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

[MyCheeryPearlTraybake]

Going to the corner shop for some custard creams

Yes! Jack o' Lanterns made of swede. No fancy pumpkins for us. The smell of burnt swede is Hallowe'en for me. North ish England in the 60s & 70s.

@Port1aCastis I remember sitting on our back door step shelling peas too😁

Going to Bejam’s when it opened in our local town. I only ever remember two of the items my mum used to get - a pack of frozen mousses and frozen orange juice (that i think you added water to). It later got taken over by Iceland.

Vesta curries and chow mein. I think they are still available(?) but it was a lot of people’s first experience of ‘foreign’ food.

I asked my daughter about her childhood memories from when we lived in England (we're from elsewhere in Europe) in the 1990s when she was between 6 and 10:

Beano, Denis the Menace and the Dandy,
Curly-wurlys, spearmint chews, aniseed balls,
Singing along in the car with Kylie - "I should be so lucky ..."
Home and Away,
School uniform - just not a thing where we're from - and learning how to tie a necktie,
Going to Brownies,
Billy Bear luncheon meat (and Sainsbury's in general),
The milkman (we'd never seen this before or since),
Riding upstairs on a double decker bus (we've not seen those since leaving England either),
Jelly shoes ...

... and one from me - School mums! We don't have those - at least, not gaggles of them at the school gate every day, as the kids get themselves to and from school and most of the mums are usually working.

Don’t forget ‘Why Don’t You’

I educated myself with schools TV programmes. I only had about 70% attendance so spent many a morning watching schools TV at home.

@Spidey66 "Pugh, Pugh, Barney McCrew, outburst, Dibble and Grub"

Sounds like a character from The Fast Show .... 😂 "Arse!"

We never let the mousses defrost ,always had them frozen and those choc ices aswell.

Cuthbert! 😁

Was this the one where a character would emerge from a rotating music box or something? Us kids would always try and guess who was going to come up.

We’d also guess what Mr Benn was going to be 😁

I’ll add Hector’s House and The Herbs, I loved those.

White dog poo.

'This is a box
A musical box
Wound up and ready to play
But this box can hide
A secret inside
Can you guess who is in it today?'

Camberwick Green!

British seaside holidays and being on the beach all day even when it was really cold and windy.

Annual family holiday to Devon. On the journey there being squashed in a sweltering hot car with Mum, Dad, little brother, Nanny, Grandad and Auntie (where did they put all the luggage?). Spending the week trudging around in macs or playing card games in the caravan listening to the rain beating down. On the journey home being squashed in a sweltering car .............

Why did the sun only shine on Saturdays in the 1960s?

Also:
'This is the clock
The Trumpton clock
Telling the time
Steadily, sensibly
Never too quickly
Never too slowly
Telling the time for Trumpton'

Brian Cant was the kids' TV king!

We used to eat the Bejam yogurts when they were still frozen too.

Sherbert spaceships, candy cigarettes, ice cream vans, Dr Brain's maggots, pork crackling, visiting your grandparents, Easter, Christmas lights, pine trees which seemed magical and the smell of them

You've made me smile-cry! It was the deeley boppers that pushed me over the edge. I've been transported right back to 1980. Jeez. My lovely mam still here, surrounded by brothers & sisters & cousins & friends on the street.

Being allowed Crispy Pancakes when dad was on backshift- otherwise it was meat, potatoes & 2 veg. Followed by home-baking.

The ice-cream van & being allowed out on my roller skates (blue & yellow like a PP said). Out all day on my bike.

Being allowed to run out of chapel after communion to buy Bunty magazine on a Sunday from the newsagents, Shoot for my brother. Running home to kick off the patent shoes & Sunday best to get shorts & tshirt on & read on the swing until I'd finished the whole magazine. Swinging on said swing for hours & hours until it was getting dark.

I'm really emotional here. My children's childhood has been great, but so different.

Caravan holidays where the showers and toilets were in a block 1/4 mile away!

Blockbuster quiz show on week nights at 5.40’- the whole family calling out at the same time ‘can have a P please Bob’

Asti Spumanti.

My nans Sunday tea spread with tinned ham, hard boiled eggs, lettuce, tom n cuc and tinned (yes tinned) pot salad.
Vienetta and penguins for pudding.

Playing with my parents butt ends in the push down snazzy ashtrays and pretending to smoke

Cheese on toast as a main meal at my nans followed by chocolate eclairs from the bakery earlier bought that day.

Evaporated milk

Eyes so sore after swimming pool couldn’t see to put my 13p in the machine for crisps.

My mum putting my hair up in the mornings literally ripping the hair out at root and sides of face feeling tight.

Oh my God- everything here! Even down to the Penguins. Only difference is the cheese on toast was lunch.

I'm so full of memories now.

Fruit salads/mojos/blackjacks, sherbet dip
Dandelion and Burdock and Cream Soda Corona flavours
Vesta paella and prawn risotto
Orange squash and crisps outside a country pub
The Blackpool Illuminations
Proper black and white Doctor Who
Brownies (my mum was a Brown Owl)
Practising for the 11 plus on Friday mornings
French skipping - I could never get on with this and flicked football cards to win them with the boys
Going for a run i.e. a relatively aimless drive in the car, sometimes culminating in sitting in the car and looking out at the sea
Music lessons at primary school involving everyone playing the recorder or singing along to specific school radio programmes - Singing Together?
Jack Frost on the windows on winter mornings

Going to the seaside in the driving rain.

And then any of the associated seaside activities in the aforementioned driving rain (or even just a very strong wind).

My childhood seaside experiences were… brisk.

Snapping icicles off the inside of the bedroom window.
Drying our school socks on the oven door
Bunty magazine and Saturday morning cinema
Taking a plate to the chippy for a portion of chips
The knocker upper
Jublies

Also: "Time flies by when I'm the driver of the train
And I ride on the footplate there and back again."

Chigley. Or as I still call it, "the new one."

Great thread and really enjoyed reading all the answers. Born mid 70’s for it’s:

spending whole days out playing in the woods with a flask and a sandwich from quite a young age (I know from the time of a house move I was max 12 and neighbours kids were at least 3 years younger!)

playing out in the street until the lights came on - we were all just expected to be out all day! Playing kerbie, 40/40 and a marbles on the drain cover game I’ve forgotten

pocket money buying a pick n mix at the corner shop and occasionally getting a magazine (whizzer & chips until I progressed to seventeen or smash hits)

Sunday nights - cheese on toast or boiled eggs for supper, my mum ironing and my dad polishing all our shoes and we watched a drama like All creatures great & Small or if parents weren’t watching we’d always choose surprise surprise with Cilla.

reading all these posts one of the biggest differences seem to be lack of local community nowadays - everyone knew their neighbours, having local shops & walking everywhere.
The other big change is lack of structured/organised play for kids back then - we all were just ‘out’ playing for hours literally whole days which I’d say is very rare now. So not just going to the park with your mates or being dropped at an activity/holiday camp but being out exploring, getting into scrapes, feeling scared sometimes - I think it’s s shame for our children and next generation we’ve lost so much of that. The two are undoubtedly connected.

I LOVED Heidi- I can close my eyes & hear the music.

See also Rentaghost, Bod & Chorley & the Wheelies

2p machines
caravan holidays
playing out with the neighbours
recording the chart shows songs on tape
tree climbing
paddling in rivers
long walk and picnics
bike rides