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?

Just wasted a couple of hours reading this thread and am now dissolving in a fug of nostalgia (born 1961). Can smell the wintertime paraffin heater in the bathroom and Dad's coal tar soap. The Laydeez and kids used Cusson's Ivory Imperial Leather (posh), with that little red and silver label in the middle which was SO tempting to pick off when wallowing in the weekly bath. We used to get into trouble for doing that - I remember my Gran was convinced removing the label would make the soap melt faster or something! .

the ball on a string connected to a plastic hoop that you twirled round your ankle and jumped over the ball. Anyone know what they were called?

Yeah, that's how I got a fractured collarbone. By doing it on gravel on concrete. It was a drag to try and get the weight moving at the right speed to jump over the string.

I had it on my right ankle. Went to jump with my left foot. Right foot went backward, I fell and I landed on my right collar bone.

Bloody toy was more trouble than it was worth imo. I declined to play with it anymore after that.

Our playground games were often bloody dangerous. That complicated game with the tied-together lengths of old knicker elastic which you stretched around your ankles and those of a friend standing opposite, and then your mates pulled the elastic into elaborate patterns around their feet (almost like cat's cradle) then tried to jump out of again to make new patterns when the elastic pinged back. Lots of material for the Minor Injuries unit there as I recall.

Sorry, just re-read the above and realised it sounds utterly insane. You had to be there. Trust me!

Lapsed the little rectangle on Imperial Leather is used downwards so that the soap doesn't slip into the bath. DH gave me this important information many years ago. He still uses it and it does work.

Oh dear, so many of these things are familiar to me! This whole thread is like 200 remembers by Richard Digance

The label on Imperial Leather soap does make the soap last longer!

Used downwards when the soap is resting in soap dish/ side of basin it forms a little pedestal which prevents soap resting in a pool of water and turning into a jellied mess.

Of course. Another reason not to pick off that label.

did anyone else's mum have boots that were just the leg part? Kind of like a vinyl sleeve but shaped for the leg...elasticated top and bottom.

Gaiters.

Yes my mum had a pair of black ones, those gaiters style things, and she had a short wig with frosted tips, and loads of glasses from Esso petrol stations

I remember elastics as we called it, and swapped scraps, still have some in a big heavy book.

I went on a tour of Mr Straws house.( a frozen in time NT property) my dad (b1951) and the other people on the tour were waxing lyrical about the spong mincing machine. They all had one in their childhood kitchens.

We had a lovely Italian neighbour, in the 60’s. One day she decided she would come and teach mum how to cook spaghetti. When she had gone home it ended up in the bin.

Kraft bright orange cheddar spread... Yum!
Butterballs for a cold, yuk
Going out to play with my brothers
Having freedom to be out without anyone worrying.
Andrews liver salts
Good times (mostly)

Anyone else remember pippadee parties?

Yes I do! The clothes were all nylon! The woman would came with a case and she had a fold up clothes rail to display the stuff on. Tupperware parties as well with the shape ball, and lazy Susan tray!

I remember my brothers getting pippadee shorts, they were must have chafed

Mum had an original Wrights Coal Tar Vaporiser; you poured a teaspoonful of coal tar liquid into the little block on top, and lit a tealight inside. It worked brilliantly for nasal congestion. She spilt a spoonful of liquid on the mantlepiece once, and it shrivelled the paint.

We called the game with elastic "Chinese Ropes.

We had Jacks and Fivestones - they were different things. Jacks were a set of metal spikes with 2 blunt ends and four ball-shaped ends plus a small, hard, bouncy ball. You scattered the jacks on the ground and had to pick them up one-handed in various patterns between bounces of the ball. Sometimes we'd combine several girls' (and it was only ever girls) Jacks to make the game more challenging. Fivestones were a set of 5 little metal cubes with rounded edges, that you would throw up into the air and catch on the back of your hand. Very difficult.

We never had that weight-on-hoop thing in the 70s. We would tie a skipping rope loosely around one ankle instead. But then our skipping by ropes had very heavy wooden handles, lollipop-shaped, with ball-bearings inside the lollipop to help the rope turn well.

I grew up in the 60s/70s and I remember just about everything people have mentioned on this thread. Does anyone else remember camphorated oil which came in a little brown bottle, the same as olive oil?
My mother also owned..... a hostess trolley!! It was used when my parents had dinner parties and at Christmas. Also, do people remember rainbow-coloured sugar?

I once had a summer holiday job at the Imperial Leather factory.

I was born in 1955 and remember a lot of these - the Corona pop man, getting our first telephone and "deep freeze" - even our first fridge. Until we got that I remember my mum putting junket out to set outside somewhere.

We had a coal fire which you could empty outside - the other side of the wall. If you opened the door from outside, the fire would blaze up. Once it happened when we were all in and it was the dustbin man. On his way back from replacing the bin he would open the door and warm his feet. He was the same man who always gave our guinea pig a carrot.

Dad used to go out somewhere on a Friday night and bring us back sweets - Mum's fun Friday night was doing the week's washing in the twin tub. Equality eh? Then, after guides, I used to go to the off licence to get pop and crisps.

I remember all of the above....... happy days! One thing that hasn’t been mentioned is the NYLON bedding! In about 1972 my mum came home with a couple of sets of bright orange and vivid purple sheets, to brighten up the bedrooms she said. What she wasn’t aware of then was how much us kids would slip and slide all over the bed and as a consequence how very real the danger of a friction burn (and with hindsight we’ve even imagined a fire!) was every time you got between the sheets. Bloody horrendous!!

We used to visit uncle Charlie & Auntie Char on a Saturday afternoon. They had a two up two down terraced house with an immaculate front parlour that had a plastic donkey cigarette dispenser - the cigs came out of its bum when you lifted the tail.
They sat in the back room piled high with papers and other stuff and Big Daddy was always on the telly. Uncle Charlie had an aviary full of canaries in the back garden. We had tea in proper cups and saucers by the coal fire

I remember having my hair put into pink foam curlers that clipped into place. Terribly uncomfortable but made nice ringlets.
My mother knitted all the woollies for the family. In winter I had to wear a balaclava to keep my neck warm to ward off colds. Very unbecoming for a young girl. She also sewed all my dresses with her treadle singer sewing machine. The same two patterns for winter and summer.
Sanitary towels were thick and had loops each end that joined to a sanitary belt. Torture. Stick on pads-best invention ever.
At Christmas there was babysham, Pony, Snowball.
I was also made to watch the Moon landings. I think I was more impressed that the telly was on in the morning. That never happened usually.
Roll your own cigarettes were popular with tobacco tins and cigarette papers. My father had a cigar on his birthday and Xmas.
I remember when I was 8 sitting outside a pub in summer having shandies made with half beer and lemonade. The barman must have put in too much beer because I felt quite tipsy!
TCP was big in our house used for cuts and disnfecting and also gargling for sore throats. Ugh! Beecham powders for colds.
We sometimes had supper of a cup of tea with milk and sugar poured over bread. It was called sop. Strangely comforting!

My grandma had those funny metal curlers. She would watch old time music hall on tv on Saturdays, with Max Wall.