What sounds and actions from the 1950s to. 1970s do you miss hearing or are glad are no more?

Tits not tips

I remember the rag and bone man on a horse and cart...shouted something I never understood! Great for recycling everything
The milk float delivering gold and silver top milk. Blue tips pecking at the lids to get at the cream.
Playing in the spinney with friends...imagination games, no Internet or mobile phones so made our own entertainment. Happy days.
I don't miss the frost on the inside of my bedroom window!

I miss the friendly chats from the days when the town shops were owned and staffed by locals who knew their customers personally. And the ding of the bell over the shop doorways of the smaller shops, welcoming my arrival and guaranteeing a friendly greeting from a familiar face. Life at a slower pace.

I must be quite lucky as I wake every day in spring and summer to the sound of birds chirruping away gaily - I live somewhere fairly rural. I think of my Gran every day due to this. She brought me up until my sister was born when I was 5 1/2. Lovely memories.

The coalman delivering sacks of coal on his wagon.

Birdsong, I miss the dawn chorus which used to be deafening, and very beautiful.

I loved that smell too Blondiescot. Also loved seeing steamrollers.

On the smell of tar - does anyone else remember popping the tar bubbles on the road in the summer (then getting a row from your mum for getting tar on your shoes or sandals)?

For me it's the sound of the milkman's float and the glass bottles being delivered to everyone.
I also feel quite nostalgic when hearing the shipping forecast.

packets of crisps with little blue salt twists in them

Foghorns, we used to go down to the Kent coast at Walmer and when we first went there on foggy nights you could hear three foghorns, each sounding diffeence, oddly quite comforting

....... and, yes, the Broadmoor 10.00am Monday siren.

The dawn chorus, so loud it would wake me up, even if I had only been in bed for about an hour after a night on the tiles.

Curtains being drawn, as a mark of respect for a neighbour on the day of the funeral. Black armbands as a sign of mourning.

Housewives used to get down on their hands and knees and scrub the front doorstep with a donkey stone. It was a source of great pride in having a clean and tidy doorstep. I've not seen a donkey stone for many years.

Bellanonna

The sound of old fashioned push lawnmowers

I use one of those….🤓

I miss the gentle sound of a manual lawnmower.

My grandpa used to buy me honeycomb on a stick, wrapped in spotted paper.

What I miss most is the sound of kids playing outside. I was a child of the 50s and 60s and was never indoors. There would be gangs of us playing out.

My kids were born in the 80s and played outside in all weathers.

When did kids stop going outside? We live in a very large village with several hundred kids but you very rarely see them playing out.

GagaJo
The sturdiness of the metal bins as they rarely, if ever, flew along the street on the wind!!
I feel very fortunate that my neighbour just along our little street has 3 young children that play out in the garden, and they never seem to argue even if the littlest one does occasionally hurt herself and has a little cry, but she's soon back to playing with her older brothers!
I miss hearing my friends play in the woods, climbing trees, calling to each other how much farther they should stretch for the large cluster of nuts!
Mr. Stonehouse with his horse and cart delivering milk!
People washing their cars in the back lanes with buckets of water or hosepipes.
Old lawn mowers, like BellaNonna!
Neighbours going about their lives without too much noise or arguments!!
The meal bells at school, the sounds of the cooks in the dining hall.
The bristles on the brooms as we did 'surrounds' at school or swept out our day-rooms!

Spinnaker

The sound of the pit buzzer - especially on New Year's Eve when it sounded at midnight to herald the new year.

For me the sound at New Year was all the ships in the docks on the Clyde sounding their sirens at midnight. No ships now…

Ziplok

The smell of tar when the council used to come and re-tarmac the roads in the summer holidays (I think all the Mums must have groaned inwardly as tar was inevitably traipsed indoors or got on our clothes).
As others mention, the pit hooter designating the start and end of shifts, the coal lorry delivering the coal, and the rag and bone man calling out.

I remember around 1976 getting tar on my clothes and skin. Oh I loved the smell, still do, and my mum rubbing warmed-up Lurpak (the only butter she'd buy) on my knees etc to remove the tar!

Our milk was also delivered by a lovely grey horse pulling a cart, with the milkman dressed in white.
My Nan used to give me a carrot and I would rush out and feed the horse.
This was North London in the early 50’s. The horse was stabled in the Lane just across the main road near us.

The man who went around lighting the gas lights and the funny smell the gas lights made in the house.
All the men going to work early and the sound of their clogs.
Steam trains I loved the smell they made. All the women from one family going to a house after someone had died and trying on all the mourning clothes on the tick from the Co op.

The sound of children getting the belt at school...

There’s a lady in our village wears a pinny like that! My granddad had some of those wooden butter paddles. I remember the siren from the local asylum which went off when a patient escaped. Used to terrify me.

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Housewives always wearing a pinny all day
Metal rollerskates that you adjusted with a little key that always got lost.
The sound of children playing games like cricket and rounders in the street in the evenings.
Being sent to the corner shop for 20 Woodbines for your dad and being able to keep the 2d change.

The milkman calling out “Milko”
I knew it meant I could have the top of the milk on my porridge.
Also the clop of the dray horses hooves as the brewery wagon came down the lane to my grandparents pub.