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!

I remember hitching everywhere.

Job adverts for a "bubbly girl Friday" really were a thing when I started work.

People also smoked at work including while serving customers.

I also remember being trained how to use the new fangled fax machine. It was an actual training course.

And it was perfectly normal to have a skinful at lunchtime

@WorkHardPlayHard1 No it wasn't. I was taught about Ms when I was a child in the mid sixties, by my mother. She explained to me that it was about women's equality as it felt unfair that women were given a title that denoted their marital status, whereas men weren't.

So does 'back in the day' mean before the 1960s? A quick google will reveal that it has never had any other meaning, and was taken up and promoted by feminists in the 1950s and 60s.

The faux pa with addresses/divorce was addressing people as Mrs own first initial surname.

Married and widowed women were addressed by their husband's name. Divorced women got to use their own.

So Carol Smith married to David would be Mrs D Smith until she got divorced and then she was Mrs C Smith

Ah yes I probably did that too!

I was driving in traffic when 9/11 was reported. I thought I had turned on a radio play or book being read.

@FindingMeno

I remember hitching everywhere.

So did I, all over the place. It amazes me now and the thought of it is terrifying, it was so dangerous.

70's & 80's, ringing up boys from a wee wee phone box and vice versa. Alot of people didn't have home phones aka landlines. Parking more or less anywhere in London. We used to drive into the West End and often find a free parking space.

As a young primary school teacher in the 70s we used to make all our own work cards - we cut out pieces of stiff card and wrote maths questions on them eg 4x2, 3x2 etc to reinforce times tables knowledge. Then we covered them in sticky backed plastic so they'd last longer. Used to do the same sort of thing to reinforce knowledge of verbs etc and made similar work cards to help with spelling. It took HOURS of work. Occasionally we could line up to use a photocopier in the school office, but it was more trouble than it was worth. We were also allowed to smack a bottom if a child deliberately misbehaved. Children were hardly ever smacked, because they knew what would happen.... Years later, I heard that one previous child in a class of mine in a school in a 'challenging' (ahem) area had been banged up as an adult for grievous bodily harm, attempted murder and arson. He was a terror in the playground but an angel in class as he knew he'd have a smack on the bottom if he misbehaved. I'm always appalled when I hear of teachers struggling with discipline in primary schools. I didn't know of any teacher having such problems because the punishments were clear and hardly ever needed to be enforced.

I worked in an office in the late 80s/early 90s. Electric then electronic typewriters and a word processor that had a massive floppy disk! Ashtrays were provided and the majority of people smoked at work. We audio typed, sitting there with headphones on tapping away. Women were not allowed to wear trousers and were sexually harassed on a regular basis. We used to only go in the stationery cupboard if certain managers weren't around (because they would follow you on for a hug or to squeeze past etc). I was once parcel taped to my chair by two male workers (I was 17). One of the managers would often call me using "Oi!" and he once made us stay late looking for a letter that we had lost. We looked in every single file (probably around 1000), every drawer etc. We eventually went home expecting a bollocking the next morning...only to find out that he'd found the letter in a pile on his desk - no apology or acknowledgement! I'd like to think that things have moved on!

My Dad was a '£10 Pom' back in the early '60s. He met my Mum in Australia and when my sister and I were born in the '80s he sent telegrams back to my Grandma in Manchester as a phone call was too expensive! Mum said she remembers it being about $2 a minute. Now I'm in the U.K. and my English kids FaceTime their grandma in Australia regularly for free.

My Dad died when I was a young child and I imagine he would have his mind blown by the ease with which we can talk to family on the other side of the world.

The amount of traffic on the roads now compared to when I passed my test in 1993 surprises me, used to take 5-10 mins to get from one side of my town to the other, now it takes at least 30 mins.

@PastMyBestBeforeDate

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

This reminds me of my childhood- our telly only received BBC1 & ITV on a 9" b&w screen! During big sports events like World Cup or Wimbledon all the kids tv (Blue Peter etc, was moved to BBC2 . Miserable. TV shut down at midnight- no morning tv either.

I really can't remember how I found things out, or arranged things, in the 1980's and 90's. Booking flights, and trains, getting info about the best places to travel to and places to stay - it's impossible now to imagine doing things like that without the internet, but I must have done, as I travelled round Europe, and Asia.

