Wasn’t it great?

All of the above Urmstongran, but replace Youth Dew with Aqua Manda and Kiku! Anyone remember them? So evocative, perfume smells.

OK then I'll keep going! As a teenager at school, I remember having a gondola basket to bring my offerings from my cookery class home.

Just going slightly off thread (but please let’s keep these great memories coming because I’m so enjoying reading them) -

If your parents were very strict about your upbringing, very controlling about you going out and make up not allowed, were you more relaxed with your own children?

Also I’d like to say how lovely it is to see so many different names posting on this thread. It’s great!

As for the thanks to me - it’s you lot that are making it so enjoyable to read ?

Oh you wild things. I was never allowed out! I used to pretend to be doing things with Girl Guides and sit in the local coffee bar with friends listening to the Juke Box. I used to go out in Guide Uniform and change clothes. I did have a paper nylon petticoat given to me by an aunt and a full skirt which came from a jumble sale. I wasn't allowed in there with what my mother called 'Coffee Bar Cowboys'! A friend gave me Coty L'Aimant perfume as a birthday present which I hid from my mother.

At school we used to backcomb our hair at break times till it was as high as we could get it. It must have looked dreadful at the back!

When I was 16 I got a Saturday job in the nearest town at Littlewoods. I somehow got hold of a very pale pan stick which must have made me look like a ghost. The plus side was that if we were working in the dress department we were allowed to model the dresses. How cool did I feel! I also was able to buy American tan or Mocha stockings at staff discount.

Guess who went a little bit crazy when she left home and went to University? Actually compared to some of you it was still quite tame but included dances, boys and mini skirts! Looking back I must have been a strange little thing.

I've thoroughly enjoyed reading these posts. They've taken me right back to such happy times and wishing I could go back and live it all again. Thank youUrmstongran

Yes Jalima1108 (sigh) boys were usually well behaved. One lad who worked at Courtaulds used to write poems to me in the car-park during his lunch break and I remember his house in Chorley had a huge round basket- weave pouffe thingy. Brian Chaytor, long hair, kipper ties, white Mustang 2+2 fastback.

Rozina, If you look on ebay there is VNTAGE 70s SHULTON DESERT FLOWER GIFT SET

PERFUMED TALC & BODY LOTION ,UNUSED
Also a few other listings, pefume etc

If you wore a cardigan back to front it meant you were 'available' (single)
well, I never knew that!!

^ a black velvet bow clipped in my hair à la PJ Proby. ^
Oh yes, I'd forgotten those, hair tied back at the nape of the neck with a black velvet bow.

And in those days a boy 'walked you home' or at least to the bus stop.

After reading all the comments (and I'll return to read any new posts) they all resonate with me. Standing outside the Blue Angel club in Seel Street, Liverpool, you could feel the thump of the music coming up through the pavement and it charged you with excitement. Many regulars would go on to the Jacaranda or later, down to the Pier Head for tea and toast at the 'hole in the wall' cafe.
Tolls in London Rd for tops and Dolcis for shoes.
I bought lots of clothes from M&S and John Lewis in those days and used to colour my leather shoes to match my clothes from week to week with Woolworths dye. It had a wire wand with a flatsquare sponge on the end. The liquid dried to a matt finish and you buffed to a shine with a cloth.
My favourite was Kelly Green (emerald)
Tights were 'Toffee' and I had, at one time, a black velvet bow clipped in my hair à la PJ Proby.
Of course, there were drugs on offer, black bombs, blueys and purple hearts and you'd be offered a couple of freebies, no doubt to get you hooked but I was never interested.
In those days I wore Leichner stage make-up, false eye-lashes, spit block mascara and often went bra-less in crochet dresses worn with chain belts. I had a pale blue and a white one and a white cotton jumpsuit which looked great under UV lighting.
So much more going on, or so it seemed, in those days.
If you wore a cardigan back to front it meant you were 'available' (single) and I clearly remember buying a beautiful pigskin purse (UK) which cost half a weeks wages.
Frank Ifield at the Empire and Everly Brother too. Locarno and Grafton ballrooms, Silver Blades, Prescot Road for ice-skating....treasured memories.

Shortly after my dad came home from an overseas posting which was unaccompanied so we hadn't seen him for a year, I was walking home from a local dance accompanied by a boy who was not a boyfriend but a nice local lad who had offered to walk me home. Dad had decided to meet me half way and unexpectedly appeared around the corner.

I said, 'Oh, it's my father' in a cheerful voice because I was chuffed he'd come to meet me.

The boy shot across the road as though he'd got a red hot poker up his backside.

'Who's that?' said Dad. 'Oh, just a friend' said I as we linked arms and walked home.

