Starch and other forgotten stuff

looksee · 16-12-2013 1:57pm

I did eventually find some spray starch that did the job - in the supermarket, but like with cornflour and pearl barley, they had it filed somewhere a bit strange.

Animord · 17-12-2013 12:50pm

Hello.

No idea whether these people sell on line at all, but I saw this yesterday and lo and behold, saw this thread today.

Almost like it was my destiny to end up on an Oulwan's thread about laundry.

And in the spirit of the thread, I remember when we got an electric wringer. It was part of a fancy new-fangled top-loading machine.

We were the talk of the town!:pac:

ladhrann · 18-12-2013 4:28am

Animord wrote: »

Hello.

No idea whether these people sell on line at all, but I saw this yesterday and lo and behold, saw this thread today.

If you can't clean it with vinegar or breadsoda then you can't clean it.

annieobrien, Dri-Pak Ltd are apparently the ony makers of soap flakes, their stockist in Ireland is Superquinn.

bonzodog2 · 18-12-2013 1:40pm

Rubecula wrote: »

Did any of you collect the picture cards inside the packets of tea? I am not sure which tea it was (Seem to remember Mantunna Tea) but when ever mum bought some I was the first to the packet and had a good root through for the picture cards.

I collected these from Brooke Bond PG Tips tea (remember the TV ads with the chimps?) Filled several collection books with cards of trees, butterflies and can't remember what else.

Packets of crisps that came unsalted, with salt in a little bit of blue paper for you to add yourself. Before the days of cheese & onion. Smiths was the brandname.

Virol (a kind of vitamin supplement for small kids) and Delrosa syrup(made from rosehips, Vitamin C)

deisemum · 18-12-2013 2:33pm

I loved Delrosa

Anyone remember the packets of bright pink popcorn 3p a bag?

Teagwee · 19-12-2013 1:14pm

annieoburns wrote: »

. I am always on look out for dry handwash powder (Dreft?) but seems to have vanished tho did see some version on a holiday trip. Holiday trips are down to carryon luggage and liquid stuff that is about is no use.

I make my own washing powder, which involves grated soap, borax and washing soda. I will never go back to the bought stuff now. If you just want soap flakes, grate a bar of your favourite soap and take it with you

Animord · 19-12-2013 1:21pm

Nothing to do with soap at all... but Callard and Bowser (sp?) butterscotch? Why did that go away? I have idly searched for it for years - or something like it and Werther's original are the closest, but they are not right.

I want them back - in their expensive looking little packaging with the individually wrapped buttery sweets inside.

Bring them back!:mad:

Jellybaby1 · 19-12-2013 2:41pm

I remember Callard & Bowser brand of toffee. Is that the one where I had to borrow my dad's heaviest hammer to break it up into shards, to eat! It may still be available in those new Olde Sweet Shoppes that have popped up around the city.

ladhrann · 19-12-2013 5:13pm

Teagwee wrote: »

I make my own washing powder, which involves grated soap, borax and washing soda. I will never go back to the bought stuff now. If you just want soap flakes, grate a bar of your favourite soap and take it with you

As a matter of interest where do you get the borax?

Teagwee · 19-12-2013 5:22pm

ladhrann wrote: »

As a matter of interest where do you get the borax?

Amazon - I get it delivered to a relative in NI. Not sure if they will deliver it to ROI, but Parcelmotel is another option, if not. I get the real borax, not the substitute stuff.
Incidentally, I use vinegar as a fabric softener and also as a rinse aid in the dishwasher - I hate all the false perfume smells.

Jellybaby1 · 20-12-2013 1:38am

Help, my memory is failing me. What did we used to call Pomegranates when we were chiselers? I can't remember it. We only got them at Halloween and never saw them the rest of the year. Nowadays celebrity chefs toss the seeds over every darn thing. Can't think why, they are completely un-eatable - but they were very suckable. I remember the juice being lovely and sweet in the 'ould days but the pith was horrible. I bought one for Halloween just gone and it was totally sour, I was so disappointed. My kids had no idea what I was going on about.

maringo · 20-12-2013 2:24am

Hot bread poultice if we had any cuts that looked like they were going septic was very effective if I remember right - I have a vague memory of my mother bless her lighting papers in a bin at the bottom of the basement stairs think it was to kill mump germs from the house as my brother had it and to stop us picking it up. Maybe it worked as I never got them. Also of her making senna tea to keep us all "regular". And regular spoonfuls of cod liver oil.

Sweet candy cigarettes. Macaroon bars. Iced gems. Gobstoppers. Cleeves toffee slabs. Macaroon bars. Caramac bars. Cream soda. Jacobs rasberry creams - can nearly taste them as I type

We used to spend hours on a pomegranate around Halloween with a pin eating each little bit.

