General Chat

Hi Dee and everybody. Really enjoyed the thread. Would like to add a snippet. There is a row of houses in the village where I live that had the nick name 'Key Row'. All the houses had large round knockers in the middle of the door. No handles to be turned ; so everyone had to have a key to get in ! The houses are still there today, Joan

My back door is never locked, day or night. when i get home from work i very often find my older grand children at my house, or neices and nephews. we have got up in the morning and found one of our nephews asleep on the sofa many times. the lights are left on all night in the kitchen and front hallway, so they don't fall over should anyone turn up, Its a joke in the family, we can always stay at auntie Shirleys if we can't get home. One of this days i will find someone asleep on my sofa that i don't know. lol. Shirley

Dorothy, I have the book that went with that programme, just not got round to reading it yet. Will have to search it out Dee x

Hallo Dee My husband's Welsh grandparents lived in a 17th century terrace of 4 houses. They lived at one end and his aunty at the other. The front door was either left open in summer or unlocked in winter. Relatives and neighbours would walk in at any time 'Hallo?' I suppose up the top of a mountain it would be very unlikely that any strangers would be wandering about. When I was a small girl, our back door was always unlocked and neighbours would sometimes come round to the back. Now you can't get to the back door as there is a garage built on the side. My mother keeps the front door locked at all times. I know people round here who always lock their doors. My front door has a lock so it cannot be opened from the outside, but you can open it on the inside. I don't use our other lock because I always think if there was a fire I wouldn't want to be fiddling about unlocking doors, I'd just want to get out! nell

Nell and Shirley I was always in the dog house with my son when he was living here. I leave my french windows open in the summer, and he has walked in through them and found me either fast asleep, or at the computer with music on. He said anyone could have walked in and taken anything and I would never have known Dee ;-))

When I was a child, my grandmother and aunt lived in a block of flats in Southwark, London. They knew all the neighbours and doors were not locked and neighbours walked in and called out 'Hello' as they entered. By the time my Aunt died a few years ago, the time hen you could leave your doors open had long since passed, instead you had to add a chubb lock to the door. During my grandmother's day, the staircases were cleaned by a rpota of the neighbours. In latter days, they never seemed to be cleaned and smelled terrible. David

Dee, Not so much now I admit but up to 10yrs ago people in some places never locked their doors. I actually know of a place where 2 walkers came in and finding no one around they made tea and got something to eat --- they left money on the kitchen table! I'm miles from anyone but do lock up.

I live in fairly rural USA now and don't feel the need to always lock my doors. I suspect that part of the reason for the change is too many people in not enough space, so no-one feels responsible for anything/anyone or a sense of community. I remember seeing a short programme on global populations a while ago. The speeded up version of humanity's spread across the glove looked just as if some sort of virus was spreading. I can't help thinking that some sort of global disaster that brings the population back to much smaller (manageable?) levels is on the cards somewhere in our future.