Memorable stuff from your formative years

[Stonker]

One of these?
View attachment 554524
or this?
View attachment 554525

No. Much smaller. WIki has no reference to it, oddly. It woulda been about the same kinda dimensions as the Triumph Vitesse (with which he replaced it),

Lovely little car - when it was in the mood!!

 

[Joker62]

No. Much smaller. WIki has no reference to it, oddly. It woulda been about the same kinda dimensions as the Triumph Vitesse (with which he replaced it),

Lovely little car - when it was in the mood!!

Any nearer, Citroen Ami.

 

[CrabfatBILL]

Woken this morning to the sound of New London Orchestra , playing Devil's Gallop. Was taken back to sitting curled on the sofa arm lights down listening to the wireless.
As the piece ended an announcer again informed us of the orchestra and music.
But sadly, no mention of Dick Barton.

CFB

 

[Stonker]

Any nearer, Citroen Ami.
View attachment 554539

Sadly, no.

 

[Cloth bomber]

No. Much smaller. WIki has no reference to it, oddly. It woulda been about the same kinda dimensions as the Triumph Vitesse (with which he replaced it),

Lovely little car - when it was in the mood!!

The bottom one of those was the worlds biggest money pit. Citroen complexity with 1970’s/80’s French worker build quality. Wedded to a Maserati engine buried so deep you could hardly touch the block with a pencil.
A mate I worked with’s brother had one in Maidenhead. I’m not exaggerating to say it spent about 25% of the year in SGT at Taplow on the ramps.pretty but flawed.

 

[ericferret]

Queueing in the rain to call your girlfriend from the only un-vandalised phone box for a 5 mile radius whilst someone with £5 worth of 10p's was in the box....

The phone in the hangar at Long Kesh was "modified". You could jack the front off the unit set the mechanism forward so the cash dropped into a hand instead of the cash box.

Anyhow this mod has got lost in squadron changes. I arrived back at Kesh and was desparate to phone Germany. Found the phone to be jammed so in desperation took the front off and inverted the mechanism next second there were coins all over the floor. Panic!!!!!

 

[JackSofty]

There used to be a truly disgusting toothpaste that haunted much of my youth. Pink Euthymol was made by the Parke, Davis company whose UK office was on Hounslow Heath (building still there but now occupied by Eaton). My grandfather used to work there and got the toothpaste free (no idea how but can make a wild guess) thus the haunting.

I have used Euthymol for years now. Whenever anyone borrowed it, it was spat out and declared vile, ensuring that the same tightwad never borrowed it again.
Every now and then it has disappeared from the shelves as the EU banned yet another ingredient.


Sent from my karzi while losing several pounds

 

[JackSofty]

Going brambling with my oldest mate (wotcher Speck) and taking the bags of berries to 'Uncle' Ernie, older bloke who lived opposite, who baked for us the best bramble pies ever.
Feeding the neighbours' dog the results of that week's 'domestic science' lesson.
Another dog, next door to Ernie's, a vigorously affectionate staffy, guarding the end of his driveway. All of the other children were scared of him but all he did was pounce on you, pin you down by your shoulders and give ones face and neck a thorough licking.
Our Scouser English mistress, not confiscating our Spudmatic spud guns but taking the spuds off us, always with the "Wasting food while people in Africa are starving" line.
Regularly flicking ink from my fountain pen onto the left ear of the class spacker whilst my best mate did the same to his right ear.
Blowing up parts of the abandoned railway embankment with a mixture of weedkiller & sugar and setting fires and building tree houses on said embankment.
Taking cordite out of 'air bomb' fireworks and putting it into the noses of size 3 Standard rockets then shooting them through the aluminium tubes from Mum's vacuum cleaner (surprisingly accurate out to 100 yards or so). Satisfyingly explosive.
Happy days!


Sent from my karzi while losing several pounds

 

[Tedsson]

I have used Euthymol for years now. Whenever anyone borrowed it, it was spat out and declared vile, ensuring that the same tightwad never borrowed it again.
Every now and then it has disappeared from the shelves as the EU banned yet another ingredient.


Sent from my karzi while losing several pounds

The only positive thing I can say about Euthymol is that the packaging is nicely retro quaint.

Maybe it tastes better now (post EU banning of some ingredients - boric acid WTF ?????) but back in the sixties it tasted like something you would rub on your arse for a touch of the chalfonts.

 

[06FA56Paderborn]

The tops of milk bottles being attacked by blue tits to get at the cream.

 

[Border_Reiver]

The tops of milk bottles being attacked by blue tits to get at the cream.

... and frozen milk bottles on the door step with the the tops pushed off ... also Co-op ? milk tokens .

 

[adouglasmhor]

Our local tooth destroying fizzy stuff was Garvies of Milngavie

View attachment 553889

Garvies, Solripe (Dunn & Moore) and Robertson's (also possibly Struthers) ended up in a bottle return scheme to try and compete with Barrs in the 70s. All the bottles had a little Saltire embossed on the necks.

 

[adouglasmhor]

View attachment 553903

This was our weapon of teeth destruction in North east Scotland

Not Bon Accord?

 

[mush_dad]

Yes. IIRC the first Land-Rovers didn't have an inside door handle - there was a flap you stuck you arm though to use the outside handle.

Is that because all the design engineers were ex British Rail

 

[Tedsson]

Is that because all the design engineers were ex British Rail

Wow. I had forgotten all about that.

Even as a yoof it amazed me that the country that invented the railway, built most of the world's railways and prided itself in engineering could come up with something as daft as that.

My guess is that it was some sort of security thing to stop people easily opening the doors and jumping out.

Odd that when they put handles on the inside nobody ever did.

 

[beefer]

Is that because all the design engineers were ex British Rail

As were a good few of the engineers on the Spitfire project. The Supermarine factory at Eastleigh was next door to the main railway workshop and many of the apprentices were “poached”.

 

[RCT(V)]

. . . Even as a yoof it amazed me that the country that invented the railway, built most of the world's railways and prided itself in engineering could come up with something as daft as that.

My guess is that it was some sort of security thing to stop people easily opening the doors and jumping out.

Odd that when they put handles on the inside nobody ever did.

Well . . . . there was a problem with the HST Mk3 carriages, and folk "falling-out" of the doors . . . at speed . . . dying . . . .

Internal door handles had to be removed !!

HST door-opening incident from 1990s

Fighting and restraining people enough to throw them out of a train door would likely leave very specific contusion and fracture patterns.

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[Conniesdad]

No. Much smaller. WIki has no reference to it, oddly. It woulda been about the same kinda dimensions as the Triumph Vitesse (with which he replaced it),

Lovely little car - when it was in the mood!!

This one? Citroën Dyane.

 

[RedDinger]

I think these were more reliable. Grandad and Granny used to go out every Sunday on one similar.

You very rarely see sidecars now.

 

[adouglasmhor]

Having posted about nicking Mercedes mascots I now know they are called figureheads rather than mascots/badges (or hood ornaments to the Septics).

Which are again memorable things from my youth. Some cars had magnificent figureheads - the Rover Viking springs to mind.

Doing a Google search I can't help but think how many people must have been disemboweled by elaborate pointy metal figureheads ripping out their innards.

car figureheads - Google Search

I remeber a car near my school had an Armstrong Siddely which had a sphynx on it. Like this. I was always impressed.