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were people harder back in the day

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were people harder back in the day

Postby wallace » 02 Dec 2021, 18:17

My house is a post war local authority 3 bed semi, I was just thinking recently that when first built it had no central heating or insulation, it had single pained metal framed windows, 10" vents in 5 of the rooms. Hot water was from a open coal fire with a back boiler.

I grew up in the same street but dont ever recall being cold
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby AJB Temple » 02 Dec 2021, 18:43

Yes, is the short answer. I grew up in a pokey farm house which had frost on the single glazed windows through winter and the only heating was the fireplace in the snug. No hot water on tap (I kid you not). We had a forge on the farm and I hung around there a great deal as it was hot and good fun.

I don't remember being cold either. We wore more clothes and were very active. My grandfather was a WW1 Somme veteran and tough as old boots.
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby DaveL » 02 Dec 2021, 19:13

I agree!
We lived in a pre war bungalow with the only service was electric that dad had installed as he was an electrician with eastern electricity. It was on an unmade road that saw very little traffic.
There were fire places in both original bedrooms and the living room. Only the living room had a fire every day in the winter. At Christmas a fire was lit in my bedroom, when I was a teenager I would aquire my own supply of fire wood.
The frost patterns on the windows is something I miss and I doubt my son has ever seen them.
There was no insulation, but I do remember dad making secondary glazing from thick plastic sheeting fixed to wooden frames that were screwed to the inside of the window frames.
We wore a lot more layers of clothing, often topped with a thick hand knitted jumper mum had made.
I never felt cold but some of my softer friends did!
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby Peri » 02 Dec 2021, 19:54

I grew up in inner city Birmingham - we had no central heating, running hot water or an inside loo until I was 14 - in 1982 !!

Our house also backed on to a canal - which was nice in winter :)

I also remember my dad doing the plastic sheet/secondary glazing thing.

I don't remember being cold, but I do remember being in my bedroom wearing a sheepskin and fingerless gloves trying to paint a friends motorbike fairing haha
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby Lons » 02 Dec 2021, 20:00

I grew up in the same council house type, small panes in metal framed windows, coal fire/backboiler (dad was a miner so plenty of coal), the only difference is yours was a posh semi compared to our end of terrace. :lol:

Frost on the inside of the windows like Dave and as aptly described by Billy Connolly, no posh eiderdowns in wor hoose, layers of coats on top of blankets served us well.

We never bothered about being cold but I do remember if you needed to get warmed up it was either front or backside as you can't do both at once in front of the fire. Youth has much to do with it or perhaps we have short memories, I certainly feel the cold these days.
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby Blackswanwood » 02 Dec 2021, 20:38

Definitely. Remember washing machines with mangles ….
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby Cabinetman » 02 Dec 2021, 21:29

I remember when I was about 11 we had central heating fitted and a whole inch of insulation in the attic! Bliss, it was pretty patterns on the windows until then and getting dressed in bed under the covers.
In Grimsby I remember seeing the young men who had been fishing in the waters around Iceland walking up and down the streets in T-shirts, all the rest of us were in coats and scarves and hats. I suppose it’s just what you get used to. The men working on the fish Docks virtually in the open air filleting Fish, plunging their hand into the cold water to pull a fish out then filleting it, fillets on one pile, fish bones and heads into the offal bin, then back in the cold water for the next one whilst the wind whistled through the open sided pontoon they were stood on, and icicles formed stalactites from the pound boards they worked on, they cut themselves but only knew when they saw the blood. I’ve seen many men with swollen arms from fish bone poisoning, had to stop work due to the pain. Terrible working conditions 5am start and you finished when the work was done either early and not much to take home or much much later and cycle home frozen through.
Yes people were without doubt a lot harder. Ian
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby Phil Pascoe » 02 Dec 2021, 22:08

When my daughter (26) tells me for some reason I (68) am a dinosaur I remind her that her great grandmother who died when she was two never owned a house, never had a bank account, never drove a motor vehicle, never had an indoor toilet never mind a bathroom. I was born in her house, tin bath in front of the fire and all.
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby Woodbloke » 02 Dec 2021, 23:48

wallace wrote:My house is a post war local authority 3 bed semi, I was just thinking recently that when first built it had no central heating or insulation, it had single pained metal framed windows, 10" vents in 5 of the rooms. Hot water was from a open coal fire with a back boiler.


