Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now

[McRhu]

I would've said Kendo Nagasaki, but he's making a comeback.

I and a couple of friends - including @McRhu - were allowed to go off on Freedom of Scotland weekly rovers together from the age of 15....although we had to return home every night, which ruled-out the Kyle and Far North lines.

Happy times.

 

[uglymonkey]

My Mum, just before the war, traveled all the way ( and back) to St Albans from Plymouth "care of the guard". She was about 12.

 

[Merle Haggard]

The old-style slow speed drill at dentists. Struggling to fully recall it other than its discomfort but I think its mechanism had a couple of parallel cords as part of its structure which you could observe rotating above you whilst the drill was rasping its way unfailingly towards the nerve of your tooth. I don't think the older generation dentists back in the day troubled themselves much with offering injections for mere fillings.

"Gas" at the dentist to put you to sleep for a tooth or teeth extraction(s). Administered by means of a rubber mask over the patient's nose by the dentist himself/herself.

That's reminded me of the horrors of a visit to the dentist when I was a child.

The dentist I was sent to always insisted on forcing my jaw apart, to an angle far in excess of comfort and into severe pain, to jam an unpleasant-tasting red rubber block between my teeth. My mother explained that he'd been bitten by a child once, so took precautions - is there such a word as 'paedophobe'?
Having an injection under the chin to dull the pain of extraction. I felt the needle go in so far that it seemed likely that it must have passed through my tongue and into the roof of my mouth. The pain without an injection could hardly have been worse.
On the upside, I once had gas and the wild, vividly colourful dreams I had (in what turned out to be a very short period of time) were strikingly similar the effect of psychedelic drugs (as described to me).

Are children still exposed to this sort of stuff? I suppose the unlikelihood of finding a dentist nowadays might be a factor, though.

 

[dangie]

...although we had to return home every night, which ruled-out the Kyle and Far North lines.

My Dad used tell a story from the late 1920’s early 1930’s about when he and his mate went on a train ‘day trip’ from Stoke-on-Trent to the Kyle of Lochalsh. They were away three days.

 

[D6130]

Twelve/thirteen year old boys in school uniform wearing short trousers.

....and school caps. (cf. black & white videos on You Tube of young train spotters on platform ends).

....or the 1970s version with duffel coats, Adidas shoulder bags, thermos flasks and sandwiches.

 

[AndrewE]

My Dad used tell a story from the late 1920’s early 1930’s about when he and his mate went on a train ‘day trip’ from Stoke-on-Trent to the Kyle of Lochalsh. They were away three days.

I think you can still do that on a day return nowadays. The rules say that you can depart before midnight as long (as the ticket is dated the next day) and then (as long as you leave before midnight) you can travel home into the next day.
This is how when I joined BR you could have a day in Glasgow or Edinburgh from Bristol for the price of a day return using the sleeper both ways - or the seats on it.

 

[swt_passenger]

Twelve/thirteen year old boys in school uniform wearing short trousers.

Tell me about it, especially when your parents are the amongst the last 4 or 5 traditionalists in an entry of 120 boys…

 

[GordonT]

Married women being told at bank branches and the like that they would need their husband to be present or to come in himself in order to enable any business to be actioned.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Packed churches for services every Sunday.

 

[Howardh]

Looking out of the window right now, summer. If it's not rain it's drizzle.

There are still branches on the lawn due to the gales last week!!

 

[GordonT]

Packed churches for services every Sunday.

Yes. It was pretty much a traditional mark of gentility rather than an indicator of religious fervour and for the majority it was probably their most boring hour of the week. Worship leaders largely failed to move with the times because their training hadn't encouraged this and attendances rapidly fell off the cliff.

 

[dangie]

…..There are still branches on the lawn due to the gales last week!!

Our lawn is beginning to get covered in falling leaves already.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Yes. It was pretty much a traditional mark of gentility rather than an indicator of religious fervour and for the majority it was probably their most boring hour of the week. Worship leaders largely failed to move with the times and attendances rapidly fell off the cliff.

