|
Post by patricklondon on Dec 26, 2012 17:10:15 GMT
After a Christmas afternoon watching a toddler in the family not quite grasping that tapping and swiping at the TV screen doesn't get it to do anything (.......yet), we fell to trying to think of other moments of technological adaptation, things that we, or our parents, used to do that the youngsters just won't "get" - or vice versa.
Gas "geyser" water heaters in the bathroom (but no central heating, just a paraffin heater on very cold days).
Coal fires.
Gestetner stencils.
Watching my mother (who never quite got to the electric typewriter age) experimenting on the "luggable" suitcase-sized computer proudly displayed by my brother - and, at the end of every line of typing, reaching out to whack the side of it.
Any more?
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2012 17:27:54 GMT
The first thing that always comes to my mind is waiting at home all day (or all weekend) for the phone to ring.
|
|
|
Post by tod2 on Dec 26, 2012 18:57:08 GMT
Shaving off my eyebrows and replacing them with penciled in ones so I could look like Audry Hepburn......
|
|
|
Post by htmb on Dec 26, 2012 19:02:37 GMT
Ironing my hair straight with an electric (clothing-type) iron and sleeping with my hair rolled around empty frozen orange juice concentrate cans.
|
|
|
Post by bjd on Dec 26, 2012 19:25:19 GMT
My mother was taken aback on coming home one day and finding my sister ironing my hair. Only did it once though.
I don't know if they were Gestetner stencils, but I remember typing papers with a purple-coated paper underneath, which was then run through a machine to make copies. Corrections had to be made by scraping off the purple stuff and fitting the paper in the exact right place before re-typing.
|
|
|
Post by auntieannie on Dec 27, 2012 0:53:36 GMT
Tipp-Ex, anyone? and that was a novelty at the time too bad you couldn't use it on stencils...
|
|
|
Post by htmb on Dec 27, 2012 1:07:45 GMT
Carbon paper for making copies when typing.
|
|
|
Post by BigIain on Jan 4, 2013 8:17:05 GMT
Having to go in to the bank building itself, during office hours, to withdraw money from your bank account. I have memories of queuing with my father on a Friday afternoon to do that.
|
|
|
Post by mossie on Jan 4, 2013 8:43:19 GMT
Being given a Gladstone bag and a note, and being told "go down to the bank and give this bag and the note to a cashier" The bag would be returned full of cash and notes which comprised the wages for all the staff in the office. This was in the City of London and at age 16 I was allowed to do this all alone.
|
|
|
Post by onlymark on Jan 4, 2013 11:07:13 GMT
I didn't have a bank account for many years. I had to queue up at a counter at work and get my wages in an envelope.
|
|
|
Post by tod2 on Jan 4, 2013 16:52:18 GMT
Oh Mossie, its a good thing the Kray twins didn't suspect a thing....maybe to busy at the Blind Beggar!
|
|
|
Post by mossie on Jan 4, 2013 20:06:56 GMT
The Krays were a product of the '60s, I was talking about the late '40s, a much more peaceable time ;D. I lived not far away in Stepney, in Dr Barnado's hostel for boys between school and National Service. I hasten to say I was not an orphan, but they took me in when I left home to seek my fortune, where the streets were paved with gold ;D ;D ;D
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jan 4, 2013 20:30:38 GMT
Actually, sending a kid of 16 to the bank for all that money was a good cover. Putting the cash into a bank envelope was not. I remember typing papers with a purple-coated paper underneath, which was then run through a machine to make copies. Corrections had to be made by scraping off the purple stuff and fitting the paper in the exact right place before re-typing. That's a mimeograph & mimeograph machine you're describing, Bjd. It was a laff-a-minute fitting the finished paper onto the drum. There was also an at-home primitive version of it called a Hectograph. I can remember my mother using that to generate some copies for school. I know everyone will get to work right away making one: www.fell.demon.co.uk/steve/jelly.html
|
|
|
Post by mossie on Jan 5, 2013 10:36:09 GMT
A kid of 16, I am mortally offended ;D ;D ;D At that time we were treated as adults and expected to behave as such. I was self supporting a long way from home, which was not unusual. I can also remember having to walk the mile or two to work on a couple of paydays, because I did not have the penny hapenny bus fare. No loans or credit cards in those days, thank goodness. ;D
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2013 10:39:38 GMT
I had to carry an envelope containing something like 80,000€ in cash to the bank once, and my legs were shaking all the way there. It was a totally anonymous manila envelope, but I felt that it had suddenly become completely transparent and that all of the banknotes were glowing inside.
|
|
|
Post by onlymark on Jan 6, 2013 4:57:47 GMT
I used to post off topic on the TT.
|
|
|
Post by bjd on Jan 6, 2013 12:14:51 GMT
I actually told posters on TT to look at a map or buy a guidebook.
That won't happen any more since there is a several minute delay between the time you post and the time your post appears. How many moderators are they going to have to hire? Must be good for unemployment figures.
|
|
|
Post by htmb on Jan 8, 2013 4:36:30 GMT
In 1974, I flew from the east coast of the USA to Europe for the first time. The plane was a wide-bodied L1011 and there were so few passengers on the flight that I was able to flip up the armrests of a middle section of five seats, stretch out across them, and sleep all the way to Madrid. It was sure different from the jam-packed airplanes of today.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2013 5:41:20 GMT
In 1970, you could go to LAX, walk onto the Pacific Southwest Airlines flight leaving at midnight for San Francisco with no security and no checkpoint of any kind. The flight attendants would collect the $10 fare in cash during the flight.
|
|
|
Post by nautiker on Jan 8, 2013 7:43:27 GMT
opening windows in trains ;-(
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2013 7:51:57 GMT
And when I was very young, closing the window of the train as fast as possible if the train went into a tunnel because of the smoke from the steam locomotive.
|
|
|
Post by bjd on Jan 8, 2013 12:56:40 GMT
Nautiker -- you can still open windows in trains in Ukraine.
|
|
|
Post by fumobici on Jan 8, 2013 15:44:31 GMT
The regional train between Rome and Perugia has windows that can be opened and closed. It would be impolite to smoke in the coach without opening your window.
|
|
|
Post by fumobici on Jan 8, 2013 15:45:31 GMT
And when I was very young, closing the window of the train as fast as possible if the train went into a tunnel because of the smoke from the steam locomotive. But if the windows were open the dinosaurs could get in!
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jan 8, 2013 17:14:24 GMT
;D Fumobici!
I had a person who is a mere 4 1/2 years younger than I tell me that she didn't remember clamp-on skates with keys. She's lying, right?
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2013 17:24:08 GMT
But if the windows were open the dinosaurs could get in! You mean like this?
|
|
|
Post by tod2 on Jan 8, 2013 18:20:18 GMT
;D Fumobici! I had a person who is a mere 4 1/2 years younger than I tell me that she didn't remember clamp-on skates with keys. She's lying, right? I reckon she is! I had those skates and what a devil of a noise they made! I could never 'screw' them on tight enough so off they came from my shoes every 5 min! Gawd, I feel old
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2013 18:48:03 GMT
I never had skates. They were for places that had sidewalks and paved roads.
|
|
|
Post by bjd on Jan 8, 2013 19:35:47 GMT
I never had skates. They were for places that had sidewalks and paved roads. It's hard to clamp metal skates onto bare feet. ;D I had those skates too. There were others with leather straps, which probably stayed on better but everyone I knew had the kind with the clamps on the sides that attached to shoes.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2013 20:30:20 GMT
Actually, there were two kids in my 4th grade class who came to school barefoot.
|
|