BIRTHDAY GIFTS FOR DADS: WHAT DID YOU BUY?

When browsing charity shops I often see vintage stuff I got my old Dad for his birthdays.

If they're in charity shops I wasn't alone in this venture and it looks like many of these gifts never got used!

Top of the list are useful Dad apparatus like car wash kits. You know the ones; a turtle shampoo and wax and maybe a sponge or a shammy all neatly packaged in a plastic zip-up case. Very practical I would say. What's not to like for the Nineteen Sixties and early Seventies Father?

Next would be a travel manicure set. Often found in a handy oblong zippable mock leather case these sets might include a hairbrush, a comb and an empty tin for I'm not really sure. Again eminently useful. Why wouldn't they get used?

I would say following on quickly would be a shaving set. My own choice for Dad was a large alabaster face soap mug with the Old Spice ship on the front, together with a rather natty soaping brush. these may have come in gift sets too including pre-shave and after-shave bottles. Really quite splendid!

After these I get stuck. there must have been more gifts for Dad's back then. I guess air fresheners for the car, a stick-on dashboard compass, a pack of cards, a pair of nutcrackers and even a book by Jack Higgins.

I imagine my Mum gave me some spends to pay for stuff like this. Somewhere I even have a list of things I bought in 1972.

What did you get your Dad for his Birthday readers?

PS. I'll do Mums later!