When I was a kid........................................................

[waterfalls]

My mum often put my hair up with elastic bands and it hurt like hell getting them out....................and awful cheap plasters that became part of your skin, could only be forced of after a long soak in the bath while painfully peeling them off with a knife.

anyone else

God this is a lovely thread. I could get totally immersed in this one.

Reading about the lack of suncream. We used to play out all day in the summer holidays when it NEVER rained. All mum used to say was 'get a bit of grease on before you go out there'.

we had a parafin heater(dad swears blind we didn't) used to melt transfers on it:o
also used to sleep in a tent in my friends front garden.

Yessss - kids could buy fags by saying 'they're for me dad.'

In winter we used to go out sledging till well after dark by strapping torches on the fronts of our sledges. Parents never seemed to care.

No read all of this but :
Toast on the fire in the power cuts
'How we Used to Live' on schools TV
10p mix from the shop
Penny Arrow bars
All those ladybirds in the very hot summer of 70 something

I Loved the smell when the paraffin heater was lit.

Oh and of course the adverts ..

"bom bom bom bom Esso blue!"

2shoes - Waggoners Walk - OMG I can see my mum now.... standing in the kitchen on a Monday morning doing the washing in the twintub listening to WW. We had to move the kitchen table so she could pull the twin tub out from under the counter top and she'd let me pull the wet washing from the washer into the spinner with big wooden tongs.

Oh Whizzzz - the summer of the ladybirds. How weird and surreal was that?? How come nobody else I mention it to remembers?

And penny arrow bars!! I'd forgotten them.

do you remeber when you could buy ex jue box singles? dh and I were talking about it the other day.
and listening to the charts on a sunday night.
and parents listening to sing something simple.
also there was a radio show with a boy called jimmy on it(think he was about 50!)

I remember the ladybirds. Was it '76? I know I was at infant school, on the playing field covered in the things.

Yes it was 76.

crunch, crunch, crunch.

I used to tape the charts on a Sunday on my little tape recorder but you had to be quiet while it was recording and of course mum or dad would always burst in and say "your tea's ready" halfway through something AMAZING like Yazoo or Madness or the Specials.

Was it 76? I dunno.

Single somthing simple, as years go by..... time for sunday night bath and bed. 7pm.

Yes - me& my friend at primary school collected them in a margarine tub & then she tried to keep them in by covering the tub with her skirt.....they all climbed up her skirt

The ladybird plague was in \link{http://www.guardian.co.uk/water/story/0,,1776484,00.html\1976} (big drought)

We wore long dresses to birthday parties.
Sitting up in bed with my mum and dad, watching Dallas.

2shoes, that was The Clitheroe Kid! (Little Jimmy Clitheroe)

we had a parafin heater (pink) and it smelled LOVELY,I used to get to carry it home from the shop.
then we graduated to a calor gas heater but we only were supposed to have one panel on. We had all our and used to turn it down double quick when we heard my mum or dad coming up the stairs.
Coffee made in a percolator on the top of the stove.
The Alpine pop van.
The house wsa so cold in the winter without cenrtal heating that there was ice inside the windows in the morning and we used to get dressed in the morning under the bedclothes.
Reading Jacke and Pink and Blue Jeans.
fighting for the top of the milk on your cornflakes.
blankets and bedspreads on the bed - no duvets or "continental quilts"

We had a coal stove in the corner of the kitchen and we used to get dressed down there on the icy mornings (but risked frostbite running downstairs in pyjamas!)

I'm sure winters were colder then.

Baked Alaska instead of a birthday cake (height of fashion in the late 70's where we lived)

A very weak Snowball as a special treat at Christmas (topped with a cocktail cherry)

That would make a good photo album - 70's mumsnetters in their party dresses. My mum used to make mine and I have vivid memories of the forgotten pin that pricked me as I tried on the dress. Nice and layered, gypsy style skirts or a nice tasteful patchwork with broderie anglais underneath. mmmmmm

Every summer the older kids in the village would build a dam to create a sort of swimming pool effect in the river. There was also a rope swing tied to a tree that swung out over said river. All with no parental supervision.

You went out to play and came back when your tummy rumbled.

Jackie & Blue Jeans annuals, I still have them, and in the agony aunt pages letters from 13 year olds who were worried they didn't know how to kiss!

Holidays in Millport that I wished would never end. Going to see Jaws in the cinema (that was really a hall with plastic chairs) and then walking along the beach the next day watching everyone stay away from the water!

Harpsicord - your childhood sounds the same as mine. Ice on inside of window... writing your name in it with your thumbnail.

Holly Hobby and Strawberry Shortcake too.

JanH warming your chilblains on the range
I used to wamr my knickers in there too.
the winters were colder for sure