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

Rust on cars.
Cars on the street with their bonnets up and a bloke working on it. ' Try it now Dave...vrooom vrooom ' right turn it off mate'.

Evening newspapers. And ‘Spot the ball’ competitions in the newspaper where a grainy black and white photo of a football game was shown with the ball missing. You had to guess where it was.

Chelsea Girl
Athena
Tammy
Rumbalows
Green shield stamps
SRA comprehension box in schools
Playing marbles on drain covers and grilles
Powder puff mitt. Lily of the Valley was the best
Avon Sweet Honesty perfume cream
Identity bracelets

Cigarette cards.

Collect enough and you could pick gifts out of a catalogue.

@DonLewis we still have a school oven in my school!

At high school I remember the 24 hour sponsored fast. We also had sheets where you applied for pen pals in different countries

I moved to Reading in 1995 from the US.
I had been in the town for a few days and finally ventured out to the town centre but discovered Wednesday was an early closing day and the place was deserted at 2pm. Late closing day was Thursday.*
Our town has 2 main shopping streets; one had a Wednesday half day closing, and the other had Thursday. So you were never quite stuck.

*Cigarette cards.

Collect enough and you could pick gifts out of a catalogue*

When I worked in pubs and clubs I would collect hundreds of cards. Embassy was the best. I remember my step dad (who didn't smoke) picking them up off the floor if he spotted them. You got some really good items. So weird to think that such a scheme existed for such a deadly habit and yet you have never been able to include baby formula (which some parents have no choice but to buy) in any scheme or promo.

I had a few pen pals ; now they must be called ' email pals !'

Spot the ball was a strange one wasn't it ?

For thr benefit of those of us who have never visited North Wales, when I went to Ffestiniog in the early 90s, in place of Spot the Ball, the local paper had a Spot the Sheepdog competition. Yes, a flock of sheep being herded by a dog who wasn't there. Wish I'd kept the paper, nicked by one of my gobsmacked townie friends.

@longwayoff

For thr benefit of those of us who have never visited North Wales, when I went to Ffestiniog in the early 90s, in place of Spot the Ball, the local paper had a Spot the Sheepdog competition. Yes, a flock of sheep being herded by a dog who wasn't there. Wish I'd kept the paper, nicked by one of my gobsmacked townie friends.

😀 That made me lol !!

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Also, the cheery public information film with a group of chubby older people eating an enormous Christmas dinner- the man is struggling but his wife nags him to eat more and more- he keels over with a heart attack.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g You’re the only person I’ve ever known to remember this! I remember it as a cake though and the wife nagging him to have another slice!

Does Welephant the fire safety mascot still exist?

Does anyone remember the Tim and Tobias/Village with 3 corners books from primary school? I loved them. I looked them up on Ebay and a single battered copy is over £50! Would love my kids to read them. They scared and enthralled me.

@ShesAPeachSconeBob

Does anyone remember the Tim and Tobias/Village with 3 corners books from primary school? I loved them. I looked them up on Ebay and a single battered copy is over £50! Would love my kids to read them. They scared and enthralled me.

I had the village with 3 corners books when i was in school back in the 60s, my ds had the same books when he started school nearly 40 years later!

Rag and bone man coming round on a horse and cart shouting “Any old iron”. This was in the late 1970s!

I loved the Tim and Tobias books. Wasn't it the same author as Billy Blue Hat/Roger Red hat books?
I also really enjoyed A Pair of Jesus Boots and A Pair of Desert Wellies about Rocky a poor lad from Liverpool who gets dragged into his brothers crime world.
The Saturdays. About a upstate New York family where the kids pool their pocket money and go on adventures. Each chapter would be about a different kid. The housekeeper was called Cuffy and was a big mother figure to them. It was set in the 30s or 40s I think.

@Harlechh

Rag and bone man coming round on a horse and cart shouting “Any old iron”. This was in the late 1970s!

We still have rag n bone man but he is in a van not a horse and cart

We have rag and bone men around the West Midlands.

They're scrap metal merchants in open lorries, with cages around the flat bed.

One oddity I've never seen before is the passenger in the cab with a trumpet, horn or bugle - tunelessly parping out the window.

One truck has a speaker attached and a looped recording of a really droning, nasal voice

"Iron. Any old scrap iron"

That's on top of a very wobbly bugle being blown full blast.

Concorde!

When I was young all the local dogs were known by their first name and surname. Lots of people just let their dogs roam free in our town so you got to know them well. I remember telling my mother that I had been playing with Patch Walker all day and she knew exactly which dog I was talking about.
People meeting these dogs in the street would greet them by name, "Alright Patch" , they would say as they passed by.
I've often wondered was this a thing in other places as well.

And 3 wheeled cars.

Ice seller in cinema and matinee breaks in the film

The Avon lady (or man)

We still have rag n bone man but he is in a van not a horse and cart

Same. Ours goes around with a loud speaker that's plays the dixie horn and what I can only describe as giddy up horse racing music (Or is it supposed the be like Speedy Gonzalez?!) Anyway it's supposed to encourage you to hurry outside.