We Miss

Things We kind of miss ( after discussion with the patient I was looking after last night)

Paper library cards ( the ones the little book card was slipped into)
Milkmen
Yellow ice cream sandwiched between two wafers
Squares of Cheese and pineapple  on cocktail sticks at parties
Exploring on the local rubbish tip ( as a kid)
C B radio
Shelling peas
Cinematic first features
Smoke from everyone's chimneys
Women wearing aprons
Standing for the National Anthem
Pint glasses with handles
Valerie Singleton on Blue Peter
Ironmongers
Loose Tea in teapots
Crissy Evert ! ( before she was Lloyd)
Chester zoo in 1975
My grandmother telling stories whilst ironing
Shopping every day rather one  big shop once a week
Those tin Math sets from school ( protractors, compass, ruler etc)
Balaclavas
Land line phone calls on New Year's Eve
Robust walnut whips
Radio top twenty on Sunday evenings

We only stopped when his night sedation kicked in





108 comments:

  1. I still wear aprons. And would gladly put one on and make you some nice squares of pineapple and cheese on a cocktail stick.
    And talk about other things we miss.
    Dials for one thing. What the hell happened to dials?

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    Replies
    1. They take time... Modern people hate wasting time

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    2. Which gave me time to recall the next number. And the sound of the 'return' helped me remember too ....
      I agree, I miss dials.

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  2. No walnut whip could be robust enough to stop me eating the walnut, biting the top off and licking out the whip!!
    Good grief! that sounds interesting?

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    Replies
    1. Oh yes!me too....every Thursday when my granny bought me one!

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  3. A nasty little boy at primary school once swung me round by my balaclava...so I hit him over the head with my (bakelite!) recorder. He was always nice to me after that! Lucky I didn't kill him!

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    Replies
    1. I always remember a TWO RONNIES joke
      Something about being " picked up by the fuzz'"

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  4. I miss having a manual choke on a car. I used to like being in full control of the car engine on a cold frosty morning.

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    Replies
    1. Those were the days when, if you bought a second-hand car, the first thing people asked was, "Does it start?" I would miss electronic ignition and engine-management.

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    2. I take your point but I miss spluttering up the road and then giving it a bit more choke and taking off. I also miss adjusting the carburettor. Now when I look under the bonnet I don't know what anything is.

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  5. I used to love walnuts whips until helping provide personal care to a rather obese guy whose penis looked exactly like a walnut whip. can't even look them in the eye now!

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  6. There are still some milkmen in this area but they don't have the proper rattly milk floats anymore. I miss the card library tickets as well - the modern electronic system has completely altered the experience of borrowing books from the library!

    One thing I remember and sort of miss, is my mum having a special shopping bag for potatoes - the greengrocer just weighed the spuds, dirt and all, and then tipped them straight into her shopping bag. No fancy plastic bags then!

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    Replies
    1. Oh yes.........the veg shopping bag...I remember it now!

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  7. Love this post! At my parents' house, we had a milk chute, too. I miss having a land line and still have two dial phones - unfortunately it is more expensive to have two cell phones than one land line anymore :(

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    Replies
    1. Ps one things don't always get better when?

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  8. I used to go to Saturday Morning Pictures at the local Odeon cinema (entry 6d) and before it started we had to stand for the national anthem. On one occasion after the anthem finished a boy shouted out Heil Hitler. The manager came on to the stage and refused to start the film unless whoever did it owned up. Eventually the boy did and he was ordered out and off he went. There is much in the whole scenario I miss.

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    Replies
    1. A cracking memory...I loved that

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    2. I remember going to local productions/dancing displays/pantos etc at our local town hall (a town hall in Scotland is different compared with England - it is a large hall with a stage and curtains mainly used for performances and concerts) and we always stood for the national anthem. I used to hope they would only sing the first verse because I could never remember all the words to the second!

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  9. I'm another apron wearer. In fact I have one I'd be happy to send you for your bottom drawer!

    I miss children wearing hand knit anything! I just knit a pair of socks for a co-worker much to the astonishment of everyone who knows us.

    I miss those Christmas and New Years phone calls. My parents used to save up for the call home to their parents and then have to book a time with the phone company to make it! People today just take cheap phone rates for granted.

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    Replies
    1. The phone was always in the draughty hall wasn't it?

