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.

Life before duvets! When duvets started making an appearance they seemed strange and ‘new fangled!’

When I was a kid I saw an ad on the telly once for a stennah stairlift and thought it was the height of luxury. I assumed all celebrities must have one in their homes.

A microwave, and if you were REALLY fancy, microwave meals

I used to think my friend and her family were so fancy dancy because for dinner, they were allowed to go to the fridge, choose a microwave meal from the selection and heat it up themselves

I now feel quite sad for them ☹️

@ErrolTheDragon

You could get sachets of dried OJ (also other citrus eg grapefruit) which you mixed with water to make something more or less like juice. Rise and Shine, it was called. Probably contained added sugar

I was going to post about Rise and Shine , the height of luxury although I guess now it consisted of tartric acid, sugar , colour and flavouring . As far as you can get from real orange juice . But we thought it luxuriant because it was a rare treat . Ditto dream topping , a bit like angel delight. Also powder to mix with milk for substitute cream. So many things in the 70s were powdered alternatives I think People thought it “more scientific” therefore better.

Sliding patio doors! I was fascinated when I went to my friends newly built house in the 70’s, when I went home to my parents Victorian house it felt so dowdy and old fashioned in comparison!

Holidays. Had a school trip to London airport. Seeing the planes take off was amazing. We never went on holiday except to grannies. Neither granny could cook so we never stayed long

Frys Turkish Delight the ads made it seem so exotic, biggest disappointment of my young life when i save up my spends and bought myself a bar. It was just the same as the chocolates that go eaten last at Christmas. Turned me prematurely cynical.

Lucozade, so far as I was concerned because I never got any, was for when you were close to death not just ill. The bottles were wrapped in cellophane! Cellophane!

Grapes, only reason for visiting relatives in hospital was because you could filch the grapes.

Cubes of sugar wrapped in paper. I took some home from a restaurant (fancy, it had a dessert trolley) and kept them for years in a jewellery box.

Central heating, or any form of heating upstairs. I was born in 92 so it was unusual to only have a gas fire. They still don't have central heating and it's bloody freezing.

Showers,
Two cars per house,
Conservatories/porches,
Anything designer or branded including food,
Asda for the big shop,
Eating out,
Cinemas,
A birthday party that isn't at your house,
A holiday that isn't all inclusive 3* in Spain,
All fresh meat and vegetables

Both of my parents had gambling addictions. I never saw it as unusual at the time but mum was a health care assistant and my dad was a lorry driver I still don't know how they managed to pay off all of that debt but my mum retrained as a staff nurse and my dad got a well paid driving job and they are both doing very well now. They are always so generous to me and I know they tried their best when me and my brother were younger, neither of them gamble anymore!

Jack russell dogs
Westies
Labradors
Liquorice sticks

Eating out.
Wine with dinner
Smoked salmon
Prawns!1

So many things in the 70s were powdered alternatives I think People thought it “more scientific” therefore better.
I think it was mostly just due to the practicalities of shipment and storage. People didn't all have freezers, and crucially there wouldn't have been anywhere near the same amount of refrigerated transport and storage. Let alone air freight!

The first green and red peppers I ever saw were in 1975, at the airport hotel we stayed in before a trip to Canada. So exotic... but my Canadian relatives - who owned a fruit farm - had them every day, along with corn on the cob. Fresh, not sugared and salted Green Giant tins!

Cornettos. We could have a Mr Whippy, a lemonade lolly, Fab or Zoom, never a Cornetto.

WH Smiths

Fitted sheets

We had the computer paper with holes in and writing on the back as well.
At school I remember we used to be given old billboard posters to use the other side as plain paper or to mount our work on or cover books - usually ads for cigarettes, although they were highly pixellated as designed to be seen from a distance.

Snickers bars
Smoothies- fruit never lasted long enough in our house, I couldn't imagine making myself a smoothie let alone buying one outside.
Going to a cafe

Branded chocolate bars and crisps in a packed lunch, I couldn’t fathom how people afforded them!

KFC
After dinner mints
Soft drink or a Soda Stream
People who owned dogs
Having snacks in the house
Four poster beds
Letter writing sets with some sort of pattern or colour

Having a complete set of something.

When I was a child I would have Sylvanian Families but never a whole family or the complete set - it would always just be one or two. I'd go to friends' houses and be amazed that they had a complete family of badgers or whatever.

Same with Barbies - for example I'd have the Barbie and the horse, but never the horse's saddle or the rest of the gubbins that went with the horse.

It was also like that with other stuff in our house. Always one knife permanently missing from the knife block. Tupperware boxes but never any matching lids. Mix and match duvets and pillow cases. I thought matching bedding was the height of sophistication!

A telephone
A colour TV, esp. one with buttons for each channel. We had one with a dial you had slowly turn like cracking a safe.
An inside toilet.
A bath, come to that, a bathroom. I'm not ancient but we had a tin bath when I was small.
Lots of clothes.

A new bike. More than one pair of shoes. Bought cakes.
People who went abroad on holiday. People who had a car.
People who had more than one TV.

Going to Spain for your holiday on a plane.

Any ice cream that wasn't supermarket own brand Neopolitan.
Hagen Daas seemed like the height of poshness.

Pre pack sandwiches. Coffee in a cafe.

Snickers bars
Marathons for many of us in this thread.

Newish cars, we always had bangers.
Shopping in Hobbycraft for school art projects. So decadent!
Another one for vienetta, such a treat (still is!).
School jumpers that hadn't been knitted.
Sandwiches with the the crusts cut off.
Those little snack pots with the crackers and shaped ham and cheese in.

Funnily enough I grew up in quite a well off area so things like 4 bed detached houses with garages was not seen as fancy. Wish that was still the case 🤣