I loved visiting my nan and granpop when I was little, and also, a lady we knew as Aunt Maud, who had helped my nan when my granpop was away in the war, and who'd lived next door back then.
Both had a table with a bench slat across the bottom between the legs on either side. They also both had chenille tablecloths, that hung down half way to the floor. For us kids, those slats were magical, we'd disappear under them and it became our "camp" while the adults talked. This was way before kids had real playhouses, like the Little Tikes ones or the wooden cabin type that people have in their yards, but in our imaginations that space became whatever we wanted it to be.
Both also had the same carved wood sideboards, cupboards either side and 3 drawers down the middle. They matched the table.
This one is similar but my nan's and Aunt Maud's were more heavily carved.
Another intrusion into my waking moments, was a memory of Pelham Puppets. 1964-1966 they were definitely one of the "in" things for us East End kids. We took them to school, we did "puppet shows" in wooden "puppet theatre" in our classroom, and took great care of them.
I remember you could buy them in Bearman's (a long gone department store in Leytonstone) back then and they were 21s each, a guinea as they used to say back then. There were all the characters from Disney, from fairy tales, all sorts, even animals and "pop stars".
Another fad we had was trolls!
Oh how we loved them, and we made miniature clothes for them from felt, and we carefully brushed their hair. They even made rubber pencil toppers, and of course, we all had to have them on the ends of our pencils!
We were an age of children who definitely loved our comics, and every Christmas hoped for the annual of our favourites, to be in our stockings.
My faves were Bunty and Judy, full of stories that made you laugh, think, left you waiting for more with a semi-cliffhanger in the serial.
So many of us also loved Ladybird books and they helped us to learn about so many things. My favourites were the history ones, and I'm still passionate about history. They had books that helped us learn to read, learn shapes and colours (and which I then used with my children when they were small), books about famous people (I have one on the Queen Mum from a couple of decades ago), fairy stories, cities, all sorts of "stuff". In the 1960s they only cost 2s 6d each, a half crown, which meant we could usually afford them out of our pocket money!
They even had ones to lessen the fear of certain places - visiting the dentist or doctor, or going to school. They were amazing and are still in existence today.
Another favourite series of books, back in those days, were the I-Spy books. They were a treasure hunt of things to find in certain places or about certain things, and kept us amused for hours on end. They used to cost 6d each back then.
I remember, when we had gone to Bude, my nan and I walking up to a shop on the curve and getting me the "At The Seaside" one, when I was maybe 8 or 9. They helped make you observant of the world about you.
In the spirit of the day, there was even an I-Spy club, and the Daily Mail carried a coded message every day. I remember "odhu ntinggo" it meant good hunting. You took the first 2 letters and moved them to the end of the sentence but moved the other letters forward so that there were the same number of words in the sentence.
I could go on and on, as more things keep popping into my mind as I compose this, but I'll keep those for another day!
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