General Chat

I used to dislike my step nan because I wanted to go to Sunday school then church and she wouldn't let me have tuppence for the plate....mean old thing I thought.....but then looking back and after researching her family, they seemed like the type of people to have nicked money from the plate, not give to it. In fact, at my Father's funeral one family member quipped that we should be taking not giving, when asked to donate to a good cause......but that's another story :-D :-D

Glad of that BC,,,

course you're a wild colleen BC,,,,,,how many grannies of 100 nip out to have a tat how cool is that,,,, ;-) :-D :-D :-D.



my grandma was lovely,down to earth, always had a bread and cheese at the ready plus fruit cake always a bowl of apples ,,,,,,she used to keep sixpences and threepenny bits tied in a hankie in her pinny and when she undid the knot you knoew you were in a for a coin,,,,,,,to buy sweets that would last and not chocolate,,,,,,,,bless her....one day me and a cousin split her feather pillow and we got the copper stick across our bums...... :-D

I remember being terrified of my granny. She seemed huge to me but was in fact no more than 5ft tall. She wore a large wrap around pinny and had a moustache. It was made clear to me that I was to be seen and not heard. I never had a cuddle or a kiss ever.

In a shoe box in her sideboard was a long thick plait of her hair which I thought was weird. Granny also took snuff and my mum, her d.in law, used to moan about it. There were " snuff rags " behind tthe cushions.

I do remember that grandad took her to Canada to see family back in the day.

Its only after researching that I've found she was one of ten children and had a very hard life till she married and became a shopkeeper for over 40 yrs.

She lived in an old cottage after grandad died and she was in bed one night and the badroom ceiling fell in and she ended up one floor below. Then in a care home and a New Years Eve party had a couple of drinks and died in her sleep at 87yrs

Oh gawd Barb that made me laugh :-D

My paternal nan died aged 34 so I never got to know her. My grandad married again some 12 years later in 1947 .....to Winnie The Witch and that's putting it lightly. She was many years younger than him, but you would think it was the other way round. He waited on her hand and foot and she rarely got off her fat backside because of her weak chest!

My maternal nan......well I think she preferred my brother :-D

Oo-er, BC, I think I might be have some of your grandma's tendencies, but I seem to make my 3 offspring laugh and my 2 grandchildren, so I hope I don't alarm them. I think they just think I'm a funny old biddy, to be honest :-D

Personally, I had one lovely, cuddly grandmother, who I adored and the other one scared the living daylights out of me, but I have grown up to understand her.

My Granny Richardson scared the pants off me.She died when I was about 11.I never saw her often as she lived in Scotland and I was in Devon.Ex School teacher.Just rather brusk in her manner and with her accent I never knew quite how to take her lol.She had a hard life.Lost her Husband when she was expecting her 7th child.She was one of very few women back in the early 20's with degrees,in English ,Maths and I think French.I never remember a hug or cuddle from her.Just thinking of her as a formidable person.(although from what my cousins say she wasn't that bad)
I do remember the day my Dad had the phone call to say she had passed away ,and that was the first time I ever recall my Dad cry.
Now I realise what an amazing woman she must have been .An intelligent ,very strong willed lady. She was the only Grandparent I knew.

I had a slight problem, neither of my parent's liked their mums.

Mum's mum wasn't very nice to her - she was the second daughter, and gran wanted a son. Gran had a son - when mum was 10 - andmum was left looking after him a lot.

Dad's mum (like dad) preferred animals to humans, which suited me. But she also looked after the children of the wealthy (for payment) during the summer holidays, when they were 'home' from boarding school, and 'took in' a boy she found wandering (aged 2) in a filthy state.

I only met my dad's mum once - but what a lady!!
I was left with her for 6 weeks while the family moved. I was just 11.
Living with her were her dog - an old english sheepdog my 2 cousins, their mum (dad's sister) who had just got out of prison for shooting (but only wounding) her husband, and her dog - a tetchy jack russell - I'd never met these people before either.
Gran had a smallholding with chickens, pigs & cows. The farmhouse had no electricity upstairs, so we used candles.
The younger of my cousins was exactly a year younger than me.
One day we stole one of gran's fags - gran found out and made us sit on cows (I, being the oldest had to sit on Princess - a nasty cow if ever there was one) and smoke 5 Woodbines!!
I found this hilarious. and really wish I'd known her better.!
Perhaps I would have found out who dad, and his sister's father was.

We used to see my mum's mum more. Definitely not a 'cuddly' gran.
She wasn't amused when my sister & I found grandad's ashes in a drawer in the room we were sleeping in.
When she got older, sister & I used to take her to local pubs (in the New Forest) for lunch - as we realised anything she offered us was past it's sell by date.
Give her half a pint and she'd start singing

Didn't bother me - I'd join in if I knew the words - but wish I'd recorded her. :-D

As a child I thought my grannies were OLD! I think we all do when we're children.

