When Col was at primary school they were encouraged by a teacher to blow their noses really hard.........a competition to see who was the loudest nose blower! I blame that teacher for the sinus problems he's had recently!
After a bad experience as a new wife and snotty handkerchiefs ( BC - before Col) we always use kitchen roll as tissues........... but that doesn't scan so well in the rhyme........the cheap kitchen roll I got from Approved Food are complete rubbish, just falling to bits with one nose wipe but I'll still not be going back to cotton hankies that's for sure.
Did you have relations who always gave boxes of 3 handkerchiefs for birthdays? I did - distant aunts who didn't know what else to give...................... wonder what happened to all those boxes?
Back Soon
Sue
Thank heavens Kleenex tissues were invented. I love the hold pretty hankies but would not like to have to launder and keep them white.. and iron them! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)
ReplyDeleteI use cotton hankies and they're really not a hassle. Maybe it's different when you only have to do your own though! I like ironing them - they're easy and come out so nice and smooth!
ReplyDeleteI remember the boxes of handkerchiefs as gifts. Pretty, for sure, but pretty useless too. :-) Can you still get them?
J x
The poster advice was made familiar by Tony Hancock in The Blood Doner.
ReplyDeleteLittle brother occasionally gives those to Elderly Mother - I hate washing hankies and will only use tissues.
ReplyDeleteI still have a box of hankies (unused) with "L" in gorgeous embroidery in the corners. I only ever use tissues - the thought of used hankies in the washing machine is not good!
ReplyDeleteI can remember my Nanna soaking my Grandad's hankies. Looking back I can't imagine how anybody thought a snotty rag in your pocket was in anyway hygienic but better than a trail of snot up your sleeve I suppose. Aunty Edith always has a handkerchief, but she's more of a dainty dabber than a full on blower. xx
ReplyDeleteI have a box of 3 white lace hankies upstairs, a Christmas present, they will be in the charity shop soon.
ReplyDeleteHah - those boxes still turn up in charity shops and car boot sales - unused!!!
ReplyDeleteAhem, I must be very old fashioned as I do still have cotton hankies, and ooh er, I still boil them! Most of the time I use Lidl hankie packs as they are good for several uses unless you have the cold from hell. Then they are burnt in the wood burner. Kitchen roll makes my nose sore.
I remember that rhyme too!
My Dad always used to send me a box of cotton hankies on my birthday and my children used them to make parachutes for their Sindy dolls and teddies which they then dropped out of the bedroom window!
ReplyDeleteI have to confess to using super soft tissues when my nose is too runny otherwise I use toilet paper. If I've got a cold I need something ultra soft or my nose becomes too sore. At school my kids were taught to cough or sneeze into the bend of their arm - keeps the germs off your hands.
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, our local old folks home always requests 'nice hankies' as part of the package of Christmas gifts, which local groups donate each year. I guess the old ladies enjoy having one tucked up their sleeve, ready for dainty dabbing (just like Life at No 38's Aunt Edith).
ReplyDeleteMy husband used to suffer terribly with sinus problems, insisting on using cotton hankies. Once he retired I have said that washing the hankies would be his responsibility...it didn't take long for him to begin using kitchen roll.
My aunt once bought my Dad a box of matches for his birthday. He wasn't a smoker and we didn't have an open fire, so why she thought he needed a box of matches is a total mystery!
ReplyDeleteI use paper hankies, I stock up when they are on offer and stack them in the cupboard under the stairs. Alan thought I was daft with a stash of over twenty boxes until we both got really bad colds a few months ago and used over a third of the stash in a week :-)
ReplyDeleteUsually though Alan uses cotton hankies and always has a neatly folded clean one in the pocket of his suit ... when he's at the office ... when he's at home it is a crumpled up one in his jeans pocket.
When I managed charity shops we used to get lots of boxes of unopened cotton hankies, ladies and gents every year just after Christmas, and every following year just before Christmas we would put them out on the shelves and they sold like crazy :-)
I remember as a child my mum having a great big pot on the stove with bleach water and snotty hankies in it boiling away. Makes me gag just thinking about it. She cut up old flannel sheets for when we had colds, ugh. My dad used linen hankies his entire life. I'm glad to say it was my brothers job to look after his laundry!! I remember when I was little and I just got the job of ironing I had to iron hankies, tea towels and pillow cases. All I can say is thank goodness for 3ply tissues!!
ReplyDeleteThinking about your effect on the price of Gaining Ground, I remembered I'd given up searching for a book I'd wanted because the cheapest I could find it at was nearly £50.
ReplyDeleteSo, I've looked on Amazon again, and it's back down to a sensible price now, so I've ordered a copy, second hand of course.
It's the third in a trilogy by Conrad Richter - The Trees, The Fields, and this one, The City.
My husband's gran used to give him hankies each Christmas...now she's gone he's down to raggedy specimens x
ReplyDeleteI have a pocket pack of tissues in my Supply Teacher bag. For the snotty little darlings, but I love to use real hankies myself. When I have a bad cold and a sore nose, I use my dear Dad's old big white ones [embroidered with his initial] They are so worn and soft and remind me of his love, and how they were the first things I ever learned to iron!
ReplyDeleteWhen at last the boxes are openned you may find that the pins used to secure them are a bit 'rusty'!
ReplyDeleteI loathe cotton hankies with a passion. Andy uses them....enough said.
ReplyDeleteHugs-x-
I had to laugh at this post. When I was first married (long ago) we lived with my husband's parents for awhile, and I was amazed that my father-in-law only used cotton handkerchiefs, which were duly washed and not ironed. He was allergic to tissues, and I sometimes wonder if many of us might be better off with cotton hankies. And really, the snotty factor that bothers so many people is so benign--it's not like washing underwear. Which also is pretty benign, but we are in thrall to the germophobes!
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