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Original poster

What felt like a treat as a kid...

128 replies

ClassicStripe · 26/12/2023 14:48

But now seems like it really wasn't?
Me and DSis used to absolutely love getting to use our mum's bath water once she got out. It seemed even more of a treat as she didn't have bubble bath (?!)

OP posts:
flowerchild2000 · 26/12/2023 17:59

Balloonhearts · 26/12/2023 17:55

@flowerchild2000 It's still about. Tesco do it for about 1.50.

😱 Ok I'm booking a ticket right now! Honestly that's exciting news as I've been wanting some since the 80's! 🤣

Desecratedcoconut · 26/12/2023 18:01

Mossstitch · 26/12/2023 17:56

Orange and soda water plus ready salted crisps I the back of the car whilst patents went in the pub.

Oh yeah, all the bored kids sat in the back of the car while parents did the food shopping. I once let off the hand brake and rolled the car into the parking space in front. Nobody noticed, apart from my terrified siblings.

flowerchild2000 · 26/12/2023 18:01

WhatInTheFuckery · 26/12/2023 17:58

They do! I've seen it in Sainsbury's for a quid or so, we sometimes buy it for the sake of nostalgia

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OMG. This is really the best news. I'm in the US and had no idea. I've never been so motivated to visit until now LOL

IrisVonEverec · 26/12/2023 18:01

@Hummusanddipdip well KFC would have been a huge treat in itself when I was kid. To have been allowed an ice cream as well - never mind one as posh as a Viennetta - would have been mind blowing.

I only ever ate Viennetta once, when my single, childless uncle invited my mum round for tea. We weren't allowed to touch anything in his house, which was full of pictures of Madonna including in a book mum said we weren't allowed to look at, and there was nothing to do because he wouldn't put the tv on. But we got Viennetta for pudding. Not sure if I remember this event because of the boredom or the ice cream.

doodlepants · 26/12/2023 18:02

Using an umbrella. Only at weddings and funerals. Otherwise we had to wear hideous rain coats.

caringcarer · 26/12/2023 18:02

MuddledMadge · 26/12/2023 16:48

Using liquid soap. I think it used to be seen as quite posh.

It was. My Auntie used to have it and as soon as I got there I'd go to wash my hands with it. She had hand cream in bathroom too. I used that too.

caringcarer · 26/12/2023 18:04

flowerchild2000 · 26/12/2023 17:52

I'm so sad they don't make it any more! I always saw the commercials as a kid and never got any. I've heard it wasn't even that good. I still want some though. The marketing really got us!

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Asda sells it.

baubl · 26/12/2023 18:06

Fizzy pop. My FIL used to make DH have a pot of tea if ever they were in a cafe because you got more for your money, dh was convinced fizzy drinks were really expensive until he started work and was able to buy his own.

A McDonald's was a massive treat when I was a teen because they hadn't been open over here very long. I can't remember the last time I went to one.

CMOTDibbler · 26/12/2023 18:07

Any food not made at home. I think we had a takeaway once a year, and eating out was strictly only for birthdays. Even pre prepared food was a massive treat, I can still remember the excitement of buying picnic eggs in BHS is Reading

baubl · 26/12/2023 18:09

@flowerchild2000 honestly viennetta is so awful, it tastes of nothing. If you have some now it will leave you so disappointed. Leave it in fantasyland!

Evilcold · 26/12/2023 18:10

Stopping for a meal at a Wimpy restaurant on long car journeys. Looking back the food was dreadful and there is so much more choice at service stations today, but now we seem to just get something and quickly eat it in the car.

Evilcold · 26/12/2023 18:11

Arctic Roll at Christmas. I think I will leave it in the fantasyland along with Viennettas.

ElderMillenials · 26/12/2023 18:14

baubl · 26/12/2023 18:09

@flowerchild2000 honestly viennetta is so awful, it tastes of nothing. If you have some now it will leave you so disappointed. Leave it in fantasyland!

