Old Style Shopping list

bearcub

Great thread! Keep it coming! :T

anguk wrote: »

I watched a TV series a little while back, I think it was called The High Street or something like that, several families ran little shops in the high street and each week was a different decade. It was fascinating to watch but the big change came in the 50s when the grocers shop changed into a self-service supermarket, after that the butchers closed and the other shops struggled because they just couldn't compete.

It's strange kids now seem to have so much more and more opportunities yet they don't seem as content or as happy as kids even 30-40 years ago. It's as if everything has changed in one generation.

Edit: found the TV series, it was Turn Back Time - The High Street. I wish they would repeat it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00v7p71

I bought the book, which is as good as the series, and extremely thought-provoking.

I too remember sawdust on the butcher's floor, and the cashier sat in a little kiosk in the corner of the shop. Early food hygiene? Actually, that's something that's been a recent invention. Before that, you washed your hands before cooking, and before meals, and it didn't have a fancy name or a huge book of rules and regs.

In the 50s, early 60s, Mum used to send me to the greengrocer's for a bottle of 'non-brewed' vinegar - as opposed to malt - and I took the bottle with me for re-filling. We bought fresh beetroot, and other veg, that were wrapped in newspaper. As I got older, I was sometimes sent to the ironmonger's to buy a can of paraffin - hated the stuff! Also, when we called into the newsagent/sweet shop for ice cream, the 'freezer' was cooled with huge blocks of dry ice that 'steamed', and had to be pushed from side-to-side to find the appropriate box of ice creams or lollies.

Another of today's buys - anti-ageing face creams. My grandmother only ever used Ponds, and the skin on her face was clear and soft, and hardly a wrinkle when she was in her 80s! Oo, and she had a large pot of washing soda on her kitchen window sill!

I remember the syrupy orange!

Angel_Jenny

Such an interesting thread!

I was born in 1986 so wasn't alive in the 50s but find that era so fascinating. Love reading all your experiences and memories!

WeegieWumman

Mardatha, I believe that the manufacturers have ceased the production of 'twin-tubs', so we've both been saved from that particular nightmare.
JackieO The black stuff for cleaning the kitchen range was called 'Zebo' and there was also a silver concoction to brighten up the trims. My mother bought an interior grate (tiled fireplace) and a white cooker with a gas lighter on it. I was about six at the time, so I never had to clean the range.

Ches

I certainly remember liberty bodices with the little rubber buttons that used to go sticky with all the wash day boiling. Knee length socks in the winter and white ankle socks in the summer. I always had a Post Office game at Christmas with pretend stamps and small envelopes to stick them on and a grocery shop with little bottles of weird looking crystals to weigh on tiny scales. I suppose I was lucky as I had a tree house in our garden. In reality it was a very old oak tree that had split about 6' up making a platform you could stand on. Our head teacher at school (we only had 2 teachers, 1 for the infants and the head who taught the juniors) taught us about nature and we had a nature table that we used to display the seasonal things we found in the hedgerows. She also killed butterflies and moths and pinned them to a board so we could learn about them. I remember thinking this rather gruesome at the time. At the time of the coronation we made a replica orb and crown to display in the classroom and I saw the film of the actual coronation about 6 months after the event at the local cinema.I still have the book and the teaspoon we were given to mark the occasion.

Busylizzie

FrugalLina wrote: »

Things we didn't buy in the 60s (I can just about remember):

Vaccuum bags (although they are becoming rarer now)
Bin liners - never used them when I was growing up
Under the rim toilet cleaners (we just used Vim)
Avocados (mind you, I only had my first butternut squash a couple of years ago)
Wine in boxes
Eggs in boxes, we used to bring our own
Milk in cartons
Anything gluten free
Anything with peanut warnings
Labels with nutritional information on
Sell by dates were unheard of
Cigarettes with filters

Wow, haven't things changed!

When I first left school I worked in a corner shop and had to fill the egg boxes when people brought them in. Woe betide you if you dropped one!!

Busylizzie

WeegieWumman wrote: »

When you bought a television, it was delivered with two men carrying it. They plugged it in, secured the cable to the skirting board, plugged in the aerial, adjusted the picture to perfection and showed you 'how to work it'.

We had a pay as you view TV with a slot at the back :eek:. Missed a lot of programmes trying to find more coins!!
Also for a long time we had a bath but no hot water!, so mum used to boil (whistling) kettles on the hob to fill it up - well to about 4" anyway! Oh the luxury when we had a geezer installed. I still love my bath now and spend ages in it.

mardatha

My OH is asking if anybody remembers having a cigarette machine in the house? He says his mum had a box thing full of Senior Service that you had to put money in - it sat in the sideboard - this would be mid 1950s . He can also mind putting a penny in the gas meter !! then it was changed to a shilling.
I loved the toy shops and Post Office - and I once had a telephone switchboard

westcoastscot

So sad to hear twin-tubs are no longer - I really loved mine.
Mar I used to have a post office - suspect it's where my "bossiness" came from. We lived over the road from a major racecourse and used to go and collect the betting tickets that folks threw on the floor and play bookies too!!!!
We had dolls, the boys had those wee army figures that you paint?? lots of airfix models and art/craft stuff - spent more time making clothes for dolls than playing with them though. Most of my free time - such as it was - was spent outside - out of the way!
We had new clothes spring and autumn - we were lucky in one way that mum made all our clothes but she was very conservative - I never was allowed to wear black, and me and my sisters had the same fabric made up different ways - mine always had peter pan collars as I was the youngest - we had a dress and a coat to match - just to be worn to church on sundays, with a boater (hand made) to match - I once had a fantastic pink with white spots set - lovely!!!! Girls never wore trousers - I recall my sister being in 6th form at a state school and they were allowed trousers under their school tunics - she had to beg mum to allow them.
WCS

Busylizzie

tallyhoh wrote: »

I think I'm pretty frugal but writing my shopping list the other day I realised that some of the stuff I consider essential now I hadnt even heard of 30 or 40 years ago.

Examples are:

Clothes conditioner
hair conditioner
kitchen roll
shower gel
antiseptic gel
moist wipes

on the other hand I wouldnt have hesitated to pop a bottle of gin in my basket.

Any other things you can think of that we managed without quite happily?:D

This is a great idea for a thread Tallyhoh - really enjoyed reading it :T

tallyhoh

I was born in the '50's & we lived in a 2 up 2 down miners house. no bathroom & a shared loo outside. Mom & dad came from very poor families & so even our house was a luxury to them.

Food was bought every day as we had not the money or any where to store extra. Mom didnt have a fridge or washing machine until about 1985.

I remember starting work at the co-op in 1972 & being amazed at some of the food items they sold. I had never heard of tuna or coleslaw. The first time I ate pizza in 1975 I was in heaven.

In the next few weeks I am hoing to try shopping in the was my parents did. Potatoes, cabbage & mince for tea. No stuff that didnt exist in the early '60's or not at least to the ordinary working family. See if I can lose some weight & save some money.