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?

Milk of magnesia in blue bottles.

Oh yes, I remember having newspaper on the floor after it had been mopped.
And Indian brandy for period pains which was only slightly more bearable than the period pain.

Tupperware... bloody.. Tupperware

Ooooh!! RIse & Shine - we used to take sachets of that on school skiing trips so that we had something to drink in our room (we were young)

My mum was a nurse.
She had to wear a cape, one side was coloured for going on duty, the other for coming off duty.
I was always entranced by her upside down watch. And the stiff collars at the arms of her uniform. The funny starched hats.

When mum was dressed up for a night out she would wear a panty girdle, it was like cuddling a tree.

Her mascara was a solid block, she had to wet the rectangular brush to make it work.

Surprise peas anyone?

In pre central heating and double glazing days - waking up to frost patterns on the INSIDE of the windows!

Did anyone else have a gravy shaker for Bisto? That used to be my job on a Sunday, walking round the house shaking the Bisto up - followed by shaking a can of cream to go on the fruit salad. We had a bowl for dripping too, I remember the first time my Mum brought cooking oil home - it was an amazing thing - but it smelled wrong, compared to dripping :)

I still use Brasso. And an egg slicer. Both deeply satisfying.

Polyester sheets in terrifying pinks and oranges that snagged on your toenails in the dead of night, pinged off the mattress and rolled up on you so you woke up trapped.

I remember having a mangle, too, but an electric one, not the sort you had to manually wind. Then we got a twin tub, and you had to slosh the wet clothes into the spinning bit to spin and rinse and spin again.

The butcher would always give children a piece of cooked sausage (luncheon meat type stuff) when we went, and the floor was covered in sawdust.

There was an Italian grocer near where we lived (in the 70s) and I remember broccoli being very exotic! Also, we would sometimes get Nutella as a treat. There was two types in the same jar - a white side and a brown side.

I remember getting our first phone - was a trim phone - must have been about '71.
and our first telly was a bit before that.
The International was the first supermarket I experienced.
Even in the 80's our local Woolworth's had a cheese counter.

Powdered milk in a bottle. I think it was called Five Pints, and Apeel powdered orange juice.

Proper Cremola Foam. Still miss that. That was a Wednesday afternoon treat.

grandad had a wall mounted tin opener and a lovely lava lamp not the new modern ones

olive oil for your ears was a must

unfortunatly my dh still buys vesta chow mein but i do like watching it pop up in thepan

I remember the first time I had broccoli too!

Chaotica, your dad must have had an awful.lot of wax in his ears ;-D.

Soda stream machines - my friends parents had one, and I was really jealous (tho I remember the drinks it made not actually being that enjoyable, but it seemed close to magic what that machine did!).

I remember my mum going to the hairdressers to have a wash and set once and week and didn't wash it in-between. Weekly baths and just strip washes in-between.

My dad holding newspaper up against the fireplace to get the fire to draw. Also walked to school on my own when I was 5, it was about a mile as well. I remember that Rose hip syrup and National dried milk when my brother was a baby, getting it from the baby clinic. Picking out an eel from the local fishmongers while it was still alive for my dads dinner.

creamola

Krakatoa foam just isn't the same

My mum saved the wrappers from packets of butter to grease baking tins with.
Daily shopping because we had no fridge in the 60's. A cutting block of birds eye mousse in strawberry or chocolate was always a special treat
My mum used to go out to the icecream van on thursday teatime with a pyrex pudding bowl to be filled for tea.
Sadly I cant remember her ever having time to play with us

My mum wore a roll on girdle and the pointiest shoes ever. Think they were called winkle pickers. Just this week had bunion surgery and she wonders why.

I don't think broccoli was invented during my childhood, I never saw it until I was grown up & had left home

we had the giant bits of creature in the freezer....the butcher my parents used would sell you half and half....pig/lamb, and then all the little bags would have those price gun tickets on with different numbers on.

and you'd get a sheet on with the key on it....17 spare rib chops 19 pork kidneys, 23 lamb breast .....there would be hell to pay if that piece of paper went missing from the cutlery drawer

I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I got my first saturday job in a newsagents and was IN CHARGE of the price gun.

Blackjacks and fruit salads 1/4p each. Sweets on a Friday night. Cresta - it's frothy man! And Gary Glitter on TOTP - what a shame he turned out to be such a rotten one.

In the 60s a woman couldnt buy goods on hire purchase without her husbands approval or signature.
I remember after my parents seperated mum was trying to get a tv to rent. The man in shop was very condescending, said she still needed dads approval " couldn't she trace where he was living"
She saved up and bought stuff from then on. In her name alone.
She later bought a flat for us to live in. In her name alone.

My MIL fled an abusive marriage, she had to move in with her dad as her stbx ' s name was on the council house tenancy so she had no rights.

Top loading washer/spin dryer which (I think) required the soaking load to be shifted manually into another drum. It was operated by a square key with different shapes that told it what to do and I have seen the exact same model in the science museum

Girdle

Chip fat in a deep fat fryer used over and over but solidifying between times. It was also fed to the dog when he was hoarse from barking and cured him