Things your parents led you to think were 'special' or 'expensive' that you now take for granted?

We also never went to coffee shops. In fact I spent a lot of my childhood in b and q!

Eating out (we only ate out at The Harvester once a year it seemed).

Any ice cream other than a choc ice.

Having crisps with a Diet Coke while on holiday.

Me too, HotDamnState. Mum had a gizmo that you pushed peeled potatoes through to cut your own chips. We longed for the visits of our uncle and aunt and cousins from the west of Ireland as that always meant fish and chips from the chipper - they would be famished from their long trip (it used to take ages to get from Mayo to Dublin) and they always stopped at the chipper in the village on their way. They bought enough for everyone. Mum was always a bit miffed that they never took up her offer of preparing dinner for them when planning a visit.

Thanks mathanxiety that’s really helpful 👍

Fizzy drinks, especially branded ones. My sister and I were given a can of Coke or Pepsi on New Year's Eve, and unbranded pop appeared at Christmas and birthdays, but that was it.

The onions were held together in onion shoot plaits consisting of about six onions per plait, as far as I can remember, AdoraBell.

They were dug and then cleaned when the shoots began to die back, then dried for a few weeks in separate layers first, as far as possible not touching each other, on old builders' pallets in the garage (dry air and no mould) until the skins became papery, with the shoots brown and dry but not yet brittle, then dad strung them together and hung them from hooks in the shed.

Some were discarded or turned into onion chutney or jam along the way - if they had soft spots or if the shoots had broken off, because they were more liable to get mouldy as time wore on.

Dad grew very hot onions, and I later learned that these are the kinds that last best over the winter.

There were always earwigs among the dry onion stalks so I kept well back from the plaiting. This site explains how to do it though. I think dad used string and didn't rely completely on the onion stalks.
www.theprairiehomestead.com/2015/10/how-to-braid-onions.html

The photos on the site show onion shoots that are a lot greener than those I remember. I suspect if you had a really dry storage place with good airflow you could get away with that, as the shoots would dry in time. However, we were in Ireland and the shed was inclined to be a little damp so dad waited until the onion shoots were drier.

You just use a secateurs or kitchen scissors to cut off onions from the plait when you need them.

Neighbours used old nylon tights with about 3 or 4 onions per leg, knotted between each onion. They let their shoots dry off to brittleness, than cut them off about an inch from the bulb. This might have been simpler.

Thanks for that Tinkly

The ice cream hierarchy. Oh yes! For us it went:

You might get a Mini Milk on a trip to the park if it was a sunny day.
You rarely got to go to the ice cream van when it stopped on your street, but if you did, you were allowed a 15p lemonade or cola lolly. Never a 99 Flake cone (I coveted those ice cream oysters which were whispers one pound fifty ).

I grew up thinking quite shitty branded processed foods were really special, as my mum was a cook-from-scratch/brown bread type of gal. I loved going to friend's houses who were allowed Kellogs variety packs of cereal for breakfast EVERY DAY and who's mums bought things like McCain microchips and Pop Tarts.

Adora last time I grew onions I harvested them, left them on the patio table in the sun for a few days to dry, then twisted the leaves around lengths of string to make ropes of onions (think I googled it) and just hung them from the shed roof.

They were absolutely fine for the couple of months it took us to get through them; home grown onions are noticeably tastier.

My Grandma had a small jar of Nescafé, and that was the posh coffee for visitors. Everyone else was given either Camp Coffee or a coffee and chicory mix.

My mum only bought steak on my Dad’s birthday.

mathanxiety We had huge bags of tatties outside in the shed.

mathanxiety do you know how those onions in the shed were stored, please?

Cream soda and golden wonder cheese and onion crisps (blue packet back then).

Another one - my dad would make us wash our hair with soap, even though we had shampoo and conditioner in the house for my mum.

I quite miss the days when these little things felt like such a treat. The other day I saw some kids in a restaurant looking utterly bored and playing on their phones. Being taken to a restaurant was so rare for us that we'd be sitting bolt upright in our seats wearing our best clothes and looking at everything in amazement.

Cappuccinocake I don't buy popcorn at all now, it's such a rip off, so maybe I'll start making my own again!

I kinda miss the days where all this stuff (that would be considered crap now) was such a treat. Our kids don't really yearn for anything do they?

awe make popcorn before we go! It's extortionate prices at the cinema!

We don't tend to have lunch out unless a planned meal as that would easily be 30-40 quod for the 4 of us on nothing really!

Popcorn at the cinema. My mum always made it at home before we went out.

Eating out. My dad still raises his eyebrows if I go to Costa or somewhere for a quick lunch as if that is shamefully decadent.

I do remember my grandad (born 1924) that a major treat was the final stub of a candle left in his room when he was going to bed as a little boy. He'd watch it enthralled then it'd burn out.

Technology. New furniture. My mum has furniture that she got as a wedding present in 1966. I forced her to get a new bed about ten years ago but have failed on the sofa.
We got a second hand video player in about 1989, only replaced with a DVD player circa 2005.

Anything that wasn’t in a plain white ‘value’ packet was rarely seen in our house.

Luxuries:
Penguin bars
Frosties
Biscuits other than digestives
The ice cream hierarchy was real! We were allowed Mini milks (10p each) that was it.
Vienetta was a rare treat
A McDonalds happy meal was a celebratory event

mathanxiety- sounds lovely.

Frozen stuff though-we didn;t have a fridge, never mind a freezer. Certainly could not afford a shed,

We never had bought cakes. Mum baked whatever treats we had. She also sewed or knitted almost all of our clothes and made all her own, with a few exceptions. We had lots of fruit from the garden, which was eaten fresh or turned into jam - raspberry, gooseberry, blackcurrant, loganberry, plum, rhubarb. Also lots of fresh and blanched and frozen veg - beans and broccoli, and fresh veg all summer, with onions in the shed for winter. We had two apple trees that supplied the wherewithal for pies all winter..

Mint vicounts and Mr Kipling cakes! We only had them on school trip days. You can buy a pack of vicounts for 49p!

Timetogetup0630 yes, my mother boiled sausages too,

Pot of water, sausages, some Bisto if we were lucky, and yes mashed over cooked cabbage with marg.

No car, no television, no phone, no central heating, just one room kept warm in the winter. I remember ice on the inside of our bedroom windows. I was born just after the war, so things were still on ration. Never had fizzy drinks, rarely had sweets, I don’t remember ever seeing fat children, we were all skinny.