Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now

[LYradial]

That takes me back — the days when one could go into the chemist's and buy stuff not only for that but for use with one's chemistry-set — really nasty stuff you certainly wouldn't get today.

not only can we not buy it but cannot put its real name on the internet lest we arouse suspicion

 

[87electric]

My floppy disks are gathering dust. I would add mini discs but my player is still going strong in my HI-FI set up.

 

[RT4038]

Steam locomotives running in normal commercial service on the railways?

 

[Ken X]

When your iron came with a plug suitable for plugging into the light socket.

 

[AndrewE]

Steam locomotives running in normal commercial service on the railways?

and commuting to school on an RT bus! (or three on the way home.)

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Aug 2024 ==

Child half rail fares only being available for under-14's, long after the school leaving age had gone up to 16.

A couple of weeks ago on the Great Orme tramway I asked for "2 and 2 halves" - and the youth behind the screen gave me a blank look! Asked what it meant, so I said "2 Adults (seniors) and 2 children." Couldn't believe he couldn't work out what I meant. SWMBO pointed out that kids haven't had half fares on lots of things for ages...

 

[Shimbleshanks]

Chemists selling “things” to make your own fi…works to ten year olds.

And men's barbers selling 'something for the weekend'...

 

[Royston Vasey]

The smoking carriage! Lasted some years into privatisation too.

I turned up at my university interview in a Ben Sherman shirt stinking of cigarettes. I didn't realise I was allowed to move from my designated seat on my advance, which was erroneously booked in coach A of a Virgin XC HST!

Also anachronistic now, Ben Sherman shirts, Virgin Trains and HSTs

 

[JohnMcL7]

My floppy disks are gathering dust. I would add mini discs but my player is still going strong in my HI-FI set up.

I was thinking physical media in general seems on the way out which came to mind when I saw a comment from someone a bit younger puzzled about the idea of 'burning' CDs, with optical drives disappearing fast these days they feel increasingly like floppy disks did as they were superceded.

Techmoan on youtube did a couple of videos where he'd bought a bulk load of minidisc players from Japan and just worked through them which I really enjoyed particularly as I loved my little Panasonic Minidisc player when I used one.

 

[coppercapped]

The gas light in the street outside our house.

 

[adc82140]

When your iron came with a plug suitable for plugging into the light socket.

I think it was only the late 80s or early 90s when it became compulsory for new electrical products to come with a plug already fitted. You had to go to Superdrug, buy one and fit it yourself. Surprisingly very few people short circuited themselves.

 

[AndrewE]

Steam locomotives running in normal commercial service on the railways?

I'm 70 now and I can just remember tank engines running round the suburban services which terminated at Tring - and cabbing one when I was invited up while they did. (Inviting up is probably a thing of the past too!) Had to watch out when the "slacking hose" was used to wash the footplate...
Making sure we were in the right place to stand on the open temporary scaffolding footbridge as one of the last few steamers went underneath...

 

[OuterDistant]

In the pre-motorway era, having to drive through every town centre on a car journey.

 

[LYradial]

And men's barbers selling 'something for the weekend'...

Most of my rockets were damp squibs anyway

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Watching waggons of coal from the Manchester Oldham Road goods depot in the 1950s, crossing over Rochdale Road, with a flagman either side, to the Gould Street gasworks opposite.

 

[gg1]

The smoking carriage! Lasted some years into privatisation too.

I turned up at my university interview in a Ben Sherman shirt stinking of cigarettes. I didn't realise I was allowed to move from my designated seat on my advance, which was erroneously booked in coach A of a Virgin XC HST!

For reasons best known to themselves, Inter City under BR designated coach B as the smoking coach in the 90s, so if you were sitting in A and wanted to go to the buffet car you had to walk through the smog. Never understood why A wasn't the smoking coach.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

In the pre-motorway era, having to drive through every town centre on a car journey.

I lived in Chester and family were all from Preston. My father drove through the Mersey tunnel and then on the A59 to Preston. No M56/62/6 etc!

 

[mickeymac]

The gas light in the street outside our house.

No, you’re just imagining that…

 

[OhNoAPacer]

Teletext

 

[Royston Vasey]

For reasons best known to themselves, Inter City under BR designated coach B as the smoking coach in the 90s, so if you were sitting in A and wanted to go to the buffet car you had to walk through the smog. Never understood why A wasn't the smoking coach.

Possibly I have misremembered and it was coach B, I thought it was the end coach though. This was early autumn 1999, it would have been a seven coach HST.

 

[WAB]

I remember Telex machines!

Some of the messaging systems on the railway are still known as the Telex or the Teleprinter by some of the more 'vintage' staff...

 

[Merle Haggard]

Some of the messaging systems on the railway are still known as the Telex or the Teleprinter by some of the more 'vintage' staff...

The teleprinter service on B.R. was called 'S.T.R.A.D.' but I can't remember what the letters stood for.

The STRAD typists typed from the manuscript you gave them. If they stopped input for a (quite short) time the call would be disconnected. To save this happening, when they came to the bit of your handwriting that took a while to interpret, they would flick their left ittle finger down to the 'a' key and keep it there until they were ready to start typing again. It meant hat when you received a STRAD message from someone with poor handwriting it might seem like the sender was in trouble .

My bit of B.R. was really cutting edge by 1990. If you wanted to contact a colleague 'out on the district' you phoned a number, told an input typist what the message was and who it was for, and their pager buzzed and the message appeared. Being a pager messaging typist must have been a very short lived career

 

[Hadders]

Travellers Cheques.

Talking to a well travelled colleague at work a few weeks ago who, to be fair, is younger than me but nowhere near the start of their career and they hadn’t got a clue what they were!

 

[Donny Dave]

Travellers Cheques.

Ask you colleague about using marks, lira, francs and guilders then....

 

[eastwestdivide]

Teletext

Still exists in a limited form on Freeview BBC channels

 

[gg1]

Possibly I have misremembered and it was coach B, I thought it was the end coach though. This was early autumn 1999, it would have been a seven coach HST.

No, we're both right Post privatisation I do remember some operators switching it to coach A.

 

[LYradial]

Red star parcels,

 

[GordonT]

Bulky red machines at railway stations into which feeding some coinage enabled you to produce your name on a strip of metal. There was an enormous dial affair to set each character one by one and a handle to emboss each letter in turn. At least that's my recollection.

Cigarette machines.

Cigarettes sold individually with the target market being school children.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Milk monitors.

 

[AndrewE]

Bulky red machines at railway stations into which feeding some coinage enabled you to produce your name on a strip of metal. There was an enormous dial affair to set each character one by one and a handle to emboss each letter in turn. At least that's my recollection.

and really big blue machines too, which dispensed waxed cartons of chilled milk or orange juice. I can remember one at Paddington before getting a train to Torquay. Was the Orange called "Kia Ora?"

One of the red ones should be at York and all other railway museums, selling the strips to make money...

 

[Ostrich]

Getting 3d a bottle back from the off-licence for returning empties to them - a very useful way of supplementing my pocket money, especially as one of my relatives drank like a fish!

And 2/6d for an empty soda syphon, IIRC ......

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Aug 2024 ==

and really big blue machines too, which dispensed waxed cartons of chilled milk or orange juice. I can remember one at Paddington before getting a train to Torquay. Was the Orange called "Kia Ora?"

Wasn't it very, almost sickly, sweet?