Things you don't see any more.

We had no fridge in the old days. Mother had a 'meat safe' made of perforated zinc kept on a cold slate shelf in the larder with the butter, cheese and other perishables. It seemed to work, but I remember that things used to get quite smelly. Soap - in the kitchen we had a small wire mesh ball on a stick into which you put all your bits of soap so as not to waste them. You used this for washing up so that your plates had the faint aroma of coal tar. For washing clothes mother had a boiler, wash-board, mangle and drying frame in a pulley over the bath. Yes, we had a proper bath, but auntie in the country had a tin bath once a week in front of the kitchen range. Tooth paste - gritty pink paste in a tin which you mixed up with water and tasted awful. Think it was called Gibbs Dentifrice. Entertainment - all sat round the fire listening to the radio. Happy days? They seemed to be, but I don't want to go back to them.

Twink perms. That disgusting smell. Mother really wanted Shirley Temple for a daughter so from the age of 10 I was subjected to this every summer.

A Yorkshireman on TV this morning was wearing a double breasted suit, not seen one of those for years, the suit, not the Yorkshireman.

That reminds me - Toni perms and the advertisement 'which twin has the toni'. My mother used to give all her friends home perms and it was quite usual for us to come home from school to find the house reeking of perming lotion. But she didn't inflict them on me.

Ice on the INSIDE of the windows - especially during the winter of 1962/63. I remember being off school for over a week when the snow was at its worst.

Ice on the inside of windows was usual as a child. These days it would be a news items pointing out poverty. Used to warm PJ's in front of the fire. Quickly change and then clutching hot water bottle rush upstairs into bed under a mound of blankets and eiderdowns.
Parents then left the living room door open to let some heat up.

We used to scald the milk every day to stop it going off but the bonus was the cream which we used to have with bread and jam. Couldn't scald the milk today anyway because of pasterization

The smell of the coal fire I used to sit in front of on a sunday night to dry my hair for school the next day and the coal shed out back. My Mum still had a traditional corner shop right up until the mid 90's where you could sit whilst they sliced your ham or bacon or whatever, did your shopping or squeeze the loaf to choose which crust was best (and fresh). I remember the taste of the cream from the top of the milk and how Id get told off if I didn't put a cover out for the milkman to cover the bottle tops with or else we'd find the sparrows or robin had been there and inched the cream through the foil top 1st! My dad was a milkman for a short while on a horse and cart.
I still drink my cuppa with my little pinky in the air- it just sticks up naturally honest!
The smell of monday washday; the boiling clothes either washed first in the bath or later a twin tub, the mangle and later a separate electrically spinner which used to let out seemingly tons of water into a bowl below it and then hopping for a dry day to dry the clothes (especially sheets) or else the smell of damp items on the clothes horse or child guard in front of the coal fire. Funny how smells, and tastes, can take you right back to a memory eh. My youngest, age 12, and 2 grandkids have no idea what a coal fire is when I asked recently!!!

Very non-U to 'cock your finger' when drinking your tea!!

Lapwing, the high wire money containers were still in use in the Midsomer Norton Co-op when I moved down that way from London in 1971. I really felt we'd discovered Olde England. Phone boxes still had Buttons A&B - & we didn't have a telephone either, or a washing machine, & a freezer was still 10 years in the future.

Those one-penny machines on station platforms that printed-off a little metal strip with words you could choose with a big circular pointer. Then the little bell that would ring when the train was due and the groan and squeak as they closed the level-crossing gates. Exciting stuff!

Pam, I still use a spinner for some of my washing, my ultra modern piece of crap machine is useless for spinning and as it is a washer/dryer it just does not have the power to spin well, the clothes are almost dripping wet and if put onto dryer mode will take over 2 hours so I get out my spinner and remove dishfuls of water then they are well on the way to going in for a short burst of maybe 45 mins or less in the dryer.
The old ways are the best and most economical.
Mind you must be careful what you spin, not woolys or delecates etc.

I might add that, as this thread is about looking back, I can remember when I used the poss stick in the tub for my grannie and then the mangle and while we did that the dinner was in the oven at the side of the fire. The clothes were hung on a string in the front room, almost dripping if it was raining outside and the smell of soap along with the sooty coal fire smell brings back memories.

Things you don't see any more ? Does my feet (among other things) count?

Air raid shelters, I can remember ours being used as a store for garden stuff in the early 50's. There must still be some around. I think ours was an anderson shelter, corrugated iron dug in and covered with soil.

Tripping down the lumpy hall runner because my grandmother used to fold damp jumpers between newspapers and put them under the runner to get them pressed! Soap scraping round in an enamel basin...thank goodness for plastic. Plastic everything.....flowers with the soap powder, basins, cutlery handles in wonderful colours; matching plastic budgie cage cover and little base cover with elasticated top which was meant to catch the seed; paper Xmas bells that folded out, a tiny Coronation coach and horses ornament, plastic deer that came with Babycham....

I still have one of those metal strips with my name on, stuck on a cupboard in my kitchen.

Little metal trays of hard toffee, Batgers I think, which came with a little hammer. Tinned salmon sandwiches with cucumber, followed by tinned pears or peaches with condensed milk - heavenly! Sherbert lemons that would scour your mouth out they were so acid. Big, sticky brown lardy cakes in Wiltshire, dripping with lard, currants and sugar. Bath chaps - fatty cone-shaped bacon joints covered in breadcrumbs.

A policeman standing in the middle of the road directing the traffic.

My next door neighbours have only just got rid of their air raid shelter.

Bubble cars.

Are there still motorbikes with side cars?

Mods and rockers.

Rossi's ice cream dished up from refrigerated steel bowls - the ice cream had a lovely flavour and consistency.

Instant Whip, Spangles.

Thank you lovely ladies for the education you give me!

You can still by Bath chaps in the Guildhall market papaoscar, and Lardy cakes here in Wiltshire are still yummy!

What memories you bring back, Loopylou, of Devizes in the 50s. The railway station, Corn Exchange, Littlle Brittox, Wadworths, the Moonrakers, the cattle market, junior school, the Crammer, snuff factory. Southbroom School, Devizes Grammar, Cards coaches. And to think Bath chaps and lardies still exist. Wonderful. Many thanks!

envious I agree this thread is an education (I only came to the UK in 2000 - and am still learning! Love this thread.

Papa, just bought some sherbert lemons to suck while we are driving to our DD today.

Elothan. You can still get a brand new Motor cycle and side car from Watsonian here :-
www.watsonian-squire.com/