I was at a museum today and now I feel really old

[NiceSkinHereICome]

Okay so I was killing time today as I was early for something and I decided to pop into the local museum/art gallery. Lots of interesting things.

However I just about choked when I got to the section that showed kitchens from various ages like the fifties etc. They had a bloody kitchen from the nineties - It looked just like the one I had in my first house (I'm in my fifties) and they had signs explaining all the new technology of the era. Bloody Nora, things from my era and in a museum!

Then they had another section with toys from yesteryear. There they had the fisher price garage my wee brother got when he was small. A rubix cube, a nokia mobile and other things that quite frankly I didn't consider really old enough to be in a museum.

It's hard to believe youngsters need this stuff in a museum because it now considered old/vintage/interesting enough.

I should have taken a photo of them both so you could have had a chuckle and I might go back and do that.

Anyone else in their fifties amused that we are now old enough to be featuring in museums.

You are a similar age to me. I had a shock when watching a property programme to hear a sixties house described as post war. I know l was born mid-century but post war? However, the world has changed so exponentially since we were children that l suppose it should come as no surprise that we are museum pieces

I'll have a Vesta beef curry please.
If you can, visit the Black County Museum and have a look at their new 60s street, I remember most of it! Your kids will love it.

Considering I wasn't alive when Thatcher was PM and wasn't old enough to remember John Major I'd say it was quite a bit longer than a few months ago ;-). For context, I have two children, one of them is a teenager.

I’m a bit confused as I thought groats were something similar to pearl barley, used for grorty pudding (an old Black Country dish which probably is found in a museum! Don’t know if they have similar in other parts of the country).

Me too!

Ooh, not too far from me. Born mid 60s, that would be my early childhood.

You're right. The word originally meant a small thing, so it could be a grain or a small coin.

I'm fairly sure I've seen it used for little bits of other stuff, too, but can't be bothered to chase that down.

I bought a sodastream machine thing last summer. I like fizzy water but don’t like all the plastic bottles. I remembered the soda stream. Robert Dyas sells em. I’m very happy with it!

You lot wait until you've survived another 20 years 😬 The 'vintage' shops are chock full of items from my own life, now apparently collectable! I assume it comes from deceased house clearances: a sobering thought.

I wonder what makes some people keep things the rest of us throw away?

This sort of stuff happens all the time for me. One of the kids was learning about the fall of the Berlin wall in History - that isn't History it is bloody current affairs - I remember it happening.

Cambridge computer museum will make you feel old too.

like ‘Halt and Catch Fire’ being described as a ‘period drama’…
I’ve not been to that museum, sounds fun.

We had exactly the same cooker as the York Castle Museum 80s one. In fact my parents still had it in the mid 90s.

I thought you were going to say someone got a fright when the exhibit moved!

I wouldn't be remotely surprised if they stood me on a plinth.

I've aged about 30 years since Covid broke out.

Serious answer (sorry!), museum collection practice has changed a lot in the last decade or two! They're accessioning objects as they happen/become iconic - not buying them 20 years later in a car boot sale.
The V&A calls it rapid response collecting:
https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/rapid-response-collecting

They are rather setting themselves up for a storage/de-accessioning problem for the future, mind... But eventually all collections flood/catch fire/get stolen by dodgy curators 😅

Fwiw was born mid 80s and have furniture much older than me! Been going to car boot sales etc since my teens though, bit of a magpie.

A few years ago was in holiday in South Wales and we went to, I’m sure it was Swansea and to a museum and there was a section on 80s and 90s computers, where they had a ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC amongst others. Me and two friends used to write games for these computers back in the day.

Almost fell over when I recognised a 3* disc case cover for a game we did for the Amstrad in the display case!!

I’ve never really talked about the geeky stuff I did as a teen with my OH and boys and didn’t say anything then either, but felt quite happy when I saw it, but also a little strange to think something I did is in a museum cabinet!!

I can’t believe you didn’t take the opportunity to massively preen and show off!

I would have!

The “Decades through the Ages” rooms at the York Castle Museum, seem to be entirely decorated from my parents’ and grandparents’ houses!

I never do say anything, probably a throw back to when we were at school and college and people took the piss out of us for being geeks.

The Brand museum in Notting Hill is great for this sort of stuff. Matey bottles from the 70s right up to now. And tons of items by decade it's fab

My kitchen units are from the 90s, albeit repainted and with different handles

My kids had a teacher that wasn't born when I started teaching.

My kids learned history that I remember clearly. (Just as happened for me and mum)

I sincerely hope that an era you lived in being described as 'post-war' is the biggest shock you get in that respect - in that the era we currently live in doesn't end up being described as 'pre-war'.

This is a hearted thread and l posted in kind. I am all too aware of the state of the world but a comment like yours has no place on a thread like this.

@NiceSkinHereICome If it's any consolation OP, earlier this year I was selling a 90s item of mine on eBay. Item sold no problem but when I was printing the shipping label I thought the address looked a bit odd so I googled it and it turned out it was a museum. Out of curiosity I emailed them to ask why they'd bought said items and a lovely man replied and said it was to put put on display as part of their 90s exhibition.

So in short my property (and by extension myself) is now museum relic worthy. It has caused a lot of mirth in my family but I must admit I am a bit mortified!