Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now

[GordonT]

A breakfast cereal called "Fru-Grains" which from very distant childhood memory were like pieces of tree bark.
Something which was powdery and supposedly healthy and occasionally sprinkled on cereals years ago but unfortunately I can't remember it's name.
When Grapefruit Juice, Pineapple Juice and Tomato Juice were more commonly available as options in hotels as part of the breakfast menu or as starters at other meals. Now tends to be Fresh Orange and occasionally also Apple juice for breakfast and whatever the bar stocks at other meals in addition to more substantial non liquid starters.

 

[MotCO]

Any booking office with Star equipment can definately issue them! When I was in one, we used to get letters with 40p in, asking for 2 from each machine, with a stamped envelope to post them back in!

Thinking of stamps reminds me of machines stuck to the side of some pillar boxes which would sell small booklets of stamps. Invariably for 50p, you got one second class and one first class stamp, and small denominations of stamps you would never use.

 

[najaB]

Thinking of stamps reminds me of machines stuck to the side of some pillar boxes which would sell small booklets of stamps. Invariably for 50p, you got one second class and one first class stamp, and small denominations of stamps you would never use.

I don't know about pillar boxes, but I bought stamps from a machine outside the post office in the late 2010s - must have been prior to 2018 because that's when the post office closed.

Edit: Actually, I just went on Google Street View and the machine disappeared sometime between 2014 and 2015, so mid 2010s rather than late.

 

[D6130]

We've already covered personal weighing machines in stations, chemists' shops, etc.....but I seem to have a vague recollection of a certain type of machine that had a sign reading "I speak your weight". I can't imagine them having been very popular, especially with women. Imagine the scenario:
"Blimey Madam! Fifteen stones! Time you went on a bloody diet!"

 

[simonw]

We've already covered personal weighing machines in stations, chemists' shops, etc.....but I seem to have a vague recollection of a certain type of machine that had a sign reading "I speak your weight". I can't imagine them having been very popular, especially with women. Imagine the scenario:
"Blimey Madam! Fifteen stones! Time you went on a bloody diet!"

I thought the punch line was : only one person at a time, please.

 

[D6130]

I thought the punch line was : only one person at a time, please.

 

[Harpo]

I thought the punch line was : only one person at a time, please.

A long time ago our GP told me I was a stone too heavy for my height. He told my wife she was six inches too short for her weight

 

[AM9]

In tubs so small that a three year would feel put out by the portion size.

Over the years, the 'floor' of tubs have moved further and further up the sidewalls, - reducing the capacity when filled to the brim.

 

[Canary73]

I'm not sure about that!

When my parents first rented a T.V. (for the 1959 Cup Final) and we came in the 'A.T.V.' area which was very parochial Birmingham - everyone had that local accents and all the news was about strikes in the car industry and posh people in Sutton Coldfield and Solihull complaining about something. Mid day entertainment was 'Lunch Box" presented by Noele Gordon with Gerry Allan and his T.V. Trio for music - for those happily not familiar with the latter they 'played' electric organs set on automatic. Totally ignored the rest of their area to the extent that, when reporting on a football match between Northampton and some team in the Birmingham area the report was partial to what they clearly considered the 'home' team.

We were then 'transferred' to Anglia. Look East was the news programme; a fair representation is the 'Broken News - Look Out East' - it's more documentary than satire! When there was the (?18.30?) changeover from the national news to the Anglia one on occasions the Norwich newsreader was unaware; we have watched 5 minutes of the lady presenter finishing her make-up and on another occasion the gentleman presenter sorting his script and walking around his desk dressed immaculately above the waist but wearing shorts and sandals. It may also have inspired 'Alan Partridge' so I suppose not all was lost.

Compared to Britain's got talent, X factor and I'm a celebrity etc etc? Give me ITV of the past any day.

 

[Ashley Hill]

There was a satirical series which lampooned it, can't remember the name - it centred around the cleaner and faithfully reproduced the (many) shortcomings of the original

Was that Acorn Antiques and Mrs Overall? It was part of Victoria Woods TV show.

 

[Harpo]

Compared to Britain's got talent, X factor…..

Pre-Cowellisation? When ‘music’ was more than just professional karaoke performed in front of a living Spitting Image puppet?

 

[Merle Haggard]

Was that Acorn Antiques and Mrs Overall? It was part of Victoria Woods TV show.

Thanks, yes that's the one.

Compared to Britain's got talent, X factor and I'm a celebrity etc etc? Give me ITV of the past any day.

I gave up having a T.V. about ten years ago - being consistently patronised and the condescending tone, suggesting that it was aiming at an audience with a very low I.Q., finally got to me. It wasn't just the 'entertainment' programmes, though; I remember on the News (can't remember the channel) once there was a report about a shooting. Behind and above the newsreader's head there was a picture of a handgun...

 

[bspahh]

I gave up having a T.V. about ten years ago - being consistently patronised and the condescending tone, suggesting that it was aiming at an audience with a very low I.Q., finally got to me. It wasn't just the 'entertainment' programmes, though; I remember on the News (can't remember the channel) once there was a report about a shooting. Behind and above the newsreader's head there was a picture of a handgun...

The Day Today summarised this nicely

 

[D6130]

Thanks, yes that's the one.



I gave up having a T.V. about ten years ago - being consistently patronised and the condescending tone, suggesting that it was aiming at an audience with a very low I.Q., finally got to me. It wasn't just the 'entertainment' programmes, though; I remember on the News (can't remember the channel) once there was a report about a shooting. Behind and above the newsreader's head there was a picture of a handgun...

