ORIGINAL MESSAGE

NAME: Vic Coughtrey   Then & Now

DATE: 16 January 2014

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 1954-59

A lot of interest has been shown by contributors of a certain vintage in discussing favourite branded products (mainly food) and services past and present. Thread 109 (reply 13 onwards) became the focal point of this interest, rather to the surprise of Gerry Hunt, who started that thread. So I thought it might be a good idea to continue the theme here, as a new restricted subject thread. Please read the the relevant replies in Thread 109 first, to avoid repeating too much of their content in W7. You can still respond to replies in 109, but if the subject is named brands of food, drink or other products or services, your reply will appear in W7 instead, with a link back to 109.

RESTRICTED THREAD: please make branded products and/or services the main subject of your reply.

1st REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 16 January 2014

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

[Theme continued from Thread 109]. In relation to products from the supermarkets and the smaller grocery shops I continue to enjoy both Marmite and Bovril. It is remarkable how many of the products of our youth still survive in the shops, albeit with different ownership in many cases. I was interested to see in the press recently a large number of recruited shoppers were sent in to Tescos to ask for Typhoo tea, which had disappeared from the shelves. My father was a great patron of the brand and because of this I often am one also. It is maybe a stronger mix than PG Tips, Tetley and Yorkshire Tea (other brands are available.) but I hope the Typhoo brand does not fade away. I also continue to enjoy Birds custard and trifles, Kelloggs cornflakes, Weetabix, Shredded Wheat and McVities chocolate digestives.

2nd  REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 02 February 2014

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

After a recent visit to our local Save The Children charity shop I acquired a glass with the Babycham fawn emblem on it. This took me back to those days spent in local Borehamwood/Arkley/Barnet pubs in the 50's and I could not resist getting it. I suppose it was to some extent regarded as a ladies drink after it was introduced in 1953 but I remember enjoying many a glass of this champagne perry. Apparently the drink is still being drunk and according to the website 15 million bottles were sold during 2011, the latest year it records. Of course the main drinks I used to enjoy were rum and blacks, vodka and orange or sweet cider, especially Bulmer's Woodpecker, as I never liked beer much including real ales. Bulmers of Hereford will always also be remembered with affection for its restoration to main line running of GWR engine 6000 King George V.

3rd REPLY

NAME: Nick Dean   

DATE: 04 February 2014

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1964-71

The "genuine champagne perry" jingle entered my consciousness at an early age, although, to the extent that I wondered at all what 'perry' actually meant, I suppose I equated it with something like 'cocktail' or 'cup'. For enlightenment, I had to wait until a geography lesson in about the second form when the textbook arrived at Somerset and Sam C0cks observed, off piste, as it were, that this was the pear equivalent of cider. However, he added with a chuckle that, these days, perry was generally put through a process that enabled it to be marketed at Christmas under the name of Babycham. (This was another of his occasional jolly allusions to popular taste. I've referred elsewhere to his meeting Cliff Richard and his memories of the OE broadcaster, the late Michael Sullivan.)

 
4th REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 29 June 2014

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

My wife and I recently paid a visit to Blists Hill Victorian Town near Ironbridge in Shropshire. I have often seen signs to it but until now have not been there. We enjoyed going round the Victorian shops, houses and the pub (to join in Victorian songs played on the piano). In the chemist's there were products I remember well from my youth. Besides still used Vaseline there was Germolene and Zam-Buc tins as well as Beecham Pills but do any have memories of using other products on display: Zel Kol (the wonder skin cure), Harrisons Pomade, Sloan's Liniment, Platt's Ointment and Doctor Dickinsons's Sandalwood Shaving Cream? A lot of items in the shops could be bought either with current money or specially minted pre-decimal currency (farthings, halfpennies, pennies, threepenny and sixpenny pieces). I bought a farthing for current 10p. It is shiny and nice but does not have a wren on it. Apparently the original farthings were wren-less.