Rubecula · 20-12-2013 3:46am

deisemum wrote: »

I loved Delrosa

Anyone remember the packets of bright pink popcorn 3p a bag?

My mum overdid the Delrosa on me as a kiddy it rotted me teeth.

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

I remember Callard & Bowser brand of toffee. Is that the one where I had to borrow my dad's heaviest hammer to break it up into shards, to eat! It may still be available in those new Olde Sweet Shoppes that have popped up around the city.

Not seen slabs of toffee in years my gran used to have a silver toffee hammer

maringo wrote: »

Hot bread poultice if we had any cuts that looked like they were going septic was very effective if I remember right - I have a vague memory of my mother bless her lighting papers in a bin at the bottom of the basement stairs think it was to kill mump germs from the house as my brother had it and to stop us picking it up. Maybe it worked as I never got them. Also of her making senna tea to keep us all "regular". And regular spoonfuls of cod liver oil.

Sweet candy cigarettes. Macaroon bars. Iced gems. Gobstoppers. Cleeves toffee slabs. Macaroon bars. Caramac bars. Cream soda. Jacobs rasberry creams - can nearly taste them as I type

We used to spend hours on a pomegranate around Halloween with a pin eating each little bit.

Oh yes I remember those sweety delights. Never had pomegranites though but I did have a nibble of a few a girlfriend of mine used to get.

looksee · 20-12-2013 10:54am

Iced Gems! I loved those as a kid, my mother would be sure and get me a bag on my birthday! Thinking back they really were nothing special, a blob of rock hard icing on a tiny biscuit/cracker affair. And yes, we had a toffee hammer too, not that it saw a great deal of toffee!

Animord · 20-12-2013 11:17am

looksee wrote: »

Iced Gems! I loved those as a kid, my mother would be sure and get me a bag on my birthday! Thinking back they really were nothing special, a blob of rock hard icing on a tiny biscuit/cracker affair. And yes, we had a toffee hammer too, not that it saw a great deal of toffee!

Ooooh! Iced Gems - they'd break your teeth! I loved them at the time, but they don't seem wildly appetising now.

OldGoat · 20-12-2013 11:30am

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

What did we used to call Pomegranates when we were chiselers?

Apple something? Something apples?

I occasionally forget that Mrs Goat is Australian. I asked her this morning "What did you call pomegranets as a kid"? She gave me that FFS look and with her eyes to the heavens she replied "Pomegranets".

Wine Apples! I just remembered. We called them wineapples.

looksee · 20-12-2013 12:25pm

We called them pomegranates and got them the odd time at Christmas. Half a pomegranate and a pin to hook out the seeds...

BrensBenz · 20-12-2013 1:02pm

According to a few hundred fonts of wisdom, i.e. daytime shopping channels, all of the tasks that were accomplished with these strange, (pre-Torchy Torchy the Battery Boy) products can now be done quicker and better with a steam cleaner:

Remove creases from clothes;
Deep clean dentures;
Remove wrinkles with this portable sauna;
Revive plants, including plastic species;
Kill 99.99999999% of nine-legged, dibiddy dibbidy worms;
Renovate stonework on historic buildings;
Neutralise nuclear fall-out;
Etc.

So forget all about Robin starch and Brillo. Join the 21st century, develop a mid-Atlantic drawl and buy a steam cleaner.

23% of 4 customers agree. Steam cleaners are not available in grocery or pharmacy stores. Terms and conditions apply.

Rubecula · 20-12-2013 1:27pm

if you do that can you throw away your mop bucket, your cleaning cloths and detergent, and throw away your iron too?

While you are at it dump the kettle LOL

looksee · 20-12-2013 1:27pm

Lol, I have my daughter-in-law's steam cleaner sitting in the kitchen for me to try, to see if I really want one! And I have to report to my neighbour on the results, as she is thinking about it too!

Rubecula · 20-12-2013 1:32pm

Good luck, don't wreck the place lol

Animord · 20-12-2013 2:46pm

BrensBenz wrote: »

Renovate stonework on historic buildings;

:eek: I think National Heritage/An Taisce - whoever they are these days might have something to say about that.

I wonder if Newgrange needs a good scrub?

Jellybaby1 · 20-12-2013 10:56pm

OldGoat wrote: »

Wine Apples! I just remembered. We called them wineapples.

Wine apples, that's it. I bought one in Aldi today and it was gorgeous. They are just a novelty fruit as far as I can see. The producers must be paying all the chefs to toss them over everything!

looksee wrote: »

Lol, I have my daughter-in-law's steam cleaner sitting in the kitchen for me to try, to see if I really want one! And I have to report to my neighbour on the results, as she is thinking about it too!

