I find as I am getting older that I often reflect back on how things have changed from when I was a kid. What do you remember ?

Here are some of the things that come to mind, 

 

Dad starting the car with a handle.

Mother fighting with a clothes wringer

Lighting a fire in the living room.

Carrying coal

Lighting it with paraffin block firelighters.

Keeping pigeons as pets

Sunday night bathtime

Test card on TV

Only 2 channels

45, 33 and 78 records

Radiograms

Fruit salad, black-jacks, bronco busters

Coppers had capes that walked the street.

Milk delivered in glass bottles

Phonecall from a box in the street.

Party lines

Pathe News before the A and B movie

Saturday cinema

Saturday job in a Butchers

Sunday was a day of rest and everything was closed.

Playing "kick the can" 

 

 

What do you remember ? Not what you were told about but actually remember from when you were a kid ?

Rag n Bone Man,

Watching color TV for the first time.

Building my own bike from scrap pieces.

Building huge bonfires for a month before bonfire night

Delivering two heavy bags of Sunday papers

 

Council vehicles flushing out the street gullies

Bob a Job week and the accompanying "job done" stickers

1/2 day closing on wednesdays

8 track cassettes

Radios and Tv's requiring "warming up"

Colour "trade test transmissions" on TV 

Watch with mother & Jackanory

Thunderbirds , Captain Scarlet, Stingray etc

The Double Deckers and The Banana Splits show

Setting fire to other peoples bonfires just before bonfire night

Building dens

Clackers

Spud guns

Shoes with animal footprint soles

Snake belts

String undies

Grandads all in one underwear with "bomb hatch"

Granny's clothes maiden that was hoisted up to the ceiling by a rope

Steel "segs" in shoes

5 button waistbands

Building "go karts" from old prams

Father sweeping the chimney

Dampers in fireplaces

Father bricking up the fireplaces

Mothers monday "washing" day

Airing cupboards

"The front room"

Pantry's 

Instant mashed potato

"Vesta " Chinese meals

"Tea Cosies" 

Sickly kids with leg irons

Cod liver oil , Castor oil & liquid paraffin

"Kaolin and Morphine" medicine

"Izal" Toilet paper

Lucky Bags

Sweet Cigarettes

Action transfers

Imitation tattoos

Canned Shandy (not more than 2% proof)

Tobacconists

Snuff

Pipe Cleaners

Table Lighters

Cigarette coupons and the related catalogue

Golliwogs

Collecting and playing "Conkers"

The "corona" fizzy drink deliveries

Kays catalogue

"Pear and Dean" advertisements at the movies

The National anthem every night on TV and at the movies

Public information films 

The distinctive smell when walking past pubs

 

I could go on for ever!

 

 

 

 

Road sweeps with their cart and brushes

The smell of coal when the coal man delivered

Pea soupers

Embassy cigarettes 

Parade magazine 

Scarlet fever

The winter of 63

Tangerines at Christmas time.

England winning the World Cup

The bomb craters on Belmont downs

The spittoon in the public bar of the local and the sound of a direct hit.

Paraffin heaters

Kent having a good cricket team.

 

 

10 minutes ago, Farmerslife said:

Road sweeps with their cart and brushes

The smell of coal when the coal man delivered

Pea soupers

Embassy cigarettes 

Parade magazine 

Scarlet fever

The winter of 63

Tangerines at Christmas time.

England winning the World Cup

The bomb craters on Belmont downs

The spittoon in the public bar of the local and the sound of a direct hit.

Paraffin heaters

Kent having a good cricket team.

 

 

I remember sitting and counting those Embassy coupons and putting elastic bands around the bundles 

 

Had scarlet fever too ! 😀

 

Catalogues were Freemans and Grattan

4 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

I remember sitting and counting those Embassy coupons and putting elastic bands around the bundles 

 

Had scarlet fever too ! 😀

 

Catalogues were Freemans and Grattan

I confess  looking at the ladies underwear section......................admit it

The Sunday walk with my parents and sister. I hated it.

 

 

We had the only telephone in the street.

Sometimes neighbors came to use it for important calls like calling a doctor, who would make a house visit.

 

 

 

Later, when we visited my grandmother about 70km away and we returned home again, we agreed to call her and let her phone ring 3 times to let her know we arrived back home. No point wasting money on an actual long-distance call.

 

 

I have to agree with many of the above. Mine ?

Parrafin heater in the bathroom.

Chapped legs in the winter from wearing shorts.

Before Corona the fizzy drinks man brought Neptune .

Gran and Grandad arriving on Boxing day.

Train spotting .

Cod liver oil and malt , loved it.

The misery of trying to make snowballs when wearing woolen mittens.

Eating sandwiches while watch a real steam roller at work.

Not being allowed out to play on a Sunday .

Bonfire night when I was about 13 and kissing Jennifer Parsons who lived next door.

YES !  that awful  radiogram. Playing 78s with a needle in the pickup arm.

