BITCHIN' 'BOUT THE KITCHEN...

When I was a kid, kitchens had their own sort of 'feel'

to them.  What's more, all of the kitchens in all (well, almost
all) of the houses I lived in had that same ambience.   There were

two porcelain sinks side-by-side, one bigger and deeper than the

other to accommodate washing.  Not washing up - washing as in

laundry.  Remember that I'm ancient, and most of the houses

I've lived in were built before washing machines were a

common feature in most households.

There was also often a larder or pantry for stocking

food, as well as cupboards and drawers and all the usual

trappings of a kitchen.  Every house I ever inhabited but one

(built in the early '80s)  also had a clothes-rack attached to the

kitchen ceiling for hanging laundry to dry, which was lowered

and raised by a cord and pulley system.  When I flitted from

one house to another, the kitchen always had the same

'feel' about it; the same 'mood', the same ambience.

The first kitchen of ours to have a stainless steel sink

was in a new-built house we moved into in 1983.  This was

also the first kitchen to have a slightly different feel to it than

previous ones, on account of having up-to-date (for the time)

cupboards and work-tops, instead of the 1950s and '60s style

ones we were accustomed to.  It also a dining area within the

kitchen rather than in the living-room.  It was also the
first one without a clothes-rack on the ceiling. 

Today, in my present house, the kitchen is relatively

modern and doesn't have that same feeling as of old, on
account of not having the same fittings it did when I and my

family first lived here in the '70s.  (We lived in the same house

twice, with a gap of just over four years in between.)  I don't

know about anyone else, but I miss that old atmosphere that

kitchens had when I was younger.  Everything nowadays is

too spick-and-span and high-tech, and looks like the

sort of kitchen JAMES BOND would have.

Tell you one thing for sure:  first time I see one of

those overhead clothes-racks anywhere, I'm nabbing it

for my kitchen, just to try and restore part of that familiar

feeling of old which I miss so much.  What about the rest
of you?  Any other Criv-ites feel the same?

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