Things from your childhood that feel like ancient history now

[Echobelly]

• 3 TV channels
• Everything shut on Sunday (and local shops often shut Wednesday afternoons for some reason?)
• 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!

[quote WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]Does anybody else remember school books about Roger Red Hat, Billy Blue Hat and Jennifer & Johnny Yellow Hat? Also Kevin The Kitten?

This brought back a lot of very funny memories for me!

[/quote] Yep-the series was called 1,2,3 and Away! It was set in the village with three corners. The books were still being used in the 90s when I started teaching.

[quote WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]Does anybody else remember school books about Roger Red Hat, Billy Blue Hat and Jennifer & Johnny Yellow Hat? Also Kevin The Kitten?

This brought back a lot of very funny memories for me!

[/quote] Golly, these are the books my children learned to read with!

That makes me old. (I learned with Janet and John).

I was always unreasonably annoyed that Jennifer & Johnny didn't have names starting with the same letter as the colour of their hats! I suppose there aren't that many options: maybe Yolanda or Yvonne/Yves (but they might have confused kids because the 'Y' sound is different).

I also recall a series of books about Tim & Tobias - I think there were a load of thinner, simpler T&T books and then a few full-length paperback ones for more advanced readers.

My cousin worked at the university computer room.
It was literally ONE computer that took up an entire room!

I was taught shorthand
My first job was as a copy clerk. I made Xerox copies all day long.
I was promoted after six months to a file clerk. I basically filed all the papers the copy clerk made.
My first job in England (I'm from the US) was as a temp for an insurance company. I was paid to solely create inter-company email with cc:mail I was paid £10/hour in 1996 to do that! It lasted four months when they taught everyone how to use it.

I bought my granddaughter jacks last week. She has no idea how to play the game. I felt ANCIENT!

The publication of the Argos catalogue and the Radio Times both being key parts of the run up to christmas.

3 digit telephone numbers.

Walking to school on my own from the age of 6.
My grandparents having a tin bath hanging on a nail outside the back door.

1 Channel on the tv.
Ice on the inside of the bedroom windows and getting dressed in bed.
The only time your bedroom was warm was if you were ill and a small fire was lit in your bedroom. Then you had piles of blankets on the bed to sweat out the fever.

The doctor coming out, your mum stripped the bed with you in it, rubbed round your face with a flannel, hair brushed. All this while feeling ill with measles etc.
No need for doctors appointments, you just turned up, counted how many people were in front of you so you knew when it was your turn.
Playing out in the woods and taking sandwiches and a drink. A fishing net and jam jar to catch tiddlers.
My mum plugging the iron into the centre light!
Sunday night bath, with a paraffin heater in the winter because it was like an ice box. Not being allowed out of the only room with a fire when you'd washed your head because you'd catch your death
I'm amazed I survived.

hair not head.

@Bargebill19

3 digit telephone numbers.

Yes - and saying the name of the exchange at the beginning of the number. Women we lived in rural Shropshire, our exchange was Cleehillstone.

Finding the odd farthing in your change although no longer legal tender.
Rag n bone men.
Jack Frost ice patterns on windows.
Spending hours looking into a real coal fire
Fireball xl5 “I wish I was a spaceman”, Jackanory, Blue Peter, Crackerjack on Friday at 5 past 5, all in black & white. And Dr Who every Saturday - genuinely scary.
Free school milk.
Collecting bazooka bubble gum wrappers
War on the tv news in 1967, same war going on now...
Seeing Rowan and Martins Laugh In on a colour television
Old fashioned grocers shops that smelled deliciously of ground coffee
Taking apart a pair of cords and sewing in a triangle of floral material to make them into flares
Sitting in the bath in Levis to shrink them into shape
Girls doing sewing and domestic science at school, not allowed to do woodwork or technical drawing
The light programme, Radio Caroline and Luxembourg, Fabulous 208
Top of the Pops on a Thursday night forever.
Girlie calendars and smoking in the office, smoking everywhere.
Telex machines and something called Gestetner, carbon copy paper in multiple colours
The sony walkman that played CDs being so advanced.

