KarenT Report post Posted October 3, 2007 ooh - and Sunday evenings being the most boring ever - while my dad listened to the radio - 'sing something simple' used to blare out and it used to drive me simple............ Sunday afternoons were the worst. They went on for weeks, or so it seemed because there were no shops open, nothing at all, hardly any cars around and no buses, or very reduced 'Sunday Service'. There's always be a war film on after the football (highlights from yesterday, usually local), and you'd just wait and wait and wait till tea time came round. It was always something like ham sandwiches and scones - 'high tea' sort of thing. Then you'd have your weekly bath and wash your hair ready for school on Monday. And panic because you hadn't done your homework. Love this thread. Lots of lovely old people, just like me! Karen x Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bagpuss Report post Posted October 3, 2007 What was that game thingy, with two lines, and "ball" which you had to knock from side to side when plugged into the tv? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bagpuss Report post Posted October 3, 2007 I've just realised I shouldn't be part of this thread at all...........I'm not 40 for at least another 6 weeks Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mossgrove Report post Posted October 3, 2007 What was that game thingy, with two lines, and "ball" which you had to knock from side to side when plugged into the tv? Pong. I remember seeing an episode of Tomorrows world where they showed a prototype a couple of years before they came out and thinking it was amazing. A few short years layter the Sinclair spectrum came out and we waited for ages as the screen flashed while the tape loaded..... Simon Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oxgirl Report post Posted October 3, 2007 What was that game thingy, with two lines, and "ball" which you had to knock from side to side when plugged into the tv? Yeah, yeah, we had one of those, talk about high tech! I remember when our local shops all had 'early closing' on a Thursday. You'd have to get there by lunchtime as ALL of the shops would be closed in the afternoon! Weird! ~ Mel ~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bagpuss Report post Posted October 3, 2007 (edited) I remember my mum telling me her and my dad paid a small fortune for their first VCR many moons ago....now look at how much they cost I tell you what I miss....good ole 12 inch records Edited October 3, 2007 by Bagpuss Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mossgrove Report post Posted October 3, 2007 I remember my mum telling me her and my dad paid a small fortune for their first VCR many moons ago....now look at how much they cost I tell you what I miss....good ole 12 inch records I still play my 12" LPs! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oxgirl Report post Posted October 3, 2007 I still play my 12" LPs! Yep, so does my hub, he's got a humungous collection and a few of those new fangled little shiny ones as well. ~ Mel ~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shortcake Report post Posted October 3, 2007 I remember my dad getting a dodgy copy of ET on video and us all sitting around the small TV and massive top loading VCR to watch it my mum was so worried that the neighbours might call the police she closed the curtains!!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bid Report post Posted October 3, 2007 Talking of Sunday afternoons and sweets... Does anyone remember a little box of chocs called 'Weekend'? My lovely dad always used to buy a box and we would share it after lunch, watching yet another old B&W fillum on the telly. Oooooh, I can remember when BBC2 was launched, and my granny was the only one with a telly that had it, so we used to go and watch 'Playaway' there. I can remember taking my dinner money to school when I was teeny in old, large pennies... Boho Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
baddad Report post Posted October 3, 2007 Agggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I have just spent half a ********* hour typing in this thread and a two second power surge' has wiped the whole lot! Stuff nostalgia! