Heating on in August?

Cant believe some people are already moaning about it being cold and switching their heating back on!
Last winter ours was off until it got to around 15 degrees c indoors and will be the same this year ,if not later.
The power companies have hiked up the cost of both gas and electricity enormously.
Really we need to get back to self reliance, not 'switch' reliance.
My parents never had central heating,nor their parents.
If it was cold, the first port of call was the clothes cupboard for another layer.
Kids were sent outside to run about to warm up.

My dad told me that when he was a child way back in the 1920's,they would make 'winter warmers', these were tin cans punched all round with holes,A string was tied to the tin on two sides to act as a handle, a ball of rags was set alight and put into the tin and then the owner swung the whole thing around and around to get air to keep the rags burning. Then the tin would be grabbed in gloved hands and the heat would warm them up.

Some kids were luckier and would be given a hot baked potato wrapped in paper to keep in their pockets. When it cooled enough, it was eaten which generated more heat for the consumer.

If you look at any old books ,you will see that men often wore a jacket indoors with a pullover underneath. Women would have cardigans and layer clothes beneath.  Some people wore hats indoors.
Clothes were cotton and Woolen ,both natural insulators.
Drinks were hot in the winter to warm you from inside and everyone would join in together because that was when it was on offer. Tea or Cocoa is lovely to wrap your hands around.
Hot soup at lunch with sandwiches ,hot milk for the littlies.


Everyone would congregate in the living room because that was the room with a fire. Mum would do her hand crafts or pod her peas in there, Dad would read his paper or listen to the radio,the kids would draw,play cards or do their homework all in that one room.  The fire was lit to warm the room while people were home,  when the kids were in school and Dad was at work, Mum would be too busy shopping ,cleaning,gardening to be fussed about how warm the living room was that no one was using anyway.

At bedtime, the kettle was boiled and everyone took their hot water bottle upstairs to make the bed cosy. The covers had an extra, heavier blanket over them,sometimes more than one.

These days,people treat their houses like summer holidays, they dress in the bare minimum,lounge around inactive and leave every door open to allow ease of transition from room to room.
They pop to the fridge for a cold drink and the curtains are open wide to allow the world to see in, even quite late at night.
If someone wants tea or coffee,chocolate or soup ,they pop a bag in a cup or add a spoonful of mixture,boil a kettle and pour it out,the rest of the boiling water left to get cold in the kettle.
Duvets are the norm and although easy to keep tidy,they are not so good for keeping the cool air from coming in .

Every room is its own life pod, needing to be warm and full of entertainment,each one demanding an equal piece of the pie that is the household expenses. Often the room in which each person resides, is the old fashioned idea of a home,fully contained,so it is hardly surprising that the cost of maintaining each room is reflecting the cost of a miniature home of days gone by.

You can tell the modern minded people, their houses are like furnaces from about September.
It is a struggle to breathe in those houses .
At work,they complain about the cold and everyone must put up with the dried out ,heavy air, leading to their developing colds and sore throats because one person is used to being in tropical house conditions and might get ill if the company doesn't heat the atmosphere.
Those people may still get colds more often, they will arrive at work with their potions and tablets and tell you they cant afford to take time off because they have so many bills to pay....

Learn to toughen up or as the teenagers are fond of saying 'Man the **** up!!'