Neither of my grandmothers were "cuddly", but my family are/were not the demonstrative type. The only grandparent I remember giving me cuddles was my father's father, my "papa", I loved him so much. I was six when he died, and I still miss him<3

Mum's mother was religious, I went to Sunday school to keep her happy! She wasn't well at the end of her life, she lived with us for some time, before being taken to hospital. She died at the young age of 62 years and 2 months (younger than I am). Am I an old lady? Nah!!!!!!!

Father's mother (wife of papa) was a bit odd, rather vain! The only gift I remember her giving me was a jewellery box (I was about 10 at the time); I found out later that someone gave it to her, and she didn't like it! Gran didn't get on with any of her three children, my father refused to visit her before we left UK for Australia.

The feeling must have been mutual, because gran remarried three weeks after we left, and didn't say a word (she was 68, new hubby was 70). Dad didn't even know she had a new man in her life. Gran had three sisters, and two half sisters (there may be more!) I didn't know they existed until I started tracing the family! My other grandmother (mum's mum) had two brothers & four sisters, we knew all of them, except for one sister who died as an infant.

I remember staying with gran after papa died (no idea why I was there)...... and I wet the bed. She didn't speak to me for a whole day.

<3

My nan,Fred's mother looked after me much more than my mother ever did. We lived in the same house.It was two farm cottages that had had a door knocked through between the two kitchens to accommodate my great-grandmother's family.

Nan was brilliant and gave me something of a childhood. I have happy,happy memories of black leading the range with her on a Friday and of her pushing me to the village in my pushchair. That came to an abrupt end the day I got out half way and created merry hell because she wouldn't get in and let me push her!

She cuddled and cooked proper food and kept me clean.

Sadly she died when I was six and she was in her mid sixties and my mother was forced to be a mother. The rest is history on that score.

As for my mother's mother.I hardly remember her at all,she died when I was three. The older cousins talk of her with affection but there does seem to be a conspiracy of respectability in the family where they will not ever voice a controversial view, so I don't reallyknow what things were like in that family.

Thank you one and all for adding to this thread. Such sharp, vivid memories and mostly good :-D

I discovered my own Grandma was forced into a marriage with a much older man and her way of dealing with her unhappiness was to spend all is his money and behave the way she did.

BC XX

My Mum was the youngest of nine but of those children there were only, when I was born, 6 grandchildren all older than me. Mum's Mum was cuddly, she used to make me soup with pearl barley in and would keep extra strong mints in her glass fronted cupboard by the range, these she would give me when we visited. She and my grandfather were not very well off. She died when I was four or five and I can remember my Grandpa crying when we all went to visit the grave.
My Dad's mum was quite religious, a Baptist. She loved her church, she was widowed before I was born and she also was quite poor. She lived with a distant relative of my Grandfathers as a companion. She was lovely, kind, gentle and approachable but not cuddly, she died a month after we got married.

I have enjoyed reading al your stories very much.

My biggest regret in life is that I have no direct grandchildren of my own. I have 4 grown up step grandaughters, 3 who I have known and loved since they were born.

They already have their granma,s and I have often felt a little bit out of it. Anyway I have tried to do my best and they know I will always be there for them.

Sorry if this is out of context to the thread but when" Granny " comes up I cant help but wish with all my heart that I was a true Nan.

Oops pass me tissues :-D :-D

My grandma on my mum's side died before I knew her, bred to death 17
kids married to a drunkard, mum left home when she was 14.
My dad's mum was a horrible woman who did not treat my mum well,
thought she wasn't good enough for her son, she was proven wrong they
lived a happy and long life together. :-)

Emma :-)

Both my grandmas were cuddly and very maternal....My paternal gran had 13 children and maternal gran had 6 children....My maternal gran had been divorced and had one child before she met my grandad...It wasn't until I started family research that I discovered they met in 1945 and didnt marry until 1955 after having 5 chiildren..Even their own children didnt know this!!! Grandma died in 1992 when I was 4 mths pregnant with my daughter and her funeral was on my birthday...
My paternal grandma I didnt see much as we lived in Sussex and she in Hampshire...We used to go on the train every couple of mths to see them....Grandad was very strict and stood no nonsense but he was cuddly too...Grandma died in 2001 when I was 35.....I guess im lucky really as I have known both sets of grandparents.....
I also met my maternal gt gran but was only 6mths old when she died...My dad said she would just turn up at the flat and wanted nothing better than to cuddle me and my sister who would have been 18mths old when she died...

Jules x

Both my Grandmothers were lovely. My Dad's mum was 20 years older than my Mam's, and my Dad's oldest sister was the same age - they were good friends.

Enjoyed reading through this...............Its been a long time, but Hello to all who remembers me. :-)

May I also add that it was a great shock to hear of BC's passing. I loved her, as did my son on our first meeting. :(

Oh my gosh how lovely reading this thread again, cant believe how long ago this was started .

Hi Suzy nice to see you . Yes a great sadness to read of BC,s passing ,a really lovely lady

Hi Suzy, I am sure BC would have been thrilled to see you return on one of her threads. Loved her stories about her Grandma, a formidable lady by all accounts.

you know BCs family are so lovely friendly and kind
you just want to hug them all

so grandma cant of done them any harm in the long run :-D :-D

Lovely to read this thread again <3 :-)