What can you remember that makes you seem ancient?

[CormoranStrike]

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.

The thing that makes me feel oldest is reading what other people say that remembering makes them seem ancient, and thinking to myself 'wasn't that just a couple of years ago?'

Going to Benidorm in 1974 when it was lovely and not the ugly high rise metropolis it’s turned into now
Looking up an old street and seeing Spanish women washing clothes in the street

I remember blockbusters and Woolworths. Also when mobile phones had snake on them and you could only text or call someone.

Green shield stamps

Walking home from school on my own from age 7

pop a point pencils

OMG!! I can see one so clearly in my head now and I probably haven't seen one for four decades!

Never mind 4 Star Petrol; what about Five Star?

"The thing that makes me feel oldest is reading what other people say that remembering makes them seem ancient, and thinking to myself 'wasn't that just a couple of years ago?" Omg yes! I feel like that re dial up Internet - unfortunately I then remember I got broadband by 2006 as I needed it to do my degree! and that's 12 years ago and I was probably among the last people I knew to get it! I was on a really tight budget.

"Also when mobile phones had snake on them" perfect example - even dd remembers this and she's not 18 yet! This does NOT qualify as "ancient"

I bloody loved 5 star!

inventing the wheel

I remember:

taking glass pop bottles back to Victoria Wine to claim the deposit
queuing for the phone box to call my boyfriend because we had no phone at home, and people banging on the glass when we chatted for too long
people smoking on the tube, on buses and in the cinema
not being able to phone my sister because her son was online and in those days internet wasdialled up via the landline
phones you 'dialled' with holes for your fingers

Being born in 1992 makes me feel old.

Ha ha ha ha

Writing documents in longhand and sending them to the typing pool to be typed out.
2p coins in the phone box (not at the same time as the typing pool - I'm not quite that old)
The satsuma at the bottom of your Christmas stocking seeming like an actual treat, if not quite as exciting as the selection box.

@doeswhatissaysonthetin

I read that as electric sanitary belts - thought i don't remember having one of those...

walking to school on my own when I was 6, being responsible for taking sister home from school too age 7 and going for very simple messages.
having no phone and when we did you dialled the numbers
no seatbelts in back seats
strikes and no electricity so had candlelight ( early 70's)
only 6th form could use calculators for Maths
I know how to use log tables
all shops closed on sunday and a half day in the week, bakers butchers etc would shut after lunch on Saturday's
only having one pair of shoes at a time school shoes were best shoes and everywhere else shoes, you had pumps for gym at school, wellies and slippers in winter and sandals in summer
we had school clothes church on sunday which doubled as party dress and 2-3 other sets, no child had more than 1 pair of jeans
bathes were once a week, a wash at sink in the morning the rest of the time

Victoria wine ! Yes. We used to call it Victo Vino for some reason. Trying in classic 70s way to make it seem posh or ‘european’
Sticking coop (blue) and green sheild stamps into booklets (which became really thick and crinkly) and then exchanging them for fondu sets or similar. I spent hours doing this as a child!
The sullivans watched when bunkingnoff school which no one really seemed to notice or care about
Smoking on the tube - done it myself !
Old slam door trains with net racks above which everything go caught up in
Luncheon vouchers think as late as early 90s - I finally had to throw away a massive bag of them unusable.
When hr really did work for and support staff not as so many (not all) be just a tool of management dealing with staff. Sorry for this one but I really mourn the older style hr which made employees feel valued more often.
Going decimal and the classes we had at school helping us understand the new money.
Early closing Wednesdays.
Old push tills with pop up prices.
Inhave no idea how I got to an age where I remember all this old stuff - someone must have told me

I remember the black and white television arriving - an enormous brown box which had to be switched on five minutes before the programme started to 'warm it up'. If it went wrong one of us had to stand behind it and press 'vertical hold.' No remote controls. It was Redifusion.

Mum did her shopping on foot almost every day at the Co-Op and had to stand at the counter (as in 'Open All Hours') before it became a supermarket.

Only two people in our street had a car.

We never had a phone.

You ate your dinner and did as you were told - no 'what would you like for tea?' No conversation at meal times. Grim.
No automatic washing machines. Mother's old mangle and washboard. Wall-to-wall carpets were considered the height of luxury. Single glazed windows became frosted up in winter. No central heating.

Life was hard work in those days.

Loving this thread. So many memories. And being able to tell which posters are the same vintage as me. Ancient. 😂

No fridge but milk out on windowsill.
Parafin heaters. No central heating obvs. Yes to scraping ice from inside of windows.
Candles and early bedtimes during winter of discontent.
Concorde flying over during our silver jubilee street party.
Playing out all day roaming. Swimming in the Thames (safer upper bit but so dirty then !) parents never knew.

Life pre mobile phones and internet!

Asking for a 3 and two 2s on the bus for Mum, my sister and me. That is 3d and two at 2d.

Milk bottle tops being pecked at by birds

Being told to go straight home from school, and not being allowed out to play the day the cloud from Chernobyl was passing over.

A meat safe fixed to the back wall of the house. When we finally got a fridge it was one previously owned by a family member. It was huge and rounded, but had only a tiny space inside. It took hours to freeze a few ice cubes in a metal tray with dividers.