Old Finances (back in the day)

Justamum

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

a resin set that you could make paperweights and key rings out of, and you were high as a kite after using it:rotfl: H&S wise it would never be sold as a toy these days:eek:

My sister had one of those - Plasticraft it was called. I was envious of her. I think you're right about it not being suitable these days though.

I remember the adverts for "In a Minute Cake Maker" and wanted one. It looked like magic to me, but it was probably just a mini microwave. Funnily enough I've never wanted a microwave :rotfl:

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Anyone remember clackers and how many had smashed hands or broken wrists after using them

They then brought out some safer ones - instead of string the balls were on plastic so they couldn't whack you. I never got the knack of them. Just like I never worked out how a Rubik's Cube worked - I just took it apart and put it back together!

oopsadaisydoddle

Hey GreyQueen - be thankful you don't still have that carpet cos I do!!!!

We bought DH grandma's house recently and we inherited said black carpet with luminous swirls on...unfortunately with having to install a new boiler we haven't got round to replacing that yet so my poor LO's are stuck with it for a while! It's not even fitted - just sort of sits atthe edge of the room.

Anytime anyone comes to see my new house for the first time, I always say 'welcome to the 70's!!

Most if my carpets have been here for 30 years and they're such good quality to have lasted and maybe if I leave them down long enough they'll come back into fashion!

If any of you want to reminisce about you childhood, you could always come to mine for tea!

Ida_Notion

Thinking about it, I did have another doll at one point. I called her Angelina, because that was the name on the box. I don't know how popular she was at the time, but you pressed a button on her wrist and she'd say any one of ten phrases in a mildly irritating baby voice. The one I remember was "Do you want to come to my party?" She managed to make this sound menacing as well as irritating, but her days were already numbered. During the winter my mum would put a single bar electric fire on in our room for a brief spell before we went in to bed if it got really cold, and one night she didn't notice that Angelina was resting her weary head against the front of it until she went in to turn it off again and found the room full of stinky grey smoke. I never did get to go to Angelina's party, which is probably as well since she gave me the impression it wasn't one that anybody was ever allowed to leave

I think I made a mistake opening this thread this morning. It's so addictive that there's only marginally less chance of escaping it than there is of escaping Angelina's party. So... much... to... do. Must... log... off. Will catch up later

GreyQueen

oopsadaisydoddle wrote: »

Hey GreyQueen - be thankful you don't still have that carpet cos I do!!!!

We bought DH grandma's house recently and we inherited said black carpet with luminous swirls on...unfortunately with having to install a new boiler we haven't got round to replacing that yet so my poor LO's are stuck with it for a while! It's not even fitted - just sort of sits atthe edge of the room.

Anytime anyone comes to see my new house for the first time, I always say 'welcome to the 70's!!

Most if my carpets have been here for 30 years and they're such good quality to have lasted and maybe if I leave them down long enough they'll come back into fashion!

If any of you want to reminisce about you childhood, you could always come to mine for tea!

Gordon Bennett, you poor poor people, it's long since gone from my parental home (so am I as am pushing 50.....:rotfl:). Probably in a landfill somewhere as being a pure petroleum product it'll see us all out. I HATED that wretched thing, it offended me at a deep level....:o

Anyone remember the Warwick Flyers brand of rollerskates which lasted forever because they had heel and toe pieces and an extendable metal bit which you could extend as your foot grew by using a sort-of spanner with an hexagonal hole? For some reason which escapes me, although we had 2 pairs of skates we only had one skate key and it was always getting mislaid.

My Mum and Dad probably still hear this in thier dreams; "Muuuuuummmmmm!!! Where's the skaaaate key?!"

