To ask what makes you nostalgic about childhood? (Also a request about an item)

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My children are all but one in secondary school, frankly quite boring independent and want to do their own thing. I find myself almost grieving for their childhoods, looking back through photos and remembering the good times etc.

To get to the point I have become very nostalgic about my own childhood and I am searching up some of my old toys on ebay As they are now considered vintage they are prohibitively expensive.

Some of the things I have lovely memories attached to are:

Lights Alive
Keypers
Sweet Secrets
Diary Milk dispenser thingys at Christmas
Gloworm

Just yesterday I got this sudden flashback to a swimming bag I had in primary school, it was transparent PVC, from Primark and had a beach scene on the front with liquid for the sea (you could squish the liquid IYKWIM) and a plastic beach ball. At the time it was so amazing and I loved it so much that I even stapled the seams together when they split Does anyone know what this type of bag is called (with the liquid inside) I spent ages googling but haven't been able to find it.

My nostalgia is mostly related to items, but what are your items/experiences that make you nostalgic about your own childhood?

Thank you for this thread OP! I've just spent a very happy half hour reading through it and google imaging all my old toys! Sweet Secrets! How could I have forgotten those bad boys?!

Also...
Keypers - I had the large, hard shelled snail and the smaller, squashy one with a slit in the top. I saved up my pocket money to buy it when I was quite old for it, because I loved its internal smell. Anyone else remember this?

Silly Putty - my pink one was stolen by my 'friend' and when my kind dad took me to Smith's to replace it they only had orange. Sad day. Not long after though my brother got GLOW IN THE DARK SILLY PUTTY. I'm a little bit excited now just thinking about it.

Sindy house with the lift.

Barbie's jeep and horse.

Polly Pocket

Those bouncy things with a ring around the ball. You rested your feet on the ring and squeezed the ball with your inner feet. It looked like all the kids were bouncing to school on Saturn.

Word Rescue, Monsters of Mars and Lemmings

Does anyone remember playground kids? Mid 90's toy???
Chocolate cigarettes
10p mixes
Tommy tears (anatomy correct)
Trouble (channel)
Boys meets world
When starburst were opal fruits!!!
When monster munch turned your tongue different colour

Ant & Dec

Tizer/ Moray Cup

Smoked sausage, every Friday from the chip shop

Shelly dolls/other Barbie variants (I had dozens and devastated when they went to charity)

Body glitter/dazzle dust by Barry M

Music channels when they had a request service that you could phone in , each song had a code..

Zoey 101/As told by ginger

Skouzers, I had a hideous lilac pair

Cupcake dolls , my cousin had a few and I still remember the faint sweet smell their skirts had

Glow sticks

Sugababes/Atomic Kitten/Girls Aloud

Neighbours on BBC1 after Blue Peter them my mum switching to Grampian for North Tonight

BBC2 showing open university and schools programmes every morning, my primary and secondary had dozens and dozens of recorded tapes (secondary school had a cupboard devoted to just vhs)

The smell of face paint and how cold it always was , and not daring to move or eat for fear of ruining it!

Oh I forgot about Groovy Chick! I used to have a Groovy chick diary that I wrote in with uni ball scented pens.. and a Funky Friends pencil case to keep them in

I also used to love 'With It' , think that was a whsmith thing .. had pencil cases and lunchboxes etc. I was about 13 or 14 then I think.

I had a Sindy doll and her horse. The horse's foreleg was broken off (don't remember how) so I sellotaped a lolly stick as a prosthetic limb. The horse managed very well with it's lolly stick leg, it may have even had a joke on it.

I spent all my spends on plastic animals, realistic looking things that came in all sorts of varieties (farm animals, zoo animals, wildlife, every breed of horse & dog available in the 80s), spent a lot of time organising them into families so they could go school in my Fisher price school bus and come home after to play with their friends and have tea before going to bed in a Morrisons carrier bag.

Tiredbut was it the Cheeky Mouse House?

Cheeky mouse - but there was a cat too!

Does anyone remember Wish World Kids?

I had the fireplace that turned into a BBQ, and the really shit chair that turned into a car.