Me too....about twelve years ago. Although to be fair, we still have a small portable TV/DVD player in Italy which allows us to access news and documentries. However the majority of Italian TV channels - of which there are hundreds - were Cowellised/Berlusconiised donkeys' years ago.

 

[daveo]

We've already covered personal weighing machines in stations, chemists' shops, etc.....but I seem to have a vague recollection of a certain type of machine that had a sign reading "I speak your weight". I can't imagine them having been very popular, especially with women. Imagine the scenario:
"Blimey Madam! Fifteen stones! Time you went on a bloody diet!"

Last time I went on one of those it proclaimed - "One at a time please, two of you get off" (Am I telling the truth or fibbing?)

 

[GordonT]

A programme currently on the tv as I type is glorifying Black Forest Gateaux. Not often seen on dessert menus these days but almost unavoidable in the 1970s.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Loaves of fresh bread from a bakery that were slightly burnt on the top. When sliced and buttered I used to eat that slightly burnt half first.

 

[Purple Train]

Pacers.

Much as I loved them when I was small. They were like rollercoasters, but tailor-made for the feeble of stomach.

 

[Springs Branch]

Another anachronism: Attitudes to divorce.

In the 1960s I grew up in a street mostly populated by homogenous, stable, 'white working-class' households, where dads toddled off each morning to their local blue-collar job.

One day, word got around that a new resident was due to move in (directly opposite our house, in fact), who was a divorced woman with two young children. This news seemed to cause quite a bit of apprehension, suspicion and concern amongst the neighbouring housewives, leading to much over-the-back-fence gossip. As a child, I started to wonder if it would be safe to play with these two children, or whether I should actively avoid them.

Once the new family moved in, they turned out to be perfectly nice, 'normal', people, of course. But I think there was lingering off-handedness for some time from many of the established women, simply on account of the mother being a divorcee.

 

[BanburyBlue]

Another anachronism: Attitudes to divorce.

In the 1960s I grew up in a street mostly populated by homogenous, stable, 'white working-class' households, where dads toddled off each morning to their local blue-collar job.

One day, word got around that a new resident was due to move in (directly opposite our house, in fact), who was a divorced woman with two young children. This news seemed to cause quite a bit of apprehension, suspicion and concern amongst the neighbouring housewives, leading to much over-the-back-fence gossip. As a child, I started to wonder if it would be safe to play with these two children, or whether I should actively avoid them.

Once the new family moved in, they turned out to be perfectly nice, 'normal', people, of course. But I think there was lingering off-handedness for some time from many of the established women, simply on account of the mother being a divorcee.

And indeed marriage. I remember tongues wagging at couples that were living together, but not married.

 

[GordonT]

Ladies head gear for use in wet weather. Sometimes referred to as a "rain mate". My memory is of something that was a pleated piece of polythene with two cotton tape ties.

 

[gg1]

Ladies head gear for use in wet weather. Sometimes referred to as a "rain mate". My memory is of something that was a pleated piece of polythene with two cotton tape ties.

My mum used to have one of those, looked like an over sized shower cap.

 

[D6130]

Petrol pumps with the hoses mounted on swivelling overhead gantries....usually used at petrol stations in confined locations such as streets in urban areas with no room for a conventional garage forecourt, so the cars had to stop at the kerbside.

 

[MotCO]

Petrol pumps with the hoses mounted on swivelling overhead gantries....usually used at petrol stations in confined locations such as streets in urban areas with no room for a conventional garage forecourt, so the cars had to stop at the kerbside.

Petrol Attendants.
Queues outside petrol stations on Budget Day to fill up before the tax went up.

 

[McRhu]

My mum used to have one of those, looked like an over sized shower cap.

Aka a Toffee Paper. That was part of the uniform of those elderly ladies of yore. Very sadly I think the last of them had shuffled of their fur-lined boots, overcoats, little round spectacles and tartan shopping trollies by the end of the 1970s.

 

[D6130]

Aka a Toffee Paper. That was part of the uniform of those elderly ladies of yore. Very sadly I think the last of them had shuffled of their fur-lined boots, overcoats, little round spectacles and tartan shopping trollies by the end of the 1970s.

Oh, I don't know. That was the de rigeur uniform of my late mother-in-law....and she lasted until June 2014!

 

[McRhu]

Oh, I don't know. That was the de rigeur uniform of my late mother-in-law....and she lasted until June 2014!

A lone soldier fighting on to the bitter end: I doff my toffee paper. I miss that era - it always made me think of Minnie Caldwell.

 

[PeterC]

Oh, I don't know. That was the de rigeur uniform of my late mother-in-law....and she lasted until June 2014!

Pi have seen plenty around Stamford Hill, worn y ladies to protect t their wigs.

 

[Ediswan]

Petrol pumps with the hoses mounted on swivelling overhead gantries....usually used at petrol stations in confined locations such as streets in urban areas with no room for a conventional garage forecourt, so the cars had to stop at the kerbside.

This arrangement can still be found in Bala (July 2024):

Llyn Tegid · Bala

★★★★★ · Lake

maps.app.goo.gl

Image of roadside pumps as described in the quote.

 

[swt_passenger]

Bizarrely, there was a real Crossroads Motel in Weedon, Northamptonshire, where the A5 and A45 crossed. I actually had (blagged!) a meal there once, pretty good. Not sure why they didn't change the name to avoid the obvious comparisons.

Still there when I passed it a few weeks back, but nowadays referring to itself as a hotel. Their website seems to use ‘Crossroads’ and ‘Cross Roads’ in different places.