Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now

[BanburyBlue]

It was interesting the other day that someone posted an old Travellers Fare menu, where the sandwich options were ham, chees, cheese egg etc.

 

[Trackman]

I recall dipping bits of blotting paper into the inkwell, flicking the resultant pellets from a ruler and ruining somebody's brand new shirt collar, causing him to burst into tears. I still feel guilty despite it being straight out of The Beano.

Blotting paper, there's a thing.
I had to sign a death certificate about 3 years ago at the registrar's office -
It was an ink nib pen, I didn't know at first as it scratched on the certificate, then I realised what type of pen it was, my mind had to rewind near enough back 50 years ago to remind me on how to write with it. God knows how other people went on before/after me.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Asking the butcher if he had any chitterlings.

 

[Springs Branch]

Bird's Angel Delight (Banana, butterscotch or strawberry flavours, IIRC.

In the '70s there were also Instant Whips (cue bawdy puns and other comments ), which were slightly cheaper and less sickly than Angel Delights.

At one time, the serving up of either of these was a sure sign that "summer is here" in our household - and the height of culinary sophistication until the arrival of . . . Arctic Roll.

Then when you'd eaten yourself sick . . . Kaolin & Morphine Mixture.

I shudder when I remember the taste of this over-the-counter medicine, supplied by the chemist in a large, glass bottle with a cork stopper, labelled "The Mixture". The white kaolin would settle out from the brown liquid above, requiring a good shake of the bottle before a generous spoonful was dosed out in the event of any kind of upset to the stomach or bowels.

The stuff tasted revolting and seemed to have some kind of horrible chemical smell to it. On one occasion as a small child, I remember a "barfing" accident on the living room carpet when I had avoided reporting feeling unwell to my parents because I was too scared of the prospect of the Kaolin & Morphine bottle appearing. On the other hand, I think it was quite an effective remedy - once you got past the disgusting taste, it tended to fix whatever ailed you pretty promptly.

I don't think it's generally available anymore. And casually dosing up young children with a little bit of morphine is frowned upon!

 

[Merle Haggard]

J. Collis Browne's Compound, widely advertised on the Underground - later for legal reasons (apparently) changed to ' - mixture'. The advert looked like it hadn't been changed since the days of Queen Victoria.

Allegedly could be distilled to extract one constituent, a hard drug.

 

[trebor79]

At one time, the serving up of either of these was a sure sign that "summer is here" in our household - and the height of culinary sophistication until the arrival of . . . Arctic Roll.

Then when you'd eaten yourself sick . . . Kaolin & Morphine Mixture.

I shudder when I remember the taste of this over-the-counter medicine, supplied by the chemist in a large, glass bottle with a cork stopper, labelled "The Mixture". The white kaolin would settle out from the brown liquid above, requiring a good shake of the bottle before a generous spoonful was dosed out in the event of any kind of upset to the stomach or bowels.

The stuff tasted revolting and seemed to have some kind of horrible chemical smell to it. On one occasion as a small child, I remember a "barfing" accident on the living room carpet when I had avoided reporting feeling unwell to my parents because I was too scared of the prospect of the Kaolin & Morphine bottle appearing. On the other hand, I think it was quite an effective remedy - once you got past the disgusting taste, it tended to fix whatever ailed you pretty promptly.

I don't think it's generally available anymore. And casually dosing up young children with a little bit of morphine is frowned upon!

I remember my grandmother was obsessed with giving us a dose of milk of magnesia before bed to "keep you regular". It was always in a blue bottle with encrusted contents around the top. Tasted horrible.
It was the one thing I disliked about a visit to my grandparents.

 

[MotCO]

Blackboards, written on with squeaky chalk. And wooden blackboard erasers — thrown at dreamy boys by our Latin teacher.

We must have had the same teacher

 

[Mag_seven]

It was interesting the other day that someone posted an old Travellers Fare menu, where the sandwich options were ham, chees, cheese egg etc.

