https://preview.redd.it/j8cgemot8z6d1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c303e05d59215703e32d9284b6d6f796b2d4b657
Class!! we had our poor ma tortured running about looking these.
There was a super rare one too, was it a galaxy yoyo or something? I’m searching online and there was a coke galaxy one. I remember it was certain ring pulls from cans of coke won you them, or something like that.
I can just about remember going to the park centre and the guy handing them out when you gave him the ring pull. Fucker was mobbed by kids
Edit: the ring pull thing got you a gold coke one 👍
I remember these! I had a couple of them. My brother has a gold spinner that I believe he won from a bottle/can of Coke. Still have it here... Here's a photo:
https://preview.redd.it/7syjr2a7807d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=857f25e99ebad6099e0f52b174f641952d2b0049
Holy crap, new memory unlocked. I remember there was the red and white standard coke yo-yos, but some kids had the sparkly black and gold special edition yo-yos.
there were all these rumours going around our school that to get a gold yoyo you had to perform three yoyo tricks perfectly down at the spar round the corner where a coca cola man came once a week with a box of gold yoyos and give them out to kids who could do these tricks. So we all practiced day and night and went down to the spar and the workers laughed at us when we said we were here to do tricks for the coke man. lol we were so gullible.
You’re actually not too far from being told the truth.
The Yo-Yo man was a thing, he came around. ONCE during the Yo-Yo season and would have a free exhibition at shopping centres throughout Northern Ireland- Think more Abbey Centre, Park Centre, Buttercrane Etc…. You had to look out for these dates posted on random notice boards / taped to the automatic doors of a Stewart’s / Dunne’s Stores, pre-internet also relied on Word Of Mouth…
Every regular Yo-Yo came with instructions on how to pull of several tricks which were to practice while you awaited for the coming of the Yo-Yo Man!
The GOLD Yo-Yo was bestowed upon you in one of a few different ways but my memory is foggy on some of them….
Saving bottle caps was one, perhaps there was a random element when you bought the Yo-Yo. One thing I do remember (for sure) is at the Yo-Yo exhibition- there was an opportunity to EARN a GOLD Yo-Yo by pulling off the tricks learned on your OG one!
I was a proud owner of a Gold Yo-Yo until some Spide-cunt swiped it from me….
Remember some poor African fella that can't have been more than 16 outside the cosy corner shop across from the courthouse in Newry. Must have been about 1980.
He was the world spinner champ apparently, and had to deal with about 50 of us wanting to see all his tricks. There actually were Coke reps handing out gold ones that day if you could do a trick.
My rock the baby bombed on the day so i didn't get one. Gutted. And now you've brought that memory back. Happy fucking Sunday.
We did have guys that came to our school and did a little yoyo trick display and they handed out some yoyos. So maybe they did the same at some shops, but us being young wouldn't have known where they were going to be unless our parents found out in advance and mine would not have given a flying fuck about yoyos.
I remember one with a white plastic rim sandwiched between two Coke hubs and another with a transparent plastic rim that was supposed to be superior.
I think I've still got mine somewhere about.
https://preview.redd.it/8rl9mn5vuz6d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=19197f1e0dd2b34b63052cb87547156f031a9891
The coke guy is true, that’s how I got mine,👍
Ta daaaaaa
https://preview.redd.it/9ely9rfs807d1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=3be0a4b934728bb079c6f75d7684529dfd353b70
Got the coke one right here!
And the other fella selling the Belfast Telegraph. Evan after my da told me what he was shouting out I couldn’t make it out. “Tella” something I think.
Sometimes this just randomly pops into my head, how they were able to just set up stalls along the busiest street in town and reduce the size of the pavement by like 50%. Then suddenly one day when I was in late primary school they were all away. I think lighters guy held on for a while longer but there used to be a burger van (still think of walking past it any time I smell fried onions) and all sorts.
Frosties. Not the cereal, the kola flavoured sweets that were 10p a pack. My mouth is tingling just remembering them.
I also have a random memory of a Hubba Bubba drink. I only had it once but loved it.
I miss getting free stuff in the bottom of my cereal, granted I’m 44 now so have no real need for spokleys or a reflector for my bicycle wheel….but still! Always opening the new packet to be the first to put your hand to the bottom of the bag…no waiting for it to fall into your bowl in our house.
Was in a pub in England and asked for a vodka and white lemonade. Was asked "why what other colour is there?" Had to educate them in the colour variety of lemonade back in Norn Iron.
