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

Only just struck me that's probably the inspiration for Mr Creosote.

Chocolate smoker's selection boxes for children, complete with pipes, cigars and cigarettes. Also some weird tobacco-type stuff made from coconut.

Also, not so much a thing you don't see any more, but an experience that's vanished- when there were only two/three/four terrestrial TV channels you could talk to your friends/colleagues/classmates about what you watched the night before and there was a good chance they'd have seen it too, especially as there was no way to see a programme other than live, until video recorders arrived.

Smoking carriages. Train seats with fliptop ashtrays. Train doors that you open - and shut - yourself.

Brings back some nostalgic memories. I remember rushing home from school to watch mork and Mindy, rent a ghost and happy days with the fonz. As a treat if I was good all week my mum would let me watch star skarsky and hutch or tales of the unexpected but the theme tune music always gave me the creeps.

Cathode ray tube TVs
Those TVs sat on a stand which has a record player and radio built in.

Coach built prams , I loved mine😊 baby all cosy inside and toddler on the pram seat, shopping on the tray at the bottom. Hard work pushing it through snow though!

@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 worked in a small independent chemists shop, and we had one. Had a woman come in and strip to her undies before she weighed herself!

Green shield stamps (the excitement of choosing a reward from the catalogue!) Those little picture cards with a few plastic bubbles for £1 coins that you got for birthdays or christmas through the post- had a rather mean auntie who used to put 20ps in, even in 1985 getting 60p for your birthday was a bit stingy! Ashtrays in cinemas or on buses fixed to the seat in front , my mum used to tell me off for shoving my fingers in, but I always did anyway. School desks with inkwells, we never actually had ink in them in the 80s, but they were great for hiding your rubber and sharpener in. School outdoor toilet blocks with the curved entrance wall, and school being closed because the toilet lids had fully frozen shut in winter. Various circles and markers painted on the school yard wall supposedly for games and ball games- did anyone actually know what these were for and use them as intended? The one school computer on a huge trolley that got wheeled around the school to various classrooms, and operated with floppy disks that were actually floppy.
Panda Pops- literally sugar and colouring in a bottle, guaranteed to have you bouncing off the walls (and what was with the grotty green cream soda flavour?). Choc lick- smashed up smarties, that a whole bunch of us in the playground would merrily lick our fingers and repeatedly dip into the shared bag with no concern for hygiene at all. Blue airmail letters on lightweight paper with 3 adhesive sides that you bought from the post office and wrote as much as you could in teeny tiny writing on both sides to your pen friend in France / Spain/ Germany.
Stamps that need licking/wetting rather than the sticker type. Free toys in breakfast cereal, or that you could send off for through the post by collecting tokens and sending two 20p pieces sellotaped to the coupon to cover the P & P.
Three piece suites at people's houses with the plastic wrap still on, and those clear plastic hall runners with the little bobble things in them, presumably to add grip? TV cabinets with doors on that you closed when you weren't watching the tv; tv rental shops on the high street.
Those t-shirts that changed colour with body heat (was the brand called global hyperchange?) that seemed so futuristic in the late 80s, but in reality just emphasised your sweaty armpits as you walked around in a blue t-shirt with yellow glowing underarms. Shell suits that rustled like you were wearing a bin bag. Ski pants with elastic under the heel, a headache if your legs weren't the exact length of the ski pants. Puff ball skirts in satiny nylon fabric and fergie bows on those clips that would yank out half of your hair when you removed them. Moon boots in winter, rather than wellingtons, and bank books where the bank cashier would write / print each time you paid in or withdrew cash.
Limes that looked like (and probably were) underipe green lemons, rather than the smaller, round limes that we see in the supermarkets today.

The lamp lighter doing his rounds on his bike, another one for the rag and bone man with a horse and cart, my mum had to chase him up the road once to get my coat back after I stopped it for a goldfish.

We had a bus conductor on one of the routes here till last year.

Plenty of fish vans around here and the milkman is going strong, in fact enjoying a revival. He delivers eggs, yoghurt, strawberries, juice as well.

Swopped not stopped.

