Page 18 | What's something that absolutely screams ‘British childhood’ to you?’

MyCheeryPearlTraybake · 2025-05-28T15:20:33+00:00

Going to the corner shop for some custard creams

mepipesneedlagging · 28/05/2025 16:52

SummerInSun · 28/05/2025 16:27

As someone who didn’t grow up in the U.K. but read a lot old British children’s books, you all spent your childhoods camping on moors, riding ponies and capturing smugglers, didn’t you?

😂 I was so disappointed when I wasn't packed off to boarding school for midnight feasts, washed down with lashings of ginger beer.
I should have known by our lack of a Cook or a Governess. 😔

comeandhaveteawithme · 28/05/2025 16:52

CapitalAtRisk · 28/05/2025 16:50

Going to boarding school
Three channels on TV
War films and cowboy films on TV on a Saturday/Sunday afternoon
Dr Who, and hiding behind the sofa
Afternoon tea - always chocolate cake
Earl Grey

Afternoon Tea and Boarding School? did you grow up in an Enid Blyton Novel?

madameimadam · 28/05/2025 16:51

Going swimming in the local baths then walking home eating hot salty chips and shivering from still-wet chlorine-smelling hair. Maybe getting a cup of Bovril from the machine…

comeandhaveteawithme · 28/05/2025 16:51

Being "known" by locals and the community. The bloke who owned the newsagents. The postmaster and postmistress. The milkman.
Our local post office and newsagents next to my primary school were owned by the same people for the entirety of my childhood and young adulthood, and no, I don't live in a tiny village. We never socialised but they knew me, they would tell me off if I was messing around and say hello to me by name every time I went in.

These days places seem to change hands every five minutes and no one is friendly or says hello.

Sorry, that's probably nostalgia rather than uniquely British!

CapitalAtRisk · 28/05/2025 16:50

Going to boarding school
Three channels on TV
War films and cowboy films on TV on a Saturday/Sunday afternoon
Dr Who, and hiding behind the sofa
Afternoon tea - always chocolate cake
Earl Grey

merryhouse · 28/05/2025 16:49

comeandhaveteawithme · 28/05/2025 16:44

I remember when Sunny Delight came out, there was so much marketing around it, for a bloody soft drink. It was weird. They were acting like it was some new elixir they'd found. Every second advert on TV. Leaflets through every door on my street. So odd.

Edited

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yes, and then oh the middle-class angst when somebody thought to look at the ingredients list it was revealed that it wasn't a healthy drink after all

DriveMeCrazy1974 · 28/05/2025 16:48

comeandhaveteawithme · 28/05/2025 16:46

My 40 year old husband still adores a findus crispy pancake 😂my kids won't touch them!

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They're boring now! We bought some a while back and they are pretty tasteless - plus, they don't turn hard in the oven (although that could have been the way they were cooked in the late 70s/early 80s!). I always loved the minced beef ones!

BMW6 · 28/05/2025 16:48

The Test Card on telly.
Waiting for the valves to warm up when you switched telly on.
2 channels - BBC and ITV.
The Wooden tops, Andy Pandy, Watch with Mother

In winter the bedroom net curtains being frozen to the window INSIDE as no heating in bedrooms at all.

MaryGreenhill · 28/05/2025 16:48

Going to Tenby for a week in a caravan in the Summer holidays . Playing Bingo and the slot machines in the Amusement Arcade .
Fish n chips walking around the harbour.

ohdelay · 28/05/2025 16:48

Eating ice cream on a pebbly beach in the rain

Ahsheeit · 28/05/2025 16:48

Waiting for the pop man to deliver
Deposits for taking pop bottles back to the shop (and hunting on building sites etc for said bottles)
Nylon sheets and nighties that sparked with static electricity getting into bed
Jumble sales with mum, excited about finding stuff that fitted me
Jelly teddies, 4 for 1/2p
Beano, dandy, Bunty, Mandy
Bod
Mr Ben
Jackanory
Playschool
Magpie
Mum going to the liberal club
Mum walking 6 of us a couple of miles to go to the Kwiksave (big pram, 2 at the back, 2 smaller at the front with the eldest 2 walking)
Scouse for tea

70s child here.

Sminty2 · 28/05/2025 16:47

Getting up really early to go on holiday to Cornwall and sitting in the back of the car in height order, held in place by all the camping gear that won't fit in the boot.

DriveMeCrazy1974 · 28/05/2025 16:47

Oh, the Corona lorry coming round on a Friday evening! My nan and gramp always bought us Cherryade, Dandelion and Burdock, Lemonade, Lime and Orange - I have never tasted cherryade as lovely as the Corona stuff. Then, being able to take the bottle back to a shop to get 10p for it!

WhereAreMyKids · 28/05/2025 16:47

Romping about the Moors and woods.
Making dens
Street wide water fights/man hunt/40-40 in
Taking a packed lunch, bottle of squash and only coming home when the street lights came on.
Tea pot on the wood burner and constant cups of tea over winter.

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 28/05/2025 16:47

School hymns
School uniform

comeandhaveteawithme · 28/05/2025 16:46

Holdonforsummer · 28/05/2025 16:43

Arctic roll. Findus crispy pancakes

My 40 year old husband still adores a findus crispy pancake 😂my kids won't touch them!

Avantiagain · 28/05/2025 16:45

The pop man

amicisimma · 28/05/2025 16:45

It looks as if my mistake was having carless parents. It's surprising how little shelter the lee of a cliff or sand dune provides.

Avantiagain · 28/05/2025 16:44

Mr Whippy icecream

comeandhaveteawithme · 28/05/2025 16:44

EggnogNoggin · 28/05/2025 16:30

Sunny Delight, Turkey Twizzlers and sunburn because noone applied suncream in the 90s.

I remember when Sunny Delight came out, there was so much marketing around it, for a bloody soft drink. It was weird. They were acting like it was some new elixir they'd found. Every second advert on TV. Leaflets through every door on my street. So odd.

WhereAreMyKids · 28/05/2025 16:43

Islagetmycoat · 28/05/2025 16:27

The sound of the ice cream van. I’m in my fifties now and still get excited when the ice cream van comes down our road.

I used to then I treated my kids to a lolly, almost £4 each! We used to get a small clotted cream cone for 25p when I was young!

Holdonforsummer · 28/05/2025 16:43

Arctic roll. Findus crispy pancakes

Cyclistmumgrandma · 28/05/2025 16:43

Sooty and Sweep. Taking the empty 'Corona' bottles back to the shop to get the deposit back. The eleven plus. Direct grant grammar schools.

comeandhaveteawithme · 28/05/2025 16:43

natalieplusone · 28/05/2025 16:40

Doing agadoo

Yes! and the macarena!

comeandhaveteawithme · 28/05/2025 16:42

School uniforms drying on radiators and clothes horses by the fire.
Picking dandelions and blowing the seeds
Watching The Snowman at Christmas
Getting excited by two inches of snow that lasts three hours
Being completely unphased by a bit of rain while outdoors
Biscuits. Lot of biscuits
Orange squash
Spaghetti hoops
Chicken nuggets
Fish fingers