I cannot believe I used to…………

Not quite on topic, but a bit of nostalgia.

I remember Cadbury's chocolate bars for 6d old money, late 1950s early 1960s. All but one type was a grid of chocolate pillows, either ten arranged as two by five or twelve arranged two by six, I don't remember that detail, and each pillow was filled with the same flavour of liquidy stuff. I remember that one type was strawberry, one was coffee, there were various others but I forget the details.

The odd one out was a remarkable treat. It was a one-piece chocolate slab but with about six or seven moulded shapes, each different from the o, thers, each of which contained a different stuff. It was a mini-bar version of a box of milk tray chocolates. Amazing for 6d.

Thinking back from my present knowledge, someone would have needed to have made a mould for the machinery to produce that. Quite a work of art really. I wonder if they still have it in a museum-like collection somewhere.

Myself and a friend accepted an invitation to "a party" from three lads we met in a club, drove with them to a flat to discover the "party" was us and them. Fortunately for us, they were only interested in showing off their dance moves and called us a cab when we left. It never occurred to either of us until much much later how stupid we'd been. Different times? This would have been around 1971.

On holiday in Spain, had a holiday romance with Juan a lovely Spaniard. I cannot believe I would ride pillion on his motorbike and once or twice we zoomed along some roads that had a sheer drop down the mountain (well they looked like mountains to me at 17) and I actually saw a crashed car down the bottom of the so called mountain. My mother would have had a fit if she had known what I got up to on my holidays.

I can happily believe that I wore most of these things:

skirts so short that I had to squat rather than bend down,

green mascara and eye shadow, never wore blue being brown-eyed.

3 inch high heels

platform soles

clogs in the summer of 1973 when they were all the rage

a pillar box red skirt and waistcoat ( I have never worn red since)

Travelled alone from Glasgow to Esbjerg in the west of Jutland aged 16 - my first journey anywhere alone with no idea where I was going to spend the night after the audition at the Academy of Music I was attending. Found somehere respectable and cheap to stay and next day took the train to Hamburg to visit a school-friend who happened to be studying there.

Made my way from the main station to her address in the suburbs alone and without a city plan of Hamburg - a place I had never been to before, but I did speak fairly creditable German. Understood the subtext to the question "Are you Swedish" and just said "No, I am not" repressively as Scandinavian girls had a reputation in Germany then for being easy to get into bed!

Come to think of it, I never told my mother about that incident!

I feel furious that young people are being brought up to believe that the world is a dangerous place these days. Our parents tried to do that too, but at least we had the sense to go out and see for ourselves and found the world far less scary than they said it was.

I do know there are different dangers today, but facing them is part of maturing from teenager to adult in any day or age.

There were rapists and murrderers when we were young too, but we had been taught to defend ourselves. I clearly remember kicking a man where it hurt most, screaming and then running like hell in high heels!

Rake every ashtray in the house for butt ends to make into rollies when my late DH and I had no money to support his 20 a day and my 60 a day habit. (Quit smoking in 2005)

Put up with a misogynistic, self-righteous, judgemental partner - pre meeting DH - for 7 whole years before coming to my senses.

Be able to run, ride horses (which in fact you need to be REALLY fit to do) and think I was fat at size 12.

I also was a blue eyeshadow user

At my first job when I was 16, my skirts were so short someone said to me one day 'I see you've got your belt on but you forgot your skirt'.

Wore 6 inch platform shoes without falling over and a black floor length mac and blue eye shadow with white on the top part, thought l looked the bees knees, how wrong can you be!

Bottle brush hair like Bowie.
Weighed 7st 8lbs at 19!!! @ 5'7"
Henna'd hair red at 21 and never looked back until now when it's 1"all over and box dyed......
Hitched everywhere!
Wore 4"wooden platform clogs and lune pants
Drank 9(yes) pints of cider at Manchester students Union every Saturday night between 7pm and midnight ,@ 9pnce a pint!....1972-75
Married at 20 after a year "courting"
Had 2 boys and was back at work by age of 32!!! Working on to age 50 when emergency hysterectomy changed me forever....
Now weigh 15+ stone riddled with arthritis and 2 hips that ain't mine!!! But , probably actually fitter Inside than ever! Don't drink no smoking eat well/healthier.

Last girl in class to start periods (mortifying at the time)
Ditto wear a bra - snooty woman in shop telling me there were no bras that small.