EDIT; had clackers, too, in shocking pink. Mum still has them in her home somewhere and I tried them out as an adult and got bashed knunckes yet again..doh...some things never change.

jackieb

I had a Girls World. My sister, who was 6 years older, cut off the hair so it didn't grow anymore. I had another doll that had long hair. She cut that too. After the dolls she used to practice on me. One time when I was 10 my mum let her give me a haircut and a perm! It ended up looking like a very, very short afro - I cried for days. I was so upset I wore polo necks for weeks. A couple of days after the hair disaster, mum picked me up from school and told me we were going to Butlins on the Saturday - just mum, dad and me - no sister! Including that trip I only ever had 3 holidays as a child, so it was a big deal that I got a holiday just because I was so upset over my hair. It was during term time as well. I still can hardly look at the pictures taken then. It was also before I got my braces, so I had really goofy teeth as well. And I wore an orange kagoul!

anguk

I too lived in a weird orange and brown world, apart from the bathroom which was all purple including the purple shag pile carpet. I even had orange Brinylon sheets and bedspread!

I desperately wanted a Barbie or Sindy (my friend had one) but I had to make do with an Action Girl instead. I used to dress her up and make her dance along to the reel-to-reel tape recorder my mam gave me when they bought a new record player. I also had a Tiny Tears and every Christmas & birthday I would get hand-knitted clothes for her off my Grandma, she even had a purple & white striped poncho.

I can remember my Dad making me some stilts out of two big empty cans & string and speaking of string how many of you made a telephone out of two ski yoghurt pots & string and stood with a friend the length of the street shouting into the pot!

Oooh, I've found a picture of the exact Action Girl I had, she's even dressed in brown & orange! :rotfl:
http://collectingfriends.com/content/show_image.asp?i=869&e=.jpg&r=1

maganan

Ida_Notion wrote: »

My real passion was our roller skates. When I say 'our', I mean one pair of the old-fashioned type shared between the three of us. We'd take it in turns to have one each and kind of scoot along on one leg and skate on the other (I'm suddenly well aware of how sad this sounds, but we had fun although it probably looked even sadder ). Our favourite place to scoot/skate was down the sloping bits of subways close to the many tower blocks that surrounded us. Sometimes we'd even take turns to have two skates each while we were there :rotfl:

Yes! we did that with our shared roller skates, they were from the jumble, metal adjustable in the middle for growing, with red ?leather heel and strap over the toes

Bet someone found the skates and sold em as memorabilia:rotfl:

jetbag

Oh, I had an action girl - got her with the greenshield stamps cos we didn't have enough stamps for a barbie.
My grandad made me some wooden stilts, long wooden posts with blocks attached about 9 inches up from the bottom, I loved them.
I also loved my metal adjustable rollerskates.

During the early to mid 70s I was in primary school and my best friend lived on a local farm, I remember walking from our house to her farm on my own then we would play in the woods and fields. I cannot imagine 2 young girls (7 - 10 year olds) being allowed to do that now. I remember thinking they must be really poor because when I would stay overnight we would have cornflakes for breakfast with a tiny drip of milk then topped up with water.

anguk

jetbag wrote: »

During the early to mid 70s I was in primary school and my best friend lived on a local farm, I remember walking from our house to her farm on my own then we would play in the woods and fields. I cannot imagine 2 young girls (7 - 10 year olds) being allowed to do that now. I remember thinking they must be really poor because when I would stay overnight we would have cornflakes for breakfast with a tiny drip of milk then topped up with water.

We used to wander and play for miles too. My Dad was a policeman and he says there is no more danger to kids now than there was back then, the only difference now is it's reported in the media and people have become scared and wrap their kids up in cotton wool. He says my generation (70s/80s kids) were the last of the "free" children, now kids are escorted everywhere and rarely play in the streets like we did.

I remember one time at junior school, my dad's head appearing over the high yard wall at playtime, this was back in the day when policemen had the big tall helmets and he shouted me over and asked if I'd seen a man hanging round outside the school. I hadn't but apparently someone had reported a "suspicious" man. I can remember feeling so proud of my Dad in his uniform and telling everyone he was my Dad.

I do remember him pointing out a middle-aged man to me once and telling me that I must stay away from him and never talk to him, in hindsight I realise that he was obviously known to the police but at the time I just accepted it without question.

jackieb

Did anyone else have syrup tin stilts? My dad made me a pair.