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Memories from way back

(146 Posts)
TillyTrotter Sun 04-Aug-24 11:24:11

I bought Germolene this week for the first time in years.
The smell took me back 60 years.
It’s distinctive and hasn’t changed.
My mum used it as the only antiseptic for cuts+ grazes on my knees and hands.

Dettol was the kitchen sink disinfectant, and Vim for scouring jobs.
Do you remember your childhood from fragrances which take you straight back there?

TillyTrotter Sun 04-Aug-24 12:47:01

That’s ridiculous NotaGran!.
Oh, the tricky rubber buttons on liberty bodices.
A whole clove to bite on if I had toothache.
Also I knew mum thought I was poorly if she gave me Lucozade.

Babs03 Sun 04-Aug-24 12:54:00

Brylcream slapped on my old dads hair.
Made it look greasy.
Andrews liver salts and kaolin and morphine for gippy tums.
Also remember my old mum giving me something called Indian brandy when I had period pains.

Granmarderby10 Sun 04-Aug-24 12:54:03

I’m convinced that old fashioned wash powders like Dreft and others (pre biological detergents and front loaders) made washing smell so much nicer.
Mum bought all the different coloured Camay soaps along with the coloured Andrex. It was a life of sheer luxury in those days😀

Babs03 Sun 04-Aug-24 12:56:22

Does anyone remember the lovely orange juice they would had out to mums at the clinic. I remember loving the taste.

mabon1 Sun 04-Aug-24 12:58:04

Pears soap. I still use it.

Babs03 Sun 04-Aug-24 13:02:29

In our school loos there was carbolic soap and awful izal loo paper.

HowVeryDareYou2 Sun 04-Aug-24 13:04:25

4711 cologne reminds me of my Granny. She used Pond's cold cream, as well.

BlueBelle Sun 04-Aug-24 13:09:31

Still buy pink germalene love the smell, TCP, Dettol, calamine lotion, and Vicks is still around but the smell and the heat is as weak as weak now, nothing like our original Vicks

Primrose53 Sun 04-Aug-24 13:57:40

JudyBloom

My Mum's 'Tweed' perfume, her home-made scones and apple pies. I also loved the pink Gibbs toothpaste in a tin, (the nearest to it now I find is Euthymol pink toothpaste in a tube). The lead on newly sharpened school pencils.

Tweed perfume is so evocative. If i get a whiff of it it takes me right back to being about 15. I worked in a gift shop at weekends with a lady well in her 60s. She always wore tweed perfume and was such good fun. Even with our huge age difference we became great friends.

biglouis Sun 04-Aug-24 14:08:44

The smell which takes me back is that of malt. When we were kids my mother used to get huge jars of cod liver oil and malt from the clinic. After the war it was popular as a cheap dietary supplement for a generation of undernourished children who needed a high carbohydrate feed as well as more vitamins.

She made me and my sister take a huge spoonful each day. It was quite a ritual. My sister hated it and had to be persuaded and cajoled. I loved the taste and often sneaked an extra spoonful when my mother's back was truned. I believe this product has recently been re-launched.

winterwhite Sun 04-Aug-24 15:45:02

Oh yes Baba03 I remember 'Food office orange juice' as we called it.
The peppery smell of lupins - probably still smell like that but have never been able to grow them.
Disgusting milk of magnesia
Moth balls

dalrymple23 Sun 04-Aug-24 16:04:12

Didn't that orange juice come in a fairly small bottle with a blue screw top?

What about Scott's Emulsion? Used to be given a tablespoonful every morning. No idea why!

Vicks. Indispensible. TCP still in our kitchen cupboard. Used frequently. Love the smell.

Proper mothballs would be a bonus in our lives. These modern "green" ones do not work.

Shelflife Sun 04-Aug-24 16:12:30

I remember the large brown glass jars of malt and cod liver oil. My siblings and me were given a large spoonful in winter before we set off for school, I loved it. Yes Gibbs tooth paste in a round tin. TCP for bumps and bruises , the smells I remember well.
Anyone remember Acdo laundry powder?

joannapiano Sun 04-Aug-24 16:17:49

I was given a large spoonful of Petrolagar (think that’s the spelling) every weekend, as I had constipation. It was lovely, like scented yoghurt.
I still use Pond’s Cold Cream.