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    2. The phone was in a draughty living room. An oil furnace in a Canadian winter in a house built in the 1940s is not a wonderful memory.

      Now, how about a nice, dog patterned butcher's apron for that bottom drawer?

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    3. My children where a lot of knit!

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  10. I miss being disconnected. You know , no cell phones. When you left the house no one could get a hold of you until you came home again and listened to the answering machine..... And now people freak out if they are not 'connected' every single moment of every single day...

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    Replies
    1. I don't own a cell phone; I like being unavailable!

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    2. A woman of mystery xxx

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  11. Vision On, I wasn't a very successful artist as a child

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  12. The bakers van coming to the house delivering bread that was still warm. He had a big wicker basket, no plastic bags! I still wear an apron and shell peas.

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  13. I knit, and I know chris does. I knit my spouse a balaclava a few years ago. I now knit for myself and my niece's baby.

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  14. Pretty much every day of my school life I would come home to find mum ironing and i would stand at the pointy end of the board telling her about my day. She was always telling me to stand further away or i'd get burnt. In my teenage years it was at the end of the ironing board that i called her a bitch and she slapped me across the face.

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    Replies
    1. Kylie.....your last sentence needed a personal hug me thinks
      X

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  15. Anonymous10:48 pm

    What a lovely way to help your patient pass the time. Now I'm thinking of all the things I miss and some of the things on your list are on mine as well.

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  16. Candy buttons and Pop Rocks.... and a proper playground full of delightfully hazardous things like monkey bars, see saws, and metal slides. Oh, and no one thinking a thing about it if I disappeared on the family farm all day and went swimming in the creek. We're all wrapped up in cotton wool these days.

    I have, make, and wear aprons.

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  17. I still have a landline and an apron, I'm keeping the faith but oh the top 20 getting taped on a cassette! I feel like cheese and pineapple on a cocktail stick now from the pineapple that was always covered in tin foil x

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  18. That made me laugh. But I must be old because I remember most.
    Plenty of smoke out of chimneys in our village too, Everyone too tight to use their oil.
    Rosezeeta.

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  19. Library cards! Heck, who even knows (or cares) about the dewey decimal system... I use a Kindel these days. But, I wear an apron, I knit socks and I still shell peas when I can get them fresh. I don't own an ironing board.... but Kylie was lucky his mom didn't smack him with the iron instead of a slap ;-) Of all the things mentioned... I still miss my own Mom the most....

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    Replies
    1. I shouldnt have said it but after 30 years of contemplation I think I was probably justified!

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  20. Cripes if that list isn't a rationale for raiding the drug cupboard for personal use then I don't know what is.....! Balaclavas........bloody hell!

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  21. Izal toilet paper - also useful as tracing paper
    Darning
    Men with pipes and tobacco pouches
    Rubberised corsets with clips for stockings
    Cyclists without helmets, lycra pants or day-glo jackets
    The test card on telly
    Tramps
    "Spangles"
    "Omo" washing powder

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The husband smokes a pipe (has quite the collection as well) and has a 'baccy pouch from everywhere we go on holiday.

      Delete
  22. Izal toilet paper - also useful as tracing paper
    Darning
    Men with pipes and tobacco pouches
    Rubberised corsets with clips for stockings
    Cyclists without helmets, lycra pants or day-glo jackets
    The test card on telly
    Tramps
    "Spangles"
    "Omo" washing powder

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    Replies
    1. ate my post!

      hubby has a pipe and pouch collection. Sits out on a warm evening and smoke a pipe and contemplates his navel

      Delete
  23. Changing to play clothes after school. All the fathers streaming home from work at night. The milk freezing in the bottles on the step; the little paper caps pushed high and the frozen cream right under.

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  24. Anonymous12:42 am

    I volunteer at the library, and we use paper library cards.

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  25. I miss the little library cards too. I enjoyed seeing if knew anyone that had previously read a book I chose.

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  26. OXO cleaning powder,
    solid soap,
    wringer washers,
    my mom telling stories while we washing and dried dishes,
    bobby pins,
    shining shoes for Sunday,
    using real china,
    bread and custard pudding made with left-over bread saved for two weeks,
    doctors making house calls,
    and so much more.
    Thanks for setting up the lists, John!

