The "It never used to be like that" game

[Anthony2019]

Morning all!
As it is fast approaching my birthday, I thought I would celebrate the fact that I am getting old by starting a silly game.
For those of you born between 1965 and 1980, or remember growing up during 70s, 80s and 90s, the game is to think of 5 different things you were doing back then which you no longer do today.
The focus of the game is not so much on how we ourselves have changed, but on how society has changed. Themes could include: arts, media, technology, communication, transport, shopping, education.
The challenge is to think of things that have not already been posted, but it is OK if you don't!

Anyway, I'll stop rabbiting on and give you a list of my five!

1. Loading computer games from a tape
2. Tuning into TV channels using a dial
3. Reading the weather forecast on Ceefax
4. Buying sweets using half penny coins
5. Paying my library book fines

Now it's over to you. Happy reminiscing!

 

[Hammster]

1. Dial a phone
2. Roll (crank) down a window
3. Look up a telephone number in a book
4. Switch the adapter on the back of the tv to play video games.
5. Wiggle the antenna to get a good picture.

 

[Richard Mulcahy]

Morning all!
As it is fast approaching my birthday, I thought I would celebrate the fact that I am getting old by starting a silly game.
For those of you born between 1965 and 1980, or remember growing up during 70s, 80s and 90s, the game is to think of 5 different things you were doing back then which you no longer do today.
The focus of the game is not so much on how we ourselves have changed, but on how society has changed. Themes could include: arts, media, technology, communication, transport, shopping, education.
The challenge is to think of things that have not already been posted, but it is OK if you don't!

Anyway, I'll stop rabbiting on and give you a list of my five!

1. Loading computer games from a tape
2. Tuning into TV channels using a dial
3. Reading the weather forecast on Ceefax
4. Buying sweets using half penny coins
5. Paying my library book fines

Now it's over to you. Happy reminiscing!

Hello,

Here's my list:

I no longer sun tan - too dangerous

Used to record songs off the radio with cassette tapes

No longer have to get up and go to the tv to change channels - had no remote

I no longer play rugby or squash

I no longer dance - too embarrassing

 

[Hmm]

5. Paying my library book fines

Do you mean to say that you refuse to pay your library fines now? That is a sign of aging: it was 20p a day at my local library last time I was there, before lockdown, and I can see you saying "What! Four shillings a day! That's outrageous!"

 

[mama2one]

Happy Birthday!

1) no longer go inside library/do library-to-go instead
2) no longer have a landline
3) no longer buy stamps from machines as P.O. removed so order by mail
4) 2020 bought ALL Christmas gifts online (first time ever)
....goodbye fighting crowds in store

 

[bèlla]

Happy soon to be birthday!

1. No longer play records. But they're coming back!
2. No longer listen to a Walkman or iPod.
3. No longer have a flip phone.
4. Visit the store less often thanks to Amazon and Instacart.
5. No longer use a pay phone.

 

[DMVbirdie]

1. answering the phone without a voice messaging system
2. receiving robocalls
3. watching TV until the station shut off at about 11:00 pm and coming back on around 6:00 am
4. listening to radio until the station shut off about 11:00 pm and coming back on around 6:00 am
5. using a pay phone

 

[drich0150]

1) being pressured to take the mark of the beast/the idea of being vaccinated with a non fda regulated cure all, for a virus that has a 98% survival rate if you are over 70 is redonk.. especially if you already had the virus like i've had.

2) woke/political driven tv shows and movies. everything is gay/girl power.. even the latest he-man series on netflix is about his female side kick.. which is fine do a series about her, but don't title it he-man.. If i put on a he man show i want to see and follow he man.. not the side kick who is now a invincible mary sue without the power of grey skull.

3) gas being more than 1$ this speaks for itself. i remember when it went to 75 cents a gallon and my g.pop went nuts.

4) kids don't play outside. we weren't allowed in the house during day light hours. for any reason (you better have went in the morning or brough paper with you)

5) kids are seldomly disciplined. my sister will not even use the word no.. I remember being publicly caned at a super market for trying to sneak junk food into the grocery buggy.

 

[Von Davidicus]

1) Singing from a hymbook
2) Free webhosting on Angelfire
3) "Do I want this on 3.5" or 5 1/2" floppy?"
4) 66 CFR, Calgary's Oldies Station
5) Overhead projectors, slide projectors, and film projectors that go "clickclickclickclickclickclickclick"

 

[mama2one]

.

 

[JAM2b]

Memorizing the phone numbers of people and businesses
Listening to the dial-up noise
Using video game cartridges
using glass thermometers with mercury in them
5.00 movie tickets (3.00 for a matinee)

 

[CrossTheTaiga]

0_0 I'm still not over brother Anthony's point number 4: 'Buying sweets using 1/2 penny coins'.. I'm wailing here. Even though I'm very used to the euro now, but my goodness.. I felt rich when I had one guilder (our former currency) + standing in the candy store. The things you could do..

