Things you never see now

Grammaretto

Animal carcasses hanging up in butcher's windows.
I remember c1975 a young American visitor was deeply shocked to see the raw meat. She had only ever seen wrapped meat in supermarkets.

It was only a few years ago that my Singaporean SiL was shocked in Oxford open market, to turn a corner and be confronted with an entire furry wild boar, hung up outside a butcher’s shop.

On a similar theme, who else remembers pigs’ heads in butchers’ shops windows?
I don’t remember my mother ever making brawn from them (probably too squeamish) but I dare say plenty of people did.

Of course brawn is still seen all over in France - known as ‘Fromage de tete’ (please imagine the circumflex, I can never remember how to do accents on the iPad)

Grammaretto

The x-ray machines were banned in the 1950s

My dad worked in a department store and the children’s shoe department was on the same floor as his office. We used to go in to see him every time my mum took us shopping and always stood on the X-ray machine to look at our feet. Possibly explains my crooked joints and sore feet now!

HowVeryDareYou2

Oreo

I used to like putting coins in the head of a model of a yellow Labrador with a bandaged paw RSPCA which stood outside a shop.

There's one of those in my local Asda

Goodness Gracious Me! 😄 Wonder if it’s an antique or they’re still churning these things out?

Is it really dog sized like the old ones?

Ice cream sandwich makers

Proper Neapolitan icecream. Green, pink and white… no chocolate

Casdon

Children’s sandals - remember the Clarks ones with crepe soles and cutouts, like this, my sisters and I all had a pair exactly the same every year, brown, red or navy. No longer seen I don’t think.

Ooh, I remember those, wore them without socks in summer and enjoyed seeing the little brown ‘cut out’ pattern after I’d been playing out in the sun!

And Dad cut out the toes of mine when they were too small. I inherited my older sister's pair when she grew out of hers.

Do children do that these days? I have no grandchildren so no idea.

Gobstoppers that changed colours as you sucked them. Likely kids had choked on them and that is why they disappeared!

Perfume dispensing machines in women's public toilets. I haven't seen one for years though they may still be out there. Mum would treat herself to spray of Lentheric Tweed which I found a bit overpowering tbh

I don't remember them, Nell82.

We can still buy gobstoppers in the UK, traditional sweetshops are still about, I know because my son makes a beeline for them.

Postcards. I used to love them coming from all over the place. Haven't had one for years - or a letter for that matter.

Dead animals hanging in the butchers shops - and ox tongue and tripe in the window. That shocked me a kid, would never eat either after that.

Pet shops. I used to love going in to see the budgies, kittens and puppies. A happy place for a kid [animals seemed happy and looked healthy]. I realised when I was older that it wasn't good for the animals at all.

A half a crown or even a sixpence in the sand on a beach.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

An Eiffel Tower made of Macarones ! Very common in Barcelona too ..

Statue by: Escribia ..

Thank you for removing the duplicate post with the spelling error ..

It was not unusual, until some EU regulation put a stop to it, to see fully furred and feathered hares, rabbits and game birds hanging in local butcher shop windows and in the market. I remember my mother bringing turkeys home fully feathered and having to pluck and singe them in the cellar of our house.

Ooh yes, postcards! And personal letters I miss both of them.

Pipe smokers thankfully, although some gransnetters like the smell, I hated it.

Cartons of milk dispensers, Spastic (non pc word) society models of disabled children with collection boxes, I was saddened but intrigued by them, would hug & pat them and wanted my mum to let me take one home. Large venereal disease signs in toilets, Izal tracing paper for loo roll, bubble gum and novelty toys in little plastic capsules, Paynes Poppets, Weighing machines at railway stations, we used to weigh ourselves on them but they might have been for luggage. Baskets of pigeons at railway stations.

My sister and I had these in the sixties too!

They must be VERY long gone, but who else remembers the little brass (?) canisters in shops, that whizzed back and forth along wires from the counter to whoever it was, taking your money and bringing back your change?

I must have been very small, so it was probably no later than about 1955 or 6.

HelterSkelter1

A half a crown or even a sixpence in the sand on a beach.

An occasional half crown from a grandparent was riches! It could buy you five Mars Bars!

Witzend there was one in our local co-op department store which closed in the late 1980s and both Jenners closed (2020) and R W Forsyth (closed 1981) in Princes Street, Edinburgh used the zip wire system. I was fascinated by them.