I saw that too and thought the same ..
People were using those disposable cameras
You got from chemists ..
I was in NY on 9/11 and often wonder what my social media posts would have been like ..

I went into Waterstones and copied down phone numbers from the Let's Go travel guide. I was a cheeky fucker I suppose.

By the way, my office still uses dictaphones, has all female secretaries, and letters signed in faux leather folders.

Council housing: lots of it but you had to be married to get on the list, couples got a flat until they had a family, rent book was always in the husbands name. Council used to go round making sure you kept your gardens tidy.

Train timetables, a thick pamphlet with the train’s timetable on it, changing every so often, so you needed to make sure you had the correct one.
I remember watching drop the dead donkey and sex and the city on a black and white telly in my bedroom. I’m only 40, but it feels an absolute lifetime ago.

Men standing when ladies came into the room.
Men tipping their hat when passing a lady.
Always having shoes polished,
Stockings instead of tights.
LSD and 140 pennies in a £
Real money.
No ‘used by dates’ on products and food.
Wage packets.
Hard toilet paper (Izal)
Ladies wearing hats.
Names on front doors,
Police walking the beat.
Teachers wearing gowns.
Teachers dressing in a business manner.
Cigarette holders.
Two way family service on the BBC,
Crackerjack (using cabbages) on TV
The little dot of light when the TV was turned off.
The national anthem at the end of the evenings TV
The test card onTV
TV folk speaking RP
Ladies not allowed in the bar area of pubs.
Pubs called ‘public houses’
When police were like Dixon of Dock Green.
Crossroads (TV programme)
When petrol was put into the tank by the garage man.
Lacquer for hair instead of hairspray.
Back combing (hair)
Oh that’s enough!

I seem to remember a time when men didn't push in front of women to get on a bus/train, didn't shoulder barge any woman who didn't get out of his way, and men didn't physically shove women on escalators, in queues - they behave like monsters in public

I am old, so there are loads of things that I remember, but one real difference was computers. When I was 15, I worked in the local office of the Gas Board. The computer was a gigantic machine that lived in its own special temperature-controlled room. It had its own section of staff and no-one else was allowed to approach it. There was a glass wall along one side of the room and you might get a chance to peer at it if you were lucky. Somebody told me that the Gas Board didn't produce enough work to keep it constantly occupied, so they rented out its spare capacity to other businesses.

The idea that computers would become small and affordable, and that ordinary people would have them, would have seemed ridiculous.

1980s Clinical lab, mouth pipetting, no gloves, peeling kimwipes, that were stuck to your bare hand with plasma, off so you could have a puff of the smoke that was lit in the ashtray next to your chemistry analyser. Eating at the bench. Tipping radioactive reagents down the sink, infact using radioactive reagents in an open lab. Hand writing lab reports for doctors. Manually pipetting reagents and samples to put into the analysers, no IDs on anything, just your hand written list of who was in what position, no barcodes on the patient samples either, just hand written names on tubes. Having to do manual calculations to get certain results. Its a wonder any of us survived

@Stopyourhavering64

In the late 1980s early 1990s One of the hospital consultants still did an Xmas day ward round, he was Scottish and would put on his kilt and all the stuff that goes with a kilt and visit every patient of his in the hospital.

He regretted that he could no longer carve the turkey for patients, apparently Xmas dinner used to be delivered to the ward as a whole turkey with all the trimmings and the most senior Dr would carve.

When the house officers arrived in August they never believed us they would be doing a ward round.

From the late 80s, when I was 18, I used Ms as I didn't see why anyone should know my marital status. Nothing to do with divorce. It's not new!

I remember as a kid being allowed to sit on a parents lap to steer the car while driving. It probably wasn’t lawful back then but I knew lots of other kids who also got to do that and we were never pulled up by the police. There is no way any parent would do that now.

I also remember being able to play outside, explore the neighbourhood, ride my bike far and wide as a child unsupervised as was pretty normal in the 80’s. Not allowed now.

We also played cricket on the road and every time a car came along we had time to get off the road. Much more traffic in suburban areas and there is no way that would be safe nowadays.

Having to get up to change the channel on the tv which was a box shape not flat screen. I’m so glad I don’t have to do that now. If I lost the remote I’d be pretty annoyed.