DavecUK I seem to remember terrorism took a slight downward turn after that…the SAS considered the best in the world and probably still are today.

He Who Dares Wins Rodney!

    5 days later

    Above was the horse called trigger..

    Now I’m remembering a time when things seemed to taste better in the past, I guess stuff had less additives?

    • Milkshakes made with real milk, not water and powder
    • The 1970s Wimpy and Chips…tasted fantastic and that plastic tomato on the table filled with Ketchup…64 wimpy franchises left in the UK?
    • The Knickerbocker Glory (remember that one)
    • At Butlins…the Golden Egg (diners/cafes)…a plateful of disappointment
    • A time when Fish and chip shops were really good in the South and you got the imprint of an old newspaper on your food because they used the oil based ink

    When I was a pup my brother and I would take our go-kart walk around knocking on doors asking for old newspapers.We then took them to the local chippy and traded them in for a bag of chips and scraps. So, there you have it, two for the price of one; eating and being educated all at the same time.

    I remember being in a Wimpy once as a kid and an American family walked in and ordered a burger and chips and after seeing what was presented to them, took one look at it and walked out in disgust.

    Sweet cigarettes and that brown stringy stuff made out of coconut and put in a packet to look like tobacco called Spanish Gold… Don’t think those would be allowed today.


      Pompeyexile Sweet cigarettes and that brown stringy stuff made out of coconut and put in a packet to look like tobacco called Spanish Gold… Don’t think those would be allowed today.

      I agree, in fact, I believe sweet cigarettes are called something else now and I don’t think have the red bit on the end. I used to love Spanish Gold and had forgotten all about it!

      It’s amazing how parents and companies thought it was OK to sell these products to kids and I wonder how much influence the tobacco companies had on this behind the scenes… e.g. paying for advertising, development and other things.

      I also remember the sweet cigarettes but did not like the peculiar taste they had.

      Also remember the Spanish gold, this was one of my favourites, remember it being in a tube of yellowish paper about 100 mm X 20 mm. I still like shredded coconut today.

        Pompeyexile I remember the sweet cigarettes. They had a lovely smell, and I loved the little box they came in and the ritual of taking out a cigarette out the box and pretending to smoke it like my parents did. Too cool for school ✌️😎

        Gosh I remember the Iranian embassy siege on the news! A while back I did a couple of training courses run by Bob P who was behind the SAS embassy operation. An incredible guy. He must be over 70 now but he was throwing himself to the ground and rolling about, demonstrating methods of dealing with terrorists armed with pistols etc. Made us late 40s/early 50s guys look decrepit he did. Much respect.

        Sweet cigarettes! Yeah how were they allowed? I think they are called candy sticks now, but as they tasted like a stick of blackboard chalk, the only reason for them was trying to look grown up by emulating all the adults and actors who smoked back then.

        Wasn’t there another thing which was basically Chewing tobacco? Skoal Bandits or something.

        And does anyone remember the Golden Nuggets chewing gum that came in a little bag as if you’d been prospecting in America?

          Hotmetal And does anyone remember the Golden Nuggets chewing gum that came in a little bag as if you’d been prospecting in America?

          I had forgotten about those, it was a little cotton bag with a drawstring….I used to like em.

          I also liked Bazooka Joe chewing gum, we used to trade and collect the little comics inside.

          My dad used to collect the little cards that came with boxes of tea….we really drank a lot of tea.

          What about sweets that didn’t catch on and soon got dropped? Here’s one for starters….

          Swisskit Bars….

          With the advertising slogan ’I’d risk it for a Swisskit’

          Hotmetal Wasn’t there another thing which was basically Chewing tobacco? Skoal Bandits or something.

          Skoal Bandits. Little pouches of tobacco that I think you were supposed to hold between teeth and gum. Went to a Bol d’or 24 hr race meeting where they were really pushing them, never seen them in the UK. Never did try one. They were also pushing a form of Malibu, copious free samples went down a storm with the Brits …until someone realised that it was non alcoholic 😄.

          a month later

          I keep talking about my Dad and the war in various threads and one of the things I said was the truth isn’t necessarily in the history books. So over the next few days, I will recount some chats I remember about WW2 and what my dad told me really happened.

          WW2 Window - basically chaff.

          Radar was kept very secret and it wasn’t generally known about by aircrew, certainly not how it worked. They used to get these big bales which they were meant to cut. and throw out of the bay doors in loose handfulls. None of them believed it would be useful that way and the aircrews used to throw them out whole, in the hope a bale would land on an enemy….after the bombing run.

          Carrots were good for your eyesight - Myth put around by the RAF to hide the fact they had H2S (onboard radar). Aircrew used to get special rations of carrots which they had to eat….my dad hated carrots. They were all told it improved their eyesight and that’s why our fighters could do so well in the dark…. This was of course bollocks, but my dad believed it for most of his life.

