17 Comments
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June Girvin's avatar

Pineapple hedgehogs!! And do you remember when it was de rigeur to cut tomatoes and radishes into that crown shape? I love the idea of boxes of drawing pins as the prizes for a kid's birthday party - quite perfect.

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Katy Wheatley's avatar

Yes! one day in a very long summer holiday, my Granny bought radishes and taught me how to make crowns and roses out of them. A life skill I have yet to employ to any good use as an adult, but no doubt one day I will be called upon and I will not be found wanting.

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June Girvin's avatar

Well, you never know!

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Matt Glover's avatar

Oh Katy, this did rather take me back! 😂 Kids parties, a fertile ground to plant the seeds for a lifetime of emotional trauma! 😂

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Katy Wheatley's avatar

So very true!

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Kay Tindel's avatar

Not only did this American miss pineapple and cheese hedgehogs, but I am not absolutely sure what drawing pins are. 😊

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Katy Wheatley's avatar

I think that you call them thumb tacks? x

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Kay Tindel's avatar

Yes, I googled it. 😂

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Victoria SkyDancer's avatar

Only in the 70s would drawing pins be even remotely considered a good idea! And the pineapple-with-cheese hedgehog is a completely wild thing to this American brain.

On the other hand, I happen to live where there are several nicely sized second-hand stores, so if you ever get the opportunity to visit, with the bonus of sampling excellent Mexican food, hit me up.

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Katy Wheatley's avatar

This sounds perfect to me. I definitely will. x

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Jo's avatar

Our cheeses in pineapple creations in Australia were usually stuck in half an orange, and often also had alternating sticks with cheese and coloured cocktail onions. Memories…

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Katy Wheatley's avatar

Ours were also stuck in a half orange but it was always covered in tin foil too, I don’t know, make it look more realistically like a hedgehog from space, maybe? We used to have silverskin onions on sticks on a separate foil orange, and small sausages on sticks on another one. Neither the onions nor the sausage were called hedgehogs though, which is very weird.

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Keris Fox's avatar

Every bit of this is amazing. And I was telling Harry about pineapple hedgehogs just last night.

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Katy Wheatley's avatar

Every child should know about them. Iconic.

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Val in North London's avatar

Oh Katy, that made me laugh out loud! I've just come back from our local supermarket and am feeling miffed that stuff I want to buy - a small tin of refried beans, the lovely cheapo block of creamed coconut - has been replaced by daft shelf displays of 'meal kits' so I feel your tidy shop pain.

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Katy Wheatley's avatar

Argghhh! Death to the tidy shop!

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Brenda Nicholson's avatar

My grandson and I enjoyed this very much! Thank you for sharing. Say, I have a birthday coming up…

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