Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now

[WesternLancer]

Have you got a source for reusing glasses being illegal in Scotland?

this sort of stuff always sounds to me like something that comes up in a 'risk assessment', then becomes good practice, then 'morphs' into strong advice / company policy etc etc - and then people get told it's 'the law' by supervisors or managers 'on the ground' that you must never ever refill a glass.....

 

[styles]

this sort of stuff always sounds to me like something that comes up in a 'risk assessment', then becomes good practice, then 'morphs' into strong advice / company policy etc etc - and then people get told it's 'the law' by supervisors or managers 'on the ground' that you must never ever refill a glass.....

Absolutely.

The number of people who think it's illegal to sell energy drinks to children says it all.

 

[WesternLancer]

Absolutely.

The number of people who think it's illegal to sell energy drinks to children says it all.

it's kind of understandable - it might be simpler for a supervisor to just tell a staff member that 'it's the law' rather then get into debates with people about how to manage the risks differently etc

Unfortunately it can sometimes (or often with some people) fuel the 'heath and safety gone mad' beliefs that then mean in worst case scenarios some people ignore things that are genuinely unhealthy or unsafe...

 

[styles]

it's kind of understandable - it might be simpler for a supervisor to just tell a staff member that 'it's the law' rather then get into debates with people about how to manage the risks differently etc

Yeah I can understand that tbf.

Unfortunately it can sometimes (or often with some people) fuel the 'heath and safety gone mad' beliefs that then mean in worst case scenarios some people ignore things that are genuinely unhealthy or unsafe...

Yep. I've got a family member who is convinced teachers aren't allowed to tell pupils off any more. In her child's primary school, the teacher instead empties all the other pupils into a different classroom, which sounds ridiculous to me. Anyway she's convinced it's the law and all schools are like that. And if that were the case I would agree it's health and safety gone mad. Kid's going to have a shock when she starts high school.

 

[BAFRA77]

Every man on the street wearing a full suit and trilby on a daily basis

 

[LowLevel]

Every man on the street wearing a full suit and trilby on a daily basis

I think that is one of those fake memories installed by a view of a certain demographic at a certain time!

 

[Acey]

Pyramid shaped PG Tips teabags .

 

[GordonT]

Letter-writing gift sets including quality writing paper with matching envelopes and wax seals. Not totally extinct but hardly a best seller.

 

[styles]

I think that is one of those fake memories installed by a view of a certain demographic at a certain time!

Yeah, Wall Street in the late 50s maybe!

 

[jfollows]

Closed Shops and Demarcation in workplaces.

For those unfamiliar with the terms...

Closed Shop: When you had to join a trade union to be employed at that particular place of work. No union card, no job.

You were entitled to opt out of the political levy, if the union was affiliated to a political party, usually Labour I guess.
I had a friend at university who really liked cheese so got a summer job behind the local Coop cheese counter. Closed shop, so he insisted on opting out of the political levy, he said it blew a few fuses with the union reps because nobody had asked for this before.

Still done, maybe 20p/week.

 

[SargeNpton]

Absolutely.

The number of people who think it's illegal to sell energy drinks to children says it all.

It's not illegal yet, but the government is looking at putting an age limit on them.

 

[styles]

It's not illegal yet, but the government is looking at putting an age limit on them.

Yeah, in England anyway. There'll be no more Red Bull in vending machines.

 

[WesternLancer]

You were entitled to opt out of the political levy, if the union was affiliated to a political party, usually Labour I guess.

Pretty unusual to find closed shops in retail. Was it the coop

 

[styles]

Pretty unusual to find closed shops in retail. Was it the coop

the local Coop cheese counter.

 

[WesternLancer]

Oops. Thanks. Co op retail connection with coop party and its alliance with Labour Party would be a factor here.

Though closed shop was outlawed pretty early on in Thatcher govt iirc.

 

[styles]

Oops. Thanks. Co op retail connection with coop party and its alliance with Labour Party would be a factor here.

