General Chat

Need a Smile... If you're not smiling by the end of this, then what were you doing when you were young? Just for a minute, forget everything stressful and read this............... Close your eyes and go back in time... Before the Internet... Before semi-automatics, joyriders and crack.... Before SEGA or Super Nintendo... Way back........ I'm talking about Hide and Seek in the park. The corner shop. Hopscotch. Butterscotch. Skipping. Handstands. Football with an old can. Fingerbob. Beano, Dandy, Buster, Twinkle and Dennis the menace. Roly Poly. Hula Hoops, jumping the stream, building dams. The smell of the sun and fresh cut grass. Bazooka Joe bubble gum. An ice cream cone on a warm summer night from the van that plays a tune Chocolate or vanilla or strawberry or maybe Neapolitan or perhaps a screwball. Wait...... Watching Saturday morning cartoons, short commercials or the flicks. Childrens Film Foundation, The Double Deckers, Red Hand Gang, The Tomorrow People, Tiswas or Swapshop?, and 'Why Don't You'? - or staying up for Doctor Who. When around the corner seemed far away and going into town seemed like going somewhere. Earwigs, wasps, stinging nettles and bee stings. White dog shit. Sticky fingers. Playing Marbles. Ball bearings. Big 'uns and Little 'uns. Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, and Zorro. Climbing trees. Building igloos out of snow banks. Walking to school, no matter what the weather. Running till you were out of breath, laughing so hard that your stomach hurt. Jumping on the bed. Pillow fights. Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles. Being tired from playing....remember that? The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team. Water balloons were the ultimate weapon. Football cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle. Choppers and Grifters. Eating raw jelly. Orange squash ice pops. Remember when... There were two types of trainers - girls and boys, and Dunlop Green Flash - and the only time you wore them at school was for P.E. You knew everyone in your street - and so did your parents. It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends. You didn't sleep a wink on Christmas eve. When nobody owned a pure-bred dog. When 25p was decent pocket money Curly Whirlys. Space Dust. Toffo's. Top Trumps. When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny. When nearly everyone's mum was at home when the kids got there. When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him or use him to carry groceries and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it. When being sent to the head's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home. Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs etc. Parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! and some of us are still afraid of them. Didn't that feel good? Just to go back and say, Yeah, I remember that! Remember when.... Decisions were made by going " Ip Dip Dog Shit " "Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest. Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in "Monopoly". The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was germs. And the worst thing in your day was having to sit next to one. It was unbelievable that 'British Bulldog 123' wasn't an Olympic event. Having a weapon in school, meant being caught with a catapult. Nobody was prettier than Mum. Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better. Taking drugs meant orange-flavoured chewable aspirin. Ice cream was considered a basic food group. Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true. Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors. If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED.

Michelle You didn't mention Jamboree Bags! So much promise on the outside, so much disappointment on the inside! :-)

Omg the good old days that was fun to read I remember the white dog poo (Poodles s---) ha! ha! and telling people it was white chalk LOL. Debs.

Debs....as long as you didn't try to draw with it, then that's ok!

I think I might on be fooled once I hate to admit it though LOL Debs.

I spent hours on my space hopper - it was orange with a big cheesy grin on the front and two ears like carrots for the handles. I think I must have been poor - I remember tying a tennis ball into the leg of my mum's tights and swinging it to and fro as I stood against a wall singing some ditty or another. And what about those horrendous 'clackers' .... two wooden balls on a string that you would 'clack' together getting faster and faster and then didn't know what to do as it would hurt like hell if you stopped swinging them!

Thanks Michelle, you've just reminded me how old I'm getting! Maggy

Blimey Michelle (and the rest of us!) - you ain't half showing your age, girl. But yeah - I remember those things so well! Glenys x Ooops - forgot the Black Jack lollipops, tho' they'd now be called Coloured Person lollipops, and staying up late in the school holidays to watch "Sunday Night At The London Palladium".

