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Things from your childhood that feel like ancient history now

433 replies

Echobelly · 13/05/2021 22:29

  • 3 TV channels
  • Everything shut on Sunday (and local shops often shut Wednesday afternoons for some reason?) Confused
  • 1/2 pennies
  • Only asking 'What does your dad do?'
  • A lot of people having black and white tellies
  • Holiday brochures

These are some of the things that I think will seem inexplicable to my kids!

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
EBearhug · 19/05/2021 15:18

Being told off by the headmaster for doing typing as one of my subjects as it was for the 'non academic' girls and I'd never use it

"Girls of your calibre won't be typists." Maybe not, but I was very glad I had typing skills when it came to doing my dissertation (essays before that end project were usually handwritten, though they had conceded to modern times by allowing typed or word-processed ones.)

It was hard work, learning on old manual typewriters - the keyboards were so steep and heavy! We weren't allowed on an electric typewriter till we could do 30 wpm with 95% accuracy. There was a BBC Micro in the school, but only A-level maths students got to use it.

itsalltrue22 · 19/05/2021 15:26

8 track cassettes
TV's with a 50p slot!
Bazooka Joe bubblegum
Playing in the woods at about 8 yeras of age until it was dark

MistySkiesAfterRain · 19/05/2021 16:50

@itsalltrue22 I only know what an 8 track is because of that Spotify advert

'No really you could have listened to an 8 track tape but you listened to Spotify'

meringue33 · 19/05/2021 22:44

Cloth nappies and not with trendy artwork on them.
Breastfeeding and cosleeping not as a thing just normal.
Being breastfed on mums lap in the passenger seat driving on the motorway (obviously don’t remember this, just been told!)
Never giving any cheek
Playing down at the river unsupervised with friends from about seven
Playing quietly in my room
The boring meat n two veg until whole family went veggie late eighties, then it was always lentils or nut roast or risotto type stuff, usually fairly strange
Thai food, sushi, smoothies, good coffee all totally unheard of. No coffee shops to socialise in just greasy spoons or tea shops that seemed to be exclusively for old ladies. You couldn’t buy things like boxed sandwiches and chopped fruit in shops and petrol stations, if you were working you would take a packed lunch or you might have a canteen.
Kids not allowed in pubs, pubs were scary smoky places
One hour of kids tv per day and other than that only seemed to be old war films or Westerns (DS aged 8 has said to me “But mum, we only have four channels now! Amazon, Netflix, iPlayer and DisneyPlus!)
Reading the funnies in grandpa’s newspaper
As a teen, phoning best mate every afternoon on landline for an hour and running up the phone bill. I loved the landline, which we only got when I was ten. Still much prefer calls to texting, texting can take ages and sometimes makes me really anxious.
Watching same videos over and over til you could recite the film, because most people only had a few. Basically Little Mermaid, The Bodyguard, Top Gun and Groundhog Day Confused
Disney only brought a new film out about once every 5-10 years, then you just watched it over and over.
Dad and grandpa practically built their own houses with minimal input from tradesmen, also fixed their own cars and did everything around the garden. Things were constantly in need of fixing though and the house was never perfect or very tidy.
Hand sanitizer and wet wipes weren’t invented or even thought of.
No uniform or homework at primary, no uniform and little homework at secondary. Learned touch typing and how to make a scotch egg (boil an egg, wrap a square sausage around it, dip in breadcrumbs and bung it in the deep fat fryer).
The BBC computers at school, when you got towards the end of a line you had to press space space space because it didn’t automatically move your word down to the next line.
I went off to uni at 17 and mum n dad had no way to contact me directly except write a letter! I’d save change and ring them up once a week or so from the pay phone in the halls of residence lobby.

meringue33 · 19/05/2021 22:45

Great thread btw. I nominate for Classics.

meringue33 · 21/05/2021 09:02

I can’t believe I killed the thread with that Grin

Here’s another one. Walking or busing it to school in all weathers, no one drove their secondary aged kids just cause it was raining!

mineofuselessinformation · 21/05/2021 10:37

'Hard, shiny, horrible non absorbent toilet paper in school toilets and public toilets 🙁'
I might have first-hand experience of using this stuff as tracing paper.... And the kids called the stuff in the loos 'tracing paper'!
We used to deny all knowledge that it was the same. Grin

the80sweregreat · 21/05/2021 11:35

I walked about a mile and a half to secondary school in all weathers and never had a lift once as my parents didn't own a car. The bus wasn't an option as we couldn't afford that plus it didn't go near the school. We walked everywhere.
No wonder I was so skinny back then and any treats such as sweets or chocs etc were only at Christmas time or if we were on a day out somewhere.

Xiaoxiong · 21/05/2021 11:52

I remember when we moved to the UK there were still conductors on every bus, and everything was 0171 or 0181 for phone numbers, there were no 020 numbers. In fact most people still gave their number out as 071 or 081 and I remember thinking as a kid that real Londoners always "dropped the 1", like dropping their h's.

