Things you don’t see outside any more

[birchesgreen]

Rap battles

 

[Ediswan]

Maroons, signal rockets, once popular with the RNLI. Now replaced with pagers. I used to spend some time in St Davids. The maroons, as well as alerting the lifeboat crew, also alterted anybody using the single track road leading to the lifeboat station to keep out of the way. Also alerted anybody in the city to watch out for crew members sprinting to their meeting point.

 

[Matey]

I have seen a motorbike and sidecar in Lincoln sometime in tha last month - it reminded me of Wallace and Gromit!

I have always wanted to ride in a sidecar. A friend of mine had a Danish ex military combo and offered me a trip. I hastily declined when I saw that the sidecar was a permanent fixture on the off side! His wife rode in it just the once and was terrified.

 

[westv]

I would say ‘Rag and Bone’ men who collected any possible reusable stuff, but in Doncaster, there are still a few people who go round in a truck and collect scrap metal weekly, their megaphone blaring down the street. Does anybody else have that? Not noticed it in Sheffield yet.

We have at least one here in Hull.

 

[ABB125]

We have at least one here in Hull.

It's quite common for several "man with big van" to drive around the streets of Selly Oak in the days either side of 1st July. This is because that's the day when most of the students who are changing house move. Students are notorious for dumping/leaving stuff that works outside to try to get rid of it...

 

[Bletchleyite]

It's quite common for several "man with big van" to drive around the streets of Selly Oak in the days either side of 1st July. This is because that's the day when most of the students who are changing house move. Students are notorious for dumping/leaving stuff that works outside to try to get rid of it...

Which is largely because Council waste disposal facilities are discriminatory against non-car-owners (including those who don't own a car for reasons of protected characteristics such as disability, which means I think it is potentially challengeable in Court). Typically disposal by car at a tip is free, but normally cycling/walking in is not allowed ("for H&S reasons") and often these facilities are poorly located for such access, while collection services are expensive and involve charging for disposal, a charge not made if you drop off by car. I don't think collection should be free (else why would anyone go to the tip?) but it should be directly related to the cost of attendance with the lorry and crew on that round, and disposal should not be chargeable.

Someone really needs to challenge this.

 

[westv]

Our council allows a limited number of free bulk collections from your house.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Our council allows a limited number of free bulk collections from your house.

Better than most!

 

[bearhugger]

Our council allows a limited number of free bulk collections from your house.

Same for our local council. I think ours run some sort of points system, that is different types of items are different points. I got rid of a double mattress and a small chest freezer a couple of years ago which was a separate collection for each type of item. They did say I could have more collections after a certain time period had elapsed.

 

[Trainbike46]

Which is largely because Council waste disposal facilities are discriminatory against non-car-owners (including those who don't own a car for reasons of protected characteristics such as disability, which means I think it is potentially challengeable in Court). Typically disposal by car at a tip is free, but normally cycling/walking in is not allowed ("for H&S reasons") and often these facilities are poorly located for such access, while collection services are expensive and involve charging for disposal, a charge not made if you drop off by car. I don't think collection should be free (else why would anyone go to the tip?) but it should be directly related to the cost of attendance with the lorry and crew on that round, and disposal should not be chargeable.

Someone really needs to challenge this.

My council's recycling centre officially doesn't allow people without a car/van (officially for covid reasons), but in practice I've never been turned away if I just walked in. They also will collect bulky waste for free.

 

[najaB]

Our council allows a limited number of free bulk collections from your house.

Same here.

 

[Trackman]

It's quite common for several "man with big van" to drive around the streets of Selly Oak in the days either side of 1st July. This is because that's the day when most of the students who are changing house move. Students are notorious for dumping/leaving stuff that works outside to try to get rid of it...

I know around here these 'men with big vans' are thin on the ground, they used to loads gangs driving about every day.
A lot of them are after scrap metal, even if there's a bit in it they will take it away and usually strip for metal then dump the rest.
Council had a big crack-down on this and a lot of them went to court and issued with hefty fines (like £5000) not for fly tipping but not having a licence or something.
I've an a old lawnmower I want to get rid of, think I'll do some component stripping tomorrow (mains cable) and leave it out to see if it goes.