I tripped over mine today. Purchased a year ago, and still in its box, never opened and still being ignored. Why do I fall for all this junk?

looksee · 20-12-2013 11:27pm

Well I just gave the steam cleaner a go, did a lovely job on the kitchen window, which was manky. I had a go at the glass splashback on the cooker, which I have tried to clean, unsuccessfully, with everything from Jif to oven cleaner to bleach, and while it was slow, it definitely moved the grease. It needs a bit more work, but I got on better than anything i have tried before.

I am not completely sold, I had a go at the cooker top, which is cleaned frequently, and only takes a few minutes with jif and a brush, and didn't make much progress at all, it seemed pointless. And I did get to a stage with the splashback where I was just moving grease around and it took longer to clean the brush than to clean the splashback. In fairness, it was really bad and it was amazing that it came clean at all.

I will give the bathroom tiles a go next. The machine worked efficiently, produced good steam pressure, slight bit of water drip but nothing significant - that was on the window when it was pointing upwards. I will report back when tests are complete :-)

maringo · 21-12-2013 12:56am

Looks like you'd be able to eat off the window panes

Have one of them steamers thingys used about twice on the tiles. Up in the attic now with all the other thingymajigs collecting dust.

BrensBenz · 21-12-2013 2:59am

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

I tripped over mine today. Purchased a year ago, and still in its box, never opened and still being ignored. Why do I fall for all this junk?

looksee wrote: »

I am not completely sold, I had a go at the cooker top, which is cleaned frequently, and only takes a few minutes with jif and a brush, and didn't make much progress at all, it seemed pointless. And I did get to a stage with the splashback where I was just moving grease around and it took longer to clean the brush than to clean the splashback. In fairness, it was really bad and it was amazing that it came clean at all.

maringo wrote: »

Have one of them steamers thingys used about twice on the tiles. Up in the attic now with all the other thingymajigs collecting dust.

But, but…..the man with the funny accent and several orange women said that your steam cleaner would solve all of your domestic woes! Yiz must be doing it wrong because there is a special filter on all shopping channels that removes exaggerated and misleading claims. Everything they say is the truth, the whole truth, etc.

Are yiz sure yiz aren’t trying to clean your surfaces with your no-nos? I know they're great for mowing your carpets but it might take longer than the 60-day money back guarantee period to clean your house with a no-no!

Just wise up, but some car batteries, drill holes in the bottoms and use that special watery stuff to clean your surfaces. It will give you spotless surfaces, with new and different colours and aromas – job done!

You might want to wear your Marigolds and those Polaroid sunglasses from the 70’s, though. I forgot mine and that may explain why this post took 7 hours to type. Also, my labrador is now doing a great impression of a dachshund.

Rubecula · 22-12-2013 2:06am

BrensBenz wrote: »

But, but…..the man with the funny accent and several orange women said that your steam cleaner would solve all of your domestic woes! Yiz must be doing it wrong because there is a special filter on all shopping channels that removes exaggerated and misleading claims. Everything they say is the truth, the whole truth, etc.

Are yiz sure yiz aren’t trying to clean your surfaces with your no-nos? I know they're great for mowing your carpets but it might take longer than the 60-day money back guarantee period to clean your house with a no-no!

Just wise up, but some car batteries, drill holes in the bottoms and use that special watery stuff to clean your surfaces. It will give you spotless surfaces, with new and different colours and aromas – job done!

You might want to wear your Marigolds and those Polaroid sunglasses from the 70’s, though. I forgot mine and that may explain why this post took 7 hours to type. Also, my labrador is now doing a great impression of a dachshund.

One of the funniest posts I have read in a long time

:D:D

enfield · 22-12-2013 8:13am

Hows about the Summer Drink? Came in a sachet and it made a cupful or orange flavoured drink. Ciderette gone also. The Titbits and Weekend magazines. All gone.

jandm · 22-12-2013 9:46am

maringo wrote: »

Hot bread poultice if we had any cuts that looked like they were going septic was very effective if I remember/quote]
One of the dogs had a swelling at the base of one of his toenails - hot bread poultice sorted the infection and saved a trip to the v-e-t.

BrensBenz · 03-01-2014 3:53pm

What about TCP liquid and its nasel-battering smell? Just a dab behind your ear and you could persuade teacher that you really needed yesterday off school. Mind you, you needed big, flappy ears and to walk into the wind or sit in a draught to prevent self-asphyxiation. On detecting the smell of TCP, people would stop you in the street and ask if you were OK. If you limped away, you would hear "such a brave little soldier".

