Oh pleeeeeease let me have one!!!

Oh, those awful rain hats - I had to carry one and was supposed to put it on over my school panama hat when it rained.
Needless to say, I didn't and the panama hat went all bumpy!

MIL still wore those rain hats over her other hat - goodness knows where she bought them!

You can still buy them now, rosequartz...

Really, Ana? my mother always carried one in her bag at the ready.Must admit, not seen one for years, thought they must be on the endangered species list.

They sell them in some shoe shops round here, and also in the indoor market. As it's a seaside town, a lot of shops tend to cater for the coach-loads of pensioners who invade arrive out of season!

(I mean they're often caught out by bad weather, not that they come here specifically to stock up on rain hoods )

Oh I don't know though!

Oh I'd forgotten all about those rain hats! I used to love them. Not the wearing of them, but playing with them - I loved to open them out then pull the ties so they concertinaed up again. Great fun. Until they split from being over played with.

Those rain hoods used to be sold in hairdressers.
After Elrel`s post, I realised I should have said that I can`t ride a bike either, because I was also refused a 2 wheeler bike. I had the little red and green trike, then the large 3 wheeler, but my mother alays refused the 2 wheeler, so I never did learn to ride a bike. I tried once, on my friend`s brother`s bike, came off it with the crossbar between my legs in a very painful, blood letting incident!

I was one of the bra deprived! When I was 13 I was the only one in the class not to have one and got terribly teased. I used to beg my mother who just said I didn't need one. My lovely aunt picked up on my distress and nagged her to finally get me fitted for a bra. I got 2 size 32AA White with little purple embroidered flowers. I was so proud.

I must rush out and buy myself one of those rain hats - I thought they were extinct - the forecast looks terrible for the weekend and I am a pensioner, after all! It's about time I acted like one

Because my parents moved about a lot I couldn't have a pet but when I was 17 I bought a little black kitten. I was thrilled to have a cat and called her Tiggy. Unfortunately the kitten turned out to be a half feral cat and was very fierce. She clawed and bit my arm more than once but I did love her.

When I was 60 I was ceremoniously presented with what my son's partner called my 'Edna Bonnet'. This was a concertina plastic rain hat. She solemnly explained that all female pensioners had to have one. I even wore it a few times!

I too was denied jelly shoes which were "plastic rubbish that would ruin my feet".
The other thing was a black nylon bomber jacket which was " cheap rubbish that had no lining and did not cover my bum'.

New to gransnet - been on MN a long time. 1944 baby here! Loved this thread - and brought back so many memories - angora boleros (my aunt knitted them - she called it rabbit wool...) Birthday sandals - weren't they made by Clarks - always wanted the red, only got the brown, and brown lace ups for winter. Oh and the long navy blue gabardine mac that used to be scratchy round the knees.

Someone upthread glamama (sorry not right spelling) hated ringlets. I longed for ringlets. We were a Catholic family and most families sat in the same pews every Sunday for Mass. We sat behind a girl called Lynn Davies, and she had beautiful dark brown ringlets.....I used to try and count them, but there were so many. I (and my sisters) all had short hair - always - the local barber used to cut our hair.........I asked my mom how to do ringlets "Oh you have to put them in rags" she said and that was the end of that!

Surprised no one mentioned food. Like most children I loved sweets, and chocolate (still do!) and of course they were on ration till the late 50s weren't they. I remember looking in the sweet shop window at chocolate boxes, that I think were empty. My aunt who visited occasionally used to bring us bars of Cadbury's Dairy Milk - oh the thrill! I remember once going to the post office (I was about 9 or 10) and withdrawing a 6d saving stamp and buying a packet of Sunpat Raisins. I can still remember the man in the post office saying "You're going to do yourself well aren't you..........."

Anyone remember taking pop bottles back to get a few pennies back.

i remember taking pop bottles back. But mum put a stop to it as I once bought gob stoppers with the money instead of the permitted Sherbert Fountain and Black Jacks. She was convinced I would die choking on a gob stopper. Sherbert Fountains with the hollow liquorice straw are now banned I notice - Health and Safety. Choking hazard!

