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

[StealthPolarBear]

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!

@irresistibleoverwhelm that makes total sense. I was home with dd (mat leave) with tv on in background. Saw the 1st plane hit and like most people thought freak accident at first, turned volume up, regular programming had been interrupted. While they were reporting on the first plane hitting reporter in New York the twin towers in the background the 2nd plane hit. The reporter I was watching had his back to them while reporting and I think the cameraman had indicated to him to turn around and see as the 2nd plane hit at which point everyone was like wtf! And the terrorism suspicions started and soon were vaguely confirmed.

WordPerfect wow! That brings back memories! Awful programme but seemed amazing at the time

As an asthmatic (due I think to my parents being heavy smokers!) I well remember the smoking being EVERYWHERE was such a relief when it started getting banned.

@RainyDay2020 my first computer based job was as a data entry clerk. Pre windows, sage accounting which was also awful. Fucked my eyes up (green typing on black screen, dot matrix printer) and couldn't cope with small percentages! Bosses didn't trust it totally so I still had to verify everything using an adding machine and attach the resulting strip from that to the printouts from the computer. Took the computer approx 1 hour to boot up each morning too so I'd get in turn the computer on then while awaiting it waking up I'd do the 1st round of tea/coffee (because I was the only woman at that level apparently!) and sort through the Mail and make any phone calls needed. Also in that job wasn't ALLOWED to wear trousers, flat shoes, or no make up even though I wasn't even customer facing - this was mid 90's and totally normal at this time for where I lived. Another candidate at the interview was way more qualified than me...but she had worn trousers to the interview and so had not been given the job.

@LeafOfTruth I'm in HE so different sector, similar problems. I've never been called a call girl, but many senior male colleagues would just call us 'the office girlies'. They had no clue what we did in our individual and professional job roles. But we all had boobs so 🤷🏻‍♀️

I'm sure I did no work on Friday afternoons for my first few jobs, we were too tipsy and excited about leaving at 5pm on the dot to do more drinking together. I can occasionally fit in a work meeting over a coffee now. I miss that old country of the past. I'm not ambitious and I fitted in better there 😂

@LoveFall I entered nurse training shortly after the above. Uniform was a white dress, navy apron which had to be starched and the hospital I trained at still wore those stupid useless nurses hats for my 1st year. Thankfully they'd gone by 2nd year. You were lucky with black tights! We had to wear "flesh coloured" ie American tan type! We still had to wear hair in a bun if it was long.

Also watching paper cash whooshing through perspex tube from supermarket checkout to back of store.

@Soupsseason too -

I worked part time in supermarkets from I was 14 (it was allowed then) so I remember this. Also remember processing credit cards (no debit cards yet) through the manual slidey card readers that were not even electric but created printed/carbon copies and being taught white goes to customer as a receipt, pink goes in the till yellow goes in tube for store accountants. Most had a £50 limit which was a lot of money then but we had no way of checking a customers balance or anything.

and the bloody things took a lot of muscle to move!

Yep! And if you held it wrong while swiping you'd nip the webbing of skin between thumb and forefinger! I remember often having plasters on there.

I now have more sympathy for my dad who I used to laugh at when he'd concert the price of something into £sd and then shocked would declare "I'm not paying 30 Bob for that!!"

My first time flying to USA in 1994, I bought the largest suitcase I could find as was going out for 3 weeks. It was huge I pulled it along on 2 wheels. There was no weight restrictions in these days.

……male colleagues going to pubs with lunchtime strippers….

Now I'm like "how much?! I remember when it used to cost x!!" And my dd is now the one 🙄 and laughing.

I also remember using cheques to "postpone" payment until pay day hit. I also remember not only being paid in cash but making up wages in cash, had to work out how many of each denomination I needed when getting the wages from the bank I'd have a list like this:

20 x £20
10 x £10
7 x £5
14 x £1 (still notes then)
9 x 50p
25 x 10p (no 20p coin)
18 x 5p
19 x 2p
8 x 1p
9 x 1/2 p

That would blow my dds mind! I remember her bewildered look when I told her I could get a mix of 20 black jacks and fruit salad chews for 10p when I was a little kid. Ha'penny sweets seem ancient to her, my favourite crisps salt n shake were 7 1/2p then too which my parents considered too expensive we mostly got 5p standard smiths ready salted.

@Maskless we had a home phone by the time we were teens. But costs were still quite high so we'd have systems with friends family like "ring 3 times to let me know you're home safe" and so we wouldn't answer the phone unless it rang more than 3 times my mum STILL does this with us even though like many her Uk calls are free/included in her landline and broadband package. Although she still insists on being with BT despite them being insanely expensive and the service shite! (Ongoing argument)

She and her siblings if they've had a day out together when they get home mum as they eldest gets the "check in" rings. If she hasn't had 5 by the time she's been home an hour she starts ringing around to see who was "missing" - bonkers! The person who didn't check in then gets a bollocking from the rest for worrying them.

@Stircraazy and of course many of those things being so much cheaper now in terms of relative income means we are using more resources than we need to which harms the environment

@Insert1x20p My dd about to start uni and we've needed to email each other and she's had to email the uni about some things. She is genuinely struggling with learning how to do attachments properly etc as she's just not used to using it at all. Yet she took TWO IT subjects at school - how?! Apparently they taught them loads about cyber security etc just not how to actually USE it!

I always think it must be much easier being at university and doing research now although am happy to be corrected!

Having done uni pre and post internet I can say the difference is HUGE! 2nd time was WAY easier I used to tease the younger students they didn't know they were born! But I was also able to help and direct them to hard copies of reference materials that weren't at that point yet available online or which to access online required costly membership to certain websites eg academic journals. I was in the library the first time that happened and I overheard another student "I really need a quote from x journal but I'm not paying £20 for membership for one quote!" I knew the library on the top floor had the hard copies of said journal and said this to her she looked ended up walking her up there, showing her how to find which shelf the correct issue was on via index card catalogue, locating the shelf and finding the journal...but talk about no good deed! I then became "miss journal finder" for the whole bloody cohort! Got a bit fed up of this so raised it with head of dept that they needed to do a session on accessing non online materials which they did - they had assumed that students either knew how to do this or at least knew how to ask the very well qualified and experienced librarians to help them. So a session led by a librarian was organised which included this and lots of other info some of which I didn't know either.

@OhWhatFuckeryIsThisNow and others I can't even remember when I last OWNED a chequebook! They used to come in a choice of designs too which I explained to dd when we were watching the episode of friends where Ross loans Monica money by writing her a cheque which Monica comments is in a dinosaur design. I had one once that was various impressionist paintings copied.

@HelenaJustina assuming you're in the Uk I think school security was stepped up in the wake of the Dunblane massacre in 1996.

If you live outside of Uk perhaps due to things like school shootings?

If you wanted to plagiarise you had to copy it out in your own handwriting so you still learned something

But also potentially easier to plagiarise then as no software checking. If different tutors were marking that assignment even within the same institution they wouldn't know 2 students submitted the same work.

We were still handwriting exams early 2000's. Lit degree flipping 4 hours at times. Wow hand was sore the next day!

I'm another that remembers only 3 tv channels I remember channel 4 starting, also breakfast tv starting! And the "close" thing late at night on tv where you'd get the national anthem and then the ident with the creepy girl playing noughts and crosses on a chalkboard. If you were a scot there was also at the end of the night a sermon by a priest/minister! Phenomenon that was mocked by rikki Fulton with his reverend I m jolly morose/dour minister character on his show "scotch and wry"

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=isQq155YLDM

Giving 3 rings on the phone to confirm you got home ok. DS thinks this is hilarious.

@Hopdathelf my granda was a pools collector man, when we were up visiting we were allowed to count up the money for him which was mainly in coppers. Pools was like the lottery is now really a chance for people to win big money for a small entry fee. Supposedly a game of skill as it involved predicting the scores of the football games but really just a Lucky draw. Also included the "spot the ball" competition.

Different generations wore different clothes

Omg yes!!

Things we thought of as "old fashioned" as in frumpy, the people wearing those fashions I later realised, especially women, were actually wearing the fashions that were popular in THEIR youth. So eg my grans had shampoo abs set hair like the film stars of the 40's and 50's, ditto the headscarves, my mum with her frosted pink lippy and stilletoes,

neither wore jeans when I was around, grans never owned jeans, mum says she stopped wearing them when she hit 30, now I'm 49 and shamefully realising I feel much more comfortable wearing the styles and colours that were fashionable in the 80's/90's/early 00's I still wear jeans but not the modern styles.

@Tumbleweed101 I had a zx spectrum played hungry Horace games on it on cassette tape, took flipping ages to load.

@SkepticalCat

I've just thought of another one - checking your pigeon hole at uni to see if you've got any post from home. The soaring highs of finding something, and the crashing disappointment if your pigeon hole is empty.

Do university campuses/accommodation still have pigeon holes?

You’ve summed that up so well. Nowadays would there be a trust or confidentiality issue?

Technology wasn't very advanced and we had to do many tasks the hard way instead of getting things done at the touch of a button, things which we take for granted today.

Humour has changed too. Jokes which would be inappropriate now were the norm and you'd be accused of being po-faced or worse if you didn't laugh along.

Equal pay for women wasn't considered important and you had to choose between marriage/motherhood or career - you couldn't have both.

My dad thought that men who took much interest in their children or pushed prams were weird and I'm not sure he even knew where the kettle was - I don't think he ever actually used it himself unless mum was ill. Poor mum, she was a browbeaten domestic slave and that was considered normal.

College work in the 90’s was all handwritten with the notes up on the overhead projector slides in the class

I was helping dd once prepare a school presentation and mentioned "get your ohp set up ready" and she was like "my what?!" She then had to teach me about PowerPoint

Taping the top 40

I miss this

@EvenRosesHaveThorns parents put in and made us wear seatbelts prior to legal changes, but didn't wear theirs. Dad was the driver, he moaned a LOT that it was harder to drive wearing one...until we were in a big accident where it undoubtedly saved his life!

Remember house phones with large round dial? If you misdialled you had to start again. It could take ages to call anyone

My mum had a lock an actual physical lock with a-key that would attach the big round dial to stop anyone (lodgers) using it

School girls campaigning for longer school wear... must be the only time in history.

I remember my mum being utterly bemused by the fashion in the mid 80's for ankle length school skirts, which were basically maxi skirts but we hated them called that as that implied uncool 70's fashion. She had memories of her mum checking her skirt was a "decent" length then as soon as mum was out of sight she and her friends would be rolling them up to micro mini length! It was the 60's! She also got a bollocking from her parents for winning an "itsy bitsy teeny weeny" bikini competition which she hadn't told them about but which the photo of the winner and runners up appeared in the local paper! I can confirm it was indeed a very teeny bikini! mum had a STUNNING figure then

School years were labelled differently - first year junior, second year, and then first year senior, second year etc.

Yes! When posters are talking about the school years on here now I have NO idea what age/stage the child is! Especially as I'm in Scotland and it works differently up here for when they move to high school and when they start school

And banks closed at 3pm

Also closed at 12 on Wednesdays along with every other shop and weren't open Saturdays at all, shops were open till around 3pm on Saturdays, the only shop open on a Sunday was the newsagent/sweet shop

@Robertthebrucesthistle when texts very first came out you were charged per character! Depending who you were with between 10p to 25p including spaces - hence text speak and emojis which were initially created from punctuation marks ;-)

You could think about having sex with a man you'd been dating without reckoning that you should tell him that you don't do anal, like being choked, or want to wanked on, slapped in the face or spat on.

Yep this is pretty depressing isn't it? Not an issue for me so much but my dd is pretty sick of dealing with dates with overly pornified attitudes to sex. Friends of hers have had horrific experiences too. She is quite assertive and quite clear she won't stand for any of that nonsense.

My most shocking though is that I had a Saturday job, with my mum at her estate agency. I was 13. I carried out the 'accompanied' viewings to empty houses! Viewers would book an appointment, turn up at the office in their car. I would merrily get in, go with them to the empty properties and they would drop me back....

Was this before or after Suzy lamplugh?!

