The Good Old Days

Cobra said:
Of course they were, along with Andy Pandy (y)
Its just that they kept going on about "weed" :D
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Andy and Teddy - twos up on Lubey Lou!!!
 
When tyres were about 3 inches (not 75mm) wide and you put "Town and Countries" on for the winter. When dad used to leave the house five minutes before everyone else to "Warm up" the car (after pulling ot the "choke" of course) especially when the battery was a bit down and it needed a "swing" on the starting handle! (Keep your thumb on the same side as your fingers or risk breaking it if the car backfired!)
 
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What passed for gangs on the estate I mentioned in post #77 was nothing like the "gangs" in the news......

Though there was the odd catapault fight on the bomb damaged houses site a few hundred yards away and I still have the small scar on my lip (under my 'tach') from one stone that struck me there :facepalm:

One of those houses had apples trees in the garden.....as abandoned I won't call it scrumping but the apples on one season were huge IIRC my mother made 3 apple pies from 1 huge apple.....very tasty they were too :D


As for playing.....there was a tree line along the edge of the estate and one tree had a bough that was very low and that I called it the aeroplane tree because the branch could be bounced to feel like I was flying :)

Oh, as for bangers......sugar was also good for fun(?) a small heap on the ground covered with a shoe box.....a lit match under it and "whooof" the box flew nicely with the flames and gases generated. Ah! such simply pleasures.........

My recall is on a roll now....another kid was the son of the local FE colleges caretaker and he shall we say laid his hands on some bottles of Babycham........learned how to remove 'crown caps' without an opener and we all got tipsy. (NB all of us not yet in our teens)
 
I don't think anyone has mentioned 'breaking into a ten bob note' or fivers that were almost as big as a tablecloth.
A couple of mentions of both bangers and cowpats but surely we weren't the only ones to play chicken by combining the 2 - the one standing closest to the pat when the banger went is was not only brave but stank..
 
Smoking behind the bike sheds at break-times.
Playing "Splits" and then reverse splits (AKA Chicken). Both an H&S nightmare :D
 
Salt and vinegar crisps came with a little bag of salt ;)
 
Ah yes even walkers plain crisps came with a little a little blue bag of salt, and cheese and onion crisps actually tasted of cheese and onion
 
Norkie said:
Salt and vinegar crisps came with a little bag of salt ;)
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Cobra said:
Ah yes even walkers plain crisps came with a little a little blue bag of salt, and cheese and onion crisps actually tasted of cheese and onion
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It was the ones that came with the small twist of blue paper salt in that felt special. I recall reading some years later, after "they" went read salted, that some bright spark in marketing decided to reintroduce unsalted/salt to taste....and they found that the 'twist of paper ' machine had been broken up and sold for scrap after being in store for ages

IIRC the sachets of salt never took off in the ' new read to salt' unsalted bags
 
Cobra said:
Ah yes even walkers plain crisps came with a little a little blue bag of salt, and cheese and onion crisps actually tasted of cheese and onion
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Whereas now they come with an annoying **** with socio-liberal views.
 
stevewestern said:
I don't think anyone has mentioned 'breaking into a ten bob note' or fivers that were almost as big as a tablecloth.
A couple of mentions of both bangers and cowpats but surely we weren't the only ones to play chicken by combining the 2 - the one standing closest to the pat when the banger went is was not only brave but stank..
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Ah, the 10bob note or as my dad told me a $1.......used to get some in birthday cards from the rellies :)

Somewhere I have a mint condition one stashed away :D
 
Box Brownie said:
Ah, the 10bob note or as my dad told me a $1.......used to get some in birthday cards from the rellies :)

Somewhere I have a mint condition one stashed away :D
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Wow, you have/had rich relies!
We got a thru'penny bit (spelling?) if we were lucky!
I have a couple of battered farthings that I call my pension.
 
