In 1951 I went with my family to London to stay with relatives. The man of the house was high up in the trade union movement and he took us to Transport House to his office. Attached to his desk was a pencil sharpener . You turned a handle and it sharpened your pencil . As a 7 year old I thought it was wondeful . I later discovered this same relative turned down a knighthood twice . He advised Churchill during the war on keeping up coal froduction and other matters. My mother used to tell me he was Frank Cousins right hand man but he never forgot his working class roots .
Saturday morning children’s cinema. A crowd of us would go if it was someone’s birthday. There was usually a cartoon followed by a singalong with a red circle bouncing along the words on the screen. Then a film, maybe a western?
Not an adult in sight.
I remember seeing the very first broadcast from ITV and there were advertisments between the programmes!
Remember the fluffy (white on the pictures on hoardings) cat that ate cat food by dipping his one front paw into the opened tin?
And Shipham's meat paste adds, where "shiphams for tea, for tea, for tea" was sung by dancing jars of their paste to The Blue Danube?
The year before the advent of ITV I was invited to a school-friend's home to play after school (I was eight I think) and their house had central heating in every room. All doors inside stood wide open in the MIDDLE OF WINTER!
I just could not believe it!
SparklyGrandma
Ski yoghurts! Did I remember right that there was a pear yoghurt in their range and a mandarin one?
And BOAC shoulder bags.
There was a spicy apple one with sultanas too, it must have been around 1970.
Jane43
My friend’s brother had a friend from America who came to stay with the family, he gave my friend a 3D viewer and some slides I think it was called a View Master. My friend and I were very impressed.
I had one of those, it had pictures of zoo animals. I was so excited but it was actually pretty boring in the end.
Discovering my cousin was a Lancaster bomber pilot in WW11 and was awarded the DSM for getting his crew back safely after being hit by the Germans. I thought he could walk on water. Next would be family getting a record player and of course the modern records of the day.
The first washing up liquid in a squeèzy plastic bottle. It was appropriately called Squeezy,
Our first car with automatic windows, such a novelty!!
I remember being shown a colur photo by a neighbour. My dad's camera took black and white pictures. I was given an instamatic camera for passing the 11+ and he ended upborrowing it a lot!
Going to stay with my god parents and visiting his big store, and going up in the LIFT! wow
My friend's family had a silver cover in which their jars of jam sat. They used a spoon in their jam. In our house we stuck the knife in. Very posh!
Sir Edmund Hillary conquering Everest.
I was very impressed when a man from Pitcairn island tracked down our family and told us that one of our ancestors was a mutineer.
Obviously rebelliousness runs in the family 😂
We went to see relatives mid week (can’t remember why). I was told to get the milk from the fridge and there was a partly eaten roast chicken. Can you imagine having a chicken mid week?? We were very lucky if we got a chicken on a Sunday it was a real treat. They were well off.
Adelaide66
The first washing up liquid in a squeèzy plastic bottle. It was appropriately called Squeezy,
Another thing my mother was given by one of the ‘travellers’ who came into the shop she worked in!
Tree Top orange and passion fruit squash was another.
A plumbed in bath with hot water pouring out of a tap. In fact I was in trouble because I used all the hot water. It seemed sheer luxury.
In 6th form, we were taken to the computer factory " Ferranti"
which occupied a full floor of a redundant cotton mill. Valves were as big as milk bottles. people were walking around with large reels of magnetic tape clutched to their chests. It only did as much as a desk top calculator (remember those ?). Even GGC don't believe me
I developed a dislike of Horlicks as we were given horlicks tablets to replace our school milk which was withdrawn after the radiation leak at Windscale/ Sellafield. All the milk in a large area of the NW Lancashire and Cumberland had to be thrown away as it was contaminated, for a long time. Not many people believe me.
I remember getting a house where we had a new pink bath. We still visited my gran in Wales - who had no indoor plumbing
When I was nine, in 1974, we were in Lichfield with my grandmother and we went to a Chinese restaurant. It was the first time I had ever eaten Chinese food and I thought it was terribly exotic. My dad advised that Sweet and Sour Pork was a good introduction to Chinese food, so that is what I had on an ordinary dinner plus with a fork. Everyone else was the same - one dish on a plate. It was hugely inauthentic, but to us at the time seemed as if we were experiencing a true taste of the Far East.
When shops introduced plastic carrier bags my mum thought they were the best thing ever! Up until then brown paper carriers were the norm: if they got damp it was a race to get home before the bottom gave way and the handles were string that might as well have been cheesewire, they effectively cut off the circulation to your fingers.
*dinner plate.
My big brother was in the merchant navy when I was about 6 years old. He brought back from his travels a stereo record play. The speakers were the lid that split in two. He had each of them on a long wire on opposite sides of the room. It had the stacking record spindle where the records dropped down to the turntable. He had the Elvis single Teddy Bear and played it at 78rpm and told me it was the Chipmonks singing. Prior to that I had only ever seen a wind up Gramophone
I was 10 when I got my first fountain pen along with all my classmates at primary school. It was an Osmiroid. I loved that pen!
Going to the chippy for a penny bag of "scratchings." These were the bits of batter that had fallen of the fish, etc.. Imagine my disappointment when new owners took over and didn't know what I was talking about!
Also little sachets of Spree drink which you diluted with water. After school we would buy them and drink them "neat."
Being sent to the corner shop by my mum to buy a penny Oxo cube
Party line telephones-sharing with next door
Being hit in junior school with a ruler for not being able to thread a needle with my right hand (I'm left handed!)
A walk talkie doll was very impressive to me and one with washable hair!
Later DH renting a TV with Ceefax.
And the first Sinclair Spectrum computer.
My Dad using a blow lamp.
Wearing wigs in my teens.
Going to Sunday school.
Registering is free, easy, and means you can join the discussion, watch threads and lots more.
Register now »Already registered? Log in with:
Gransnet »Get our top conversations, latest advice, fantastic competitions, and more, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