Just remembered another - in the data entry job having to back up everything daily to cassette tapes! That took about an hour too so effectively 2 hours every day not doing the actual job!

Teletex for holidays, info etc.

I tied myself in knots once trying to explain teletext to dd

@SprayedWithDettol I can still remember our old house numbers (multiple as dad was army so we moved about) and definitely both grans numbers and certain aunts and uncles we called a lot and also my first fiancé's number and I've not phoned that in 30 years!! But back then I was phoning it 2/3 times a day! Though mostly "3 rings"

@SquirryTheSquirrel I can't remember my own bloody number now! I have to go on the phone companies app and check when I'm asked for it!

Have we had telephone books in phone booths yet?

No but I'm sure many of us remember them. And cursing people who'd ripped out the pages they needed!

Also - reverse charge calls? Dd was late for curfew once and claimed she hadn't called to let me know cos she was out of credit. My response was "well call reverse charge from a pay phone" and she was like "do what?!"

@gabsdot45 even at the time I thought that was well dodgy!

When they came out my sister and I were given bt phone cards in case we got stuck and had to call dad to come get us...brother didn't get one cos as a boy he was expected to sort himself out

the one time sexism went in our favour!

Re video rental, 3 words that will strike horrific nostalgia in the hearts of those that remember -

"Be kind rewind" cos if you didn't there was a penalty fee!

Anyone remember when wearing a "long dress" ie a proper party dress to birthday parties and weddings were a thing? I LOVED mine at the time (70's burnt orange with broderie anglaise trim and smocking) but my mum still has a photo of me and my siblings in our party outfits (brother was in a wee velour dinner suit complete with bow tie) and it's now a source of great embarrassment to us all! Sister is wearing my old one as a hand me down and we're completely different colouring so it doesn't suit her at all! Then again I'm a redhead wearing orange so dunno WHAT mum was thinking! It's in the bloody living room at mums too on the sideboard (yes she still has a sideboard too!) so everyone that visits her sees the damn thing!

Relationships seemed easier. When you started dating (usually the male asking the female out), you were instantly a couple, and both people knew this (as well as outsiders). There wasn’t a period whereby you could still be free to date other people, until exclusivity was decided.

Also, people didn’t get so intimate with each other so quickly. Nowadays, people jump into bed with each other from the first date, it seems. Then people got to know each other first, and you only slept together once you knew and trusted them. This could be days, weeks or even months.

@Standrewsschool
What, when we’re you dating. The 1850s!!!

I'm 34, so my teen years don't seem that long ago, yet it really feels like another lifetime ago. Mobile phones were just getting popular in the early noughties. No one really had a mobile yet so when I used to meet my mates out, we always rang each others houses from a landline/phone box... we arranged a time to meet and that was that - you made sure you were there and you made sure you weren't late.

I also remember people smoking in clubs/bars etc. The cigarette machines. Thinking back now, I can't believe it took so long to ban it. It was really disgusting wasn't it?! No ventilation, everyone breathing in the rancid fumes, you would come back stinking of it, not to mention the odd time you got a cig burn from some careless person not looking where they were going. So glad it was banned!

Where I grew up:

• Everyone going to church on Sundays
• Teachers smoking in school
• Very limited opening hours for shops

.... so so many changes

@PastMyBestBeforeDate.
😂😂😂😂
As a kid I would sometimes watch the telly and be desperately waiting for an advert so I could get a drink or go for a wee. I remember my dad and I often saying how good it would be if you could stop the programme while you went to do this then come back and turn it on so you hadn't missed anything.
He would be amazed by some things these days and quite horrified at others.

Catalogues. They were bloody brilliant, you’d fight over the new seasons one then pour over every page, then wait weeks for the stuff to arrive. Of course you’d ordered loads, so some would go back, queue at the post office, then pay .52p for 30 weeks. And forget. Then start again next season.
I remember when the first next catalogue came out, me and dh ordered loads, you could ring up and read out every number. Of course you had to be quick because it went out of stock really fast.

At primary school the headmaster used to send us to the Post Office with the dinner money. Pair of 10 year olds walking unaccompanied during school hours with a bag of cash! Mid-1980s.