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  27. OXO cleaning powder,
    solid soap,
    wringer washers,
    my mom telling stories while we washing and dried dishes,
    bobby pins,
    shining shoes for Sunday,
    using real china,
    bread and custard pudding made with left-over bread saved for two weeks,
    doctors making house calls,
    and so much more.
    Thanks for setting up the lists, John!

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  28. We gain and lose as time goes by,

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  29. I loved this post, so many memories, thank you all.
    I remember the coal man delivering and Mum standing by the back door counting the bags as he tipped the coal into the coal shed.
    The Corona pop man delivered also, the bottles were returnable and had those hinged metal stoppers. I hated the Dandelion and Burdock flavour.
    The Walls ice cream man on a bicycle with ice box on the front.
    The orange lollies had no sticks, just paper wrapping.
    The rag and bone man who used to give goldfish in trade for old clothes. Those fish lasted for years swimming around a round bowl.
    Mums metal curlers that were flat and had a clip at the end. Crinkly hair.
    Monday wash day with the copper boiler in the kitchen going full steam and the hand mangle. Putting the sheets and towels on the line when it was freezing, good for them said Grandma.
    Pam in Texas.

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  30. Many memories here.

    I miss glass milk bottles with fresh milk every morning delivered to your porch as they picked up empties. That was only in town. When I stayed with my aunt I could not believe milk came that way. Ours came from a cow and we had a milk can with our name on it. After one day's milking the can was full and a truck picked up our can...to be processed and handed out in the city in those amazing glass bottles.

    I miss bicycling three miles to get a soda and biking back after drinking it, thinking that was a good thing!

    Going to the local hardware store with six to a dozen men gathered around the big wood stove all spitting their tobacco in the ash pan. I never say one man miss. The floor of the store was treated with creosote.

    I miss Granny, Uncle Ray, Mom and Dad.

    Most of all I miss the ability to see my toes...kidding, I can still see them but it's becoming more difficult to touch them.

    Fantastic post!!! Maybe you can share the things we miss with your patient some time. Tell him a farm lady from Arkansas says hello.

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  31. Oh, how I'd love to have a milkman. Two gallons per week, please, and do you carry butter? I miss the pockets and paper cards in libraries, too.

    Love,
    Janie

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  32. Walnut whips?
    I miss some of these things too. And some of them (like loose tea) still live with me.

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  33. A timely post because I was just musing this morning about how I miss the sound of an old fashioned push mower.Nobody has one these days. It used to be the sunday morning ritual, the gentle burrburr noise of the hand mowers as the dads in the street mowed the lawns before sunday roast lunch.

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  34. Oh, and I always wear me pinny in the kitchen, I would be covered in food and fat drippings if I didn't. What would I wipe my hands on if I didn't have my apron? Plus the pockets are useful for scissors, secateurs, lemons from the garden, the phone....

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  35. I think the yellow ice cream might have been Wall's. We used to get the same thing from the ice cream man; it was called a 'slider' in Edinburgh. We also used to get a slice of ice cream between one plain wafer and one that had chocolate covered nougat on it - the name for that is no longer politically correct! I also remember being sent out to get a bowl full of ice cream scoops and then putting them into red pop to make a float - delicious!

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  36. I still shell peas while wearing one of my many aprons. Love loose tea made in my mum's shiny silver chromium tea pot remember those? That's really all I wanted when she died - along with the red velour tea cozy she made - it was easier than furniture and big stuff to transport across the pond.

    Also, still love a rubber hot water bottle with a knitted cashmere cover at this time of year, just like I had as a child in Devon! Just because I live in the USA doesn't mean I'm not still a dyed in the wool Brit you know!

    Loved your list and your Followers' answers as always - what a motley crew we are!
    Mary -

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  37. Don't miss the dunny man and the outdoor loo half way down the back yard. Thank god for flushing indoor toilets.

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  38. I have two aprons; one black, one green.

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  39. You don t stand up for your national anthem?

    And..so many of these things you could still have. Why not loose tea, real china, an apron and a land line? Balaclavas, bobby pins and soap. Bet you can order ALL on Amazon, except the landline.

    lizzy gone to the beach

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  40. Remember kaylie and your finger would be orange , green or yellow for days.
    99 ice cream wafers with raspberry vinegar from the ice cream man. We never got a goldfish from the rag and bone man-mum made us get a cream stone for the front step.
    Licorice root
    Scotch toast

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  41. I miss the great music (and music videos!) from the early 80's. I was a little kid in those days, and some of my earliest memories are of staying up late on weekend nights to watch videos that would air on network tv. And when I went to friends' houses with cable, we watched early MTV, back when it actually had MUSIC!

