Lose every essence of soap/ detergent with first dunk in water, rendering them pointless.

How music made 40+ years ago still gets bought and played and is still part of the collective conciousness - in the 60s I wouldn't have dreamed of listening to anything from the 20s/30s/40s, or even much from the 50s....

I got given a box of Tunnocks tea cakes today. They are absolutely delicious.

And I expect re: the OP it is females doing their under-arms still buying those razors.

Tunnocks tea cakes! SO good.

*dribbles*

There is no worse chocolate than Hersheys, except possibly all other American chocolate. Poor quality cocoa and a fetish for sour milk flavours are the reasons why.

But I'm sure they used to have Jam in. The last few I've had have been completely Jam-free

It didn't absorb anything, just kind of spread it around.

Usually only bought by people in charge of facilities they won't have to use themselves - with the exception of my Uncle Ted.

He had two bog-roll holders, one with Izal and one with soft, above which he made little signs that said "first class" and "steerage".

I suspect he only had Izal in so he could make that little joke.

Being younger, and slightly less knowledgeable, I have no idea what Izal toilet paper is (or was). I have images of post-war school-children wiping their bottoms with sandpaper now.

.that back in the 1970s and early 1980s my dad was responsible for procurement of cleaning supplies, toiletries and other consumables for a large secondary school (and the odd supply for elsewhere in the county). Everything had to be purchased through a single local authority supplier. It meant that the choice of goods was somewhat limited to whatever was in the current catalogue.

In the case of toilet rolls the only choice from the catalogue was something very similar to Izal. It may even have been Izal under another name, as many other products were packaged in such a way to stop them turning up on the black market.

For example, the soap powder used in the school laundry went under the name of Super Deepio. It was apparently just Daz in a different and plainer box.

...but in reality the opposite is true.

As western society grows steadily more stupid and slides inexorably downmarket, so the appetite for increasingly freakish reality/celeb TV and hate-filled newspapers will only grow.

Pugil sticks for teeny tiny gladiators?

...very useful for make-up blending/removal. Also good when painting nails.

Well I keep a bundle of them in my toolbox a quick spray with some IPA and they're great for cleaning electical contacts and the like. I used to use far more when they were essential for cleaning tape heads.

when the Andrex ran out. Might be a little bit messy though!!

and more green/safe when they had those paper sticks instead.

Ditto the paper sticks on lollies. I used to suck them until the seam was loosened and then unrolled them. Must have had too much time on my hands.

to clean the heads on my tape recorder.

Who could have guessed the cotton buds would outlive the tape player?

I find cotton buds the best thing for cleaning my sprog's drinking cups: they're great for getting at those awkward nooks and crannies a washing up brush won't reach, and they're perfect for "rodding" the straw too.

Also good for cleaning the crinkly soles of shoes if you've stepped in something unpleasant.

...the Proustian rush I get from a (thankfully rare) cup of Camp Coffee is overwhelming. My old nan used to give me cups (with I suppose about ten sugars) when I was a nipper.

I thought it was the height of sophistication.

I need to buy a bottle - now.

Mellow Birds? Something I invariably associate with NHS hospitals in the 70s and 80s.

I can still remember where it sat on the shelves in the local general store 30-odd years ago - what's more I've no idea where anything else was kept. This is odd as we never bought it, although my gran supposedly had a bottle in her pantry.

Oooh! Get her! Camp yerself, sister.

The idea of a chocolate Howard Jones made me laugh.
Sounds like the sort of thing offered free in Viz.

I'm guessing you don't work in IT. Both companies have a massive presence in this sector, the consumer arm but a tiny fraction of their business. Just their patents alone...

I love salad cream - so much more tasty and satisfying than Mayo

Still popular in the building trade as a quick warmer-upper when working outside in weather like we are currently experiencing.
Beef & Tomato is OK. All other flavours are disgusting, IMO.

One jar!

If you throw it up???

I could not agree more - hooray for the plunger! Particularly, the - ahem - bog standard type with a long wooden handle.

I was helping someone move house the other day, cleaning up the old place to ensure the swift return of a full deposit. Turned out the shower was really badly blocked. Cue an escalation of drain cleaners, culminating in something that was essentially a bottle of acid that ought have come in a glass jar with a skull and cross-bones on it. None of them worked.

We then laid our hands on a plunger remarkably similar to Jed's picture above. Within moments - and after some joyful plunging that was so satisfying I don't really want to analyse why - the thing was cleared. All we had to was deal with the clumps of goo that came rocketing up into the shower.

And then, of course, there are the daleks...

Although it was Space Dust when I was a lad

When I was a student there was a fad, in the privacy of the bedroom, for "intimate fun" between friends using Space Dust.

Someone put it into chocolate and made wonka exploded bars. They were great

Bloody hell.

