Blast from the past - remind us of a thing

[beagrizzly]

Here's one that's just sprung into my mind after a long absence:

Air raid sirens being put up in towns and villages in the early 80s. I believe this was due to heightened Cold War tensions at around that time, but we weren't told then and I've not seen anything conclusive since (though I've not looked very hard to be fair).

Ours went up in the primary school I was attending at the time, just to really scare the st out of the kids

[motco]

I lived near a Thames Valley village just along from Marlow in the late 60s and early 70s and the air raid siren was used to summon the local auxiliary fire station personnel. I was a new thing to me and when I first heard it I confess to a little anxiety!

[outnumbered]

motco said:

I lived near a Thames Valley village just along from Marlow in the late 60s and early 70s and the air raid siren was used to summon the local auxiliary fire station personnel. I was a new thing to me and when I first heard it I confess to a little anxiety!

Had the same experience with the mountain rescue siren when visiting Ambleside in the 80s...

[cuprabob]

motco said:

I lived near a Thames Valley village just along from Marlow in the late 60s and early 70s and the air raid siren was used to summon the local auxiliary fire station personnel. I was a new thing to me and when I first heard it I confess to a little anxiety!

When I was a kid our village fire station had one and was used to alert the part-time firemen they were required urgently.

[Abbott]

beagrizzly said:

Here's one that's just sprung into my mind after a long absence:

Air raid sirens being put up in towns and villages in the early 80s. I believe this was due to heightened Cold War tensions at around that time, but we weren't told then and I've not seen anything conclusive since (though I've not looked very hard to be fair).

Ours went up in the primary school I was attending at the time, just to really scare the st out of the kids

France still has public sirens that are tested the 1st wednesday of every month at 12 o'clock

[generationx]

Abbott said:

beagrizzly said:

Here's one that's just sprung into my mind after a long absence:

Air raid sirens being put up in towns and villages in the early 80s. I believe this was due to heightened Cold War tensions at around that time, but we weren't told then and I've not seen anything conclusive since (though I've not looked very hard to be fair).

Ours went up in the primary school I was attending at the time, just to really scare the st out of the kids

France still has public sirens that are tested the 1st wednesday of every month at 12 o'clock

They’re in Germany too, but tested less frequently.

[Roofless Toothless]

When I lived in the Mumbles, the lifeboat crew was summoned by a rocket maroon that was fired so it went off over the village. That woke you up in the middle of the night I can assure you!

[Error_404_Username_not_found]

Long after we got pagers we had maroons and a launcher at our station, until they were finally taken away. Probably because the paging system wasn't completely reliable at first. We were asked to fire them to mark the start and finish of the two minutes silence on Remembrance Sundays.
I fired the last two maroons from our station, probably about 20 years ago now.
Yep, they made a hell of good bang.

[Trevatanus]

beagrizzly said:

Here's one that's just sprung into my mind after a long absence:

Air raid sirens being put up in towns and villages in the early 80s. I believe this was due to heightened Cold War tensions at around that time, but we weren't told then and I've not seen anything conclusive since (though I've not looked very hard to be fair).

Ours went up in the primary school I was attending at the time, just to really scare the st out of the kids

Broadmoor had them until a couple of years ago, always tested them at 10am on Monday.
They stopped around the time the new Hospital opened.
It was setup in 1952 after an inmate escaped and killed a local schoolgirl, as none of the residents were aware that he was on the loose.

[Last Visit]

Trevatanus said:

Broadmoor had them until a couple of years ago, always tested them at 10am on Monday.
They stopped around the time the new Hospital opened.
It was setup in 1952 after an inmate escaped and killed a local schoolgirl, as none of the residents were aware that he was on the loose.

Didn't realise they were no longer a Broadmoor thing, I guess expensive to maintain and replaced by more modern techy means.

[anonymoususer]

Spirograph

[MikeT66]

anonymoususer said:

Spirograph

Ha - was just talking about these the other week. Green pen was always st, and you'd just be getting to the end of hours of carefully created circles when...one slip or the plastic circle thing sticks and the whole 'picture' is fked.

[jet_noise]

MikeT66 said:

anonymoususer said:

Spirograph

Ha - was just talking about these the other week. Green pen was always st, and you'd just be getting to the end of hours of carefully created circles when...one slip or the plastic circle thing sticks and the whole 'picture' is fked.

IIRC not only were plastic gears & pens provided but also shiny paper.
Many a rainy family holiday was shortened by that toy coming along

[witteringon]

In the summer months, punnets of British strawberries being sold in roadside laybys, usually from the back of a car or van, in the days before they were available all the year round from any supermarket.

[hidetheelephants]

Public drinking fountains. There used to be 3 within ten minutes walk of me when I was a child. There are now none, everyone carries bottles around and single use plastic bottles are a plague.

[Doofus]

witteringon said:

In the summer months, punnets of British strawberries being sold in roadside laybys, usually from the back of a car or van, in the days before they were available all the year round from any supermarket.

Dark blue compressed cardboard punnets with aluminium handles

[Randy Winkman]

witteringon said:

In the summer months, punnets of British strawberries being sold in roadside laybys, usually from the back of a car or van, in the days before they were available all the year round from any supermarket.

The county of Kent is still big on fruit in laybys. At the moment it's cherries but there will also be strawberries and later in the year it's Kentish Cobnuts. The A21 is the best place for all that. Currently you could buy cherries from about 10 different laybys in each direction.

[anonymoususer]

witteringon said:

In the summer months, punnets of British strawberries being sold in roadside laybys, usually from the back of a car or van, in the days before they were available all the year round from any supermarket.

Good one

[Steamer]

jet_noise said:

MikeT66 said:

anonymoususer said:

Spirograph

Ha - was just talking about these the other week. Green pen was always st, and you'd just be getting to the end of hours of carefully created circles when...one slip or the plastic circle thing sticks and the whole 'picture' is fked.

IIRC not only were plastic gears & pens provided but also shiny paper.
Many a rainy family holiday was shortened by that toy coming along

There used to be some crazy-spiro-inspirations either on the back of the box, or in a leaflet inside (couldn't have been the internet... hello early 80s!)

Yet there was the other issue of the paper 'giving-up' due to too much ink / pressure and again the creation was ruined.

Etch-a-sketch was more my level back in that era.

[Purosangue]

witteringon said:

In the summer months, punnets of British strawberries being sold in roadside laybys, usually from the back of a car or van, in the days before they were available all the year round from any supermarket.

in dorset these are readily seen