Good old days! None of this avocado nonsense - plain and simple.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Distemper...the coating, not the dog ailment.

 

[GordonT]

Dubious adornments to food such as silver ball cake decorations, edible "rice paper" cake decorations, coins such as sixpences wrapped in greaseproof paper and secreted randomly within large fruit puddings for "luck" if you managed to find one in your portion without swallowing it or breaking a tooth.

 

[BanburyBlue]

At one time, the serving up of either of these was a sure sign that "summer is here" in our household - and the height of culinary sophistication until the arrival of . . . Arctic Roll.

Then when you'd eaten yourself sick . . . Kaolin & Morphine Mixture.

I shudder when I remember the taste of this over-the-counter medicine, supplied by the chemist in a large, glass bottle with a cork stopper, labelled "The Mixture". The white kaolin would settle out from the brown liquid above, requiring a good shake of the bottle before a generous spoonful was dosed out in the event of any kind of upset to the stomach or bowels.

The stuff tasted revolting and seemed to have some kind of horrible chemical smell to it. On one occasion as a small child, I remember a "barfing" accident on the living room carpet when I had avoided reporting feeling unwell to my parents because I was too scared of the prospect of the Kaolin & Morphine bottle appearing. On the other hand, I think it was quite an effective remedy - once you got past the disgusting taste, it tended to fix whatever ailed you pretty promptly.

I don't think it's generally available anymore. And casually dosing up young children with a little bit of morphine is frowned upon!

Arctic roll - superceded by Viennetta - proper posh

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Beechams Pills.

 

[D6130]

Castor Oil.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Sleeve garters.

 

[D6130]

Sock garters.

 

[Tester]

Dubious adornments to food such as silver ball cake decorations, edible "rice paper" cake decorations, coins such as sixpences wrapped in greaseproof paper and secreted randomly within large fruit puddings for "luck" if you managed to find one in your portion without swallowing it or breaking a tooth.

Bit in bold - how posh

Ours were unadorned!

 

[MotCO]

Sleeve garters.

Leather patches on teachers' jacket elbows.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Collar studs

 

[D6130]

Detachable collars.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Really big blocks of processed cheese.

 

[GordonT]

Milk of Magnesia in a blue bottle often encrusted around the rim of its top. Repulsive concoction. Various over the counter equally horrible medicinal "mixtures" often associated with parental or grandparental fixations about "keeping regular".

 

[johnnychips]

Milk of Magnesia in a blue bottle often encrusted around the rim of its top. Repulsive concoction. Various over the counter equally horrible medicinal "mixtures" often associated with parental or grandparental fixations about "keeping regular".

Delax! White, oily but didn’t taste too bad.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

When I was a mere gossoon, mixture of bread and milk known as "pobbies" locally was fed to young children.

 

[D6130]

Really big blocks of processed cheese.

Really big blocks (truckles?) of unprocessed and unpasteurised cheese, wrapped - unsurprisingly - in cheese cloth, which was repurposed in the 1970s to make shirts.

 

[GatwickDepress]

Blackboards, written on with squeaky chalk. And wooden blackboard erasers — thrown at dreamy boys by our Latin teacher.

Still hanging on in mathematics departments in universities across the country.

 

[75A]

Famel syrup.

 

[OhNoAPacer]

Getting a prescription from the doctor and tge label on the bottle from the chemist saying 'The Mixture'

 

[LYradial]

Getting a prescription from the doctor and tge label on the bottle from the chemist saying 'The Mixture'

Dentists drills driven by a foot pedal, oh, and signing a blank form at the dentist

 

[GordonT]

Polaroid products such as the (almost) instant (but low quality) photographs and the sun glasses which clipped onto normal glasses.

 

[Harvester]

Playing marbles in the school playground, and also at this time of year games of ‘conkers’ (before the latter was banned at many schools due to injury risk!).