5th REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 25 October 2014

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

On the way down to Kent this weekend for my daughter Grace's 42nd birthday celebrations I passed on the motorways no less than three Hovis Bread lorries. I was impressed not only with the brilliant brown and yellow colours like the loaf packets but the fact they proclaimed the brand began in 1886, a truly tremendous period of 128 years. It also made me reflect again on those wonderful TV adverts of the boy on the bike filmed on Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset. Hovis was owned entirely by premier Foods but in April 2014 became an independent company 49% owned by Premier Foods but 51% by The Gores Group. I continue to buy regularly Hovis loaves from our local Tesco, as I have since I was young. I like it so much more than the Warburton loaves our local Co-Op has.

Can't resist saying, Jas, that although Hovis is far from being the worst bread you can buy, you'd be better off making your own. It gives you such a wide range of possibilities.

6th REPLY

NAME: Nigel Wood  

DATE: 26 October 2014

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1957-64

Those who haven't seen the vans might think "brilliant brown" an oxymoron.

7th REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 02 November 2014

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

Interesting comment, Nigel, about the oxymoron but I did say brilliant brown and yellow, which perhaps modifies it a bit.

Perhaps 'brown-and-yellow' is the answer?

8th REPLY

NAME: Nigel Wood  

DATE: 04 November 2014

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1957-64

Googling 'oxymoron' yields some interesting material. The Wiki article draws a distinction between a mere juxtaposition of opposites (like 'pianoforte'?) and a true oxymoron: a sort of paradox in which such a juxtaposition results in a surprising truth: perhaps being cruel to be kind or being the wisest fool in Christendom would qualify. James's use (our James, not James I/VI) of 'brilliant brown' to describe the Hovis van livery is, I think, in the paradox or true oxymoron category. What about 'deafening silence', 'organised chaos', 'open secret'? Then there are phrases which it's mildly offensive to claim as oxymorons, like 'military intelligence' and 'civil engineer'. I remember Bernie Pinnock (of all people!) saying that there's no such thing as a civil engineer.

Further replies about oxymora or any other aspects of English grammar are now going into Thread W16

9th REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 06 November 2014

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

Of course, Vic, in your green footnote to my reply 5, you unusually modestly did not refer to the bread recipes on your other site in relation to white sourdough bread as well as rye, sesame, olive and onion sourdough breads. You and Angela should perhaps now be regarded as experts. Have any other contributors to the site or their partners become experts on baking and especially on making bread? Cross reference should perhaps also be made to thread 149 on the main board, which refers to the TV programme The Great British Bake Off and the achievement of OE Richard Burr in becoming one of the three finalists. I must admit that watching Paul Hollywood making rolls of different types so easily is tempting me also to have a go. It is on my wish list to do since retiring from my last employment 4 years ago. To this you may reply: "Get on with it. Just do it." I will report back if I do get my schedule changed to include it. Proving the bread will then become part of my experience too.

In the meantime, I think that maybe I will pay more money more often in buying the newly baked bread in our local Co-Op. I do buy some sometimes but am rather mean in seeking value from grocery purchases, especially when Hovis wrapped sliced is reduced from £1 to 50p or even 15p a loaf in Tescos. At one time for some years after moving to Ludgershall in 1987 there was a local baker who produced lovely bread, both white and brown, and also had a slicer to save us cutting the loaves unevenly at home. Unfortunately he and his wife were old and he had no children to take on the business and so when he retired we lost his products. There is a baker nearer Andover (Burbidges) and sometimes I break the bus journey to get a freshly baked loaf. Nevertheless Hovis sliced is still enjoyed as well. As for home baking I prefer my wife spending her limited time in making chocolate flapjack, shortbread and lemon cake.

Of course when discussing bread consideration should be given to the spread put on it. Like the king in that poem "I may not be a fussy man but I do like a bit of butter on my bread." or nowadays more often a buttery taste spread. Of these I do really approve of both 'Clover' and 'I can't believe its not butter'. 'Utterly Butterly' and some supermarket own brands are not as tasty in my opinion. Of course the price factor again does have an influence. I only like to pay £1 for 500 grams and not double the price. A delicious spread plus Lidl's jam (Maribel brand) make all the difference. 

Many thanks for reminding me of that breadmaking section of my personal site, Jas. With any luck it will act as a spur to a long-planned revision and extension of the section, with more recipes (including some 'quick' non-sourdough ones) and a few photos.