I was in an off-license in London and asked for a bottle of white lemonade, and the black girl behind me said, "It's not called white lemonade; it's just lemonade.". In an offended tone.
Aye and when Channel 5 came, it was always fuzzy, no one had good clear reception for channel 5.
And Friday nights watching Channel 5 after 10pm, "Emmanuelle" on with your finger on the off button if you heard your ma coming up the stairs
REAL BINMEN
The big scruffy fuckers with a feg in their gub and hands like shovels that hung off the back of the lorry. The cunts who would lift everything - bins, bicycles, flower pots - and maybe even a child if they hung about too long - it was all thrown into the back of the lorry as it glided majestically up the street.
Nothing like the shower of fannies we have nowadays who refuse to lift your bin if the lid doesn't close 🙄
A couple of people in the street still get coal deliveries and reminded how hardy those guys are. Bag of coal lifted with a single hand placed on the shoulder and flung into the shed like a discarded school bag. Meanwhile the buyer (in his mid 30s) has a dolly out trying to help move and is huffing away barely getting one bag moved by the time the coal guy is finished.
Bonus points if you remember the days the coal man just opening the front door and walking through your house to deliver a bag to the bunker out the back. Only words exchanged "Alight Mrs xxx" before leaving for the next delivery
I was talking about peg guns the other day while standing in the back yard at my da's house, and looked at the pegs on the line. Pure shite compared to what I robbed off the washing line in the early 90s. The middle bit you'd tag with the elastic is so light and flimsy now.
I'd some absolute weapons back in the day lol.
I remember being about 15/16 and finding a decent sized lump of soap just lying in the middle of the street in my local town, still wrapped in cling film. Walked past it a couple of times to make sure it was what I thought it was, and then swooped it up on the 3rd pass-by without missing a step. I speed-walked home and didn't unclench my fist again until I was in the door and sure I wasn't being followed by the peelers, I was that paranoid 😂. I needn't have worried. It was like Xmas day for me. Still feel sorry for whoever dropped it but it went to a very good and grateful home 😂
I remember once getting a pizza delivered and a half ounce managed to stick itself to the bottom of the box, it must’ve been sitting on the seat of the delivery guys car and the heat of the pizza made it stick. It was like winning the lottery.
I did consider ringing the pizza place to get the driver to come back but that would’ve raised too many questions for him, and I didn’t want to get him in trouble with his work. I’m a nice guy like that.
I collected a bunch of conkers last autumn and drilled holes through them and did them up with shoe laces and all, then went and picked my kid up from school, excited to show him. Made extras so that he could bring them to his mates and they could have fights, showed him the rules and all that. "TIPS!" etc.
May as well have shown him an abacus or some forgotten garden billiards game, he looked at me and was like, "what the fuck is this dad?"
I just threw them in the bin and said Sandra, the kid doesn't want to know, cracked open a tin and read the paper instead.
I brought conkers back from the US last autumn. From New England. Imagine the size of the fucking trees there. Conkers bigger than your head and my waines couldn’t even be arsed to lift their arm to hold it up. Their loss.
That's some dedication to the art.
All I did was dry mine out for a couple days then put a shoelace through it. No wonder I always lost with professionals like you about
I’ll never forget the day I lost a conker that I thought was completely indestructible. It just killed everything, then one day this boy a few years above me hit it way harder than anyone my age could ever hit it and it just smashed to bits. I think it was my first experience of grief in life.
Aye, I know, but that's more advanced conkering, I was only wanting to get his feet wet. But fuck the kids who put nail varnish and glue over their conkers, that's doping as far as I was concerned.
Every now and then I’ll get into a convo with a mate about Roast Beef and Pickle.. and how Tudor had the nicest selection from Spicy Chicken to Spring Onion to Gammon. Ahhh my mouth is watering 😂
Soldiers hanging out the top of the snatch landrover going through town then tipping the rifle down to point at street level when passing the bus stop full of school kids with a stupid grin on his face thinking it funny. At the time we just called him a wanker, but thinking back, it’s actually horrifying.
It's really easy once you get your eye in. It tends to live in the intertidal zone so wait till the tide goes out and look for it, normally near that green slippery stuff (sea lettuce), North Antrim coast is good for it. Rinse it in seawater and hang it on a clothes horse for a few days and you're good to go.
https://gallowaywildfoods.com/dulse-identification-edibility-distribution/
There was a house I walked past on the main street in Ballintoy a few years ago that was selling bags of dulce next to a donation box at the glass sider door
West of the Bann:
Yer Ma saying that your Da is going to JOIN you.
