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What can you remember that makes you seem ancient?

685 replies

CormoranStrike · 08/12/2018 19:36

I remember us getting our very first colour TV.

I can remember a rag and bone man coming up my granny’s street - can’t remember if it was a horse drawn trailer or not.

Granny had an Anderson shelter.

I remember not having to wear seatbelts.

When everyone used to smoke at work and in pubs.

OP posts:
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AviatorShades · 08/12/2018 19:41

I can just about remember the local co-op milk delivery coming in a horse drawn cart.Smile

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CookieSwirlC · 08/12/2018 19:42

Floppy disks.

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meikyo · 08/12/2018 19:43

Neil Armstrong's moon landing - I was six. Also horse drawn rag and bone cart.

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EmpressAdultHumanFemale · 08/12/2018 19:44

Turning the numbers on a dial on a phone.

The first Channel 4 episode, when videos became a thing and the introduction of breakfast TV.

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ElfOnTheShelfAteMyJoy · 08/12/2018 19:44

When our area code got an extra digit! When channel 5 caused great excitement!

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GrowThroughWhatYouGoThrough · 08/12/2018 19:44

Putting 50p in the gas and electric meters

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recently · 08/12/2018 19:45

My work computer still has floppy disks!

Taking travellers cheques on holiday.
Writing letters to my best friend while on holiday.

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Julianaa · 08/12/2018 19:45

White dog poo

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Optimist1 · 08/12/2018 19:46

Banda machine, anyone? Grin

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JaneJeffer · 08/12/2018 19:46

Getting running water. Yes really!

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MiddlingMum · 08/12/2018 19:46

I sometimes still convert prices to old money. "What? Ten shillings for that???"

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alansleftfoot · 08/12/2018 19:47

My gran had an Anderson shelter, no telephone and an outside loo. No indoor bathroom just a tin bath on a hook in the kitchen. She only moved in the mid 80's as the houses were being demolished. I loved her house.

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MadameJosephine · 08/12/2018 19:48

Sixpences. I was actually born in the year of decimalisation but they were still in circulation for a bit

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eddiemairswife · 08/12/2018 19:48

Sleeping in the Anderson shelter the night before my 3rd birthday.

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gamerwidow · 08/12/2018 19:48

Pop van.
DD was utterly baffled at concept of video rental stores recently too.

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RB68 · 08/12/2018 19:53

First TV aged 7
Grandads Moggy van
Pop Man delivering to Granny's
Sterilisd milk at Grannies with beer bottle tops
The first applemac...
Being the only person in the office of about 50 people not scared to get stuck in with the new computer - setting it up and teaching the secretaries how to use word processing and structure a file system so they knew what they had done, where it was and could find it. Showing how to do standard letters etc.
Being taught to double de clutch
Using a choke
No seatbelts in new cars
Black jacks and fruit salads being 2 a penny
It being normal to walk to school and families only having one car as the norm
the herb garden and the wombles first time around

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elQuintoConyo · 08/12/2018 19:55

My GM and a great-aunt both had fully functioning outside toilets - great fun, but cold in winter! They had indoor, too, but when they had a houseful people would 'just nip outside'.

Rotary phones.

The introduction of £1 coins and 20ps.

When you had to save vouchers from your My Little Pony boxes to send off for a baby. I was the first girl in my school to get a baby pony

I remember when the hill by my house was full of children on nature trails, not drug addicts.

Getting woken up by dad to see Torvill and Dean in 1984 (94? 82?).

I'm 43, we always had seatbelts as children, i loved mine as it was orange and clipped together like a pilot's (so i thought!). I used to pretend i had a seat-eject button that i'd press if my DSis was annoying me Grin

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IcedPurple · 08/12/2018 19:58

Learning to type on an old-fashioned typewriter (not even an electric one).

When Soadstream was a 'thing'.

When Xmas TV used to be good.

Recording songs off the radio on cassettes.

My sister writing to 'Jim'll Fix It'. Happily he didn't.

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rosy71 · 08/12/2018 19:59

My grandparents had an outside toilet. I hated it.
I can remember gwtting 2 chews for 1p. We had a rotary phone & a black & white tv for ages. I also remember taking bottles back to the shop & getting the deposit back.

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Chottie · 08/12/2018 20:00

Our first phone was a shared party line with neighbours about 6 doors up. We had to take turns to make calls.

Helping my mother with the washing by turning the mangle as she threaded the sheets through it.

The rag and bone man used to come round with a horse and cart

Toasting crumpets over the fire after school in the winter

When my mum was learning to drive, my sis and I were too young to be left at home, so we used to sit on the back seat of the driving instructor's car (no seat belts obviously) whilst our mum had her driving lesson.....

DH was born in the late 40s and he had a baby ration book issued

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Member745520 · 08/12/2018 20:01

Sitting at the table having my tea and hearing a plane overhead and saying 'that's daddy's plane' and someone saying no it isn't and being grabbed and pushed down into the lowest part of the cupboard under the stairs so there was room for my teenage cousin and my mum and my grandad in there as well. It was an air raid and I was about 4yrs old. I'm not sure I've actually answered the OPs question because I suppose I am ancient, there's no 'seem' about it Grin

O yes and there was a circular hole cut higher up in the wall of the cupboard, for fresh air I imagine, and I vividly remember the times when my grandfather would light up his pipe and puff it out of the hole, and there'd be a chorus of 'Thomas, put that light out!'

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StealthPolarBear · 08/12/2018 20:03

Yes to the extra digit in the telephone number.
How long before people are saying the old style car reg plates on these threads? Then I'll feel very old.

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recently · 08/12/2018 20:03

We had an outside toilet at the house share I had in uni- in 1996!

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recently · 08/12/2018 20:04

Having a party line instead of a private phone line.

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StealthPolarBear · 08/12/2018 20:04

Wow member

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