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What were you impressed with as a child that your DGC would laugh it now ?

(119 Posts)
Esmay Wed 20-Nov-24 17:01:46

Being invited to supper by missionary neighbours -I was thrilled that they had a toaster and after toasting their bread they put jam or Vegemite on it .
There was cake as well .
And on a different scale : being invited to tea at my schoolfriend's house and listening to him playing Chopin on his grand piano .
Only Liberace had a grand piano !

SparklyGrandma Wed 20-Nov-24 16:54:35

Ski yoghurts! Did I remember right that there was a pear yoghurt in their range and a mandarin one?

And BOAC shoulder bags.

hollysteers Wed 20-Nov-24 16:48:02

I was asked if I would like butter in my jacket potato by a friend’s mother. I was nonplussed, nothing like that had ever graced my plate at home (jacket potato 😁)

MissInterpreted Wed 20-Nov-24 14:23:07

Ski yogurts - oh, and Vesta ready meals! They both seemed very exotic to me at the time.

JamesandJon33 Wed 20-Nov-24 14:14:23

My friend had a hatch between kitchen and dining room. I thought it very posh

TerriBull Wed 20-Nov-24 14:11:33

I was extremely impressed aged about 7, by a friend's BOAC shoulder bag, airline travel had the air of sophistication back then, zoo class conditions were not part of my consciousness. I was ecstatic when I was 10 and we first flew as a family, long before I was to decide after many far flung flights I actually hate flying. . So impressed by air hostesses hats at the time, I joined the girl guides, I was a Brownie already, simply because their hats resembled those worn by BEA stewardesses pathetic really! I can't imagine my grandchildren being impressed by an airline bag! if airlines do such things these days, probably not.

Skydancer Wed 20-Nov-24 13:42:14

Not me - but I can remember my Mum coming back from a visit to someone and being extremely impressed by their battery-operated bread knife. (Do they still exist!).

Babs03 Wed 20-Nov-24 13:41:42

I remember having my first bag of flavoured crisps, salt and vinegar. The flavour has been my fav ever since.

Daddima Wed 20-Nov-24 13:33:53

Kate1949

I can remember my mother coming home from the Co-op with a packet of frozen fish fingers for the first time. Oh the excitement!

My mother worked in the grocery under our flat at the weekend, and used to bring wee things she had been given by one of the ‘traveller’s ( sales reps). How well I remember the fish fingers, though my mother was less than impressed!

M0nica Wed 20-Nov-24 13:29:11

My father's first car. He was in the army and we had been posteed somewhere in Yorkshire with three buses a week. So he bought a car.

It was a 1938 Austin, so only 14 years old when he bought it.

On the outskirts of the same village was a mushroom farm. I had never eaten mushrooms before - they were an unimaginable luxury. We use to go down the farm on Saturday afternoon and buy either a quarter pound of mushrooms for 1 shilling and 6 pence, or we could have half a pound of stalks for the same price. We ate them with a cooked breakfast on Sunday.

Witzend Wed 20-Nov-24 12:44:38

Cousins who had a Wendy House in their garden - a proper, brick-built one. And they went on holiday to e.g. Italy in the 1950s. Needless to say, their parents were a lot better off than mine.

yogitree Wed 20-Nov-24 12:35:20

We were staying in Wales in 1967 and they had colour television - what a revelation it was. They asked us if we had electricity in Scotland!

Jeanathome Wed 20-Nov-24 12:33:51

Fizzy pop,yoghurt,being allowed to stay up past 7 pm,the days we skipped Church,a cassette recorder, a baby sitting job that paid 50 p.

NotSpaghetti Wed 20-Nov-24 12:30:04

One of my dad's family members in South Wales had a work-surface in the kitchen that slid off to reveal the bath.

Another in North Wales had a "modern" kitchen but with no waste plumbing. You had to empty the bucket which was under the sink to catch the dregs etc.
They had a 2-seater earth closet behind the house in the next field.

NotSpaghetti Wed 20-Nov-24 12:24:56

I was amazed when a friend's father had a cassette system in his car to play music tapes. The tapes were the size of Video Tapes!

NotSpaghetti Wed 20-Nov-24 12:22:58

Avocados.
Dad brought one back from a trip to London.

Kate1949 Wed 20-Nov-24 12:17:51

I can remember my mother coming home from the Co-op with a packet of frozen fish fingers for the first time. Oh the excitement!

gulligranny Tue 19-Nov-24 21:58:44

My aunt & uncle got a fridge, I think it must have been about 1953. My first glass of water with ice cubes in it was a revelation!

Floradora9 Tue 19-Nov-24 21:45:32

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 .