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Post by The Matthew on Nov 22, 2021 11:38:30 GMT
I forget when it was and who it was and where it was, but I remember someone complaining that people today have it so easy compared with the past, and the response was "Of course life is easier today. That's the whole —ing point."
I was thinking a while ago: I can't actually remember how I did things before the Internet. These days if I need to go somewhere I'll check it out on aerial photographs so I know where I'm going. If I'm driving I'll check the car parking; if by public transport I'll measure the distances so I know how long it'll take to walk. If I'm going to a shop I'll check online to see whether what I want is in stock, and to make sure of their opening hours. I assume that before I had Internet access I'd just head off and chance it but I can't recall how I knew there was something to go to; for example, if I was going to visit a shop in London I can't remember how I'd have found out about the shop in the first place.
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Post by bimse on Nov 22, 2021 13:50:21 GMT
Very soon someone is going to say that they grew up living in a cardboard box in the middle of a motorway... ….. but we didn’t have motorways in those days .
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Post by crowblack on Nov 22, 2021 17:17:22 GMT
if I was going to visit a shop in London I can't remember how I'd have found out about the shop in the first place. I was thinking about how we found out about stuff like this. The cafe in our city centre art gallery had a carousel of flyers, free listings magazines for the region and small B&W 'zines', as did the 'vintage' clothing shops. Magazines like i-D had back pages full of adverts too (street fashion stuff, not the high end brands it's full of now) and there was a lot more 'what's on' coverage of the arts and fashion on mainstream TV. You'd even get voiceovers telling you 'so and so is now appearing in Oops There Go My Trousers at the Theatre Royal Bath'or whatever over the end credits of a sitcom. My first theatre trips with schoolfriends (as opposed to with the school or parents) were to see some of the Young Ones / Comic Strip Presents cast on tour. And we saw Complicite for the first time after seeing them on Terry Wogan!
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Post by sfsusan on Nov 22, 2021 18:05:32 GMT
When the appliances made it home it would never work as it never had a plug on, you had to put a plug on before using it. On my first visit to London in 1980, I had to buy a hair dryer (I knew my American one wouldn't work). Found a shop (maybe the Army & Navy store?), found a cheap hair dryer, went to buy it, and the clerk asked if we had a plug. After much confusion on our part, the clerk found the right plug and handed us our two purchases. At which point we looked even more confused and asked, "what do we do with these?" He sighed, and bless his heart, did whatever was needed to attach the plug to the dryer correctly and sent us on our way, still somewhat bemused. Oh, you crazy kids with your Walkmans... when *I* was in school, the only portable music was from the new transistor radios. And even my dad's fancy hi-fi system didn't have anything but a turntable and speakers (albeit in a tasteful Danish Modern cabinet)... and wasn't stereo.
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Post by Dawnstar on Nov 22, 2021 18:20:32 GMT
I assume that before I had Internet access I'd just head off and chance it but I can't recall how I knew there was something to go to; for example, if I was going to visit a shop in London I can't remember how I'd have found out about the shop in the first place.
Street directories? We have one for Cambridge for 1962 that we inherited from my grandparents (though given they didn't move to near Cambridge til about 1980 I don't know why they had it!). Obviously I wasn't around in 1962 to compare it to reality, but it looks pretty comprehensive.
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Post by The Matthew on Nov 22, 2021 20:12:19 GMT
Possibly. I guess there was Time Out as well. I just don't remember doing it.
The mention of directories reminds me of something else that existed for a very short time indeed. In the mid-1990s I had an Internet Directory, as in a printed book listing all the most interesting websites of the time. I threw it out a few years ago, but now I wish I'd kept it because it was a snapshot of a moment in time when there were enough Internet users to make a print run viable but not enough Internet to make coverage impossible.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Nov 22, 2021 20:30:02 GMT
Record Mirror? NME? Melody Maker?
I was a Record Mirror kid. Oh yes! my trashy, populist tastes were as evident back then as they are today. I tried NME but it was all a bit too serious, as for Melody Maker… that was for old fogeys. But how grown up I felt buying my own tabloid style newspaper every week and reading it on the bus home from school. Then in the early eighties it turned into a glossy magazine and went too poppy and downmarket even for me so I sacked it off, went all new romantic and started messing with The Face instead 😀.