I've just googled them and they look a lot shitter than I remember.

Oovoo nostalgia.

Did anyone have one of those pencil cases that you could put a pencil in one side, flip it over and the pencil would be in the other side. Total magic, I loved mine. It was red but I can't remember the design. Love Is... or Hello Kitty or Beautiful Sunday something like that.

Also smelly pencils. They smelled like different fruits. Had replaceable leads. My friend had a doll that's hair kept growing. What were they called.

My DD has all my My little ponies. About 8 and the show stable but the show stable fell apart about 10 years ago. She has my two soft care bears as well. But not so Dlabrador chewed the little hearts off their bums.

I think I had that cheeky mouse house!

Jason Donovan game anyone...?

Oh and Sindy's horse, we still have that, she uses him for her barbies. His head keeps falling off though so looks like a barbie mafia scene . I had a Sunday range rover. Not sure what happened to that, it was probably given to a younger cousin.

Yes! I had the cheeky mouse house in blue and the shit chair that turned into a car

I still have my Keeper and glow worm!

My Little Ponies
Sylvannian Families
Twinkle magazine
Hamwiches (triangle of gammon (?) with cheese on top and coated in breadcrumbs)
The Flumps
Programmes for Schools (Words and Pictures in particular)
Come and Praise hymnbooks
Playing out all day until the street lights came on or I was hungry
Ginn reading books
The smell of my grandparents' car - I smell it occasionally in places and it takes me right back!

Being younger

Oh Piesthats so sad .
Loads all ready mentioned but I loved coming home at lunch and watching the Sullivan's with my mum .
Bread and only fools and horses and Howard's way on a Sunday .
Wham bars
Enid blyton books
Penelope pipstock
My much treasured black and white TV in my room.
Paul Young ❤️
Simon wicks from Eastenders ❤️

Pippa dolls
Playing 2 ball against a wall
A ring with a ball attached that you had to put round your ankle and jump over it
Pogo sticks
Elastics
Tea set in a little case
Famous Five, Secret Seven and Mallory Towers
....so nostalgic!

Pogs, silly putty, those funky 'gunge' ball things with spikes on them and a gungy string attached that you could swing around (and throw up at ceilings in school and they would stick there for MONTHS if not YEARS and the teacher would eventually get it down with a broom handle, but it would leave a greasy stain where it had been), those men things with gungy arms and legs that you would throw at windows and they would 'climb' down, tamagotchi's, Headache the board game, that little toy telephone every kid had in the 80s

Not forgetting these bad boys...

chips my 3yo son got one of those penguin tracks from his visit to Santa last year. He loves the thing.....when he can find the penguins.....

YY to the 'saturn' disc thing you jumped on with the ball. And Scamps the dog toy that you pushed along and it barked. And Skip It's on the school play ground. Power rangers. Pat sharp in fun house. Timmy flippin' Mallet. And Noel's house party

Waaaahhhhhh I want my yoof back 😢

Family Ness theme tune - makes me cry for innocent times

Loving this thread!

Did anyone else have a Global Hyercolour t-shirt? Mine was line green/yellow.

Jelly shoes - My first pair were white with silver flecks and a chunky low heel.

Polly Pockets - I got my first one when I was on Summer holiday in Newcastle (County Down) and I remember it being a Monday in July and it was raining.

Chocolate whoppers - They were 1p each from the corner shop but these days they are £1.50 for 10 from a "retro" sweet shop in the city centre.

Kinder Eggs - I rarely ate the chocolate but I liked collecting the toys (I had a massive collection), they were 45p when I was a child.

The Jungle Book - My mum bought it for me when it was released on VHS tape.

Snowballs - My granny would buy us one each every Friday from the local bakery.

Trolls - I had so many but my favourite one had spiked pink hair with a pink heart on its stomach.

5p Crisps - They were lovely, "Meanies" and "Beef Burgers" are the flavours I remember.

Findus Crispy Pancakes - Always served with mashed potatoes.

Boyzone - I was going to marry Ronan Keating.

Nintendo 64 - My brothers had this and I tortured them to let me play.