Today, you can easily find namby-pamby, wussy wuss TCP cream but, perhaps thanks to the PC police, the availability of the real stuff seems limited.

I'm sure that the vast majority of sensible people would agree that the mandatory application, or even the threat of application of TCP liquid onto the vast majority of affected parts, preferably by merciless grannies, would eradicate the vast majority of today's trendy, made-up allergies.

Other benefits are many and self evident:

The vast majority of shelves, currently full of remedies for made-up allergies, could once again carry flagons, nay magnums of TCP liquid.
Pharmaceutical companies could then cease manufacture of those "remedies" and start investigations into the manufacture of smellier versions of TCP liquid, thereby employing millions of chemistry grads.
NASA could cease seeking alien life-forms where no man has gone before because they could find us by following the TCP smell emanating from Earth.
Steam cleaners would no longer be necessary, thereby saving vast amounts of attic and shed space.

Regards,
BrensBenz
CEO etc. of TCP

Jellybaby1 · 03-01-2014 3:58pm

Hilarious Brens! I also see you are now the self-appointed CEO of Tom Cat's P---!!!!!!!! The remedy to cure all ills!!

:D

Rubecula · 03-01-2014 10:24pm

I always felt ill AFTER gargling with TCP

Jellybaby1 · 03-01-2014 11:56pm

Not a product, but a person. Whatever happened to Girl Fridays? Probably not PC to have a Girl anything these days, so why aren't there just Fridays working in offices these days?

Speedsie · 04-01-2014 1:10pm

Lux flakes (particularly at Christmas to make 'snow') and soft green soap, though I can't recall what the soft green soap was used for!

annieoburns · 06-01-2014 10:16am

Girl Fridays became secretaries and now they are replaced by 'PA's' or personal assistants.... note gender neutral

annieoburns · 06-01-2014 10:19am

| got a very small box of boric acid in a chemist when needed for some cleaning project.

BrensBenz · 07-02-2014 3:28pm

annieoburns wrote: »

| got a very small box of boric acid in a chemist when needed for some cleaning project.

Annie, please! Try to keep up! 37 shopping channels can't be wrong. GET A STEAM-CLEANER!

My home town used to have a "wool shop". The nice lady would show you suitable (Paton or Sirdar) patterns and then tell you which colour wool you preferred. She could blind you with science - two ply; double ply, number sevens, etc. She also had a weakness for anything pastel, which might explain why I had such a hard time at school in my Mother of Mary blue knitted shorts.

Her shop was right across the road from the barber. He had a special plank that he put across the arms of the leather chair for his mini-sized victims I mean clients to sit on. If you were good (or extremely ungood), he would give you a stick of barley sugar. "Better than chloroform", he said, winking at me mammy!

Then, obeying no calendar or sequence known to Man, marble season would arrive. Us experienced marblers had stock from last season but the little lads had to buy their first bag of six marbles from the toyshop.
My nasty aunt stole all of my marbles, even the white ones, to fill a bottle which she had made into a lamp. But I still have my "fifty-timer steelers" (ball bearings from CIE bus wheels). Nothing like a fifty-timer to stretch the pockets in your woolley shorts.

looksee · 07-02-2014 5:10pm

Ah yes, the total randomness with which marbles, whip-and-top (now now!), skipping, hopscotch, cats-cradle etc came round. I think most of them (apart from marbles) were girls' games BrensBenz so you wouldn't have been expected to acknowledge their existence :-)

Jellybaby1 · 07-02-2014 5:46pm

God Brens, you're such a girl!!?

The bold boys wouldn't let me play marbles. :mad: They were just afraid I'd beat them.

Anyway, I do believe a lot of games 'appeared' around the same time of the year that the sun also appeared. For instance, the sun shone over my house all morning, and you just wouldn't beeleeeeev how much spring cleaning I got done today! The house is allllll shiney now and I am quite pleased with myself!

Now I know housework cannot be compared to a good old game of hop-scotch or marbles, but 'twill do for now.

looksee · 07-02-2014 6:12pm

Oh JB, that is sooooo satisfying. Don't suppose you would like to come and give mine a bit of a polish would you?

Jellybaby1 · 07-02-2014 6:16pm

looksee wrote: »

Oh JB, that is sooooo satisfying. Don't suppose you would like to come and give mine a bit of a polish would you?

Polish doesn't work on tents,

looksee · 07-02-2014 7:03pm

Hmph. OG I'm being got at! (and anyway the poles would look better with a bit of polish. Bit of an international theme going here...)

