old fashioned tasks that we still practice ??

[tikay]

Greasing the car was a regular Sunday job. I used to grease my Dad's Bedford truck, it had 28 grease nipples, i had to count them to make sure I hadn't missed any.

When you did the ones on the Kingpins, you had to jack the truck up to release the pressure and allow the grease to get between the pin and the bush.

Nowadays it's all sealed bearings and greaseless nylon bushes. My old grease-gun is obsolete, but I just can't bring myself to throw it away.

It's amazing to think how cars & vehicles generally have changed.

At one time, the sunday job was to adjust the tappets, check the timing chain for slack, clean or replace the points, sandblast the spark plugs, swap the wheels round (to combat tracking errors), check the tyre pressures, adjust the tracking, check the brake pads, change the oil, top up the rad, & every 3 months, a decoke was needed. Piston rings wore out, replace them (don't forget the circlip pliers), take the head off & grind in new valves with that dreadful paste, & heaven knows what else. Yet my current car, well, I've not done a thing to it in 45,000 miles, ( I have no idea how, or even if, the Bonnet opens), & the one before had gone 2 years & 90,000 without so much as checking the tyre pressures. Road Vehicles have come a long way, though the same can't be said for Diesel Locomotives on the Railway - the most reliable currently in service were built in the seventies.

[Geo the Sarge]

I still use a soft cloth and spit and polish for my shoes.

When I was younger, most Sundays, all sons and fathers who were able used to get together at the local footie field for a twenty-odd a side game of football that lasted about 4 hours.

meanwhile the wifes and daughters and those men who couldn't play football would play rounders

Geo

[tikay]

I still use a soft cloth and spit and polish for my shoes.

When I was younger, most Sundays, all sons and fathers who were able used to get together at the local footie field for a twenty-odd a side game of football that lasted about 4 hours.

meanwhile the wifes and daughters and those men who couldn't play football would play rounders

Geo

And you "dubbined" your footie boots?

[Geo the Sarge]

I still use a soft cloth and spit and polish for my shoes.

When I was younger, most Sundays, all sons and fathers who were able used to get together at the local footie field for a twenty-odd a side game of football that lasted about 4 hours.

meanwhile the wifes and daughters and those men who couldn't play football would play rounders

Geo

And you "dubbined" your footie boots?

AAAH - Dubbin, and those huge cotton laces that we spun around our boots about ten times before tying them, and newspaper for shin guards when they made them compulsory.

Geo

[Geo the Sarge]

Sunday night was bath night for the kids (7 of us)

Then one by one, stuck between mums knees with your head over a newspaper on her knee while she scraped the skin of the heid with the bone comb looking for nits, then a head rub down with Lorexane (sp?)

Geo

[tikay]

I still use a soft cloth and spit and polish for my shoes.

When I was younger, most Sundays, all sons and fathers who were able used to get together at the local footie field for a twenty-odd a side game of football that lasted about 4 hours.

meanwhile the wifes and daughters and those men who couldn't play football would play rounders

Geo

And you "dubbined" your footie boots?

AAAH - Dubbin, and those huge cotton laces that we spun around our boots about ten times before tying them, and newspaper for shin guards when they made them compulsory.

Geo

Oh yes, those laces! Round the heel & sole about 6 times!

[tikay]

Sunday night was bath night for the kids (7 of us)

Then one by one, stuck between mums knees with your head over a newspaper on her knee while she scraped the skin of the heid with the bone comb looking for nits, then a head rub down with Lorexane (sp?)

Geo

Yup, Sunday was a big day, Church, bath, clean underwear & socks.

And a dose of ex-lax - "keeps you moving", & some "cod liver oil & malt", which was like treacle but 10 times treaclier. NHS Orange Juice & Milk Powder in those lovely tall white tins. We never had "nits" down south - posh, see? - but at school, there was a "nit nurse". Wonder what the modern term for "nit nurse" is?

[RED-DOG]

We used to cook outdoors (weather permitting) on an open fire.

The first job was to pick a good spot to light it. Not too close to where people were liable to walk (and knock the pot over) and downwind from the waggons so that the smoke didn't blow inside.

Next task was to make sure you had a good supply of firewood, you needed several different sorts. Kindling to get the fire started, and some of medium thickness to burn quickly so as to ignite the thicker logs and also producesome nice hot embers.

Once the fire was going nicely, you would need either a large iron frying pan with the handle over the top (like a basket) or a pot of similar design that would hold about two gallons. You would then suspend your pot or pan over the fire on a "kettleprop" a spike with a hook shape on the end that was driven into the ground beside the fire.

You would start with an empty pan and you would allow the heat of the fire to sterilise it before adding the food. Your only job then would be to tend the fire and regulate the speed at which the food cooked by raising and lowering the hight of the kettleprop.

Staring into an open fire, catching the occasional whiff of woodsmoke and the aroma of the meal that you are cooking is truly one of life's greatest pleasures, for me at least.

I don't cook like this very often nowadays, but every now and then, when the mood takes me, I break out the old iron pan. Then, for an hour or two, the rest of the world ceases to exist.

[raab11]

do you guys know oliver twist??

[tikay]

We used to cook outdoors (weather permitting) on an open fire.

The first job was to pick a good spot to light it. Not too close to where people were liable to walk (and knock the pot over) and downwind from the waggons so that the smoke didn't blow inside.

Next task was to make sure you had a good supply of firewood, you needed several different sorts. Kindling to get the fire started, and some of medium thickness to burn quickly so as to ignite the thicker logs and also producesome nice hot embers.

