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Original poster

Things where you look back and think "that really was a different world"

434 replies

StealthPolarBear · 08/09/2021 22:40

I am only in my early 40s so young and sprightly.
When I was even younger I had a job in a dentists office. Basically sending reminder letters out, printjng the letters, and addressing the envelopes. The dental records didn't have title on them so I asked what I should do. The response was i a woman's husband is also registered at the practice, she's a Mrs.
So I did that. Mrs for those respectable married women, and using my teenage innovation I decided any where I was unsure would be 'Ms'.
I got such a telling off. Apparently people complained as it looked like they were divorced.
There are times when the 90s seem only yesterday, and times like remembering that when they seem to have more in common with the victorian era than the present day!

OP posts:
inmytree · 08/09/2021 23:03

The past is a foreign country.

CarpeVitam · 08/09/2021 23:14

@inmytree

The past is a foreign country.
The past is a foreign country: They do things differently there.’

The immortal first line to L P Hartley's, the Go-Between.

A favourite!

Tippexy · 08/09/2021 23:19

Well to be fair, Ms was used for divorced people, and still is to this day! It’s just that it’s become a little more popular for non-divorced women now too.

SueGeneris · 08/09/2021 23:19

Similar age. Worked in one office in the late 90s where they did not yet have computers - only electronic typewriters.

One job had the rule that women could not wear trousers in reception. I ignored that!
I remember my friend being horrified by the idea of mobile phones, that people could get hold of her any time!

I love the simplicity of the past.
What’s weird to think is, in 100, 200 years time - this now will be that ‘simple’ past.

StillWeRise · 08/09/2021 23:23

NO
Ms was always intended as equal to Mr, a title that did not indicate marital status. It was never intended to indicate being divorced.

SirSamuelVimes · 08/09/2021 23:25

Being able to book a smoking ticket on a plane.

My brother flew to Australia in about 2002/3 and would only fly with one airline because they were the only ones who still had the option.

Kakser · 08/09/2021 23:25

@Tippexy

Well to be fair, Ms was used for divorced people, and still is to this day! It’s just that it’s become a little more popular for non-divorced women now too.
I started going by Ms as a teenager in the 90s (on my bank card etc) so definitely no connotations of divorce to me!
elaeocarpus · 08/09/2021 23:27

I think smartphones . It really wasn't that long ago they didn't exist at all. Same with mobiles, even when i had a dumb mobile in the late 90s we didn't text friends continuously. The rapid change in use, especially comparing my school years with my DC is vast

RobynNora · 08/09/2021 23:29

Derail but another chiming in to say that Ms is definitely not for divorced women and never was! @tippexy you are missing the point a lot!

I don’t wish to be defined by my marital status thank you very much (not divorced as it happens but have been a ms since forever) It’s giving us basic equality with men and as the OP points out, it seems mad that this wasn’t ‘a thing’ when she was working at the clinic.

elaeocarpus · 08/09/2021 23:31

Another one is cheques. I grew up in another country. Cheques were non existent from about the 80s, we'd moved to bacs/card machines ( i could pay by card in a taxi in the late 90s). Moving to uk i had to learn how to write a cheque- felt like I'd gone back on time

Antsinyourpanta · 08/09/2021 23:33

I was watching a documentary about 9/11 this week and it was really weird to think it predated social media so the only updates were on radio or tv news, and the footage had barely anyone using mobile phones, and certainly not using them catch it on video.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 08/09/2021 23:33

School trip. Coach broke down. So they squeezed as many as possible onto the other coach, all three to a seat.

Travelling to sports matches in another parents car... 4 or 5 of us on the back seat.

We all survived by pure luck.