    The Police, Duran Duran, Cyndi Lauper, The Cure, I could go on and on....watching some of those old videos on Youtube the other night filled me with nostalgia. Sigh.

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    Replies
    1. As an 80's kid as well, you are so right about the music. So much of it, rap, metal, punk, dance, etc. and so much of it great.
      I remember watching U2's "Red Rocks" concert on MTV while curled up on the couch. I discovered Siouxsie and the Banshees on MTV along with many others. They were a pioneering station, but like lots of other things, they went to shit. Kids today have no idea... :)

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  42. Anonymous6:28 am

    Bin men actually carrying the bin on their back AND returning it to the back od the house. Always whistling. They would always wave at me sat at the table.

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  43. So many brilliant memories here, the cream from the top of the milk bottle was considered a treat! Two things I don't miss though, the cold lino flooring in the bedrooms and ice on the inside of the windows in winter, no double glazing when I was young.

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  44. Oh John what a lovely trip down memory lane. I still have a pinny and the first thing that came back to me when reading this was remembering attaching a hand cranked metal grinder to the table on Monday so that we could feed left over Sunday lunch meat into it with seasoning and bread to make another meal........I loved doing that for some reason. x

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  45. Still plenty of balaclavas here in Northern Ireland - the favoured mode of dress among the local villains.

    I vividly remember people standing for the national anthem. And then more and more people refusing to stand up and refusing to listen, until the tedious custom faded away.

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  46. We didn't have a phone land line. We had to go to Betty on the corner who had the only phone in the street. It was in her hall by the front door. After making/taking calls the user would put some loose change in the receptacle nearby. Betty never wore tights or sleeves even in winter and made her own dresses.

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  47. Kali (sherbert dab ish?), Strike Cola, bus conductors, 'Seaside Special' and 'Magpie'..

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  48. oh lord, balaclavas. My mum made us wear them. My brother used to chew the front bit under the chin and make it all crunchy.

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  49. Funny what you miss after a nostalgia bombing like these comments
    It all comes flooding back
    A real trip down memory lane

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  50. I miss bangers (the firework). They were such fun, and so versatile.

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  51. I miss people being slower - everyone is in a tearing rush these days and stressed out.

    I miss playground games with skipping ropes and tennis balls. We played Chinese skipping with elastic bands joined together in a long loop. We were always active and busy in the school playground and outside the house.

    I miss my granny's silly songs such as:
    Not last night but the night before
    3 blind monkeys came to the door
    One with a pistol, one with a gun
    And one with a pancake stuck to his bum!

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    Replies
    1. I went to my grandmothers garden
      And there I found a farthing
      I gave it to my mother
      To buy a little brother
      The brother was so cross
      We put him on a hoss ( horse)
      The horse was such a dandy
      We gave it a glass of brandy
      The brandy was too strong
      We put it in a pond
      The pond was too deep
      We put it on the heap
      The heap was so high
      We put it in a pie
      The pie was too little
      We put it in the kettle
      The kettle had a spout
      And they all jumped ourIp this reminded me of poems of my own childhood

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  52. The phone being in the hall was the only reason we couldn't apply for The Golden Shot, or so my mum said.
    I DON'T miss navy blue knickers but I do miss Opal Mints.

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    Replies
    1. Now this did make me laugh x

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    2. I HATED those navy blue knickers!

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  53. Just thought of another - paraffin heaters. We had one in the bathroom and I burnt my bum on it!

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  54. Outside toilets and rickets.....

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  55. Did you have "party lines" on your phone? We had a different ring for each family, but you often got the mosey neighbors who picked up and listened in on your call!
    Also miss the card catalog at the library , where you can page through and look for books or authors...the electronic ones here make no allowances for a spelling error ....
    This post was great fun! I am SO glad not to have grown up with cell phone and electronic crap!

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    1. Oh yes...the thrill of listening to others conversations!

