Childhood

[mrs_overall]

Here are some of my memories - how many of these did you experience?

1. Ice on the inside of the bedroom window in the winter
2. Piling coats on the bed to keep warm
3. Putting cardboard insoles into your shoes
4. Being grateful for one present at Christmas
5. Dentists who didn't give you an injection for a filling
6. Gobstoppers/Waggon Wheels etc were much bigger
7. Everyone over the age of 40 dressed & acted like an old person
8. Teachers could legally throw bits of chalk/blackboard dusters at your head
9. Listen With Mother
10.Vesta curry was the height of sophistication

[mikey4444]

The smell of a paraffin heater. Even now, whenever I smell that fragrance, I am taken straight back to the 1958, when I was 5 years old. It was about this time of year that Mum lit the paraffin stoves for the first time since last winter.

I also remember the wonderful smell coming from the kitchen when Mum was making Damson jam, of which we seemed to have loads. I don't think I ever tasted shop-bought jam until I was in my teens.

Spangles ! I really liked the black ones !

Also the sound that steam trains made as they whizzed past the end of our garden in North London.

[sandyRoe]

All of them except 5. Did you mean you got gas for the filling?

[sandyRoe]

No gas nor injection for fillings. They must be tough in the North East.
I can imagine a demonic Laurence Olivier style dentist asking a quivering younger Mrs O, 'Is it safe?'

[jourdain2]

All except No. 5 - we used to breathe on pennies and push them against the frost on the inside of the windows to make little peep-holes.... As a teacher in the early 70's I could still chuck chalk - the rest of the class ducked because I was a famously bad shot!

[Fusion5]

4 7 8 9.

[Mags22]

Remember all of them Mrs O, I used to wake up cold icy mornings and get my clothes in bed with me to warm them up,then dress under the covers.Also remember our school milk freezing and the tops rising out of the bottle, then the teacher would put the bottles by the stove to thaw out and by the time we got it it tasted disgusting, and I had a pocket in my knickers too ( knickers? Passion killers!) those were the days, and we are none the worse for them are we?

[gness]

Do people still get chillblains?

[Canary42]

1. Yes, and the bathroom.
2. Yes
3. No
4. Yes
5. Yes, and the old style slow drills which took ages.
6. Yes
7. 20, not 40 !
8. Yes, frequently. And spanked, even once in public walking to local recreation ground (school didn't have sports ground)
9. Yes.
10. Yes

[mikey4444]

Just thought a few more things.

No tattoo when I was a kid in the 50's and 60's, unless you were in the Navy and a chap !

No piercings AT ALL !

People were more polite.

People drove much slower.

Aunties gave you half a crown, at a drop of a hat !

Real Xmas trees, not these horrid plastic ones.

Everybody used proper fountain pens !