Who remembers? . . .

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Professor Julius Sumner Miller: 

Miller (1909-1987) was an American physicist and television personality, best known for his work on children's television programs in North America and Australia. Miller not only made physics and science understandable in his show “Why Is It So?”, he also made it fun. 

From Wikipedia: 

Miller's first television appearance in Australia was on Bob Sanders People in 1963. In an improvised physics demonstration, he attempted to drive a drinking straw through a raw potato. A paper straw normally does not have sufficient strength but if one pinches the end, the trapped air acts as a piston, easily piercing the potato. For the first time in his career he could not get this to work, and he loudly exclaimed "Australian straws ain't worth a damn!". The next morning, Miller arrived at his Sydney University laboratory to find one million drinking straws on the floor with a telegram reading "You might find one of these fitting your requirements". He later stated "I sat amongst the straws with straws stuck in my hair and ears. But clearly I had made a mistake. I should have said: 'Australian potatoes ain't worth a damn', and I'd have cornered the potato market!” 

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Fish and chips wrapped in newspaper: 

That’s how fish and chips was sold back then: a wire basket of deep fried chips and fish was emptied onto a white paper sheet, generously covered in salt with a lemon wedge tossed in (vinegar optional).  Then it was wrapped in newspaper. Today fish and chips is sold in cups and boxes but it tasted better back then. 

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Golliwog biscuits: 

So not PC these days. 

These biscuits, were first sold in the 1960s, and were made in the shape of the Golliwog toy which was popular at that time. The name was changed to Scalliwag in the mid-1990s. 

However the biscuits remained in the shape of a Golliwog and the product was discontinued by the late 1990s. Golliwogs went out of favour around the world in all kinds of commercial areas, from toys to children's books to foodstuffs as they have been perceived as being inherently racist. 

On a related aspect, one of my mother’s TV favourites was the Brit Black & White Minstrel Show. It began in 1958 and ended in 1978 after complaints that its use of blackface was racist and ethnic stereotyping. 

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Bug sprayer: 

It’s a wonder we survived at all when Mum sprayed insecticide in the bedroom each night, in summer, with us in it,  to kill the mozzies. 

And if that wasn’t enough, we also grew up with . . . 

It's called flypaper and it was extremely sticky.  Once flies, mozzies etc touched it, they were doomed.  It was the Paper of Death.

It was pulled out of a canister and hung up but bad luck if you touched it and got your fingers stuck.