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  56. 8 track tapes. Favorite one was Billy Joel's 52 Street Album I was like 6 or 7.
    I really miss people actually wanting to talk to one another. Everyone's head down, staring at screens. I can be just as guilty, but what is it about information? Why can't you have dinner without someone checking their phone?? Also, if you are not on Facebook it is like you are isolated from society and I hate it. People groan at me to rejoin, but I would rather the experience be personal, not shared with 500 of your friends. Guess that makes me a curmudgeon.
    You know what I miss too? Writing letters. I use email like that, but I miss writing an actual letter. I used to have pen pals as a kid and it was awesome.
    Perhaps blogging and reading blogs and commenting is similar to pen pals. You become "friends" with people as you share your experiences and comments. That makes all of us your pen pals John. Hooray! LOL

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    Replies
    1. Fifi and all
      I didn't expect this entry to snowball as it has done...but I guess that's what blogging is all about......it's about touching a nerve

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  57. Oh I love this! I was born and raised in Southern California so it's fascinating that no matter where you grew up our memories are similar. I miss...

    The Helms Bakery Man. He delivered bread and pastries in the most wonderful old Woody with beautiful wooden drawers that opened from the back. Each pastry was wrapped in it's own white paper doily.

    I miss my father sending me tot he corner hardware store for whatever part he needed and telling the owner Jack to put it on his tab.

    My mother was our Catholic school nurse and so she walked to school with us each day. If there was someone ill or maybe a mom who had just delivered a baby she would stop in and check on them. I always loved that.

    I too miss rotary phones and am thinking about having one installed.
    I do wear aprons and cook from scratch and often feel out of sorts with this world I live in now. I think technology is great but I also think it has removed a lot of beautiful rituals from our lives. xo

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  58. And! What happened to coffee walnut whips? They were lush...

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    Replies
    1. They seem a great deal smaller nowadays

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  59. I grew up in Texas, and every year at 11 p.m. on New Year's Eve my mother's sister would call from Philadelphia (where it was already midnight in Pennsylvania) and wish us A Very Happy New Year. This was during the 1950s and it was the only "long distance" call we would receive all year long.

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  60. I miss what you have, John, caring, friendly neighbors.

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    1. They are a nice and patient bunch for sure x

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  61. I have that knitting book! Inherited it from my granny. I think I've even made one of the hats. If we received a trans-Atlantic phone call, we immediately assumed someone had died. And remember how there was a delayed of a second or so and the conversation got all muddled up?

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  62. What a lovely post John and some great reader comments too. Got to say though I had my apron on today and my son has a metal tin with compass, protractor etc :)
    Here's a few things I miss, buying uncut loaves from our local shop which were wrapped in tissue paper. We lived next door but one to the shop and my Mum would give me a little list and some cash, I had to get a quarter of Cheshire cheese (cut off a huge block) and a small white Eric's - uncut (Eric was the local baker). I'd return the empty pop bottle and get to keep the 2p :)
    Also miss, the pools lady who collected my Dad's pools coupon and money (he sometimes allowed me and my Sisters a go at the spot the ball competition).
    We also had a Freemans catalogue lady who collected everyones payments each week. My big Sister worked at Woolworths, so pick and mix featured a lot in my childhood. Ooo used to enjoy watching the wrestling on ITV on Saturday afternoons with my Dad, blimey I better stop now
    Twiggy x

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  63. Forget to mention Smiths Crisps with the blue packet of salt.
    They were the best.
    Pam in Tx.

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  64. Anonymous12:56 pm

    Ahh, memories of the Sunday Top 20 on Radio 1 - sitting there as a kid with an old tape recorder next to the radio trying to record the songs without catching the DJ bits. Back before the days of 'Now That's What I Call Music' albums....

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  65. Beetle Drives, Lucky Bags, Reckitts blue on wasp stings,home made bread,frost patterns on the inside of windows, knowing everyone in the village.memorising poetry at school, rosehip picking for a badge ,the nit nurse, sunday school trips on a chara, and dried fruit and sugar weighed out into lillte bags at the village shop. Couldn't live without t'internet now though!

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  66. Beetle Drives, Lucky Bags, Reckitts blue on wasp stings,home made bread,frost patterns on the inside of windows, knowing everyone in the village.memorising poetry at school, rosehip picking for a badge ,the nit nurse, sunday school trips on a chara, and dried fruit and sugar weighed out into lillte bags at the village shop. Couldn't live without t'internet now though!

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  67. We still have cheese and pineapple on cocktail sticks...sometimes I even add a gherkin or pickled onion on the top! Whenever there's a function at work and we all have to take a plate of food on, this is my party piece :)

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