Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask what one extinct thing you would bring back from your childhood?

314 replies

PansyPotter84 · 05/06/2025 18:00

By “thing” - I don’t mean people. I’m sure there are people from our childhoods that we would all want to bring back more than any “thing” in the world.

The thing that I would bring back would be tinned Spaghetti Hoops with Hotdogs in Smokey-Bacon Sauce by Heinz.

Best thing ever in the 90s IMHO!

OP posts:
StMarie4me · 05/06/2025 22:30

Yiayoula · 05/06/2025 20:26

Mint Cracknell bars.
The rum and butter Milady boiled sweets from Woolworths - and the hot salted peanuts they sold by the quarter.
Happy days !

My Mum used to get Mint Cracknell for a Sunday treat sometimes! I’d forgotten all about them!

Port1aCastis · 05/06/2025 22:29

Mr Terry's toy shop and dolls hospital in town. Mr Terry resuscitated Sallyann my biggest doll who had an unfortunate time when I chucked her downstairs because I was in a strop about something. I had to pay for the dolls treatment myself so that taught me a lesson about throwing things while in a paddy. Unfortunately Mr Terry died and the shop is now a newsagent's.

StMarie4me · 05/06/2025 22:28

fixingmylife · 05/06/2025 18:03

Pacers. They were a minty version of opal fruits. They had a pale green and white stripe through them if my memory serves me correct!

I can imagine the taste now!

PayrollSSP · 05/06/2025 22:24

The original wham bars with the sour crunchy bits. Don’t taste the same anymore. Fizzy drinks with sugar, no sweeteners in. Can’t stand dr pepper and orangina these days. Also miss the assorted makintosh Toffos

Eminybob · 05/06/2025 22:23

Miss Selfridge where you could buy basically all the ingredients to dress like every spice girl. Including platform trainers.
They also did a wonderful silver eyeliner.

fandjango · 05/06/2025 22:22

Potato Triangles from Sainsbury’s. Could just eat some right now!!

ZiggyZowie · 05/06/2025 22:20

Watch with Mother

ThinWomansBrain · 05/06/2025 22:18

Penguins wrapped in foil, and different colours so you could choose from red, blue or green.
I bought a pack the other day, all in red plastic wrappers, can't make origami boats with them.

(The biscuits, not real penguins)

WingsofRain · 05/06/2025 22:18

Sainsbury’s Breakfast Slices, M&S Chinese Style chicken, proper Arctic Roll with soft, thick cake.

A much better time when there was so much less worry and I could enjoy life. I wish I had known then how good it was.

Chocaholic1216 · 05/06/2025 22:17

Cadbury Marble bars. My mum would often collect me from school with one of those for me. B&M sometimes sell the big bars of it which are the Australian version but it doesn’t taste quite the same

piscofrisco · 05/06/2025 22:15

The Next Directory. The weight of it when it came through the door in its cardboard wrapping. The glamour!

nutbrownhare15 · 05/06/2025 22:14

Going to the video shop to choose a film

piscofrisco · 05/06/2025 22:13

‘Big’ tv programmes that everyone watched at the same time and then talked about for days afterwards. Ghost watch springs to
mind presented by Sarah Greene. Everyone at school was terrified of Mr Pipes.

JohnofWessex · 05/06/2025 22:08

Peaks (Class 45 & 46 railway locomotives)
The 1955 Manxman (Isle of man ferry used in Yentl & A Night to Remember)
P&A Campbell paddle steamer Bristol Queen

ToadRage · 05/06/2025 22:05

Beryls · 05/06/2025 18:16

ASDA sell them i had some not so long ago, not as lovely as they used to be!

Show quote history

I haven't seen them in my local Asda, someone else said they had them in home bargains and they didn't have any on my local there either, i did see them i Morrisons one Christmas a few years back but that is the single occasion i have managed to get them since childhood.

Menobaby79 · 05/06/2025 21:15

Spira bars, Fuse bars, Tutti frutti ice cream, the crisps with the dips in that you could get from the Spar shop, like prawn crackers with some thousand island dip and cheese and chive crisps with a garlic dip. Pizza rollers I think they were called? The Dairylea buns in the little foil packets with the cheese spread inside them... I was all about lazy convenience foods with my pocket money! 😂

Yiayoula · 05/06/2025 20:31

ExercicenformedeZ · 05/06/2025 19:33

Cafe Noir biscuits! Those were awesome.

Oh yes ! ❤️
Our local deli sells something very similar, think they come from Italy, but way pricier than Café Noir were, so an occasional treat.

Yiayoula · 05/06/2025 20:26

Mint Cracknell bars.
The rum and butter Milady boiled sweets from Woolworths - and the hot salted peanuts they sold by the quarter.
Happy days !

ToWhitToWhoo · 05/06/2025 20:24

Second hand bookshops: online availability is great; but there's something about actually being in an old bookshop

Wagon Wheels

Properly (hu)manned non-automatic tills in shops. You still have some, but not enough

Pre-Thatcher politics: far from perfect, but IMO Thatcherism made things much worse.

Play School and Jackanory

RampantIvy · 05/06/2025 20:15

Woolworths
Debenhams
BHS
Wilko

Other shops that have gone out of business

Pastapenguin · 05/06/2025 20:14

Zap ice cream/lollies

andHelenknowsimmiserablenow · 05/06/2025 20:11

A walk in GP appointment.

Jaq27 · 05/06/2025 20:03

Woolworths - cheap perfume and cherry lipgloss and Super-Strong-Extra-Hold hairspray (1970s)
Broken Biscuits - basically the smashed up stuff the supermarket wanted to flog. You could buy BBs by the shovelful. You might get pieces of shortbread, fragments of Jammy Dodger, bits of Custard Cream - if you were lucky some pieces of chocolate digestive. My mum would buy Broken Biscuits when she was short on housekeeping. I quite liked the variety and the surprise.

Dangermoo · 05/06/2025 19:55

sauvignonplonk1 · 05/06/2025 19:28

Birds Eye Chocolate Lovely desserts!

Used to luck the lids before you got stuck in 😂

Uricon2 · 05/06/2025 19:54

Black Magic chocolates circa 1960s/70s. They were lovely