“Crisps with little blue bag of salt” – readers’ reminisce about their fond (or less so fond) school memories

Today marks the beginning of the new school year for many in Sheffield and the surrounding areas, we asked our readers what their fond memories of school were.
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Here is a selection of some of our readers feelings, thoughts and comments on their memories from school:

Janet Gavan started things off on a positive note as she recalled, “Walking to School with my school friends, Mrs Stribley the Head teacher, Coleridge Road, Girls School.. great school. My school friends, some who I am still friends with and meet up with every so often.”

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And Vicki Hurn fondly remembered “Singing in the choir at the Christmas concert in Leeds Town Hall.”

Story time at Hartley Brook Primary School, Sheffield, 1995Story time at Hartley Brook Primary School, Sheffield, 1995
Story time at Hartley Brook Primary School, Sheffield, 1995

It wasn’t all memories of choirs and friends, many of the replies were food, well sweets, related. Lianne Knott commented that she really enjoyed, “Twin cone ice creams with two lollies stuck in the upside down they were good”

And Timmy Lumsden harked back to “How a full sized Mars Bar was, well .. full sized - unlike today, how they are the same size as a fun-size back then!” — all of the chocolate bars have shrunk over the years. I (engagement ed, Chris) loved the massive Lion bar as a little un, at least they seemed massive in comparison to today’s variant. Meanwhile, Glenda Barber recalls the “Crisps with little blue bag of salt”, does anyone else remember the Smiths Salt ‘n’ Shake crisps as fondly?

When Gary Barnsley were a lad, he remembered being able to buy “½ pence bubblies, Bazooka Joe's and Anglo's”, and Tony Vine replied with “Fruit Salad and Blackjacks”. Olivia Smith also added in the iconic “Gobstoppers and Highland toffee.”

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Another favourite was school dinners and puddings… something Barbara Allison remembers wistfully, “School dinners cheese pie and sponge pudding”, and Trish Orford remembers “Chocolate cake an pink custard”… pink custard, now that takes me back. And Barbara Allison did quite enjoy “School dinners, cheese pie and sponge pudding.”

Sally Townsend replied with how she really felt about school, “Sugar shorties from the Tuck shop, other than that I hated the waste of time schooldays were!” Yikes…

Darren Seddons responded with a much-missed memory, “Free milk and 2p for a viscount biscuit from the tuc shop”.

Joanne Helliwell said “If you got mojo’s they were 1/2p, some bubblies were same, you’d get more than 10 sweets for 10p.” Sadly this wasn’t the case when I was younger. I was definitively in the penny sweet era.

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Not everyone remembered it fondly though, some couldn’t wait to leave. Like Potts KM, who recalled “Wagging it and being pregnant.”

And David Booth reminisced about “Legging it through the back fence as often as possible when no one was looking, the highlight of the school year. I hated school, crap, bullying teachers who couldn't teach a fish to swim. I had a passion for learning but learned nothing until I enrolled myself into night school and college, passed all my exams there with distinction. Became something of a bookworm, I was always in the central library researching something or other, loved mathematics.”

As did Martin Pitchford, who couldn’t wait for “Home time and the holidays.” Roger Wood spent much of his time “Wagging it”, who else did this? Not that we can condone it but so many did do it at some time or other.

Jon Boss asked “Who remembers the pogs and tazos?”, Chelsea Howard did, saying that she “used to get pogs in chuppa chup lollies. Slammers were the best”, Jon replied, “I’ve still got a slammer”, might be worth something now that Jon.

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But what about when the seasons felt like actual seasons? Trudie Green will never forget the “Summer holidays, the sun always seemed to be shining…happy days”, when the summer holidays seemed like continual sunshine with only a little rain to break it up.

As for me, I remember Maypole Dancing at Anns Grove back in 1990, and when we used to have to sit on the stone cold floor to sing hymns. When the police used to visit schools and when a lollipop lady was seen as the most powerful person on the roadside, beckoning on the traffic or halting it to let us cross the road, scuffed up knees from slide tackles on a gravel playground, and hoping that we would be allowed to get our milk before it got too warm on the school steps.

Thanks for the memories folks.

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