Things you never see nowadays

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?

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.

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!!

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???!!!

Daisyanswerdo Would that have been gentian violet?

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!

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].

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

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

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.

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

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 .)

In the mid 50s at Clacton small boys with push carts meeting the trains at the station, to transport your luggage to the guest house.

A rag and bone men with a horse and cart who would give out goldfish in exchange for old clothes.

In winter my Nans outside toilet with its smell of damp newspaper and the little paraffin lamp under the valve of the toilet cistern to stop it freezing, and adult sized Potties under her beds.

My mum being very embarrassed when buying those awful sanitary towels. These were taken from the top shelf of the wool shop, and then very discretely wrapped in brown paper to take home.

AA men with motor bike and side car saluting you if you had an AA badge.

nelliemoser gosh what memories that brings back, I can remember the s towels being wrapped in paper, such discretion in those days.

nowadays we just chuck them in the supermarket trolley!!

Cannot remember barrow boys but think does ring a bell, we did not live in Frinton when I was small just for last 28 years.

Yes my Mum had a mangle in the back yard!! gosh how on earth she coped, no washmachine and twins (me and brother) plus another one, she used to heat water in copper no constant hot water must have been so hard.

And, as has been mentioned in other threads, but no here, I think (sorry if I am being repetitive) waking up with ice on the insides of the bedroom windows. Also the foil tops of milk bottles on the doorstep popping off or bulging because the milk was freezing.

And what about the heated brick wrapped up in a sock or cloth to warm your bed. Didn't it hurt when you stubbed your toe on it!

do/es anyone remember dibs and the game of jacks

Jacks, yes, but not dibs.

Have I got this right? Jacks were metal and spiky and you threw a little rubber ball. Dibs were square and ridged and you didn't have a ball. I think dibs came first.

Dibs sounds like what I would call five stones but I have never heard the term. Is it regional? Yes, jacks were spiky and you bounced a rubber ball.

i remember i used to buy dog bones from the butchers and tell him they were for the dog,,,,,but i used to take them home and make stew, i would go down the market and wait around till they sold off the veg at ridiculous prices and that would go in the stew,,,,i used to top it up and it would last a few days, my freind used to have bread and milk for tea sometimes,,,,,,my mum never gave us that but we had oxo cubes for soup,,,,,,,,my mum would also boil potatoes then we would have a can of tomato soup poured over them, lovely dinner. we would have bread and jam for tea perhaps a boiled egg. i remember her beating up evaperated milk with margerine to make it go further, we had jelly ......................where is twink perming solution gone with the perming rollers,,,,,,,,,,my freind often used to perm freinds hair,i dont think you can buy perming stuff now adays,,,,,you have to go to the hairdressers,,,,do they still do it, ?i think they should bring back cooking good food and baking,,,,all the stuff you buy in the shops have stuff we dont know about,,,,,just to keep it on the shelves for longer,...baking is great,,,,,one thing i do like about being retired,,,i can be at home and cook and bake,

meriotgran,,,,,,yes thats right jacks were like a metal silver thing,,,, and yes dibs were the ridges little wooden cube

Sunday best ( when you only wore your best clothes)

New Easter hats for going to church.

mrsmopp my granny had a mangle like that, and I helped her mangle things when I was evacuated there during the war.

(slightly off topic - anyone heard this rhyme?
'My mother had a mangle
She filled it full of stones
She made me turn the handle
and it nearly broke my bones'.........?
I couldn't imagine what this could be like until I visited a 17th century house in Bristol with my sister....see
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_mangle !!)