Back in the days when a Big Mac was something you wore

[Graham Orm]

I've not seen gas lighting. Which is probably sad, as I live in the first town in the world lit by gas.

Being only a youngster in my fifties I don't remember gas street or domestic lighting, but often come across lead gas piping buried in old plaster, originally for the lights.

 

[Graham Orm]

Does anyone remember this stuff? We had one of those ceramic dispensers throughout my childhood. The paper was hard and coarse and in seperate sheets like Kleenex are today I seem to remember.

Speaking of the bathroom, I also remember my dad often having to un-freeze the trap under the basin with a paraffin blow-lamp during the winter.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Does anyone remember this stuff? We had one of those ceramic dispensers throughout my childhood. The paper was hard and coarse and in seperate sheets like Kleenex are today I seem to remember.

View attachment 4557468697

Cor yes. We had that in the outside loo - horrible stuff.

I encountered it again in Nepal in the late 1980s - made in India at a guess - after that I started packing a loo roll of my own.

E.

PS: Grandpa's sawmill had a four-seater round the back. I remember a book of crossword puzzles and a pencil on a piece of string, but not what, er, comfort arrangements, there were.

 

[tekno.mage]

Does anyone remember this stuff? We had one of those ceramic dispensers throughout my childhood. The paper was hard and coarse and in seperate sheets like Kleenex are today I seem to remember.

View attachment 4557468697

OMG! Yes - Izal toilet paper - the only stuff my Dad would use. I remember when my parents bought their first house in the early 1960s (a new bungalow, they were in their mid forties - and they got a Council Mortgage at a fixed interest rate of 4 per cent!) my Dad fitted two toilet paper dispensers in the bathroom - a metal holder for his box of Izal (nearest to the loo) and a wooden roll holder for the softer paper my Mum & I prefered (slightly further away from the loo).

I only ever used the Izal for one thing (I was a small child) - it was absolutely great for making paper mache - being strong when wet and very thin - but it did stink of disinfectant.

We also had hard paper in the toilets at school - it wasn't Izal and was even worse to use for it's real use being totally non-absorbant (like Izal) but much harder and scratchier. The toilets at school, BTW, were in outdoor sheds and I hated it in the winter as the girls loos always seemed to freeze up before the boys ones (which were slightly nearer the main school building) and then we all had to use the boys loos and they were very stinky (which I think had something to do with the boys having who-can-pee-highest-up-the-wall competitions)

 

[DrPhill]

Ahhhh, Izal - once described as 'like trying to mop up coffee with a record sleeve'.

I remember one character from my yoof who was called izal because he was adamant that he 'wouldn't take ship off anyone'.

 

[Graham Orm]

We also had hard paper in the toilets at school - it wasn't Izal and was even worse to use for it's real use being totally non-absorbant (like Izal) but much harder and scratchier.

Was it on a roll, but hard and shiny without a hope in hell of being absorbent?

The toilets at school, BTW, were in outdoor sheds and I hated it in the winter as the girls loos always seemed to freeze up before the boys ones (which were slightly nearer the main school building) and then we all had to use the boys loos and they were very stinky (which I think had something to do with the boys having who-can-pee-highest-up-the-wall competitions)

Nah, they just smell like that :mrgreen:

 

[Graham Orm]

Ahhhh, Izal - once described as 'like trying to mop up coffee with a record sleeve'.

I remember one character from my yoof who was called izal because he was adamant that he 'wouldn't take ship off anyone'.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Robbo3]

Seem to remember Bronco came in both flat sheets & as a roll.

Didn't both Bronco & Izal have a shiny side & a slightly less shiny side, & you used the shiny side at your peril?

 

[Graham Orm]

Seem to remember Bronco came in both flat sheets & as a roll.

Didn't both Bronco & Izal have a shiny side & a slightly less shiny side, & you used the shiny side at your peril?

HA! Bronco...that was the one we had I'd forgotten that! Yes brought a new meaning to the word 'skidder'.

 

[nanscombe]

Baldhead - you've forgotten lupins and dahlias.

... and don't forget rhubarb.