Box Brownie said:
Ah, the 10bob note or as my dad told me a $1.......
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A dollar was 5 bob when I was younger.
And half a dollar, half a crown obviously.
Box Brownie said:
Somewhere I have a mint condition one stashed away :D
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I've got a Manx one, signed in person by the person that designed, it.
I doubt that its worth anything though, just a curio from a holiday years ago.
 
Box Brownie said:
It was the ones that came with the small twist of blue paper salt in that felt special
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Ah yes the little blue twist bag came before the little sachet,
did anyone else add a dash of vinegar as well?
It made them soggy but what the hell :D
 
Wow so many memories I remember most of them from the mid sixtys on.


Have the visitors been??
 
When "protection" whilst "courting" meant taking off your coat and wrapping it around her shoulders! When winkle pickers were shoes and not fishing industry operatives! When the bin men cleared the snow and spread grit on the footpaths because they couldn't get the lorry up the hills. When public buildings were maintained regularly, hospitals were kept spotless by nurses and doctors would come to the house to visit you if you were too ill to go to them! When you put coins in the meters. (Insert, twist and turn back). When public phones had button "A" to get through and button "B" to get your money back if nobody answered.
 
Cobra said:
A dollar was 5 bob when I was younger.
And half a dollar, half a crown obviously.
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You have got me wondering ???

I tried to find the $2 to £1 and $4 to £1

The latter $4 to £1 was from 1940 onwards but not clear whether that carried on until the 50' / 60's the former $2 to £1 was in 1992..........so somewhere my childhood memories have gotten confused(?)
 
Box Brownie said:
It was the ones that came with the small twist of blue paper salt in that felt special. I recall reading some years later, after "they" went read salted, that some bright spark in marketing decided to reintroduce unsalted/salt to taste....and they found that the 'twist of paper ' machine had been broken up and sold for scrap after being in store for ages

IIRC the sachets of salt never took off in the ' new read to salt' unsalted bags
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I love them without salt! Got loads of blue sachets in the cupboard.
 
Tigger.ufo said:
Nope, they were 6d and became 3p which was 7d, scarred for life by that I was!
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That would more sense that my recall(?) but still the price went up!
Tigger.ufo said:
I love them without salt! Got loads of blue sachets in the cupboard.
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Coming right up to date.............we now only ever by the 'Lightly Salted' variety of Kettle or Tyrells...whichever are on offer ;)
 
I think the Dollar thing derived from the period when the US currency was tied to the Gold standards, a fixed exchange rate, but I don't know when it was abandoned - likely post WW2 when everyone owed the USA money for lend-lease and rebuilding Germany and Japan etc.
 
Before crisps were made nationally by the same company. We had Tudor Crisps up here in the North East, made on Teeside. Never heard of Walkers and only new golden wonder existed when I went to my cousins in Hampshire.

The Co-op had the monopoly on milk delivery up here, you used to have to buy your milk tokens, when you did the weekly grocery shop at to co-op. They used to deliver 7 days a week and then stopped doing the Sunday in the late 70's

When I was young my best friends father worked for ICI delivering explosives. The depot was about 2 miles from where we lived, I used to go their sometimes, they had 8 magazines 6 with dynamite in and 2 with detonators, each about 100' square, they used to say in the 60's and 70's that their was enough explosive stored their to blow everything within a 10 mile radius to kingdom come. I could believe it, they used to get the explosives delivered by train. Now it has all been bulldozed and most people probably never new it existed now.
 
Two bolts a nut and some caps. Cap screwed in between the two bolts and the whole thing thrown as high as you could hoping it landed on end and "exploded".
 
Early 70s Friday night being sent to the chippy with 50p to get four lots of fish and chips and I got to keep the change. Now its about £8-£9 per portion
 
luthy said:
Early 70s Friday night being sent to the chippy with 50p to get four lots of fish and chips and I got to keep the change. Now its about £8-£9 per portion
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We used to ask for 'a penneth of crackling', and the chippy man would scoop out the left over batter from the fried fish!

