To be surprised at how advanced the US were to us?

[Hownoobrooncoo]

was watching an old movie earlier set in The 50's and a character mentioned her glass of champagne her 85 calories - would anyone in the UK even have known what a calorie was back then?

The first microwave ovens appeared in the home in the 50's in the US as well, same as TV remote controls - Jesus, we were lagging behind.

I think we knew about calories by the 50s actually...dieting was a big industry even then,

yeah, lol. UK has been ahead for some things, like texting, cheap widespread Internet access, truly cheap banking, data protection legislation.

We didn't have a microwave until mid 1970s, though, my parents thought it was a bit exotic, even for Americans, then, along with dishwasher (ours was already old & ineffective in 1975). Cable TV by 1977, along with call-waiting by 1980. Stopped line drying in early 1960s. Enormous fridge freezers by 1975 & enormous TVs by 1985. I thought it was amazing & wonderful the way most people didn't tumble-dry their clothes when I came here to UK in 1991.

Talk of calories was huge in the USA in the 1920s, when the sudden goal was to make sure you got enough daily calories, that worry didn't last long, obviously.

Perhaps, I just don't remember anyone really being calorie aware till the 80's. We didn't get remotes till the 80's and microwave oven till the 90's. Wonder when the US got big on dishwasher.

lots of the war recipe stuff talks about calories, so I would imagine that people in the 50s knew just what a calorie was.

Ah Adventures. - cross post. We didn't get a dishwasher till about 2000 and I thought it was some sill new fangled frippery!

Microwave in the 90s? I don't remember not having a microwave and dishwasher - and I was born in the late 70s (UK)... got a TV with remote right at the beginning of my memories too (and we were far from rich)

Always had tumble dryer, chest freezer etc too - perhaps my parents were just gadget hounds.

America really boomed back then - the problem is that they don't seem to have really innovated much once they got something that worked - the washing machines, dishwashers etc. aren't really that different from the ones in the 50s (at least the ones in all the rental accomodation I was in). I can only guess it's because Europe is divided so we have so much competition from the various countries to push companies to try to do better (plus much harsher energy/water usage rules)

I still don't have a dishwasher ... well, not unless you count DS. I'd like one but we only just have enough water pressure as it is :(

We did have a microwave in the 80s, and a television with remote control in the 70s. My dad didn't approve of it though (height of laziness apparently) so he put it in a drawer and we never used it.

If you had been born 10 years earlier you would've missed out chunky - those 10 years made a lot of difference!

My parents were pretty skint, so I would say most US homes got dishwashers 1970-1980. Friends were in a family of 4 kids in a 2 bed house and no dishwasher, plenty of folk even in USA couldn't afford them after 1980, but American definition of middle class usually could. The social divide there is sharp & very present. I hated the way some Europeans used to genuinely believe all Americans were rich, when I came here. "It's all like Dynasty, innit?" folk would ask in sincerity. Like I ever watched that trash.

Or when my landlord tried to freak me out by eating a raw carrot in 1992. As if a California girl would find anything scary about eating raw vegetables. Some of the health fads that we had in 1980s didn't hit Britain until early naughties (like wheatgrass juice, blech).

Remote control as standard for TV; 1978-1980, I reckon. I love to deprive DC of using Telly by hiding the remote, even DH can't cope without it, now. Our TV has perfectly useable manual controls on it!

Does a dishawsher depend on water pressure? How?

Counting calories is not the sign of an advanced civilisation

Ha - yes valiumredhead - they absolutely did :) - although I got to see how it normally worked at my nan's of course (I was fascinated by hanging out the washing and washing up by hand... presumably because I only stayed there for a few days at a time)

although before we got the remote control TV my father declared he didn't need one, because that's what children were for :)

I still don't have a dishwasher ... well, not unless you count DS. I'd like one but we only just have enough water pressure as it is

Saskia, treat your self to that new-fangled invention, the dishwasher..... uses MUCH less water than hand washing (and much less electric as they heat only a small amount of water)...... your low water pressure will not be an issue .

valiumredhead Well, I was under the impression you need a stable flow of water to fill them up, but having read the post from SCOTCHandWRY I'm wondering if I've been misled ... shall be having words with DH later.

I didn't have a CD player until 1996. Largely due to ridiculous expense of CDs v cassettes.

I was on a internet forum where one person was going to be briefly (about 6 months) living in England. Advice that was being given to an American by other, well meaning, Americans.

I was interested to learn that:
Apparently UK doesn't use washing machines (I was told). We wash by hand and use a spin dryer. Some really lucky people have twin tubs.
I was told that English people take their children to the park where they strip down to their underpants to play in all weathers.
Some really strange ones about wearing the "English national costume". Apparently wearing it the wrong way causes offense.
And one of the first things you need to do when arriving in England is have a lesson on using the toilet. I was assured this was to do with the flush, not how to, but it was a necessary lesson.

Having pushed down my initial temptation on winding them up further, I managed to convince them that:
Washing machines do exist in the UK. Furthermore the last spin dryer I'd seen was owned by my gran in 1992, and she was a good 10 years behind everyone else. She still called the radio a wireless..
Well, some children may choose to strip down to their pants to play in the park, most don't.
As far as I am aware there is no English National costume (I did check, but apparently it wasn't a wind up by the person who'd written it. He'd been told this when he visited UK by a "kind" person at Heathrow )
Flushing the toilet isn't difficult...

Re-reading The Bell Jar recently, the heroine's mother gets up and makes some real coffee and some real fruit juice. That was about 40 years ago . In UK at the time, I don't even think people really drank coffee (or fruit juice).

Are you sure it wasn't just a case of your household not having these items OP, rather than it being the national norm? We had a microwave in the 80s. And a freezer. And a telly with remote control... And I know plenty of people who had dishwashers etc. We never had sky though, was always gutted about that!

In the early 80's we holidayed in Ireland with an American family, the mother had come over with paper cups and plates because she could face not having a dishwasher, we roared.....then my mother bought a dishwasher

It's just this assumption that the US is so much more advanced than us. Yeah right. When I first worked in the US 20 years ago I is was amused (and irritated) at the uselessness of their plugs. Had to prop up my leads on books to prevent the silly little plugs falling out of the wall. Not to mention boiling water on a stove instead of a kettle.....

But perhaps I have as many daft ideas about the US as Americans have about the UK

OK - I'll show my age here....as a child in the 1940s, early 50s we had a large fridge, central heating, a shower, a washing machine, food mixer (in the 50s). When I married in the 60s I had a spin drier.

So we didn't all keep our coal in the bath....

Oh, and did you know that the UK invented teletext, ceefax etc. years before the US had anything like it?

Re the dish washer, my mom is American and 65 and she mentioned recently that they had a dishwasher growing up, so 50s or 60s

I read on here that Americans don't use kettles.....

Re-reading The Bell Jar recently, the heroine's mother gets up and makes some real coffee and some real fruit juiceThat was about 40 years ago . In UK at the time, I don't even think people really drank coffee (or fruit juice).

of course plenty of people drank coffee and fruit juice 40 years ago! that was only the 1970's!

americans dont have kettles really, they dont really drink tea anyway, and the kettles they do have are the stove type whistling ones..

they do however have fabulous coffee machines at the fraction of the price they are sold for in this country