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Yes Carolina I often whitened my pumps, and summer sandals. Oh it was a messy job too. Can you still buy Robin starch in square boxes rosie? The last time I used starch (which was a long time ago), it came in an aerosol can. Now we use fabric conditioners, would starch work anyway?
 
The last time I bought some was in a can too maggs!
"Blanco" whitener was in a solid block and we used an old shaving brush!! I didn't mind as it was one way of being messy and not getting dirty, whilst keeping in the "good books" with Mum & Nan, as I did their sandals too.
 
Rosie I can only remember it being in a bottle and you used a rag to put on your pumps or as the posh say plimsolls.
 
Not only plimsolls but miltary webbing required 'blanco'. In the fire service blanco was substituted by boot polish!!
 
Thanks Jayell - I remember it now and something called malt extract - why has something called Fenning's Fever Mixture popped into my mind - perhaps my mind is wandering tonight.
oldmohawk...:peaceful:
 
I do know that there are some products similar to these today but I would not know if they are the same. 
 

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Now you have jogged my memory and I seem to remember something about a bottle with steam in it and as the steam evaporated it cause a sort of vacuum and did the business with the boil. Oh god don't.
 
One children's medicine I don't think has been mentioned was something called Parish's Chemical Food. Now that was grim!!! I liked to Ministry of Food concentrated orange but I was too old to qualify but did get the chance of some when visiting relatives or friends who were able to obtain the drink.

Old cures? Plenty here. :rolleyes:

https://www.badsey.net/past/cures.htm
 
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For years I used to make up a cleaner/degreaser by putting about half a cup of cloudy ammonia in a spray bottle, adding a little bit of fairy liquid then topping it up with water. It was commonly used in the TV trade to clean up TV cabinets that were covered in nicotine stains etc, and worked great on car windscreens.

Cant seem to get cloudy ammonia anywhere now though, and it doesnt works half as well with the clear stuff. It smells the same, so what was the difference I wonder.
 
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I must say we did not get many sweets when I was a child but there was usually an apple and an orange every week.
 
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I wonder if we have any lady members who are old enough to have used this product. I remember my sister putting building sand into a dish of water and using the coloured liquid. The funny bit was when mom tried to make a line down the back so it looked as though they were stockings
 
Not heard of the sand recipe Stitcher, but my mum used eyebrow pencil to make the lines. All I can say is it must have required a very steady hand whatever the method! Viv.
 
How nice to be able to see that about half of those products have survived in some form over the years. What on earth was 'gas proof' Mazawattee Tea? The mind boggles. The only thing I could think of was maybe something to do with the war and bombing maybe? Viv.
 
viv
The other mazawattee tea is marked "emergency pack" and the labels on a number of the other packs do look like "utility labels, as used in the war. Also it says hermetically sealed, so thta presumably was to prevent the gas getting to it. I suppose any gas might have been absorbed and thus make it unusable. Perhaps that particular pack was for army use
 
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Hello again Viv, I can't find any reference to the 'GAS PROOF' but here is an advert for the tea. The two were one sheet but a little large so I split it.
 
Well, 'Better by far drink one cup of really fine Tea than a gallon of common'. Wonder which ones were 'common' in their opinion - probably all the others on the market! No wonder they made it gas proof to protect it then. It does seem to illustrate the way in which teas, coffees and cocoa/chocolate developed all sorts of blends and flavours, hence all the specialist shops. Didn't know that Brooke Bond once made coffee too. Ridgway's Tea is still around under the Typhoo umbrella, although they still keep the Ridgway's specialist tea brand. I suppose we've gone back to this with our beverages When can you nowadays go into a coffee shop and order just 'a coffee please'? Viv.
 
Pan Yan pickle. That brings back memories of Sunday afternoon teatime. Sandwiches maybe with leftover Sunday joint, or cheese and Pan Yan. Another memory, leftover beef sandwiches with dripping. Loved the brown jellyfied bits. Mmmmmm. Viv.
 
The Capt Kettle Sauce in the picture posted by Stitcher jogged my memory. When my uncles had their junk shop in Berners St, I found a large collection of magazines, they were really large, think they were called "Pearsons Magazine" or something like that, and there was a serial story in each one featuring Capt Kettle. Happy days.

Barrie.
 
I think perhaps the oblong brown box was for soaps - Yardleys. Think they're still around, although not 100% sure. A good incentive: in return for your old packaging, you were rewarded with National Savings Stamps. Remember those, you'd buy them at the Post Office and they were stuck into a (grey ?) book. Viv.
 
Oooogh Cod liver oil!!! Nan used to keep it in the pantry cupboard. I remember her bottle had a blue label with 3 fishes on, and the cap was rusty. I take it now for arthritis but only the capsules.
rosie.
 
I live in the Cambridge, village of Girton where the Chivers factory was, (long bought out by Cadbury/Scheppes), now by some American name. My wife's family worked there for some 4 generations, all that remains of the old factory and rail station is a church and the guided bus way.
paul
 
I think Viv means a different one Jayell, they were very small books, you bought stamps and stuck them in, and when they were full, you cashed them in.
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