|
Janis entitled "THE OLD KITCHEN" |
Looking at my modern kitchen with all the electrical appliances
I can't help looking back at the old kitchen which was then called
a scullery, we had in good old Greet Road, like a lot of properties
around the Brentford area at that time. I can remember the cold stone
floor, the old copper boiler that didn't work, but took a lot of space
up in the old scullery and the only thing that was good for, was to house
a family of mice. The old gas cooker came with the house and had an
enamel white oven door and horrible funny little knobs that through age,
you had a job to turn as we had that old cooker right until my late sister
Joyce gave us a Parkinson Cowan cooker in 1965, which was a luxury to
mum and the rest of the family to use. It was wonderful to be able to
toast bread and muffins under a working grill in the summer time, instead
of having to wait for the winter months to enjoy having the toast by relying
on the fire. Also to have all the four gas rings in use, as the old cooker
only had one ring working because it was so old, just like the copper boiler.
The yellow earthenware toilet and earthen ware sink, which both had nice
patterns around the side of the sink and the old toilet also had a nice
pattern around the pedestal, a similar pattern to what you find on the old
yellow eartenware mixing bowels, everytime I see one I always think of that
old Greet Road loo. The loo had a surround wooden seat and one of the
planks of wood was loose and it always pinched your bottom I'm sure that
we were the only family living in Greet Road walking around with black
and blue bruised bottoms. I suppose it was because my father had
made the seat from the wood that he rescued from the barges that also
made the wooden seat, which boxed in the toilet. All those items came
with the house and I now often think they should have been housed in
the local museum.
I loved my dear late mum dearly but I could never understand why even
to this day why she brought so many cups, plates, cereal bowls, knives,
forks and spoons at old Rattenburys and what she used to do was after
every meal she would rinse the dirty crockery and put in an old tin bath
and when Sunday afternoon came after our nice Sunday roast dinner, my
father would go up stairs and put on his long white Stanley Matthews
shorts and his big black heavy boots he looked so funny and then he
switched the wireless to hear "Life with the Lyons", which was a famous
serial about a family in the fifties and then "Down Your Way". By now
he would have the kettle boiling and would slowly fill a big bowl of
hot water with a good handful of Tide and he would start washing all
the crockery left from the last week he would rinse all the soap of
every one of the plates etc and dry them so by 6pm all the dishes were
sparkling clean and they was not enough space to put the clean crockery
back on the shelves. And the stone floor was swimming with water. When I
saw the Mickey Mouse "Sorcerer's Apprentice in Fantasia" I always think
of my late dad in that kitchen every Sunday afternoon. As years past I
asked mum when I had grown up why she didn't wash up after every meal
in those days she replied that she missed not having running hot water
from the tap and while my dad did this voluntarily she wasn't going to
complain. So I now keep this little poem in my kitchen it is the same
poem that we had on the wall in Greet Road which I think is most apparent
When I moan about all the washing -up I have to do when my family visit
me I always look at this poem and it helps me to realise
how fortunate
I am.
K1TCHERN PRAYER
Thank God for all the washing - up, it has a tale to tell, For by the pile
that I have here, it seems we're doing well, While others there are staving,
I have no heart to fuss, For by the pile in front of me, it's plain Gods
good to us.
I hope you enjoy the rest
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Last Updated: 6th NOVEMBER 2005
I can't help looking back at the old kitchen which was then called
a scullery, we had in good old Greet Road, like a lot of properties
around the Brentford area at that time. I can remember the cold stone
floor, the old copper boiler that didn't work, but took a lot of space
up in the old scullery and the only thing that was good for, was to house
a family of mice. The old gas cooker came with the house and had an
enamel white oven door and horrible funny little knobs that through age,
you had a job to turn as we had that old cooker right until my late sister
Joyce gave us a Parkinson Cowan cooker in 1965, which was a luxury to
mum and the rest of the family to use. It was wonderful to be able to
toast bread and muffins under a working grill in the summer time, instead
of having to wait for the winter months to enjoy having the toast by relying
on the fire. Also to have all the four gas rings in use, as the old cooker
only had one ring working because it was so old, just like the copper boiler.
The yellow earthenware toilet and earthen ware sink, which both had nice
patterns around the side of the sink and the old toilet also had a nice
pattern around the pedestal, a similar pattern to what you find on the old
yellow eartenware mixing bowels, everytime I see one I always think of that
old Greet Road loo. The loo had a surround wooden seat and one of the
planks of wood was loose and it always pinched your bottom I'm sure that
we were the only family living in Greet Road walking around with black
and blue bruised bottoms. I suppose it was because my father had
made the seat from the wood that he rescued from the barges that also
made the wooden seat, which boxed in the toilet. All those items came
with the house and I now often think they should have been housed in
the local museum.
I loved my dear late mum dearly but I could never understand why even
to this day why she brought so many cups, plates, cereal bowls, knives,
forks and spoons at old Rattenburys and what she used to do was after
every meal she would rinse the dirty crockery and put in an old tin bath
and when Sunday afternoon came after our nice Sunday roast dinner, my
father would go up stairs and put on his long white Stanley Matthews
shorts and his big black heavy boots he looked so funny and then he
switched the wireless to hear "Life with the Lyons", which was a famous
serial about a family in the fifties and then "Down Your Way". By now
he would have the kettle boiling and would slowly fill a big bowl of
hot water with a good handful of Tide and he would start washing all
the crockery left from the last week he would rinse all the soap of
every one of the plates etc and dry them so by 6pm all the dishes were
sparkling clean and they was not enough space to put the clean crockery
back on the shelves. And the stone floor was swimming with water. When I
saw the Mickey Mouse "Sorcerer's Apprentice in Fantasia" I always think
of my late dad in that kitchen every Sunday afternoon. As years past I
asked mum when I had grown up why she didn't wash up after every meal
in those days she replied that she missed not having running hot water
from the tap and while my dad did this voluntarily she wasn't going to
complain. So I now keep this little poem in my kitchen it is the same
poem that we had on the wall in Greet Road which I think is most apparent
When I moan about all the washing -up I have to do when my family visit
me I always look at this poem and it helps me to realise
how fortunate
I am.
K1TCHERN PRAYER
Thank God for all the washing - up, it has a tale to tell, For by the pile
that I have here, it seems we're doing well, While others there are staving,
I have no heart to fuss, For by the pile in front of me, it's plain Gods
good to us.
Don't forget to send your Comments
top-left corner of this page.