Odd things - do you remember your mum doing these in the 60s?

[Waltons]

Putting a drop of water on a tin can before opening it, because if an air bubble came up through the water, the can might be blown? (I think that was the reason?)

The only bottle of olive oil in the house was absolutely TINY, and labelled "Olive Oil. BP". I think it cost a fortune, and was kept in the first aid cupboard. For earaches, perhaps?

I loved Daktari with Clarence the cross eyed lion !

I used to pick the tufts of my candle wick bedspread - it had loads of bald patches on it.

Another one here who was forced encouraged to watch the moon landings. I was 5 and was told it was of 'great significance' and I would remember it in years to come. Obviously I did!

Crispbutty - I used to love that too. I also liked the Heinz vegetable salad in a tin too. I can remember having them on a Sunday during the summer in the late 60s when my mum would do salad for dinner. I was able to still buy them up until about 3 years ago in my local corner shop but then they couldn't get hold of them any more.

www.clothkits.co.uk/clothkits-c-39.html

Cloth kits are still alive

I was a few weeks old when the moon landing happened. My mum can't remember fi she watched it live or just on the news as she was in newborn baby sleep deprivation.

My mum had one of those hair dryers that looked like a shower cap and that was connected to a hose that was connected to a box that you walked around with hanging from your shoulder she also used to put that tinned polis that she'd boiled in a saucepan on my fingers when I had wit lows caused by biting my nails.....never again! Aaagggggghhhh. She also wore a whale bone corset it's a wonder she could even breath.

Mum also used Vim on the enamel bath that always went rusty on the tinned bottom when wet.

Kiss me quick squeeze me slowly hats from the seaside.

Born in the late 50's so remember most things on this thread, I recall having the orange bambi's which someone mentioned upthread well

Do people recall the asbestos plates for resting irons on, I had one in my bedroom when I was a teen , I remember the one on my mum's ironing board being quite worn!

Needs a yes but they are a shadow of their former selves. They were so distinctive and you knew people in Clothkits were PLU. I even made Cloth Kitty for my niece (who turned out to be a nephew).

Someone said their DM didn't play with them.

My DM did play card games and stuff on winter afternoons. But contraception was new, DCs weren't always particularly wanted. They were expected to amuse themselves. imv.

I have been reading some Persphone books, re published classics, some are from the 50s and 60s. The middle class always had a lady who does, cleaner, cook or both.
Life was so much gentler and slower, it makes me quite nostalgic.

I remember someone finding a length of fag ash on the top of their school milk, once the silver cap was removed, they didn't have to drink it that day!

I still don't really understand why you would care if the neighbours even noticed what time you opened your curtains!

Only in 2012 George Osborne was snooty about neighbours having their blinds down

Painting the coal. I never knew why my dad did this when we were kids. We had the downstairs rooms of a house and another family were upstairs. The coal cupboards were side by side under the stairs. My dad used to paint a line across the coal, so that he would know if "upstairs" were stealing it. I think installing a lock might have been easier.

When we finally moved to oil own house we had the luxury of a bath. We still shared the water though. Luckily I went first, but my Nan also put in dettol and washing soda into it. An overhang from cleaning our tin bath that used to hang in our garden at the old place and be full of creepy crawlies.

Yes, Larry nothing like they used to be, though I have just seen that they have re-issued the 'Lion' dungarees that I made for the DSs.

I remember being despatched to the garden to count the coalman's 20 bags as he brought each one in. At the butcher I had to say a pound and a half of steak minced and could you mince it for me. No flies on DM.

Wondering if I am actually living in a time warp.

Clothkits, tick.
Preserving pan to make my own jam, tick.
Milkman delivering glass bottles, tick. (Although they aren't that lovely long shape any more, so the cream doesn't rise up and pop the silver foil off when it's cold outside).
Mincer, tick.
Nighties, tick (but not the sparky nylon, thankfully).
Many many blankets on the bed, tick.
And shimmery stuff to throw over the tree - that would be lametta, and I'm still picking bits up from this year's tree.

Our last house had a concrete yard and a clothesline over the alley; all the neighbours' children do skipping and marbles and chalk graffiti etc. up the alley.

I remember Daktari . Skippy and Flipper too, Land Of The Giants, Lost In Space (had a crush on Will ), Casey Jones, Champion The Wonder Horse, Belle and Sebastian, Robinson Crusoe, Jesse James, Along The Riverbank (a real WTF? now), Andy Pandy - can still sing the theme tune- and The Woodentops.

All In black and white and looking at that not exhaustive list I think I must have had far too much screen time

Anyone else have outside toilet blocks at school?

Ours were in the playground in two totally unheated buildings with an unenclosed entry point at each end. It was a great adventure and a popular dare to run all the way through the boy's block and likewise for them to run through ours . Scratchy Izal toilet paper a given.

In my next school the toilets were indoors and you dried your hands on those huge roller towels that always ended up hanging down in a sodden, filthy loop. I believe they were dispensed with after at least one accidental hanging incident

battleaxe you must be the same vintage as me..

The theme tune to Belle and Sebastian was lovely. Does anyone remember the Singing Ringing Tree? Scary.

We had the toilet blocks in my infants' school, complete with tiny, infant-sized toilets.

We had unheated outside toilet blocks until 1986. They were freezing and none of the doors had locks, so they could just be barged open unless you took a friend with you to stand outside and hold it closed.

Not a memory I feel nostalgic about!

Anyone else have outside toilet blocks at school?

We still did at the first school I taught at - and they were still being used in the mid 90s with no plans I was aware of to change that - hardly exclusive to the 60s

Yes out side toilets, and the prefect handing out Izal toilet paper as you went in. You had to ask if you wanted two sheets.