Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Other subjects
Original poster

Why do older people always...

129 replies

UnquietDad · 01/12/2006 13:43

... go on about the fact that they had no central heating and no washing-machine, and "we certainly didn't have a car until we were 35, and do you know, a LOT of people weren't on the PHONE" etc, ad nauseam, ad infinitum, yakka yakka yakka.

I think it's to make us feel guilty that DW and I both work, and a hint that if we were prepared to give up these 'luxuries' we could live on one income. Oh, ho ho bleeding ho. Merry Christmas.

OP posts:
southeastastra · 01/12/2006 21:41

in answer to your op you'll be doing it soon too

expatinscotland · 01/12/2006 21:43

Anyone remember the days BEFORE the internet?

Like when 'pen pals' meant you actually had a write a letter, on paper, in English that could be deciphered by another literate human being?

Original poster
UnquietDad · 01/12/2006 21:44

I said to DD the other day "You know we only had three TV channels? There was no such thing as CBeebies. And videos only came out when I was in my teens." It was more of an interesting "how things were different in the olden days" chat thouigh, not a "young people today, you don't know you're born" kind of thing!

OP posts:
motherinfurrierfestivefrock · 01/12/2006 21:45

The Inferiorettes are rivetted by my tales of What Things Were Like When I Was A Little Girl.

I did draw the line, though, when DD1 asked me if we'd had a chamber pot.

Original poster
UnquietDad · 01/12/2006 21:46

expat - I remember when TV shows first started flagging up email addresses and having to expalin what they were. V. clear memory of Philip Schofield in about 1996(?) saying "and here is our ELECTRONIC MAIL address!" in a very excited voice, and explaining that if you were "logged on" to the "information superhighway" this was how you could get in touch!

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 01/12/2006 21:48

I think I may be one of the only people left who still writes real letters!

And when I did a message in a bottle, it was a real message!

I'm actually going to do another here in a bit - on velum paper, in pencil. A special wine bottle. Cork. Bit of epoxy glue.

And into the North Sea it goes when next I see it.

expatinscotland · 01/12/2006 21:49

Remember when you actually had to get up to change the channel?

LOL!

We got cable TV in 1983, and the box was HUGE. You had this box to change channels, attached to a cable.

I chucked it at my elder sister during an argument want and split her lip .

JoolsToo · 01/12/2006 21:52

I had to knit my own jumpers

expatinscotland · 01/12/2006 21:54

Jools, my dad had to walk into the middle of the room and pull the cord to turn on the light!

And split wood - not just for a lovely winter fire, but to keep the stove running .

Poor soul.

My mum remembers those 'party lines' - like you had to take turns w/your neighbours to use the phone .

southeastastra · 01/12/2006 22:02

we had party lines, shared with next door but one. (sally's on the line again!)

i used to go to bed with a heater in duvet. we got central heating in about 1984!

JoolsToo · 01/12/2006 22:05

hey! now this is true

my dad had to go to the neighbours and ask for a rub of their soap

dara · 01/12/2006 22:06

I had ice on the inside of my windows in the winter and I'm not THAT old! My mum used to sit in the kitchen with her feet in the gas oven to keep warm!
And we had a black and white telly...

JoolsToo · 01/12/2006 22:06

OMG - I remember party lines - we never had one though cos we didn't have a phone

JoolsToo · 01/12/2006 22:07

yes I used to sit with my feet in the over and socks hanging over the door to warm

oh my, the good old days!

Original poster
UnquietDad · 01/12/2006 22:08

This is in danger of descending into the "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch. "Soap? Thee were lucky, we 'ad a lick from t'cat and we thought usselves greetful" etc.

B&W telly, though - same here until 1984. I grew up thinking Bagpiss was orange. I was about 25 before I discovered his pinkness!!

OP posts:
batters · 01/12/2006 22:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
UnquietDad · 01/12/2006 22:09

BagPUSS,aaagh.
And I assumed he was orange, of course, because he was a cat. He looked grey on screen.

OP posts:
MrsJohnCuSackFullOfPresents · 01/12/2006 22:14

oooh I find myself saying almost exactly the same things as threebob...

and I don't have central heating. mind you, it's bloody cold!

we'll end up doing it too. it's the way of the world

cece · 01/12/2006 22:15

When i was growing up we didn't have a phone and it wasn't that long ago. All of my friends used to phone the phone box at the end of the road and we would get random people knocking on our door to tell me I had a phone call [hmmm]

expatinscotland · 01/12/2006 22:15

LOL!

My dad remembers WWII well enough, b/c he was 5 when the US entered it.

He said this 'rich' neighbour's dad had bought her this radio that took up half the room, but you could get NEWS on it . . .live! . . . even from both fronts.

And when D-Day came, everyone went to town centre to read lists of those MIA, KIA, KBC, etc.

One of the academics I work w/is the same age as Papa - 70 - and he still wears a hat every day!

Now that, my friends, is style.

My mum said they used to dress up to go collect people at the airport.

At the airport, ffs!

cece · 01/12/2006 22:16

We didn't have central heating either. As a child I remember lying in bed planning my outfit before I got up. So i could dress quickly. It was so cold in my bedroom that there would be ice on the inside of the window!

AH those were the days!

expatinscotland · 01/12/2006 22:18

Why no central heat?

What's w/that?

I was SHOCKED to learn about the outside loos thing in the UK.

How recent it was.

MrsJohnCuSackFullOfPresents · 01/12/2006 22:20

I'm in NZ now and houses don't usually have central heating,especially older (1910-20) ones like this one. it's supposed to be spring but it was 2 degrees or something last night and I spent 3 hours awake with DD creating

I don't WHY they don't have central heating TBH, it's not that bloody warm here.

nightowl · 01/12/2006 22:23

i didnt have central heating and that was only three years ago! brrrrrrr. couldnt be without it now.

Original poster
UnquietDad · 01/12/2006 22:25

The outside loos thing is one of the classifying criteria used when mapping council wards' relative deprivation indices.

Apparently that's why one of the estates in Sheffield is ranked about fourth most deprved in the country when there are far worse places - the toilets are tacked on to the houses so, although you can access them without going "outside" as such, they still technically count as outside loos.

OP posts: