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Original poster

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
Nonmaquillee · 13/05/2021 23:40

@Papergirl1968

Birthday parties where the girls (no boys invited usually) wore long dresses, or sometimes bridesmaids dresses. Parties were always at home, not at indoor play areas or whatever like now. It was games of pass the parcel, pin the tail on the donkey, musical statues etc, with a birthday tea of sandwiches, crisps, and sausage rolls. No party bags but a balloon and a slice of cake in a napkin to take home.
Oh yes, I remember my long “party dresses”!
shivermetimbers77 · 13/05/2021 23:44

@WhitePhantom

I see a few people here mention the Sinclair Zx and it brings a question to mind...

Every time I hear the word "magenta" I think of some old computer system, and I think it's the Zx.

Does anyone remember this word in relation to the Sinclair Zx? (Or maybe I'm losing the plot 😂)

Yes! I have a vague memory of a button with magenta written on it on the rubbery keyboard of my ZX spectrum .. no idea what it was for though!! Also remember the sound of it loading and the flashing screen. Sometimes it wouldn’t even load : it would just seem to flash for ever and we would have to rewind the cassette and start all over again Grin.
GroggyLegs · 13/05/2021 23:45

@WhitePhantom
I remember you used to be able to type an instruction into the start page (?) of the ZX and it would change the colour of the screen/border

Magenta & cyan were definitely two of the colour options.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 13/05/2021 23:45

....Summer of 1976....

Guess the decade!!

No, couldn't possibly - I'd need a few clues Grin

thatonesmine · 13/05/2021 23:46

2 TV channels, just BBC and ITV.
My Mum doing all the shopping by going round the local shops everyday because there were no supermarkets, everything came from the butchers, the bakers, the greengrocers etc.

AliceMcK · 13/05/2021 23:48

@WhitePhantom

Going to the shop aged 7 or thereabouts to by cigarettes for my mother

Being hit in school by teachers and nobody batted an eyelid

Going off for the day and nobody thought twice about it - just assumed you'd be home for dinner

Myself and my sister, aged 10ish, cycling out to my gran's, 7 miles out in the countryside - no helmet, no phones, racing down hills at 30mph (we had speedometers on our bikes!) - no idea how we survided!

One double socket in the living room. That's all that was needed. The TV was plugged in, and other things occasionally - iron, hoover, etc. No need for more than two sockets. (We have about 20 in the sitting room, and it's not enough!!)

Lots more I'm sure!

All of this.

When we didn’t have enough sockets we would stick the wires of another appliance in the socket and plug something else over it. It also meant we didn’t need to buy new plugs for everything. If you got an electric shock your parents didn’t even bat an eyelid.

Baths were also a Sunday night thing and everyone shared the same bath water 😬

merryhouse · 13/05/2021 23:51

@WhitePhantom - yes! Magenta! I'd quite forgotten that.

Can't remember what it was, mind you... did it indicate a mode? Google just comes up with the name of a game and descriptions of ink colours.

Sunday School with a different class for each year group, including some children whose parents never came to church.

People bringing us their old newspapers to add to our piles in the garage which my mother would then take to somewhere which gave her money (we honed our knot-tying skills on those piles).

A 9yo (me) taking her two younger siblings and friends (youngest 2) down the road to the sweet shop and the park.

Reel-to-reel tape recorders, and having to be deathly silent for an hour and a half on Christmas Eve while 9 Lessons and Carols was recorded onto one. (Possibly that was when we went out delivering cards.)

SirVixofVixHall · 13/05/2021 23:51

Everything.

longtompot · 13/05/2021 23:51

Pubs shutting at 3pm on a Sunday and not opening until 7pm. Not being able to buy alcohol at certain times in supermarkets and local shops.

AdaColeman · 13/05/2021 23:53

Shops half day closing was introduced by the Shops Act 1911, which gave shop workers the right to a half day off each week.
Shop owners in towns generally agreed to close on the same day, usually Wednesday or Thursday, to protect themselves from competition.

partyatthepalace · 13/05/2021 23:57
  • Big Yellow Pages. New one every year.
  • Video shops, and have to post the videos (or discos as my granny called then) back through the letter box in the morning
  • Having to use the phone box when the puppy chewed through the phone cable, many times
  • The first cheap domestic flights! I flew back from university! God I was excited
  • phones with very very very long cables in shared flat halls
  • learning word perfect
Whitegrapewine · 13/05/2021 23:59

No television at all until 3pm

WhitePhantom · 13/05/2021 23:59

Aaggghhhh! I don't know what it was re. magenta, but yes, cyan was there too!

My memory of it is like trying to remember a dream several hours after waking up. It was so clear at the time, but now it's like trying to keep a wisp of smoke in the shape it once was.

I wish someone could explain this memory to me! I know that it somehow meant a lot to me (maybe it was the pure magic of computers - they're my full-time job now and I still love the magic ♥ 😁)

ilovepixie · 14/05/2021 00:00

[quote GroggyLegs]@Byllis- did you have any of the games which were mainly text " you are in a forest, you can see an elf in the distance" and you would type in the instructions? "Speak to elf"?

