Things you miss from the 'good old days'

[Adultautismdiagnosis]

I'll start with:

1. Choosing a video or DVD from Blockbusters
2. Pic n mix from Woolworths
3. Puffy triangle snacks/crisps. I can't even remember what they were called.
4. Walkmans and mixed tapes
5. Simplicity e.g. only having 4 TV channels, not having 1001 chocolate bars to choose from etc

Woolworths

10p mix up at local newsagents

Physically going into a shop and choosing gifts. I know I can still do this but it’s not the same as many shops have closed down in our high street

Going to softplay and staying all day. Things being cheaper, buying enough sweets that lasted the entire summer holidays and still having change from £1.

Being able to browse in real shops with a wide range of goods on show rather than having to buy most things on line. Happy memories of spending the whole day trudging from shop-to-shop before inevitably going back to the first one to buy what you were searching for.

The excitement of hearing the ice cream van and mum saying run upstairs and get my purse if she was in a good mood

This is making me feel so nostalgic! ☺️

Some other ones:

1. The nervous anticipation of going to Snappy Snaps to collect your pictures.

1. Going to HMV and Our Price on a Saturday to buy that CD album. Some had listening stations and you could listen to the entire album and critique it with the staff. I would often end up spending the whole afternoon there. CD album parties with your mates where you would read the album cover booklet and paw over the pictures in them.

1. Long summer holidays playing outdoors until sunset. We also had a local police Bobby that would pop round making sure everyone was okay. There was a real sense of community and safety. If you decided to go around for tea at a friends, you could do so without parents worrying. The kids would look out for the elderly residents and help them bring their shopping in or run small errands for them. All the kids played with each other. It was very inclusive.

"Cool as a mountain stream".

Woolworths - mainly for the pick n mix but it was a treasure trove of bits and bobs, wool, buttons, tools, CDs, vases, pens and notebooks.

Our Price, Virgin Megastore.

More recently Homebase.

Actually being young and not having a care in the world.

I miss that too. It was great in school, we'd all watch the new Simpsons episode and then the next day we'd all be quoting it all day long. I feel so sad that children these days don't have that same shared experience.

Shops being closed on a Sunday. Smash hits, NME and Melody Maker. C&A and BHS shops.

Having a laugh without anyone being offended.
Dating people without swiping now they get called perverts if the say hi in public.
When women stuck together now they judge you on every thing.

Going to the pub at lunchtime. Going home when the work was finished. Playing out as a child. Parking just off Kensington High Street for free on a Saturday afternoon and going around the shops. Reading magazines cover to cover with articles about developing self confidence instead of ads for cosmetic surgery.
Poldark on tv on a Sunday evening. Alias Smith and Jones.

Choosing a holiday! Traipse down to the travel agent on the high street and spend ages looking at brochures. Take ten brochures home and spend a week circling the places you fancied (paying particular attention to the little temperature chart at the bottom of each page) Returning to the travel agent a week later and spending all afternoon there while the agent called up various travel companies to find you the best deal 🤣

Cheap chocolate that tasted of chocolate with no disgusting aftertaste.

People talking to each other when they're together instead of scrolling separately in their own worlds.

Watching Top of the Pops to find out who was number 1, then discussing all the bands that were feature in the programme with my friends the next day.
My Dad buying me Smash Hits magazine every Friday (his payday) and learning all the lyrics to the newest songs.

Woolworths - for everything!

Being spontaneous - everything has to be pre-booked online. You can't just wake up and think ooh I fancy going to X today. And things like city breaks abroad - have to be booked 6 months in advance if you want to visit the main sites.

Clarnico Mint Creams. Going to.visit my sister in Australia soon and she asked for some. They've been discontinued since 2019! I used to.love gem but didn't buy them because I'd eat the whole bag
Decent shopping. Being able to go put for the day and actually find what you wanted.

Not much to be honest! Nothing mentioned so far. I prefer things now on the whole.

I did find typing letters on the early electric typewriters quite physically satisfying. I actually got my RSA qualification on a manual typewriter as only the top two in the class got to use the electric ones. But as soon as I started getting temp jobs, they were all electric and it was great fun for a while. I liked being able to earn money practically anywhere by typing. But the jobs themselves were phenomenally boring.

People not dropping litter
Smarties in a box
Fags

@Nitgel my car is 5 years old has a CD player

@DeliaOwens only drawback was if JS was presenting TOTP

Getting a toy in your cereal packet. Or those golden envelope prizes in newspapers I think, that had cash them!

I miss the analogue world of my 80s youth. The world was more simple then and you weren’t overwhelmed with endless choices of shopping, food, clothes etc.

You had your trusty few stores to get your different bits from including Woolies, BHS, your local newsagent (always good for a 10p mixture). The latest pop gossip and beauty tips were straight from magazines like Just 17 and Smash Hits with their pull out posters, lyrics and innocent celeb Qs like for some reasons I still remember being v confused by Kylies answer that her favourite sandwich was white bread with chocolate spread lol.

The few TV channels by the very fact there was only 3/4 was comforting in that you could have a shared experience with everyone usually watching the same big shows. Again not getting overwhelmed by choice and you’d talk about them at school together.

My interests and I imagine of other kids were so simple, I lived to read, watching the Sat morning shows, playing with other kids from the street and disappearing for the whole day only reappearing for lunch and then supper.

People had less random ‘stuff’ as well. I like how once you bought a lamp, ornament or whatever it was, it just seemed to last amd was never replaced because you saw something cuter, fancied a change - it just stayed forever u til it broke. Again there was a comfort in the familiarity of the unchanging landscape of your home.

The music, the familiarity of things not changing as fast as they seem to do now eg the amount of pop up shops in town that last a few months to replaced by something less equally temporary. The bustling high street and busy markets my mom dragged me to every Sat morning.

Most of all, everyone seemed synchronised to the same sort of habits in TV watching and routines.

So I guess in a nutshell, I miss the ‘comfort’ of back then - I don’t know if it’s imagined or because I currently am single and live alone with no family or friends that I feel a lack of comfort but anyway that’s what I miss. (Apologies for the rambling long post but this one has really touched me 😌).

Proper original Ribena with actual sugar in it.same with irn bru

• gallantry - it's either not done for lack of understanding or the 'price tag' on it is astronomical
• phone calls, having phone numbers to call and speak to people when needed
• developing pictures as they were taken
• people who care and bother and take responsibility
• being in the know through conversations as opposed to looking it up online

Plenty really...

Smarties lids with a letter on them.
Pacers.
Being able to wear whatever you wanted and it was fine.
Being able to be a tomboy and no one batted an eyelid.