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

With the glass bottles in a chemist's window, the liquids in them did symbolise something (really annoyingly, I can't quite remember what). They were similar to the red and white barber pole, indicating the medical connections for people who were not literate, but linked to older treatments like blood letting and so on. Blue/dark glass bottles at one time denoted they contained poisons for similar reasons, so possibly the blue liquid is linked to that.

You do still see them around.

Speaking clock and Dial a Disc. You dialled a premium rate phone number from a pay phone, or if you were foolhardy or from a wealthy family, from the family landline, and were told the time, or you requested a Top 40 single and a tinny version came down the line. You could ring up for a weather forecast too, I think.

@StarlightLady

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.

Camp Coffee makes amazing iced coffee.

Especially if you add a shot of something like Coole Swan to it.

These are bringing back memories.
I remember soap holders with a magnetic thing with spikes to stick in the soap and then stick it to the holder......

Great thread.

Shattered car windscreens. Not something I saw frequently, but back in the day I remember if a small stone was thrown up from the road it could shatter the entire windscreen into thousands of pieces. Happened to my dad once and he had to punch a hole in the windscreen in order to drive to safety windscreens are constructed differently now so if a loose stone is thrown up, it just chips or cracks it.

Also remember a boy at infant school who was deaf. His hearing aid consisted of a very obvious ear piece connected to a large box type thing which he wore on a strap round his shoulder. Also remember a couple of kids with callipers and one with a built up shoe. It's made me think we've come a long way medically in how disabilities are managed

I'm loving these! Change happens so slowly you often don't notice till things are gone.
Some things for the better! Has anyone mentioned sanitary towels that you attached to a girdle?

Skypink My mum still wore those up until the early 90s. There was one independent chemist in the local area that sold them so she would stock up. When the pharmacist died it became a Lloyd's and stopped catering to individuals.

Big teased hairstyle, shoulder pads and fluorescent clothing. Fish n chips wrapped in newspaper. Big ghetto blasters carried on shoulders for some people and others with cassette tape Walkman. I come from the land down under so never saw some of the things mentioned here like Nestle self heating coffee in a can

Oh yes, Dr White's sanitary towels with the looped ends and a stringy girdle type thing!

@PurpleSapphire

Yes, whatever happened to white dog poo? Those metal roundabouts on parks where you just climbed on top and held on for dear life until you eventually flew off and hit the gravel.

We still have those in our parks!

[quote mineofuselessinformation]@PostMenWithACat, I still have a tin of Ajax!
I still use it too, occasionally. The top is very rusty! [/quote]
Unable to find Ajax or Vim anywhere in local shops, we found some Vim (with Italian labelling) online. Ordered 3!

@xYerDaSellsAvonx

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.

Oh we wore those kilt dress things when we were little. The vest top made it so much easier to manage than the skirts on their own 😂

Women shopping on a Saturday with hair rollers in and covered by a headscarf.
Getting ready for a night out took a long time back then.

Overhead projectors in the classroom. The teacher would wheel or on in a trolley and spend ages getting the transparency into position on the screen.

Photocopying smelling strongly of chemicals.

People carrying notes in manila folders.

Bus tickets ripped off a little book.

The butcher delivering meat wrapped in brown paper to our door. He was a big jolly man with a pencil tucked behind his ear.

Hearing tests which involved putting a bead into a bowl when you heard a sound.

Casette recorders with microphone attachments.

TVs with knobs for changing the channel.

People at the mall looking wherw they were going instead of at their phones

Sending off a Stamped Addressed Envelope to get a fact sheet for a recipe or gardening tips from a TV programme.
"Answers on a postcard please"

Bars of soap although they have made a bit of a comeback in the last few years. My DCs still need reminding on how to use them properly as it's usually liquid pumps.

Those loops of towel that you'd pull down a section at a time. Although there was a nightclub I went to that just had a loop of towel sewn ariund the rail that got progressively wetter and grubbier as the evening went on.

Metz. Great alcopop! Beware the Juddermam my dear when the moon is fat.

Terrifying public safety adverts about children talking to strangers/ playing with matches/ on railwats/ by pylons.

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

Vesta Beef Curry

Virol - all the little kids at school had to queue up for a spoonful, the same spoon was used for all the kids.
Free orange juice for children.

@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.

My mum still has one or she did, she bought one when my nephew was born, hes 19 now and used it when al the grandchildren were babies.

Bars of soap never went away. I hate buying plastic when I don't need to.

We still have a mobile fishmonger here. He comes every Tuesday morning, while I work at the library (Essex village, population approx 5000)

We still use a stamp at the library, it is often the DC's favourite part of the visit as we allow them to do it

We still have a working phone box

I also used a material towel on a roll last week (in a visitor attraction in Leicestershire, I believe).

I am obviously very behind the times!

My DS2 also had to put beads (plastic teddies actually) into a bowl for a hearing test when he was 3, 7 years ago.

@FawnDrench

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.

That was one of the first things I bought when I started work! From Brentford Nylons. @x2boys; I got one of the big square fireguards when my spaniel had puppies; they kept chewing the corners of the wooden fire surround!