That would seem to be the case with the Christian religion divisions, but on different holy days of other religions, there seems no similarity. "Friday prayers" day at local mosques seems very much an all-ages family event. How are things on Saturdays with the Jewish traditional and reform sections of that faith.

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The "knocker-up" man with a long cane that he tapped on bedroom windows to wake up the mill girls who had a 06:00 starting time at the cotton mills.

The sound that the mill girl's clogs made on the pavement slabs on their walk to the mill.

 

[52290]

....and school caps. (cf. black & white videos on You Tube of young train spotters on platform ends).

....or the 1970s version with duffel coats, Adidas shoulder bags, thermos flasks and sandwiches.

I was a 1950's nobbly kneed trainspotter with a school cap and a Bluebottle voice and with an Ian Alan London Midland Region loco-spotters club badge on my school blazer.

 

[Busaholic]

Naturally now as an adult I can put together a meal, but haven't a clue about joining two bits of wood!

I only joined the 'voluntary' Combined Cadet Force at school because the alternative was extra woodwork, or 'craft' as it was mysteriously termed at my school.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I remember being in the final year of junior school and listening to some of the classmates talking about "manual" lessons once they began in the senior school and thinking they were talking about learning Spanish...

(Thank heavens I passed my 11+ and was saved from whatever "manual" actually was)

 

[GordonT]

Probably still available but become a bit more niche than prevalent in the average home kitchen I guess. Nutcrackers, butter curlers, manual fruit squeezers, egg or tomato slicers, fish knives and fish forks, mincing machines, jelly making moulds.

 

[dangie]

Teapot & Tea Cosy
I know a few will still use them but they are now more the exception rather than the rule. We don’t own a teapot. Nowadays it’s a teabag in each cup.

 

[gg1]

Probably still available but become a bit more niche than prevalent in the average home kitchen I guess. Nutcrackers, butter curlers, manual fruit squeezers, egg or tomato slicers, fish knives and fish forks, mincing machines, jelly making moulds.

Not sure I agree about the manual fruit squeezer. Unless they hardly ever cook most people will need a fruit squeezer of some description every now and again, but probably not frequently enough to justify an electric one.

 

[Howardh]

I remember being in the final year of junior school and listening to some of the classmates talking about "manual" lessons once they began in the senior school and thinking they were talking about learning Spanish...

(Thank heavens I passed my 11+ and was saved from whatever "manual" actually was)

In my town until Comprehensives came in, we had three types of establishment - grammar schools, secondary modern and technical. Think the latter was designed to direct pupils to labour, so they would do woodwork, metalwork, light engineering etc on top of basic subjects.

If anyone went to one (or knows better than me) was that the case?

 

[Merle Haggard]

In my town until Comprehensives came in, we had three types of establishment - grammar schools, secondary modern and technical. Think the latter was designed to direct pupils to labour, so they would do woodwork, metalwork, light engineering etc on top of basic subjects.

If anyone went to one (or knows better than me) was that the case?

The order here was Grammar School /Technical School above Secondary Modern. You had to pass the 11 plus to go to either of the first two.
As it happens, the transporting gang I was part of was about equally Grammar/Tech; I think that the intention was that the Grammar School was chosen for a Civil Service / Banking type career and Technical for an Engineering one, but it certainly didn't work out like that for us.
An oddity was that, if you passed the 11-plus, your parents would be sent a letter that listed every school (not just Grammar/Tech) in alphabetic order; moment of doubt until my parents spotted 'School for Boys' (the name for the Grammar School) way down the list. (Obviously, girls would have School for Girls' instead - I don't think I was given that choice ). If you failed, the list would just be very slightly shorter.