I've always remembered that night because I never saw that boy again and Dad never asked about him.

Growing up's a funny thing.

'

Coty Emeraude was my favourite back then.

Yes it has Urmstongran thank you

I’ve very much enjoyed this thread - one of the best. Thanks Urmstongran for starting it.

My dad was very good about going out. Didn't mind what time I came home just as long as I told him beforehand and how I was going o get back. If needed to tell him beforehand and he would pick me up, no phones then, even if it was 3 in the morning. A great dad.

My Mum made most of my clothes, so lime green hotpants, a white plastic coat, a yellow poncho and a shift dress with a bit of braid inspired by Val Singleton. A nasty girl at primary school laughed a it and said it looked like an art smock.

Fast forward, a Saturday job at Saxone shoe shop, checked mini skirt from Van Allan or a hippie skirt and a crochet shawl. Due to a teen identity crisis I briefly flirted with a feather haircut and wearing boys shoes.

I’ve been reading over some of your posts ladies and they are bluddy marvellous! Thank you all so much for joining in. So many memories came flooding back!

Kiku perfume! In the bright yellow bottle. So trendy! Thanks for that memory EV.

KatyK I’m really pleased you’ve enjoyed this thread. It’s been a delight to read hasn’t it?

lemongrove you’re absolutely right - it was all the fun involved in the getting ready - so true when you say often better than the night itself!

Actually, it’s obvious how much we’re enjoying this thread as quite a few of you have done more than one post once the memories came back!

Shoe shops - Dolcis, Freeman Hardy & Willis.

I feel your sadness grandtante no one likes to be the odd one out. And having to hide your makeup, buried in a plastic bag at the substation Framilode but well done you girl - where there’s a will and all that ?!

And I can picture your glamour GG54 wow you had a serious number of boyfriends! I feel quite virginal.

But you know, we had great fun, no drugs (I assume), only a very little alcohol and no mobile phones thank god!

Is 67 too old for a squirt of Youth Dew? It was lovely.

Long black maxi coat. Hot pants with bib. Solid block mascara (spat on the brush, just like Victoria Wood).
Long black platformed boots with jeans rolled up to knee to show them off.
Feather cut hair. Mary Quant perfume. Aquamanda perfume.
Caran d’Ache art pencils (a big tin,24 colours) used as eye makeup, Vaseline applied first to make it stick. All colours used, including yellow and bright pink.
And the joy of C and A and River Island, whose clothes were affordable. Remember the shop assistant that sat on a really high stool up in the ceiling, to deter shop lifters?
Getting ready to go out in ‘decent’ clothes, saying goodbye to parents, then quickly getting changed into the ‘real thing’ and nipping out of the door before they saw me.
Cat Stevens, David Bowie, Rod Stewart (Maggie May esp.)
Beatles White album, Northern Soul, Wigan Casino.
Hippie clothes thrown into the mix.
Ditto everyone else, thought those few short years would last forever.

Thank you MissA and all because of the wonderful posts! It’s brilliant reading them.

Oh gosh ETAMS you have jogged my memory, & Chelsea Girl .Getting my first platform soled boots,loved them.Oxford bags yes those too,Bowie 'Starman' Petticoat Lane & Oxford st. Feather cuts ... Biba ..The O Jays Backstabbers...never thinking those days would end ...

Youth Dew by Estee Lauder
Tiny skirts that showed your knickers
3 pairs of false eyelashes
Long hair dyed raven black
Masses of eye makeup
Really high heels
Stones, Blues, Otis & later Bowie while we got ready.
Down the disco & strangely a coffee bar afterwards-probably because it stayed open until last people left unlike the pubs.
Oh such great times!!
Seeing best friend from then next week - I must remind her too.
We're both multi Grandmas now!

This is a lovely thread.

Black eyeliner
Long hair, long fringe
Black tights, short black skirt. Long, long, baggy jumper.
Boots
( art student)

This thread brings back so many memories but my dad was in the forces and we were always moving and lived in the back of beyond. Remember the petticoats, was 12 - 13 at the time and living in the far east. Our petticoats were starched with sugar and they were so stiff they stood up on their own. On return to UK it was monthly discos at the youth club with my friend and I making a different dress for each one. Was never short of a b/f and I remember one with long blond hair knocking on the door for me and my dad answering and shouting XXXX its your b/f and he is wearing a necklace. Clothes were short and sometimes long, white boots, tight tops and tights. Left home at 18 to work abroad and lived the life of a hippy. Oh the joy of feeling that freedom of staying up all night.

I was a wannabe Mod. I never quite made it. In my first job at 16 I thought I was a bit of a Mod. Then a girl came to work there who was a real Mod. I really envied her but I remember thinking it was a shame she was so old - she was 20!