Mind you, I prefer custard on mine. :wink:

Yes, I also remember the perils of IZAL from the 1970s. As toilet paper it made very good tracing paper.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Does anyone remember this stuff? We had one of those ceramic dispensers throughout my childhood. The paper was hard and coarse and in seperate sheets like Kleenex are today I seem to remember.

Speaking of the bathroom, I also remember my dad often having to un-freeze the trap under the basin with a paraffin blow-lamp during the winter.

View attachment 4557468697

Remember it ?? My mom used to make it. At the Izal factory in Chapeltown, Sheffield, a part of Newton, Chambers & co. My dad worked in their engineering works, variously as pattern maker, welder, and training instructor. His father worked in their coal pits and foundries - we have a photo of him in front of the Bessemers. Back in the days when the river Don was a sort of rusty orange...

 

[Andrewf]

My father in law still uses Izal loo paper and has 2 loo roll holders in their toilet. Strange family.

 

[ChrisR]

Does anyone remember this stuff? We had one of those ceramic dispensers throughout my childhood. The paper was hard and coarse and in seperate sheets like Kleenex are today I seem to remember.

View attachment 4557468697

OMG! Yes - Izal toilet paper - the only stuff my Dad would use. I remember when my parents bought their first house in the early 1960s (a new bungalow, they were in their mid forties - and they got a Council Mortgage at a fixed interest rate of 4 per cent!) my Dad fitted two toilet paper dispensers in the bathroom - a metal holder for his box of Izal (nearest to the loo) and a wooden roll holder for the softer paper my Mum & I prefered (slightly further away from the loo).

I only ever used the Izal for one thing (I was a small child) - it was absolutely great for making paper mache - being strong when wet and very thin - but it did stink of disinfectant.

We also had hard paper in the toilets at school - it wasn't Izal and was even worse to use for it's real use being totally non-absorbant (like Izal) but much harder and scratchier. The toilets at school, BTW, were in outdoor sheds and I hated it in the winter as the girls loos always seemed to freeze up before the boys ones (which were slightly nearer the main school building) and then we all had to use the boys loos and they were very stinky (which I think had something to do with the boys having who-can-pee-highest-up-the-wall competitions)

Six feet, on a good day.

Chris R.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

:lol: I cleared the wall and hit the kid on the other side. My backside remembers it well.

 

[graduate_owner]

There was another toilet paper called 3 hands, which was just as bad as Izal, rubbed your ar$e raw. We had outside toilets too when I was in primary school, and yes, we used to try to pee up (and over) the wall. Nobody sat on the floor just outside the boys loos. We didn't have the paper in the loos though, we had to ask the teacher to go toilet 'with paper' and he would tear some sheets off a roll, but I don't know what make it was, just that it was more of the hard stuff.
We had ink wells too, set in holes in the desks. The teacher would give each pupil a new pen at the start of each term, the kind you had to dip in the ink well. We never used them though, because we all had biros and fountain pens by then (no felt pens though). Lots of us used to fill our fountain pens before the end of the day, then empty them into a bottle at home. Stealing school property - shameful.
All the floors were wood block - no lino or carpet in sight.

And back at home, we had childrens' hour and Watch With Mother (Picture Book, Andy Pandy, Rag Tag and Bobtail, Bill and Ben, and the Woodentops - unmissable stuff) and on Sunday there was Sooty and Sweep with Harry Corbett. How lucky we were.

K

 

[joethedrummer]

Hi how it comes flooding back !!
IZAL,, it said medicated with Izal germicide,,what was that,,"cos it sure was unpleasent,,,but then the toilet block was outside,,
Beside that bike shed as I recall,,baldhead,, hey was I not the only joe,,,I"m gutted

,,,,,,,joe,,,,

 

[joethedrummer]

Hey I just read my last post and figgered why I didn"t do too well at school,,,Spent too much time readin" the toilet paper !!!!

 

[Graham Orm]

Speaking of toilet blocks....what about the blocks of disinfectant that you would kick up and down the urinal gulley.

 

[graduate_owner]

We never had disinfectant blocks - the toilets would probably have stank to high heaven if it were not for the fact that the urinal wall and pee channel were open to the weather. Only the cubicles were under cover.

K

 

[MikeJhn]

Izal also made a good Gazoo on a comb.

Even our toilet at home was in the garden.