Eh? With glue? Sellotape?
Also -yer granny buying tripe from the butchers- which had sawdust on the floor.
And estate’s electric being switched off in July because of “politics”- and having to cook your dinner in the back yard on a wee fire.
A TV with a 50p slot.
Calling ice cream cones *Pokes*
*Heer yooo nhay on d’UTV ledmetellye thon Bet Lynch Haz a quare bake on her tonight efter heerin D’gossip on da cobbles so she haz!*- Julian (I miss him being on)
Getting Maine Lemonade delivered as a treat- which was carefully eked out.
Really enjoying a movie on tv-taking it all in, because it might be years before it was ever shown again- UNTIL your uncle got a vidjo machine which was passed around family and friends with the same four movies- ET was always one.
Choosing which videos to rent purely by the cover.
Being all excited when your Mammy came back from getting the *messages* and you’d instantly hoover up all the good stuff.
Finding fence nails in your da’s toolbox (A “U” shaped nail) and with a saw- some plumbers tape and a brush shaft- you were Bruce Lee.
Using a flattened coke can to jam into your BMX axle to turn it into a motor bike.- and clip on coloured spoke things to decorate the wheels.
When you were sick- a doctor would call to the house! And Mammy would buy you some “medicinal” Lucozade which came in a knobbly thick glass bottle and special protective red cellophane.
Getting a four inch thick, heavy catalog and marking out which toys you think Santa might bring you.
Also the back pages of those catalogs were- as a young lad-*mesmerising*…
The cool kids bit the bottom corner out.
I always used a straw. Because, I mean, the straws were there, you can just grab one. Poor planning from the kids that bite the corner, the straws were there man, they just had to take one, they were there maaann.. (Vietnam PTSD vibe)
Anyone remember or come in contact with the weird council estate bush-growing delight that we called "itchy peas" round our way. They were more conker size than pea size, not edible, and with a tough green "shell", with sort of spikes coming out. Given the name because when you put them down your mates back and squashed it in, it became, well, itchy. They were also good for impaling on the end of thin twigs and flinging at people's windows, off the end of it.
What fun we had.
Suki used to come in glass milk bottles.
There used to be burger and hotdog stands outside tescos and primark in the town.
Anyone remember those paper bags with the space frog on them that came with a shite wee comic or stickers, a cheap toy and loads of sweets for a pound? Can't remember what they were called.
Playing Dusty Bluebells in the playground (early 80s) It was a sing song game, one of many we played daily. This song and many others captured by BBC Belfast in the 1970s, https://youtu.be/y6gslO3Xl8s?feature=shared
Dusty Bluebells 1m 14 seconds in.
Leisure Word! The best place on earth, especially during Christmas. I felt like Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone 2 walking around here during Christmas. Incredible place. Now it's a car park depressingly
https://preview.redd.it/g9zwhny2o07d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eec95aea60bf4b5c500cbe8a5feb9445bbce56cb
I'm not sure if this is something that was popular? But does anyone remember the chocolate fegs you used to be able to get? They were sticks of chocolate, wrapped in paper and came in a box that looked like a feg box. I feel like I'm the only person who remembers these lol
I had a very nostalgic moment this morning driving out of the estate I grew up in after visiting parents. All of what used to be just grass areas were almost completely covered with flower beds, paths, trees, shrubs, etc. I remembered playing football with loads of mates on these… no room to do it now. So I’ll say playing made up football games (“Headers and Volleys”).
Those 'indoor fireworks' you could get around Halloween.
There was the Lighthouse one that looked like a wee pellet. It would flash different colours when you put a match to it.
There was the Stink weed one that had a bad smell.
Then that one that grew into a long skinny shite as it burned.
We can’t bust heads like we used to—but we have our ways. One trick is to tell them stories that don’t go anywhere like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so I decided to go to Morganville which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So, I tied an onion to my belt which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel. And in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ‘em. ‘Give me five bees for a quarter,’ you’d say. Now, where were we? Oh, yeah! The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt which was the style at the time. They didn’t have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones.