10th  REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 10 December 2014

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

Having sat at home a lot lately watching TV, especially Channel 4 and sometimes ITV, I am bombarded of course by all the adverts. All the supermarkets are vying for my custom for the cheapest food bargains for Christmas time. For myself I will stick mainly to my local Co-Op, Tesco Express and Spar here in Ludgershall. I find many other ads enjoyable, even if often repeated, especially the Snickers and Galaxy ones. One that has particularly caught my attention is the one for Toffifee. This is a band of caramel candies owned by a Berlin based German company, who also make Werther's Originals, which I have commented upon in another thread. I do not ever recall seeing this product in the shops but the company seems to be majoring on this product and adverts for Werther's Originals seem to have disappeared for now. My wife says that my second oldest daughter Carole bought and liked them in her youth so we bought her some as part of her birthday presents.

In regard to Toffifee I am a bit surprised that I have not known about it as it was introduced in 1973 and I often peruse sweet and chocolate products. The packets consist of caramel cups containing nougat, caramel and hazelnut topped with a chocolate button and are sold in 4,12,15,24,30,48 and 96 piece boxes. The present to my daughter was a 24 piece box. They are pretty expensive and I expect I may continue to enjoy Ferrero Rocher more. I hope to taste 1 or more from my daughter's present. Other products of the German company (August Storck KG) may appear on our screens later assuming they do supply the UK (Riesen, Merci, Mamba, Bendicks, Campino, Milkfuls and Moser-Roth). Of these I have only tasted Campino abroad - much enjoyed.

11th  REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 19 December 2014

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

As it is a real Christmas treat I was wondering who makes those delicious gold wrapped chocolates so important at the Ambassador's reception i.e. Ferrero Rocher chocolates. The name sounds half Spanish and half French but in fact was introduced in 1982 by Italian chocolatier Ferrero SpA. Possibly, though I may be wrong, not many people know that. They also make Nutella, Tic Tac and Kinder Bueno and similar - not a German concoction after all. I will continue to enjoy all these excellent products and I hope all you other readers do too.

12thREPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 12 January 2015

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

I was intrigued to see during my Christmas TV watching "ITV Christmas sponsored by Cadburys." I do not know why exactly they need an overall sponsor as well as the individual advertisers but if this is what it takes to have many of our Christmas programmes on ITV I applaud them. I continued to enjoy eating my Cadburys with less guilt than usual and especially my Roses assortment. No matter all the controversial take-over from outside, I am still reassured seeing that purple chocolate bar we also had in my young days.

13th  REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 20 January 2015

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

As I have said elsewhere I am a great fan of many Channel 4, E4 and More 4 TV shows. One of those I very much enjoy seeing many episodes of is The Big Bang Theory. Amongst other things I am intrigued to find it has sponsorship with 'Maoam'. What exactly is this, I wondered, and I find from the internet that it is a group of types of fruity sweets produced by the German Haribo group. I personally have never seen the Maoam sweets in the shops, whether Stripes, Pinballs, Joystixx or Happy Fruttis. Yesterday however in doing a local litter clear up I did pick up a Maoam Stripes wrapper so obviously somewhere they are being sold unless bought on Amazon ("Low prices on Maoam Sweets"). There is a whole world out there of sweets I have yet to taste, though I really am trying a lot to cut down on the desires of my sweet tooth.

In regard to Maoam and Haribo I was not aware, though maybe others on site were, that the term 'Maoam' is an acronym of Martian Atmosphere Observation and Modeling and the term Haribo is an acronym of Hans Riegel Bonn, named after the founder and birthplace of the company. Of course Haribo is now worldwide and especially in the USA. Readers of the Daily Mail may be interested in the fact that Haribo has been criticized over characters on their wrappers being in compromising positions (see complaint of Simon Simpkins of 27/8/2009). Haribo rejected this and said the jovial Maoam man is very popular with fans, both young and old.

14th  REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 26 January 2015

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

I have really enjoyed seeing the recent type of adverts for SNICKERS, with the catchphrase "You are not yourself when you are hungry." The first one with Joan Collins I have liked the best but the one with Rowan Atkinson with his character Mr Bean is also much enjoyed. It won't get me buying the product as I prefer many other bars including MARS bars rather than one with peanuts in it. Unlike my wife I have not been a great fan of them, though I do like peanut spread and marmite together toasted on my bread. I was a bit surprised and anti when they changed the name from MARATHON in 1990 but I see from the Internet that it had been called SNICKERS for long before in the USA and was apparently named after the favourite horse of the Mars family. My disliking the name is a small point contrasting with worldwide sales of $2 billion.

