What do you remember- seems impossible now

[nickgc]

Chopping kindling and shoveling coal into my grandparents furnace in the basement when I was a kid.  We bought the house after gpa died and converted to natural gas, or I would have had a miserable teenage.

Had to laugh at an earlier poster's mention of "using WordPerfect instead of MS Word"... until I read she was 31.  When I started using PCs in 1981 we used WordStar.  And does anyone else remember using acoustic couplers  to attach to mainframe computers (pre-Internet)?

Nick

[Deb D]

Our local supermarket uses the compressed air tube and cylinders system to transport money from the registers to the office.

And how many of you have begun singing along with something on the radio, only to realise your kids are watching you, gobsmacked, because you know the words to something that's "only just been released" ... and they cannot conceive of it being a re-make of a song that came out in the 50s, 60s, 70s or 80s (or, in the case of "Sukiyaki" ... possibly as early as pre-WW1).

[tedscout]

I had to join in. I am just having an electrical renovation in our 120 year old home.

The electrician keeps saying things like Blimey I haven't seen "real" bakerlight switches before - only replicas, and Blimey your wires are still cased in metal tubing.

Our earth stakes are star pickets.

Our electrician is about 60 and did his apprenticeship when 15. He now calls my house Noah's Arc.

MMmmmm - and I didnt think I was living in the past  Ted

[DudleyWinchurch]

..
And does anyone else remember using acoustic couplers  to attach to mainframe computers (pre-Internet)?

Nick

was that in the early days of the OU, Nick?  I also remember punched tape storage that went on fire, when it ran too fast.

.. and a few years later when I went to college to study computing, in the first year, we still had no screens to look at the output.  It came out line-by-line on the teletype. 

And the large fan-fold paper from the drop-feed printer is still useful for mapping out sketch family trees on the blank side - the programs were printed on the stripey side!

[Emjaybee]

The Goon Show on a crystal set.
Maps with arrows in the paper illustrating the war
The Eagle Comic, I had the first edition,wish I had it now
Malvern water from a pump
Dragging a bucket of water to flush the loo
A tin bath in front of the fire that burnt your bottom
No electricity or running water before 1957
and .............. our Skiffle Group (Lonnie Donegan our hero)
Making a trolley and falling off
My first girl friend

[Ringrose]

I was brought up in Burlington Avenue which is the road one walks down to go to the National Archives at Kew. In those days a skipping rope would stretch across the road for all theg games you could think of.No cars to worry about.The street was our playground.Not now though....cars line both sides if the road.
Ringrose

[Rishile]

This is all making me feel very old

I remember the green shield and co-op stamps.  We also had sticking nights - especially if there had been a major purchase (a washing machine or similar).

I also remember the accounting tube in Kerrs in Dartford.  We had to buy my school uniform there and it was worth it to me just to see the money go whizzing across the shop.

And the first computer I ever used had a cassette (where the CD would now go) which stored the information but you could only store one A4 letter.  The office was full of these cassettes.  I also remember Wordstar.

And my Dad sending me to the shop to get his tobacco for him (I was about 10 years old at the time - it wouldn't work now).

And the way people complained when the seat belt law came in and we had to start using them.  Also people drinking and driving and boasting about it.

I had a shock the other day when I saw somewhere a list of 'Golden Oldies' - they were songs from the 1990's.

[angelfish58]

Going to the pub with friends from work and us all standing round the Pong machine being amazed at this new technology that allowed you to play virtual tennis in slow motion.

Mum's first automatic washing machine,a Hoover Keymatic, you put a notched plastic square in a slot instead of turning a dial to get the programme you wanted.

Having a waist.

[Sandymc47]

Had to come back about the cylinder money tube.  When I was 15 I was the junior in Percy Deans in Leeds which was a car spares shop. I was in the office and had to receive the tubes when they came up from the counter downstairs, and you couldnt miss them as they made a loud bump when the landed. I had to check the invoice then give the correct change and send it all back to the guy in the shop. Those were the days.
Co-op divi for my Mum was 65274 and the London Scotland yard was Whitehall 1212.  I was also an operator for the GPO (BT To the young uns)
and you had to say Number please and dial lots of cities which had not come onto the STD system.
Champion the Wonder Horse was one of my fav programmes and when TOTP came on in black and white that was a great part of my life in those days.

regards Sandy