Oh How Things Have Changed

[Bazile]

Just had a chat with a colleague about things that have disappeared / almost disappeared over very recent years -

Remember carbon paper ?

I remember writing a letter out long hand - sending it to the typing pool - receiving letter back - correcting typing errors - sending back to typing pool .

Oh how technology have come on a pace in a very short while .

What are your recalls

[BlackadderV]

I never learnt how to use a slide rule. At my school they were strictly forbidden unless you did maths/science at A level. Now I suppose I'll never learn.

[bhg481]

I got one of the first electronic calculators at work - mains operated, just the basic maths functions, approx A4 size and about 2"thick. It cost £468, about the same as a Morris Minor.

[Graham-W]

Single records 6/8 each. Five bob for a gallon of petrol. Polio. Dogs loose on the street. Buying a shotgun from my mother's Grattans catalogue, (£3.00 cash or 5 bob a week).

[bhg481]

Only choice of chocolate bar was KitKat, Penguin or Mars bar.

Only breakfast cereals were corn flakes and puffed wheat.

[EDDIE51]

I had a watch like that black face with red numbers, the Sinclair 'Black Watch'

[EDDIE51]

Pity I don't still have it!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/301338827092?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&;hlpht=true&lpid=108&;chn=ps&device=c&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&;ff14=108&ff19=0

[andy-hughes]

When I wrote 'live' concert reviews for Melody Maker (aaah, memories!) I used to -

attend the gig

come home and write the review - typed of course, keeping a carbon copy

take it to the local train station at the crack of dawn to send it to London by Red Star Parcels

there it would be collected by courier and taken to the office, or straight to the printers, depending how close to deadline we were

from there to the printers where it would be re-typed by the print setters.

Then someone hit on the idea of reading copy out to a typist - I would read my copy and hear a machine-gun noise on the other end, punctuated with an occasional 'Uh-huh ...' down the phone to confirm that my copy was being heard and understood by the lady (always a lady!) at the other end.

Imagine the joy of joys when fax machines were invented!

Oh, and a further sign of the times, a carbon copy was referred to as a 'black'!!!

[bert_h]

Four-figure logarithm tables for multiplication and division sums.

Watching highlights of the Olympic Games (London 1948) on Pathe News at the cinema.

[janbee]

One phone in a freezing cold hall.
Wire hangers.

[Mosaic]

The first photocopiers: filled a room of their own and were only approached with permission from the secretary. Who was permed, tweedy and snappy.

[Samuraisan]

Black and white TV. We were watching the Wizard of Oz the other day and my GD was not impressed with it being in B+W.

[hc4361]

Alarm clocks with luminous hands so you could tell the time in the dark.

[hc4361]

I had a Kodak camera that had film on a sort of disk. They never took off.
I had a betamax recorder.
I had a video recorder that used a 'pen' to scan the barcode of the programme printed in the newspaper, point pen at recorder, push button pen, recorder programmed. Yeah, right.

[bhg481]

Gibbs Dentifrice - solid toothpaste in a tin that you rubbed your brush across.

[hc4361]

Tv adverts that made sense. From the off you knew what product was being advertised, unless today's abstract mysteries.
Do the shake and vac and put the freshness back

[bhg481]

Flashguns with single-use bulbs or, for hc4361's camera, a flash cube.

[Bazile]

//..I had a video recorder that used a 'pen' to scan the barcode of the programme printed in the newspaper, point pen at recorder, push button pen, recorder programmed. Yeah, right//

hc4361

I've got a video recorder like that ( still under the tv , with the sky box on top of it ) Instead of a pen it's got a remote type control
Mine has got a card with bar codes for dates and tv stations ( the terrestrial stations ) , for recording programmes , which you scan with the remote aforementioned - then point at the recorder and press a button to transmit the details .

[hc4361]

It's probably the same one, bazile. A philips, I think

[The Builder]

A friend of mine had an early digital watch. He was forever putting it on upside-down.

When asked the time, he would confidently tell me it was........ E101 ;o)

[DTCwordfan]

tracing paper and letraset for map making.

gelignite instead of dynamite.