Things people used/had that are now considered old fashioned

[GabbyChalice400]

Saw another poster on a thread talking about landlines! It seems in the past few years that people either don't have one or use them less. I don't have one, I do think they're old fashioned

Anyone have any more to share?

DD had to buy an expensive scientific calculator for A level maths.

Re dressing gowns - what do people put on when they first get out of bed if they don't have one? I have mine on the end of the bed and it's the first thing I do when I get up.

By the way, we never had calculators for Maths O Level in the 70s - you used a thing called mental arithmetic! Is that even taught in schools any more?

Salad spinners

Table books for maths, tangents etc, logo rhythm book?

The little things you needed to stick in the middle of 45 (single) records so they would spin on your record player.

Logarithm books, that's what we used for maths in the 60s

The advice of experts.

I live in London and still have a landline as the mobile reception in my building is sometimes patchy, it's not just a rural issue

Buying holidays in travel agents

Well this is making me feel ancient!

I do use a smartphone, Google Maps, WhatsApp, Amazon Prime, etc. However, I also still have and regularly use a radio alarm clock, DVDs, CDs, an address book, land line, desk diary, pocket calculator, A-Zs and paper maps, and a whole collection of teapots, tea cosies and tea towels. Nor do I intend to give them up any time soon.

Oh, and the country I live in still has Sunday closing.

Ha ha I'm in my 30's and I hve quite a few things on this thread like underskirts/slips and nested tables.

When I started work in 1974, there was a large plug in calculator for the office, pocket calculators had only just been invented then, I remember using the log tables for maths. There was also a large computer room at work where you took your data for the computer people to punch onto cards to put into the very large computer and it came out on green stripy paper in a big pile.

When I first started work in 1977 we used to add up using adding machines with pull down handles like this one.

Taking photos using film - 24 or 36 photos which you had to take to Boots and wait a week for them being developed - then finding out there was probably one good photo in the whole set

By the way, we never had calculators for Maths O Level in the 70s - you used a thing called mental arithmetic! Is that even taught in schools any more?

I'm going to assume that my DCs primary wasn't the only one in the country teaching mental maths and it is therefore very much still on the curriculum

There is a whole non-calculator GCSE maths paper

When I was at university the under graduates had to punch their own cards and were only allowed to use the computer late at night when the more important people had done their work.

When I first started work in 1977 we used to add up using adding machines with pull down handles like this one.
In about 1970 they got some of those at my grammar school, and taught us to use them.

"There is a whole non-calculator GCSE maths paper"

Yes there is, and also a calculator paper.

When I did maths O level we had to show our workings out in pencil, then lightly cross them out.

By the way, we never had calculators for Maths O Level in the 70s - you used a thing called mental arithmetic! Is that even taught in schools any more?

Calculators are used for far more that arithmetic. You used to use slide rules and log tables. So logs only went to 4 decimal places because that's all there was on the table.

Can you work out the square root of 4.2 in your head? I know how to do it, but I would need pencil and paper and some time. Exam papers are now designed to be done with or without a calculator, on a non calculator GCSE paper you might be asked for the square root of 4 or 9 but not 4.2.

I must have been one of the last cohorts to use log tables, I doubt you can even buy them now.

There is no great virtue to not using a calculator. They are useful for some processes and not useful for others. In statistics we still use lots of tables of numbers

sashh
www.amazon.co.uk/Logarithm-Tables-Four-Figure/dp/0852480768?tag=mumsnetforu03-21
I'm sure they're selling like hot cakes!!