Things Ain't What They Used to Be.

[Robbored]

My Nan had a mangle. Hand washed all the laundry in a huge circular tin tub using a wash board and wooden tongs. Grampy was a bricklayer and his overall got washed once a month. Omo was the powder she used - not sure it’s still available these days.

On a warm day she’d do the washing outside.

Grampy had a huge garden, grew all his own veg and would sit on the doorstep shelling peas. He had an air rifle and used it to shoot rabbits and pigeons from the potting shed if he saw them eating his veg! Nan regularly made rabbit stew!  I have very fond memories of my grandparents. Nan never used a telephone in her entire life. 

[downendcity]

4 hours ago, Mike Hunt-Hertz said:

Our 1963 Mini 850 had floor mounted main beam, a pudding stirrer gearstick and a starter button between the seats. Whatever happened to WNJ 231?

517 UYB was the registration of my first bike - a Lambretta- in 1972.

I can still remember it, but have never been able to remember the reg no of any vehicle I've had since,!

Since having a smart phone I keep a photo of my car reg on the phone for when I need it.

[southside]

2 hours ago, Open End Numb Legs said:

Fairfax House - Sausage, chips and peas was a real treat there for lunch before the game. Mum went shopping, we went to AG. Met her outside Brentford Nylons afterwards.

 

[stephenkibby.]

1 hour ago, redsince1994 said:

A "Party line" was always a number you'd ring to get directions to the rave for me 

But did you take a Party 7 with you?

[MarcusX]

This isn't as far back as some of the others here, but the latest national lottery with the annoying crazy frog ringtone was a throwback to a time when that bloody advert was on every ad break, often twice!

I wasn't really bothered enough to look into it at the time, but turns out they effectively spent 10s of millions taking up as many advert slots as they could and heavily targetted children's peak viewing times.

It was morally questionable because many were fooled into thinking they were paying a one off fee for a particular ringtone, but would actually be subscribed to a regular fee (I think I may have got caught out by this once!)

 

[italian dave]

3 hours ago, Robbored said:

My Nan had a mangle. Hand washed all the laundry in a huge circular tin tub using a wash board and wooden tongs. Grampy was a bricklayer and his overall got washed once a month. Omo was the powder she used - not sure it’s still available these days.

On a warm day she’d do the washing outside.

Grampy had a huge garden, grew all his own veg and would sit on the doorstep shelling peas. He had an air rifle and used it to shoot rabbits and pigeons from the potting shed if he saw them eating his veg! Nan regularly made rabbit stew!  I have very fond memories of my grandparents. Nan never used a telephone in her entire life. 

I have a mental image of Grandma Robbored looking at a telephone and saying 'if it doesn't come by carrier pigeon then I don't believe it' 

[Robbored]

27 minutes ago, italian dave said:

I have a mental image of Grandma Robbored looking at a telephone and saying 'if it doesn't come by carrier pigeon then I don't believe it' 

Nan was born in 1900 and lived until 1988. She saw two world wars, had one daughter, my mum but sadly became infertile after mum was born in 1930.

She never embraced modern life and carried on doing things in the ways she always had - hence the tin washing tub, the mangle, never used a telephone, regularly made rabbit stew with all the ingredients gathered from the garden.  She really was a relic from the past.

[The Gasbuster]

Good thread.

A little off tangent, but sometimes I feel a bit like this when buying computer accessories ! 

 

[CodeRed]

3 hours ago, MarcusX said:

This isn't as far back as some of the others here, but the latest national lottery with the annoying crazy frog ringtone was a throwback to a time when that bloody advert was on every ad break, often twice!

I wasn't really bothered enough to look into it at the time, but turns out they effectively spent 10s of millions taking up as many advert slots as they could and heavily targetted children's peak viewing times.

It was morally questionable because many were fooled into thinking they were paying a one off fee for a particular ringtone, but would actually be subscribed to a regular fee (I think I may have got caught out by this once!)

 

The mention of adverts ...reminds me that in 1958 (I was 4!) - we were living in a prefab in Bristol and had a tiny TV which only showed BBC, when itv was launched my Dad had to get an "adapter" as he called it fitted to the TV to receive the new channel. I remember all the neighbours coming round to watch the adverts as they'd never seen them before!

