Good Old Days

Heard this on the radio today and though how fresh it still sounds considering it came out in 1976.

For the best in 80's sweeties go here

This Atari system in 1980 cost £129.95 with individual games at £18.95.

This would equate to over £650 for the console and £94.75 for the individual games in todays money.

Tonight I am eating licorice comfits or as the wife calls them torpedoes.

Watching Alan Price on BBC4 the other night I noted that the backing singers were the LadyBirds, often seen on light entertainment programs in the 60/70s. They were also the resident backers on Top of the Pops, anybody else remember them?

It amazes me just how many products that we use to day seem to be around forever.

Andrews Liver salts (first sold 1894)
Atora Suet (first sold 1893)
Beecham's pills/powders (first sold in 1842)
Camp Coffee (first sold in 1885)
Echo margarine (first sold in 1939)
Lifebuoy Soap(first sold in 1895)
Milk of Magnesia (first sold in 1880)
Robin starch (first sold in 1899)
Sanatogen Wine (first sold early 1930's)

In the original Things we eat I spoke about tincture of opium in Army and Navy Paregoric. I have now found out that until last year Victory V's contained Ether.

Wrights Coal Tar soap?
Price's Night Lights?
Fire Blacking for your grate?
Red step paint?
Euthymol Toothpaste?
Izal toilet paper?
Badger hair shaving brush?
Chocolate milk delivered by the milkman?
Victory V lozenges?
A mangle?
A Washboard?
Brylcream?
Old Spice?
Brut?

I am aware that when Coca-cola first went on sale it contained actual cocaine. But today I was surprised about a sweet from my childhood.

As a child I loved Army and Navy Paregoric tablets and couldn't get enough. Today I purchased some Paynes version of the sweet only to note that the Paregoric part of the name is now dropped. The lady in the shop said that EU rules now exist that require 'medical' names for sweets or reference to them being 'herbal' have had to be dropped.

She also informed me that the original sweet was devised by the MOD for soldiers in the first world war to ensure that officers didn't lose their voices before they shouted orders to go over the top.

I looked up the word Paregoric to find that it meant camphorated tincture of opium, noted for its antidiarrheal, antitussive, and analgesic properties. So as a 'sweet' for troops in the trenches it would have helped with diarrhoea and dysentery, sore throats and other ailments.

I assume like coca-cola is cocaine less, Army and Navy tablets no longer have opium in them, but it may give me reason to why I was so addicted to them....

1. Do a cartwheel.
2. Sing into your hairbrush.
3. Walk barefoot in wet grass.
4. Play a song you like really loud, over and over.
5. Dot all your “i”’s with smiley faces.
6. Read the funnies. Throw the rest of the paper away.
7. Dunk your biscuits
8. Play a game where you make up the rules as you go along.
9. Step carefully over sidewalk cracks.
10. Change into some play clothes.
11. Try to get someone to trade you a better sandwich.
12. Eat ice cream for breakfast.
13. Kiss a frog, just in case.
14. Blow the wrapper off a straw.
15. Have someone read you a story.
16. Find some pretty stones and save them.
17. Wear your favorite shirt with you favorite pants even if they don’t match.
18. Take a running jump over a big puddle.
19. Get someone to buy you something you really don’t need.
20. Hide your vegetables under your napkin.
21. Stay up past your bedtime.
22. Eat dessert first
23. Fuss a little, and then take a nap.
24. Wear plymsoles.
25. Put way too much sugar on your cereal.
26. Make cool screeching noises every time you turn a corner.
27. Giggle a lot for no reason.
28. Give yourself a gold star for everything you do today

Today I brought myself a bag of Ginni's 'Winter Mix' boiled sweets and had mouthful after mouthful of memories. After clove, aniseed and army and navy flavours, I was confused when sucking on a yellow one to where I could remember the taste from. It then dawned on me it tasted like the old Lemon Vick tablets you could from the chemist for sore throats, I think they also did them in cherry flavour. A real blast from the past.