If I get through more than one disposable a month I think I'm being profligate.

Or do I just have soft whiskers?

How the Dickens do you successfully use those old fangled double-headed razors without getting a complexion like Freddy Kruger in the process? I had one unfortunate slip using one of these back in my teens, and spent several months looking like I'd been slashed by Pinky from Brighton Rock

the pressure cooker is a brilliant invention, and I don't know why it isn't a staple in every kitchen (especially since they figured out how to stop them blowing up). If you are cooking a curry, stew, spag bog or anything that has "put the lid on the saucepan and simmer for 1/2/3 hours" in the recipe, they are indispensable. I have bought several as presents for friends and family over the years, and all have loved them.

fabulous!
I can picture it
I can hear it
and I do believe I can smell it...

and despite having way more than a 'few' cold nights a year, central heating is pretty much non-existent here too!

Our solution is an electric blanket, however. Something I never appreciated the value of until moving here.

The problem with keeping Duraglit (or Brasso) is that it dries out in the tin so you need to go and get some more. It's really useful stuff for polishing scratches out of plastic. I've managed to revive several CDs that would otherwise have been lost. I'm not sure that I've ever used it for polishing metal though.

But how do you perform the 'burning-rubber-racing-away-from-the-lights manoeuvre in an automatic?

I like driving, but I'm not a "petrolhead" (which I believe is found in the thesaurus as a synonym for "wanker"). I drove an auto this summer in Italy, and really didn't like it. Maybe it's just force of habit, but I like being able to choose for myself. I like being able to do block changes if I need to, and it seemed like the auto I was driving couldn't really manage that.

I can definitely see the advantage of an auto gearbox in cities - on the rare occasions I drive in London, my clutch leg gets a bit knackered - but I love a manual most of the rest of the time.

in a car with a manual gearbox. I hated every minute of it, but almost everyone learnt on a manual in those days. The day after passing my test, I got behind the wheel of a car with an automatic gearbox. Suddenly, driving was safer, easier, and a hundred times more enjoyable. I wondered why on earth anyone would ever choose to drive a manual, and knew immediately that I would never get behind the wheel of one again. And I never have.

Guess I'm being dim.

played by Michael Gambon in The Singing Detective.

I'm sure Not The Nine O'Clock News did a hilarious skit at the time featuring the then Pamela Stevenson "lubing up" the lucky bed bound patient.

Is it Freddy Kruger ?

had to put up with most of the above during her childhood; Izal toilet paper, Heinz sandwich spread, Birds and Camp Coffee, not to mention the elderly relative parping on the commode.

This and a diet of tripe and trotters makes her eligible for the "how tough did you have it" thread.

At least she's escaped most of the above now apart from the eldery parping husband.

But have one in kind for the BB dura glit mention... also don't forget the tricky little brass button on the haversack (pop a duster round the back to protect it while you rub it... oooerrr missus).

The only milk I will drink. Can't abide the pasturised stuff that's like diluted tippex that goes bad as you watch it. Don't get me started on skimmed milk...

Though I always find talk of brands/marketing/etc makes me feel a bit depressed. A depressed pawn in a big capitalist game. Sigh.

...I could narrow the identity of that friend down quite accurately. Now, if you'll excuse me...

*nips off to the obligatory Porno Newsagent (every town has one - Gloucester's version sold ACTUAL MAGAZINES WITH ACTUAL SHAGGING IN, AND NO BLACK "CENSORED" BLOCKS) for a copy of 50+ and some back issues of Women In Uniform.*

I've been fascinated by existensialism of late and have been reading up lots on it. Can't pretend to understand the whole shebang yet, but Sartre's basic doctrine of being and nothingness - i.e. things only exist in the here and now definitely resonates with me. But imagine if I'd asked what products did you expect to always be around but which disappeared instead? That would've been fraught with loads more existensial torment

Still, all things considered it's better than getting the old chap caught in your zip. Now there's a sobering experience.

.

I got 2 phone directories through my letterbox the other week, they went straight in the recycling. Ingen reklam tack!

are used in small box cutters in stores and warehouses.
I use one of those probably 200 times a day at my work.

He's the only football manager in living memory whose name:

1) contains the word "arse"
2) is (almost) an anagram of his place of work.

If you only use a keyboard for word processing or emailing (or blogging of course) then the caps lock key probably is a little bit of a waste of time but as a programmer I use it all the time. Many programming languages are case sensitive and the it's normal to use complete words or definitions in capitals. If there's a comment that you particularly want to stand out then that goes in capitals as well and it may be 3 or 4 lines long - that would be a right pain without caps lock.
The FPO spends all day long using CAD and as most of the typing involved is notes and labels, she tends to have the caps lock on most of the time.