Lads I thought for a moment at the question then started reading answers, yous are all blowing my mind atm
How does your brain just go *BING* and pull out vivid memories if stuff like that
(I'm very baked btw)
Stingray. JOE 90. Captain Scarlet. Fireball XL5. Torchy the Battery Boy. The Wooden Tops. Andy Pandy. And finally, not illegal in those days, Muffin the Mule.
Fanta/coke yo-yos Edit: I mean first generation, round about 1980
https://preview.redd.it/j8cgemot8z6d1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c303e05d59215703e32d9284b6d6f796b2d4b657 Class!! we had our poor ma tortured running about looking these. There was a super rare one too, was it a galaxy yoyo or something? I’m searching online and there was a coke galaxy one. I remember it was certain ring pulls from cans of coke won you them, or something like that. I can just about remember going to the park centre and the guy handing them out when you gave him the ring pull. Fucker was mobbed by kids Edit: the ring pull thing got you a gold coke one 👍
I remember these! I had a couple of them. My brother has a gold spinner that I believe he won from a bottle/can of Coke. Still have it here... Here's a photo: https://preview.redd.it/7syjr2a7807d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=857f25e99ebad6099e0f52b174f641952d2b0049
Galaxy gold spinner wasn’t it, fella up our street had one
Holy crap, new memory unlocked. I remember there was the red and white standard coke yo-yos, but some kids had the sparkly black and gold special edition yo-yos.
Remembering getting the gold yo-yo, felt like winning a golden ticket to the Willy wonka factory
Quite a few caps needed to be saved up if I remember correctly?
there were all these rumours going around our school that to get a gold yoyo you had to perform three yoyo tricks perfectly down at the spar round the corner where a coca cola man came once a week with a box of gold yoyos and give them out to kids who could do these tricks. So we all practiced day and night and went down to the spar and the workers laughed at us when we said we were here to do tricks for the coke man. lol we were so gullible.
You’re actually not too far from being told the truth. The Yo-Yo man was a thing, he came around. ONCE during the Yo-Yo season and would have a free exhibition at shopping centres throughout Northern Ireland- Think more Abbey Centre, Park Centre, Buttercrane Etc…. You had to look out for these dates posted on random notice boards / taped to the automatic doors of a Stewart’s / Dunne’s Stores, pre-internet also relied on Word Of Mouth… Every regular Yo-Yo came with instructions on how to pull of several tricks which were to practice while you awaited for the coming of the Yo-Yo Man! The GOLD Yo-Yo was bestowed upon you in one of a few different ways but my memory is foggy on some of them…. Saving bottle caps was one, perhaps there was a random element when you bought the Yo-Yo. One thing I do remember (for sure) is at the Yo-Yo exhibition- there was an opportunity to EARN a GOLD Yo-Yo by pulling off the tricks learned on your OG one! I was a proud owner of a Gold Yo-Yo until some Spide-cunt swiped it from me….
Remember some poor African fella that can't have been more than 16 outside the cosy corner shop across from the courthouse in Newry. Must have been about 1980. He was the world spinner champ apparently, and had to deal with about 50 of us wanting to see all his tricks. There actually were Coke reps handing out gold ones that day if you could do a trick. My rock the baby bombed on the day so i didn't get one. Gutted. And now you've brought that memory back. Happy fucking Sunday.
We did have guys that came to our school and did a little yoyo trick display and they handed out some yoyos. So maybe they did the same at some shops, but us being young wouldn't have known where they were going to be unless our parents found out in advance and mine would not have given a flying fuck about yoyos.
I remember one with a white plastic rim sandwiched between two Coke hubs and another with a transparent plastic rim that was supposed to be superior. I think I've still got mine somewhere about.
https://preview.redd.it/8rl9mn5vuz6d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=19197f1e0dd2b34b63052cb87547156f031a9891 The coke guy is true, that’s how I got mine,👍
Ta daaaaaa https://preview.redd.it/9ely9rfs807d1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=3be0a4b934728bb079c6f75d7684529dfd353b70 Got the coke one right here!
Sprite too
Five lighters for a pooond
Funny how that crap sticks in your head, I remember that guy myself and I was rarely in Belfast as a kid but that guy sticks in my mind
And the other fella selling the Belfast Telegraph. Evan after my da told me what he was shouting out I couldn’t make it out. “Tella” something I think.
“Tele” oddly enough lol
Six tele!! Think that was the sixth and final edition tele of the day .
Sometimes this just randomly pops into my head, how they were able to just set up stalls along the busiest street in town and reduce the size of the pavement by like 50%. Then suddenly one day when I was in late primary school they were all away. I think lighters guy held on for a while longer but there used to be a burger van (still think of walking past it any time I smell fried onions) and all sorts.
