Things we used to do

[slowmotion]

Staedtler pencils take some beating.

I know, but you have to go to a poncy art or graphics shop to get them. Actually, the sight of the staff and customers make it well worth the trip.

 

[Profpointy]

I had minutes of fun with this modern pencil sharpener....

yebbutt what about the lead bit?

 

[vernon]

yebbutt what about the lead bit?

The sharpener sharpened identical pencils leaving them fit for normal use without any problems whatsoever. Three pencils surrendered their lives demonstrating the reproducibility of the continuous helix phenomenon.

 

[mybike]

Sharpen pencils that worked. I inherited two boxes of pencils from my father in law The first was of box of Kings Own from the Cumberland Pencil Co. Ltd of Keswick. They were a joy to use. The second was a plain box. The pencils just had "Foreign" stamped on them (Fog in Channel, Continent Isolated stuff). They were pretty good too but I can't bring myself to use the last couple. Fast forward to today. You go to an office supplier and buy a pack of thirty pencils. You sharpen the first one and 10mm of lead falls out. You try again...same deal. In frustration, you snap the wretched thing and try another in the pack. You end up with thirty broken pencils on the floor, tears of frustration coursing down your cheeks, planning to ram the whole "Back to School" pack up one of Mr Staples' orifices.

So buy some Cumberland pencils, they still exist.

 

[EltonFrog]

We used to be able to play conkers in the school play ground.

Did anyone build a marble shoot/course/game in their desk using books, rules, erasers, pencils etc and the marbles run down it?

 

[gbb]

Cry when you slice an onion....I used to.
But not any more. You could wipe your eyes with them, theyre that harmless now.

 

[vernon]

Cry when you slice an onion....I used to.
But not any more. You could wipe your eyes with them, theyre that harmless now.

Oh no they're not. I diced some the other week that made my eyes stream. Admittedly it's now a once in a blue moon occurrence.

 

[martint235]

We used to be able to play conkers in the school play ground.

Did anyone build a marble shoot/course/game in their desk using books, rules, erasers, pencils etc and the marbles run down it?

Even in the Holland and Barrett ad the cartoon character pulls on some safety glasses before hitting the penny with a conker. Madness!

Someone has probably said it in the previous 19 pages but one thing kids don't seem to do is play out. When I was a kid, my boundary as a 3 year old was any where on my street. As a 10 year old it was anywhere within 2 miles of home. When I was 11 I got the bus to school 4 miles away and that's when my boundaries pretty much got scrapped. To be fair, there is a group of kids of about 10/11 who belong to our local ne'erdowells who always seem to be out and about. I now think of them as a nuisance until I stop myself and think they are far better behaved than I used to be.

 

[JtB]

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but we needed to read maps when we went somewhere unfamiliar.

 

[Profpointy]

Cry when you slice an onion....I used to.
But not any more. You could wipe your eyes with them, theyre that harmless now.

There is another explanation - i now have very sharp knives which slice onions cleanly. When I was a kid my mother had crap sereted knives which cut after a fashion but also spray onion juice into the air

 

[Dirk]

We used to play out all day during summer holidays and at weekends. No limits to where we went - just so long as we got back
home for 'tea'. This was in the 60's. Never had any problems.

 

[EltonFrog]

Tell Jokes.

No one tells jokes any more, I used to go to work or go down the pub or meet a bloke in the shops and they would say "did you here the one about ...". Jokes seem to be sent by e-mail or text, on some other media, the art of telling jokes is dead, even comedians don't tell gags any more, its more a stream of consciousness or a mildly amusing rant that passes for comedy these days.

 

[slowmotion]

So buy some Cumberland pencils, they still exist.

That's great news! Could you post a link to them? Are they still called Cumberland or have they morphed into another brand? Thanks.

 

[vernon]

So buy some Cumberland pencils, they still exist.

www.pencils.co.uk?

 

[vernon]

I'd rather have Cumberland sausages.

A whole yard of one.