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

[MyCheeryPearlTraybake]

Going to the corner shop for some custard creams

Ice cream van and blackberry picking

Cheese on toast for Sunday tea in front of the TV rather than at the table. There were usually good programmes on like a travel show and then a period drama.

Going to the shoe shop in later August to have your feet measured for a new pair of Startrite school shoes.

I grew up in Southsea, that hovercraft noise is instant nostalgia for me.

UK beach holiday with a beach hut to leave all your buckets and spades paraphernalia
in, and a shelter for the almost inevitable rain. Plus points for one of those little stove things for making a nice hot cup of something when you come shivering out of the sea. 🙂

What are ‘kerbies’?

I grew up in the UK. That's what childhood was like for me and my siblings.

Also, horrible woollen swimming costumes passed down from older cousins.

Pebbly beaches.
Holidays walking up hills in the Lake District or in a caravan in a gale force wind, while Karen at school had been to Majorca. But the novelty of sleeping in a sort of hammock and eating mini packets of cereal made up for it!

Saying the Lords Prayer every day in school assembly, but also celebrating Diwali when it came around.
Collecting for harvest festival
Penny for the guy (with a guy made of pillows in Dads old clothes, propped up in a nicked shopping trolley..)
Carving lanterns out of swedes
Avoiding ( and being terrified of) skinheads.
Going to jumble sales every Saturday morning as a teenager on the hunt for vintage dresses.
Going to church fetes with my mum purely for the homemade cakes.
Friday teatime cakes- vanilla slices and curd tarts.
Pouring Carnation on puddings.
Drinking Bovril

blackberry picking - riding bikes - 10p mix ups

Going to the "van" to get fags for my parents when i was 4.

Penny for the guy! Now that is properly, uniquely British.

Things I remember vividly though it was the late sixties/early 70s and I don’t know if they are exclusively British.

Ice cream van,
Rag and Bone man shouting down our road on his horse and cart (that makes me feel old :)),
Penny sweets - decisions decisions,
Jumble sales in church halls on a Saturday
Being distraught when buying a can of coke for 5p and finding it had gone up to 51/2p and I didn’t have the extra half pence 😭 that still stings!

Mum getting aggravated with the constant door knocking in school holidays - 'Is Harper coming out to play?'

Watching The Borrowers with boiled eggs on a Sunday evening (also The Queens nose)

10p freddos

The answer - 'After Robinson Crusoe/Black Beauty/Heidi'.

I'm envious! We still go there now for the occasional weekend! Yes, I can imagine if you grew up there, you'd be shocked that not everywhere had those things!

I loved Enid blyton so much that between this and my dream of attending boarding school and lashings of ginger beer you're spot on

Getting quenchy cups from the ice cream van.

Mum making ice cream floats when we got home from school after the Alpine lorry had been on a Wednesday.

Caravan holidays in Scarborough.

Playing badminton in the street.

Messing about in the wood with my friends in the summer holidays.

Apart from Coke being that cheap, all of those things were still being experienced in the early 1980s in my childhood. The embarrassment if you saw a friend while you were queuing with your nan to go to the jumble sale! I still cringe and yet now, I think it would be considered an OK thing to do! Better for the environment etc.

Narnia, all 5 series, Tom Baker will always be puddle glum to me! One summer we took our children onto a beach, they were wearing swim shorts and hoodies so DH and I feel proud for continuing the British seaside experience to our DC

The last time I heard the rag and bone man, with that clip clop of the horse and the “Ra’Boh!” cry was about 12 years ago. Sad. I think they come round in a van now.
There used to be quite a few horses grazing on random bits of grass round where I grew up. All
gone now, with too much development and traffic.

Blackberry picking. Bonfire night.

As soon as I saw this I thought of ice cream vans and Mr Whippy ice cream. I’m clearly not alone!

I remember rag and bone men too with their horse and trap. I would only have been about 5 or 6.

TV wise….Pugh, Pugh, Barney McCrew, outburst, Dibble and Grub. Mary, Mungo & Midge, The Magic Roundabout, Play School, and later on Grange Hill.

If it's the same as it was here in the South East, it's two teams, each side of the road where you lived, kicking a ball and trying to hit the kerb. I think, if memory serves me right, you had to try to get it to bounce off the kerb to score, or something.

An 80s childhood
Going to the corner shop for a 10p mixup and a tiptop
Collecting lowcocks lemonade bottles from the neighbours for the 5p or 10ps
Morris dancing. They're were so many fayres with morris dancing and jazz bands. (Marching bands with kazoos, I'm sure they were kazoos, not actual jazz)
2p for a bag of scraps if we were far from home and hungry.
Getting to our destination and eating our sandwiches in the car.
Being allowed a drink or an ice cream. I never understood the logic of this one.

A 2000+ childhood
Forest school
Farm parks
Marshmallows around the firepit
Camping with friends
More cafes and coffee shops, fewer sandwiches in the car and no silly rules around drinks and ice creams.
An absence of Morris Dancing and jazz bands.