What was absolutely, undisputedly better in The Old Days?

[Pickles89]

Back when you were young, or even before that?

I'm going to kick off with Beany Babies. The realistic style 90's ones were so much nicer than the massive eyed/sparkly/rainbow coloured monstrosities of today.

Your turn!

Actually just remembering NEXT was revolutionary in that it arrived a lot quicker....

Shops generally, Cadbury's Dairy Milk minis (the ones that were for the little red machine you could put your 2ps in) rather than Dairy Milk chunks, tv quiz shows, music, the NHS.

Vimto in glass bottles .
Waggon wheels.
More crisps in a bag.
Teen magazines like my guy and jackie.
Going out ,out.
Christmas .
Agree with pp shoe shops !
Life in general - no social media !

Going clubbing!

Films. Big fun varied blockbusters, often family friendly. Instead of Spiderman 12 and Avengers 45.

Music. Pop stars with personality rather than some random who could be your cousin's neighbour but can belt out a few bland tunes so gets 100 million Instagram followers. When "Oh he/she's so down to earth!" is the most exciting thing you can say about them.

Music: buying and listening to physical products rather than a downloaded stream/file.

Christmas. When people revelled in submerging the house in multicoloured plastic tat for a few weeks rather than droning on about cutting it all back "for the environment" (with two cars in the drive outside).

Being a teenager: social media is poison.

Bloody autocorrect. Should have read CRAP. Though with the rain and wind today, I wouldn't be surprised to see carp! After one massive storm in South Wales, a friend found a codling on his golf course.

Fabric pre WW1 and even pre WW2 was just wonderful compared to the crap on offer today.

Childhood.

I grew up in the 90’s and am SO glad I didn’t have social media/the internet (apart from very limited, shitty dial up) and gaming to interfere with it. Makes me sad that my sons childhood is so totally different 😔

Manners and politeness, not hearing ‘fucking’ every few minutes when out, having respect for others, people caring about what others think about their behaviour.

Kids being kids and playing with toys, not being glued to phones and iPads wearing headphones which is apparently an excuse for hearing you when you call them 20 times for dinner! Not having access to porn while preteens and inappropriate material for their age group.

Less arsehole drivers on the road, and with the ability to indicate.

Not smelling skunk all the time.

Customer service where the customer is normally right and you didn’t have to waste 10 minutes on the phone going through all the options then hold for an operator for an hour.

You could actually book a non urgent GP appointment within a few days and see one.

The apples.
More varied, locally grown.

Also the freedom children had. Aged about 10-14, we'd go roaming around the countryside for hours at a stretch, until the one who had a watch pointed out that it was time for a meal, and we'd wander home. By that stage, we'd quite often gone en masse and scrounged biscuits off someone's gran.

Nights out when men used to have to have pants and shoes on to get in pubs on Friday and Saturday nights, no jeans or tracksuit and trainers ,girls were full on glam and people talked to each other you could go pub to pub and bump into people you knew and talk to people you didn't . Social media wasn't around then thank god ,you could get smashed and have a great time without being photographed or filmed I'd be mortified if pictures and videos existed of me then 😱

@vampirethriller

My Little Pony.

Agreed! Wtf is with the ones now? They look terrifying!

Disney movies

[quote Moonflower12]@Finknottlesnewt

Are you in Warwickshire? [/quote]
Easy sussex !

The non wokeness

I love this thread! Full of nostalgia.

I grew up in the 90s and I loved going to blockbuster on a Saturday night to get a video and popcorn. Then having the remember your rewind it before you returned it!

BT friends and family where you got 10 numbers that were cheaper/free after 6 (I think?). I used to have all my school friends on there and spend hours chatting on the landline.

Listening to the top 40 charts and recording it onto a cassette tape!

Potatoes

I haven't had any decent new potatoes for YEARS (even the Jersey ones)

The soil is clearly fucked now

Strawberries, I remember the excitement jn the summer when they arrived at the green grocers round the corner! In their little punnets they tasted so lovely. I don't think they taste the same now. Also grapes from the same greengrocers, tiny, green, seedless, sweet and eaten out of the brown paper bag they came in delicious. Again grapes don't taste the same now.

I agree with absolutely all of these!!!!

Thought of 2 more:

Smarties! Remember when they had the smooth brightly coloured coating? Now they're just bland and gross

Tinsel! In my day the strands were finer and soft to stroke. Now they thick and coarse and ugly.

@madisonbridges yes I only had coke at Christmas so always associate it with then, my dd couldn't believe it when I told her that!

There were loads more brands of toothpaste and icecreams. Now it's 90% Colgate and Walls.

Saturday TV. Both in the morning so Swap Shop and also at night. Gladiators, Blind date etc.

And fruit was seasonal so only peaches and strawberries in June. And not very often. Mum used to come home with a brown bag with peaches in. So exciting. We probably had 2 a year. Always so sweet and juicy

*How is only having access to something in June better than having access to it all year round?

I mean I can see the anticipation/ excitement makes it special, but really? It's much better being able to get things when we want them at any time of year.*

Because it tasted so much better, now it's all mass produced and less tasty.

Strawberries
Peaches

and, as so many have said,
Chocolate - most specifically Cadburys. So sad that Mondelez ruined it

I have to disagree with 'flying' though. I still think it is nice to get on a plane and not have people smoking around me. That was gross.

Liquorice Allsorts - they've gone all sugary.