Do you remember...

I still use Astral Face cream.

Mothers ‘posh’ was our Barathea Blazers, which she boasted about continuously. My brother and I were the only ones in our street who passed the 11+ and she loved to parade us In our uniforms. She also boasted about the blazers to all of my aunts. I did not really understand why so I asked one of my cousins.she said that she ‘had no idea’, but that all 6 of the aunties used to call her ‘Mrs Barathea Blazer’ behind her back.

We used to have the Gibbs toothpaste in a tin as children it was pink. My dad would only use red Lifebouy soap, but the rest of us used a variety of different soaps ranging from Pears, Palmolive, Lux, Camay, and sometimes a new soap would come out and would get a free sample through the letterbox also free samples of various toothpastes. The shampoo I remember most was Drene and we only had our hair washed once a week unless their was a special occasion when it would be washed again. No going outside with wet hair as you would end up with a bad cold or worse by all accounts! No hair washing or baths either at that time of month. I remember the washing powder in my childhood being Oxydol or Rinso and Stergene in a glass bottle for handwashing woollens and washing the pots. You got 2d back refund on the return of the bottle. Also a lot of women then would have a weekly shampoo and set at the hairdressers and never wash it at home in between visits.

I used to love the smell of calamine lotion used on our rashes when we has chicken pox and German measles. Used to hate the taste of Virol malt! We had hand-me-downs. I had two older brothers and had the embarrassment of having to wear their patent leather Page boy shoes with a large silver buckle on the front!

I do remember sachets of Palmolive shampoo that had to be mixed with hot water to dissolve the powder. Either that or my mum put in persil and didn't tell us it wasn't shampoo !!!!

My old Grandma used Carbolic soap, which I loved the smell of, she had a tub and a posser to wash clothes and a mangle. The outside toilet had a wooden seat that was lovely and warm and newspaper with string threaded through. There was a big black range where she made toast on the fire and spread dripping on it and a rice pudding always cooking in the oven bit of it.
My young Grandma used Imperial Leather and had an inside bathroom, she wore powder and lipstick and seemed very glamorous to me.
At home we used Camay and always had the "latest" of everything as my Mum was very modern.

Being given a spoonful of Virol after breakfast and having to take a Haliborange tablet every morning. Cod liver oil and National orange juice and dried milk. Horrible suspender belts and sanitary towels with a special belt. Gibbs Dentifrice, Lifebuoy soap,and silvikrin powder shampoo. Clothes which were always too long as mother tried to get the wear out of them. Having no say in the clothes we wore. Ice on the inside of windows and always having cold knees in winter. But having fun playing with the children in our street, skipping, ball games and roaming the fields and woods with a jam sandwich and bottle of weak orange squash and being told to stay out all day and give mother some peace.

I remember my mother would baste my chest and back in camphorated oil when I had a cold and put a bit under my nose so I'd be breathing in the vapour all night. She'd do the same with Vic vapour rub too. We would have tinned fruit and evaporated milk on it as a Sunday tea treat and salmon paste sandwiches. Remember Camp coffee? I hated it, it was made from chicory not coffee beans but everybody seemed to buy it, eventually mam would buy nescafe coffee powder in a little tin.

Buffybee my grandmother had a range in the kitchen too. She used to put the porridge oats in the bottom part at night, and we would have lovely creamy porridge for breakfast. They had an outside loo too- a two seater!

I had a cup of Camp coffee a couple of weeks ago in a 1940s themed tea shop for old times sake. It was awful

Do you remember the picture on the Camp bottle? A servant holding a tray with a bottle of Camp, with a picture on it of a servant holding a tray with a bottle of Camp, with a picture on it of a servant holding a tray with a bottle of Camp.......

Tights didn’t come in until the fifties although mediaeval men wore them. At my school we had to wear three quarter socks until we were thirteen then it was thick lisle stockings.
Boys wore short trousers until they were thirteen no matter what the weather.

So many memories from my childhood here.

Does anyone else remember green gel shampoo in a jar? Mum always washed my hair with it and I had the softest, shiniest hair. Later she changed to Vosene, I always loved the smell of it.

We always had cut up newspaper toilet paper (my job to cut up and thread on string), also tightly rolled newspaper spills for my GF to light his pipe with.

Twice a year my GF would send me to the local hardware shop to buy a bottle of Spirits of Salts to clean the toilet bowl. The lady in the shop sealed the top of the brown fluted bottle with melted wax and told me never to open it. My GF poured it into the toilet, put the lid down and waited. There was then a loud bang! I always expected the toilet to be blown apart. But miraculously the brown staining at the bottom of the bowl was gone and it was sparkling clean.

Who remembers Cooltan suncream? It smelled lovely and I never got sunburned.

Did anyone else's mother spray the rugs/carpets and mattresses with DDT spray in a hand pump spray every Spring?

And oh the lovely memory of making toast on a wire toasting fork in front of the coal fire.

I could go on and on...........

I adored Cremona foam. You needed Izal toilet paper to make music with a comb. Not available now. You can still get Eurythmol toothpaste. In Kent there was a fizzy drink called Bing. My granny used to buy it when we went to visit and I was allergic to it and came out in big red blotches. I hadn’t seen it for years but at Dover there is a recreation of the effects of the wartime bombing and shelling and on the floor of a burnt out shop was a bottle of Bing!

You were lucky happysexagenarian to be able to clean the toilet in that way. We had to empty the water out with a cloth and then get our hands down and scrub with Vim. My worst job as a child was emptying the ashes from the fire grate and all the dusting afterwards and sweeping the carpet with a stiff brush.

Eucryl!

How about Beechams Pills and Syrup of Figs. Reading School Friend while sucking a liquorice stick. Can't remember the name of the boys comic of the time. I preferred that.

Yes syrup of figs for whatever ailed you, I remember it well blueskies
I liked Girls Crystal comic, loved to catch up with the serials each week. The Four Marys.
I think boys had Hotspur and Roy of the Rovers.

oh remember Beechams powders? don't know why but I liked the taste of those

Sara65 we had to wear "indoor shoes" at primary school (to protect the cork hall floor) and lots of kids had the jelly shoes. They always seemed to be red. I always wanted some but mum declared they were common and only poor people had them (probably because they came from woolies!!). I had boring plimsolls instead!!

We used to be given syrup of figs and lovely orange juice which came in dumpy little bottles, which our mum got from 'the welfare' whatever that was.

3dognight ---I remember that winter, 1962/1963, very well. I had a sickly toddler and a newborn, the snow started on Boxing Day and there was snow on the ground until the end of March. We had no heating because there were no coal deliveries. My mother lent us a little, smelly oil heater and I made a little" tent "out of blankets around the heater where we huddled for a bit of warmth. When the milk was delivered each day, there was a frozen 2 inches sticking out of the neck of the bottle with the cardboard cap balanced on top.

I remember being given a spoonful of malt and cod liver oil every morning, it was in a jar and looked like soft toffee, I quite liked it, also rose hip syrup was given to us as children. I often got a cup of oxo made from the cubes and hot water poured on it to warm me up after playing out in the snow

I remember my mum being quite shocked that I chose to try tampons.
It was always Dr Whites No 1’s or No 2’s with the dreaded sanitary belt for her.

I have enjoyed this thread, it has brought back so many memories. Does anybody remember Eifel Tower lemonade crystals?

Bathsheba

We were never allowed out after having a bath, why?

Luckily, I suppose, we only had a bath once a week, so it didn’t interfere with out playing outside too much.

I was told, never ever to mention my periods in front of my dad or brother, I never really had any conversation with my mother, a new packet of sanitary towels would appear in my top drawer every month, as if by magic!