Being poorly

[idun]

We called having a cold etc being poorly when I was a kid.

I have a rotten lousy cold, bit of a sore throat and cough and it is not dire, simply miserable and I am hardly sleeping.

 Having had a couple of very bad nights I stayed in bed until about lunch time yesterday and today. Which made me think about being poorly when I was a kid.

Firstly, I would have had to be at death's door before a doctor was called.

Poorly meant staying in bed, not allowed in the living areas until just about better, 'perking up'.  And I have wondered about this, was it a sort of quarantine so no one else caught it?? Or knowing that at least being in bed was warm, where

as most of our house, was not, apart from the stove being on in a small living room.

And my parents would also make up a fresh lemon cordial for me, which frankly I think I might make today, as my memory of it was that it was lovely and soothing.

Was bed rest enforced for you other 'older' folk on here too??

I never made my kids stay in bed, they would be up and if they were tired, might go to bed or doze on the couch.

[mint]

No enforced bed rest but I had to insist on no school.

[Patf]

Just to say that the phrase 'being poorly' or 'feeling poorly' is very familiar to me. I think it was common in the NE, maybe not so much now.

We were tougher in those days, idun. No antibiotics etc.

Sorry to say the Geordies here are going soft - I love those cold bright autumn days like during the week. (Not today though, rain all day). But when I say this to the locals they say "its freezing, hate it!"

Still a few who go out in the frosty mornings coatless, short sleeved tee shirts.

[Gardengirl]

Poorly was always the phrase in the NE, never ‘ill’ or anything else. It was used however seriously ill anybody was, right up to when ‘the sick note’ was out for them - meaning they were close to death.

I can’t actually remember being poorly, apart from having my tonsils out in hospital, so don’t know about having to stay in bed when I was poorly.

Our sons knew that they would have to stay in bed if poorly, until on the mend, so it wasn’t worth trying to swing a day at home playing like some of their friends got away with. Having said that, they mostly loved school.

Most younger people in the Sunderland area of the NE used to go out in the evenings to dances etc in shirt sleeves/ dresses when I was a young adult and on returning from college. No thought ever of wearing anything warm, even in the depths of winter with snow on the ground.

Maybe people were hardier then, no central heating, there would be ice on the inside of bedroom windows in winter, but very few seemed to get colds. Of course, those liberty bodices kept us cosy when young!

Adults used to have a well-used comment ‘ it’s 2 top coats colder up there’ when visiting the south. I can remember my father saying that to people when visiting us in Berkshire or my brother’s family in Hampshire.

[NickP]

When I was a kid I never dared to say I felt poorly, otherwise, it meant being forced to take Senna Pods, Milk of magnesia or any other vile substance my mother could introduce to our diet. LOL

[woolybanana]

Cant remember being ill at home but a couple of times in the school san(itorium) when we had mumps and chicken pox. Otherwise a diet of exercise, cold baths every morning, daily sport, never a day ill.

[soupagirl]

Oh definitely remember 'being poorly'. You knew you were really poorly when a fire was lit in your bedroom (all that coal being lugged upstairs). More likely to be kept warm by mam's moth-eaten fur coat over the blankets. Lemon, butter and sugar for sore throats. And can you remember 'sneeze and come to'?

And of course 'feel the benefit'.

[alittlebitfrench]

I love 'under the weather'.

I wonder where that phrase comes from ?

Is there a same phrase in french ?

[Patf]

Remember the ice on the inside of the windows, soupagirl?

And getting dressed in the morning under the covers?

Those were the days (not really).

And @ALBF -

wor Dad's bad wi' the beor

[Loiseau]

Brrrrrr, that ice on the inside windows! It did make some beautiful patterns, though.

I am under the weather at the moment so, like idun, lingering in my bed hoping it will pass soon. I might try the lemon drink; sounds good.

[idun]

 

I

remember my early thoughts about the french people I was starting to

know well, was that when it came to illness, they generally made ordinary things

out to be worse than they really were.

ie a simple cold, miserable ofcourse, was ALWAYS La Grippe, and getting proper flu is not a simple cold......... and look at the crise de foie,  I personally do not know of one french person who does not consider this a serious complaint.

So what would I say for 'under the weather' in french..... 'pas dans mon assiette?

All those childhood illnesses that were best to get at the time as a child. And why people do not vaccinate against as many of them as they can these days is beyond me. My husband only ever had measles as a child and consequently caught chicken pox in his forties.......and boy was he ill with it. Not sure if he caught mumps too, but I do remember the chicken pox.

I had everything as a child and was always in bed until deemed fit enough to get up. Yes, my Dad's great coat on the bed in mid winter, and what with all the blankets, and the eiderdown, and that, you have reminded me that I could hardly move.

We only had one fire lit in winter in a small sitting room, so the bedrooms were glacial and ice on the windows.

And it was true, we didn't catch colds, although I remember my mother and I catching proper flu and Dad putting me in bed with her, so that he only had one bedroom to deal with and one lot of bedding.

My cold is worse today, I coughed the night away and feel awful. Voice about gone now and am exhausted, but it is not life threatening, just miserable and it is only a cold.

The lemon drink was sliced lemons put into a big bowl, with a spoon on honey and some sugar and then boiling water poured onto it slowly and stirred and stirred. It was never too sweet, nor bitter, so I take it my Dad would taste it to get it just right.

