Tea and Toilet Paper.

My Nan was a nightmare for hoarding (after she died, we found 183 bottles of Yardley's Liquid Soap in the top cupboard of her wardrobe). She'd keep bags and bags of paper clips and elastic bands and clothes pegs that were never used and never thrown away. If there was ever less than 10 tins of Corned Beef in the pantry, she'd be straight down the shops as soon as lunch was over to stock up. It was in her blood. And by God I loved her for it, beacause as a child it was a joy. You know when they make things on Blue Peter and your Mum says 'Oh, i don't have any old toilet rolls, sorry'?. Never a problem at Nan's house, there was a carrier bag of them in the cupboard under the stairs. Needed buttons for eyes on a sock puppet? What type? White? Blue? Black? Four holes or two? Or do you want these toggle type things? Maybe these tortoise shell ones?. 'Nan, can we bake a cake?' Not a problem, we were never going to go to the cupboard and find that we had no icing sugar, or baking soda, or chopped walnuts, almonds, hazel nuts, brazil nuts. Hundreds & Thousans or sugar sprinkles? or would you prefer silver balls and sugar daisies? Glace cherries or candied lemon and orange slices? There was never anything she didn't have to hand. But, and this was by far the best of all, as a 10 year old boy, there is no joy like you and your younger brother building massive dens out of 50 4-packs of Andrex Toilet Paper and 100 boxes of Sainsbury's own brand loose leaf tea at either end of the kitchen/dining room, before seeing who could be the first to knocking the other one down by rolling tin after tin of Heniz Baked Beans or Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup at each other.

Nan, for your hoarding tendancies and a childhood of such ridiculous happiness, I thank you.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Thu 3 May 2012, 16:55, 6 replies)

I bet the chocolate
sprinkles were out of date in 1953.
(username failed moderation, Thu 3 May 2012, 17:11, closed)

That's fantastic.
Your nans house sounded ace.

It reminds me of a time when we had a couple of three piece suites in storage in a spare room at my mum and dads house. Due to the way they were stored (chair overended on top of couches), as kids we could tunnel about it them and convert them into dens. It was ace. I'd love to do it now, I'd need much bigger furniture though.
( Evil Bastardo, Thu 3 May 2012, 17:11, closed)

My grandmother...
...came over from Canada during the war, on one of those convoys that the U-boats loved to target.

Anyway, she brought with her several jars of molasses, because obviously it's not the sort of thing that you're going to be able to come by in rationing-bound Blighty and well, how would you manage without?

When I helped her move out of her flat in the early 90s -- a full fifty years later -- I had to chisel the jars off the shelf where they'd sat since she moved in. I was about to throw them out when she informed me that "they'll be fine, I just need to boil them up".
( reallywittyname veraciously conspues lexiphanicism on, Thu 3 May 2012, 17:11, closed)

Great story.
My Nan and my Mum always kept the empty Christmas chocolate tins and filled them with spare buttons. I do the same. Not only do I never run out of buttons, but just having the tins around reminds me of when I was a little girl. Happy times.
(Woofie, Thu 3 May 2012, 18:38, closed)

And your virginity.

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Thu 3 May 2012, 19:11, closed)

Sounds exactly like my Gran
This has made me think of something I may have to post myself.
( useful_idiot, Tue 8 May 2012, 16:28, closed)