[italian dave]

1 hour ago, Robbored said:

Nan was born in 1900 and lived until 1988. She saw two world wars, had one daughter, my mum but sadly became infertile after mum was born in 1930.

She never embraced modern life and carried on doing things in the ways she always had - hence the tin washing tub, the mangle, never used a telephone, regularly made rabbit stew with all the ingredients gathered from the garden.  She really was a relic from the past.

I remember my Mum had a mangle when I was quite young - I used to love putting things through it.

Incidentally, to answer your question above, Omo is still a brand, but not in the UK. If you want to reminisce with a picture, or even buy some from a country where it still is sold as a brand (at a knockdown price of £69!!) https://www.amazon.co.uk/OMO-Universal-Washing-Powder-Loads/dp/B015PI5VNW

 

[Mike Hunt-Hertz]

5 hours ago, downendcity said:

I'm old enough to remember cars that had these instead of flashing light indicators

Think they were called trafficators.

Our dad had a 1947 Morris 8, for a period in the late 60s. I remember that having trafficators.

17 hours ago, italian dave said:

Greasing nipples was a thing, I seem to remember. 

You don't want dry nipples.

[exAtyeoMax]

9 hours ago, Mike Hunt-Hertz said:

Our 1963 Mini 850 had floor mounted main beam, a pudding stirrer gearstick and a starter button between the seats. Whatever happened to WNJ 231?

My mum had a 1963 mini with sliding windows at the front, no fix tip up seats (no seat belts ) and a starter button on the floor. Brilliant car. 631 TCV

[miser]

5 hours ago, downendcity said:

I'm old enough to remember cars that had these instead of flashing light indicators

Think they were called trafficators.

And wing mirrors out near the front of the car. A right pain to adjust.

[Mike Hunt-Hertz]

Just now, exAtyeoMax said:

My mum had a 1963 mini with sliding windows at the front, no fix tip up seats (no seat belts ) and a starter button on the floor. Brilliant car. 631 TCV

I had a Mk1 Morris Cooper 1275 S in the late 80s, with sliding windows, twin tanks and a remote gear change.

Was a bit of nail, and I sold it for a pittance.

It was restored by a chap in Warrington, and is still around (but sorned) according to DVLA website. They fetch from £30 - £50 thousand upwards, FFS! XRO364F.

[downendcity]

35 minutes ago, miser said:

And wing mirrors out near the front of the car. A right pain to adjust.

They were while you were driving - unless you had arms 6 foot long!

[Open End Numb Legs]

Tip up seats...... my Mum had a driving job in the 70s, went around all the chemists collecting photo films and dropping off developed photos.

I used to sit on the back seat during school holidays, no belts. The front seat was an unlatched tipper. She did an emergency stop one day, I slid off the plastic rear seat, hit the front seat, which tipped and I went over the top, ended up face down in the front foot well surrounded by peoples holiday snaps, feet up in the air.

That was a VW Beetle I think.

[Reigate Red]

On 13/12/2022 at 08:18, Port Said Red said:

 

Some things are hard to explain because looking back they made no sense anyway. Circular dials on phones, which took an age to dial a number, and why, given that, was the emergency number 999 not 111?

 

Try this link for an explanation BBC - Why 999 for an emergency?

[Reigate Red]

On 13/12/2022 at 11:57, Port Said Red said:

 

Around the house we also had these radio receivers on which you could listen to the radio and the sound from which ever TV channel you had on. These even worked throughout the Power blackouts of the 1970's, so I discovered that for some shows like Dads Army or Steptoe and Son for example, you didn't really need pictures a lot of the time. My dad apparently paid a little extra for the radios, but one year when he went to renew his subscription, the staff said they didn't know there were any still in operation and had stopped charging for them years before, so they gave him a few quid back. They were quite handy if you wanted to nip out and make a drink during a BBC TV programme, as you could still follow it.

Wow.... this takes me back. We had Rediffusion and had a few of those radio sets. I have a particular vivid memory of one of those sat on a high shelf in the kitchen and listening to the Apollo 8 message on Christmas day in 1968 whilst eating a cooked breakfast. Funny the things you remember.....and those you don't.