Making home-made bombs, riding motorbikes across the moat field at the age of 13, going poaching, scrumping. Bunking off school and going fishing. Climbing on the roof of Pinner telephone exchange and being told off by a policeman. Weeing in a contraceptive and throwing it as a bus queue! Putting a 303 bullet in Arthur Williams dad's vice and bashing it with a hammer so the bullet went through the side of the shed and the neighbours fence. If I saw kids doing these sort of things today I would say they were hooligans. But to me it was all part of the formative learning process. Let me reassure you, I did end up being a pillar of society!

Big smile from all those memories! What about Wagon Wheels - they seemed so big back then!

And frozen Jubblies - 4 old pence each! Sue xx

Remember watching Champion the Wonder Horse, Skippy the Kangaroo, Tom & Jerry, Mary Mungo and Midge, Wooden Tops, Magic Roundabout, Lamb Chop, Crystal Tips & Alistair (my hair always looked like Crystal's!!). The only frightening thing on telly for me was Dr Who! Those were the days when there were only 3 channels to choose from (and all the family watched the same thing!) - you had to wait for the telly programmes to start and were happy to watch the screen test card and at the end of the day you would try to watch the shrinking spot on the screen until all went blank. Taking pop bottles back to the shop and getting money back!! White mice, rainbow drops, golden humbugs, half penny sweets!!!!!!! (half pennies!) King size mars bars which you couldn't quite manage to finish without feeling sick, spanish pipes, sour pips (made your tounge sore)...... ah the memories.

eeeeeeeeh I could go on forever..... who remembers The Tommorow People? Mrs Sharples in Coronation Street? Sale of the Century when you thought it was marvellous to win a teak sideboard...... White socks with dirty grey lines up them from the skipping rope......shoulder pads and Dallas, Vesta Chow Mein with crispy noodles, fish and chips on a Friday, Spam Fritters & cabbage with lumpy mash at school, cola/pineapple cubes..... oh and who had one of those fake dog leads, remember, it was a stiffened lead with a collar on and you had to 'pretend' there was a dog attached.... the simple pleasures in life.

What about when bus fare to school was 2p? Top trumps are back - not all the good things dissappear!! Jack x

You mean to say you didn't save your bus fare and walk to school - could have called in the corner shop and got some gobstoppers or liquorice laces. I loved those bonfire toffee lollies in a foil tin.....lubbly. I've just remembered pear drops too - wonder if they still taste the same. One thing I didn't take to and that was those flying saucers - yuck, polystyrene with a bit of flavoured dust in the middle

Aaaaw, sorry Karen - it was meant to make you smile and feel youthful not left looking in the mirror for grey hairs! Anyway, you're only as old as you feel (mentally!).

Peashooters: buying peas from the pet shop, put them in your mouth and shoot, no thought of washing them first! When you were old enough you could ride a moped at 16, no helmets required, and drive a car legally as fast as it would go; no speed cameras. Fish and chips in newspaper; no worries about being poisoned by the ink. And no political correctness!

How I wish some things never went away, I remember my brother was brought home by the police, as they had found him hanging round with some bad uns, and the copper thought it best, as he was not known to them so he must be a good un being led astray....he had a good hiding from my mom, but never went near the bad uns again. Coppers used to give kids a clip round the ear, but the kids never told their parents, cause if they did they know that they would get more from home. Bev

Sledging.....I loved sledging and when we didn't have a sledge, a sheet of plastic would do (although it hurt your bum!!) My legs were chapped, my fingers were white and numb and I probably had a candle drip off the end of my nose but my cheeks were rosy and my lungs were full of fresh air. Nowadays if it forcasts snow - I just think what a pain it will be to drive to work and I hope I don't fall over in case I break my wrist......way back yonder I would have taken a long run up to a patch of ice and even dared to bob down into a 'little man'

I used to like getting a 3d bag of chips and a pickled onion to eat on the way home from the swimming baths in summer and buying a bag of hot, roasted chestnuts from a street vendor to eat on the bus home after Sunday morning walk round St James's park, where we fed the ducks. CB >|<