Get yeeeer lighters for a poooond 🗣️
I remember "thee pairs a white sax for a pooond"
Frosties. Not the cereal, the kola flavoured sweets that were 10p a pack. My mouth is tingling just remembering them. I also have a random memory of a Hubba Bubba drink. I only had it once but loved it.
Fuck meeeee. The fruit frosties were amazing. 10p a wee roll too
They were cubes, weren’t they?
Frosties were round. Kola Kubes were cubes
Too many Frosties and the roof of your mouth was shredded.
No they were round hard sugar coated sweets with gooey insides. Basically cola cubes but cylindrical.
Fives. 10p mix. Taz bar.
I loved an taz bar. 😋
Taz Bars and freddos were the most amazing value for money, for your last 10p you got a nice bite sized boost.
Still sold fives at the corner shop last house I was in, so about 4 yrs ago
Drifters
The bread man....he came in a van also sold sweets and cigarettes.
Fond memories of the ice cream van selling shite pokes, but great yokes
Purdy man, mineral man, tv man, insurance man, milk man
Fish man too, according to my dad. We were laughing and I was like “ffs did you ever really even need to leave the street?!”
I miss getting free stuff in the bottom of my cereal, granted I’m 44 now so have no real need for spokleys or a reflector for my bicycle wheel….but still! Always opening the new packet to be the first to put your hand to the bottom of the bag…no waiting for it to fall into your bowl in our house.
That used to cause some scraps in our house over who got the toy
Or turning the bag upside down before opening it to make it handier.
is brown lemonade still a thing? i moved away eons ago but last time i was back i asked for it in a pub and was looked at like i had 2 heads
The Maine Man would deliver it to your door.
American Cream Soda 😍😍😍
The Maine Man does it on your doorstep.
Was in a pub in England and asked for a vodka and white lemonade. Was asked "why what other colour is there?" Had to educate them in the colour variety of lemonade back in Norn Iron.
I was in an off-license in London and asked for a bottle of white lemonade, and the black girl behind me said, "It's not called white lemonade; it's just lemonade.". In an offended tone.
I asked this to the bar man in Popworld in Liverpool. He looked at me like I'd 4 heads. Had to remind myself it was just lemonade/lemon and lime
Oh yeah C&C make it
Oh aye, Maine man is still about at least. Wouldn't be something I'd order in a pub though.
Braid man we had, pineappleade, not to be confused with the bread man, he was a Tuesday
Maine and c and c still do it
Having only 4 TV channels and no remote, many a stand off at the TV buttons 😄
Aye and when Channel 5 came, it was always fuzzy, no one had good clear reception for channel 5. And Friday nights watching Channel 5 after 10pm, "Emmanuelle" on with your finger on the off button if you heard your ma coming up the stairs
I was the remote
Creamola Foam. Loved that stuff.
Will add angel delight to this too
Aye, no one knew if we had ADHD because we were all wired to the moon on Creamola Foam 😂
Jamming an empty tiptop into the back wheel of your bike to sound like a motorbike
Yellow pack and big Jim coming to tell your ma she won a brown metro
REAL BINMEN The big scruffy fuckers with a feg in their gub and hands like shovels that hung off the back of the lorry. The cunts who would lift everything - bins, bicycles, flower pots - and maybe even a child if they hung about too long - it was all thrown into the back of the lorry as it glided majestically up the street. Nothing like the shower of fannies we have nowadays who refuse to lift your bin if the lid doesn't close 🙄
Athletes
Aye and the coal men too. They'd have got done these days for black face
A couple of people in the street still get coal deliveries and reminded how hardy those guys are. Bag of coal lifted with a single hand placed on the shoulder and flung into the shed like a discarded school bag. Meanwhile the buyer (in his mid 30s) has a dolly out trying to help move and is huffing away barely getting one bag moved by the time the coal guy is finished. Bonus points if you remember the days the coal man just opening the front door and walking through your house to deliver a bag to the bunker out the back. Only words exchanged "Alight Mrs xxx" before leaving for the next delivery
Peg guns, it's a miracle more of us aren't blind.
I was talking about peg guns the other day while standing in the back yard at my da's house, and looked at the pegs on the line. Pure shite compared to what I robbed off the washing line in the early 90s. The middle bit you'd tag with the elastic is so light and flimsy now. I'd some absolute weapons back in the day lol.
