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.

This will make me sound like a foetus.....but

• I vaguely remember going out with my parents and them being asked if they wanted a smoking or non-smoking table.
• I remember when we were gifted our first family computer - it didn’t really do much. But then my dad got a new job which meant we could afford dial up internet Felt like we were at the height of technology

Ticker tape telex machine in my 3rd or 4th job. Long before internet or even fax machines. Remember asking permission to telexing a friend in Antarctica wishing him Happy Christmas.

Collecting pop bottles and taking them to the shop to get the deposit back.
Going out to the ice-cream van with a bowl to get a pint of ice-cream.I also remember the novelty of shop bought ice cream,they came in blocks in cardboard packaging.You at it as a slice between two wafers or a cone that had a square hole so that your slice stood upright.

I remember coal being delivered down the coal hole in the cellar.
When TV had only 2chanels,was black and white and the controls were on the TV.I liked watching the little dot disappearing when you turned it off.

The test card!

The Coronation. I was three.

Rag & bone man, and I remember hearing the horse clip clopping along and the ringing of the bell, a few years later it became an old truck.

Knife sharpener man.

Aluminium dustbins and dustmen who came up the path to empty them, carrying them on their shoulders. Rubbish was wrapped in newspaper, no plastic bags.

Quiet gardening, the most noise you heard was a lawn mower and those were manual ones. Unlike the horrendous and unnecessary
leaf blowers and industrial machines that destroy everything in their way that blight the country these days.

Food that tasted of food and not chemicals or modified crud.

Black & white TV

Being able to let your cat out without fear of her being squashed by a car, shot, poisoned, or stolen for dog baiting or food.

Tin bath in front of the fire (for small people) to save on heating and filling the bath.

Washing machine with a mangle on the top. Mangle in the back yard from before the washing machine with the mangle was invented.

Stocking and suspenders before tights arrived, so uncomfortable. Ditto sanitary belts and looped towels before stick on towels.

Owning one of the first ever Sindy dolls, Wade Whimsies and trolls.

Gonks.

Duffle bags with fur tiger tails and other crap hanging off them, parkas, scooters, mods and rockers, greasers (bikers).

Hearing the news that JFK had been shot.

Days

The street used to follow the rag and bone man and scoop up the horse muck for their roses

Oh yes, I forgot that . My Dad used to be annoyed that he was never at home when it happened.

Glass figural lights for the Christmas tree, still have ours which were from 1940's and now sell for a lot on Ebay, even the dead bulbs. They were so much more interesting than the plastic crud of today.

In fact all the old decorations which have been saved thanks to my parents keeping stuff due to the make do and mend way of life.

Walks and bike rides in country lanes, not a car in sight.

Cars, which were few, all being black, and as time passed there were some light greeny ones.

Pushbikes made of heavy metal (iron I think) and little metal child seats on the back (1950's/1960's).

Taking the days takings from a shop to the nightsafe for banking. Later, In the 1980s I worked for a building society and used to have deposit the days investments in the nightsafe down the road. So walking through Central Croydon with one other 20something female colleague to put a leather wallet containing anything up to about £10,000 in a big steel drawer built into the wall of the bank. I was very happy when we started using a courier service.

Going to Turkey on whatever the national airline was in June 1991 and the plane being divided into smoking on the left of the aisle and non smoking on the right. On the way back we had a scheduled stop in Sarajevo ( a city I had never heard of) and were delayed for hours because of some sort of civil unrest. It was actually due to fighting in the Bosnian war which presumably made the airspace unsafe. Back then without internet I had no idea what was happening so mooched about the airport quite happily. Today I would know what was going and would be terrified.

No central heating, no double glazing, just a coal fire in the living room.

My mother also had a flat iron but my Dad went mad and bought her a new fangled electric one.

Tea was made from loose leaf tea which was kept in a rocket shaped dispenser attached to the kitchen wall.

Doors and gates were left unlocked all day, no-one ever broke in, only time they were locked was when the neighbour came round for a 5 hour cup of tea too often and we had to hide.

Ready Steady Go in black and white.

Bottles of milk on morning break in school, with a biscuit. In winter the milk would freeze and pop out of the top of the bottle.

Remembering the time when trades union leaders well known public figures: Hugh Scanlon, Vic Feather, Len Murray, Clive Jenkins, Eric Chapple, Jack Jones, Joe Gormley ...

It takes you straight back to the 1970s: beer and sandwiches at No 10 and power cuts for the rest of us.

Twizzle (ancient kids TV programme)

MyBreadIsEggy Behave !
I remember when no tables were non smoking !

teainthemorning
DH and I watched early episodes of Gavin & Stacey a little while ago and were trying to work out when the smoking ban in pubs etc came into effect, because they were smoking in a club. Neither of us could remember....then it hit me: I was in my first year of high school

Mum giving sandwiches and Dad's old clothes to tramps (gentlemen of the road ) - there were still a few of them about in the sixties, and gypsy ladies coming to the door with lavender and clothes pegs, and travelling salesmen with cases full of cleaning brushes and dusters.

Macfisheries, Timothy Whites, Bejam.

One bath a week.
Ice on the inside of the bedroom windows.
Sitting at the bottom of the stairs with the phone because the cord didn't reach very far, and being bellowed at by Dad to finish the call as he wasn't made of money. And freezing because we only heated the living room in the evening.

Roast Sunday lunches unless we were going out on a Sunday. Sunday teas consisting of trifle, victoria sandwich cake, battenburg and chocolate biscuits. And Sunday suppers of yorkshire pudding sandwiches made with leftover Sunday joint. Believe it or not, we weren't fat!

Renting the TV.
Taping the Top 40 off the radio on a Sunday evening and begging everyone to keep quiet.

Dad writing off for brochures to places like Bournemouth and Ilfracombe in January so he and Mum could start planning our summer holiday.

Raglan! Yes, dad would write to a town council for a holiday brochure, send letters to a few of the b and b 's listed, wait for replies, choose one , write to enquire about codt and availability, wait for reply, write to confirm with a cheque deposit.
What a palaver!

Winsinbin - I think what instantly ages some of us well certainly me I still feel that countries that used to be part of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and ussr are "new" and I struggle to remember them all.

Now I know how hard it was for my parents adjusting to the new names of countries that were once part of the empire. Botswana, Rhodesia, Ceylon, Burma, Zambia etc.

My grandparents had actual candles on their Christmas tree. 😱. They did only light them.for a short while when we were in the room....

Going next door but one to watch a moon landing. Not the first one.

We had a pop van, rag & bone man etc.

Next door neighbour had an outside loo, we didn’t.

Having cling stickers to go on the radio when the stations changed frequency.

White tennis balls.

The French work book was called Tricolore!

Chokes in the car.