Differences in growing up

[April241]

Inspired by a comment I seen elsewhere about mobiles, I've been thinking fondly of my childhood/teenage years compared to now and having a right good giggle about my experiences.

What kind of things do you remember doing that kids or teenagers now wouldn't know about or would find funny, I've had this chat with my younger cousin which she found hilarious!

We had AOL dialup internet eventually with that funny tone, you knew if it connected by the tone before it actually opened the home page

If you were using the Internet no-one could get through on the house phone but if you rang enough times one after the other it would cut the Internet off

We had vinyl when I was a kid and the first time I bought music myself it was on a tape (The Offspring)

I had a tape player, huge clunky thing that was super cool as I could switch sides without removing the tape and turning it round

There was a phase in high school where the cool kids ditched their school bags for Jane Norman and JD sports carrier bags (I didn't...not cool enough!)

Also a weirder phase in high school where people smashed up their Bic pens so they left a tiny bit of plastic to hold while the rest of the ink tube swung freely as you wrote

In primary each week we had names in a hat and they were pulled out to allocate jobs for that week. "Messenger" was the best job. We also had someone who fed the fish and someone who cleaned dusters, I can't remember the rest but there were about seven

My first set of straighteners were steam, they had a section you removed and filled with water, I upgraded to an on the go set that used Braun gas tubes that you bought in Semi-Chem

If you wanted to watch a programme and weren't going to be in, you had to record the programme on a tape (and hope it actually worked). None of this on demand or sky+ in the 80s.

In our London primary school, the school gates were always unlocked so anyone could walk in. The office was in the middle of the building and up a flight of stairs, so visitors would pass half a dozen classes before they could sign in.

Yes to tape recording!

I started primary in 1991 and thankfully the office was right by the door although in high school there were six entrances that I can remember and they were all unlocked. We had a one way system so sometimes you had to go outside to get to your next class.

Hiring videos from Blockbuster.
P.E. lessons at primary school were done in knickers and vest.
Blackboard and chalk in the classroom.
Maybe one computer in the corner of the classroom, in primary school.

I started primary school in 1989.

If you borrowed a library book, there was a little cardboard ticket at the front of each book which gave the name of the author and the title of the book. The ticket was filed away next to your name, in a little index file thingy so the librariansooner knew which books you had.

Stinky nit shampoo, if you caugh the headline. It was very chemically, and I am pretty sure it has since been banned.

I had a spectrum 64, I had to attach it to the cassette player, then - for reasons I still don't understand, you had to adjust the cassette player to the right volume (using my mum's lipstick to mark the place, then it would squeal at you for 20 minutes, if you were lucky it would load and you could play Paperboy.

Yy to tapes loading. If they failed to load, there would be a few minutes after the loading time until you realised, and then you'd have to go through the whole thing again. And again. Quite often you'd spend a couple of hours trying and failing to play a game for ten minutes.

And yy dial up internet that booted people off the phone and if you were on the phone and someone else was trying to dial up you'd get a massive load of screeching and be-dummm be-dummm in your ear.

Going to the phone box with 10p to call your mates house phone to arrange a meet up. Then going there to wait and hoping they turn up.

Looking up random people in the paper directory that was in a phone booth, hopefully finding someone with a silly name (Mr Bum ) and then phoning them without putting any money in and reversing the charge and then putting on silly foreign accents, high pitched voices or just awful screeching until you or your friend wet themselves laughing.

I guess you had to be there.

I remember doing proper gymnastics at school.
Handstands, backwards and forwards rolls, headstands, cartwheels all whilst in infant school.
At secondary school we did the cross country and it literally was running for a few miles through the country side. I don't recall any rescheduling with us.
Children could go home for lunch.
Everybody walked to school without parents.
I used to record songs from the radio on to a casette tape.

No homework until secondary school either.