Ohh, sorry - welcome Nananina!

We weren't allowed gobstoppers either Nfk for the same reason! Yet another thing I longed for but couldn't have .

When I was in the juniors, Potty Putty became the must have item. It was a brown rubbery substance which came in a little plastic pot. It had no real use but it was stretchy if you pulled it slowly and snapped if you tugged sharply at it, you could make a small pocket shape and blow air into it, seal it up and burst the bubble with a loud(ish) pop. If you pressed it onto a newspaper the print would transfer onto it but best of all it was very bouncy when rolled into a ball. It's main drawback was that it would get stuck in your hair and had to be cut out. I begged my mum for a pot of this wonderful stuff but she came home with a pack of modelling wax.(hmm) Can't do Smileys cos I don't have square brackets on my keyboard (are they hiding somewhere?)

I also wanted a Tressy with hair that grew but had to make do with a Troll with long white hair.(which I loved).

Oh yes - the dreaded bra race. I was definitely last! My Mum simply could not grasp the idea that my desire to have one had nothing whatever to do with the size of my boobs (I was about as skinny and flat-chested as it is possible to be and still be breathing!) but wanting to be like everyone else.

My DD1's first bra is in a drawer upstairs - it is a 28AA. She treasured it and wore it with pride!

I always wanted a proper nylon party dress with layers of petticoats but needless to say i never got one. My mums friend who lived in London brought
one down once but it was too small. Mum gave it back and suggested she changed it for something more practical. I also longed cor long hair but i would be marched off to the barbers to have it cut to above my ears. I was always told that the more it was cut the more it would grow.. From the age of 14 i grew it down to my waist and have never had it shorter than shoulder length. Mum was still nagging me to get it cut short when i turned 50.

Oh yes, a 'proper' party dress. In the mid 1950s I longed for a 'net over taffeta ' party dress, readily available at the now defunct C&A, but didn't get one. 'Common' I think!! I did at some point get a deep pink taffeta without net which I liked. I can't now recall what seemed so great about the net layer anyway.

Do you remember washing the can-can petticoats in sugar water, and having wasps buzzing round your knees?

Yes, I do - 'paper nylon' petticoats to hold out long full skirts! Or you could fill them with nylon net petticoats with masses of frills. Both needed sugar water to stiffen them. Thanks for the reminder of happy teenage years of the late 50s, dancing in my 3 tiered C&A skirt, green and white candy stripes, worn with a little white broderie anglaise sleeveless blouse from Dorothy Perkins. And a metal fastened wide green elastic 'waspie' belt - I was deeply offended when someone asked to borrow it on a field trip to Pembrokeshire and s t r e t c h e d it for ever! Luckygirl, thanks for the memories!
What archaic words: petticoat, blouse!

Loving this thread. Oh "paper nylon" underskirts - and what about those "hooped" ones - awful things. My older sister had one with lots of net layers and I borrowed it. She ran after me and tugged it from me in the street!!

Oh and C & A - what a shop - cheap and cheerful clothes - loved that shop.
Oh and the "concertina" rain hat - horrendous. But does anyone remember those "bonnet type" hats (I think they were nylon in pastel shades) and were meant to go on over rollers in your hair I think. I remember seeing people out on Saturday afternoon with their rollers in, presumably ready for the "dance" on Sat night.

When I was a young child I always wanted a pair of those hard plastic high heeled dressing up shoes. As far as I can recall you could get them in pink or lilac. They made you feel like a princess! I also always wanted to be just like a little girl who lived in my street. Her mother would plait her hair and put big white bows at the ends of them. She wore pretty dresses and gleaming white socks and they had holidays and a car. Oh yes, paper nylon underskirts, diamond mesh tights as a teenager and as nina mentions, going out with rollers in so your hair would be ready for the evening, then taking them out and backcombing your hair and plastering it with hair lacquer which came out of a tube that you had to pour into a squeezy bottle. Last year we went to Liverpool and we saw a couple of young girls shopping in the city centre with their rollers in. Oh the memories.....