And do not get me started on memorising half the phonebook without batting an eye. Smartphones and pc's transformed my brain into a messy fog of cranky neurotransmitters *wails tears full of floppy discs and disorganised cassettes*.

 

[Gottservant]

You might not realise this, but in the early days of the internet they published a phone book for websites.
Before that there was bulletin board dial up by phone to replace Web sites.
And there were cassette tapes for music.
And there were asci (alphabet code) games.
And you had to optimise the software loading, to make games fit your hardware (which they still do just on a bigger scale with newer hardware)

In retrospect I guess I have done more, while achieving less!

 

[LaSorcia]

One used to be able to get lost, but with gps that's no longer really possible. People don't really have map reading skills any more.

 

[mama2one]

One used to be able to get lost, but with gps that's no longer really possible.

unless you're us

gps once led us to a field so I don't trust it
last trip, told husband not to use it heading there & it took an extra hour driving

coming home we used it & I apologized to husband!

 

[d taylor]

I no longer

Run around the town with just shorts on (no t-shirt or shoes)
Collect old soda pop bottles for a nickle or a dime
Play football in side, front or backyard
Have spend the nights, at friends or at my parents home
Try to catch birds in shoe boxes

 

[mama2one]

as a kid, remember rolling pennies up in paper sleeves?

 

[Yaaten]

I miss privacy, silence and personal space. Most these days seem to be tied to their electronic gadgets the way prisoners used to have a ball and chain around their ankles, and the world has become far too noisy! Libraries used to be very quiet, but now they're as noisy as a construction site, with phones going off and people being so inconsiderate and not keeping their voices down.

 

[Anthony2019]

1. I used to be the passenger in a car who always read the atlas. Usually moments later we'd end up on a dirt track surrounded by cows.
2. Smelling the scene of strong antiseptic the moment you walked into a hospital and all the nurses wore hats.
3. Sitting in a private compartment on a train - even in second class!
4. Travelling to France on a boat (back then it was not possible to travel there by rail)
5. Playing bat and ball on a black and white TV set

 

[Juan777]

1) Using the Super 8mm camera to record film. Develop it. Wait 2 weeks. Play it on the Super 8mm projector. The anticipation of seeing how that film would look like for the first time. Vs today, might flip out the smartphone and upload on facebook and youtube and probably never watch it but check for likes.

2) Renting 16mm projector from library for $6. Selecting from a catalogue of film. Carrying heavy loads of movies on a napsack. A 1 hour 16 mm movie may have two to three reels.
Loading and rewinding the movie and focusing it, hoping it does not shuttee halfway through from a bad edit. Fast forward today - streamers. Appreciate how film was before and how easy and cheap to access digitally today. Will often wait to the end credits becauae its what I did with the 16mm film. Made it feel real.

I don't mean to make it sound like a chore, because as a child, I enjoyed every second of the 16 mm projector. I loved seeing the images individually on the film, the sprockets, the optical sound track and knowing that there is an illustion of 24 of those frames going each second to make an illusion of motion straight from those pictures. The smell of warmed reels from the projector's bulb. The projector created a white-noise effect when it passed film smoothly.

One thing about both the Super 8 mm film and the 16mm projector in late 80s childhood was it made me feel special as a kid. Like I was this child director making film at school and then showing it in a projector to my classmates. Then operating the projector to show films to the class since I had experience with the macine at home. Sharing some nice films that I liked with the class by bringing the 16mm to school and arranging with the teacher to play them in the class. I mean, this thing look like it made my childhood in the late 80s.

3) Growing up in neighbourhood that had kids like me all over the place and riding bikes. Today is ghost town. People likely spend allot of screen time and less time in neighbourhood. We did allot of walking. The town was part of us, both locally and urban. Fast forward today we feel like an island, inside a house where we don't talk to, or know anyone. The local area is over-run by immigrants from a Muslim African country and the whole area feels foreign. We end up travelling north to a nicer suburb like area to do our shopping as we can't stand what this area has become around us, yet can't afford to move to a nicer area ,etc.... The world is more internal with the internet and more driving out to escape the area.

4) Smell of audio casettes. Walkman. Cassetplayer. Own mixed.tapes. Unclogging a stuck audio cassette and if unsuccessful, losing the audio tape and all its contents.

5) Tom Baker Doctor Who, 4th doctor. This is a class of its own. I would have temper tantrums with my folks unless they took me home on time so I can see the latest Doctor Who epidode. They could be shopping, or somewhere, but when the time is at 4:00 pm, it's like, "no, I have to be home on time to see Doctor Who". Each episode use to end on a cliffhanger. While the special-effects are terrible compared today's standards, they were more than passable as a child watching that and terrifying as well. Currently I have a subscription to Brit-box which has all of the classic Doctor Who shows and despite I have access at my finger tips, I have no current interest in watching any of them. Also liked K-9.