Things you'd forgotten about

[CharliesAngles]

String art.

Remember those pictures that hung on walls in the 70s/80s (? I'm guessing)
They usually had a black background and coloured string making geometric type patterns.
I had totally forgotten (most probably for the best 😂) that they had ever existed until I looked through some photo albums at my auntie's house.

Anything else of that ilk you can recall?

Some golden syrup on a buttered slice of toasted soda bread, v unhealthy I know but the food of the gods, seriously.

We put it on leftover Yorkshire pudding!

My parents were local area collectors for the pools for years, they had about 30 people collecting coupons round the area, and everyone used to drop them to our house every week.

Late on Friday night my DF would take everything to our local county town. Then it would all go up to Liverpool ready for Saturday. They did it for 20 years or more. It used to earn more than my DF's normal salary.

My DM had her own round too, she used to go down the high street on her bike, collecting from the shops.

When I look back at everything they did to give us a fantastic childhood - I am really so grateful. They worked so hard.

Used to be double green shield stamps on a Wednesday at our local Tesco!

With all the talk of shampoo, does anyone remember the very first shampoo and conditioner combination? Called 'Once' and had the shampoo and conditioner in the same bottle and you had to shake it to mix it I think - there was Red for normal hair and I think Green for greasy. Can't remember what it was called but I loved it. That and Revlon Flex shampoo and conditioner if I was feeling rich - the smell was awesome .

Frys chocolate bars with the different colour and flavour in each square. Tudor crisps. Bonbons with a thick dust of icing sugar at the bottom of the paper bag.

I thought the first one was called Wash n go? I seem to remember the ads on tv, something about “take two bottles into the shower?”

Maybe they both came out at the same time? It was a long time ago so I'm well aware I'm probably wrong

Yes, Wash and Go. I bought some to take to Centre Parks and it gave me greasy hair and an itchy scalp. It managed to be rubbish as both a shampoo and rubbish as a conditioner.

Yes and no. There was a shampoo called Once in the 80s that had two separate bits in the bottle that you had to shake but it was a water softener, not conditioner.

My favourite shampoo from the days of yore was the sunsilk de parfum shampoo in the purple bottle. I could smell it every time I moved my head for a couple of days.

Oh gosh yes Sunsilk! I can still remember the smell!

My 80yo Dad purposefully still buys coal tar soap as it reminds him of being a child.

presumably he grew up in a public toilet.

I love the smell of coal tar soap and I was brought up in a council house! Call me common, but I love the smell, it’s cheap to buy and yes, does have a distinctive smell!

Oh I'm opposite I hated the smell of coal tar soap.
Glad it makes your Dad happy 👍😁

Smells are unrivalled for transporting you right back in a second, aren't they. For me it would be Pears or Imperial Leather.

Remember when imperial leather came out the advert hinting that it was the soap to aspire to having.
My mum and dad bought it ,70s.

Ahh so lovely to see this thread is still going!
Will have a proper read through once I’ve logged out of work but just wanted to add my dad was old school and washed every night in very diluted dettol.
We had green Palmolive soap.

Dettol in the bath as a kid

My mil still has some Eternal Beau bits and bobs. In really good nick, actually.

Ds2 bought a lava lamp and it took me back to the 70s! He likes it, I think they are horrible!

We had mr matey 😀

Also camay, a really beautiful pale pink soap and my mum always used Oil of Ulay - known as that!
So evocative.

Macassar is hair oil, the stuff men used on their hair in the past to smooth it down . So an antimacassar is to protect the sofa or chair from any oily residue, really important when sofas didn’t have loose covers. They would then get laundered regularly .

fun fact
macassar was the name of the hair oil that men commonly used.
A pre curser to brill cream I think

Anti- macassars were there to catch the hair oil so it didn't get onto the sofa and kept the sofa clean.
My Granny had them. Very useful when my brother dyed his hair red, turned all her anti macassars red, and she declared that they were so useful!

Pears has changed formulation and doesn’t smell quite the same. I have a couple of the old bars in a drawer just to be able to smell my Grannie’s lovely bathroom.

We had Savlon.
My mother also insisted on giving my hair a final rinse in cold water - god that was horrible, and how it was meant to improve your hair, I don't know.