Memories of Wham Bars, Choc Ices and knickerbocker glorys

By -
Some foods it seems are timeless and never leave our shelves but menus have definitely changed since I was a little girl. I am a child of the 80's and I have fond memories of dinners at a Little Chef restaurant as a treat. We would try to be really good and clear our plates thinking on to what could be our reward. The Knickerbocker Glory would have caught our eye on the dessert menu. The main ingredients as I recall were basically ice cream, cherries and lashings of squirty cream and ice cream sauce. I think Little Chef could relive their former success if they embraced their retro routes.

At home desserts were usually homemade. The choices in the supermarkets were much more limited than they are today and much more expensive. We usually brought ice cream in a cardboard box or choc ices. The picture on the right is of a big favorite, raspberry ripple mouses. Although, we didn't have a Tesco near us at the time so it would have been a different brand but it looked just the same and they are actually still around the same price. Raspberry ripple was usually one of the limited choices of ice cream flavours available at the time, not that I'm complaining, it was yum. I also remember Blamange or mouse, we would often have the powder that you would just mix with milk and pop in the fridge.

After we had been swimming at Lux Park in Liskeard (which was completely different from today, none of the slides or flumes) we would then be aloud to chose a treat from the vending machine. We would always choose a Wham Bar. We could go to the village shop with 10p and be able to choose from a dip dap, polos, an animal bar, a milky bar or penny sweets. Huba Bubba bubble gum would have been within our price range but we were never aloud it. We stock some retro sweets in our shops that I remember, I'm always tucking in to the black jacks.

As I was only a child of this era I had no interest in the savoury items only the sweets but I know we never had what are now my favourite foods. Fajitas didn't seem to have made it into the UK in the 80's and the only curry we ever had was an English version containing raisins or apple.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How To Play ZILTCH - The Ultimate Dice Game!

By -
Image
If you ask me what my favourite dice game is, there has only ever been one answer, ZILTCH! This is an exciting fast passed game of chance suitable for all ages and great for kids who can beat their parents fair and square. It's good for developing basic arithmetic skills too! This has been a family favourite in my house hold since I was a nipper, I have since taught it to hundreds of people and everyone loves it! All you need is six dice and a pen and paper to write down the scores.        These days this can be downloaded as an app or played on line but to me the whole fun is seeing peoples reactions as they roll the dice. If you take away the actual dice and play by clicking a button, then you have taken away the fun of the game! Dice are inexpensive and fit in your pocket and I guarantee that once you have learned to play this game you will always carry six dice with you! It can be played almost anywhere and doesn't blow away at a picnic or get wet ...
Read more

History of the spinning top - How does the spinning top work?

By -
Image
I received a lovely letter this morning from the year 1 pupils at Highters Heath Community School in Birmingham, that are currently studying toys from the past. When I opened the letter, it contained many letters mainly asking how a spinning top works, and does the spinning top contain a spring? In an attempt to settle these curious minds, let me tell you a little bit about the history of the spinning top, and then how a spinning top works. The History of the Spinning Top The spinning top has been in existence for thousands of years. Like many traditional toys, such as marbles, the earliest spinning tops are made from clay, and were discovered in the Middle East as early as 3500 BC, although it is likely that children would have been spinning small rocks or acorns long before. Later wooden spinning tops emerged in around 2000 BC, and early spinning tops made from bone have been found in Europe.  These spinning tops would have been much simpler than many tops found in old fashi...
Read more

How to Play Farmyard Donkey Card Game

By -
Image
A couple of weeks ago I posted the instructions for the card game Pairs on Wheels . Another popular traditional family card game is Farmyard Donkey. Again, this game is fairly straight forward but a great way to keep children occupied and get them thinking. The card game consists of 17 pairs and the "Donkey Card". Firstly, shuffle the cards then deal them in a clockwise direction to each player. All players then look at their cards and take out all their pairs, the player to the left of the dealer arranges their remaining cards in their hand like a fan. The back of the cards are shown to the player on the left who then picks a card. If this card makes a pair then the cards are put in the middle of the table with the other pairs. If the player isn't able to make a pair then they keep the card and continue the game by offering their cards to the next player. When a player eventually loses all their cards they are 'saved' and stop playing. At the end of the gam...
Read more