What Do You Miss From The Old Days?

[ZimbiIV]

Sorry. this is not really for those that do not remember the years before computers/mobiles.

After today, endless scam calls etc, I realised I miss the times when you could slam the corded phone down on anybody who was annoying you. 

It didn't make any difference BUT it sure felt satisfying compared to pressing the end call button.

Age give away time, using the ashes from the fire grate on the snow on the path outside.

Anything, anybody misses from the days of yore?

paul

[CambridgeCabby]

Going out to dinner without having to compete with those bl***y mobile phones all around 

[SteveO]

Being unavailable,

 

[BroadAmbition]

Being Available

 

Griff

[NorfolkNog]

Watneys Red Barrel  

[ZimbiIV]

Welcome to my world o#d men.

paul

[JanetAnne]

I miss conversation! 

To communicate with my kids, my grand kids, my customers, my bank etc I can email them, text them, instant message them, tweet them, WhatsApp them, Facebook them or send them a bloody letter but to actually get them to talk.... 

[ScrumpyCheddar]

I miss Alf Garnet. 

[Wussername]

2 hours ago, ZimbiIV said:

Sorry. this is not really for those that do not remember the years before computers/mobiles.

After today, endless scam calls etc, I realised I miss the times when you could slam the corded phone down on anybody who was annoying you. 

It didn't make any difference BUT it sure felt satisfying compared to pressing the end call button.

Age give away time, using the ashes from the fire grate on the snow on the path outside.

Anything, anybody misses from the days of yore?

paul

Thank you Paul. A good post, a refreshingly positive post, to be able to reflect on the good old days.

The Broads. For better or worse.

Please do NOT use my post as a vehicle to have a pop at the BA I'm getting a bit tired of that.

The river Commisioner, what wonderful gentlemen in their caps and uniforms. The bird life we took for granted. The holiday makers who contributed so much to the Norfolk Broads. The vibrant forums of history, holiday tales, help and advice. Fishing tales, walks on the river banks. Sailing, that dreadful  outboard, rowing, children in the lug sail dinghy .

.One could go on and on. I would prefer that.

Andrew

 

[ExSurveyor]

I have been racking my old brain and I can't think of anything I miss.

We have benefited from so much over the last 60 years in the improvements to our general standards of health care, transport, relative wealth, peace, social reforms and communication.

 I guess the thing that has suffered is our close society in that we probably don't know our own neighbours.

Every step of progress has a drawback, it is making the most appropriate use of new things rather than missing the older ways.

That is perhaps balanced by the very fact we can communicate with like-minded individuals across the world on something like this forum.

I communicate with family and friends more often because of facebook and whatsapp than I would without it.

Thought provoking topic though.

 

 

 

[grounded]

A very thought-provoking topic. There have been so many advances, for which we should surely be grateful. What I don't miss is playing on bomb sites and picking up shrapnel from German ordnance. We are the best of friends now of course. What I do miss is cycling. I would think nothing of slinging my fishing basket across my back, tying my rods to the cross bars and cycling 20 miles for a day's fishing. Now I would not dare venture out on a bike, even if my tired old bones would allow it, because of the maniacal traffic.

Come to think of it, I miss playing marbles down the road edge.

Its a funny old world.

Chris

[Mouldy]

Having a day off.  Why do we need Sunday trading??  When I was a kid, Sundays were for a day at the coast, or a trip out somewhere in the car, not for traipsing round a supermarket or shopping centre.  Proper family time.  And don’t start me on shops opening on Boxing Day.  Do we really need to buy a sofa the day after Christmas, or queue outside Next, waiting for the sale to start at 06:00?  I, for one, don’t, but think about those poor folk who have to go to work and wreck their family time over the Christmas holiday, to satisfy the greed of their employers and the needs of the lemming like folk who just can’t wait another day.

Rant over and good thread, too.
 

 

[Hylander]

11 hours ago, ZimbiIV said:

Sorry. this is not really for those that do not remember the years before computers/mobiles.

After today, endless scam calls etc, I realised I miss the times when you could slam the corded phone down on anybody who was annoying you. 

It didn't make any difference BUT it sure felt satisfying compared to pressing the end call button.

Age give away time, using the ashes from the fire grate on the snow on the path outside.

Anything, anybody misses from the days of yore?

paul

We still have a landline but in saying that, the design of the phones now do not allow you to slam it down,   would probably never work again especially as it is a BT phone, sensitive at the best of times.

Although I complain bitterly about the internet , there have been times when old YouTube has helped us out when we have had a problem.    We bought some vertical blinds and installed them ourselves (note the ourselves, well hubby did) and we could not get them to open once up.   Looked on YouTube and within 10 mins problem solved.

I miss the local Bobby who we all knew and respected.

 

 

 

 

[Chelsea14Ian]

I agree now there are so many positives,where life has improved. Health for instance .Many illness that were life threatening are now treatable. Choices are far greater also.Food,food available from every corner of the world.

