It  took five minutes for the TV to warm  up

Nearly  everyone's Mum was at home when the kids got home from  school

Nobody  owned a thoroughbred  dog

When 3d  was a decent  allowance

You'd  reach into a muddy gutter for a  penny

Your Mother wore nylons that  came in two pieces

All  your male teachers wore ties and female teachers had  their hair done every day and wore high  heels

You  got your windscreen cleaned, oil checked, and petrol served,  without asking, all for free, every time. And you didn't pay for air. And, you got trading stamps to  boot

Washing Powder had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside  the box

It  was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner  at a real restaurant with your  parents

They  threatened to keep children back a year if they failed. . .  and they did it!

When a Ford Zephyr was everyone's dream car...

and people went  steady

No  one ever asked where the car keys were because they were  always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never  locked

Lying  on your back in the grass with your  friends
and  saying things like, 'That cloud looks like a...  '

Playing cricket  with no adults to help the children with the rules of the  game



Bottles came from the corner shop without safety caps and hermetic seals  because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect  stranger


And with all our progress, don't you wish, just once, you  could slip back in time and savour the slower pace, and share it with the children of  today.

When being sent to the head's study  was nothing compared to the fate that awaited the student at  home

Basically we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and  grandparents were a much bigger threat! But we survived  because their love was greater than the  threat.

As well as summers filled with bike rides, cricket, Hula Hoops, skate hockey and visits to the pool, and eating  lemonade powder or liquorice sticks.

Can you still remember Mr Pastry, 6.5  Special, The Army  Game , Sunday Night at the  London Palladium, Emergency Ward 10, the Lone Ranger,  Hancock's Half hour, Trigger and Sgt Bilko

How  Many Of These Do You  Remember?

Sweet cigarettes

Coca Cola  in bottles.

You're  never alone with  a Strand .

Coffee  shops with Table Side  Jukeboxes.

Blackjacks  and bubblegums.

Home  milk delivery in glass bottles with tinfoil tops.

Newsreels  before the film.

Telephone  numbers with a word  prefix...( Mayfair 3489).  Party lines.

Peashooters.....

Andy  Pandy.

Real Hi-Fi's , vinyl records & 78's

Green  Shield Stamps.

Adding Machines.

Scalextric.

Do  You  Remember a Time  When..

Decisions  were made by  going 'eeny-meeny-miney-moe'?
'Race  issue' meant arguing  about who ran the fastest? Catching tiddlers  could happily occupy an entire  day?

It  wasn't odd to have two or  three 'Best  Friends'?

The  worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex  was'chickenpox'?

Having  a Weapon in School meant being caught with a  catapault?


Saturday  morning television wasn't 30-minute commercials for  action figures?

Spinning  around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause  for giggles?
The Worst  Embarrassment was being  picked last for a team?

War  was a card game?

Cigarette cards  in the spokes transformed any bike into a  motorcycle?

Taking  drugs meant orange - flavored chewable  aspirin?

Water  balloons were the ultimate  weapon?