h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As we were an Army family moving around a fair bit (but not as much as some) the house that I really associate with my childhood is the one where I was born and spent time there on holiday for years and years and years.

In a not too smooth () area of Sheffield, when I took my there a few years back, and granted most of the brick-built houses had been pulled down by then (ours was still standing) he likened it to Beriut.

But it was fab. What I really remember most was that we found it weird that the bathroom and toliet were downstairs, sort of attached to the kitchen. The loo was even kind of outside. But it was only later that I realised that it had been a proper outside loo and the bathroom/kitchen had been built on much later than the original house.

Also that, due to the outsideness of the loo and the proximity of the coal bunker, when you went outside there was (all over Sheffield, actually) a really strong smell of coal dust. As soon as I smell that now, I'm 6 again and outside with my grandma, pegging out washing with those old-fashioned (dolly) pegs and fighting against the weight of the washing to get the prop set up correctly.



(nice topic)

I like this, reminds me of my grandparents old house in Chadwell Heath. They too had a coal bunker and I often helped my nan struggle with her prop to get the washing up!
Do they sell props? Do they still exist? I guess they are mostly home made..

I have no idea where props actually come from, but find it hilarious that each family seemed to have a different colour of tape would round the top to stop it splitting. Ours was red electrical tape.

>>> As soon as I smell that now, I'm 6 again and outside with my grandma, pegging out washing with those old-fashioned (dolly) pegs and fighting against the weight of the washing to get the prop set up correctly.

Ah! Excellent. If I was at all pretentious I would say, Proustian! Lovely post