Once the fire was going nicely, you would need either a large iron frying pan with the handle over the top (like a basket) or a pot of similar design that would hold about two gallons. You would then suspend your pot or pan over the fire on a "kettleprop" a spike with a hook shape on the end that was driven into the ground beside the fire.

You would start with an empty pan and you would allow the heat of the fire to sterilise it before adding the food. Your only job then would be to tend the fire and regulate the speed at which the food cooked by raising and lowering the hight of the kettleprop.

Staring into an open fire, catching the occasional whiff of woodsmoke and the aroma of the meal that you are cooking is truly one of life's greatest pleasures, for me at least.

I don't cook like this very often nowadays, but every now and then, when the mood takes me, I break out the old iron pan. Then, for an hour or two, the rest of the world ceases to exist.

For lighting fires (indoors) we used newspaper, matches, & for wood, we used to have Railway Sleepers delivered, & they had to be cut up. They came in 10' lengths, so we cut them first with a saw, then used an axe or chopper to split them into graded firewood. They'd be soaked in oil & grease, so they smelt a treat when burning. In some ways, kids today have it better, but really, learning & doing these things was good for us.

[RED-DOG]

We used to cook outdoors (weather permitting) on an open fire.

The first job was to pick a good spot to light it. Not too close to where people were liable to walk (and knock the pot over) and downwind from the waggons so that the smoke didn't blow inside.

Next task was to make sure you had a good supply of firewood, you needed several different sorts. Kindling to get the fire started, and some of medium thickness to burn quickly so as to ignite the thicker logs and also producesome nice hot embers.

Once the fire was going nicely, you would need either a large iron frying pan with the handle over the top (like a basket) or a pot of similar design that would hold about two gallons. You would then suspend your pot or pan over the fire on a "kettleprop" a spike with a hook shape on the end that was driven into the ground beside the fire.

You would start with an empty pan and you would allow the heat of the fire to sterilise it before adding the food. Your only job then would be to tend the fire and regulate the speed at which the food cooked by raising and lowering the hight of the kettleprop.

Staring into an open fire, catching the occasional whiff of woodsmoke and the aroma of the meal that you are cooking is truly one of life's greatest pleasures, for me at least.

I don't cook like this very often nowadays, but every now and then, when the mood takes me, I break out the old iron pan. Then, for an hour or two, the rest of the world ceases to exist.

For lighting fires (indoors) we used newspaper, matches, & for wood, we used to have Railway Sleepers delivered, & they had to be cut up. They came in 10' lengths, so we cut them first with a saw, then used an axe or chopper to split them into graded firewood. They'd be soaked in oil & grease, so they smelt a treat when burning. In some ways, kids today have it better, but really, learning & doing these things was good for us.

We used to walk the railway lines looking for coal or those little chocks of wood that they used to drive between the rail and the chair (do you know the ones I mean?) When they changed them, the old ones were often thrown down the embankment.

[The_nun]

Keys Tom i think..

[Ironside]

I own about 8-10 pairs of trainers, several of which i havent worn...

I eat my domino's out of its box in my bedroom on my pc.

we can tell

[tikay]

We used to cook outdoors (weather permitting) on an open fire.

The first job was to pick a good spot to light it. Not too close to where people were liable to walk (and knock the pot over) and downwind from the waggons so that the smoke didn't blow inside.

Next task was to make sure you had a good supply of firewood, you needed several different sorts. Kindling to get the fire started, and some of medium thickness to burn quickly so as to ignite the thicker logs and also producesome nice hot embers.

Once the fire was going nicely, you would need either a large iron frying pan with the handle over the top (like a basket) or a pot of similar design that would hold about two gallons. You would then suspend your pot or pan over the fire on a "kettleprop" a spike with a hook shape on the end that was driven into the ground beside the fire.

You would start with an empty pan and you would allow the heat of the fire to sterilise it before adding the food. Your only job then would be to tend the fire and regulate the speed at which the food cooked by raising and lowering the hight of the kettleprop.

Staring into an open fire, catching the occasional whiff of woodsmoke and the aroma of the meal that you are cooking is truly one of life's greatest pleasures, for me at least.

I don't cook like this very often nowadays, but every now and then, when the mood takes me, I break out the old iron pan. Then, for an hour or two, the rest of the world ceases to exist.

For lighting fires (indoors) we used newspaper, matches, & for wood, we used to have Railway Sleepers delivered, & they had to be cut up. They came in 10' lengths, so we cut them first with a saw, then used an axe or chopper to split them into graded firewood. They'd be soaked in oil & grease, so they smelt a treat when burning. In some ways, kids today have it better, but really, learning & doing these things was good for us.

We used to walk the railway lines looking for coal or those little chocks of wood that they used to drive between the rail and the chair (do you know the ones I mean?) When they changed them, the old ones were often thrown down the embankment.

Yup, wedge shaped dark timber. Maureen is probably right, but I don't recognize the term "keys" in this respect. A man used to walk the line daily with a 14llb long-shafted hammer & tap each one home gently. A railway track takes an enormous pounding, so it was vital to check those "chocks" or "keys" daily..

[RED-DOG]

Maureen was spot on.

In traditional British practice, cast metal chairs were screwed to the sleepers, which took a style of rail known as bullhead that was somewhat figure-8 in cross-section — wider at top and bottom (known as the head and foot respectively) and smaller in the middle (the web). Keys (wedges of wood or sprung steel) were then driven in between chair and rail to hold it in place. This was common practice on British railways until the 1950s, but is now largely obsolete.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_tracks