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bard Report post Posted October 3, 2007 (edited) Agggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I have just spent half a ********* hour typing in this thread and a two second power surge' has wiped the whole lot! Stuff nostalgia! Sounds like what happens to my brain on a regular basis. Reasons to be pleased that I'm no longer living in the 60's. Beds with sheets and blankets. No central heating, or fitted carpets. Outdoor toilet at my Grandma's ( She thought the very idea of having one inside the house was disgusting!) Crimpelene and nylon in any format. Instant packet food of endless lifespan that my mother thought was a small modern miracle. No seatbelts in cars. Every adult I knew, except mum, smoked all the time and everywhere. And thank God, I'll never be a vegetarian in England in 1974 ever again. Edited October 3, 2007 by Bard Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pearl Report post Posted October 3, 2007 I remember getting my first duvet as a teenager, thought I was soooo cool. Bri nylon shirts that dad wore, came out of the washing machine already dry. Ice on the inside of the windows in winter. Storm lamp in the outside lav to stop the pipes freezing. Paraffin heaters that nearly killed us all with the fumes. Top of the Pops every Thursday. Push lawn mowers and manual hedge clippers. Gardening used to be so quiet. Wakes weeks when the whole town shut up shop. Berlei teenform bras Suspender belts Girdles! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pearl Report post Posted October 3, 2007 Vesta Curries! The one & only thing I could "cook" when I left home. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
baddad Report post Posted October 3, 2007 Early days for food additives and intensive farming: i remember - Jelly that tasted of parrafin Chicken that tasted of mackeral Wafer biscuits that tasted of 'Dentist gas'...... You could buy a 'Chocolate Mickey' off the milkman (stop sniggering at the back!) which was the best chocolate milkshake EVER. I think they used evaporated milk or something(?) In the infants you got milk at morning break in little quarter pint bokkles... in spring and autumn it was just right, but in summer you got yoghurt and in winter a lolly that wouldn't come out... we used to shake the 'cream' off the top up in little jam-jars to make butter. If you were naughty you got the cane, and if you cried to your mum about it you got a thick ear for getting the cane (now that's where we're going wrong! ) Girls wore PE knickers that reached to their knees, and boys wore PE shorts that went right up the cracks of their bums. For Country Dancing you wore school uniform but no tie, and plimsols. If you were really lucky you got to dance with Julie Coppard. Melvin Beadle was a flea bag - TRUE ("flea bag, flea bag, dirty ol' fle-ea bag!") Skool dinners were delicious except for the 'grey goulash'... when you had gypsy tart (pikey pie) for pud you got half an apple to clean your teeth with. The only time anyone had packed lunches was on a school trip. The poor kids would swap two jam sandwiches for one cheese. The really poor kids had sugar sandwiches and nobody would swap whatever exchange rate they offered. If kids didn't eat their skool dinner they would 'go without' and get a thick ear from their mums (now that's where we're going wrong! ) Blowing off was just about the funniest thing EVER - so some things never change. The year 2000 was science fiction. Where's my jetpack and the conveyor-belt pavement system? In the 1970's they invented frozen pizza, including a version that had half a baguette for a base. There were no Pizza restaurants in the UK at the time, so we believed pizza was meant to taste like that. It was awful... I didn't eat pizza again until 1985... There were also dehydrated curries - 'just add water' (you know the ones, they rhymed with a soft-drink brand that had a polar bear with sunglasses as it's logo) - that tasted of sultanas and paprika. They tasted nothing like curry, but we didn't know that and they were quite nice in their own way. The Chow Mein from the same manufacturer was the fore-runner of something that rhymes with 'Snot Poodle' and comes in a plastic cup. My brother and I had four Magpie badges because we sent them a letter full of lies: My dog got run over (1 for sorrow). I past my cyckeling prefish profish perf I can ride a bike now (two for joy), I'm a boy (that bit was true and got us badge 4), i past my silver swimming sirstificate (5 for silver). we got beaten up on the way to school by big kids who nicked them, but never wrote in again when technically we would have been entitled to one for sorrows again and 'eights a wish' 'cos we wished them DEAD. I had the first issue of 'Junior TV times' - it had a free cutout black beauty and stables, but i didn't have a cereal box or any glue to stick it too/with. we had toast for breakfast - IF WE WE'RE LUCKY... I had the first issue of Cor! which had a free packet of lemonade mix on the front which COST MORE THAN THE COMIC if you bought it from the shops. I had the first issue of Whizzer And Chips which had a free 'Sid the Snake' flick book on the cover. My mum knew a woman at bingo who's daughter worked for a printer