Though closed shop was outlawed pretty early on in Thatcher govt iirc.

Yeah I was surprised @jfollows didn't say it was the Co-op Party actually, but Labour. I don't know how many political funds go to the Co-op party though, or even when the party really started.

 

[Mogz]

No! Was that a thing? Wish I’d known at the time as would have been very handy….

My 1995 self retrospectively wants one of these!

 

[JamesT]

Yeah I was surprised @jfollows didn't say it was the Co-op Party actually, but Labour. I don't know how many political funds go to the Co-op party though, or even when the party really started.

From the Co-op Party's 2023 accounts (which are the newest on their website) https://party.coop/publication/66227-2/

Membership
Members of the Co-operative Party in 2023 included
13,422 individual members and thirteen societies and
affiliates:
Central England Co-operative
Chelmsford Star
Community Union
Co-operative & Mutual Solutions
Co-operative Press
Co-operatives UK
East of England Co-operative
Grafton Housing Co-operative Ltd
Scottish Midland Co-operative
Revolver Co-operative
The Midcounties Co-operative
The Co-operative Group
USDAW

There are currently 43 MPs who represent both parties.

 

[gg1]

I think that is one of those fake memories installed by a view of a certain demographic at a certain time!

Although the idea of every male office worker wearing a suit, or at the very least a shirt and tie, was the norm 30 years ago but now seems very antiquated in many sectors.

 

[styles]

Although the idea of every male office worker wearing a suit, or at the very least a shirt and tie, was the norm 30 years ago but now seems very antiquated in many sectors.

When I started software development full-time about a decade ago, I was required to wear a suit (well, smart, you could forgo the tie and jacket).

Good luck trying to get developers to wear suits now!

 

[35B]

Conversely, quite a few beer festivals still sell you a "souvenir" glass on arrival, which you then use throughout. There's usually a water fountain or similar where you can rinse it between different beers, but no hot/soap glass washing facility. Sometimes you can trade them in (for washing and re-use) at the end of your session, but I've found that recently most won't take them back.

Beer festival organiser here. Absolutely standard practice to expect festival goers to reuse their glasses, and plan on that basis. We partner with CAMRA, and the hygiene of glass reuse has never been raised - whereas handling the tops of glasses or dipping the tap in the beer absolutely is.

Buying glasses back is a pain in the back - literally. Card transactions cost, while cash is heavy. We do it because it helps us manage the number of glasses we need (with large minimum orders, we prefer not to have to buy too many but also have limited storage year on year).

 

[david1212]

Yes. They were often prizes on Bullseye as well.

View attachment 196897
Image shows a PYE 26" colour CRT television with a built in printer for printing pages from Ceefax and Oracle (pre-Teletext). The screen shows a page from Ceefax, p167, for a recipe for some kind of lamb cutlets. A smaller image with the main image shows a hand holding a remote control. Image is taken from a magazine advert some time in the early 1980s.

While I remember the TV's and other 'tech' of that era I can't recall these TV's with printers at all.

My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum .... which brings us to the ZX silver paper printer.

ZX Printer - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The first failed and was exchanged. After the second failed I got refund as the Alphacom32 thermal alternative had become available.



Later there was an interface for a standard dot-matrix printer, mine was a Taxan Kaga 24-pin. I still have some continuous A4 paper with the sprocket drive holes !!

Once available I put it in the the Spectrum+ case with 'proper' keys.



This brings us to the QL with the microdrives and cartridges that had a probability of reading whatever you had saved on par with recalling how you actually got home or to someone’s sofa after consuming too many 'adult beverages'.

Sinclair QL - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[EYFanatic]

Next time you're in West Yorkshire, try the excellent Fox & Goose in Hebden Bridge - community co-operative pub which still uses oversized lined glasses to ensure that you get a full pint....or half.

A popular misconception. Autovacs are still legal and widely-used in West Yorkshire - especially in Ossett Brewery and former Tetley pubs - as well as in Edinburgh.

