please empty your brain below
I've always found the rose tinting of nostalgia fascinating. There seems to be more groups than ever dedicated on social media. Inevitably the comments often descend into 'it's political correctness gone mad' and you see people appearing to get genuinely upset that marmalade jars no longer have a picture of a golliwog on them.

Tom | 26.01.23 - 7:08 a.m. | #

Ah, those glory days when Walker’s Salt and Vinegar packets were blue.

Dan | 26.01.23 - 7:10 a.m. | #

Seems a real shame that we’ve all collectively lost our excitement for the future (though I can’t say I’m surprised given the sh*t headed our collective way)

Felix | 26.01.23 - 7:26 a.m. | #

I can tell you are in a different generation to me if your first nostalgic association with Grange Hill isn’t “Just say no” and an exploding sausage.

Dan | 26.01.23 - 7:33 a.m. | #

"I remember when people looked to the future rather than endlessly harking back to the past" is also descriptive of aging. In occasional low moments I reflect that most of life's major milestones are now behind me; then I remind myself that whatever the future may bring, it's a privilege denied to so many.

Frank F | 26.01.23 - 7:33 a.m. | #

Peatchey the butchers is still in the parade of shops at Grange Park... but you know that.

Steve | 26.01.23 - 7:43 a.m. | #

My recollection is that University Challenge (Bamber Gascoigne), All our yesterdays (Brian Inglis) and Police 5 (Shaw Taulor) were all broadcast (in black and white) around Sunday lunchtimes on ITV (or was it called Channel 9 then?)

Rob Gullen | 26.01.23 - 7:59 a.m. | #

Hey, you haven’t got another birthday yet have you? Cheer up, after all Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be! 😉
Onwards, ever onwards...

Jo W | 26.01.23 - 8:14 a.m. | #

The border area near Grange Hill station is a strange quirk in that Manford Way and the surrounding roads were historically Chigwell but became part of the London Borough of Redbridge so the post town and postcode of these streets are Chigwell and IG7, but generally they are considered to be Hainault with Hainault library even being in this location.

Charlie | 26.01.23 - 8:17 a.m. | #

The special carriages were the 'no smoking' carriages. Originally they were the exception with just one or two per train but over time they became more common.

Pedantic of Purley | 26.01.23 - 8:17 a.m. | #

But do you remember tube maps being obliterated by people going "we are here" with their finger?

Simon G | 26.01.23 - 8:19 a.m. | #

I also remember when 50p was a lot of money. I once bought seven Mars bars at 7p each and ate them all.

Alan S | 26.01.23 - 8:39 a.m. | #

I remember when 50p was 10 shillings and the wow factor when my Granny let me hold a 10 bob note.

David | 26.01.23 - 8:43 a.m. | #

But, do you remember going to Banbury yesterday.

coffin dodger | 26.01.23 - 8:50 a.m. | #

Older people can compare before with now, loads of stuff is better, but if you're younger then it's always been like this.

Still Anon | 26.01.23 - 8:56 a.m. | #

The mystery of the crisp packets isn't such a mystery. Yes, Walkers colours have always been as they are now; but Walkers being the dominant brand is relatively new and other crisp makers used different colours. Tayto and Golden Wonder *still* have a blue salt and vinegar flavour, but they're now massively outsold by Walkers whereas in the past the market was divided up a bit more evenly.

We'd collectively probably just have remembered it as a Walkers thing, but since Walkers became the dominant crisp maker all the other new crisp companies with their kettle nonsense and so on have decided to follow the market leader in their colours.

I'd originally thought (not having lived here in the 80s) that maybe Walkers changed to corporate colours when Lays bought them in '89, but I can find evidence of green salt and vinegar packets from before then.

When I was little, the dominant brand in Ontario was Hostess and salt and vinegar was yellow. I expect rioting from the British crisp enthusiasts.

Chz | 26.01.23 - 9:10 a.m. | #

Nicely done. Very possibly (and almost a 'surely') an example of coming up with the pay-off line, and then crafting the content.

dg writes: never risk a surely.

Stuart R | 26.01.23 - 9:11 a.m. | #

A delicious memory feast.

I too remember coal delivered by horse power, but I didn’t realise that it continued long enough to reach into your lifetime. Other horse-drawn items in my youth were dustcarts and rag-and-bones.