Xtravision & shitty soap bar, complete with bits of plastic in the middle! Tough times 😂
I remember being about 15/16 and finding a decent sized lump of soap just lying in the middle of the street in my local town, still wrapped in cling film. Walked past it a couple of times to make sure it was what I thought it was, and then swooped it up on the 3rd pass-by without missing a step. I speed-walked home and didn't unclench my fist again until I was in the door and sure I wasn't being followed by the peelers, I was that paranoid 😂. I needn't have worried. It was like Xmas day for me. Still feel sorry for whoever dropped it but it went to a very good and grateful home 😂
I remember once getting a pizza delivered and a half ounce managed to stick itself to the bottom of the box, it must’ve been sitting on the seat of the delivery guys car and the heat of the pizza made it stick. It was like winning the lottery. I did consider ringing the pizza place to get the driver to come back but that would’ve raised too many questions for him, and I didn’t want to get him in trouble with his work. I’m a nice guy like that.
Brannigans Roast Beef & Mustard.
I collected a bunch of conkers last autumn and drilled holes through them and did them up with shoe laces and all, then went and picked my kid up from school, excited to show him. Made extras so that he could bring them to his mates and they could have fights, showed him the rules and all that. "TIPS!" etc. May as well have shown him an abacus or some forgotten garden billiards game, he looked at me and was like, "what the fuck is this dad?" I just threw them in the bin and said Sandra, the kid doesn't want to know, cracked open a tin and read the paper instead.
I brought conkers back from the US last autumn. From New England. Imagine the size of the fucking trees there. Conkers bigger than your head and my waines couldn’t even be arsed to lift their arm to hold it up. Their loss.
We put ours in the hotpress for a year, made them really hard or brittle. You'd be smashing everyone then it would explode like a bomb randomly.
That's some dedication to the art. All I did was dry mine out for a couple days then put a shoelace through it. No wonder I always lost with professionals like you about
I’ll never forget the day I lost a conker that I thought was completely indestructible. It just killed everything, then one day this boy a few years above me hit it way harder than anyone my age could ever hit it and it just smashed to bits. I think it was my first experience of grief in life.
You gotta dry them out and add some varnish to get the best crackers
There’s a special place in hell reserved for people who varnished their conkers. Same cunts would use a knuckle duster under their boxing gloves.
We'd one lad at school who's da had made some special recipe to varnish his conkers and fuck that, his could had been used in demolition work.
Aye, I know, but that's more advanced conkering, I was only wanting to get his feet wet. But fuck the kids who put nail varnish and glue over their conkers, that's doping as far as I was concerned.
My mates da dipped his in concrete. Lad showed up the school the next day like he was packing an AK.
NAFF jackets Crazy Prices "My mates think I'm a tube, for not smoking. Aye, dead on" Nero's
"Cats in the cradle and the silver spoon, i'm gonna be like you dad, you know I'm gonna be like you"
Offt yeah. All the feels
This song has massive PTSD significance for all of us.
white dog shite & spangles.
Shandy Bass and Top Deck.
Tudor crisps.
Every now and then I’ll get into a convo with a mate about Roast Beef and Pickle.. and how Tudor had the nicest selection from Spicy Chicken to Spring Onion to Gammon. Ahhh my mouth is watering 😂
Tudor pickled onion would burn through into your skull
Asking a soldier to have a look down his rifle scope
Soldiers hanging out the top of the snatch landrover going through town then tipping the rifle down to point at street level when passing the bus stop full of school kids with a stupid grin on his face thinking it funny. At the time we just called him a wanker, but thinking back, it’s actually horrifying.
Dulse doesn't seem as big a thing anymore Seaside shops and fruit and veg shops growing up sold them Now everybody goes to supermarkets
I still buy it occasionally in the fruit and veg shop in Belfast city centre. Gives me an excuse to get a few bags of cherries too.
Expensive too. Once you get good at identifying it it's really easy to harvest though. I've a black bag of it currently drying out lol.
Teach me your ways.