We would go into the off licence, which was part of our local pub, and get an Arrowroot biscuit for a penny! They were huge!!
 
Cobra said:
Smoking behind the bike sheds at break-times.
Playing "Splits" and then reverse splits (AKA Chicken). Both an H&S nightmare :D
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This has just reminded me of a game we used to play: "Split the Kipper".

Anyone else remember this?

It involved a circle of lads all stood with their legs apart and each one taking a turn to throw a knife in between the legs/feet of the next one. With each successful knife entry into the ground you had to move your legs/feet in a bit closer, and on it went 'round the circle until there was barely any gap between feet/legs to throw a knife into.

A completely pointless game with no obvious reward, and why it was called "Split the Kipper" is anyone's guess.

We also had this game where we'd cling onto the back of a stationary bus at the bus stop and see how long we could hold on as the bus got moving, 'some pretty impressive feats and some minor injuries along the way.

I appreciate this probably doesn't constitute 'the good old days', but you reminded me of a 'game' I'd forgotten all about!
 
Norkie said:
We used to ask for 'a penneth of crackling', and the chippy man would scoop out the left over batter from the fried fish!

We would go into the off licence, which was part of our local pub, and get an Arrowroot biscuit for a penny! They were huge!!
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We called it batter and it was thrown in free infact may chippys round here still do.
 
Songbird Admirer said:
This has just reminded me of a game we used to play: "Split the Kipper".

Anyone else remember this?
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We used to play 'King a Lingy'.
One poor lad would stand in the middle of our large grassy play area, the rest of us would have to run across the area without him grabbing us! If you got caught it was your turn to stand in the middle.
 
Songbird Admirer said:
This has just reminded me of a game we used to play: "Split the Kipper".

Anyone else remember this?

It involved a circle of lads all stood with their legs apart and each one taking a turn to throw a knife in between the legs/feet of the next one. With each successful knife entry into the ground you had to move your legs/feet in a bit closer, and on it went 'round the circle until there was barely any gap between feet/legs to throw a knife into.

A completely pointless game with no obvious reward, and why it was called "Split the Kipper" is anyone's guess.

We also had this game where we'd cling onto the back of a stationary bus at the bus stop and see how long we could hold on as the bus got moving, 'some pretty impressive feats and some minor injuries along the way.

I appreciate this probably doesn't constitute 'the good old days', but you reminded me of a 'game' I'd forgotten all about!
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We had the same game but played the other way.

We started with our feet together and you had throw the knife just outside one of the other lads feet. He had to then move his foot to where the knife was and then it was his turn to throw the knife just outside one of your feet. As the game continued the feet got further and further apart until you(or the other lad) fell over. Whoever fell first lost the game.

I'd never thought about it before but there never seemed to be any problem from the school staff with kids bringing knives , admittedly small ones, to school.

Dave
 
Tringa said:
We had the same game but played the other way.

We started with our feet together and you had throw the knife just outside one of the other lads feet. He had to then move his foot to where the knife was and then it was his turn to throw the knife just outside one of your feet. As the game continued the feet got further and further apart until you(or the other lad) fell over. Whoever fell first lost the game.

I'd never thought about it before but there never seemed to be any problem from the school staff with kids bringing knives , admittedly small ones, to school.

Dave
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And of course the sheath knife that you wore to scouts.
 
think what this really shows is kids these days have lost there sense of experiment and learn , if another war happens they would have to ask there phone what to do first .
 
Constable said:
And of course the sheath knife that you wore to scouts.
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knifes a few I suppose ,but secondary school in the east end was where you progressed from air guns to shotguns , all you needed in those days to buy or use a 12 bore and ammo was a ten bob gun licence from the post office .. had my first single shot webley at 11 years old and px-ed that when turned 13 for a savage five shot pump with multi choke .. good fun on hackney marshes .
 
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