What I think is lacking is : There seems to be a lack of respect by some.Manners sadly often not present .

[Smoggy]

Quote

What Do You Miss From The Old Days?

My marbles, no not playing marbles, MY marbles....

[Ray]

This got me thinking and I can't think of anything material at all that I miss. I do miss believing in Santa, the health and stamina of youth and my Dad, but I think that goes for all of us!

[grendel]

the days when model making was a popular hobby amongst kids, when toys didnt all have batteries and we used our imaginations

[Chelsea14Ian]

Being able to play outside,for as long as you wanted, without  fear.

[ChrisB]

I remember two occasions in my business life ( mostly ) when it really dawned on me that life had changed and would never be the same.

1984, I was in Portugal on business and needed some detailed tech info. I wrote down what I needed on a A4 pad and fed it into a machine in the hotel. Twenty minutes later the machine spat out what I needed from my office in Perivale.......THE FAX HAD ARRIVED.

1986, my portable Racal phone sat on top of a car battery was exchanged  for a Storno phone the same as the motorola brick but cream. If not pocket size you could have it in your briefcase...... THE MOBILE HAD ARRIVED.

NOW everyone wanted INSTANT ANSWERS.

[marshman]

Being younger??

[grendel]

i remember when information travelled at the speed of the postal service, and drawings took a week to do, nowadays I can knock out drawings in a matter of a few hours, and in a week knock out the production of an office of about 20 draughtsmen working at the drawing board.

[Timbo]

Now this is a thought provoking thread! From being a kid I've always looked forward rather than backwards, which some think is an odd way to be for a historian and archaeologist. 'Learning' has always been a personal motivator. If something peeks my interest I will research the information and learn the skills, which is why the things I 'miss' are quite odd on occasion. I miss hedges that are cut and laid properly and dry stone walling.

A really odd thing I miss is 'formal clothing'. I was recently asked to teach a group of twenty somethings how to dress formally, what shoes are appropriate and how to clean and polish their shoes. I don't know whether I was more bemused that the twenty-somethings didn't know how to shine their shoes or that the forty and fifty-somethings wanted to enforce a dress code when they themselves didn't know the difference between an Oxford and Derby shoe, what a double cuff shirt was or which knot to use with which tie. To be honest, I was with the kids. Having said that, I miss the social opportunities to dress formally outside of funerals...I am getting a bit fed up of funerals!

[Vaughan]

Gosh! Lots of memories of childhood in Norfolk - mostly wistful, I am afraid.

When television only had 3 channels! And the motto of the BBC (shown every evening when it opened at 5PM) was "Nation shall speak peace unto nation." I remember Muffin the Mule. In the days when it was a programme on "childrens' hour" and before it became a public order offence in Ireland.

Going out hunting in south Norfolk farmland on a cold winter's morning. Maybe you didn't know I was a hunting man? I was "blooded" with the Dunston Harriers when I was 10 years old. The country that I hunted over has largely all gone now, under new roads and houses. You know the big B&Q store on Boundary rd north of Norwich? I used to go out with my father on a shoot across there when it was open countryside, before the ring road was ever built. Hellesdon and Costessey used to be country villages.

I remember the factory hooter at Lawrence Scotts on Carrow rd, going off at twenty to eight to call everyone in to work, in case they didn't own an alarm clock. Thousands of people worked in manufacturing in Norwich and they all went to work by bus or bike. None of all these dedicated lanes in those days : they all seemed to manage. But then there weren't that many cars of course.

I suppose what I most remember was pride - in the original sense of the word. Everyone seemed to be proud of what they did, and who they were. Maybe it was a hangover from the War? I remember all the people walking into Norwich through Thorpe on a Saturday afternoon to go to the football. All smartly dressed in a white shirt and tie, a smart sports jacket and a flat cap. All carrying a hand knitted football scarf in yellow and green and a wooden rattle. When Norwich had a "run" for the F.A. Cup (in 1958?) I remember all the special trains they laid on, to get the supporters to away matches. On the island in Thorpe you could very clearly hear the roar of the crowd, every time Norwich scored, at Carrow Road.

I suppose that's what I miss. I wish we could be more proud of ourselves. And have a lot more to be proud of!

[ChrisB]

I wonder how many could tie a Windsor knot when the tie has to go in a loose collar. I remember one of my sons asking " what are these" when he came across my collar studs.

[rightsaidfred]

Being able to just get on with my life without everybody else`s in my face all the time, I am happy for everyone to live the life they choose I just don't need to know what they eat what their preferences are and certainly not be part of the conversation they are having with whoever is on the other end of the phone.

I also miss being able to enjoy having a meal out with family or friends without someone else`s group drowning out our conversation, manners and consideration for others are  sadly in decline to the standards I grew up with.

Fred