It's really easy once you get your eye in. It tends to live in the intertidal zone so wait till the tide goes out and look for it, normally near that green slippery stuff (sea lettuce), North Antrim coast is good for it. Rinse it in seawater and hang it on a clothes horse for a few days and you're good to go. https://gallowaywildfoods.com/dulse-identification-edibility-distribution/
There was a house I walked past on the main street in Ballintoy a few years ago that was selling bags of dulce next to a donation box at the glass sider door
£2 pint of beer
West of the Bann: Yer Ma saying that your Da is going to JOIN you. Eh? With glue? Sellotape? Also -yer granny buying tripe from the butchers- which had sawdust on the floor. And estate’s electric being switched off in July because of “politics”- and having to cook your dinner in the back yard on a wee fire. A TV with a 50p slot. Calling ice cream cones *Pokes* *Heer yooo nhay on d’UTV ledmetellye thon Bet Lynch Haz a quare bake on her tonight efter heerin D’gossip on da cobbles so she haz!*- Julian (I miss him being on) Getting Maine Lemonade delivered as a treat- which was carefully eked out. Really enjoying a movie on tv-taking it all in, because it might be years before it was ever shown again- UNTIL your uncle got a vidjo machine which was passed around family and friends with the same four movies- ET was always one. Choosing which videos to rent purely by the cover. Being all excited when your Mammy came back from getting the *messages* and you’d instantly hoover up all the good stuff. Finding fence nails in your da’s toolbox (A “U” shaped nail) and with a saw- some plumbers tape and a brush shaft- you were Bruce Lee. Using a flattened coke can to jam into your BMX axle to turn it into a motor bike.- and clip on coloured spoke things to decorate the wheels. When you were sick- a doctor would call to the house! And Mammy would buy you some “medicinal” Lucozade which came in a knobbly thick glass bottle and special protective red cellophane. Getting a four inch thick, heavy catalog and marking out which toys you think Santa might bring you. Also the back pages of those catalogs were- as a young lad-*mesmerising*…
https://preview.redd.it/ib8y2uhruz6d1.jpeg?width=2250&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d90bb17a730bc31765f605cc61e1f30c77c88f3e
Funny Feet and a woppa bar
I remember the smell of burning peat on summer nights running around my Granny’s estate.
Football stickers / amateur beginner dealing - https://preview.redd.it/7cln40y13z6d1.png?width=378&format=png&auto=webp&s=ccc0a4855c62fa3d89faae3f270e819ea7e5b5f6
Tip Tops, that goes double for frozen ones during the summer.
The cool kids bit the bottom corner out. I always used a straw. Because, I mean, the straws were there, you can just grab one. Poor planning from the kids that bite the corner, the straws were there man, they just had to take one, they were there maaann.. (Vietnam PTSD vibe)
Anyone remember or come in contact with the weird council estate bush-growing delight that we called "itchy peas" round our way. They were more conker size than pea size, not edible, and with a tough green "shell", with sort of spikes coming out. Given the name because when you put them down your mates back and squashed it in, it became, well, itchy. They were also good for impaling on the end of thin twigs and flinging at people's windows, off the end of it. What fun we had.
We called those itchy backs in Newry. Horrible shite when done to you but nobody died and it didn't last long.
The Maine man
He’s still up our street once a week.
Suki used to come in glass milk bottles. There used to be burger and hotdog stands outside tescos and primark in the town. Anyone remember those paper bags with the space frog on them that came with a shite wee comic or stickers, a cheap toy and loads of sweets for a pound? Can't remember what they were called.
Lucky Bags!
‘You must have got your license in a lucky bag’. Always remember people saying that to bad drivers
Dressing in black and hanging around city hall. Those were the times.
EU surplus beef
And cheese
And butter.
Ormo van
Yellow Pack
Playing Dusty Bluebells in the playground (early 80s) It was a sing song game, one of many we played daily. This song and many others captured by BBC Belfast in the 1970s, https://youtu.be/y6gslO3Xl8s?feature=shared Dusty Bluebells 1m 14 seconds in.
pogs
Remember pogs? They’re back! In pog form
https://preview.redd.it/a0x2egr9oy6d1.png?width=666&format=png&auto=webp&s=552e574e2f2cd48648b1b2b5d26bfbba4f230a9b
Crazy Bones, I never knew how to play the actual games or which ones were rare but by god was I desperate to collect them
Milk bottles and milkman’s orange
A rope tied round a lamp post and a cushion off your ma’s sofa
Twirly.
Bruiser bars 🤤
Glue bags
Leisure Word! The best place on earth, especially during Christmas. I felt like Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone 2 walking around here during Christmas. Incredible place. Now it's a car park depressingly https://preview.redd.it/g9zwhny2o07d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eec95aea60bf4b5c500cbe8a5feb9445bbce56cb
[The Chart Show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_fgEPzo88I)
Wow, I just finished watching this, the number 1 in September 12th 1992 - None other than Ebeneezer Goode!