Even things from 10 years ago seem ancient history. I remember in 2008/9 living with DH in a one bed flat with rubbish internet, and curating our LoveFilm list of DVDs to be posted to us was the highlight of many a weekend. I had a blackberry and DH was still using a nokia of some kind, neither phone had a camera. I had a little silver point & shoot which I always forgot to bring on nights out so we have barely any photos of us at university or when we first got together. Now I take photos and screenshots of everything just to remember stuff.

MidnightMeltdown · 21/05/2021 12:15

I remember my mum getting a typewriter and thinking that it was cutting edge technology 😂. I also remember the school blackboard being replaced with a whiteboard and the teachers being incredibly excited, thinking that it was revolutionary!

Oh and the BBC testcard. When I was a young child it used to completely creep me out as I didn't know what it meant. Why on earth did they use that horrible creepy picture of a girl with a clown?! I still don't understand it.

Echobelly · 21/05/2021 12:21

Interesting some people have mentioned dogs out on their own - I thought it was a thing as we used to visit the lovely old Somerset lady who used to be our babysitter and she let her dogs out to walk around the lake that was basically outside her house. So I did think it was a thing, then I wondered if it was only her, but evidently not!

OP posts:
WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 21/05/2021 12:55

'Hard, shiny, horrible non absorbent toilet paper in school toilets and public toilets 🙁'
I might have first-hand experience of using this stuff as tracing paper.... And the kids called the stuff in the loos 'tracing paper'!
We used to deny all knowledge that it was the same. grin

Things from your childhood that feel like ancient history now
SnapDragonCat · 21/05/2021 13:19

MidnightMeltdown

Things from your childhood that feel like ancient history now
Londonmummy66 · 21/05/2021 13:19

I loved the SRA reading cards - you could skip a few if the teacher wasn't looking and it was worth it because once you'd got to the end you could access the 13+ books from the cupboard in the head teachers office.

Going in to town with my mother to buy a book that I had particuarly enjoyed on Jackanory - they had some wonderful stories then.

The 5 minute cartoon at the end of the children's programmes on the BBC - my favourite was Ivor the Engine although I also loved Captain Pugwash.

Making a Dylan the dog out of a washing up bottle and some left over green wool my mother had.

Trying to pour my school milk down the drain when the teacher wasn't looking as I felt so ill if I had to drink it.

School being closed and my mother cooking us baked beans and tinned sausages on a calor gas stove during the miners strike.

Having to get up to change the channel on the TV

the80sweregreat · 21/05/2021 13:25

The girl with the clown on tv must be in her sixties or seventies now ! It was a bit creepy : I didn't like it as a kid myself.
The tv on wheels at school was an exciting thing. Weighed a ton and had to have two teachers to push it. A tv in our school was stolen once!
The horrible tracing paper in the Loos used to block up the drains in our school and the toilets were outside without a roof ! How did I survive all this 😂 ( not to mention drinking warm milk that was placed on the sun in the summer time)
We were hardy souls .

the80sweregreat · 21/05/2021 13:25

In the sun, not on.

MidnightMeltdown · 21/05/2021 13:37

@SnapDragonCat

MidnightMeltdown

Agh! I'm sure that there must be people all over the country who were traumatised by this as kids. You switch on the tv expecting to watch your favourite cartoon and instead there's a motionless child and a random clown staring back out at you.

MidnightMeltdown · 21/05/2021 13:39

@mineofuselessinformation

'Hard, shiny, horrible non absorbent toilet paper in school toilets and public toilets 🙁' I might have first-hand experience of using this stuff as tracing paper.... And the kids called the stuff in the loos 'tracing paper'! We used to deny all knowledge that it was the same. Grin

This still exists! I rediscovered it when I went on holiday in Eastern Europe a few years ago.

StormyLovesOdd · 21/05/2021 14:47

Being unbelievably excited as a child that we were the first family I knew to have a remote control for the TV. The "remote" control was on a long lead that was plugged into the remote and the TV, the lead trailed across the floor and used to trip all the grown ups up 😂. I felt so posh 😂

We were the first to have a mobile phone too. It was my dads and as big as a suitcase. It had a car battery attached and weighed a tonne.

SnapDragonCat · 21/05/2021 15:05

That Izal loo roll was hideous stuff and useless as well as scratchy.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 21/05/2021 16:01

The test card girl's name is Carole Hersee, and she's 62 now.

memberofthewedding · 21/05/2021 16:31

Closing the curtains when someone in the street had a funeral
Giving up my seat to adults on the bus
Playing kids street games like hopscotch and hide and seek
Having a school uniform bought at the second hand market

nimbuscloud · 21/05/2021 17:17

Clackers.

the80sweregreat · 21/05/2021 18:35

I had glass ' clackers' , bright orange.
Can't imagine such a dangerous toy being given 'house room 'these days. They were lethal.

Bigoldmachine · 21/05/2021 19:15

Clackers! Yes!

I also had those snap bracelet things. And a ball on a loop of rope that you’d swing round on your ankle and jump over with the other foot. also a space hopper type thing that was a ball with plastic disk around. That was a bit shit to be fair.

Fimo.

Used to shrink crisp packets in the oven.

How II (and that’s... how for now)

To lock the car from the inside, having to push the button down! No central locking.

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