Things you never see nowadays

Terry`s Neapolitans, mmmmmm! They were lovely.

Oh yes! They were - don't they make them any more?

Does anyone else remember Neapolitan ice cream with white, pink and green stripes? I think it was greengage flavour, but no one I know seems to have come across it....

I remember it Ana I didn't know it was greengage although I'm not sure I would have known what a greengage was then. It was made by Walls I think, or possibly Lyons.

No, I wouldn't have known either, must have been told! I do know it wasn't mint flavoured, though - yes, it would have been one of those two makes.

I thought it was apple Ana but neapolitan ice cream was such a treat they could have told me it was grass and I wouldn't have cared.

Ana I remember having red, white and green Neapolitan icecream in wafers as a child, from Ramo's Italian icecream parlour on Blackpool prom. My dad told us it was the nicest icecream in the world!

The green stripe of Neapolitan ice cream was almond or pistachio.

whenim64 You have to go to Rome for the nicest ice cream in the world. Absentdaughter, then seven, and I disagreed about the exact flavour – there was a choice of 140 – but we did agree about the quality of the flavour and the texture.

absent I agree Roman icecream is fantastic, but a very close second was the icecream we had at the original Ben and Jerry's in Manchester, Vermont. The development kitchens were dishing out freshly made caramel and pecan nut icecream for us to try and it was divine. Never tasted anything like it since.

I believe the best ice cream in the world is supposed to be Vivoli in Florence. Sadly I wasn't there long enough to find out but Nico's in Venice is pretty damn good

We went to buy an ice cream in Venice but the seller had a really drippy nose so we didn't fancy it. I could still heave thinking about it 30 years on.

absent do you mean that pistachios were invented that long ago - crumbs

David's in sorrento!

People have mentioned old people with rickets and children in leg irons. Back in the fifties I was in hospital for a year, most of the time 'attached' to my bed. I was lucky, I wasn't in a 'plaster bed' like the person in this post http://margueriteheptonhospital.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/colin-welbournes-further-recollections.html., but some of my friends were encased in plaster from head to foot.
Some of my fellow ward inmates spent years there, with their parents and relatives only allowed to visit weekends. Siblings under the age of 14 weren't allowed to visit at all. Children spent most days outdoors, even when it was snowing, sometimes sleeping outdoors, and the hospital was between a remand home and an open prison! I can't imagine parents of today letting their children live under the conditions that I and many more children in the past had to cope with. My account of my time at the hospital is here http://margueriteheptonhospital.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/patricia-senior-nee-tasker-recalls-her.html

I was going to say that the green stripe was almond, but Absent beat me to it! Modern Neapolitan ice cream is nothing like the original.
And no, Ana, they don`t make Terry`s neapolitans anymore, but then Terry`s is no more, either.

The thing about the Neapolitan ice cream wasn't just that it was lovely but it was a treat. For us it was a Sunday only thing - Sundays were different and reserved for treats. Tinned fruit with evaporated milk - only on Sunday! Imagine children being excited by that now. We always had a family walk on Sunday afternoon and often round the harbour in Heysham. There was a railway station there with two vending machines. A huge treat was a packet of chewing gum, or a chocolate bar. There just doesn't seem to be that attitude now, things seem to have stopped being special. Ah well.

Berthillon, Ile St Louis, Paris. You can avoid the queue by ordering it in a café.

Thanks for sharing that trishs It seems almost archaic.Easier to follow if you tick the'converts links automatically' box under your message

Re fireworks - how about those ric-racs/jumping jacks?

I used to be scared they would jump into my wellies.
And in the 60s I was in a cinema and someone let one off! I left.

Thanks Grannylin, if there was an edit button I'd do that now ;)

I remember the machines that used to be on railway station platforms where you could print out your name on a long strip of tin by dialling the letters on a huge disc, like the modern Dymo machines but HUGE

Was it not pistachio?

Jumping jacks were terrifying!

I still have an aluminium strip from one of these machines Yogagran.
I wrote a love message to my then girl friend. Now my wife of 57 yrs.
The machine was on Waterloo Stn. near where the lost property office used to be!
Doesn't time fly?!!

yogagran and gramps Yes, I do remember those aluminium strips! They were even more exciting than the chewing gum machines (I think I had a deprived childhood!)

What a lovely thing gramps that you still have that strip, so romantic. I wonder if you've been to Waterloo Station recently - it's enormous, they've managed to add a whole new level with lots of shops and restaurants. The clock is still there

The Fairyland ride at Blackpool, always my favourite attraction there in my childhood, alas no more. It was opposite Central Pier, on the corner of, I think, Chapel Street.