who printed comics, so I had lots of comics! My brother used to dress me up as a guy when we went penny for the guying (now known as begging)... i didn't mind the dressing up and laying 'floppy' in the go-cart... it was all the kickings that did for me. "That's a kid dressed up"/"No it isn't"/"Yes it is"/No it isn't - gooon, give it a kick"... i never flinched once At christmas my mum would smoke sobrane cocktails and a 'joystick'... a joystick was a 2ft long (stop sniggering at the back) players number 6. She would smoke it all in two sessions. While cooking dinner. She drank snowballs and Cinzano and lemonade. My dad drank G&T and played the piano. Saturdays we used to have 'high tea' 'cos my auntie Nancy came. We'd try to eat enough bread and butter to 'earn' a French fancy before Juke Box Jury finished and Dr Who started.... years later we found out dad had been giving 'auntie' Nancy more than French fancy! My dad would record 'Radio shows' on his reel to reel (he was a big 'jayazz' fan and had tons of rare tapes and vinyl which my mum sold when he left her!) for us... "Mr Poppa and his helicopter" - The helicopter was his electric razor played back at half speed. Mr Poppa also had a motorbike, which was a 'blow off' played back at quarter speed - oh how we laughed.... He once appeared on 'Opportunity Knocks' playing Jayazz Piano with his nose, but was beaten by a man who hit himself over the head with a tea tray while singing 'mule train'. My cousin appeared on 'Lift off' with Aisha Brough (Phoaaar!). He told us Ollie Beak stank. I've never felt the same about glove puppets since Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, those were the days, sang Mary Hopkins... To quote Marvin The paranoid Android: "I've seen it - It was rubbish".... L&P BD Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pearl Report post Posted October 3, 2007 pure Peter Kay, bd Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pearl Report post Posted October 3, 2007 *shudders* school dinners.... remember semolina? We used to put just a blob in the bowl with a bit of jam & spread it round to look like we'd already had some. And blancmange? Soft polystyrene.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pearl Report post Posted October 3, 2007 Oooh ooh ooh Aqua Manda perfume! Could still evoke a visceral reaction in mr pearl I suspect... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stella63 Report post Posted October 3, 2007 Hi This thread has been a joy to read through!! So many forgotten memories and I have to say I'm very excited about the reference to the beef puffs!! we had these at our primary school tuckshop and I have always remembered them as the absolute best! And on the subject of the trimphone, my dh still has his bright green trimphone, and I have to say it still gets plugged in when we lose power, which is a regular occurance where we live!! Keep going, this is great!! Stella x Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hev Report post Posted October 3, 2007 Ooh yes I used to do that. It was on on a Sunday night and I'd pretend to be doing my homework while listening and getting ready to pounce on the 'record' button when the best songs were on... I also used to smoke out of my bedroom window As for being sent to the shop with a note for cigs, my parents didn't smoke so I used to forge the notes just to get my own [/qu i also used to love taping the top 40 and getting ready to press stop cos we didnt want the djs voice on tape,my highlight was thursday night for top of pops and getting my guy and jackie magazines,used to love the photo stories Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hev Report post Posted October 3, 2007 What was that game thingy, with two lines, and "ball" which you had to knock from side to side when plugged into the tv? my fave game ever and you could make it go really fast as well Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Clare63 Report post Posted October 3, 2007 Drat....... I knew it had two fingers........ Jb Wasn't the longer lasting snack a marathon ???? Sooooo many lovely memories...... and weren't all the summers hot and sunny !!! Clare x Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mumble Report post Posted October 3, 2007 *Knocks politely on the door (wearing a hoodie of course)* Please may I come in even though I don't fulfil the criteria of 'old with baggy ankled stockings'? It's very quiet outside of this tread tonight. