Things you thought were fancy when you were young but perhaps were not!

[ThunderOnlyHappens]

I'll start:

Vienetta's especially mint
Viscount biscuits
Nesquik milkshake

I had a childhood apparently obsessed by foods my parents declared not for daily consumption!

Garibaldi biscuits - we only ever had Rich Tea at home
Mini Metros - my friends mum got one when they were new and it had fold-down seats
Berol felt-tip pens - I always had a bumper pack from Woolworths that always seemed to have lots of mustard colour pens, they were scratchy and most had run out before you used them

Freeze dried instant coffee was definitely a cut above the normal instant. The popular adverts with the dinner party host mimicking a coffee machine sold it to us.
I used to love M&S chunky chicken it was a rare treat.
My stepmother use to make a massive fuss when we tried to close her curtains by hand, they had cords to close them. None of her windows was wider than 5ft so it took twice as long using the cords. She thought they were the height of sophistication. We just didn’t see the point of them.

I still think salmon and pesto is fancy just not something we have.

Frys turkish delight and Flakes were the height of classy chocolate.

Slow brain - how could I have missed....

Lambrusco!

I can remember a friend coming round to play at my house and telling me we were posh because we had a shower curtain. I am not sure what they did about showers in their house...

I can remember a friend coming round to play at my house and telling me we were posh because we had a shower curtain. I am not sure what they did about showers in their house...

Well I didn't live anywhere that had a shower until I was in my 30s! It was a rubber thing stuck over the taps until then. So that might answer your question?

The eternal beau thing has always been the complete opposite of posh to me . And now I associate it with MIL, who still has placemats, dinner service, tablecloth etc. Which has done nothing to dispell my eternal beau snobbery

Pretty much everything I ever had as a treat has already been listed - vienetta, ferrero rocher, small boxes of cereal (on holiday only!), even a bag of crisps.

I don't think this one has been listed though - Viscount biscuits. It was the individual wrapping.

I clearly have a sieve for a brain - it was in the OP but I forgot by the time I had rtft!

I was taken to Butlins Bognor for a day trip out. I had never seen a knickerbocker glory. Heavenly posh in my mind.

Definitely Vienetta.
Also any kind of coloured pencils in a tin. Parker fountain pens with their weird, long ink cartridges that didn't fit in any other pen.
Elizabeth Shaw mint crisp chocolates
Gap/River Island
Clarkes shoes with the key in the sole.
Branded fizzy pop of any kind (we rarely had any kind of pop at all so the branded stuff was properly special)
Biscuit assortments in a tin (later to become the ubiquitous button/sewing tin)

Warm homes with radiators
Carpet that reached a flush skirting board
Dining tables... and sitting down at the dining table for dinner!
Sky box in the bedroom
Herbal teas
Holidays to France (for some reason France seemed the most luxe destination)
Croissants (secret francophone as a kid?)
Wine. Didn’t know anybody that enjoyed a glass of wine. We were a beer only household. Definitely partial to a wine now

Joining in the chorus of Vienetta. We only had one at Christmas. It was a major event.

Getting a takeaway or eating out. The former was only for when we'd had a day out and came home late, and the latter was for birthdays.

As soon as I saw the thread title I thought Vienetta!! Also pringles and coke. I also thought having a house with a hallway was super posh. Ridiculous as we were pretty posh tbh and lived in a lovely old house, but I did admire hallways!

didn't live anywhere that had a shower until I was in my 30s
We didn't have a shower for ages either. I had an evening bath until I left home.

Reminiscing now...

Going on weekend trips in the car to visit tourist attractions (with my friends family, never my own! And having car picnics. Travelling was ridiculous upper class in my ten year old eyes)
Kettle chips
Avocados
Broadsheet papers (to be honest, this is still posh)
Listening to the radio and not the TV
Plug in air fresheners!

Ali1cedowntherabbithole
Ooh, I was lusting after the coppenrath wiese selection box in Farm Foods over Christmas but I just couldn't bring myself to buy it.. too extravagant. Old habits eh!

Branded (Coca-Cola) coke or R Whites lemonade were luxurious to me. We had Gateways or Co-Op lemonade and cola. Vile.

I remember the family inquest when I bought a bottle of Once shampoo with my own Saturday earnings and my mother going ballistic and banging it in the table to emphasise how wasteful I was with money and that I should use the Co-op shampoo that "was good enough for everyone else but you" and then her pouring it down the drain. That wasn't wasteful, apparently.

When my parents had friends for supper. Praying they would not eat all the mints. I would beg for the leftovers. Still partial to choc mints.

A glass of fresh orange juice topped up with lemonade. Beyond fancy. Given to me at a friends house.

Anyone with a car- we didn’t get till I was 12.

Ski yoghurts, the really think ones. Only ever as a special treat. Cans of lily and cream eggs. A rep rarity.

not sure but I didn't realise til I was 15 (1995) and had a middle-class boyfriend that

not all ham is square value 'plastic' ham

not all cars constantly break down

normal people replace something when it gets used up rather than having to make all of whatever it is last and eke it out til it's deemed an acceptable time to buy another or enough has been saved up to do so

I also thought of vienetta before I opened the thread. We did have it from time to time and my mum always presented to us with a flourish!

I was always envious of my posh friends who were members of video clubs. We used to (badly) tape things off the TV and if it wasn't on the TV we didn't watch it.

I always wished that we had proper crisps eg Walkers, instead of supermarket own brands which always seems slightly overcooked and the salt and vinegar ones would make your lips bleed.

Going to the Bernie inn. Which I now realise is probably like the equivalent of going to the Harvester but then I thought was the height of sophistication. Actually I bloody love the Harvester so 🤷🏽‍♀️

Having cans of fizzy drink in the fridge and being able to help yourself, rather than having a bottle of 7up in the cupboard that was rationed to a glass at weekends. Now I realise that fizzy drinks are the work of the devil and true posh is organic everything.

Carpets which went all the way to the edge of the room.

I vividly remember the day we had fitted carpet put into our living room (actually we already had it in the hall, stairs and landing but in a vile 70s moss green shade). The new carpet was a tasteful beige and we had a beige Dralon 3-piece suite to go with it. I thought it looked so classy and made our modest living room look so much bigger.

(Well, frankly, bare floorboards and bean bags would have looked better than the lino-edged mint green rug and mustard brown stretchy sofa covers that were there before. )