Another snippet of social history

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I’m still sorting through things left after my parents died (more than ten years ago) and that includes things left after my great-aunt and uncle died (in 1974 and ’76) which have been left since then. Most of the big things have been dealt with by now, but every now and then I find some forgotten small items tucked away. Today, in an old wooden box, I found a selection of clothes pegs, which included the usual wooden pegs which I use nowadays, and several of what must have been at the time ‘new-fangled’ plastic pegs, but also a handful of the traditional ‘gypsy-made’ wooden pegs, made from a split stick wrapped around with strips of metal. There are some of the ‘dolly’ style pegs too, which you can see are hand-carved by their not-quite-symmetrical shapes. Unfortunately all these older ones have been attacked by woodworm as you can see, but I wanted to take a photo before I threw them out. I have only ever read about these pegs before, for example in the children’s story ‘Little Grey Rabbit’s Washing Day’ by Alison Uttley, published in 1938. Gypsy women used to travel the country selling these hand-carved pegs door to door, while the men often worked as tinkers, mending metal pots and pans. I’ve found a couple of pans repaired with little circular metal patches riveted on as well. All that is gone now, people just buy plastic pegs (which generally aren’t as good as the wooden ones, but when they break they just buy more) and toss out perfectly good pans all the time, without even waiting for them to wear out! Those who complain about the cost of living have no idea what it means to really have to be careful with every penny. All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2024.