 

[Trainbike46]

I know around here these 'men with big vans' are thin on the ground, they used to loads gangs driving about every day.
A lot of them are after scrap metal, even if there's a bit in it they will take it away and usually strip for metal then dump the rest.
Council had a big crack-down on this and a lot of them went to court and issued with hefty fines (like £5000) not for fly tipping but not having a licence or something.
I've an a old lawnmower I want to get rid of, think I'll do some component stripping tomorrow (mains cable) and leave it out to see if it goes.

Just request a bulky waste collection from your local council or bring it to your council's recycling centre; way less risk of it getting fly tipped and more chance of it being handled properly

 

[contrex]

Has anyone mentioned white dog turds yet?

 

[najaB]

Has anyone mentioned white dog turds yet?

A while back, yes.

 

[Gloster]

Not so much ‘not seen’ as ‘not heard’. A woman, probably not much older than me, expressing disgust at the shortness of a young woman’s miniskirt. It was short, but still decent (just). The woman and her husband then went on to grumble about the forthcoming Pride parade in Ryde, although this may have been more to do with the road closures than anything else.

 

[Garmoran]

Car window stickers from radio stations that state their operating band and frequency.

Last year I bought a van in Kendal which came complete with a Lakeland Radio sticker advertising 3 frequencies it broadcasts on

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Last year I bought a van in Kendal which came complete with a Lakeland Radio sticker advertising 3 frequencies it broadcasts on

Something like this...



(Example of Lakeland Radio car sticker, c. 2014).

 

[Gloster]

Something like this...

View attachment 117698

(Example of Lakeland Radio car sticker, c. 2014).

Presumably on one frequency you have sheep bleating, on the second someone saying, “The summit is just over this rise,” and the third has the sound of happy holidaymakers playing (and losing) patience in their tent as the rain tips down.

 

[D6130]

Women wearing original light brown coloured stockings and tights....as worn by my mother and grandmothers when I was a lad (with the exception of certain uniforms, such as policewomen, WRNS, etc.). Nowadays they seem to be every colour and pattern under the sun!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 20 Jul 2022 ==

Another thing that you hardly ever see these days are steel rail-over-road bridges painted with prominent advertising slogans visible from the road. IIRC, going back to my extensive travels by road with my parents in the 1960s, the most common advertiser was Ferodo brake pads, based in Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire. Other prominent bridge advertisers included local breweries and soft drinks manufacturers, who also often advertised on the gable ends of rows of terraced houses (or tenement blocks in Scotland). Network Rail could probably increase their revenue significantly by resurrecting painted advertising on bridges.

 

[AY1975]

I don't think anyone has mentioned internet cafes - I actually saw one yesterday that looked to be open and appeared still to have a bank of PCs available for public use although I couldn't actually see anyone using them. Before that it seemed quite a while since I last saw an internet cafe, though: I don't think they're anywhere near as common as they were, say, 20-25 years ago. These days a lot more people have smartphones, tablets or laptops with them, so I suppose you could say every cafe that has wi-fi is an internet cafe (albeit that they no longer provide you with a device to access the internet: they expect you to bring your own).

Women wearing original light brown coloured stockings and tights....as worn by my mother and grandmothers when I was a lad (with the exception of certain uniforms, such as policewomen, WRNS, etc.). Nowadays they seem to be every colour and pattern under the sun!

There's a separate thread on things you don't see people wearing anymore: https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...any-more-or-that-have-made-a-comeback.229271/

 

[Gloster]

A couple of days ago I saw something in the pile of books being sold for charity in the local supermarket that I hadn’t seen for a long while: a Victor Kiam ‘How to be an entrepreneur’ book. They used to fill charity bookshops, care-home waiting-rooms, doctors’ surgeries, etc.