UpHillandDownAle · 08/09/2021 23:34

Ha ha! Love it. We’ve got kids of both sexes. When filling in the boy passport application, I noticed Master wasn’t there anymore so it was straight to Mr. So for our daughter, I went for Ms. The person in the post office wanted to change my form! It is so ducking wrong (IMO) to have a title that changes when you marry for one sex and not the other! Especially as the historical root for it is that women passed from their father’s possession to their husbands (hence the whole giving away bit of marriage ceremony which is largely defunct now I believe). And don’t get me onto the word History! I mean, it is literally HIS STORY!!
Rant over! Back to the original post: the casual sexism in films in the 90s is shocking. Didn’t even notice it when living through the 90s!
Also listened to a historic interview of the first international women footballs (60s/70s) and the questions the interview asked! OMG - the commentator even told one player she had the wrong decision when she wasn’t married (yes, the first question was, “are you married”) as her boyfriend of 2 years had said it was him or football and the commentator replied something along the lines of surely most girls would want the marriage!

UpHillandDownAle · 08/09/2021 23:35

@Aroundtheworldin80moves - if space was tight when we went out with family friends, there would often be 2 or 3 kids squished into a tiny hatchback boot!

PastMyBestBeforeDate · 08/09/2021 23:35

Three telly channels. I remember C4 starting.
My dc can't conceive of the idea that you can't pause what you're watching.

Antsinyourpanta · 08/09/2021 23:35

Another one is cheques. I grew up in another country. Cheques were non existent from about the 80s, we'd moved to bacs/card machines ( i could pay by card in a taxi in the late 90s). Moving to uk i had to learn how to write a cheque- felt like I'd gone back on time

Someone recently told me that contactless payment is rarely used in the US and they dont use contactless for tube/transport barriers. No idea how true it is but I was pretty mind blown about that as I thought they would be ahead of the game in tech.

HollowTalk · 08/09/2021 23:36

@Tippexy

Well to be fair, Ms was used for divorced people, and still is to this day! It’s just that it’s become a little more popular for non-divorced women now too.
That isn't true. It was intended as an alternative to Mr, so that women didn't have to declare their marital status.
Aroundtheworldin80moves · 08/09/2021 23:36

Being able to make a tit of yourself as a teenager/young adult... and then being able to grow up knowing that there is no evidence.

Now their immaturity is immortalised on Social Media as they do it.

UpHillandDownAle · 08/09/2021 23:36

Sorry a few typos - I need to go to bed! But hopefully get the gist!

olidora63 · 08/09/2021 23:37

I am late 50 but in the 80s everything was uncomplicated!! Didn’t have mobile phone..my parents never worried about me …they just allowed me to be me without all the checking etc…I absolutely never can recall any problems.And tbh we had all the hazards that exist now!

RandomMess · 08/09/2021 23:37

I remember have to turn the dial on the TV to tune in the 3 channels then we upgraded to one with buttons you pushed in, then to a remote control!!

We couldn't afford a home phone until Dad got one provided by work! I was born in the 70s

GroggyLegs · 08/09/2021 23:39

Smoking in clubs - coming home deaf, stinking like an ashtray with burn marks on your new top.
Ah! Those were the days.

irresistibleoverwhelm · 08/09/2021 23:42

I’m only in my early 40s too, but in my first job I was a junior assistant in a law firm. In 1999 (!) there were only four computers in an office of around 25 people, and only one of them was connected to the internet Grin

If a letter had to be sent to a client, your manager told you roughly what he wanted you to say; you wrote your letter by hand then dictated the letter into a dictaphone, whereupon a secretary typed it up and printed it out and put it in a faux-leather folder.

You then read and annotated/corrected it by hand, gave it back to the secretary and she (always she) retyped it. You then corrected any further mistakes and sent it to your manager to read. He (always he!) then called you in and told you any further changes that needed making, whereupon you then noted them down, and sent it back to the secretary for final correction. She retyped it, printed it out on nicer letterheaded paper, and left it for you again. You then signed/pp’d it and/or left it for the manager to countersign. Evebtualt the thing in its faux leather folder would make its way back to the secretary, who would stamp and address it and take it to the postbox.

I don’t think most people under 30 would even be able to conceptualise this, yet it was basically how business was conducted for decades before computers and the internet. Definitely another world Grin

irresistibleoverwhelm · 08/09/2021 23:43

I mean writing and sending one letter could literally take a whole day!

ItsRainingTacos · 08/09/2021 23:44

When I started uni in the mid 90s we were given all given an email address and login password. And we looked at each other and thought 'wtf do we need that for?!'...