I always remember one occasion being a rebel and typing "shit" - the game told me off & made me die Sad[/quote]
😂😂

ColdTattyWaitingForSummer · 14/05/2021 00:02

Looking things up in the phone book or yellow pages, both of which were about two inches thick!
Using library books to do research / school homework (I know people do still use libraries, but rarely as a sole source).
Recording shows / movies on a VCR (I always thought the gap between video recorders and on demand viewing was a step backwards though).
Pay phones.
Long distance call charges.
Having to go to a special kiosk (usually in the bureau de change) if you needed to phone home when on holiday.. it was about £10 for a 3-4 minute call!

quizqueen · 14/05/2021 00:02

(early1960s) Saturday morning kids cinema - went alone and also caught bus to school at aged 9, three subjects of homework every night at Grammar School - always done with no help, no house phone or car, no presents other than for birthday and Christmas, old 6d pocket money spent on a market stall or at Woolworths ( = 2 1/2p now), going off for hours in the summer holidays without telling mum where, playing by the railway lines and waving as the trains went by, first in family to ever gain any qualifications and buy a house - mum and dad worked in factories and they didn't want that to be my life -very happy, carefree childhood and it taught me independence and to be self reliant.

RichardMarxisinnocent · 14/05/2021 00:02

@Oneearringlost

Watching "Schools and Colleges" on weekday mornings if I was ever off school, I'll. Jumping on and off a moving double decker bus before they had doors
'Schools and Colleges'! I used go watch it too but had completely wiped it from my memory until I read your post!

School dinners being served on proper china plates with water in glasses - even when we were 4.
I don't have children so for those who do this may be a ridiculous question, but what do schoolchildren nowadays eat off and drink out of if not proper plates and glasses?

quizqueen · 14/05/2021 00:07

Also sending mum to queue outside the record shop so I could have the new Beatles single ( 45 vinyl) on the day it was released and, in the holidays, staying in the cinema all day and taking packed lunch and dinner to watch HELP on one ticket -had to suffer through the B film twice as well!

RichardMarxisinnocent · 14/05/2021 00:10

@Byllis

The excitement at being chosen by the teacher for a turn on the school BBC computer when it was wheeled into your classroom once in a blue moon. Always had to go on it with one or two other children because there was no way everyone would have had a turn each year otherwise!
For some reason I stupidly didn't realise other schools also had the single BBC computer to serve the whole school. I remember the excitement of getting to have a go, and the annoyance when the other people sharing your turn hogged the computer. I have zero recollection though of what we actually did on the computer. Perhaps played a game? I have no idea.
GabsAlot · 14/05/2021 00:27

no internet
nice chocolate
going out all day and justg had to come in when it was sunset
shops closed on a sunday
only 3 channels

SeaToSki · 14/05/2021 01:43

Having to stand up to change TV channel

Rewinding the tape to load the computer game and the weird screechy sound it made as it loaded

Not being able to walk around while on the phone as you were attached by the spiral cord

Having to wait around for ages to meet people as you had to set a time and just show up. If people were late, you just had to hang on and hope

Crappy coats that didn't keep you warm

Pizza being a special luxury food

Clothkit dolls

Whatsthescoop · 14/05/2021 02:11

Oh sending a SAE , that takes me back. When I was with my first boyfriend we were looking to book a night away in a hotel. I sent a bunch of SAE to hotels and they sent me back brouchers & a VHS tape about the hotel. We went to Paignton on the train.

Blacktothepink · 14/05/2021 02:24

Walking to school without a parent from age 6.
Swimming in the river without adult supervision from age 7.
Going out alone for hours on end in the school holidays from about age 6/7.
Taking a written note from parents from age 7 to buy beer and fags.
Sitting in the boot of our estate car.
Babysitting for my mums friends alone aged 12.
Playing on building sites.
No sunblock applied all summer.
Pretty much everything that would be considered a ‘safeguarding’ issue now!

andivfmakes3 · 14/05/2021 02:27

Internet dial up tone
Giving 3 rings on the house phone to let someone know you were home - no one has a landline phone these days!
Hot water bottles - can't remember last time I used one as we have thermostat controlled heating now
Teletext
Writing letters
Using a wristwatch with hands
Only using a mobile phone to call someone rather than having your entire life on there and staring at it constantly
Recording the Top 40 from the radio on Sunday's

Iamtheweedonkey · 14/05/2021 02:31

Dial faced phones, that would take so long to dial out and if the number was engaged (doctors) you didn't have redial. I was so jealous of ET where the.mum is wandering around her kitchen on a really long phone line.
We had a TV with a remote control attached by a 1m long cable. Thought it was amazing.
We had duvets in the late 70s, they must have been a new thing as mum sewed ties on the inside to stop it moving around in the cover.
Always having candles around because of the power cuts.
Silver jubilee street party.
Queen mum drove past in a flash.
Raising of the Mary rose, was allowed to watch it on TV in school.
Having a treat of watching superman on a TV in school at an after school event.
Acorn electron computer

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