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!

Child of the 60's here -
*Knowing most of the neighbours in the street, and having to call them by their surname - Mr or Mrs - no first name terms. as that was cheeky to do so.
*Going to a local school and actually walking there as dad used the car for work.
*Having a front room for 'best'. It was never as far as I can remember, ever used and had a cold musty feel to it, as we had no central heating and the fire was never lit in there.
*Huge electric meter on the top of the wall in the living room. Meter man came round every 3 months to read it by way of climbing a step ladder - performance art to us kids!
*Rented TV from Radio Rentals - which offered more performance art whenever it went on the blink. After it had been thumped by mum or dad a few times, the repair man was called for. We would sit lined up on the sofa whilst he - in his brown overcoat - worked his magic.
*Going out on a sunday as a family. This involved making me wear a dress and long white socks - which in my mind were despicable - and being made to 'stay clean or else'. We'd get carted off to the middle of the countryside to appreciate the clean air and beautiful landscapes. I now spend most of my time in those places so I guess something rubbed off.
*Toasting bread on long pronged forks with my brother.
*Going out to play on a morning and told not to come back until dinnertime, and to 'stay out of trouble'.
*Being offered a lift home from school by a strange man in his car, and my nonchalant refusal as I 'only lived down the road' . 'Stranger danger' was never discussed in our house - just repeatedly told to 'stay out of trouble' whatever that meant!
*Being sent to the local shop with half a crown to buy a loaf of bread and a bottle of milk, and still bring change home.
*My saturday job - at age 8 - was to go to the chippy at lunchtime (crossing 2 main roads) for my aunt and uncle who lived down the road. I was given a massive wicker basket almost the same size as me, which would have several empty pop bottles in it. They were returnables with 3d on each. I got to keep the refunds as my 'wage' and would then collect fish and chips for 6 people and totter back to my aunts with them. Would often be given a chip butty too.
*Bonfire night - we'd spend weeks collecting wood and piled it up at the end of the garden. Mum made ginger parkin, pie and peas, and brandy snaps and all the family would turn up. Fireworks were kept in a biscuit tin - on the ground - with the lid often loose - and we kids were allowed to set them up and light them . Jumping jack crackers used to chase me around the garden or so it seemed, and I thought it great fun.
Mr Gittins the rent man came around every week on his pushbike to collect the rent. He would always wear a suit/tie/bicycle clips and a flat cap with a leather satchel type thing across his shoulder to carry the money in. Would always doff his cap before coming into the house to collect the money and write down any repairs that was deemed needing to be done, and they were always fixed too.

And now its 5 in the morning and having been up due to antibiotics making me feel really queasy, I'm off back to bed. I've loved this thread, it's really got me reminiscing. Thank you.

Around 1995 I worked in the NHS. We were office based trainers and had 1 computer for the whole building and was connected to the Internet. We had to book a slot to use it and one colleague was reprimanded for coming in after hours to use it.

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.

Au contraire.

I'm at the end of a very quiet cul-de-sac and my neighbour has been known to allow his grandson to 'park' his transit van by sitting him on his knee.

It brought back memories.

Things really have changed faster the last 10/15 years than the 20/30 before that. My adult teen's childhood was more like my own than my youngest DC's.

Live TV was the pivot of my childhood but is alien to my DC. I miss how good the adverts were then though.

When I tell younger colleagues how I handwrote all my uni essays they are astounded. Neat handwriting, tipp ex, no copy and pasting, it was a completely different skill/task. Also having to physically find books in the uni library rather than just online- they really don't know how to research anymore.

Raping a woman who was asleep/unconscious/drugged wasn't even classed as rape 20 years ago!

@HelenaJustina

At primary school in the 90s, the place did not look like Fort Knox. There was no ‘single point of access’, locked gates, staff having sight of every corner of the playground at all times. Talking to a colleague at school yesterday who was already teaching then, I asked if they had a really high attrition rate or whether pupils were genuinely less likely to make a run for it in those days!

This mostly changed after Dunblane

I remember being at work in a tech savvy place in 2003 and reading an article out loud about tv that will be able to be paused and available on demand, we were like how can you pause live tv?

At the same place ages before the apple iPad about 4 years we saw a working tablet demonstrated that was incredible we just had pda’s at the time.

I have a very vivid memory of when I was about 6 or 7; one of our school "trips" involved going round to my primary teacher's house to look at her garden as part of a nature project the class was doing. I remember it being absolutely lovely but the best part was the massive pond at the bottom. We all sat in her garden, with our clipboards and paper, drawing the flowers, trees, frogs and tadpoles that we saw, while she and the other staff handed out ice lollies and cartons of apple juice. I can't imagine that happening nowadays.

@Backwaterjunction

I had (actually still have) a Samsung Q1, they came out in 2006 I think.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Q1

Anyone remember being allowed (as children) to visit the cockpit of the plane while on holiday?

I work with historic medical records and I read a letter from a consultant surgeon to a GP written in 1986 that said "It was a pleasure to meet this very pretty young lady today who blushed when we met ..."

