Things you never see nowadays

goldengirl I went to a fancy dress party where we had to go as a film title. I went as The Collector having sewn a mass of Greenshield stamps and cigarette coupons – you don't see those these days either – all over my skirt. Not relevant to this thread but my first husband proposed to me that night. (He went as Bring Me the Head of Fredrico Garcia .)

Greehshield stamps! It was quite fun collecting them but you had to collect a vast number to get a decent 'gift'.

I had Mandels Paint on my throat, it had iodine in it - and i still have it in the original bottle! It still works too.

Gentian Violet, my dad used on my eyelids when they were sore, and I got in trouble in school because they thought it was makeup.....
It was used for burns - if anyone has read 'One Pair of Feet' they used it in the hospital on victims of an industrial explosion.

My (now retired) GP would always be smoking whilst seeing patients. That's almost impossible to imagine nowadays.

congratulations abesentgrana that is big achievment, I should know as gave up number of years ago, took me several attempts, you deserve huge pat on the back!!! also

anneandgraham I have never liked a huddle of smokers outside a pub or an office block and have always felt very cross about cigarette stubs on the pavement, in spite of being a smoker myself. I know every rubbish bin and public ashtray in the town where I live and I can honestly say I have never dumped a fag end in the street. I gave up smoking on 1 December last year [pats self on back emoticon] and I truly hate the mess and the lingering smell [guilty, previously bad person emoticon].

Dasiy used to buy lux flakes for my babies washing yonks ago!!!!

and my late Mum used to does me with Parishes food!! had iron in apparently.

gosh makes you think!

Daisyanswerdo Would that have been gentian violet?

this sounds crazy now, but I used to go to the Bakers in our village for my Mum and neighbour sometimes on a Saturday to collect bread and cho swiss roll which my twin called "black cake" and the old lady who ran it would serve us with a ciggy hangin out of her mouth!!!

Not sure if would buy from her nowadays!!

things have change quite a bit in that direction.

I worked at a bakers for 4 years due to boredom, but it was fun and lively and the lady who ran it was lovely, one of the girls smoked and she occasionally went outside for ciggy.

Times change for the better on that score.
Except does anyone else get fed up of walking past huddle of smokers outside pubs and clubs???!!!

Spending a penny. Went to Harrods a few years ago and it was £1 to use the Ladies Powder Room. I was appalled and wouldn't go in, grumbled to my friend that the worlds gone mad - it costs a pound to spend a penny. She knew what I meant!
I bet it's a fiver now!!

Parish's Food, Scotts Emulsion (ugh yuck), Malt Extract, Syrup of Figs, Lux soap flakes, runner beans preserved in salt, eggs preserved in isinglass, soft cheese from a muslin bag hanging over the sink, M&B (May & Baker) pills (before the days of penicillin), milk kept in a slate-lined hole in the ground outside the back door, bread delivered by bicycle. I used to have to paint my throat when it was sore with something purple on a brush. I can remember its taste but not its name.

My nan used to save her co-op receipts (yellow, about the size of a raffle ticket!)on a bill hook in the pantry and if the Co-op didn't get the divi right, she went and told them!!

Her number was 77738 and my Mum's was 103303.

Is it a sign of something when things from a long time ago are clearer than what I had for breakfast? Or the fact that I bought a pot of cyclamen to put on the side of the raised pond we had taken out about 2 months ago?

I remember mending stockings and then, later, tights. I also remember putting odd stockings that didn't need mending into a saucepan and boiling them up together so that the colour became even and you had more matching pairs.

My mum's co-op number was 499638. So I haven't got Alzheimer's yet. [smile [relief emoticon]

Several Saturday morning cinema bits....

Frozen Jubblies, cost 3d.

Hundreds of us standing to sing the National Anthem before the films began. The Manager stood on the stage and if he saw one child turn to put their seat down before the very last notes had played, he'd make us sing it again!

The smell of sour milk in the foyer, from the bags of unwashed milk bottle tops brought in to raise money...for blind children I think?

45009. (but I can't remember my own, sook!)
Penny in the slot to use a public loo. I expect young people these days would be puzzled by the term 'spend a penny'.

I can still remember Mums divi number 74509 if I had been a very good girl (rare) I was allowed to collect the divi money and keep it for myself. In fact I still have the original dividend book. These days the CO OP use a plastic card not half as nice as the original book.

Allie I have a wooden egg shaped darner with a groove cut out of it for darning nylon stockings. I also have a little leather case full of spools of flesh coloured silk again for darning stockings although I don't think it would be fine enough for the nylons of the 50/60s. Both are interesting little items.

Taking Yorkshire pudding to local baker on Sundays. He would cook several at a time in his vast oven. Picking cooked pud up and calling in the Bold Dragoon to have large jug filled with ale.

Oh we'll I remember the mangle! Ours was huge when I was a child, and kept outside with a large galvanised container under it. The water was then poured back into the wash boiler in the kitchen.
My first washing machine was a top loader with an electric mangle- such progress. I remember feeding the shirts through it with those wooden tongs, only for the buttons to snap in half as I did so. Evening spent sewing new buttons on the shirts!

Oh when, I'd forgotten the blacksmith. It was lovely and warm in there. We had a shoemaker next door to that. He had lasts with (rich) people's names on!

We also had a farm in the middle of the village which a butcher's shop on the high street. It had been in the same family for years and (luckily for them!) there were always two brothers in each generation, one of whom ran the farm (called Farmer Clarke!) and the other, who ran the butcher's (called Butcher Clarke) Our order always included lights which mum cooked for the cat (yeuk!!!)

Ella...when not catching fingers between the rollers.

My Grandad was a knocker up in the 50s and 60s. Always an early riser he used to give several of his neighbours a knock at 5 am every work day morning. He collected his payment, a pint or two of Guinness every Friday in his local. He suffered with pernicious anaemia and had been told to indulge in Guinness as much as possible as part of his treatment or so he said.

The funny thingy in which the Co-op staff put cash and a bill of sale...it was sent hurtling across the ceiling on a track and finished up in the office [upstairs]. Change was returned with a receipt and divi wotsit. I remember it well. The highlight of a Saturday traipsing round the shops with my mother.

Wash tubs with rubbing boards and possers, and mangles. I used to love turning the handle on the mangle and seeing all the water come out.

The local blacksmith, who had his forge next to a row of wooden shops. Precarious but there was never a fire. In the winter, he would let us get warm before we trooped back come with the bags of shopping.