Guess my age from the above .

Fossicking for scrap brass, copper, aluminium and lead at the local garbage dump. I bought my first bicycle with the proceeds.

 

Caddying for rich and influential people. Golf exposed the true character of most. Sad when I had to stop when I turned 18. My first win in competition.

 

Going to a college on a scholarship. Being called a freak by sons of rich people because I had an eidetic memory.

 

My first sex. I still wonder what she would look like now.

 

My mother's roast lamb, coconut ice, and lemon meringue pie.

 

The deaths of Stalin and Churchill.

I remember the milkman arriving every morning clanging the glass bottles and leaving the milk 

 

Do they still have them in any countries nowadays?

1 hour ago, Bday Prang said:

Council vehicles flushing out the street gullies

Bob a Job week and the accompanying "job done" stickers

1/2 day closing on wednesdays

8 track cassettes

Radios and Tv's requiring "warming up"

Colour "trade test transmissions" on TV 

Watch with mother & Jackanory

Thunderbirds , Captain Scarlet, Stingray et

 

1 hour ago, Bday Prang said:

Building dens

Clackers

Spud guns

 

1 hour ago, Bday Prang said:

Building "go karts" from old prams

 

1 hour ago, Bday Prang said:

Airing cupboards

All of the above, climbing the tallest tree we could find, mum & dad sunning themselves in the back garden on a Sunday, after the roast dinner, train set, Scalextric, Meccano, 2 weeks seaside holiday every year, no car ever train or coach, dads push bike, being told to take my shoes off in doors to stop wearing out the carpet, Red Rover all day bus pass when my friend and I would travel to the furthest points we could, wondering around the back alleyways/streets in London, with no fear or knowledge of stranger danger.

No religion in our house, freedom to go and do whatever we wanted, told to go play outside...................................................................

8 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Fossicking for scrap brass, copper, aluminium and lead at the local garbage dump. I bought my first bicycle with the proceeds.

 

Caddying for rich and influential people. Golf exposed the true character of most. Sad when I had to stop when I turned 18. My first win in competition.

 

Going to a college on a scholarship. Being called a freak by sons of rich people because I had an eidetic memory.

 

My first sex. I still wonder what she would look like now.

 

My mother's roast lamb, coconut ice, and lemon meringue pie.

 

The deaths of Stalin and Churchill.

You reminded me ; Lemon meringue pie , oh how I loved that. Roast beef oh a Sunday , I loved the burnt bit on the end.

As for first sex.  It was only with me but I soon got the hang of it.

9 minutes ago, georgegeorgia said:

I remember the milkman arriving every morning clanging the glass bottles and leaving the milk 

 

Do they still have them in any countries nowadays?

I remember that sound from primary school.

The janitor heated some crates before the break. 

We could opt between plain milk and chocolate milk. Obviously, I preferred chocolate milk. 

eating cherries while sitting in the branches of the cherry tree.

Just now, OneMoreFarang said:

I remember that sound from primary school.

The janitor heated some crates before the break. 

We could opt between plain milk and chocolate milk. Obviously, I preferred chocolate milk. 

Yes 

Wonder what happened to the milkmen?

They used arrive at like 530am 

Running from truck 

2 hours ago, Bday Prang said:

Council vehicles flushing out the street gullies

Bob a Job week and the accompanying "job done" stickers

1/2 day closing on wednesdays

8 track cassettes

Radios and Tv's requiring "warming up"

Colour "trade test transmissions" on TV 

Watch with mother & Jackanory

Thunderbirds , Captain Scarlet, Stingray et

 

2 hours ago, Bday Prang said:

Building dens

Clackers

Spud guns

 

2 hours ago, Bday Prang said:

Building "go karts" from old prams

 

2 hours ago, Bday Prang said:

Airing cupboards

All of the above, climbing the tallest tree we could find, mum & dad sunning themselves in the back garden on a Sunday, after the roast dinner, train set, Scalextric, Meccano, 2 weeks seaside holiday every year, no car ever train or coach, dads push bike, being told to take my shoes off in doors to stop wearing out the carpet, Red Rover all day bus pass when my friend and I would travel to the furthest points we could, wondering around the back alleyways/streets in London, with no fear or knowledge of stranger danger.

No religion in our house, freedom to go and do whatever we wanted, told to go play outside...................................................................

Helping the milkman at weekends, delivering newspapers to 6 shops in the evening and then standing selling them from those tin boxes. Recording the top 10 from the old radio on a Sunday afternoon. Dad calling the TV a trash box, he would sit in the kitchen listening to radio 4 every night. 

Snobs

marbles

hoola hoops

65 special

juke box jury

black jacks sweets

chips at 4 old pence

brylcreame

watching England win the world cup!

jumpers for goal posts

gas man emptying meter and giving money back

 

 

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

The Sunday walk with my parents and sister. I hated it.

