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My short stay at Craelius working in the office I used to use a franking machine to stamp the mail. Wonder if they still use this system today?.
th
 
I remember my grandad taking some De Witts pills for stomach pains and then getting really upset when his pee turned green in colour.
 
I remember in the woodwork shop at school the glue was boiled in a pot over a gasring. We boys were never allowed to use it as we always had to take our work to the woodwork master to be glued. We never heard of glue sniffing in those days!
 
Barretts Sherbert Fountains. They were wonderful!!! When I was pregnant the first time I had a craving for these for a few weeks. They were scary if you breathed in, but you soon learned not to do that.
 
My dad trained as a cabinet-maker long before the War, and the only glue he would ever use was animal glue. He bought it in slabs from Plimmers Hardware shop on The Broadway in Perry Barr and melt it on the gas stove, stinking the house out. It's still available, and still used by 'proper' cabinet makers, and also makers and repairers of string instruments. Another excellent glue which I haven't seen for years was Cascamite.

Does anyone remember 'Mend-It' glue in tubes? Not very effective, to say the least.

G
 
Most of us could not afford Sherbert. We had to make do with Kaylie which was always on the first counter on the right at which ever Woolworths store you went into.
 
Corona pop had home delivery service run from Tyseley. You could get casual work in the school holidays going out on their lorries making deliveries and selling new accounts. If you looked older than 15 or so there were no questions asked.
 
I've noticed bikes don't seem to have mudguards anymore, have they "faded away"!?
Cycists all seem to have a muddy stripe up their backs in wet weather. My husband had an oilskin cycling cape....they definately have faded away!
rosie.
 
I remember cyclists in bright yellow capes and sowesters. Dad had galoshes. My 1st primary school teacher wore green gaiters. I remember cyclists with a basket on the front, children on the handlebars and children behind, although I heard it is illegal I have seen children on the back and being towed behind in a little 3 wheeled cart. I wonder if they still make bicycle clips and armlets? People walk around with their trousers dragging in the wet now. I only hear bicycle bells when they are riding on the pavement. ting! ting!
 
You forget to mention the absence of lights on many bicycles, especially in university areas. Apparently university students nowadays do not need them as they have particularly good night eyesight
 
I often see a bike with only one light working either front or back or they flicker and are barely visible. Do they still make tandems I wonder? Can yer ride tandem? that was an old advert I recall. Onr of my grandfather's was a cycle frame builder in Coventry, and one of my aunts was a saddle stitcher. The James Starley statue in Greyfriars Green has been vandelised.
I wonder when suspenders for men disappeared?
 
Ladies, does anyone remember painting a beauty spot with a black pencil on your face, or even buying the false ones which stuck onto your face?
 
Hi Carolina
When I was 14 I can remember many of my girl friends and me painting a beauty spot on their face with an eyebrow pencil, which in my case had to be washed off before I got home along with the lipstick. I can also remember putting soap on a kiss curl and keeping it curled up with a hairgrip until it stiffened and dried so it would stay in place all day. My parents werent happy about the pony tail which went with the 2 kiss curls either.

Louisa
 
My mum had a beauty spot false eyelashes and a hairpiece and a thing like a sausage in a hairnet which was for a French roll. One of Nan's cousins had waxed curls like Miss Lemon in Hercule Poirot. Nan used to work with a woman who had her hair plaited and curled into what Nan called earphones. One of my schoolfriend's mum wore hers in a victory roll as did some teachers which was considered old fashioned. I remember it sort of came back in as I had a girlfriend whose hair was flat around the skull then done with curlers all the way round in the 70's. She called it flicked out! Dad wore brylcreme, grandad had hair gel. I remember in the 80's girld with glitter on their faces. Now they make edible glitter I worry about little children in case they try to eat card glitter. We never had blue sweets like now as blue things were poison.
 
Used to wear false eyelashes on the top lid and paint false lashes on the bottom - a la Twiggy. Made you look like a panda. We'd buy Max Factor block, black eyeliner and a vey thin liner brush. bit of spit on the block liner, swirl the brush in it and apply, very, very slowly. Now this would often take several attempts to make it look real - yes I said real (?) - but we thought we looked gorgeous! Lashes seem to be back in vogue. Must try some, ha ha ... Viv.
 
Yes Viv, I did that too, My friend used to do a thin black socket line too.
I tried bronzing powder once, the one that came with a big fat brush, I was so orange that the people I worked with laughed and I had to wash it off!!
I had one of those pony-tails from Woolworths too.
rosie.
 