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Post by nick on Nov 23, 2021 8:23:10 GMT
Possibly. I guess there was Time Out as well. I just don't remember doing it.
The mention of directories reminds me of something else that existed for a very short time indeed. In the mid-1990s I had an Internet Directory, as in a printed book listing all the most interesting websites of the time. I threw it out a few years ago, but now I wish I'd kept it because it was a snapshot of a moment in time when there were enough Internet users to make a print run viable but not enough Internet to make coverage impossible. This reminds me of Halt and Catch Fire. They start the last series by cataloguing the entire internet (not on paper) and, of course, it is entirely possible in 1992 ( or so). As the series goes on it becomes increasingly impossible. It’s a time i remember well - I first used the Internet at that time.
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Post by mistressjojo on Nov 23, 2021 10:27:20 GMT
I remember blankets and scarves etc always seemed to be super itchy as a kid, the last thing you wanted was for them to touch your skin. I still remember my surprise being given a soft scarf as an adult after years of refusing to wear the itchy ones and being cold. Actually, your childhood woollens probably *were* scratchier than today's versions. Lots of work has been done in breeding and processing to grow softer, finer micron sheep wool without the 'itch' factor. You can thank us Aussies for that one!
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Post by nick on Nov 23, 2021 11:35:07 GMT
I remember blankets and scarves etc always seemed to be super itchy as a kid, the last thing you wanted was for them to touch your skin. I still remember my surprise being given a soft scarf as an adult after years of refusing to wear the itchy ones and being cold. Actually, your childhood woollens probably *were* scratchier than today's versions. Lots of work has been done in breeding and processing to grow softer, finer micron sheep wool without the 'itch' factor. You can thank us Aussies for that one! Hmm I'm sure you are correct but I suspect that many scarves and blankets of the 70s 80s just weren't pure wool. I started getting interested in clothes in the early 80s and ended up wearing vintage clothes all the time as I wanted natural fabrics and new clothes were rarely 100% wool or 100% cotton. Mind you vintage then meant victorian up to 40s and were very cheap. Also I do historical reenactment and sometime wear clothes made from wool from old style sheep that have been hand spun, dyed and woven and they aren't really scratchy - although I'd hesitate to say they were soft.
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Post by peggs on Nov 23, 2021 19:22:36 GMT
Interesting.
I started buying bits and pieces from small businesses in first lock down and this included a lovely woolly hat from a farmer in Cumbria. I asked at the time if it would be itchy and cited my childhood memories and was kindly told the type of wool it was (wish I could remember, it was a combo of two british breeds I think) and that no not itchy and yes while I probably wouldn't opted for wearing it next to my skin as a hat it's lovely and soft. And yeah like your reactant stuff hand spun, dyed and woven.
But yes also different breeds of sheep for different things, I never used to realise that tweed was from wool.
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Post by Phantom of London on Dec 1, 2021 23:40:05 GMT
Wondering as i am in Iceland at the moment, very cold here, does anyone remember Bejams? Or maybe Safeways or Prestos, or maybe the god awful supermarket chain Somerfields?
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Post by showgirl on Dec 2, 2021 5:14:42 GMT
All of those and for another blast from the past, what about Fine Fare and MacFisheries?
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Post by anita on Dec 2, 2021 10:05:34 GMT
What about the original Sainsburys - where you queued at different counters for different things & then went to a window at the back to pay for all.
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Post by alece10 on Dec 2, 2021 12:00:16 GMT
What was that awful supermarket back in the 90s whose slogan was "stack em high, sell em low" Called? It was truly dreadful.
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Post by dontdreamit on Dec 2, 2021 12:59:54 GMT
What was that awful supermarket back in the 90s whose slogan was "stack em high, sell em low" Called? It was truly dreadful. Kwick Save?
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Post by lichtie on Dec 2, 2021 13:15:11 GMT
What was that awful supermarket back in the 90s whose slogan was "stack em high, sell em low" Called? It was truly dreadful. Actually that was Tesco...
