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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

478 replies

MyCheeryPearlTraybake · 28/05/2025 16:20

Going to the corner shop for some custard creams

OP posts:
HelloCanYouHearMe · 28/05/2025 17:13

Being sent to the corner shop to get mum's cigs on tick

PrincessHoneysuckle · 28/05/2025 17:14

Ice pops
Boiled potatoes
Playing outside
Package holidays to Spain
Love

NoBots · 28/05/2025 17:14

Rainbow and scouts? Pepper pig!

Smittenkitchen · 28/05/2025 17:14

Church fêtes, the Flower Show or the Daffodil show. Big village events!

Snickersnack1 · 28/05/2025 17:14

I wonder what the children of today would say?

Roblox?

Gotback · 28/05/2025 17:15

It's Friday. It's 5 to 5....

Turquoisa80 · 28/05/2025 17:15

Ice cream van, skipping, going to the library, children's TV after school and Saturday mornings

BunnyLake · 28/05/2025 17:15

HarperStern · 28/05/2025 17:09

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

Oh that reminds me of another memory.

The daytime programmes on tv for kids during school holidays:

The Banana Splits
The Champions
White Horses (I liked the theme tune but not the programme)
Lassie films
Abbot & Costello films
Bob Hope and Bing Crosby Road To films
The Monkees (I loved that)

My mum and dad both worked so from quite a young age we kids were left to our own devices during the school breaks and watched a lot of telly.

RedToothBrush · 28/05/2025 17:16

White lightning down the park.

Absolutely wouldn't happen anywhere else.

IfNot · 28/05/2025 17:16

Buying 10 Silk Cut as my first fags. I chose them because the ads made them look glam.

BunnyLake · 28/05/2025 17:16

Gotback · 28/05/2025 17:15

It's Friday. It's 5 to 5....

And it’s Crackerjack 😁

HarperStern · 28/05/2025 17:17

BunnyLake · 28/05/2025 17:15

Oh that reminds me of another memory.

The daytime programmes on tv for kids during school holidays:

The Banana Splits
The Champions
White Horses (I liked the theme tune but not the programme)
Lassie films
Abbot & Costello films
Bob Hope and Bing Crosby Road To films
The Monkees (I loved that)

My mum and dad both worked so from quite a young age we kids were left to our own devices during the school breaks and watched a lot of telly.

White Horses theme makes me cry but I have literally no memory of the programme itself weirdly.

bowchicawowwow · 28/05/2025 17:17

Stinging nettles. Conkers. Choc ices in paper wrappers

IfNot · 28/05/2025 17:17

RedToothBrush · 28/05/2025 17:16

White lightning down the park.

Absolutely wouldn't happen anywhere else.

And Thunderbird…even the name makes me feel like I’m going to be sick!

RealEagle · 28/05/2025 17:18

The daffodil competition at school ,you just wanted that certificate with the colourful picture on it,

Going on day trips in the 70s and given warm orange squash that burnt your throat.

NeverDropYourMooncup · 28/05/2025 17:18

Mittens and gloves sewn to a length of white elastic and put through the sleeves of your coat so you didn't lose them.

Boys all wearing duffle coats and balaclavas (usually navy blue), but grey shorts so their knees were blue all winter.

Crunchy socks that were boiled each week, Clarks shoes bought on the last day of the summer holidays to last you all year - and wishing you were bought cotton ankle socks with broderie anglaise or lace trim and a pair of patent black leather shoes with a strap.

Using Scuffcote instead of Kiwi polish because it was quicker/cleaner than polishing them like your Granddad had taught you and your mum couldn't be doing with the mess or smell.

Girls with thick blonde fringes and plaits.

Going to the corner shop after school and wishing you had the money for a Funny Feet instead of a Mini Milk.

Everybody watching the latest foreign language kids' show on TV and still being able to recognise the tune from the first couple of notes 40+ years later.