I bleached my auburn hair nearly white my mum and her sisters were fuming at me. I looked like Dolly Parton without the boobs and all because of the names I was called. Duracell head, gingernut, have you rusted, etc and when I was a teenager is was awful. Now I'm thankful for my red hair, it's so thick and have hardly a grey hair and I'm 55.
Took my jeans in so tight I had to lie on the floor to pull up the zip and when I came home my poor mum had to pull them back off me.

Belong to a mountaineering class, climbed Tryfan and the Snowdon Horseshoe, including Crib Gogh. Even looking at videos of it scare me now. Also went caving in South Wales, squeezing though very small gaps - I was small and thin at the time, and knew if the big lad in front could get through, so could I - I'm so glad I did it when I could!

I can't believe I used think teachers/nurses/doctors had a vocation. That MPs/policemen/newspapers were honest and worked for 'the people'. Etc. Etc.

Made me laugh this post, Oh yes I wore blue eyeshadow, hitched around Wales on my own and abroad (with a friend), skirt never short as my mother saw to that. But creep in very late without shoes on and throwing stones at my sister's bedroom window as I had forgotten my key. My dad would have gone mad at that time in the morning! Now can't wait to get an early night! Oh happy days!

Chestnut

I can't believe I used to hitch hike on my own, London to Edinburgh. Late 1960s. It was mostly fine and the people were nice. I had a couple of incidents but I was so dismissive when they tried anything, and it somehow worked. At that age you think you're invincible.

I regularly hitch-hiked with friends but only ever once did it alone. It was a bank holiday and the bus I'd intended to catch wasn't running. I was picked up by two workmen who gave me a stern lecture about not hitch-hiking alone ever again. As they said"We are ok but not everyone is!" I took their advice however I did often pick up hitch-hikers when I was driving alone as I hated driving long distances alone - still do hate long journeys but now I just take regular stops for naps!

Wore a Liberty bodice.
Love, honour and obey were uttered by me at my wedding.
Didn’t swear till I was in my 30’s
I wore blue mascara for a couple of years.
Didn’t wear trousers till my Father died. (he didn’t think ladies should wear trousers) He’d say that trousers were worn by women and females and never ladies.

Have enough energy to work, rest and play. Now only have enough energy to rest.

GrandmasueUK

Wear a bell around my neck and paint on freckles!

Oh yes, me too. I was the full hippy. Still am underneath.

I kept a red mini dress that I had loved as a twenty year old ; it fitted so well - years later I found it in the attic and was horrified to think that I had leaned over a desk to answer the phone at work - luckily I bought expensive matching bras and knickers in those days. I fear the bra was probably on show too as the dress was soooo short!

I used to make my own sets of 'baby doll' dresses and matching knickerbockers. The dresses probably reached my hips, just. And the knickerbockers would be all puffy with elasticated legs and a little ruffle. I would go out in these, worn with a pair of white tights and black clumpy shoes tied in a huge ribbon. God I cringe now to think what I must have looked like, haha.

And yes, I sellotaped my fringe, slept in plastic spiky rollers, slapped on olive oil for sunbathing (if in my back garden the dog would come out and lick it off ).

Platform shoes - I remember one particular pair of sandals that were quite literally built on wooden blocks which were about 3" high. And I wore these when heavily pregnant. How I never fell off them and twisted an ankle heaven only knows.

When I shared a flat with 3 other girls in London, we used to have all night parties, then wake up in the morning, tidy our hair and make-up, put work clothes on and go to work. I don't know how we did it. (And oh yes, I remember well coming back to the flat in the evening with all the party mess from the night before to clear up ?)

Wear pants with a special tummy slimming section even though I was 5' 6" weighed 8 st 2lbs, and thought I was fat. Oh for those days again!

I love these threads.

Did anyone else clomp around in Dr Scholl Exercise Sandals in the 60's? What was that about? I broke up with a boyfriend when he wound down the window of his sports car and told me off for trying to run in them. I can see his point now. I must have looked and sounded like a bolting carthorse.

Elderly Person I loved your reminiscences about sweets. Why don’t you start a thread - I’ve a few old favourites to mention.

On this topic - I and friends rolled the waistbands of school skirts over (several times!) as there was a very strict rule about how many inches above your knees your skirt hem could be when kneeling and a visit to the headmistress for some minor transgression was not an enjoyable experience.. I don’t remember the number of inches permitted but it certainly wasn’t many! So unroll before entering school grounds then roll over again on leaving, hoping not to be spotted by one of the very strict ancient teachers!

Fishnet stockings in the 50s. - they didn’t ladder on old furniture desks in the office where I worked.

Clear nail varnish if you got a run in your stockings or tights, it stopped it going further.

They then stuck to your leg.