Oh goodness no it's so tasty! The birthday cake one (ambitious name, it's vanilla and strawberry ice cream with the vienetta chocolate and sprinkles) is soooo good!

Never mint though. That is garbage.

NaughtyBoyGeorgeMichaelJacksonBrown · 26/12/2023 18:14

Anything branded! Especially shampoo/ bath things. I had VO5 shampoo and heat treatments gifted as presents that I would display in my bedroom as ornaments and don't remember ever using them! Same with anything bodyshop - not used, just put on display like the Victorians with pineapples!!

Jordan's Country Crisp - we'd buy it with our birthday money and have to keep it hidden and ration it or it would get snaffled.

McDonald's was a birthday thing and I remember going in with my family after looking forward to it all year and there were some friends from school eating there just for no reason - I thought of them as millionaires ever after; blew my mind.

McD had replaced Little Chef as a birthday treat...now THAT was fine dining.

NaughtyBoyGeorgeMichaelJacksonBrown · 26/12/2023 18:19

ElderMillenials · 26/12/2023 18:14

Oh goodness no it's so tasty! The birthday cake one (ambitious name, it's vanilla and strawberry ice cream with the vienetta chocolate and sprinkles) is soooo good!

Never mint though. That is garbage.

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Haha good - more mint for me!!

Mplpurple · 26/12/2023 18:20

My granny's take on party tea. She would invite up to 20 people for this huge tea of little sandwiches, cold meats, cheeses, salad tossed by me in her spinner, homemade pies and then trifle and cakes. I always loved them and would give anything to be at one today of all days. I'm at home on my own as I'm not welcome where my family are.

elfintinsel · 26/12/2023 18:23

Exotic fruits like Mango or Papaya were definitely treats! Santa would put some obscure fruit I had rarely eaten in my stocking. I thought he must have picked it on his travels around the world until he once left the Sainsburys label on it!

GellerYeller · 26/12/2023 18:32

Ice Magic (Google it, youngsters!)
Liquid soap
Takeaway food other than very occasional fish and chips
Cinema snacks
Birthday parties not in someone’s home. How impossibly glamorous or sophisticated it felt to be taken to a McDonalds birthday party.
Going to a Happy Eater or Little Chef on long journeys.
A Mars Bar that wasn’t cut into slices and shared.
Chocolate Oranges at any time other than Christmas.
Butter. Was considered the devil and substituted with Flora, advertised as ‘the margarine for men’ by Terry Wogan.
Hotels! Holidays were in guest houses, caravans or a rented ‘chalet’ at a seaside holiday park.
Anything from M and S, Body Shop, using the phone to chat with friends, cosmetics/perfume from department stores…

GellerYeller · 26/12/2023 18:34

@NaughtyBoyGeorgeMichaelJacksonBrown cross posted on a lot of shared experiences with you here!

IwishIdidntlikesugar · 26/12/2023 18:36

Glad to see I’m not the only one who got a slice of mars bar rather than a whole one.
I don’t recall seeing fruit like mango or papaya in the supermarket but perhaps they were there. A can of fizzy juice still feels like a treat to me.

Toddlerteaplease · 26/12/2023 18:50

Veinetta,
Fresh orange juice

Toddlerteaplease · 26/12/2023 18:55

Pears soap. That was really posh

452dr · 26/12/2023 18:56

Popcorn.

So cheap and easy to make, but we had it rarely enough for it to feel like a treat.

Mammyloveswine · 26/12/2023 19:06

A happy meal in the school holidays... my two literally eat out or get takeaways so much more than I did as a child!

Twitch45 · 26/12/2023 19:07

Takeaway pizza. We were never allowed it, even for birthday parties. We got pizzas from Safeway instead. I LOVED eating it at my friends' houses.

Oddly enough I have never bought one as an adult 😱 Might need to rectify that!