No seatbelts in cars.
No bike helmets
Lead in exhaust fumes.
City buildings coated with black soot.
Black and white TV.
Old buses with the opening at the back. If you tripped coming down the stairs or the bus lurched, you could be thrown right out onto the road.

The golden years of Irish radio.

Floppy disks.
Dial up internet

Dial up internet.
What was that weird girl the bastard clown beeping on the TV at a certain time?
VHS
Blockbuster (always had a certain smell. Didn't matter what blockbuster you went to, they all smelt the same!).

Floppy discs
Walkmen
Tapes
Cars with no seatbelt in the back

No 6 and Dunhill cigarettes.
School minibus that was basically a converted white van.
Borrowing 10p then 20p from a stranger to ring your mum.
Reverse charge calling when you didn't have 20p 'I have a reverse charge call from xx, will you accept the call'.
Touch typing classes at school and college.

The old mini as your first car.

Our Blockbusters smelt of popcorn and sticky carpet!
To think you had to go out to rent a film.
My son often asks me how we knew where to meet someone ! We had to ring them up and actually speak to them first to arrange it and just hope they showed up.

Miss World and the Eurovision Song Contest were must see viewing.
Newsflashes when there was something major happening such as the shootings of Ronald Reagan, John Lennon, and the Pope - there seemed to be a lot of shootings back then.
There also seemed to be a lot of serial killers - the Moors murderers were before my time but I remember the Yorkshire Ripper, and children going missing and being found murdered.
Girls wore knee length white socks. No uniforms at primary school. Uniform at secondary school consisted of skirts for girls - no option of trousers.
Holidays in guest houses in places like Bournemouth or Sidmouth, with little or no choice of meals and shared bathrooms. No TVs or phones in rooms, and no tea trays either. I think DM took a little travel kettle. I hated the feeling of being in a stranger's house. Now I always choose self catering or big anonymous hotels.
Eating out was a very rare treat. There were cafes and restaurants but no pub meals. We had fish and chips occasionally but my parents were very traditional and wouldn't entertain the idea of having a Chinese or Indian takeaway, or even cooking a lasagne, chilli or spagbol.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

Skodas that were truly rubbish cars - as opposed to modern Skodas which are among the best and most reliable cars you can buy.

Also Ladas - but they were no longer for this world.

One of my friends had a Yugo. Which actually is "the worst car in history".

The cool lads when I was young had an XR3i.

All the little cars had ridiculous engines and went well over 100mph. And we used to fit 8-10 people in them. Some in the boot.

Fun times.

Shine up your buttons with Brasso.

The song. I remember lots of songs we used to sing on school trips that were not quite rude.

Video shops.
I know they're back but LPs and singles
Cassette tapes and walkmans
Bum bags
Television closing down at midnight
Top 40 on Sunday.
Jackie, Smash hits and Just 17 magazines

Wrestling on the telly. Big Daddy style, not WWE.
Also One man and his dog.
Ceefax
Boring Sunday afternoons, usually with a western film on the 4 channels, for some inexplicable reason.
Takeaway choice: chippy. If you were fancy there might be a Chinese nearby.
Meals out being posh occasions
Wackaday and Going Live

I honestly loved that going out was a treat. Now it's a given

Sitting in the boot of an estate car with friends was the BEST car seat ever. It was also normal to lock kids in the car whilst doing your shopping etc. They were quite happy with a book or comic!
Petrol pump attendants and a monthly bill for two star petrol!

Being paid weekly in cash, given out in a little brown envelope

Tales of the unexpected

Having to get up to turn the tv over

Sitting in the stairs to use the phone which was in the hall on the telephone table

Dial a disc

The speaking clock

Being ever so proud of the badges on my Brownies uniform which I had earned and the ones my brother kindly added. I was the only one in the Wribbenhall pack who had the Iron cross first class, a panzer destroyer award, an Eastern Front service award, was a luftwaffe pilot, u boat sailor and held the rank of sturmanfurher! Until i was sent home With A Letter.