A Thing You Don't See These Days

[xYerDaSellsAvonx]

I found a picture of my mum standing on one of those big red coin operated weighing scales today. It had a big dial face. It was in our local shopping centre but I remember seeing them on piers, train stations etc too. Did you ever use them? Other than this picture of my mum I don't remember seeing one in use

Candlewick bedspreads, counterpanes and candy stripe bedding. I loved staying at my grandma's house as she always used layers of blankets which made me feel so snug. She lived in a house at the top of the hill in Lancashire and we used to get the bus to hers from Manchester. She would see us getting off the bus and would stand at the gate with her blue house coat and headscarf. We would scream with delight and race up the hill to hug her. She would very pointedly tell us to not dare go in her pockets as we would definitely not find any toffees.
She would have the ancient tin kettle she brought over from Ireland in the 50s on the stove. She would cook everything in lard so even now when I smell lard frying it takes me back to her little house in the 80s. The same with the Dettol she used it to clean everything. She had a little black and white TV which she rarely used. She preferred the wireless instead. She died when I was 7 and I think about her every day. My mum and uncles feel guilty about her death as she died on the day she was going away to her sister's house in Devon. Her sister didn't have a phone (nor did my mum etc) so couldn't let my mum and uncles know she hadn't arrived. My grandma sat in her favourite seat undiscovered for a month. My uncle who lived with her was working in Germany and he found her when he returned. The doctor said she passed away during a nap before getting the train.

@PunchedTit4ASoul
What a sad ending to your grandma's life for you all. But a month? I wonder why her sister didn't write to ask where she was. How sad.

A line of horse brasses as household decorations

You cant remember seeing a laundrette @PostMenWithACat ? Where do you live? There are two on my local high street

The Tip. The local Tip used to be just that, a huge, festering, hole in the ground where old sofas, grass cuttings, rubble and assorted unwanted stuff was thrown in. Sort and Recycle? What's that? Move along now.

@labazslovesliving 'the view is great up here Petunia'! My 9 year old daughter is fascinated by the old public information films she and her dad have been watching them on you tube !!

Independent fruit and veg shops on every shopping parade but they all had the same plastic carrier bags - a photo of an overflowing fruit bowl with "Enjoy More Fruit and Vegetables" written on it.

Fake grass in butcher's shop windows.

Linco beer shampoo that you could buy in sachets and VO5 hot oil treatment in a plastic tube. You had to stick it in a mug of hot water to warm it up, then snip the ends and apply to your hair. Cling film may have been involved. Miss Selfridge make up, Miners make up.

Football scarves, snorkel parkas, Cinzano vinyl tote bags, messenger bags with your football team's name on it.

Cars being pushed along the road to jump start

You would then have to get in the car while it was moving we had to do this with my friends mums car often as she dropped us to school.

@Galassia @CounsellorTroi I think the other woman impressionist you're thinking of might be Jan Ravens, who's still doing Dead Ringers on the radio.

Public libraries that were actually funded and staffed properly. Qualified librarians, good, regularly updated stock, open every day Monday to Saturday, well used. The decline in public libraries in the UK in recent years is a tragedy for people who can't afford to buy books.

Bank branches had very limited opening hours. Can't remember if they opened at 9 or 9.30, but IIRC they closed at 3.30pm and weren't open at all on Saturdays. No telephone banking, no internet banking either (obviously), no ATMs until the late 70s, so you were really stymied if you forgot to go, or couldn't go, to the branch to get cash during opening hours. Hence, I suppose, why many pubs would cash a cheque for a trusted customer.

Next to nothing was open on Sundays. Not a day for shopping trips. Can't remember when the Sunday trading laws were relaxed - late 80s?

I like to see the odd rustic red phone boxes, they’re quite nostalgic not too many of them kicking around now.

There's a couple in Uruguay. And someone local has one in a garden.

Lots have been repurposed as bookshops or a place to put a defib.

The trouble with red phone boxes was that people (usually men) mistook them for public toilets. Add to that the smell of stale smoke ... 🤮

Spud guns
Slingshots
Kids wearing clogs
Homemade go karts ( we called them bogies)

@dayswithaY.you can still buy vo5 hot oils in the little tubes .Boots sell them or did, .They work wonders on my hair .

@ShellyShore

Remains of red lipstick staining your lips for days after. Wish those lipsticks that would make a come back.

You can get maybeline 24 hour lipstick that is still there forever.. I think there are other long lasting ones too.

Avon’s pretty pink range
Soap on a rope

Avon’s pretty peach I meant

@Curlygirl06 @ThorIsAGod

I’m really excited to find out if they still exist. If you find them and buy some, I hope you like them as much as I do, if not, my address is….

You’ll like them, I promise!

According to wiki, Sunday trading laws changed in 1994 , which feels too recent.
My brother always bought me pretty peach bubble bath for Christmas .

@TooBigForMyBoots

Fire guards.🔥 All the houses where I grew up had fire guards. Big nursery ones with laundry on them, or smaller ones only put on if going out or to bed.

---- No? We have one, almost everyone I know with children and a fireplace has one. Dangerous without, not to mention very messy!

Metal bins with lids rather than wheelie bins. They were always overflowing with potato peelings and chicken bones and stank to high heaven. Poor bin collectors probably got showered with festering rubbish every time they lifted them.

No soft surfaces in playgrounds. If you fell off the swing you landed on concrete or tarmac or, worse, on gravel which stuck into your wound and had to be picked out with tweezers.

'Linco beer shampoo that you could buy in sachets'

Anyone else remember the little plastic beer barrel it came in too?

Just remembered dressing table sets too, with a matching brush, comb and hand held mirror. My granny had a silver set and I was chuffed to bits with the pink plastic version I got one Christmas.

[quote 50ShadesOfCatholic]@PunchedTit4ASoul
What a sad ending to your grandma's life for you all. But a month? I wonder why her sister didn't write to ask where she was. How sad.[/quote]
Maybe she did!

@JaneJeffer
Well no obviously not because if they'd received a letter they'd have gone round to check on her. Same as if they've received a phone call

Yes. I remember the Linco barrel. Wasn't it originally called Linc-o-lin? I liked it.

Aprons. Rose bushes.