Things you never see now

SueDonim

Speaking of newsagents, I saw a display of writing paper and envelopes, Basildon Bond, the other day. I didn’t know you could still get it, and they had air mail stationery too. A pad of A5 air mail paper was £10.40! I think the last pad I bought was about £2.

I recently bought a pad of BB writing paper to write to an elderly friend in a care home. She has no access to email and lives to receive a letter.
I bought the corresponding BB envelopes and was appalled at the cost.

Yes, i can remember children scooting along on one skate - I was lucky to have two, I suppose.

I loved skating up and down the road (and falling over, frequently) they were one of my favourite toys.

MissAdventure I had roller skates which I had to share with my sister. Most of the time we had one each.

Well, according to the song, it was a key... "I've got a brand new pair of rollerskates, and I'll give you the key..."

The roller skates that you made bigger using a key (or nut?)
They were red, and had laces.

Speaking of newsagents, I saw a display of writing paper and envelopes, Basildon Bond, the other day. I didn’t know you could still get it, and they had air mail stationery too. A pad of A5 air mail paper was £10.40! I think the last pad I bought was about £2.

The traditional newsagent, who sold papers, magazines, tobacco and sweets has largely died out. I suppose with the big decline in print media and supermarkets and filling stations selling papers, there's no money in being a newsagent. There's only one in town now, who still has his papers in racks outside now.

Thank you HowVeryDareYou2, that explains it!

AskAlice

I have gone through all the previous posts but there are a lot of them. I hope I'm not lowering the tone too much, but has anyone mentioned white dog poo? I lived in Inner London until my mid-20s and it was certainly a feature of the streets when I was there...I haven't seen any for years now although I know that for many years most people pick up their dog-doings.

This came up when I Googled it -

Older generations often remember seeing chalky white dog waste everywhere. This 1970s and 1980s phenomenon occurred because commercial pet foods used cheap bone meal fillers packed with high amounts of indigestible calcium. Modern pet foods use better ingredients and balanced nutrients,

I have gone through all the previous posts but there are a lot of them. I hope I'm not lowering the tone too much, but has anyone mentioned white dog poo? I lived in Inner London until my mid-20s and it was certainly a feature of the streets when I was there...I haven't seen any for years now although I know that for many years most people pick up their dog-doings.

Harmony hair colour in the triangular box.

"French skipping" - a long loop of elastic tied round two girls' legs, starting at the ankles then progressing to knees and even waist.
Having short legs I found even "kneesies" difficult.

Maybe we should start a thread with those rhymes in...
I remember "Ibble Obble Black Bobble,
Ibble Obble Out!"

...and the skipping rhymes (with the actions):

"Teddy Teddy Bear climb up the stairs,
Teddy Bear Teddy Bear say your prayers...etc"

There is only one working phone box near me now. I saw someone inside the box last week, but using the phone box to make a call on their mobile. I can'r remember the last time soneone used the phone box and the last time I used one was in 2004.

Old people going out to pick up any pieces of stray coal that had accidentally fallen off the delivery wagon as it passed by.

I remember my next door neighbour taking me along the road with her to do that when I was three or four years old.

Phone boxes with A and B buttons.
Unsecured hallway runner carpets - used to run at the end of ours and skid up the length of the hall!
Wind-up gramophones.
Coal bunker in the garden.
Chilled box in the garden (before we had a fridge) - a hole in the ground, lined with bricks and a wooden cover , which was used to keep the milk in. Had to keep splashing the bricks with cold water to keep it cool in hot weather.
Toilets at the end of the garden (not us, but an aunt we used to visit had this - and it was a communal toilet with the other cottages either side of the rank she lived in. Used to hate having to use it,

As for motorcycles with side cars, a friend of mine has one and regularly uses it.

Bingos along sea fronts giving out decent prizes

Condom and tampon machines in public toilets.

I remember those horrific metal signs in public toilets warning about Venereal Disease !!

ixion

This!

ooh yes, thought you turned a key to get them but apparently not, memory plays tricks !

Casdon

Children’s sandals - remember the Clarks ones with crepe soles and cutouts, like this, my sisters and I all had a pair exactly the same every year, brown, red or navy. No longer seen I don’t think.

I loved these, they still sold them late seventies early eighties and when I was a very fashionable and alternative young woman, I bought a pair in red leather !!

Grandmama

You could buy postage stamps from a box attached to the pillar box.
Looking at photographs from as late as the 1970s very few women were wearing trousers. They looked quite dressed up by today's standards.
Sometimes there would be a crowd outside a TV shop watching the football through the window.
I don't think there are any slipper baths these days.

Ooh yes I'd forgotten those stamp dispensers, you had to turn a key for the stamps to come out like a bubblegum machine !

Outside the game shop dead rabbits and pheasants hanging up plus glassy eyed fish looking out the window
Winalot sold loose in a big bin with a scooped
That poor little girl with calipers collection box
The Barnados collection box my aunt had and once a year a lovely party with magic for the children
Ditto the NSPCC a lovely big blue egg and a party held in our school canteen one evening
Taking Granny to Ross on Wye shopping and then tea above the cake shop with fresh cakes on a stand and fresh pots of tea, toasted tea cakes on cold days
The local newsagent had raffia with their name printed on it with a pink border used to tie up grans local paper People's Friend and Red Letter magazine

At Longleat Park shop I bought a bracelet with my name engraved on it there and then, before my very eyes!.(As I have an unusual name I was very happy to buy it.) You couldn't buy anything with my name on anywhere else in a souvenir shop. That was magical.

We had these and Mum would cut off the ends with the bread knife (which was actually a carving knife) to get more wear out of them.