Hi Rosie. Now bronzing, oh yes. The first self tanning creams were also awful, so obviously fake. It didn't even look like a tan and was impossible to get an even spread. Just realised what you meant by the socket line. Yes I remember that too. We sometimes did it with a darker eyeshadow colour. I wonder if eye makeup has really changed all that much when you see some of the celebs wearing it today. Viv.
 
When I was a kid my Dad was a martyr to lumbago. He used to use a pink, cotton wool wadding which became warm when applied to the skin. The product had a picture of a burning brazier on the label and I think it was called Thermogene. For those with a sweet tooth, how about Lovell's Milky Lunch, a sort of soft white nougat with a chocolate coating. (Oh I wish I'd looked arfter me teeth !).
 
3 years ago I worked with one chap who wore eyeliner and hair extensions and another who went mad with the sunbed, he bleached his hair eyebrows and eyelashed too. He was known as Tango Man. I don't know if it was because it was a newspaper but it was a magnet for eccentrics.
When I was in my teens the girls at school used to wear 2 different shades on the eyelids. They had slides which they called polo mints and hair bobbles which were all banned. They were allowed one blonde streak at the front. We were not allowed to have bright coloured or crepe soles bright coloured socks or tights or non uniform coats and it was in a working class catchment area. Boys' hair was not allowed to touch their collars which was the fashion to then. If you didn't comply you got humiliated and caned or dention.
When I left school and got a job I had a Rod Stewart haircut past my collar, a big check jacket and platform shoes. My mate had his hair in a wafer thin plait, just on one side. Nico
 
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from memory john bloom went broke because he did'nt move with the times and make the automatic washing machine. i believe the twin tub idea he saw whilst on holiday in spain,where he purchased and quickly resold in uk. he then started manufacturing them for himself in uk. he did enjoy a very colourful lifestyle when thing were booming.my mother thought them wonderful. prior to that i can remember the big soak in the bath with rinso then handwash.ugh.
 
hi i used to own a butchers shop a few shop down from small heath park about 1970.my how the area has changed not all for the best. i moved to australia 1971 had more shops but now retired 1998.not to many butchers shop around now.
 
hi grumlow ;
yes i had to smile about the washing machine and because my mother bought one as well and yes it flooded the kitchen;
also a single spin dryer that walzed around the room thats the only way he moved with the times
also i think he eventualy spent a little time in the clink if my memory serves me correct
and on that note i do recall your shop the butchers as we lived a little down the rd from you
oppersite the old rootes car place and we lived at 868 coventry rd in those days
then they demolished it and built ASDA then thats when we moved out it was chasos living there directly with traffic coming and going
also i recall the other old butcher at the bottom of cove by next to the old pub by beddows ;
when he retired he died within a short time i think he died from not working and loniness ;
because as well the area had changed dramiticly as you say ;
he closed the shop down and blacked out his windows of the shop and the door but put a little note in the window saying for the older generation of his customers whom bought from himfor decades ; and i mean old generation ;
said if you want any meat put your order through the door and you can call back tomorrow to collect it
ring bell ; he used to sit on a stool by the window daily waiting for any body to call but i do not think anybody did call with notesof request ;
eventual died but it was published in the birmingham mail that he had left and donated his forty thousand pounds to the
birmingham dogs home of new cannal street b,ham ;
the other main butchers whom ran the one by the coventry rd post office ran by the brotheres whom are well known ;one died and the other retired ; and so he gave it to one of his employers by th name of graham whom worked for many years for them he ran it for a couplle of years but in the end yet again
the down fall of its population he threw the towel in and sold it ;
incidently on the name of butchers there was the smart family of butchers ; i am related to ;and of course walter smiths was another well known butchers as you are probaly aware of my school mate became a manager for them at springhill shop then the market hall of brum;
have a good day best wishes astonian;;
 
Butchers are disappearing as you say. Where I live there were 5 now there are 2. Where my parents lived there are none now.
I am related to some Birmingham butchers called Tricklebank originally from Lichfied and Burton on Trent. I am told they worked in the meat market and were excepionally tall.
On my other side of the family one was a Butcher in Malvern.
Cov had a Walter Smith in Town at one time. As far as I know there are only 2 in the City Centre now as apposed to 7 when I was a kid.
The Cov Butchers shops (allover) that I remember were/are Clews, Bells, Haywoods, Tucky, Putnams, Drage, Mr Eatwell, Butcher Boy, Cheshire and Morton, Dewhurst, Ellis, Hillers, Co-Op, Bishops,. Nan always called Putnams - Putmans! We had a friend worked at Pargettors funeral parlour he called it Pargareeters.
Cooked meat shops are also disappearing. We had Needles that Nan called Needlers, Isherwoods and Garners.
 
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