What do you remember- seems impossible now

[Pejic]

Being saluted by the AA man on his motor cycle when he saw the AA badge on the front of my parent's car.

And if he didn't salute, he was warning you that you were approaching a police speed trap

[Deb D]

My first encounter in the early forties with the school dentist, most dentists had joined the forces and some retired dentists were recalled, I sat in the teachers chair, had an injection, waited for  it to take effect then a nurse assistant put her arms around my chest from behind pinning my arms to my side whilst the elderly dentist removed my tooth, that memory still haunts me, I still break out in a cold sweat whenever I visit the dentist even after all these years.

My first tooth extraction by a dentist is the source of many of my phobias, now.  Three times I was given a needle to deaden the gum.  Three times, it had worn off before anyone bothered to come back to check on me.  Then they yanked the tooth out without any local anaesthetic at all.  I think I was about six or seven.

[Pejic]

Just re-read the thread, it is very evocative.

At the risk of lowering the tone, though, while trying to get dressed in the dark this morning, I realised that I remembered the time when the labels on men's underpants were on the inside at the back!

And back in the spirit - I remember having a job where I had to prepare JCL cards for an IBM360 on a non-interpreting, mechanical hand punch - that would probably be cruel and unusual punishment these days.

Talking of the pneumatic money transport systems in shops, I once worked for Philip's spares in Croydon and they had a huge version for sending parts between the stores building and the shop building.

I also remember seeing the Brabazon flying over my school in South Wales and also huge flocks of migrating birds, the Archers replacing Dick Barton - it took me years to get hooked on the Archers.

I think I remember moving to our newly built post-war house when I was 3 and a half years old, but my earliest certain memeory is following the radio (wireless as was) reports of the towing of Captain Carlson's wrecked Flying Enterprise.

[Winterbloom21]

I remember watching  Andy Pandy and Bill and Ben at my grandparents house when we were there on holiday every summer.   This was a big thrill as we didn't get a tv in Dublin until about 1965.     When we did, the screen wasn't that big so my Dad bought this weird magnifying glass that you could clip onto the front of the screen (any one else remember those?).

I remember my first job in 1968 and, like so many previous posters, the adjustments to be made when golfballs came in.   But what I really remember was the huge 'magnetic tape typewriter' that came with its own desk and a waist high console beside it containing the two VCR sized tapes that meant for the first time you could type something and then correct it.     In a solicitors office, this was an unbelievable bonus because previously, when typing documents (deeds) on the old electric typewriters you had to type them on this sort of beige coloured thick parchment type paper, on both sides, and then on both sides of the opposite 'fold'.   Then you would often have another set to do as an insert before making the whole thing up and tying it on the spine with a ribbon.     And this is the good bit....if you made a typo, you weren't allowed to correct it - if you couldn't fix it without any hint of a trace of what you had done, you had to type the whole document again.

I also remember some time in the early sixties lying in bed listening to the troop planes going over to the Congo.    They had this huge things called Globemasters and when they went overhead (we weren't far from the airport) they made the house shudder so much that they could open the metal framed window latches!

[Pejic]

my Dad bought this weird magnifying glass that you could clip onto the front of the screen (any one else remember those?).

The first TV set for one of our family members was bought by an uncle (I do not know of anyone else who actually bought a set, rather than renting/upgading, until the twenty first century).  Becasue it was bought, it had to be kept long enough to justify the decsion I suppose, because it got enhanced as time went on by this huge magnifying glass as well as a number of different multi-coloured slides (as mentioned in another post).   So what had been a wondrous device to be visited often became over a few years a comical anachronism.

[angelfish58]

Who remember the carrier bags that were made of brown paper and had string handles.
Jean

My mums first job was in a factory making those  must've been around 1938 or 9, I think she earned 2/6 per 500 bags.

[LoneyBones]

I remember something that's just sad now....
I remember when GAY meant happy and carefree.      

[davidrigg3]

if you made a typo, you weren't allowed to correct it - if you couldn't fix it without any hint of a trace of what you had done, you had to type the whole document again.

I remember working with a lady who told similar stories - apparently she got very good with a razor blade - scraping the typo off the surface of the parchment - health & safety would have a fit these days!!

[toni*]

This is not quite the same but when I went to senior school we had to do a sponsored walk which was from Newhaven to Telscombe back to Newhaven to Seaford round the golf course then back to Newhaven quite a trek nowdays the school still does the sponsored walk but it is from Newhaven to Seaford and back that’s it, they don’t know how easy they have it !