Random childhood stuff you have no explanation for.

Before the polio drops, swimming and paddling pools were one of the main spreaders of the virus. If you watch the film about Ian Dury, and Andy Serkis, it covers it in it.

A spoonful of Andrews Liver Salts in a glass of water was a refreshing drink for us.

Get the kids to play car snooker on long journeys. You have to spot cars by colour in the order you pot the balls in Snooker, so 15 red, then one each yellow, green, brown, blue pink and then black. You can add 21 white to finish on a long journey, or a white after every colour.

Just remembered seeing dogs stuck together by their bums.70s.

A lot of dogs used to just run free like cats do. I remember having to visit a store in a large estate in Coventry, back in the 80s for work. I hated this shop as there was always a large pack of dogs, all shapes and sizes, running round the area. Frank Skinner often talks about the dog they had when he was a child in West Brom. It basically used to come back to the house to sleep, and spend the days scavenging. It was a thing.

My parents had a picture of me taken at Scarborough with a monkey on my shoulder. So they were not just in Ireland.

Omg same!

Jesus!!

When I was 13 we began to take specialised subjects and drop others. We first went to our own class to take the register, and then on to the individual classes according to our schedule. So the corridors would be full of kids tramping about for 10 minutes. I used to hide in the loo til it went quiet, grab my coat, and then "bunk off" as it was called. The coats were kept in a kind of locked cage which was only opened at going home time. It was supposed to prevent thefts and keep them secure. But I had that all worked out. If you hung your coat on the outer hooks where the bars were you could put in your hand, drop them off the hook, and pull them through the 6 inch gap at the bottom.

My mother worked in the afternoon so I either went home, visited my grandmother or wandered around the shops. If a child was missed at the lesson the teacher would assume the register had already been taken and the absence noted. So there was no query as to where is gingercat. I only missed lessons I hated such as PE or maths. I did this about once a month and was never caught. I used to get a real buzz from breaking the rules and never getting caught.

I actually got caught in quicksand in the year 2000 on a Kentish beach 😜

Having Pervy men expose themselves
seriously, it happened a few times on the school playground, en route to or from and various times when out at dusk
my 27 yr old daughter and friends are equally fascinated/horrified as they’ve never been wanked at

Sadly it was used as a punishment in some institutions for special needs people who didn't "behave". I wish it wasn't true but the person who told me this worked in one of these institutions in the 1930s and 1940s and said it was done regularly. She's long gone now.

I came on here to say exactly that @earlyshirley ....this magic power also extended to hills occasionally. And no, I can't do it any more either 🥲

Here’s my contribution. Where did all the little tiny red bugs that looked like dots go? They used to be on walls and slabs. You would squish them and they would leave a red smudge that looked like blood.,
Sounds absolutely psychotic as an adult, but it’s what all the kids did, they were known for that specific thing! And now I never see them.

Also, another note, my kids had their PE day the last week of school in early July. They’re 7. Not one child could skip with a skipping rope!! 🤯 none of them knew how to do it, or how to use one.
Madness.

I used to fly downstairs too!

The old man who owned the toy stall in the local market had a monkey. It was tiny, spent most of the day sat on his shoulder and bizarrely wore a fez. They weren’t an uncommon sight here, a few people had them as pets.
and speaking of unusual pets, a friend of my Nan had a Myna bird, something I’ve not seen or heard of in years. When we visited Nan made her cover it’s cage as it swore like a trooper😂

When I used to have the ability to fly down the stairs. I can’t do it any more. EXPLAIN THAT ONE SKEPTIKS!!

The dogs used to hang around with the kids on our estate as we used to feed them our butty crusts!
Does anyone remember the "say no to strangers say no no no no no" song from the campaign. I took it literally while out and about and kept singing it at every adult I didn't know.

Also my being told to let my dog lick my scraped knee as he would make it better! We were well ‘ard

It’s been believed that dogs can heal wounds for centuries. They can clean wounds and apparently their saliva does have some anti-microbial properties, but modern science says that is outweighed by possible contamination with other bacteria. Given that dogs can eat their own shit that’s believable. I still like to keep a bottle of dettol in to clean bad cuts and scrapes. I have wondered about modern times, if some of the trouble with sepsis and septicaemia is related to an increasing unwillingness to put stuff like dettol or germolene on cuts. Even an a&e nurse told me not to do that because people’s first aid cabinets can be out of date: personally I think even slightly out of date dettol is better than just water.

Me and my brother used to fight like ferrets in a sack! So no punching games for us - but I do remember my dad saying things like "who will be the first person to see a yellow car..." which kept us quiet for a bit! A think we had a little yellow Fiat in the 1970s or 80s.

Oooh grass wars, we used to have teams and all try and gather as much grass as we could on the school field and try and pinch grass from other peoples piles without getting caught! Or sometimes just blatantly stealing others grass and punching them if they didn’t let us…. All in good fun!

Yes I thought they were really funny. I wasnt allowed them - due to both the chewing gum and the cards which was clearly very unfair!!
My best friend had loads so we just spent hours laughing at hers

I bumped into a very old friend today and remembered her playing throwing games, with a rhyme two tennis balls against a wall

Did anyone used to play Sticky Toffee or Stuck in the Mud (variations on It)?

😂😂 Me too! Such a worry back then, quick sand and sinking mud..