A Thing You Don't See These Days

[xYerDaSellsAvonx]

I found a picture of my mum standing on one of those big red coin operated weighing scales today. It had a big dial face. It was in our local shopping centre but I remember seeing them on piers, train stations etc too. Did you ever use them? Other than this picture of my mum I don't remember seeing one in use

Landline phones. My folks still have one but no one my age (30-40) that I know does.

@Aroundtheworldin80moves

Plastic headcovers when it was raining. Post offices as a dedicated shop. Lift assistants.

Rainmate - at least that's what my Mum called them. She always carried one with her in her handbag, along with Mint Imperials and a beautifully ironed hankie. (I'm sure she still does all these things, actually! 89 this year and still going strong.)

She is of the generation who went to the hairdresser every week for a shampoo and set. Perm every few months. Does anybody under the age of 80 still do this?

Somebody mentioned Blockbusters. Yes, video rentals were something that seemed new and exciting in the 80s and disappeared within one generation. There were whole shops full of VHS cassettes you could rent, often with a section for computer games too, and lots of local shops (mostly newsagents?) had a tiny selection of videos to rent too.

Reminds me of a joke I saw on Twitter recently. 'The cashier asked me for proof of age and while I was hunting for ID my Blockbuster membership card fell out of my wallet. She told me that would do.'

I see one of these every day - they’re actually called apothecaries’ jars. My DF used to work for the firm that made them. IIRC this was one of the last.

They’re not carboys - those are very large, round jobs. We have one of those too, now used as a table lamp, with chunks of glass chipped out of a furnace inside. There’s a name for that but I’ve forgotten it.

The tinted name strips in cars on the windscreen! ‘Darren & Tracy’!

Chimney sweeps with blackened faces rising a bicycle with their brushes attached.

^^ riding

@Guineapigbridge

Cheque books

We still have one and use it. Mind you, I pay for everything in cash too. Hard to believe I work in IT.

Insects on car windscreens and number plates

Impressionists. Mike Yarwood was a popular entertainer. Faith Brown, Marti Caine and there was another woman who’s name I can’t remember.

@iwannabelikeyouhoohoo

Landline phones. My folks still have one but no one my age (30-40) that I know does.

I know a few people with them... mobile coverage still patchy in rural areas.

The last time we took our Cub pack camping, we came across a phone box. None of them knew what it was for...

@cortex10

Charity collections where you selected a tear off image of a 'deprived child' from a book of black and white images and made a donation - presumably in the belief that that was the child who'd receive your funds.

In our area the porn magazines were stored in the grit bin on the street corner. Like a DIY library.

Yes!!! Sunny Smiles. Looking back now it's the weirdest concept.....

White dog poo is because of bone content.

DD struggled to tune an analogue FM radio recently.

@Mydogisagentleman

Leg callipers. I went to school with two siblings who used/wore them

People still have calipers, but they are called AFO , for children quite likely to be brightly coloured

Library book stamps

@Mydogisagentleman

Leg callipers. I went to school with two siblings who used/wore them

Had a teacher with these.

@FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop

The milkman

We’ve got a milkman

Some of these are still alive and well! I’ve certainly seen those collecting things shaped like children and/or guide dogs outside charity shops very recently, and there are several adults I see regularly, selling newspapers or holding signs to direct you to a shop, in callipers — bad polio outbreak here in the 70s. I’m in Paris on holiday and there are free, old-fashioned (though non-speaking) weighing scales in the Jardins du Luxembourg.

@Miniestelle

Those charity collection statues outside shops of a little boy wearing calipers or a girl with a guide dog with a money slot in them.

Still have those outside Barnados- a more modern version

Those pneumatic tubes in department stores that used to whizz payments from the sales floor up to the cashier and then return with change for the customer.

Green Shield stamps.

Cars with little illuminated indicators that used to flip out from the side.

Vim and Ajax scouring powder in tins. Or maybe these still exist?

Fry's Five Boys chocolate!

I went to Hayling Island the other day and they have one of those red scales in the arcade. Not sure anyone used it though. We still get a milkman round here and my Nan still gets the crisps with the little blue sachet of salt in them. No idea where from. She always bins the salt as she likes the crisps plain.

Things I don’t see anymore are those tall old slides that shot you half way across the playground and that long horse everyone used to pile onto. Beaded curtains, class statues with weird colours in them.

Glass not class

Those charity collection boxes that when you put money in they moved. I used to love them as a kid.

You can still get Salt n Shake crisps from literally any supermarket.