Things we don't see anymore

<<Does anyone remember the school pots of glue that used to smell of marzipan?>>

No, but we had inkwells - little china ones - in holes at the top right hand corner of our desks.

Stag Beetles haven't seen one for years, I know they had a short life span. I remember summer evenings in our last house these eerie insects whizzing about our garden on a sideways flight path giving me the eebie jeebies. Where have they all gone

jackyb, those inkwells in the right hand corner? Oh yes! I remember them well!

Being a southpaw in a school where thick red lines would be drawn through a para (or page, even) of text if the presentation of the work wasn't pristine, it was torture moving the pen to the pot, specially when some bright spark had doctored the ink with blotting paper, resulting in blobs._. We were 15 before we were allowed to use fountain pens.

Hard times!

I must live in a time warp place. Can report that crimplene dresses and those concertina plastic rain hats (to cover their cauliflower heads set with Amami setting lotion, natch, at the local hairdressers every Thursday - pensioner day!- ) are all going strong round here. 12 ladies go into the hairdressers every Thursday morning, all put under driers after having their hair rollered with those foam covered pink rollers, all trooping out looking exactly the same a couple of hours later.

Wonder if they're offered coffee made with Camp coffee essence and 'stera' milk ?

Re inkwells, we had a monitor in the class who doled them out from a tray, when we had to write - possibly why I don't remember blotting paper in them.
There was an inky bit stuck on the ceiling though!

Alishka My DH calls ladies that have their hair like that, especially if it is white , cauliflowers.

Alishka, we had to write with those dreadful pens with wood and ask the teacher for new nibs....they were very mean with them! Then in the second year, we could use our own fountain pens. Guess who used to put blotting paper in the ink wells? I used to love that white marzipan smelling glue. Very funny about the hairdressers!!

Do you know, I've read back over the whole thread and being with you lot really, really is like putting my feet into a pair of much loved, comfortable slippers (tartan, turn back, pompommed, natch.

Bloody lovely!

A couple of things...

Someone mentioned the perfume Quadrille by BAlenciaga? You can buy it from escentials , original stuff,not a copy. I know cos I did it about a year ago. I think they source their stuff from Estate Clearances. Doesn't spook me at all, still smells like I remember, just nice that there is(was?) someone else there with the same love as me

Zambuck corn remover got a little round tin of that as well. Never had a corn in my life but it's one of the 'original' Tins of stuff I've got,

Finally, to clear the mystery of the hardened white dog poo we used to see. Yes, it was the bone component of the food fed to dogs back then, I reckon. Scraps and bones were our mutts everyday diet, white tripe was the bleached (more expensive) stuff we used to have with boiled milk and onions (ugh!) but the cheaper stuff is and was,beige coloured, so I'm guessing that white tripe wasn't usually part of a pooch's normal diet? Just a thought..

Making Christmas cakes at school. they don't seem to do them anymore. We kept them all in the cookery room at school for weeks to let them mature, then we had to ice and decorate them and then brought them home in a tin.