In fact I think I shall make some now. [:D]

[Loiseau]

Get well soon, idun. Sounds horrid.

I like "ne pas être dans son assiette. Trust the French to find a foodie twist!

I'm going to try your lemon concoction; sounds delish.

[Lori]

Yes, get well soon Idun and the others who are feeling poorly.

I have a similar concoction to your lemon one.  Sometimes, we'll add in a splash of bourbon to help you go to sleep (when the stuffy nose won't let you).

We did use the same term when I was young.  I still use it today, but I know it isn't used by the young folks - yet they all know what it means.

And those frosty windows sound awful !  Luckily, where I grew up, it didn't get THAT cold and we did have a heating system that was decent.

[Hoddy]

Get well soon both of you.

I don’t think we used the word poorly.

Our universal medicine was butter beaten into sugar. It was even used for a bump on the head. No possibility of a lemon where I lived

I see your frozen windows and I raise you -

my face flannel solid and stuck to the sink in the morning.

I do remember the adults using hushed tones if someone had ‘a fire in his bedroom’ it seemed like saying he was expected to die.

Good to see you back Lori.

[Loiseau]

“Butter beaten into sugar”?

That's what my my mum used to ice cakes with!

I have to hand it to you, though, Hoddy, with the frozen face flannel.

Lemon and honey went down a treat tonight!

[woolybanana]

Hoddy, that was astonishing!

Anybody ever get the dreaded Friar’s Balsam, head covered with a cloth over a bowl 9f the foul stuff? Mark you, never had it again after departing for warmer climes.

[Lori]

Thank you Hoddy ! 

You must have grown up in a really cold region.  Can't imagine.

Nothing nicer than a warm, comfy home on a cold night.

[Lehaut]

Ice on both side of the windows in Yorkshire most winters too, three boys in the one room. Cracking the bed sheets off the drying line in the backyard to fold them, frozen solid. Only one fire lit in the house, drying your hair kneeling front of it if you could get past the steaming clothes horse full of clothes drying/melting.

Poorly, but if you were really ill, "proper poorly" usually reserved for something serious, the only time I remember seeing the bedroom fire lit was when my father was ill in bed with jaundice. Remember that yellow face peering out. He was judged to be "proper poorly".

[Gardengirl]

Memories flood back reading some of these posts.

The one fire, the clothes horse being round the fire for days on end so you couldn’t even see it for the washing. If you could get near the fire, only one side of you could be toasted at once.

[soupagirl]

Hope everyone is getting over their poorliness.

This thread has really taken me back to childhood. Yes, the frozen windows - I remember warming a penny up between my hands and putting it on the window to make a peephole. A long time since I've heard liberty bodices mentioned too. And to stave off poorliness, a large spoonful of malt and codliver oil every morning ("toffee on a spoon" my mam would call it in an attempt to make it sound more palatable). And of course every time I went to my nana's out would come the syrup of figs, she was obsessed with the whole family's bowel activity. No Friars Balsam, but Vic's Vapour Rub in abundance. At school when I was in Reception Class (it was called 'the babies class' then) there was a big open coal fire with a metal fireguard round it (whatever would Health and Safety think?) and we all used to put our gloves/ mittens on the fireguard to dry out and warm up before we went home. Of course, as someone mentioned earlier, a day off school was unthinkable, acceptable only in the event of bubonic plague.

[Patf]

talking about school - remember the small bottles of milk we were all given at mid-morning? In winter they were frozen solid and put to thaw on the radiators.

They did try to keep us healthy.

Can anyone remember who was the comic radio character who used to say "I'm proper poorly!"

[pip24]

I have similar memories. The heavy ex army issue coat on the bed. I used to be a milk monitor at school and myself and a pal used to carry the crates of milk in with the foil top pushed out of the top of the bottle by the frozen milk. Another memory is corned beef legs!

[Gardengirl]

Corned beef legs? Unless it was the red, blotchy state legs got into by being too close to the fire if you possibly could get close, that is.

Yes, the frozen milk up sticking up from the bottle! Delicious in winter, could be disgusting in the summer, when it was warm and sometimes went off.

I was ink monitor from about age 6, had to spoon the ink powder out of the big ink powder tin into a jug and add water carefully, stirring gently until it was mixed properly.

The ink then had to be carefully transferred from the jug into the ink can, which had a long, thin spout for pouring into the little hole in the top of the ink wells.

It was a very tricky job as both the ink powder and the ink itself could make a big mess. It was a job only a couple of us were trusted with, brilliant being able to go into the warm school early out of the cold or wet, but it didn’t feel such a privilege in sunny summer weather.

[Hoddy]

I loved cod liver oil and malt and I was a milk monitor mostly because loved milk and was happy to drink up all the share of those who, quite inexplicably, didn’t like it. To be fair we could sometimes tell what the cows had been eating. Kale flavoured milk might become trendy these days. I thought for years that my good teeth were the result of the milk drinking until a dentist told me that he thought that the well-water I had grown up with had naturally occurring flouride.

My dour mother thought that corned beef legs were the result of idleness; sitting in front of the fire when you should be working.

[Loiseau]

QUOTE patf

Can anyone remember who was the comic radio character who used to say "I'm proper poorly!"

END QUOTE

Yes, it were Reg Dixon of Coventry! I recently discovered he was a distant cousin of my brother-in-law...