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Post by alece10 on Dec 2, 2021 14:38:12 GMT
What was that awful supermarket back in the 90s whose slogan was "stack em high, sell em low" Called? It was truly dreadful. Kwick Save? Thats the one.
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Post by Phantom of London on Dec 2, 2021 21:29:40 GMT
I remember Kwick Save a bit like Sumerfields, what happened to them.
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Post by alece10 on Dec 2, 2021 21:34:57 GMT
I remember Kwick Save a bit like Sumerfields, what happened to them. Did Co-Op buy Sumerfields?
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Post by marob on Dec 2, 2021 21:55:58 GMT
Yeah, my local Kwik Save became a Somerfields, and gradually everything inside was branded with Co-Op, but they kept the Somerfields signage outside. Then it was a Tesco and now it’s a Home Bargains.
All these years later I still call it Kwik Save 🤦🏻♂️
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Post by Phantom of London on Dec 2, 2021 22:01:35 GMT
Co-Op did buy Sumerfields, as terrible as Sumerfields is, I would say the exact opposite for the Co-Op, I would put them on par with Waitrose and M&S.
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Post by tmesis on Dec 3, 2021 0:12:17 GMT
A few random things remembered from my childhood (I'm quite old)...
Butter being sold in the grocer's shop 'loose,' ie. cut individually from a big slab and then wrapped in greaseproof paper (it never seemed to be refrigerated!)
Surprise peas - a strange hybrid that weren't quite like frozen in taste but not like dried either
All beer was real ale (but not so called) because that's all there was since it was pre keg beer (Double Diamond, Watney's Red Barrel et al) and no lager whatsoever was sold in my parent's pub or any in the vicinity.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 4, 2021 15:27:09 GMT
Getting chicken feet to play with from the butcher's as a treat. When you pulled the tendons the claws 'grasped'.
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Post by peggysue on Dec 4, 2021 19:03:17 GMT
All beer was real ale (but not so called) because that's all there was since it was pre keg beer (Double Diamond, Watney's Red Barrel et al) and no lager whatsoever was sold in my parent's pub or any in the vicinity. I remember Double Diamond as it was the beer my dad used to drink. I also remember the advert for it - “Double Diamond works wonders, works wonders, works wonders. Double Diamond works wonders so drink some today.” Showing my age now 😁
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Post by The Matthew on Dec 5, 2021 18:08:20 GMT
Prompted by a mention in the Musicals section...
Buying Radio Times and TV Times to find out what would be on television and radio, and eagerly looking through them to see if there was anything interesting coming up in the week ahead. Then for some reason the government decided that this uncompetitive situation necessarily meant poor quality so they made it a free-for-all, and we ended up with no TV listings magazines but an awful lot of cheap celebrity gossip rags with a token page or two of listings somewhere in the middle.
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Post by Phantom of London on Dec 5, 2021 21:40:23 GMT
Oh wasn’t that proper strange, you had to buy 2 magazines to find out what was coming up on the box, if I recall the Radio Times for BBC and TV Times for ITV/Channel 4 and later Channel 5, those were the days when there was only 4 channels until Channel 5 came along.
Incidentally we all know there is a watershed time of 9pm, which after that time more indecent stuff can be shown like Gordon Ramsey lol. As I said 9pm is the start time, it do we know what time it ends?
It has no actual end time.
Because it was 9pm until end of service. In those days those 4 television stations used to finish at about midnight, but now as television is 24/7 there is no end time.
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Post by Phantom of London on Dec 31, 2021 22:06:30 GMT
Just wondering if anyone remembers or actually used Luncheon Vouchers? I never had them, but do remember seeing the green and white sticker on the shop doors, especially cafes and sandwich bars
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Post by alece10 on Dec 31, 2021 22:43:39 GMT
Just wondering if anyone remembers or actually used Luncheon Vouchers? I never had them, but do remember seeing the green and white sticker on the shop doors, especially cafes and sandwich bars Yes we had them with a company I worked for years ago. We used to get 50p a day so it was £2.50 a week which, even in those days, could buy you bugger all! Apparently there was some kind of threshold and if you went over it you had to pay tax on the vouchers. So that's why we got so little so that we weren't taxed on them.
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