What things did you really enjoy but your DC will never get to experience?

[Doubledenimrocks]

Just reminiscing today and thinking about how much I enjoyed the Clothes Show magazine and actually magazines in general. I feel like these are pretty obsolete now and my teens will never have this simple experience.

Same goes for going to the video shop and choosing a film for the night or waiting for the chart show every weekend to record it.

Things are obviously completely different nowadays. What things did you really enjoy that your DC will never experience?

I think a lot of what's already been mentioned - and the things along the same vein that I'd add - boils down to the effort things took, the long anticipation and their limited availability, which made them seem more special. What Mrs Doyle would refer to as 'the misery'

I'm so glad to have the internet now and would never want to go back to not having it; but at the same time, I miss many of these things that were once so significant and are now just a two second click if you can be fussed.

I remember once spending hours in a public library trying to find the answers to a tricky general knowledge prize crossword. Nowadays, you'd have the answers in a couple of minutes tops - and quite possibly could just type in the name of the magazine and 'crossword' and find that somebody had put all the answers there to see instantly. In hindsight, today is so very much better in every conceivable way.... but....

One other thing that we freely enjoyed as children and young adults was the ability to make stupid mistakes and rash decisions (obviously not talking crime-level here!) - and nobody would record them, no filming, no photos, no uploading or documenting on SM or anywhere else online. Our many moments of impetuous idiocy were simply forgotten forever, except maybe in the deep recesses of one of two close people's memories. Middle-aged people like me have known the contrasts and had been around long enough to know, by the time the internet was a general 'thing', what you could seriously live to regret doing; but younger generations will never know that.

It makes me feel about 500 years old to think that, if we'd been warned about online safety as kids or teenagers, we would have assumed it was a caution not to play near the railway tracks (or possibly about receiving dodgy landline calls from weird strangers) - and that is all it could possibly have meant.

Top of the pops
Browsing in record stores
12 inch singles
Getting served in the pub at 15
Going out to the chippy at school lunchtime
Smoking room in sixth form
Being able to skive off odd lessons at school (most schools are more like prisons now with locked gates)

Visiting the cockpit of a jumbo jet on my way to Oz. I felt a bit silly asking to go after all the little kids but it was awesome. Obviously not allowed anymore. ☹️

Long bike rides with your parents having no idea where you’ve gone or for how long and not even asking you when you got back 🤷🏻‍♀️😂seems weird now. Calling on your friends who lived round the corner or walking down passages alone to meet them. Drinking in fields, round the back of shops, walking in the dark and rain, drunk, smoking and happy…maybe kids still do this, I have no idea.
Getting excited to get the bus/train into town and heading to The Body shop
Such great times

We did the same in my friends step dads gold Capri it was absolutely thrilling her mum spoilt our fun 😬

and the freedom to explore disused houses that were falling about and dangerous

Battersea Adventure Playground

children were left at the gate it was fenced off and we went feral for the afternoon it was amazing always came home filthy with splinters

it was made up of anything that could be used not sure safety was even thought about

it really was excellent

Going raving, clubbing and partying, pre camera phone. There's very little evidence .
And phoning the pub to see if your pals are there.

Living, working and studying in other European countries.

Knowing that home is a respite from school bullies (no cyber-bullying)

Making mix-tapes

Trespassing on a building site (yes, I know this was idiotic, but my friend and I loved to see some new houses take shape)

Not really worrying about climate change

Going to call for your friends. Just going and knocking someone's door to see if they wanted to go out. Maybe knocking two or three doors, picking up other people on the way.

My 12 and 14 year olds go out plenty but always pre-planned because, phones. I don't think either of them have ever just wandered out to go and knock for someone.

The interval at the cinema when you could get ice cream from the lady with the tray draped from her neck.

Playing on the building site near our house. we would climb in and out of half finished buildings or run through the concrete drain sections. Or my favourite- making mortar with the materials the builders had left lying around.
I'm over 50 and DM still lives in my childhood home, so I see these buildings every time I visit.

Looking forward to comics and magazines at 15/16 Jackie and Misty. Now too much is influenced by social media. Just let kids be kids.

Much much younger than most of these but...my grandfather holding his watch to my ear and listening to the tick tock. Even if they have an analogue dial all watches seem to be battery powered.

I still remember coming out of hmv, tearing open my prodigy album cassette and shoving it in my Walkman, the pure joy of hearing these songs for the first time as I walked home. Amazing.

In fact, kids won't have the joy of browsing round hmv on a Saturday, I loved that.

Christmas films. How exciting it was to have that one-off opportunity to see a film, and the anticipation of going through the Radio Times beforehand.
jumble sales.
Comics - Jinty, Tammy, Bunty, Misty. And then Blue Jeans and Jackie.
Freedom of movement. Its loss makes me weep.

Proper bonfire nights with fireworks that don't resemble small bombs and jacket spuds cooked in the bonfire we'd all spent all week collecting random bits of wood for, and a guy we'd made out of mum's old tights stuffed with screwed up newspaper and dressed in dad's old clothes. Its a shame Halloween has taken over now, and that no one seems to make fireworks that don't feel terrifying in an average sized garden anymore, public displays are just not the same.

Top of the pops!

Sending faxes. My best friend and I used to fax each other silly drawing and messages after school (phone line was free in the country I lived in so no cost to sending faxes bar the paper and ink).

being bored. My parents used to nap after lunch for an hr or so and my bro and I were under pain of death not to wake them up. Age 6 onwards I used to write very long elaborate stories - my mum kept some of them! My kids unfortunately can’t bear to be bored 😑

Absolutely winging it when travelling the world.
Like many antipodean pre internet, arrived in London , found somewhere to stay that you read about from lonely planet on the plane , found a job day two from TNT magazine at tube station, found a flat day 3.
Save money, get a ferry ticket to France with a friend for a few weeks but end up going to Spain , Portugal and then are in Morocco a few months later.
Call your mum from a phone box once or twice a year.

Growing up in NZ and family holidays at the beach 😢

Patience.

there was something exciting about having to wait for things, tv episodes, buying an album
and having to go home to hear it. Waiting for the next edition of just17 & More. Waiting for friends to turn up without knowing if
theyd be on time. Being on time because everyone would go and you wouldn’t know where if you weren’t.

There are many great things about modern technology but it has taught kids everything happens now, immediately, from finding a crossword answer to fancying listening to an album you don’t personally own. From calling friends to say you’ll be an hour late to binging box sets. Kids no longer have patience and there was something lovely about the anticipation. Like you were rewarded
for your patience

Doing stupid things when drunk without social media evidence.
Taping the top 40 on a Sunday night.
Sending and receiving letters
Playing out all day
Having to wait until 6pm to ring someone or them ring you.

sitting in the car with crisps and lemonade while adults in the pub, although i am not sure I really enjoyed it,
but it wasnt awful.
in fact we could sleep in the boot of the car too

taping tunes off the radio

so all you got was the middle of the song, which is quite enough tbh