Stuff that didn’t seem weird at the time but when you tell someone younger they think it’s nuts

[MildGreenDairyLiquid]

Just that really.

The other day I explained to my 11 year old niece that when I was at junior school we used to have a small bottle of milk with a straw every morning, and she looked at me like I’d lost my mind.

Recording TV programmes, my 2 think that's hilarious. Why didn't you just stream them??!!. Getting excited about the Christmas day "big film". I seem to remember it wax announced a few weeks before with a big fanfare.

Having to know what time a programme would start to watch it. If you missed it, you missed it and there was rarely any chance to watch it again.

If you were very lucky it was two repeated at 2am a far days later and you'd have to set a recorder to tape it. That recorder just went by times so you'd start the recording 5 mins early and end it 10 mins late.

You'd have video tapes to keep and video tapes used over and over again.

My adult autistic dd still thinks it's weird that teenagers and young women had short/shoulder length hair in the 80s!! She's always slightly shocked by them if there's any tv shows from that era.

Phoning up British Rail Inquiries to ask the time of your train journey

Phoning a recorded message and it listing all the show times on at the cinema

That reminds me of the awful times when there was an extended news coverage or a live event overrunning and the programme you were recording started late and finished late and you missed the last half hour! 😢

Phoning the speaking clock, especially if you wanted to make sure the clocks in the house were all accurate.

I didn't realise how much it cost when I was a kid, I was obsessed with it and then my parents got the phone bill.

Flower sellers in restaurants where you could buy your date a flower or two. I always told any date that I was not carting a flower about for the rest of the evening. My date bought me a corsage for my graduation ball - it was pink and I was wearing a bright red dress.

I had to explain cheques and fax machines to my offspring born around the millennium. They saw a rotary phone in an "antiques and collectibles" and they couldn't work out at first how you dialled. They were a bit surprised that the first really expensive cell phones were actually the size of bricks.

We got married so long ago that the men in the bridal party were wearing morning suits.

Having to phone a number that was a pre recorded message to find out what was on at the cinema and what time the showings were 🍿🎥

That we only had a bed , chest of drawers and a wardrobe in our rooms.

Rag and bone man still comes around in Hull! Yes in 2024

Queuing up for the phone in halls at University with a handful of 10p pieces. I remember fantasising that one day we might all have portable telephones.

That's all I have. Sorry, what are we supposed to have now? Genuine question!

Dsis and I being shouted at as a kids (7/8 years old) by my father for being selfish for asking him to open his window a bit when he was smoking on a 4 hour journey in a two door car as it was cold out and keeping the car warm cost him petrol.
Funny really as the same (now ex smoker) father now says I am selfish if I say I would rather he didnt open the window all the way down when I am driving him somewhere in my nice warm car because he struggles with warm air to due to his smoking induced COPD.

Smoking allowed on planes

Discs that played on both sides! My niece, now in her 30s, was astonished the first time she saw her dad take a vinyl LP and turn it over. Obviously as above, even CDs are obsolete now.

Doing PE in vest and knickers. And only having one pair of shoes at a time, a winter and a summer pair (did our feet grow more slowly in those days?)

Sending off for things you’d seen advertised. And postal orders!

Now more lighthearted
Phone cards
Phone boxes that took 2p's (I barely remember this but yes I am old)
A HUGE queue outside the phone boxes on a Saturday night on UK holidays as everyone rang home to say "Yes we got here ok, the hotel is a bit cold, its raining but hopefully it gets better....oh there are the pips!!"
Afternoon breaks only for the teachers. When I was top year primary 3 of us were sent to make a cup of tea for each of the teachers at 2 pm and deliver them to the classrooms. Kids went from 12 until 4 with no breaks for drinks or loos or anything!
Yes to warm milk with a crappy paper straw
Sanitary wear in brown paper bags in case someone saw
Kids instead of TV remotes
Boredom.

Still the
way in Scotland

I remember that too, the last smoking flight I was on was 1988 which blows my mind!

Yes, me too! Madrid to Heathrow

How much socialising there was at work. I had a Saturday job but probably just used the wages on that Saturday night out. Could be just an age thing, but when I started work in London we seemed to be out every night. It was expensive back then too, I think all our money went on alcohol. And we used to get talking to random people in the pubs and then go onto another pub together as a group. I’d not thought about it like that before, now on the rare occasion we go out everyone sticks to their own groups and anyone who talks to you is seen as a bit of a weirdo.

I'm 30 and never heard of an Augar until recently?

A giant oven/stove that you can't turn off and just runs and runs and runs? Sounds like a fucking nightmare!

My mother used to get so angry about me being on the internet IN MY OWN HOUSE!

In the early days dial up was so much cheaper after 6, so obviously thats when I used it because I had kids and a was on a budget. She would never ring anyone until after 6 because, despite having more money than god, she is as tight as a ducks arse. Then got stroppy because I was using my phone line, that I was paying for, in a way that mildly inconvenienced her because she couldnt tell me that Rosemary's daughter has just bought a new car.

Rather more boring, mine was East Mids to Guernsey and back, for what was also the worlds most boring holiday!

Aga.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGA_cooker

And I would personally sell my soul for one!

Aga 😊. It’s a brand name.

Telephone directories/Yellow pages
My teens are amazed that if you didn't know someone's number or address, you'd look them up, and if they were called John Smith, you had to work your way through all the John Smith's before you found them. And a new directory would get delivered annually.

And standing outside a telephone booth waiting for someone to call you at a pre-arranged time. And the horror, if someone went in before they did and you'd have to wait for them to finish or ask them to wait as you were expecting a call.