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Clare63 Report post Posted October 3, 2007 Welcome in Mumble course you can join in but you had better remove that hood or you'll scare the oldies Tell us what you remember from your childhood and we can compare what has changed. Clare x Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Clare63 Report post Posted October 3, 2007 oooooh thought of some more.... Trolls all sizes and hair colours Fench knitting with a cotton reel cats cradle that game with elastic .... a person each end and you jump in and out (anyone know what I mean????) Cindy dolls Diana comic and those strange foriegn childrens stories very badly dubbed like "White Horse" Clare x x x Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mumble Report post Posted October 3, 2007 Tell us what you remember from your childhood and we can compare what has changed. Oooh don't - I still am a child - honest!!! Just a big one. I'm definately not ready to grow up However - here's one BD reminded me of with his comics thing - Long queue in the supermarket today so amused myself adding up the prices of the comics - then noticed that the Beano is now 85p!!!! When did that happen?? I'm sure it was something like 12p when I used to buy it Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Clare63 Report post Posted October 3, 2007 Oh dear....prices going up must be the first sign of old age setting in Clare x Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Frangipani Report post Posted October 3, 2007 I remember people talking about old money. I remember putting 10 cents in a machine in my brothers bedroom to get hot gas water. I remember when milkshakes cost 20 cents and mum would do the weekly shopping and fill the trolley to he brim and cost twenty dollars. I remember when the shops and pub closed at 12 noon on Saturdays and nothing but churches and the corner store were open on Sundays. I remember Prime Minister Harold Holt drowning at the beach - vanished while swimming with his wife sitting on the beach I remember watching replays of the Beatles arrival in Sydney and hundreds of girls screaming. On B & W tv. I remember Colour tv being tested and having our first colour tv I remember doing the same when Abba and The Bay City rollers came to Sydney. I remember when the only International food was Chinese, and there was one in every suburb I think my sister experienced flower power I was too young - she used to fill the house with incense and wore indian clothes and used to french plait my long blonde hair and drive me nuts playing the Temptations and George Harrison. I remember when Bryan Ferry was cool and Roxy Music was my favourite I remember the McDonalds opeing and you got a free Big Mac if you could say all the ingredients within 10 seconds. The first Pizza Hut I remember taking the dog for a walk and buying her a tiny winy tub of ice cream and giggle watching her lick it clean I remember when the best entertainment was canoeing, riding the flying fox, making jewellery, pottery, swimming at the Olympic pool, Luna Park, Ten Pin bowling, softball, netball, trampoling and gymnastics, travelling. TV was considered boring except for cartoons like Kimba, Flipper or Adams Family. Skippy Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
baddad Report post Posted October 3, 2007 and those strange foriegn childrens stories very badly dubbed like "White Horse" Clare x x x I saw that 'The Singing Ringing Tree' is now available on DVD Just about the scariest thing ever made... talking of scary movies... years and years ago i went to see a horror film at the pics (may have been 'Susperia' or possibly the Omen) and it had a short on before it called 'Blue' about an artist who had a thing about the colour blue, but it was also a bit risque... Anyway, it had an actor in it who had obviously been down on his luck at the time but who then found TV fame as Basil Brushes sidekick 'Mr Roy'... suffice to say, it was impossible to watch because every time something pertinent to the movie title happened on screen some wag in the audience would shout out 'Boom Boom, Mr Roy!'... luckily they never caught me What about 'Robinson Crusoe'? "Poooooooorrrrrrr Robinson" - i have the Art Of Noise version of the theme tune And 'Champion the wonder horse', and 'Skippy' - i love skippy - they used real kangaroo limbs from the abbotoir for filming close-up 'paw' action - a big, aussie gripper operating them off camera!... and Flipper (he lives in a world full of wonder, flying there under, under the sea)... which reminds me of a very strange cartoon from japan called 'Marine Boy'... Talking of Robinson Crusoe... does anyone remember he always had a goat tethered outside his cave? What was that all about then?? Oh - Milk... Of course... and yoggits i expect... i always wondered why he was so skinny - I mean, they'd hunt a boar on Thursday and it would all be eaten by Friday And do you remember when he lit a fire by pulling the button off his jerkin and striking a flint along it? I ruined more blazers