Salt and vinegar crisps coming in blue packets, not the confusing green of Walkers, which everybody knew was the colour of cheese and onion.

nomas · 28/05/2025 17:18

Playing the lava game. You create a castle with your sofas and sofa cushions and aren’t allowed to step on the floor because the floor is lava.

HarperStern · 28/05/2025 17:18

Terrifying public information films, or the less terrifying 'Charlie Says'.

Arsehooooole · 28/05/2025 17:19

Also,
Watching cartoons after school in your uniform 😵‍💫

Spidey66 · 28/05/2025 17:20

Spidey66 · 28/05/2025 17:13

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.

Edited

Cuthbert not outburst. Autocorrect fail!

HeadDeskHeadDesk · 28/05/2025 17:20

Yes, going to the corner shop for a small bag of sweets chosen from the jars behind the counter. And being sent to buy cigarettes for my mum. Hmm

Walking to and from school by ourselves from a really young age. Being 'out to play' for hours and hours and hours on end with no mobile phone. Only went home when it was dark or we were hungry.

Ice cream vans parked up near the school on hot summer afternoons, ready for the walk home.

Playing Knock Down Ginger.

Having a satsuma, a piece of coal and a selection pack in my Christmas 'stocking' which was actually a pillowcase.

Taping the charts off Radio 1 on a sunday afternoon. Being bored rigid on Sundays back when nowhere was open. Although I actually quite miss that now.

Toffee apples and candy floss. That really exciting 'crack' when you bit into half an Easter Egg. The Easter Eggs always seemed enormous. They are tiny now.

Sitting outside the pub in my dad's car with half a shandy and a bag of crisps. Hmm

Deathtrap playgrounds of the 1970s. I mean seriously, who designed those? Really high slides made of metal that burned your bum in summer. Those bloody awful rocking horse things that either broke your nose, knocked your teeth out, or crushed your ankle when it got trapped underneath. Roundabouts that we'd spin really fast then try to jump on or off while they were moving.

Saturday morning pictures.

Blue Peter and Magpie. Catweazel and Worzel Gummidge. Follyfoot and Heidi. Crackerjack. Vision On.

Being able to go in the pub with my mates and buy a drink from aged 14 or 15 and hardly ever get challenged. 😂

Getting sunburnt. Every year without fail. That pain afterwards, sitting in the bath feeling so sorry for yourself.

Having tinned fruit or fruit 'flan' and evaporated milk for pudding on Sundays.

Salads where nothing was chopped or tossed. Three whole lettuce leaves, a slice of ham, a hard boiled egg, some grated cheese, a tomato cut into four, some slices of cucumber, a whole spring onion and a splodge of salad cream.

School dinners. Roast beef dinner with boiled cabbage. That was my favourite. Sardines and salad. Spam fritters. (hated those.) Cheese and potato 'pie' (which was basically just mashed potato with some cheese mixed in and bunged under the grill with some tinned tomatoes on the side.) Sponge cake with weird pink custard. God knows what that was supposed to be, it was grim. My favourite was ginger sponge with lemon sauce, or gypsy tart. But unless you come from Kent you might not know Gypsy tart.

Children's and teens' magazines. I had Twinkle, then Bunty then Jackie.

I used to love those books of cardboard cut-out 'model' ladies with mix and match cut-out outfits that you could change by fitting them over the shoulders of the stand-up lady, using little paper tabs at the top. I was obsessed with those.

Fuzzy Felt, Etch-a-Sketch and Spirograph.

Sortumn · 28/05/2025 17:20

Watching fun house on a Friday with a pot noodle and whichever other treats were had, as Friday was supermarket day.

ChocolateCinderToffee · 28/05/2025 17:21

Getting sand scraped agonisingly off your legs as you screamed.

RealEagle · 28/05/2025 17:22

lucozade was the miracle drink ,no matter what you had wrong with you🤮

HarperStern · 28/05/2025 17:23

@HeadDeskHeadDesk yes, and the 'witch's hat' type of roundabout designed to chop off your fingers before it killed you by flinging you on to the concrete wtf.