What's something that absolutely screams ‘British childhood’ to you?’

[MyCheeryPearlTraybake]

Going to the corner shop for some custard creams

Going swimming in the local baths then walking home eating hot salty chips and shivering from still-wet chlorine-smelling hair. Maybe getting a cup of Bovril from the machine…

Afternoon Tea and Boarding School? did you grow up in an Enid Blyton Novel?

😂 I was so disappointed when I wasn't packed off to boarding school for midnight feasts, washed down with lashings of ginger beer.
I should have known by our lack of a Cook or a Governess. 😔

The used to put sooo much chlorine in the water years ago. The smell would hit you in the face the minute you walked in and your eyes would sting for days 😂

I grew up in Southsea :-D For a long time I thought everywhere had a fair, a castle, a beach and a hovercraft!

'Watching The Snowman at Christmas' bought a tear to my eye 🥹

Mini milk ice lollies
Pebble beaches
Rockpools

Paddling in freezing cold sea!

I don't think I ever twigged about the Brownies until it was far too late and my mother press ganged me into regular service 😀

haybales.

I read so much Enid Blyton as a kid and I never realised they weren't up to date novels until years later. I thought there really were people who went to boarding schools exactly like Malory Towers and that other kids had nurseries with Gywgs in them

Going out for a ride on your Chopper.

i agree, but why does that sound so dodgy!

There's something about Raymond Briggs books and adaptations that is so British but in just the way that I love. "Father Christmas" is perfect for it too. The scenery, the houses, the socks drying by the fire. I just love it.

Late 70s/early 80s
Clarks sandals (jelly shoes later)
deeley boppers
mini milks, ice lollies with a blob of ice cream on from the van, sparkle ice lollies - cheapest option, lemonade or orange. funny feet
boiling hot car seats
boiling hot cars no air con, windows open even on motorway
Food at motorway services was more like a canteen, nothing like it is now (not that we had any of the food)
free parking more widely available than now.
concrete under the play equipment, roundabouts that went really fast. Many park trips you’d observe some sort of fall or injury.
pretty much everyone had scabs on their knees
needing coins to pay for toilets in most tourist areas.
there weren’t really fleeces or hoodies. As a girl I’d wear a cardigan or kagoule on top of summer dress/shorts
salad was just round lettuce and sliced up cucumber plus big tomatoes, maybe spring onion. Tinned ham or tinned salmon. We had loads of value crisps, or snaps if lucky (3p)
I don’t remember seeing cherry tomatoes till I was about 20 and they were posh then.
kids drinks - those cups that you pierced the lid with the straw or a Capri sun if lucky.
Caravan holidays with no toilet or shower in them - had to go to the block.

OMG we got chased off them once by a farmer in his tractor 😂

Woolworths pic n mix

@stample
Mine was sitting in the porch of the pub while your parents went inside - I remember being very excited when we visited friends in Yorkshire cos kids were allowed in the pubs!

Being out on my pony all day and no one bothered to ask where I was going or what time I would be back. Taking a packet of sandwiches with me for these expeditions plus money for the telephone if I needed to let anyone know if I needed help.
Sharing a huge feather bedded double bed with my maternal grandmother when I stayed with her, which was a regular occurance.
Cycling a total of ten miles a day to my primary school, and then back again.

Vienetta having to go about 10 em ways

I applied sun block to my kids in the 80s from when they were babies. I just didn't use it myself because it was too expensive. By the 90s they were applying it themselves. In the 60s, my mother thought she was doing a good thing by applying Nivea suntan oil. She was in fact frying us alive. 😂

Playing out on the street or in the woods all day. Paper rounds.
Brilliant childrens dramas on TV early Sunday evenings, Flambards, Phoenix and the Carpet, Ballet shoes, Follyfoot ( I’ve now got the theme tune to this stuck in my head)

The local Bobby
A bag of chips
The ice cream van
The milk man
The Generation Game
Dr Who
Getting up to change a channel on the TV
Village Fetes
Enid Blyton
The Queens Speech
Top of the Pops
Penny chews
Sherbet Fountains
and proper sized Wagon Wheels

Thank you OP for the trip down memory lane😁

@comeandhaveteawithmere the chlorine. I’ve read that if it smells very strongly of chlorine that’s triggered by the water being dirtier. Even now some people don’t shower before getting in. I think for many people showers/baths were less frequent, perhaps people peeing more in the water and that’s become less socially acceptable? So the chlorine had to work harder if people were getting in with greasier hair and more grubby generally (not everyone of course)

20p mix up from the newsagents and you could get more than 20 sweets for that!

Mojos and black jacks were a proper British childhood!

Kagoules