[redsquirrel]

On 13/12/2022 at 10:58, PHILINFRANCE said:

Wasn’t that just for lorries?

back in the day,cars didnt have synchromesh first gears, quite often they were knackered on second too so the box would 'baulk' instead of slipping into gear if you didnt do it

 

[stephenkibby.]

2 hours ago, Reigate Red said:

Wow.... this takes me back. We had Rediffusion and had a few of those radio sets. I have a particular vivid memory of one of those sat on a high shelf in the kitchen and listening to the Apollo 8 message on Christmas day in 1968 whilst eating a cooked breakfast. Funny the things you remember.....and those you don't.

When we first got married 76 had a small black and white TV then rented a colour set.

Things picked up and we bought a VHS Recorder for 600 quid, ****** mental.

Have to say going to the Spar shop for a film on a Sunday Night was a real treat.

[PHILINFRANCE]

1 hour ago, redsquirrel said:

back in the day,cars didnt have synchromesh first gears, quite often they were knackered on second too so the box would 'baulk' instead of slipping into gear if you didnt do it

 

I didn’t start driving until the late 1970s, and that was in my father’s relatively modern car.

Now you mention it, though, the mother of a friend of mine used to have an old Austin Healey Sprite, and I seem to recall he always used to have a problem with first gear when he drove it occasionally.

[PHILINFRANCE]

I saw a news headline earlier this evening, talking about a serious ´Yellow Snow’ warning for the next few days.

What a fuss about nothing.

It used to be one of the highlights of our walk to school on a snowy morning, trying to write our names in the snow by urinating on it.

The only warning necessary is not to eat it.

It was a long time ago, but didn’t Frank Zappa write a song entitled ‘Don’t eat the Yellow Snow’?

I am sure one of our music experts on here will be able to advise.

[ScottishRed]

On 13/12/2022 at 21:57, phantom said:

Definitely made no sense, especially given it had to also wait for the nine clicks to register the actual number being dialled 

This gave me a flashback of the little lock my parents used to put in one of the holes so I couldn't use the phone 

I remember when my mum and dad got their first ever phone installed this was pre1970. To make a call you picked up the receiver and spoke to the operator giving them the number you wished to call and they connected you directly.

The ones with the circular dial came in soon after and as my brother and I got older and more of our mates parents had phones my dad bought one of the locks,

[Robbored]

As a teenager we never had a telephone at home and we had to use the local red phone box with the A and B buttons and circular dial. Our buddy showed us how to get free phone calls - by tapping the receiver rapidity whilst the dial was rotating back…….it was easy with low numbers but 9 or 0 (10 taps) was much harder, you had to be really quick but it really worked! 

No idea how our buddy knew how to to it!

[BS2 Red]

This thread summed up in one gif.

[Port Said Red]

1 hour ago, BS2 Red said:

This thread summed up in one gif.

I wasn't really looking to make a thread on nostalgia, more about what we used to do that seems odd to the current generation, and to be honest sometimes even to those who lived through it, but it is quite fun to hear some of the stories on here.

3 television channels, one of which was part time, and would all shut down around midnight by playing the national anthem! That sort of thing. 

 

 

 

[Red-Robbo]

When I joined the BBC in the 90s, I worked with a chap who'd joined straight from university in 1972. Back then, the corporation used to give new recruits a £500 grant to buy a telly, as so many people coming to work for BBC Television had no television!

[Open End Numb Legs]

Our first TV remote control worked, not by light control but by sound waves. When it was 1st delivered our Dad hid the control unit in his pocket and pretended he could change channels by some sort of magic trick. We were impressed but the family cat was not as the frequency range, although outside human hearing scope, was definitely in hers! If you changed channel with the cat sat on your lap the claws drew blood as she jumped off and ran away.

[BigTone]

On 14/12/2022 at 11:55, southside said:

 

What was the name of the shop on the same street selling Hornby trains etc ?

[BigTone]

4 hours ago, ScottishRed said:

I remember when my mum and dad got their first ever phone installed this was pre1970. To make a call you picked up the receiver and spoke to the operator giving them the number you wished to call and they connected you directly.

The ones with the circular dial came in soon after and as my brother and I got older and more of our mates parents had phones my dad bought one of the locks,

Our phone number was Nailsea 2935. Phone was a party line with another household. Long distance calls via the operator.