 

[Butts]

I don't think anyone has mentioned internet cafes - I actually saw one yesterday that looked to be open and appeared still to have a bank of PCs available for public use although I couldn't actually see anyone using them. Before that it seemed quite a while since I last saw an internet cafe, though: I don't think they're anywhere near as common as they were, say, 20-25 years ago. These days a lot more people have smartphones, tablets or laptops with them, so I suppose you could say every cafe that has wi-fi is an internet cafe (albeit that they no longer provide you with a device to access the internet: they expect you to bring your own).

There's a separate thread on things you don't see people wearing anymore: https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...any-more-or-that-have-made-a-comeback.229271/

Weren't there "Easy Cafes" - ie Orange Easyjet inspired ones ?

Seem to remember using one in Glasgow eons ago.

 

[najaB]

I don't think anyone has mentioned internet cafes - I actually saw one yesterday that looked to be open and appeared still to have a bank of PCs available for public use although I couldn't actually see anyone using them. Before that it seemed quite a while since I last saw an internet cafe, though: I don't think they're anywhere near as common as they were, say, 20-25 years ago.

Indeed, they are very few and far between these days. About the only place I've seen public-use computers in the last few years has been at the library and in airports.

 

[Steddenm]

Weren't there "Easy Cafes" - ie Orange Easyjet inspired ones ?

Seem to remember using one in Glasgow eons ago.

They had easyEverything which were the Internet Cafes, easyCoffee, easyPizza and easyWatch.

 

[swt_passenger]

They had easyEverything which were the Internet Cafes, easyCoffee, easyPizza and easyWatch.

Were they usually found in a row on easyStreet?

 

[Butts]

We’re they usually found in a row on easyStreet?

Sleazy street considering the proprietorship ?

Also easycinema which didn't last long.

 

[Jimini]

Still use the one on George Lane in South Woodford occasionally to use their printer!

 

[gg1]

Bright yellow sodium lights, which were red when they first came on, gradually turning yellow. Commonplace until around 2010, but seemed to be very rapidly replaced between 2010-15, even newer examples from the 1990s.

Last time I saw them en-masse in England was in the Croydon area in late 2013; it appeared Croydon borough kept them a little later than most.

There are still a few round the M25/M3 junction, and Northern Ireland still had many in late 2018, but certainly in England I haven't seen large concentrations of them for many years.

A 5 month late response I know but I spotted some on a motorway last night for the first time in years, for a mile or so on the Coventry end of the M69, though less than half of them were working.

 

[patrick.hearn3]

I would say ‘Rag and Bone’ men who collected any possible reusable stuff, but in Doncaster, there are still a few people who go round in a truck and collect scrap metal weekly, their megaphone blaring down the street. Does anybody else have that? Not noticed it in Sheffield yet.

We saw one with horse and cart in May when we were on the Leeds ring road travelling to Pudsey

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Jul 2022 ==

Those gents urinals at festivals. A baggy wall of hessian held up by old beanpoles and a drainpipe that was slightly raised at one. The produce was supposed to run out through a hole in the hessian at one end and then drain away into a trench that probably led to a muddy ditch. The smell emanating from the ditch after a day or two was...

And there were those plastic portable toilets that, looked at from the top, like tear drops. They were adequate (just) if properly supported at the back, but all the human comings and goings would shift them about until some poor girl would find it tipping over and herself soaked in the contents.

Those who get dreamy eyed about seeing bands like Deep Purple and Procol Harum should remember what it was really like.

Sussex County Cricket outground at Horsham CC, early 1980s. The gents was two canvass windbreaks arranged to afford a modicum of privacy, behind which sods were removed to create a trench in which to urinate. At the end of each day's play some lime was sprinkled. At the end of the match, the turfs were simply replaced over the now limed and nitrogenated ground.

The wonderful Blue Flame public house in Nailsea, North Somerset had an external, dimly lit and unroofed urinal. If it was raining, tough. It too employed an open drain over which you had to step. The pub's still unspoilt, but the gents has had an upgrade.

(While on the subject, that nicotine-stained brown colour on pub walls and ceilings.)