@dancinfeet

Green shield stamps (the excitement of choosing a reward from the catalogue!) Those little picture cards with a few plastic bubbles for £1 coins that you got for birthdays or christmas through the post- had a rather mean auntie who used to put 20ps in, even in 1985 getting 60p for your birthday was a bit stingy! Ashtrays in cinemas or on buses fixed to the seat in front , my mum used to tell me off for shoving my fingers in, but I always did anyway. School desks with inkwells, we never actually had ink in them in the 80s, but they were great for hiding your rubber and sharpener in. School outdoor toilet blocks with the curved entrance wall, and school being closed because the toilet lids had fully frozen shut in winter. Various circles and markers painted on the school yard wall supposedly for games and ball games- did anyone actually know what these were for and use them as intended? The one school computer on a huge trolley that got wheeled around the school to various classrooms, and operated with floppy disks that were actually floppy. Panda Pops- literally sugar and colouring in a bottle, guaranteed to have you bouncing off the walls (and what was with the grotty green cream soda flavour?). Choc lick- smashed up smarties, that a whole bunch of us in the playground would merrily lick our fingers and repeatedly dip into the shared bag with no concern for hygiene at all. Blue airmail letters on lightweight paper with 3 adhesive sides that you bought from the post office and wrote as much as you could in teeny tiny writing on both sides to your pen friend in France / Spain/ Germany. Stamps that need licking/wetting rather than the sticker type. Free toys in breakfast cereal, or that you could send off for through the post by collecting tokens and sending two 20p pieces sellotaped to the coupon to cover the P & P. Three piece suites at people's houses with the plastic wrap still on, and those clear plastic hall runners with the little bobble things in them, presumably to add grip? TV cabinets with doors on that you closed when you weren't watching the tv; tv rental shops on the high street. Those t-shirts that changed colour with body heat (was the brand called global hyperchange?) that seemed so futuristic in the late 80s, but in reality just emphasised your sweaty armpits as you walked around in a blue t-shirt with yellow glowing underarms. Shell suits that rustled like you were wearing a bin bag. Ski pants with elastic under the heel, a headache if your legs weren't the exact length of the ski pants. Puff ball skirts in satiny nylon fabric and fergie bows on those clips that would yank out half of your hair when you removed them. Moon boots in winter, rather than wellingtons, and bank books where the bank cashier would write / print each time you paid in or withdrew cash. Limes that looked like (and probably were) underipe green lemons, rather than the smaller, round limes that we see in the supermarkets today.

This was lovely to read! Brought back some memories!

@TabithaTiger

There are still working phone boxes in our town centre.

I buy Camp Coffee to use when making coffee cake!

Me too-I use my Mum's coffee walnut cake recipe. Children with sticking plaster over one lens of glasses to help with a "lazy eye".

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER do you mean dumps?

My one is huge padded greetings cards made of velvet. Used to see them on the top shelf in places like Clintons. When I was a child I saw them and thought them dead sophisticated and yearned to be given one.

satin not velvet!

I saw a rag and bone man yesterday, complete with horse! Had an interesting job explaining that to the dc!

Schools TV. Primary school had a huge black and white TV on a tall wheeled stand in the hall. Each class had a timetabled slot to watch a relevant TV programme. Loved watching them at home too if off sick as there was nothing else on TV in the mornings. (Crown Court at lunchtime, though, followed by Watch with Mother!) Schools radio too, although I only remember music and movement, or a music/singing series.

@Rowofducks

I went to Hayling Island the other day and they have one of those red scales in the arcade. Not sure anyone used it though. We still get a milkman round here and my Nan still gets the crisps with the little blue sachet of salt in them. No idea where from. She always bins the salt as she likes the crisps plain.

Things I don’t see anymore are those tall old slides that shot you half way across the playground and that long horse everyone used to pile onto. Beaded curtains, class statues with weird colours in them.

We have the long rocking horse in our local park.

They revamped the park but kept the horse due to public demand!

Wow so many replies.
My mum told me that her auntie (who she lived with when she moved to this country in the 70s) would regularly weigh herself, her cousin and my mum on these scales and if there was any increase she would make them all diet. She was a matron and ran her ward and home as one and the same.
Also my mum said that there used to be radio phone in's late at night where you would ring in to sell household items. It was where she got the huge pram she used for all 4 kids. I had no idea.

Individual fireworks in glass cabinets in shops. Bubble gum with a card featuring a footballer. Jubblies and Jamborie Bags. Queues outside grocery shops on a Saturday.

Nestle self heating coffee cans

Housecoats - my mum would put on a bright turquoise shiny nylon monstrosity to protect her clothes while she did the housework.

Washing the front and back door steps with a big old scrubbing brush.

Mangling clothes after they'd been washed to remove the excess water.

Riddling new potatoes with a special "thing" in a bucket to remove some of the skins.

@FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop

The milkman

Milk deliveries have increased massively since lockdown round here. The dairy farmers are now able to make a living instead of being shafted by the supermarkets.

You also don't see those tartan skirts that were attached to a nylon white vest these days for little girls. I remember my mum buying them on the market. She had an "account" where she would choose clothing items and pay it off weekly. Then after like 6 weeks she could take the stuff home. My dad died when I was 9 but even before that when he was in hospital and then care homes she raised us alone and always had a few part time jobs. She did her best.
We had the TV that only worked if you put 50p in.