Nostalgiad

In Competition No. 2406 you were invited to write a nostalgic poem about commercial products or brand images that are no longer with us. ‘O my Brylcreem and my Trugel long ago!’ sighed Tony Dawson. ‘Just bring me my Seebakrascope,’ begged John Whitworth (for those of you too young to remember, this was a miniature periscope, advertised in the 1950s, which showed what was going on behind you). Ah, Carter’s Little Liver Pills, Gibbs’ Dentifrice (to protect your ‘ivory castles’), Roboline, Elliman’s Athletic Rub, Fuller’s Walnut Cake, Spangles, the Bisto Kids, Bile Beans, the Rank Gong Man, Gripfix (the glue that smelt of almonds), Antiphlogistine for inflamed bronchials…. As Auden said about lakes, ‘Just reeling off their names is ever so comfy.’ The prizewinners, printed below, get £25 each and Godfrey Bullard has £30.

Hot summers brought Snowfrute to savour,
Ice-cold in its cardboardy case,
And Refreshers had fizz in their flavour
Which sizzled up into your face.

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