Yep, just the same as ours, but it's slightly different to 1947 when it was built. Full dg, insulated walls, gas CH and a sea of pink fg about 2' deep :lol: in the loft - Rob
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby MattS » 03 Dec 2021, 07:29

I’m too young to have experienced this, always had central hearing and double glazing!

I do think people are softer though, and have forgotten how to dress. We were at an open mic type event through the music school my children go to at the weekend. It was outside, it was cold but all of us wrapped up and were fine. Others not so! No one has appropriate clothes for keeping warm in particular for too much synthetics you need wool!
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby NickM » 03 Dec 2021, 08:52

This is reminding me of Monty Python's "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch! My son did it at an entertainment evening at his school recently.

https://youtu.be/VKHFZBUTA4k
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby NickM » 03 Dec 2021, 08:56

An elderly relative of mine fell over while shopping a few years ago. Her arm was a bit sore and she was struggling to get her mini (original mini of course) out of its parking space. A kind man backed it out for her and she then drove home. Another relative popped in to see her the next day and noticed she had wrapped her arm in vinegar and brown paper :shock: . It was in fact broken but I don't expect she would have done anything about it. Her house was like a Victorian museum!
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby Andyp » 03 Dec 2021, 09:04

NickM wrote:This is reminding me of Monty Python's "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch! My son did it at an entertainment evening at his school recently.

https://youtu.be/VKHFZBUTA4k


:text-+1:
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby Andy Kev. » 03 Dec 2021, 09:31

Yes people were tougher. I can remember frozen condensation on the inside of my bedroom window. You just felt a bit cold in the morning until you got your clothes on. No harm done as that is what we evolved for.
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby novocaine » 03 Dec 2021, 10:09

no people wearn't tougher, they just didn't have a choice.

your rose tinted glasses are warping you memory. at the time, you will have hated it, now you look back and say stupid things like "well it built character".

guess what, it was * then, and it's * now. :shock:
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby Raymedullary » 03 Dec 2021, 10:27

Same here, a back boiler, single glazing, no central heating, coal fire, ice on inside of windows. We kept internal doors shut and wore jumpers. I don't remember it being that bad.
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby NickM » 03 Dec 2021, 10:32

My wife says she's surprised about people moaning that they've been without power for 5 days because of the storm. She says that they had 3 weeks without power after the hurricane in 1987. I've pointed out to her that she was a child then and it was probably a bit of fun, but that her parents were no doubt doing their nuts!!
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby Alf » 03 Dec 2021, 11:08

novocaine wrote:no people wearn't tougher, they just didn't have a choice.

Yes, this. And then they got to die younger. Happy days.

NickM wrote:This is reminding me of Monty Python's "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch!

Ha-hum - the At Last the 1948 Show's sketch, akshully. Let us not forget the very talented and infuriatingly underrated Marty Feldman and Tim Brooke-Taylor.

Now, where's that pedant's thread...? :eusa-shifty:
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby Tiresias » 03 Dec 2021, 12:47

Ahem. Internal shot from my Borders place earlier this year. The crystals are on the inside of the window in the long hall.

Frost.jpg
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Bit brisk that day, perhaps. We're not all soft southern jessies you know.
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby spb » 03 Dec 2021, 13:24

NickM wrote:My wife says she's surprised about people moaning that they've been without power for 5 days because of the storm. She says that they had 3 weeks without power after the hurricane in 1987. I've pointed out to her that she was a child then and it was probably a bit of fun, but that her parents were no doubt doing their nuts!!


