The bad old days - things that were crap

The bad old days - things that were crap

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Discussion

Skeptisk

Original Poster:

8,225 posts

116 months

Friday 11th October
quotequote all
Lots of threads with nostalgia about the past - but what about the things that were rubbish?

Coffee was awful. I actually thought I didn’t like coffee. It was just I had never had a proper one!

Sundays. No shops open. Rubbish TV. Knowing you had school again on Monday!

Parmesan. It used to come in little tubs and smelt of sick. I hated it…but real Parmesan is one of my favourite cheeses. It must have been what they swept off the floor where they made proper Parmesan.


nuyorican

1,779 posts

109 months

Friday 11th October
quotequote all
Banking. Having to go in a ‘branch’ and talk to the manager. Having to wait fourteen days for a cheque to clear. Getting charged £35 for the slightest infraction etc etc

nuyorican

1,779 posts

109 months

Friday 11th October
quotequote all
Oh and I’ll also nominate telly.

I mean, it’s still crap but we now have 700 channels. And instead of the national anthem and close-down, we now get boobstation ladies. Which is a fantastic leap forward.

Tango13

8,915 posts

183 months

Friday 11th October
quotequote all
Precision engineering...

CNC mills with a pathetic 3 horsepower spindle that only went to 3000rpm, rapid traverse rates of 3 M/min and you had to change the tools manually.

Soluble coolant that was little more than liquid cancer

Cutting tools made from high speed steel

Health and Safety being little more than a couple of signs on the wall

CAD meant a highly toxic plating process

CAM was something you used to move the tools on an automatic lathe long before CNC was invented

Spare tyre

10,331 posts

137 months

Friday 11th October
quotequote all
Cars in winter

Rough101

2,282 posts

82 months

Friday 11th October
quotequote all
Fords

normalbloke

7,703 posts

226 months

Friday 11th October
quotequote all
Street food. International cuisine. Fag smoke everywhere. White dogst.

mr momo

133 posts

238 months

Friday 11th October
quotequote all
Clothing (normal/sports) = no 'GoreTex' type weatherproof capability

a311

6,048 posts

184 months

Friday 11th October
quotequote all
Cars without air conditioning: Rolling down the windows was your only option, and you still arrived sweaty and uncomfortable on hot days.


Smoky public places: It’s easy to forget how everywhere smelled of cigarettes — restaurants, pubs, even public transport. Non-smokers just had to deal with it.

Dial-up internet: The agonisingly slow speed, not to mention the screeching noise when connecting. And god forbid someone picked up the phone while you were online.

Maps for navigation: Planning a road trip meant unfolding giant paper maps, trying to figure out where you were, and hoping you didn’t miss a turn. GPS has been a huge upgrade.

Home entertainment systems: VCRs that needed constant rewinding, cassette tapes that got tangled, and even the early DVD players where you'd often have to restart the whole movie because of a scratch.



CallThatMusic

2,701 posts

95 months

Friday 11th October
quotequote all
Antifreeze…

juice

8,853 posts

289 months

Friday 11th October
quotequote all
Card transactions....into a machine. Swipe, swipe, swipe.

Oh bugger, the triple paper has got stuck in the machine.

New one in

Swipe, swipe, swipe

Sign that

Here's your copy

ChocolateFrog

28,559 posts

180 months

Friday 11th October
quotequote all
Single glazing, woke up to puddles of water on the window cills most mornings for 4 months a year. See also inadequate or non-existent central heating too.

Rotary phones, having either memorised or looked the number up beforehand.

I remember rubbish collection being pretty bad. You just chucked all your rubbish bags on the pavement. That said it was every week and they didn't quibble over what they took. I remember seeing the landfills though and even as a kid thinking is this the best we can do.

Leaded fuel, smelled nice though.

The most anyone ever did about peado's was your mum telling you never to go near certain people in the village.

Edited by ChocolateFrog on Friday 11th October 19:34

valiant

11,316 posts

167 months

Friday 11th October
quotequote all
Central heating or lack there of.

shirt

23,430 posts

208 months

Friday 11th October
quotequote all
As a working class northerner, vegetables came in frozen form, were boiled until the colour ran out and tasted of foul mush.

Instant coffee I sort of agree with. It’s a drink I will tolerate if that’s what your makes but it’s not coffee.

tumble dryer

2,084 posts

134 months

Friday 11th October
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Pea-soupers.


...and starting handles!

rek

132 posts

130 months

Friday 11th October
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Pubs closing late afternoon and having to wait til 6 to go back…

Sheets Tabuer

19,640 posts

222 months

Friday 11th October
quotequote all
Shops closed on a wednesday and a sunday, 3 channels on the tele, pubs you had a choice of ale, brew IX or carling, driving to Cornwall took 8 hours.

fatboy b

9,570 posts

223 months

Friday 11th October
quotequote all
Labour governments.

Super Sonic

7,214 posts

61 months

Friday 11th October
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Having to turn a handle to make your window go up or down.

Super Sonic

7,214 posts

61 months

Friday 11th October
quotequote all
Having to get out the car to adjust your wing mirrors, then get back in to see where they're pointing, then having to get back out to move them some more.