15th  REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 02 February 2015

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

I find it interesting how many products advertised on TV come from Yorkshire. Prominent amongst these are Yorkshire Tea produced by Taylors of Harrogate and Aunt Bessie's Roast Potatoes and frozen Yorkshie Puddings (and many other products) from its factory in Hull. Lest you think, though, that Yorkshire is unique in the UK at producing its own teas this is a fallacy. Other counties such as Dorset and Wiltshire have their own brands of teas that may be bought at many outlets, certainly locally to us in Andover. I do have some packets of Dorset Tea on my kitchen shelf at home and it is every bit as delicious as Yorkshire Tea, even for Hard Water.

16th REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 14 February 2015

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

I spotted another Maoam sweet wrapper [reply ] thrown down today and this time managed to locate a seller of the sweets. This was 'The Works' in Chantry Centre, Andover. They were selling one variety as opposed to four different types of the Haribo brands. I have resisted so far buying some but maybe will buy some later for the grandchildren, whom I am glad to say are still allowed to eat some sweets. Talking of sweet buying does take me back to my boyhood Borehamwood days. The man in the house opposite to ours at 2 Oakwood Avenue used to sell sweets to us children. A later occupant of the house (Robert Nuttley) found lots of the old pennies etc that were dropped by the path for years after. Do any other OEs remember the Oakwood Avenue sweet parlour? Those were the days when we used to play both cricket and soccer in the street. One of the players I recall was Rob Hungate who also went to QEs and turned into a fine cricketer.

Replies re 2 Oakwood Road will go into Thread W9 (the localities thread).
Replies to your last sentence will go into Thread W11 (the sports thread).

17th REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 30 April 2015

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

Further to my reply 10, I have now tasted Toffifee for myself. I obtained a packet of 12 piecea for £1 from one of the Andover pound shops. Andover now has two pound shops and good value so many items are at in both. I enjoy one or two pieces of Toffifee after dinner and they are very tasty. Whether they are good value at 8.33 pence each is another question as a large Toblerone bar is alsio £1 and possibly better value. I can't resist having at least two pieces of that. I will probably continue to buy both products.

18thREPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 11 May 2015

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

I was wondering the other day what has happened to Murraymints, those lovely creamy sweets with a hint of mint that had the slogan "the too good to hurry mints". I had not seen them in shops for some time. They are in fact still being produced under the Bassets trade name, itself part of the Kraft Cadburys Schweppes group. There is a lot about them on enquiry to Google, including sweet shops where you may still get them. I went in to Mr Simms Sweet Shoppe in Salisbury yesterday and enquired about them. I am now the possessor of a small supply of them. I regret that bitter cherry sweets are no longer produced under the Trebor label but also obtained there two tins of Simpkins Citrus Lemon & Sour Cherry Travel Sweets, which are equally delicious and thirst quenching. I am also delighted that sweet shops still exist. There is one in Andover and Tidworth as well as Salisbury.

19thREPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 15 September 2015

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63

I continue to enjoy eating my Weetabix, especially with strawberries and milk or with rhubarb and Birds custard. I do not mind if the new majority shareholders are the Chinese investors. (Though what happened to the enemy of communism being capitalism?). I have not, however, succumbed yet to having one of their new Weetabix drinks. Maybe I will later. In my youth I was briefly a member of a party very far to the left of JC (Jez, that is, not Jas) which insisted that communism, like fascism, was just a rival form of capitalism.

20th REPLY

NAME: Martyn Day   Then & Now

DATE: 19 September 2015

CONNECTION WITH QE: Inmate 1956-63

GREETINGS COMRADE VIC! You must have been a member of the Socialist Labour League (a.k.a. Workers Revolutionary Party) or a similar Trotskyist cadre who always insisted that Stalin's communism was no more than 'State Capitalism' - a term first coined by V.I. Lenin back in 1918. Up the workers! Oh dear - my green comment (above) has led us astray. There's nothing for it but to start a new thread. My reply to Martyn has gone there.