Let's go back to the days when . . .

[RedBonnet]

What would you like to go back to?

Example

When I was young you could turn up at your GP without an appointment and sit in the waiting room and wait to be seen. These open visits ran from 8am to 10am. After that the doctor would start their rounds.

I can't remember the last time a doctor made a house call.

Urgent appointments at my practice are like hens teeth. If you call at 8am there's already a queue of 30 people waiting to snap up the available appointments, then you have to phone back at 1pm to try again.

At least the old way you got to see a doctor on the day you were ill, even if you did have to wait for an hour. ( nowadays even a booked appointment can see you wait an hour anyway)

When men could rape their wives legally

When children reported sexual abuse and were ignored

When gay men couldn’t get mortgages

For all its many faults and failings I’ll stick with 2023!

When you got a mix tape from the boy who fancied you full of your favourite music. Some of it taped straight off Radio 1. That's love.

When kids on summer holidays went off for the day only to come home for dinner, and no parent was judged for it.
When porn was a magazine with some large breasted women.
When 18 yr olds moved out of home into flat shares and enjoyed a new life of freedom, as did their parents.

Before mass privatisation in the UK and when we could have really done something positive about climate change. They knew...

Before County Lines, drug dealers and gangs.

I was having the same thoughts as you. Some very rose tinted views of the past.

Property prices ordinary working people could afford.

No Facebook,Twitter,TicToc and associated shite.

Discipline in schools.

For me the list is endless.

When teenagers/young people could do absolutely idiotic things because they are young and learning and not have it plastered over the Internet for a potential employer to see several years later.

I can't work out whether you're being sarcastic. Are you saying you approve of corporal punishment?

When people could still walk and weren't all car obsessed.

Well certainly in my experience and others I witnessed it worked. There was certainly a lot less problems in schools.
Sounds awful doesn’t it and I was glad it didn’t apply to my now adult DC’s.
Not sure what is the right answer.

When chocolate was - well chocolate, and contained cocoa butter instead of palm oil.

When children were taught proper manners, and to do as they were told.

When there wasn't such an over-reliance on imported fruit and veg all year round, and we ate what was in season, when it was in season.

When there were council houses.

When you got your electricity bill from the electricity board, your gas from the gas board, your water from the water board and your phone line from BT

When we had a proper Royal Mail.

When you didn't have to jump through umpteen frustratingly complicated hoops online or spend hours on the phone to a call centre halfway round the world in order to get something done.

I could go on all day, but I'll stop now.

Can I be totally selfish and go back to before DH died and just stay there, a Groundhog Day scenario is fine. We were living in our dream location and were ridiculously happy.

Agree with this.

Last year, before Amazon stopped selling fruit Polos and Sainsbury’s stopped selling Polaretti ice pops.

There are things I would change about the present but I would not go back in time.

Pre 1992? Marital rape not a crime.

Pre 1989? Thousands of babies die every year from SIDS.

Pre-antibiotics? A simple cut could cost your life.

During Savile's lifetime? 1926 onwards. Sexual abuse of girls not believed on a massive scale whether involving him or not.

We have societal problems as every society that has ever existed has. Let's deal with them rather than hide in some rosy glow about the past.

Some corporal punishment was absolutely barbaric. In any case, it really didn’t work - if you read Kes there’s a long bit where the headmaster bemoans the kids’ lack of respect and how things are so different now and that was published when, end of 60s/start of 70s?

Remedial schools were a thing once. And specialist units existed for children with mental health or serious behaviour issues - they lived there Monday to Friday.

Don’t get me wrong, some things I would love to go back to, but that doesn’t mean things were ‘better’ way back when.

I grew up when children and dogs roamed free and both were frequently run over, drowned, were sexually assaulted, bullied and hurt in avoidable accidents.

I grew up when being gay was dirty and wrong and perverted. I grew up when black players had bananas thrown at them during football matches. I grew up when the IRA were planting bombs and when hitting children was normal and encouraged.

Things always change and not always for the better but one thing we can be sure of is things won’t stay the same!

When you could just turn up in Europe to live, and effectively escape all this British shit by choosing a little hamlet in the middle of nowhere to settle.

I'll settle for .... When MNers were very funny & not remotely obsessed with finding sexism in every event.

When people would enjoy a night out without getting legless and throwing up in the street.

I remember sitting in the huge waiting room for the GP, everyone was polite and asked which one everyone else was waiting for and then mentally kept an eye on them as they went in. They also had time to deal with problems instead of telling you to find a specialist and pick up a letter in a few days.

I was slim.

Everyone didn’t drive everywhere and block all the roads up with cars.

I had the energy for staying out till 4am and walking home with my friends at sunrise.

When very few people had mobile phones and computers and actually communicated instead of being glued to a screen typing brief comments and sending daft gifs and photos.

..when the internet didn't exist