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

I used to love going to John Lewis as they had lift assistants and toilet assistants. Everything was spotless.

Oh yes the woman in the Ladies in John Lewis in Reading used to go in after each person and wipe the seat with the same cloth!

Oil slicks on the roads after rain, I used to think they were so pretty!

That crispy toilet paper you’d find in public toilets, haunted house lollipops that I always bought during the summer holidays and cabana chocolate bars.

Charity collections where you selected a tear off image of a 'deprived child' from a book of black and white images and made a donation - presumably in the belief that that was the child who'd receive your funds.

I can do better than that. At my first primary school we would get a card with a picture of a child, there were boxes in the card, maybe on the back, you took some money into school and got a tick in the box.

When you had got a full card you got to choose a name and we were told that the picture on the card was a child who would be baptised now with the name chosen.

I have a milkman, well I get milk delivered I don't keep him in a cupboard.

Things you don't see

Rag and bone cart pulled by a horse, it's just a truck now.

Mobile shops. A couple of places I lived as a child had mobile shops. I suppose it made sense, in one place we were no where near a corner shop and none of the mums seemed to work so if there was a car dad had usually taken it to work and supermarkets didn't open late.

A place to stub out your cigarette on buses. Where they called a stubber? I watched a film recently called 71, obviously set in 1971 and they had them on the bus.

Broken glass all over playgrounds. I still see broken glass but not half as much as when I was a kid and it gets cleared up much quicker. Also doesn't seem to be in playgrounds anymore (thankfully). I assume it is because there are less glass bottles now. Does every 80s child have a scar from falling on broken glass or is that just me and my DP?!

@cortex10

Charity collections where you selected a tear off image of a 'deprived child' from a book of black and white images and made a donation - presumably in the belief that that was the child who'd receive your funds.

In our area the porn magazines were stored in the grit bin on the street corner. Like a DIY library.

I remember those charity books so vividly, we were sent home from school with them. My grandma was my biggest donator, I remember her going through and selecting a child or two each week to buy from me.

With the lens of hindsight what an inappropriate, grim way of raising money. Photographing the ‘needy’ and selling their image.

We still have a milk man and an egg man 😂

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

Anti-static plastic straps dragging along behind cars to prevent car sickness (this is what I was told they were but, come to think of it, I only had my Grandma's word for it).

Being made to drink a bottle of milk in school daily and playing marbles in our lunch break and fish and chips wrapped in newspaper.

Penny for the Guy.
Snap guns with that lovely pink reel of gunpowder.
Long skipping ropes with one end tied to a drainpipe and lots of girls all skipping together.
Houses with wallpaper on the outside from where next door used to be.

Chickens with giblets
Grubby babies / babies in their prams outside shops
Poodles with pom pom legs
Cardboard library cards
The metal machine for making carbon copies if you paid for something with a credit card
The sunlight laundry vans
I can't remember the last time I saw a launderette
Ajax powder/vim

Cheque books

I saw a collecting box in the shape of a child not long ago. I think in a supermarket!
There’s an independent pharmacy near me that still has the big bottles of coloured water in the window.
I can vaguely recall horse-drawn coal carts which you never see now. Also separate train carriages.

@Crunched

We spotted white dog poo on a walk in Ashdown Forrest recently. We both got stupidly over exited to see it

@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

There used to be an "I speak your weight" machine in our local chemists. The machine announced your weight and then a printed card came out with your weight on it. No where to hide in those days! :)

I saw a white dog poo a few weeks ago. I almost took a photo of it to send to friend, it being such a rarity.

Cars with a manual choke, heaven forbid if you flooded the engine!

Leg callipers.
I went to school with two siblings who used/wore them

@Winemewhynot

We still have a milk man and an egg man 😂

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

There a lot of red phone boxes dotted around the countryside where I live - 90% are community libraries these days.

I thought speak your weight machines only existed in jokes, usually saying "one at a time please"

Slippery nylon sheets 😫

Camp Coffee liquid 🤮

“Proper” seamed stockings with a cuban heel. 💃. I used to love those. The Aristoc Harmony ones were the best. They were so fine! They made you feel like the lady of the manor on a night out.

Was going to say, Kids playing knock door run...but actually, just kids playing out in general

The Black velvet Alice bands With your Name printed on (can see why they went)

Blockbusters

Phone boxes

The little spring things that held my nans one pound coins

Catalogues

@tomorrowalready

The big weighing machines and tin label making machines used to be on railway platforms along with chocolate dispensing machines (Five Boys bars ). When we went on holiday in N Wales there were cold milk vending machines on the streets as I remember, maybe other cold drinks like orange juice as well.

When we went Austria in the 70s there was a hot chips dispensing machine in the street

@SilenceOfThePrams

Penny for the Guy. Snap guns with that lovely pink reel of gunpowder. Long skipping ropes with one end tied to a drainpipe and lots of girls all skipping together. Houses with wallpaper on the outside from where next door used to be.

Omg I was having a clear out n found my still in tact snap gun