Books by “Dr” somebody advocating folksy cures like cod-liver oil or apple cider vinegar
box rooms for keeping trunks
eggboxes for sound insulation
gown shops called Madame Somebody (their style lives on in catalogues, and there's a shop called "Madam's" in Mansfield)
May Queens, Easter Bonnets, horn dances and other folk customs revived by earnest middle-class types in the 20s and earlier (They died out again.)
cigar cutters
classic cashmere jumpers (Hogg of Hawick have had an unfortunate makeover)
cocoanut matting
communal changing rooms (They were the future, but so loathed that they quickly turned back into cubicles.)
complaining that you can’t use the word “gay” to mean “happy” any more
domestic science lessons
femidoms
flannel sheets
Gripfix
letter racks
marquetry pictures (70s)
microfiches
nylon sheets
red setters
rubber dresses (brief vogue in 80s)
school trunks
slop basins (They came as part of a teaset – haven’t seen one used since the 50s.)
tele-working with a huge computer on a desk (Those futuristic articles of the 80s never predicted laptops and cafés. Or wifi.)
those New Zealand flatworms that were going to displace our earthworms
tights containing microbeads of coffee to slim your legs (etc)
tobacconists (in tiny kiosks)
umbrella/stick stands
utopian communities in Essex (They dissolved in acrimony or went bust about 1920. And then as hippies in the 60s/70s we went through exactly the same cycle: experiments in communal living, high-mindedness, exploitation, faddy food, folk music, handicrafts, free love, mysticism…)
WI cookery demonstrations
More here, and links to the rest.
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