Television - like sit down and watch an evening of whatever’s on television television. I don’t watch television any more, and I kind of miss sitting there with the family just seeing what’s on, chatting, snacking or crafting/doing homework or reading a book at the same time.
Yes to the feeling of optimism and that things inevitably were getting better that a pp mentioned. Feels like we slipped into an alternative universe around 2015 and everything’s been going wrong since then.
Rotary phones. Miss ‘em just being there in everyone’s hallway.
Weekend papers with content. Remember when you could spend an entire day reading the massive Sunday papers and have some sections you were still reading all through the week? (Ditto magazines with actual content: features, short stories, interviews, free gifts of books, T-shirts or beach bags!)
High end perfume that wasn’t cheap body spray but also didn’t cost £120 a bottle. My Prada perfume used to be £45 not that long ago: it’s now about £145! I also hate the fact that all perfumes at the moment smell harsh and/or overly sweet and heavy, like cheap cologne from the 1980s mixed with bathroom cleaner. Any time I go to try out perfumes these days I feel like my nostril hairs are being blasted off. What happened to the soft floral and ozonic perfumes of the 90s and 2000s that all smelt different and lovely and didn’t cost an insane amount?
Affordable clothes in natural fibres. Everything at the moment is cheap sweaty synthetics.
The old BT speaking clock/operator/ringback and reverse charge services they used to have. Also phone boxes.
Going to the library and it being a special hushed space, not full of toddler sing time and weight watchers meetings.
Open University programmes just before closedown, featuring bearded professors in jumpers and Seventies ties talking earnestly about maths.