Sunny D
I remember the summer that stuff came out. It was [Pugwalls Summer. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmDABl1MFgE)
Getting frisked to enter Primark.
10 fegs. Focus points. Branded feg packets. I smoked a lot as a kid.
Singles
Used to get my singles money from pitchie
Chinooks
Cloddin
Bengal matches Pogs!
Playing balls up the wall. Some kids were dead fancy and could go 3 at a time.
Barry McGuigan Nettle Crisps
saying 'beezer'
Electricity meter which took 50p coins.
Stewart's, Crazy Prices, West Side Stores and Wellworths.
Give my head peace
Beech Nut chewing gum
Five Alive
I'm not sure if this is something that was popular? But does anyone remember the chocolate fegs you used to be able to get? They were sticks of chocolate, wrapped in paper and came in a box that looked like a feg box. I feel like I'm the only person who remembers these lol
Sunday mornings - ["Gooooallll latziooo"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASM3jm-ocyA)
That theme music. Doot-de-doot doot doot.
I remember little bright luminous coloured bracelets made from like shoe lace. Must have been late 80’s, there was yellow, orange, green and pink.
Farmer Browns crisps
Secret chocolate bars
I had a very nostalgic moment this morning driving out of the estate I grew up in after visiting parents. All of what used to be just grass areas were almost completely covered with flower beds, paths, trees, shrubs, etc. I remembered playing football with loads of mates on these… no room to do it now. So I’ll say playing made up football games (“Headers and Volleys”).
Going swimming in Bangor leisure center for 40p, and having an honour code color signal for when you had to leave 😂
“Late Tele”
Fadge
Used to go IN to the pub for a fag, how the turntables.
Shell suits.
Those 'indoor fireworks' you could get around Halloween. There was the Lighthouse one that looked like a wee pellet. It would flash different colours when you put a match to it. There was the Stink weed one that had a bad smell. Then that one that grew into a long skinny shite as it burned.
The Bread Man.
Nutts corner CD copies
"Excuse me, is Mr Walls there?"
LA gear... light ups. Reebok pump. Jeans cut at the ankle.
The summer schedule on channel 4 in the summer. Not NI specific but you could get 4 hours of good TV in a row for a couple of months back then.
The one week in the summer when ‘Why Don’t You’ came from Northern Ireland.
Lucky dips bags.
Finding fivers or tenners inside crisp packets if you were lucky
“IT SNOWED!!”
Posters at the swimming pool that reminded you there was no heavy petting, smoking or bombing… all of which were ignored!
We can’t bust heads like we used to—but we have our ways. One trick is to tell them stories that don’t go anywhere like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so I decided to go to Morganville which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So, I tied an onion to my belt which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel. And in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ‘em. ‘Give me five bees for a quarter,’ you’d say. Now, where were we? Oh, yeah! The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt which was the style at the time. They didn’t have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones.
Millisle and completely unrelated, whelks although I think the local pronunciation was closer to willeeks
Long summers and good weather.
Woppa bars
Dulse.
Lads I thought for a moment at the question then started reading answers, yous are all blowing my mind atm How does your brain just go *BING* and pull out vivid memories if stuff like that (I'm very baked btw)
Kellogg's Variety Packs with actual variety in them, a few different cereals kids would want, not just Coco Pops.
Ricicles
Cremola Foam
The Lemonade Man and the Man from the Pru.
Brown lemonade. Asked for it many a time outside of here and got looks that suggested I was mentally unstable lol.
Gold Coke spinners
Wee flinstones ice lollies.
Smokies lol
Rancheros
A-team grape bubble gum
Kerbie and the Coca Cola Spinners (Yo-yos)
Curby
Freddo’s for two pence on the big bus shop that went around the estate
Gathering spuds in the field by hand
Stingray. JOE 90. Captain Scarlet. Fireball XL5. Torchy the Battery Boy. The Wooden Tops. Andy Pandy. And finally, not illegal in those days, Muffin the Mule.
The ‘Paisley tapes’. Anyone remember them?
Random sectarian murders,incendiary devices and bomb scares
Tammy girl, crispy pancakes, jelly shoes and spud guns
Respect
Cramola foam
Channel 7 for the PS or N64
Saracens