There's that aspect, but also a lot less of daily life relied on mains power back then (particularly food preparation - gas versus electric cookers just being the first example), and short power cuts were more common so people were more prepared for them.

Being a young 'un - I could just about move around in 1987 - I remember growing up in the early '90s. We'd have occasional power cuts of a few hours, and therefore kept a stock of candles, battery torches and other light sources to deal with them. Not having experienced that for 20 years or so, nowadays we don't. You prepare for the problems you expect to have to deal with, whether that be plenty of warm clothes because the house is cold, or alternative light sources because the power is out.

It's the same logic behind southern England grinding to a halt when it snows, while other countries have worse snow for four months every year. Because they deal with it so regularly, they've invested in making sure they can deal with it. Because it's so rare for us, we haven't - the cost of preparing for it would be more than the losses it inflicts every few years.

To paraphrase what Dave said, you equip yourself to deal with the things you have to deal with.
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby Just4fun » 03 Dec 2021, 13:29

I was talking to a local guy here a few days ago. He was wondering if the lake were frozen enough yet for him to walk across it to collect his post. Apparently it is a 4km round trip by road but only 2km across the lake. I asked why he didn't just go by car and he laughed: he doesn't like to get the car out for a short trip like that. He is in his 80s and the temperature is around -15 celsius. I reckon they make 'em hard enough around here.
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby novocaine » 03 Dec 2021, 13:41

Just4fun wrote:I was talking to a local guy here a few days ago. He was wondering if the lake were frozen enough yet for him to walk across it to collect his post. Apparently it is a 4km round trip by road but only 2km across the lake. I asked why he didn't just go by car and he laughed: he doesn't like to get the car out for a short trip like that. He is in his 80s and the temperature is around -15 celsius. I reckon they make 'em hard enough around here.


I did a short stint in Atyrau, Kazakhstan a few years back in the winter. I could walk over the bridge from the hotel to the office, it was about 2k (walking from Europe to Asia), or I could walk over the frozen river, about 0.5k from door to door with around 100m of it on the river in a straight line, more like 150m after you dodged all the ice fishing and the holes they left. :lol:

side note, worst Pizza I've ever had, but a few beers in guns and roses bar made up for it. :lol:
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby johnward » 03 Dec 2021, 14:01

Lived after WW2 in an isolated cottage in Norfolk where dad worked for the Forestry Commission. We had no electricity or gas, no running water and a loo at the bottom of the garden. No buses and no car. I walked on my own 1 1/2 miles to the infants school in Mundford. It was hardest on Mum with no electricity or running water. I can remember her heating flat irons on the range. It's unlikely many young families could cope with these conditions today.

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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby Tiresias » 03 Dec 2021, 19:27

Just4fun wrote:I was talking to a local guy here a few days ago. He was wondering if the lake were frozen enough yet for him to walk across it to collect his post. Apparently it is a 4km round trip by road but only 2km across the lake. I asked why he didn't just go by car and he laughed: he doesn't like to get the car out for a short trip like that. He is in his 80s and the temperature is around -15 celsius. I reckon they make 'em hard enough around here.


I offer this simply as an illustration of the stupidity of humans. Well, me actually.

This is Ersta Viken frozen over.

DSC01387.jpg
(382.33 KiB)


This is the chart - steeply sloping, sandy bottom, nothing to cling to.

DSC02165.jpg
(286.5 KiB)


That has happened so far once in my experience -the freezing over I mean. It is technically the Baltic, so salt (ish). It was minus 20 something. I decided I would walk to one of the adjacent islands. I got about 30m out when I was screamed at in no uncertain terms by my partner that if I didn’t return to land I would be dead.

I have never been so delighted to have obeyed an order in my life.
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Re: were people harder back in the day

Postby AJB Temple » 03 Dec 2021, 19:31

:text-bravo: :text-lol:
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