 

 

We had the only telephone in the street.

Sometimes neighbors came to use it for important calls like calling a doctor, who would make a house visit.

 

 

 

Later, when we visited my grandmother about 70km away and we returned home again, we agreed to call her and let her phone ring 3 times to let her know we arrived back home. No point wasting money on an actual long-distance call.

 

 

we were only one of two in the street, party line with local butcher. Sometimes you would pick up and hear somebody ordering chops or liver. Still can remember the number 61740,

12 minutes ago, n00dle said:

eating cherries while sitting in the branches of the cherry tree.

Scrumping apples (and plumbs). Penny for the guy, buying fireworks as a kid. Catching tidlers out of 'the ditch', catching newts out of a farmers pond and getting chased by him, finding slow worms under bits of tin on waste ground................thin pancakes once a year just sugar and lemon......

Growing up in the the 50s and 60s was the best time for me I was lucky to have a good mum and dad, and a house to live in. 

Green shield stamps

Double Diamond

Party 7's

Watneys red barrelCannon 

Cans of " LongLife" beer

Pony (the little drink with the big kick)

Gold label ( adverts with David Attenborough)

Campari Adverts with Leonard Rossiter and Joan Collins

Hi Karate

Dad's Home brew (Served from a Bar in "the front room ")

Penny Towers in Pubs

The Guys from "william press" coming round to convert us to natural gas

Those large rising and falling storage tanks for the old town gas

French Cricket on the beach 

Battenberg cake

Salmon or Beef paste sandwiches

Collecting "money back" pop bottles

Players No.6 bought with proceeds from the above

Pot Black

The reading of the football scores and the "teleprinter"   Frank Bough and Dickie Davies

Spot the ball

American cops  Cannon , Ironside, Kojak

The Outer limits

Its a knockout

Lift off (with aisha)

Friday its 5 to 5 and its Cracker Jack,  Lesley Crowther , Michael Aspel ?   Peter Glase  (Doh!)

Michael Bentine's Potty Time

Subbuteo football

Etch a sketch

Mousetrap

Rain soaked family holidays stuck in the caravan in north wales playing Monopoly 

 

Jesus I'm getting emotional I'm filling up

6 minutes ago, brianthainess said:

Scrumping apples (and plumbs). Penny for the guy, buying fireworks as a kid. Catching tidlers out of 'the ditch', catching newts out of a farmers pond and getting chased by him, finding slow worms under bits of tin on waste ground................thin pancakes once a year just sugar and lemon......

Sticklebacks and water boatmen,  (probably extinct now)

8 minutes ago, brianthainess said:

Growing up in the the 50s and 60s was the best time for me I was lucky to have a good mum and dad, and a house to live in. 

If I remember correctly 99.99% of kids my age were blessed with both parents, Everybody's dad had a job  Some mums worked too mine was a Shorthand Typist , worked for "littlewoods"  in the "typing pool"

Nearly drowning in the Lancaster canal.

 

All us kids in the street being squeezed into an old ladies parlour to watch the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on a tiny black and white TV.

8 minutes ago, Bday Prang said:

If I remember correctly 99.99% of kids my age were blessed with both parents, Everybody's dad had a job  Some mums worked too mine was a Shorthand Typist , worked for "littlewoods"  in the "typing pool"

Some parents were nasty to their kids though, mine never hit me ever, but I was pretty much 'well behaved' and didn't break 'the unwritten rules'. 

 

Do you remember
Chalk hearts melting on a playground wall?
Do you remember
Dawn escapes from moon washed college halls?
Do you remember
The cherry blossom in the market square?
Do you remember
I thought it was confetti in our hair?

 

 

Schoolgirls when I was a schoolboy 🤔

Playing little Richard records at full volume

Drainpipe trousers with lime green socks

Walking 2 miles to school

School dinners

Building Dinkey Toy race tracks in the farmers ploughed field

Digging up leaf mold from the woods and selling it off my home built go cart

Buying a penny worth of broken biscuits from the bakery shop

A V1 coming over and mum putting me under the table...

Christmas tree smell once a year in the 'front room'

Tin bath in front of the fire once a week

Running outside to see the sweeps brush come out of the chimney

Sledging on the frozen roads (slopes) near the house

Doctor doing house calls with his little medicine bag

Morecombe and Wise,  (Sharing a double bed with no "implications" whatsoever)

Carry on films , Sid James, Kenneth Williams,and all the rest of the team

Eric Sykes

Rich man Poor man with a young Danny Trejo

Bouquet of barbed wire

Sunday night at the palladium and the Royal variety show

Radio Luxembourg, and Caroline

Twice daily postal deliveries

2,3,4 and 5 star petrol

Esso blue

Blue invalid carriages (spaz Chariots)

Drip dry "bri nylon" shirts

Ben Shermans

Doc Martins

 

Those really were the golden years, when did the rot set in, why did it all go so wrong?  Who or what is to blame?