Life before plastic

[rary]

I also remember when trousers only had button flyes when zips came in it caused a lot of excruciating pain

[Snadger]

I blame the umbiquitous barcode for all of this.

[bramble]

I remember my mother buying meat from the butcher which was wrapped in white paper.
We bought our bread from the bakery wrapped in tissue paper.
Strawberries and raspberries in punnets made from fine wood...like wood shavings.
Washing soap, carbolic or sunlight in thick bars.
My grandmother used persil in cardboard boxes to wash the clothes.
I remember toothpaste in a round tin, but cant remember the brand name.
We had a man who came around our area every Fridsy selling fish from a cart and all the mothers would go out with their plates to choose the fish.
The milkman came with his churn and our mother went out with a hug.
There was never a need for plastic.
My father used wooden potato boxes to chit his potstoes and all the flower pots were terracotta.

[veggiechicken]

I remember toothpaste in a round tin, but cant remember the brand name.

?Gibbs dentifrice?

[bramble]

?Gibbs dentifrice?

That's the one Veggichickrn.
Dare I say, I think we are from the same era!,!!

[Thelma Sanders]

I remember toothpaste in a round tin, but cant remember the brand name

We used Eucryl...

[veggiechicken]

I remember the tins and, I think, the paste was pink - or was it green?
We shared the tin but had our own toothbrushes!!

[Mamzie]

I think people expected and accepted less choice and had someone in the home who could shop every day or 2. I certainly remember going up and down our mountain, walking of course just a mile or so with my Nan every school holiday. The butcher, the veg shop, the clothes and smaller shops.. Half paid in money half on tic...

I remember the smell of vespa curry, and then the big weekly supermarket shop as I grew into my teens crept in.. By my 20s I was employed in first Aldi to open in Wales and that was pile it high and sell as much as possible with no staff...

Incidentally I still buy my washing powder in a huge cardboard box, and have done as a choice my married life. Fleece is often made from a type of plastic ( often bottle now) I don't remember recycling as a child but I do remember make do, and wearing knitted school woolens.

[rary]

I remember battery-powered wierlesses (radios) and no I don't mean barreries you buy in bubble packs but big heavy things like a car baterry that you took to a garage to get them recharged

[bramble]

Yes Rary, I remember them as well.
We also had oil lamps as a backup as my gran lived out in the country.
It was my job to go get half a gallon of oil when the can was empty.

VC, the toothpaste in the tin was pink.

[Thelma Sanders]

In winter we actually lit the paraffin heater as well as the coal fire when we used the tin bath of a Friday, sharing the water with the whole family Those were the days

[rary]

Ah bramble those paraffin lamps that always sat next to a big mirror so that the light was thrown out further, as for the zink bath I was always last to get one because my brother and sisters wouldn't go into the bath after me, they said I went through every mucky hole that I could find

[lottie dolly]

I remember the tins and, I think, the paste was pink - or was it green?
We shared the tin but had our own toothbrushes!!

If i remember correctly,it also had its own smell,reminded me of medical cream.
Somewhere on here is a thread already,about the old days and how things used to be,in comparison to now,i think if some the youngsters knew,they find hard to believe,and we had it better than our parents in some ways,that's the thing about getting older,we have more memories and stories

[mothhawk]

... I don't remember recycling as a child but I do remember make do, and wearing knitted school woolens.

I remember recycling being done by way of the rag-and-bone man, who would take old clothes that couldn't be handed down or patched any more, bits and pieces of metal and such. I think the bones he collected went to the glue factory.
And he had a horse and cart.

[greenishfing]

I remember having a dress made out of an old curtain! Also I remember my grandma unravelling old knitted jumpers and reusing it for a "new" jumper. She tried to teach me the intricacies of knitting, crochet, tatting and embroidery but pretty much gave up in the end due to my gawky (left) handedness. In those days a lot of the waste was "clinker" from the coal fires. All sacks were hessian. There were no commercial firelighters. We made our own paper sticks out of old newspapers. From about age five I could clean out the grate, lay and light a fire. Rubbish bins were made of metal and the dustbin men used to hoist them up on their backs. There were obviously no plastic bin bags or liners. The rubbish just went in loose. Looking back there wasn't really a lot of rubbish: food wasn't wasted, anything leftover was eaten by the dog/cat. Paper, wood and card ended up on the fire. Glass was returned for the deposit.