Malcolm of Kent | 26.01.23 - 9:43 a.m. | #

Lamb was the Sunday roast I liked least. Not because I disliked lamb (or mint sauce) but because Monday was leftovers day & with lamb it was always a fatty stew. Beef was my favourite because we had cottage pie on Monday. Chicken for Sunday roast was a rarity as it was the most expensive meat.

Andy S | 26.01.23 - 9:44 a.m. | #

The blue salt packet in a bag of crisps was started by Smiths Crisps way back in the 50's.
If you were lucky you got two!

strawbrick | 26.01.23 - 9:52 a.m. | #

When I was little in Kilburn, the milkman came with a horse drawn cart. My mum used to give him any leftover toast to put in the food bag the horse had round its neck. This was in the late '50s.

MikeK | 26.01.23 - 10:15 a.m. | #

For some reason, every time I watch it, I still expect the voiceover man at the start of University Challenge to say "asking the questions, Bamber Gascoigne". I'm not sure what I'll think once Jeremy's gone.

ap | 26.01.23 - 10:24 a.m. | #

I can remember beer being delivered by horse (to the pub across the road, not to my door!) in the late 1980s.

Smith's cheese & onion crisps had green packets, and salt & vinegar were blue. Walkers and Smiths were both taken over by Pepsico c1990, and Walkers' colour scheme prevailed.

timbo | 26.01.23 - 10:27 a.m. | #

It's amusing that the area immediately east of Grange Hill station is in London while the station itself is in Essex. Makes me somehow think of watching the sun go down in Hunstanton...

felix | 26.01.23 - 10:50 a.m. | #

Feeling a bit nostalgic myself as each generation before us moves on. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Cornish Cockney | 26.01.23 - 11:33 a.m. | #

I have vague memories of the rag-and-bone men coming round with their horse and cart into the late 1970s and early 1980s, later changing to an open truck. And a horse and cart delivering coal to my grandparents into the 1980s too. I think there are still a few breweries that use horse-drawn drays occasionally, albeit largely as a promotional thing.

I was probably too young for the first episode, but I remember Tucker leaving in 1982.

Andrew | 26.01.23 - 11:41 a.m. | #

I presume most people know tha University Challenge was originally a US radio game show (College Bowl). Apparently still played on an amateur basis in the US (and not formally broadcasted).

MilesT | 26.01.23 - 12:34 p.m. | #

Like ap I often say "Bamber Gascoigne" instead of Jezza for UC. I get a little kick out of that.

Marmaduke Jinks | 26.01.23 - 12:38 p.m. | #

We had horse-drawn rag-and-bone men in their carts up to the mid-70s. I recall the big conversion from 'Town' gas to Natural gas - piles of pipe fittings left for us kids to play with. Sunday afternoons with the grandparents, 'The Golden Shot' and bubble-and-squeak for tea.

Eddie Willers | 26.01.23 - 1:28 p.m. | #

I grew up in Australia but visited my grandparents in East Ham (never the newfangled Newham) in 1977.

I was amazed to discover that on Sunday afternoon the cockle and whelk man called in a horse drawn cart. Granddad always had a pint of shrimps - nasty inch long grey things, served uncooked on buttered sliced white, that could only be kept down with a equivalence of Sarsons Malt Vinegar.

Simon | Homepage | 26.01.23 - 3:11 p.m. | #

Horse drawn rag and bone was still a thing in Middlesbrough in the early-mid 80s.

David B | 26.01.23 - 7:32 p.m. | #

Rickets.

Auntie Mandy | 26.01.23 - 9:56 p.m. | #

When I lived in Bethnal Green in the early 2000s there was still a horse-drawn rag-n-bone of sorts, many traveller sites still have a resident horse or two, and we still have van-based scavengers scouring the front gardens for old iron.

Dan | 27.01.23 - 7:35 a.m. | #

Your (unexpected) nostalgia Top 3

1) I remember rag and bone men
2) I remember crisps were different colours
3) I remember University Challenge

diamond geezer | Homepage | 27.01.23 - 8:25 a.m. | #

Pacers were the start of the Americanisation of our sweets. They were Opal Mints`

Wikipedia says they changed in 1976 - so I am surprised you remember them as Pacers I thought you were older.

Mark | 27.01.23 - 9:39 p.m. | #











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