Things you thought were posh/exciting/unattainable as a child that are actually everyday items

[AlternativelyWired]

I'm just searching for scotch tape on Amazon ready for Christmas. It got me thinking how double sided sticky tape was but a dream back when I was little. Blue Peter used it all the time but it was something I'd never have. The same with play dough. I only ever had plasticine. Scotch tape was fancy too, we only ever had yellow sellotape. Ribera. I'm sure I'll think of others.

I need to go back and read all of the posts - but does anyone remember having orange juice that had gone 'fizzy' - ie had started to ferment and gone off - it seemed to happen a lot of it was rationed to a tiny glass per person - I can still remember the orange juice glasses... (they were small, had diamond cut glass shapes on them and were most certainly not crystal) -... I also remember orange juice from a tin that you diluted - one tin to 4 of water and somehow if you exceeded that dilution - it tasted just like water.

It's bringing back a memory of the one time my mother didn't get mad at me when several things had gone wrong and one was absolutely my fault... I still wonder how she held it together that day when she was incapable of holding it together over minor things when we were not on public view - the strange thing was that she didn't loose her shit when we got home afterwards - she kept saying, it was an accident, it could have happened to anyone - she never said that. (we were carrying 5l bottles of orange squash to 'feeding stations' for a charity walk - the window on our car was broken so I had to hold it with a string - I took the lid off the bottle of squash and licked the inside of it - possibly more than once - and while holding the bottles of squash and the car window on with a string - the bottle of squash fell over and split in the car - so the runners / walkers had very diluted squash at the feeding station. - such a vivid memory - of my mom being 'normal'.)

My mother had Camay soap . It was hers, no-one else could use it. That was in my eyes the height of glamour

Eternal Beau crockery. I used to spend hours gazing at it in the Argos catalogue and assumed that’s what Princess Di ate off.

My mum had an Eternal Beau collection, god love her.

My Aunt had, and probably still has, Eternal Beau. And to this day it has never been used, it went out of the packaging and into the glass cabinet. She had everything you could stick the pattern on, the toaster, kettle you name it. I doubt they ever did a bog brush but she would have had it in her display cabinet if they had!

It was quite expensive and desirable at the time but funnily enough I thought of her yesterday as I saw a stack of EB plates and bowls in the window of a charity shop!

Oddly enough I saw this design on ebay the other day - a 58 piece collection offered for a mere £225!!!!!! When I noticed the napkins/napkin rings (we didn't have those just the plates), I was particularly tempted - the pinnacle of class surely. I think my mum only got them out when someone 'important' (like the vicar) came round - they were to posh for our use

Glitter. It used to come in a tiny test tube vial and it was so precious, I’d use the tiniest sprinkle on homemade birthday and Xmas cards as child and make it last all year. Now it comes in huge pots and my children think nothing of most of it ending up on the floor.
Yes - I know it’s not eco-friendly.

A dining room. Our kitchen was too small to eat in so we ate on our laps in front of the tv except for Christmas when dad would put up a wobbly wallpaper table in the front room with a sheet over. We had 3 chairs around the wallpaper table and my mum sat on the sofa arm. We were quite well off compared to our neighbours.

Oh that glue in the little red pot with the spatula! I can still smell it - it was heaven, and so smooth! I didn’t know what it called but I remember it vividly, our London primary school 1970’s provided it. I loved that stuff! We also had the brown glue with the red slitted rubber stopper. And mums flour and water paste - thanks for the memories. That red potted glue memory makes me feel ridiculously happy! 😄
And how precious was a vial of glitter!

We thought of getting EB crockery when we got married. I'm so glad we didn't-we'd have got very tired of it.

We only ever had coke in the house at Christmas in the 80's! I remember my dad used to do the drinks run at the offie and come back with spirits and a bottle of coke for me, so exciting !!

Also only had tangerines at Christmas and strawberries in the summer.

I remember the small glass of orange juice on a doily as a starter. Going to a harvester type pub for orange juice or pate, a steak or gammon and pineapple, then blackforest gateau for dessert was the height of sophistication I could only dream of. I remember my parents going out for a curry occasionally (Birmingham in the 1970s) but a “posh” meal like the above was only seen on tv adverts 😁

Also to coke, mars bars, crisps in an individual sized packet ( we would have family packet only).
We once had a minor car crash in the middle of a Yorkshire town, a kindly local lady invited me and my siblings to come in to her home and offered us a glass of coke. A bit wrong of me to remember this as a plus point....

We never had fizzy drinks as children except at birthday parties. We only had weak squash. Crisps were at parties only too until I was probably 11+ as I remember having own beans crisps in my packed lunch on a Friday. Didn’t think they were posh though, DM just said it was bad for us- ahead of her time?

Vienetta other than at Christmas
Soda Streams

I remember Orange Juice being served as a starter option at my very posh Oxford College - as an alternative to canned fruit salad 😂A waiter brought it.

A toilet inside the house
A bath
Carpets
My own room (I had to share with my parents until I was 11)
A garden
Gas fire

Born 1959, grew up in a 2-up, 2-down house, in poverty, with 3 older brothers

Most things really, we grew up very poor.
Going to other peoples houses and I saw they didn’t have boxes on the side of their appliances that you had to put a pound in to make them work! We got our tv from ‘radio rentals’ and we rented our fridge too! We’d be watching telly as kids and it would just go off as the pound credit had run out. Sometimes mum would have another pound for us or she wouldn’t and that was it.
The woman was/is a superhero, we were fiercely loved and very happy and how she managed on the little we had I have no idea. I love to treat her now I’m able to as adult. I’ve never met a stronger person.

Makes me laugh when some of my current friends complain about being ‘skint’ with over 100k income, yes prices have gone up at the moment but no, you’re not skint and will never know what it’s like to truly not have a penny to your name. It must be hard to imagine if you’ve never lived in those circumstances.

When I was about 6 or so in the mid 70s (may have been later, not sure) my parents got a colour TV - the delivery man from the Electricity Board came to deliver it after school and I was watching cartoons. I vividly remember seeing Deputy Dawg in blue instead of grey!

That’s so evocative. I’m a 71 baby and can’t remember black and white TV though I’m sure I watched it in the early years . Paint with Nancy wouldn’t have been the same in B&W 😂

We weren't badly off, and had branded food - but I remember vienetta being very exciting

I also remember thinking only poor people bought brown bread 🙄

Fresh orange juice Was something we never had as it was too expensive!

Oh and a continental quilt (duvet) instead of stripy sheets and a wool blanket

Electric shower not just those hose things you stuck on the taps.
A garage
Separate dining room