Ha ha, with the Blockbuster video cassettes, I used to rewind them to just after the adverts at the beginning, as a matter of principle.
"Backchat" on teletext, where teenagers could send in comments by phone, post, fax, and even email, which not many people had at home in 1997. One comment I remember well was "I love Backchat, and all the stupid things you write about. Keep up the good work, everyone, it's so funny!" I think that sums up the whole of modern social media.
The regime for doing PE at primary school: undressing in the classroom, down to vest and pants. Putting our shoes on our bare feet (we were specifically made to do this) to walk to the assembly hall, past the other classrooms, where the children would laugh as we walked past half naked. Taking our shoes off, and lining them up neatly, before doing the PE barefoot, which often consisted of following instructions from a posh BBC voice on a cassette player "curl up small, and pretend you are the Ugly Duckling". Doing the same again on the way back to the classroom; we also used sand timers to time ourselves getting dressed after PE, and our names were put on a chart. Only a couple of boys managed to do it in less than one minute. I remember my pride when I managed it in less than three minutes. I attended a lunchtime group where we a few of us did extra exercises; I learned some years later that this was a remedial group for gross control. 😯
Here are a few ways I remember children being punished at primary school in the 80s:
Two boys who laughed when told off were made to laugh in a mirror.
It was VERY WRONG to do anything without being told. A teacher wrote "kitten" on the board, and most of the class then wrote it in their books. The teacher then threw their books on the floor, made them stand at the front and hold them up, because they had dared to write "kitten" without being told.
A pushchair was wheeled into the assembly hall, and two boys who were messing about were asked if they would like to sit in it, as they were behaving like babies.
The headteacher telling little girls not to wear earrings, because they could get a torn ear. "Do you want to get a torn ear?" (I've said this to a few adult netball players, who claim they can't take their earrings out.)
When some children were playing with sticks in the playground, they were told not to, because somebody's eye could get poked. When one child persisted in doing this, he was made to spend his next playtime sitting blindfolded (away from everybody else), as a warning of what might happen to him. We had recently heard the story of Louis Braille as well.
Children being yanked by the wrist when told off, and sometimes dragged around as well.
One boy claimed "he weed on me!". The offender was then made to write about it. The teachers discussed this in the corridor, where everyone could hear.
One teacher happened to enter another teacher's classroom during story time, and in passing, bellowed at one child "what do you think you're doing, you horrid little boy? Go and stand on one of Mrs Smith's tables!" Mrs Smith didn't seem too happy about this.