Refilling the same glass is now illegal....for the reasons that they correctly stated.

Someone has neglected to inform the Lion Inn at Blakey Ridge that - I was there but a few hours ago and they refilled the same glass twice for me

 

[D6130]

Someone has neglected to inform the Lion Inn at Blakey Ridge that - I was there but a few hours ago and they refilled the same glass twice for me

It's a long way from so-called 'civilisation' there - thank goodness - and they probably only ever see a hygiene inspector about once every ten years....unless, of course, somebody dobs them in on a public forum!

 

[ic31420]

Floppy and not so floppy disks.

My kids have no idea what they are or for. I've just shown my 8 year old one and asked him what it is and he said "a book mark".

 

[dgl]

And a wide variety of disk sizes and formats, HD IBM PC formatted 3.5" disks were 1.44Mb but some other systems could bump the capacity up to at least 1.6Mb, my GEM S2 keyboard formats disks to 1.6Mb for example.

Talking about Sinclair Computers, Alan Sugar (Amstrad) got wind that they were in serious financial difficulty (via Dixons I believe) and set in motion acquiring them. This process was going to take a little while, if it happened at all, but Dixons wanted a new Sinclair ZX Spectrum compatible machine to sell for the next Christmas. Alan set to work getting a new Sinclair machine designed and tooled up before the acquisition and set to lose a decent amount of money if the acquisition failed, which in the end was successful.
In the end the amount Amstrad paid for Sinclair's computer division was paid off by sales of the machines Sinclair already had sitting in warehouses.

Interestingly a localish second hand shop in Axminster has a CPC6128 with modulator for £100, previously they had two of them, although the other one was cheaper as it had no modulator (an easy fix). Originally the idea was they'd come with a monitor (so you didn't have to share the living room TV), and that monitor also powered the computer. They also used 3" Quick Disks rather than regular 5.25" or 3.5" disks.
Their first IBM compatibles also used the monitor for power meaning the machine didn't need a fan, one was later added unnecessarily to hard disc models to stop overheating rumors/lies supposedly pedaled by IBM.

 

[MotCO]

Floppy and not so floppy disks.

My kids have no idea what they are or for. I've just shown my 8 year old one and asked him what it is and he said "a book mark".

At least he knew what a book was

 

[GusB]

Floppy and not so floppy disks.

My kids have no idea what they are or for. I've just shown my 8 year old one and asked him what it is and he said "a book mark".

To be fair, it's a fairly good use for an otherwise useless item.

 

[Purple Train]

Is the teletext service on the Red Button still around? Surely not! I remember having endless fun at my grandad's house reading the travel news and weather with him, usually followed by an episode of "Bananaman". That was the only reason I would ever sit myself in front of the TV, and the teletext was considerably more exciting than the Ancient Cartoon!

 

[Tester]

Following on from Teletext - have we had home banking on the TV via Prestel?

I was doing this in the 1980s.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 31 Jan 2026 ==

While I remember the TV's and other 'tech' of that era I can't recall these TV's with printers at all.

My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum .... which brings us to the ZX silver paper printer.



View attachment 197020

The first failed and was exchanged. After the second failed I got refund as the Alphacom32 thermal alternative had become available.

View attachment 197025

Later there was an interface for a standard dot-matrix printer, mine was a Taxan Kaga 24-pin. I still have some continuous A4 paper with the sprocket drive holes !!

Once available I put it in the the Spectrum+ case with 'proper' keys.

View attachment 197022

This brings us to the QL with the microdrives and cartridges that had a probability of reading whatever you had saved on par with recalling how you actually got home or to someone’s sofa after consuming too many 'adult beverages'.



View attachment 197023 View attachment 197024

Well that certainly brings back memories!

When I first worked in Australia in 1987, I had a Sinclair QL, as did my brother in the UK.

I would write a 'round robin' style letter on the QL about my adventures, save it onto a microdrive and post it to my brother.

He would open and print it, and pass on to friends and relatives.

It all seemed rather hi-tech at the time