Esmay Sun 04-Aug-24 16:18:54

Brasso
Silver polish
Nivea - which I still use today .
Sweet Brier tobacco
Anne French cleansing milk
Acetone
Coppertone suntan oil , which leaked into the wood of the dressing table .
Twinks home perms
Many soaps -
Camay
Coal tar
Knights Castile
Pears
French Fern
Sandalwood , which smelt incredible .
Johnson's talcum powder .

Max Factor Electrique and
Avon Topaz - both sat on Grandma's and Mum's dressing tables for years and never seemed to be used .
I used to open them and sniff .
I decided that I loved the topaz (on top of the tall bottle) and when I grew up I'd have a topaz and diamond encrusted tiara with a matching necklace, bracelet and ring !
Telling my grandma on the bus about my plans and including the vast stable of horses she'd smile indulgently and so did the passengers .

Visualising myself wearing beautiful jewellery I'd get Grandma's hideous fox stole from the wardrobe and wear it
It smelt horrendous of mothballs and decay .
Eventually it disappeared and I don't know what happened to the scents .

Redhead56 Sun 04-Aug-24 16:22:51

I didn't like the malt extract we used to be given. We also were given spoonfuls of syrup of figs.
I can remember all of the products mentioned takes me right back to childhood.
Now I can never remember where I parked my car can't find my keys or mobile.

Marmight Sun 04-Aug-24 16:24:43

Anyone remember Parrish’s Food? I haven’t a clue what it was for but it tasted and smelled like vomit. My Dad was another TCP fan. Sore throat or cough and out came the TCP bottle for a gargling session. Hamlet cigars at Christmas. The smell of the red leather seats in the brand new Ford Anglia remains in my nostrils to this day. Newly mown grass in summer while I was in bed at stupid ‘o clock on a school night. The smell of fireworks going off on a foggy Guy Fawkes night ….. Sooo many childhood ‘smell’ memories

TillyTrotter Sun 04-Aug-24 16:26:45

How kind your grandma was not to burst the bubble of dreams for your future Esmay.
Did anyone else’s mum keep a blue glass bottle of smelling salts in case of feeling faint?
I don’t know what the brand was.
I unscrewed it one day and had a whiff - it felt like it might blow my eyeballs out!!

NannyKnit Sun 04-Aug-24 16:33:20

Wood shavings. My Dad was a carpenter & that smell sends me back to his shed/workshop. I love it.

Babs03 Sun 04-Aug-24 16:43:46

The smell of boiled cabbage in school as school dinners were being cooked, and the faint whiff of sweaty feet and rubber in the gym hall.
Hated PE, communal cold showers and PE teachers checking we were all wearing bottle green knickers in keeping with uniform rules.

Grannynannywanny Sun 04-Aug-24 16:54:01

I loved the malt extract. My Mum gave us a large spoonful every day. It was in a jar with the brand name Virol.

I remember the thick concentrated free orange juice distributed at the Nhs baby clinics in the 50s and 60s . Probably tooth decay inducing but it did taste lovely. Goodness knows what was included in the list of ingredients.

Faierynan Sun 04-Aug-24 17:11:36

Walking home from School on a cold winters afternoon with the smell of coal fires burning, knowing soon I would be indoors getting warm in front of a lovely glowing fire. After playing around a friends house Sunday morning, on my way home, I could smell everybody's Sunday roast cooking.

Babs03 Sun 04-Aug-24 17:18:24

I loved the old coal fires though my old mum slaved over it and was never happier than when she got a gas fire.
The smell of toast slightly burning as we made toast over the fire on the end of the big brass fork we had next to the fireplace.
Generously buttered and eaten for supper.
Yum!
Toast never tasted so good.

FindingNemo15 Sun 04-Aug-24 17:32:46

Does anyone remember Collis Brown? Don't think you can buy it now.

BlueBelle Sun 04-Aug-24 17:48:11

I loved Virol and could have eaten the whole jar if allowed
We used to toast the bread on toasting forks when I was at my Nans use to get red mottled legs from sitting too close to the fire I used to hold a double page newspaper across half the fire to ‘draw it’ when we were starting the fire ( health and safety wow)
Used to help nan brasso all the brass items in her house