that way... got a clip round the ear 'cos mum hadn't even finished paying for it and had to take out another 'provi' cheque to buy a new one ... and he had those strange guns... what were they called... Flintlocks? Well I was only asking... If you're gonna be like that i'll .................. BD Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bard Report post Posted October 3, 2007 oooooh thought of some more.... Trolls all sizes and hair colours The strange thing was, Trolls resurfaced when my daughter was younger and they must have kept all the moulds from the first time round. They looked exactly the same as they did in the 60's...but I didn't! that game with elastic .... a person each end and you jump in and out (anyone know what I mean????) It was called French skipping where I was. and those strange foriegn childrens stories very badly dubbed like "White Horse" And Belle and Sebastian Clare x x x Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bard Report post Posted October 3, 2007 Something went terribly wrong there... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Frangipani Report post Posted October 3, 2007 (edited) Armstrong landed on the moon saying 'this is one small step for man. Most Freaky movie's - Jaw's, but too young to see The Exorcist - Riding my brothers mini motor bike - doubles only. Double decker buses were replaced by bendy buses. Mars Bars Edited October 4, 2007 by Frangipani Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zaman Report post Posted October 4, 2007 The power cuts during the miners strikes. We lived on a huge council estate that was pitch black without any electricity, so if we went out after dark we had to take torches. Hev - what was the other girls magazine apart from Jackie? Pez sweets - I was allowed to spend all my old money on D day to buy a huge pile of them. Pans People - but I'm not sure if that wasn't influenced by my two older brothers . . . Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
barefoot wend Report post Posted October 4, 2007 This is like reading a Janet and Allan Ahlberg book... BD I have the 'Singing Ringing Tree' DVD and it is very scary! Has anyone seen Kathryn, or is she trying to pretend she's far too young?!!!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mumble Report post Posted October 4, 2007 Hev - what was the other girls magazine apart from Jackie? Twinkle? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jb1964 Report post Posted October 4, 2007 What was the other girls magazine apart from Jackie? I used to read the Bunty!! Jb Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zaman Report post Posted October 4, 2007 It was a teenage girls mag, like Jackie, with agony aunts, etc. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
farfalla Report post Posted October 4, 2007 Great thread and brought back some memories, well im not long off 40 i remember watching *willow the wisp, before neighbours came on in the evening. i remember the french skipping game, i loved that playing hop scotch, only needed a stone to draw and throw.... cheap as chips! going down to the woods, and making *den out of twigs, eating hot egg sandwiches at the beach.... with bonus sand going to my grans and watching her eat bread and butter dipped in tea! walking 4 miles to visit gran! being at sunday school, and getting jelly babies for answering a question on jesus (ask me now i aint got a clue) cooking jacket potatoes in the ashes of the fire having our uniform warmed by the fire in the winter pinching step dad's long john's when it snowed,( this was the only time we were allowed to wear trousers) going to jumble sales with mum and buying annuals for 5p mum plugging in her curlers, she was so proud of her electric ones there are prob more in this head, but its hard enough remembering this morning Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Devon mum Report post Posted October 4, 2007 I remember getting parafin from a pump at the petrol station for 50p a gallon to warm my bedroom. ... pound notes. ... collecting Corona bottles for the 10p deposit refund so I could buy sweets ... imps ... our first phone that was a shared line with one of the neighbours ... the big debate about whether Betamax or VHS would be the most popular ... Mr Benn ... knowing that the police would take you haome if you cuased trouble and that you would be for it! ... six of the best from the head master! ... the little hexagon that separated all the adverts on ITV ... only having 3 TV channels to choose from and thinking that was so amazing. ... ZX Spectrum, and my brother listening to the tape on his HUGE walkman. I used to read Beano - Jackie was far too girly for me thanks! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites