Isn’t it funny how a particular image from your childhood can trigger lots of memories you had completely forgotten about. Once the nostalgia creeps in, we can have a good laugh with our family and friends about what we wore, who we had a crush on and what our favourite sweets were. Oh no, I’ve just remembered my nightmare fake tan, where I looked like I’d had gravy poured all over me, unevenly!
Take a look at these snaps from our favourite decades and daydream that you’re right back there!
1 Canteen Of Cutlery
Although this seems rather grand, it was quite the norm for most families to own a canteen of cutlery, kept in the sideboard and brought out on special occasions, in my mum’s case. Besides Christmas, the wooden case with silver plated knives, forks and spoons made an appearance when we had my auntie and uncle and cousins visiting from Scotland. My auntie was quite posh so mum made sure the table was set perfectly. This was a million miles away from the usual mealtimes when odd cutlery adorned the plastic tablecloth.
My auntie was quite posh so mum made sure the table was set perfectly. This was a million miles away from the usual mealtimes when odd cutlery adorned the plastic tablecloth. When our guests had left, my sister’s job was to dry the cutlery and I would put it back neatly in its case. I was very young but I liked doing that.
2 Look In
This was the first proper magazine I bought with my pocket money. I would get very excited when I saw the new weekly issue in the newsagents. The covers really appealed to kids, especially when they featured artwork of popular Pop and TV Stars. I would read every bit of it, do the crossword and look over the TV listings for the following week, planning my viewing.
3 Pebble Mill At One
Live from the foyer of the BBC’s Pebble Mills studios in Birmingham, this 45 minute lunchtime chat show was quite revolutionary in that it was the first daytime show of its kind and holds a lot of fond memories for many of us. For me, I would rush home from school for my lunch and watch it. I only saw the first half hour as I had to run back for my lessons.
Star presenters over the years included “Mastermind” host, Magnus Magnusson, newscaster Jan Leeming and popular tv faces Gloria Hunniford and Alan Titchmarsh. The beauty of having a sick day from school meant I could watch it right through. This was following by school programmes and then closedown!! until late afternoon, early evening. I’m showing my age now!
4 Ice Cream Wafer Sandwich
Ooh, I could just eat one of these now! The ice cream oozed out of the side and we had to catch it before it melted. I can vividly remember getting the creamy vanilla ice cream, surrounded by a crisp wafer biscuit on either side, during the interval at the cinema, in the early 70s. It made an exciting change to an ice cream cone – well, it did if you were very young like me.
I still enjoy an ice cream sandwich, although it’s usually a home made version as the nearest equivalent at the supermarket would be another delicious treat, the choc ice.
5 Weighing Machine
I can remember there was one of these contraptions by the ladies’ powder room in the Co-operative Department store in our city centre. As a child, I had no idea why anyone would want to weigh themselves but my mum insisted on doing this on our weekly trip into town.
It cost only a few pence to get weighed and there was always a small queue. To get our money’s worth, my mum would go on the scales and then my sister would jump on before she had got off so two for the price of one.
6 Cough Candy
My grandma always used to ask me to get her weekly cough candy from the sweet shop and I used the change to buy some chews, fruit salads or blackjacks. I’m not sure if it was an actual cough remedy but it was worth a try as the candy was delicious.
Just seeing the various glass jars of sweets and candies in the sweet shop, all waiting to be weighed out in either 2 ounces or a quarter and put into a white paper bag, was thrilling in itself.
7 Clarks Foot Measurer
Hi-tech measurer so our school shoes would fit perfectly! It was made out to be imperative to get our feet measured for length and width or, otherwise, our feet would be deformed for life. I loved the smell of leather in the shoe shop and the excitement of seeing inside the green shoe boxes. Which shoes would I be going home with?
I was desperate for shoes with a decent sized heel and platform sole. I would be prepared to lie about the comfort of the footwear if I really liked them but the assistant prodding and squeezing my feet would put a stop to that!
8 Kays Catalogue
I spent many hours looking through the toys in the catalogue and, when I got older, studied the fashion pages, wondering how I could afford stuff with my pocket money.
I knew almost every page on the catalogue. I would turn the top corner of the glossy paper over and keep going back to it, thinking should I get it or not. To be honest, I would look at the same items so many times that I got fed up of them, without making the actual purchase.
