looking back to the good old days

I am not sure if it is my age. Or if me reminiscing is more down to the fact that things really were better when I was younger, as my niece likes to say “the olden days” . Like a time when you had to go to the actual shops for everything, ( with my weird body I can’t shop online and hate it anyway). Go to Woolworths and get everything, including pick n mix, trying to squeeze in as many light sweets as possible. Marshmallows we love you! Quantity not quality after all. In the days when Health and Safety wasn’t as important, so who knows  what we actually ate, part sweet, part snot (think grubby hands in the pick n mix). OMG I have grossed myself out with that.

I can remember the ice cream man coming around in his van. Playing his jingly music and the excitement of kids running to the van. Sod the cars, there was ice cream at the end of this journey. I also remember the “cool” kids buying single cigarettes for about 10-20p I mean firstly, how wrong and secondly I am sure this was extortion even in those days and at those prices. There was nothing worse than when your mam had bought choc ices, so you had to have that instead ha. Oh and who remembers screwballs, with their rock hard chewing gum ball at the end that would dye your ice cream.

The milkman came on a morning, before you were even awake and left the milk outside, sometimes with orange juice (in a milk bottle) and even eggs. In the winter you sometimes had ice cream, because it would freeze. Even the pop (Northern for fizzy drinks) man would come on his float and sell you bottles (like real glass people, that you got money back on return). Villa and Sykes, I used to love the grapefruit crush and dandelion and burdock. Then we went all cool and had a soda stream, oh the disappointment and I just generally found it strange. Your pop never seemed fizzy enough, or seemed to have the right flavour. It was either as weak as pee, or you had a sugary high for a week.

Then the tea man would come. I am very proud to say the tea man (shout out to Ringtons) still goes to my mams, I think she singlehandedly keeps them in business. I love it when I am there and he comes, I buy everything in sight, because they trick you with sweets, biscuits, cakes and gift sets. They all look so good and they make me nostalgic.

These were the days when we watched hardly any telly and when we did they were true classics like Fraggle Rock (oh I loved the Doozers, they were so cute) , Rod Hull and Emu, with Grotbags (I have an auntie who looks like her I hope she’s not reading, she isn’t green by the way) . Ok this show was a little weird looking back, but I loved it. We used to come home from school, have tea (Northern for dinner, no the wonder I live my life confused) and then watch an hour of TV, do any homework and then go out and play. Unless it was dark nights and the order might change. We played actual games like kerby, hide and seek and tiggy (Northern for tag, or UK for tag, not sure). See they really were amazing days. We didn’t need the newest of anything all the kids in the street shared toys. There was no jealousy and we were grateful for what we had. I am so happy I was born in “the olden days”.  I even get emotional when I see things from this era, I got a lump in my throat the other day when I saw a Funfax.

After writing this and reading it I do realise I sound like I actually was born in the olden days ha ha.