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

[MyCheeryPearlTraybake]

Going to the corner shop for some custard creams

The pop van
sugar sandwiches
Yorkshire pudding and jam
playing out til the street lights came on
roller skating on the front
shellsuits
Sindys and barbies

I know it always seemed so special and mysterious, I actually love lucozade but it doesn't seem quite so decadent now I can buy it anywhere rather than just a chemist shop.

Ribena or lemon barley water
sherbet flying saucers
shivering in the drizzle eating sandy sandwiches
blackberry picking
textbooks wrapped in wallpaper
Blue Peter
Top of the Pops
Sindy dolls, rather than Barbie

That particular stale smell that milky coffee has when it's been in a Thermos flask for six hours, drunk on the beach behind a windbreak along with fish paste sandwiches out of a Tupperware box and, if you were lucky, a Lyons Orange Maid or two-ball screwball afterwards, even if it was far too cold for ices!

With a fort made out of wind breakers. Using your beach towels as a blanket!

Absolutely and george, well she was just ahead of her time wasn't she...

The Macarena was written by spaniards, inspired by being in Venezuela 😆

Watching Tizwaz on a Saturday morning then Dukes of Hazard before bed
Picnics in a field on a tartan blanket
Buying a half pound of sweets from the corner shop (Blackjacks and chocolate limes)
Pontefract cakes
Riding our BMX’s to the rec
Playing our dad’s expensive record collection on the record player

Yes damn you autocorrect!

Handmade cardis and jumpers from your gran/aunty
Standing outside the newspaper shop every weekday for the Evening Sentinel
Dogs roaming freely around the streets
Hand me downs from older siblings/cousins
Buying cigarettes for parents from newsagents down the road
People sitting on their front step having their dinner or standing at the gate with a cup of tea
Gossip and tutting over the whiteness of someone's nets, socks, nappies, bedding etc.
Pubs being mainly for men
Most women never drinking, except maybe at Christmas
Making 'perfume' out of rose petals
Iced bread finger rolls, vanilla slices, Belgian buns, custard tarts
Cucumber and onion pickled in vinegar
Candy stripe sheets and pillow cases
Hot water bottles
Metal dustbins
Tweed perfume
The Avon Lady
Bath cubes
Talc
Baby matinee jackets

I wasn’t allowed a Barbie, my mum said Sindy was a much better example! Haha! I had a Girl’s World too, remember those?

Pop man pop delivered in the green van.

It was horrible, wasn't it? I just remember going to school on Mondays and trying to style it out by saying we had been helping at the sale, but I fooled nobody! Especially when mum would send me into school wearing some monstrosity that she'd bought for me for 5p! Oh, the shame!
Thank goodness times are better now!

I was born in 1956 and my childhood was nothing like that of children of the 90s, which seems to be the majority of people posting. It's a bit sad, I think, that TV programs feature so heavily. When I was small there was the BBC (later BBC1) and ITV, which was split into regional companies and very little children's programming. We didn't have a television properly until I was about 10 anyway. We did rent one briefly that you put sixpence (2 and a half p) into a meter fastened to the back. No tanner in Mum's purse, no telly. There were children's programmes on the radio though and before I started school, I really looked forward to after lunch and Listen with Mother. I curled up for 15 minutes on Mum's lap and listened intently. Daphne Oxenford had a lovely comforting voice and Mum invariably fell asleep so I could stay on her lap for a bit longer. That's a precious memory.

We gave my sisters girls world a skinhead

Having a £1 and that would get all day entrance to the swimming pool. A pack of tangy toms, a highland toffee bar and a tip top to go with our packed lunch.
Blackberry picking with my nan who would then make blackberry jam.
Childrens tv being on from about 3pm til 5.30. Hoping Dad would be late home so we could then watching neighbours at 5.35 and home and away at 6 before he took over the TV for the rest of the day.
So many of the previous posts have made me feel very nostalgic! Those were the days!

Jelly sandals and candy floss.

How bloody exciting it was when your mum got a new Freemans/Littlewoods/Oxendales catalogue and spent all night poring over it. Even the arrival of the Spalding Bulb brochure was an event.

Why don't you
Why don't you
why don't you just switch off your television and go and do something more exciting instead

The alternatives weren't really exciting though! I remember one that basically was how to make a ham and cheese sandwich with 3 pieces of bread
Ike a club sandwich.

This but can I also add Heartbeat to the list.

Even now my nan insists on watching them in the daytime on ITV3 and just walking into her living room and hearing the theme tune being sung by Nick Berry almost gives me a fit of the vapours.

I'm a 60s baby so most of my childhood memories are in the 70s/80s

I'm guessing you've read the famous five books. 🤣🤣🤣I was born 78 we had quite a lot of freedom but not that much.

Getting 1/9d pocket money and being able to buy seven packets of crisps with it.

All with those little blue twists of salt in them.

Watching Neighbours at 5:30 and then turning over back on the dot of 6pm for Home and Away. Because one half hour Australian soap opera just wasn't enough.

Not far off. Not everybody spent the seventies eating Findus pancakes and living in a town.