          The swimming pool - Base commanders would change regularly. My dad always used to tell me about the swimming pool and how they would get some good guys and some bad ones. He said the first change of RAF base commander they had joined and said “what, no swimming pool”…walked in a square and marked out an area for a very large pool and asked them to dig it out to about 6-8 feet for the pool. 6 months later there would be a change of base commander and he would say “what’s that ruddy great hole”…“It’s for a swimming pool sir”.. “Never heard anything so ridiculous…fill it in!”. my dad said this happened twice. Of course, aircrew didn’t fly every night due to weather conditions and to keep them from thinking about their own mortality too much, it was felt they shouldn’t sit around brooding.

            Interesting, I never knew about the carrot thing. I mean, carrots are good for eye health with all the beta carotene and lutein but eating them obviously does not improve your night vision. I had assumed it was another ’eat your greens it’ll put hairs on your chest’ thing to get kids to eat veg, I never knew it was spread by the government to hide how we were so successful against German air raids.

            Shame they couldn’t have explained a bit more about why it was necessary to scatter the chaff rather than lob bales of it out. I guess it would have given away the very secret the carrot myth was invented for, but when you tell people what to do and not why, often you are wasting your breath as people will use their own intelligence but without the right information may act wrongly. I remember moving into a rental property that had one of those alarms that rang a control centre in the event of a break in (and unbeknownst to me, also a fire). I had specifically asked the landlady for the instructions and the passcode. I was told “You don’t need to know. Just enter the pin when you come in and that’s it”. Being a responsible tenant, I spotted that there was a smoke detector and it had a flashing red light. As all the smoke detectors I had seen upto then used a flashing light to indicate a failing battery, I thought I had better test it. So I waved some burning paper under it to see if it worked. The burglar alarm went off much to my surprise, having not been told that the alarm was connected to the smoke detector. Panic! Then the phone went. Crap, that’s all I need, a phone call right now! Answered it and it was the control centre. Did I need assistance? No I said, except please turn the alarm off! “what’s the pass code?” I didn’t know. Guy hangs up. Phone rings again. It’s the landlord. “you’ve set my house on fire on the first bloody day!!!” “No I haven’t, I was just testing the smoke alarm and you never told me it was connected to the burglar alarm, I asked you for the information and you declined to tell me so suck it up”. Then the fire crew arrived and evacuated us, saying “why are you standing around in a burning house?!” “Er, sorry officer, but I think you’ll find there isn’t actually a fire”. They were thorough though and insisted on coming in to check. It all could have been avoided if she hadn’t been all “you don’t need to know”. Obviously state secrets are a different matter though.

            I don’t have any war stories as my dad was too young to remember and my grandfathers never ever spoke about it. I would have liked to talk to them about the olden days (not necessarily war as that’s hard enough to digest as an adult) but when my grandpa came back he’d lost all his hair from shock and hardly ever spoke to anyone about anything. My grandmother mainly impressed upon us the need to ‘made do and mend’, never to waste food, and to take notice of the beauty in the world - she was an artist and keen gardener.

              DavecUK Carrots were good for your eyesight - Myth put around by the RAF to hide the fact they had H2S (onboard radar).

              I’m not a fruit of the British Empire, but 6,000 miles away my mum always told me carrots were good for my eyesight. In fact, until I read this post, (until 1 minute ago) I believed carrots were good for my eye sight…. And also to keep my ginger hair orange tones going after many decades, of course. 🤣😊👍

              Hotmetal but when you tell people what to do and not why, often you are wasting your breath as people will use their own intelligence but without the right information may act wrongly.

              Never a truer word spoken!

              None of it is true. I was always told to eat all my greens and I would grow up big and strong. I am still a 5’5” weekling. I also ate all my carrots and I be damned I still need my headlights on at night.

              More about WW2 that isn’t in the history books.

              The Girls that delivered the Aircraft - When the planes were manufactured, WAFs used to fly them to the operational bases. I’m talking specifically about spitfires here, they delivered other planes as well. Sometimes even when a plane was being moved. The girls, for fun, would bring the merlin up to full power and full running boost, but not “pull the tit” which would be combat boost 5 min allowed. Release the brakes and hold it down until well past the lift-off speed, then take off and pull up hard, the plane having so much energy would seem to go straight up. This was of course absolutely not allowed…you will see why.

              He had a WAF girlfriend in the ATA| (his marriage at the beginning of the war was just one of convenience for the war pension, remember) who used to do this job. He was at the airfield watching her deliver a plane..she did the thing they weren’t really allowed to do, pulled up hard and started to climb, as she did the engine cut out….I think she was at about 100ft. Even with the speed, without the power of the merlin at full normal boost and the really high wing loading…she didn’t stand a chance……and died that day at the end of the runway.

              I asked him if he ever got wounded during the war - he said that a few years in there was an air raid warning and the airfield was being bombed, they all ran for trenches. There were a few air raid shelters, but mostly aircrew would try and find a trench, as they needed to be there to get the fighters up. He remembered running for a trench, a bomb hit, and he was thrown forward and knocked flat near a trench. The guy in the trench shouted at him “you OK Fred”. My dad could feel a hot liquid sensation running down his back, “i think I’ve been hit”. His experience when others got hit on a raid was that they didn’t feel it at first…that came later. They dragged him into the trench. To his surprise, he felt pretty good, and they got his backpack off, to inspect the wound. They carefully pulled the shrapnel out of his…….flask of tea! My dad never so much suffered a cut finger during the entire war!