I am technically a Ms as I am divorced BUT I hate that title so I insist on all letters/documentation etc that they refer to me as Miss. It's something so small and in the grand scheme of life doesn't even matter but for some unknown reason it really annoys me to be called Ms.

I was also born in the 90s so basically I was born between the era of going out to play and the era of technology takeover. Nowadays kids out playing without a phone is a rarity. Even when they're outside they are all glued to a screen

Was watching the 9/11 documentary (the one that followed the president on Air Force one). They had to use a landline phone to contact the basement of the White House. He was flown to a special military base that had the technology to do a video call. I so vividly remember the day but our lives are so different now 20 years on when that sort of technology is available to everyone.

@Whatthecluckinghell

I am technically a Ms as I am divorced BUT I hate that title so I insist on all letters/documentation etc that they refer to me as Miss. It's something so small and in the grand scheme of life doesn't even matter but for some unknown reason it really annoys me to be called Ms.

You're aren't technically a Ms if you're divorced! You're still a Mrs. You can choose to use Ms if you want to, as can any other woman - married/single or divorced. It's merely a title you can choose if you want to.

I remember kids being made to stand on a bus or the Tube if an adult needed a seat. It was very much 'you are young and have strong legs'.

Going on holiday with my gay best friend (relevant). Met this couple and were chatting away. They seemed OK but then the bloke from this couple was like 'I know what you have come on holiday for' to me i.e. I was looing for indiscriminate sex. I was like 'I came for a break thank you very much' Arsehole

@Hopdathelf

I remember someone would come from the Prudential once a month to collect the home insurance premium. Then they drove off with your money and did who know what with it.

The Pools. I still don’t fully understand what they were and how it all worked but my grandparents were avid fans despite having no interest in football.

And spot the ball - man used to come round and dgd asked me to chose if I was staying there in the 70s

I remember kids being made to stand on a bus or the Tube if an adult needed a seat. It was very much 'you are young and have strong legs'.

There were signs on the bus where I grew up that said you only paid half fare because you were expected to give your seat up.

I still tell my kids to stand up on the bus or tube for adults. I think I got the ‘you’re young and strong - these grow ups have been working all day and are tired’ message from my dear old Granny .

Buses have changed so much. I remember running for the London routemaster to school, grabbing hold of the pole and swinging myself on while it was speeding up the high street, then dodging the conductor so I didn’t have to pay fare and joining the other teenagers who were smoking at the back upstairs .

When I started a new job in the early 80s there was an elderly female employee sitting opposite me who used to smoke like a chimney. Prior to this, while being trained for the job, three of the trainers used to share an office and they were all smokers. Every time the door of their office opened clouds of smoke would spill out into the corridor. Unthinkable these days.

In 1991 in my first 'proper' job as a trainee dental nurse, the trainee who started on the same day as me earned more (£65 per week as opposed to my £50) because she was married and had a baby. We were both 19. We also had to wear make up 'feminine non clumpy shoes' even though we were on our feet all day - the owner of the surgery insisted that it suited the image of the practice which he fancied upmarket. Jane Seymour was a patient and he never stopped banging on about it. There was a signed photo of her on the wall of the staff room. We all had to look as if we were fit to suck the spit from the fragrant gob of Miss Seymour at all times. Looking back I suspect he just liked having teenage women dressed as nurses in heels and full makeup looking decorative about the place. Ew.

Age 13, buying make up, hair spray & false eyelashes in Woolies with mates (some nicked it) then dolling ourselves up to 'pass" as 18 for 'X' rated horror films but paying half-fare on the bus to the cinema.

@DotDotDotDot

I work with historic medical records and I read a letter from a consultant surgeon to a GP written in 1986 that said "It was a pleasure to meet this very pretty young lady today who blushed when we met ..."

yep I rememeber reading one that said "this ugly mother and her unprepossessing child" that was in the very early 70's and I was shocked.

@Whatthecluckinghell

I am technically a Ms as I am divorced BUT I hate that title so I insist on all letters/documentation etc that they refer to me as Miss. It's something so small and in the grand scheme of life doesn't even matter but for some unknown reason it really annoys me to be called Ms.

no you aren't....you can keep your married title and name or you can call yourself what you like. I am widowed and kept my "mrs" title....although when asked for a title either online or in person, I have been know to use "the Great" or "the Warror Queen"

@Aroundtheworldin80moves

Anyone remember being allowed (as children) to visit the cockpit of the plane while on holiday?

yes, and not just children...adults too could ask, at least on Virgin they could.

When I started work for HMRC in 1984 there were no computers & every year being the lowest clerical grade we had to spend weeks writing by hand every change of tax code & tax return, then pack them all in envelopes. Each taxpayer had a paper file & a record card, we used to have to file away all the files that had been out to be worked & link any post up with files. Then when we got a computer system they were the old green screen type, slow as anything, it was rumoured the government had bought the system secondhand from the Midland Bank.