Jellybaby1 · 07-02-2014 10:04pm

looksee wrote: »

Hmph. OG I'm being got at! (and anyway the poles would look better with a bit of polish. Bit of an international theme going here...)

Them's need varnish!

bonzodog2 · 15-03-2014 6:49pm

Eiderdowns, Paraffin heaters and ice on the inside of the window. Jack Frost!

OldGoat · 18-03-2014 12:51pm

I miss seeing long streamers of bus roll paper blowing down the street.

ttenneb · 18-03-2014 1:46pm

One of the earlier posts mentioned Mercurochrome. I remember it well. It was an antiseptic used for, among other things, impetigo, which seemed to affect the mouth. The product left a purple stain around the mouth. Kids used to get chilblains in those days too. Haven't heard of it in a long time.

Carbolic soap was in most households. Someone else mentioned poultices. I remember moistened bread mixed with soap was a home remedy for poultices.

Long before Nescafe appeared most households had a bottle of Irel coffee. It was vile stuff. A spoonful mixed with a bit of sugar (sold in stiff grey paper bags - almost like cardboard) and some milk was how it was made.

Short trousers were worn by boys up to the age of 14 or 15. No such thing as jeans. And shoes were made from leather. My dad had all the gear for mending shoes. He had a last with individual cast iron "feet" which fit into a fixed mounted base unit. Both my brother's and my shoes, having had new soles fitted were finished off with a dozen or more studs which produced a great clatter, similar to a soldier's boots.

The first car we had was a Hillman Minx which needed a starting handle. For those too young to know what that was, it was a long metal circular bar with a double bend inserted under the radiator and given a sharp turn or two to turn over the engine. No such thing as an electric starter.

Broken biscuits? Biscuits were displayed in groceries in metal boxes with a glass lid. The grocer would collect any broken biscuits and sell them at a discount. They'd probably all been handled by just a few dozen people previously. Hygiene?

looksee · 18-03-2014 3:50pm

That grey cardboardy paper is only seen in school art departments now, but it is still called sugar paper. In my youth (ie when I was about 15) I worked in one of the first self-service shops in the area. Supplies would come to the back door of the shop including sugar in 1cwt sacks. We had to measure out the sugar in 2lb quantities into the blue rough-paper bags that ttenneb mentions (blue/grey! They started out blue but the colour faded very quickly). It was a horrible job, the sugar would get into your cuffs and shoes, and the smell of bulk sugar like that is horrible, it smells kind of dirty. One day I was bagging sugar with another assistant and we had bagged several hundredweight (that's the cwt I mentioned, keep up at the back there) and at the end of it she realised that the large opal (she said it was an opal!) that had been in the ring she was wearing had vanished. Some of the bags had already gone into the shop and we looked at the stack of bags of sugar and ...well hopefully the stone was found by someone in their tea at some stage rather than them breaking a tooth on it!

ttenneb · 18-03-2014 9:44pm

The mention of self-service shops sounds almost quaint. Am I right in thinking one of the chains of shops was called Liptons? As well as sugar being sold in plain paper bags (no advertising on bags then) butter was sold from a great big slab - the grocer slicing it up to your requirements with a big pair of flat wooden spatulas. I think tea was also sold loose. Yes, I remember most grocers had a tea chest full of the stuff. In fact most food items were dispensed by the grocer. Cheese, rashers were cut to order. And many grocers ran a personal account, purchases being recorded in a ledger using a "copy-and-ink" or was it "copying ink" pencil. My local grocer had a permanent purple stain on his lower lip from when he'd lick the pencil to produce the required moisture.

looksee · 18-03-2014 10:05pm

I think Liptons was counter-service, I could be wrong on that, probably it went self-service at some stage, but I do not remember that happening. That was in the UK, was it in Ireland too? The shop I worked in (on Saturdays) was not all that big but it was set out like a current Spar or similar. Pretty well everything was already weighed and packed - I recall bacon and cooked meats were cut on the premises, but I think it was sold ready weighed into quarter pounds etc.

One thing that could be purchased was wine from a barrel - bring your own bottle! I was serving someone some wine one day when the Sunday School Superintendent from the Methodist church I attended at the time came in. He made his opinion of me serving wine known to me (he was not impressed!). I don't recall being particularly concerned :-) Whether I should have legally been serving wine at 15 I have no idea - I recall being set on to clean the bacon slicer too!

Jellybaby1 · 19-03-2014 1:50am

My mum used to send me on errands to the corner shop - it was called 'going for the messages'. I used to buy loose tea, and sugar, but don't remember ever buying butter, it was usually margarine we got and it used to embarrass her that we could not afford the real butter. This is the stuff of 'Open All Hours'!!

Starch and other forgotten stuff

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