 

[Howardh]

The order here was Grammar School /Technical School above Secondary Modern. You had to pass the 11 plus to go to either of the first two.
As it happens, the transporting gang I was part of was about equally Grammar/Tech; I think that the intention was that the Grammar School was chosen for a Civil Service / Banking type career and Technical for an Engineering one, but it certainly didn't work out like that for us.
An oddity was that, if you passed the 11-plus, your parents would be sent a letter that listed every school (not just Grammar/Tech) in alphabetic order; moment of doubt until my parents spotted 'School for Boys' (the name for the Grammar School) way down the list. (Obviously, girls would have School for Girls' instead - I don't think I was given that choice ). If you failed, the list would just be very slightly shorter.

In my case, you deffo needed the 11+ to get into Grammar; and if you failed you got a second go at 12+. Really no idea whether either of the latter two needed the 11+, but we had a small secondary modern almost opposite our house (it had a swimming pool, used to use it as a junior!) which my parents used to "threaten" me with going to if I failed my 11+!

In the end I passed and went to a Grammar 4 miles away, but it was on my old man's route to work and traffic was light in the 70's!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

In the end I passed and went to a Grammar 4 miles away, but it was on my old man's route to work and traffic was light in the 70's!

It was the autumn term in 1956 when I went to the Grammer School (the choice of both my parents). When eventually "O" and "A" level examinations came to pass, there were none of those new-fangled examination grades they seem to have these days, the order in merit terms in the late 1950s and early 1960s was Distinction, Credit, Pass, Fail.

 

[John Webb]

In my town until Comprehensives came in, we had three types of establishment - grammar schools, secondary modern and technical. Think the latter was designed to direct pupils to labour, so they would do woodwork, metalwork, light engineering etc on top of basic subjects.

If anyone went to one (or knows better than me) was that the case?

The Technical School I went to was a comprehensive school (LCC at the time - 1957) and although I 'passed' the 11+ I went for the technical school rather than the local grammar school as I knew I wanted to be 'hands-on' in whatever work I eventually did. (My parents were good enough to appreciate this and supported my choice.) I ended up with eight 'O' levels including 'Engineering workshop theory and practice'. This O-level proved to be of considerable use when as a physicist I joined a government research station and when I needed our workshop to make a new item of test equipment could speak with them on a level footing, unlike a number of my colleagues!
And at 'A' levels did a then-new 'Electronics' paper additional to the Physics papers, which wasn't offered to contemporary friends who were at the grammar school.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Aug 2024 ==

It was the autumn term in 1956 when I went to the Grammer School (the choice of both my parents). When eventually "O" and "A" level examinations came to pass, there were none of those new-fangled examination grades they seem to have these days, the order in merit terms in the late 1950s and early 1960s was Distinction, Credit, Pass, Fail.

Interesting - my 'O' levels, passed in 1962 and 1963 were graded as you say.
But in 1964 for 'A-levels' they were graded A to E, 'Pass at O-level' and Fail

 

[PeterC]

By the time that I moved up to secondary school in 62 nobody locally considered that the "Tech" was anything but a slightly less prestigious grammar school.

The boys and girls grammars took the brightest kids from a much wider carchment. Those from my area who passed the 11 plus and weren't in that top 90 generally went to the Tech.

 

[gg1]

It was the autumn term in 1956 when I went to the Grammer School (the choice of both my parents). When eventually "O" and "A" level examinations came to pass, there were none of those new-fangled examination grades they seem to have these days, the order in merit terms in the late 1950s and early 1960s was Distinction, Credit, Pass, Fail.

Interestingly HNDs have retained that grading system to the present day, though slightly rebranded as Distinction, Merit, Pass, Fail.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The grammar school of St Bede's College, Manchester, that I attended in the late 1950s/early 1960s was totally different in those days to what exists today. Not only was it "boys only" but a good percentage of the pupils were boarders.

 

[RichJF]

Going into a shop as a teenager with 50p; buying a Fredo + Monster Munch & getting change.

 

[The exile]

Having 50p slipped into my hand when visiting relatives and feeling rich!

 

[Howardh]

Going into a shop as a teenager with 50p; buying a Fredo + Monster Munch & getting change.

Remember the play on the ad -# "Just One Cornetto, Give It To Me, You Must Be Joking, at 50 p"

50p!! Those were...