still had it.

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  14. I refuse to use our wooden tray, but not out of respect for its age. I much prefer to wander back and forth from dining room to kitchen several times and convey the food and utensils in quantities that are easy to fetch to where they are needed by hand. Mrs G fumes when I do this and I often explain to her: I refuse to carry the lazy man’s load. I’ve seen too many waiters spill trays and their contents to fall for that one. I may be an old geezer but I haven’t yet worn out my legs so why should I use a tray?

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    1. Now you mention it, I'm not really sure how much use the old tray would have had; the modern painted one is hardly ever used. It was just a nice idea.

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  15. Every now and then when my brother is staying we go into my loft and look at the boxes with family 'heirlooms' in. We know that we're never going to take a decision to get rid of them. That can be don by by son when he looks at them and has no idea what their sentimental value is. Simply because they will have no sentimental value to him.

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    1. It's the thought of everything, that meant so much to us, being chucked away that I find so worrying. When my people bought their last Sussex home, there was the result of a huge bonfire on the lovely old lawn. The son of the previous owner, had simply taken everything outside onto the lawn, and set fire to it. Amongst the ashes I found some ancient hinges from a corner cupboard, and other signs of valuable antiques. In one of the garages I even found several thousand pounds worth of savings bonds (which I handed over; without any thanks). Such is life.

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  16. I'm sitting at my great grandmother's sewing machine typing this--it's where we keep our computer. This machine must be close to 75 years old by now and it weighs a ton! Long ago my grandmother used to actually use it for sewing (after her mother, the original owner, was long gone). We're planning to buy a proper desk at some point in the near future, but I don't plan to get rid of it. It makes a good little table if nothing else.

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    1. Those old sewing machines make nice little tables. In fact I expect that more are used now as tables than as sewing machines.

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  17. I have my Mum's very old sewing round box and a old cigar box. I treasure them.
    parsnip

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    1. We have a few things around that are useful, but would have sold for nothing had we got rid of them. They are also constant reminders of the previous owners.

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  18. I'd love to be surrounded by the old bits and pieces from the forebears. I've only managed some art and a casserole dish, which doesn't really get used as, like crockery from times past, it's so small!

    My mother refuses to hang onto stuff and attaches no sentimental value to anything. When the day comes, it's not going to be a major job to go through everything but there'll be little beyond the button box and jewellery box, I imagine, that will find its way to me. Actually, I must check she hasn't already abandoned the button box - I'll be bereft if it's gone!

    Everything I know about garden rollers I learnt from my Milly-Molly-Mandy books. Green painted, of course!

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    1. I still have my mother's old button box. It's not the most attractive box, but it contains wonderful old bits-n-pieces.

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  19. "Garden roller" - I had to think a while, and the first picture that came to my mind was from "Wind in the Willows" - and then bubbled up a glimpse I saw in the fine Garden Museum in London (which since a few years doesn't exist any more - it was in a no longer used church near the Thames, and they made excellent suppers you could eat in a little garden outside).
    Yes: times they are a'changing.
    See it this way: it makes life interesting to hunt after a long lost little treasure!

    PS: Thank you for your comment which I found yesterday, when I put a tentative toe into blogland again.

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    1. My people had large beautifully manicured lawns, and elderly gardeners; so the roller remained mostly unused. Even I had a job to move it.

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