fourpence to the future
 

I was messing about with my phone recently, thinking, this phone connects to the internet, its got bluetooth (I can put it in my pocket and talk through an earpiece) takes photos, its an alarm clock, a compass, it sends emails and receives them, it texts. In fact it will do a million other things if I choose to download an app for it. Most people have a mobile phone nowadays, plus a landline used for calls and internet connection.
:enough:

This set me thinking, in my liftime I have come from a period when not many houses had phones (my mother when she could afford a phone had a party line, this was a shared line with another house, who would put up with that nowaday) , and most people had to go out and find a red phone box.
This entailed putting 4 old pennies in the box and pressing button A, then if the person on the other end answered you pressed button B to talk to them.
:swear8:


So the question is, what part of modern life do you think has advanced your life the most, or what do you think should never have been invented.
:type:

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Think probably the internet has advanced my life greatly,not that i understand much about the mechanics of it,

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Without the internet, Iwould have had to spend months in the Public Record Office in London, to even get 1/2 way to where I am now with my research.
Retlaw.

Re: fourpence to the future
 

I think the internet would be on the top of the list here as everyone reading this uses the internet, so I suppose thats fair enough

Re: fourpence to the future
 

you could argue that without the internet you may not have started your research in the first place, or kept it local

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Viagara:dancedog:

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Thats n argument am sure would be lost.;)

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One of the major advances since the 80's has to be football.. the old boring style of play from teams like Liverpool has been advanced no end. :D

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Now come on Dave you pressed button A to conect, button B to get your money back if nobody answered:D

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It was well into the 70s when my mum got a phone and that was only because I had it installed, while I was working away. As you say Dave most people have a mobile these days, I have one but its always switched off unless I go out and its a bog standard on too not these new all singing all dancing models. I can remember the days when, if you wanted to make a call while you were out, you had to search for a red box that wasn't vandalised, which was no mean feat, now if people don't have a mobile stuck to their ear theres something wrong with them, sure it won't be long before we get telephone ear as a new illness

Re: fourpence to the future
 

I dont remember it that way, but you are right. I am getting old now so I remember the principal but not the fine detail

Re: fourpence to the future
 

well it has its place.
Around here they give it to all the males in old peoples homes of an evening along with the horlicks.

it stops them falling out of bed, and they have a good nights sleep:evil:

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Button B was to get your money back........I remember when we were children we would go into the phone box and press button B to see if we could get fourpence......you could buy a lot of Rainbow drops with fourpence, quite a few aniseed balls, black jacks and fruit salad....or buy four enormous bubbly gums.(the kind that filled your mouth so full you hardly had room to chew it.......in fact we used to bite it in half and share it with a friend(we didn't care about getting germs.....after all it was only spit and none of us ever died from drinking out of the same pop bottle).
Thanks for bringing back some happy memories.

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Too young for that, but I do remember dialling and waiting for the pips with a handful of tuppences.

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Used to be a saying Press Button B and get your money back, if ya remember Dave you slotted your four pennies into the slow and waited then when they answered whap your thumb on button A to talk http://cdn.content.sweetim.com/sim/c...s/00020145.gif

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Ya BG and if you ware waiting to use the phone and there was some one using it with a pile of coins on the side, you knew you were in for a long wait:(

Re: fourpence to the future
 

For those of us with family spread all over the globe, internet is a godsend. You can keep in touch regularly and it doesn't cost too much. You can share almost anything with friends and family on Facebook these days and have video telephone links free.

I remember back in the early 70's, when my Aunt and family emigrated to Canada, phone calls were kept for special occasions -Xmas mainly and you had to book the call. We used to tape and send messages on an early tape recorder - hope the tapes have been destroyed as there were some very embarassing things they made me do such as sing songs and play my clarinet (which I loathed)!

I do hate mobile phones though as they make people very ignorant -they walk around in their own little bubble talking on them anywhere and everywhere. They also use them while driving which is dangerous. You have absolutely no privacy if you carry a mobile phone - they can pick up wherever you've been so you can't get away with anything anymore. No-one ever rings me on mine which is another reason I don't like them;) :D

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Mobile Phones are my pet hate, i do have one,but only fer the fact if paris is out driving or such things on her own n summat happens, I think mobiles have produced a pig ignorant group of people! That may be blunt,but am sure everyone will know what i mean.

Re: fourpence to the future
 

I agree. Mine is only used when I am out (rare) and need a taxi home.

I find it strange that companies assume that you have one.

Today I needed to register on the Royal Mail website to pay import duty on a parcel, which wont be delivered until I pay. The site wouldn't complete my registration until I supplied a mobile number.

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Mine too, Cashy.
I was given one as a present when I was working....someone thought I might just need to call if my car broke down or I got stranded in the snow on the tops by QPH.......I carried it but it was never switched on.....it became a family joke...they could never reach me on my mobile phone.
I told them it was for MY convenience not theirs.

I have a Nokia 6310...old as the hills...in pristine condition. No camera.....it has blue tooth but I have never used it...not sure how to, or whether it would be useful to me.....not sure if it can connect to the internet because all I want it for, is to(rare) make phonecalls. I have had 20 quid of credit on it for 11 months.....that says it all!

Re: fourpence to the future
 

you are right, my memory thought it was the other way round but now I sit and think it deffo was A to talk and B to get money back.

But the general gist was the advances from then to now, and how we take for granted todays technology without a thought for where it came from, and what we had when we were kids, and what kids have today. Prompting the comment "they dont know they are born today". Who remembers having to take down off a nail in the backyard a galvanised tin bath and taking for granted central heating and baths.

Or what about long drop toilets or tumblers at the bottom of the yard next to the "binoil" and coal shed, you didnt read the newspaper in the toilet it was cut into squares and put on a nail at the back of the door. Happy days or were they ?

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Agree ... except I don't think you are being blunt enough;); I'm sure you can do better.:D I don't own one ... have no need. (Altho' I do admire the technologhy). Folks over here are starting to notice the anti-social aspects of social networking. There is a new gambling game some are playing. It goes something like this: say four people go out to dinner, or for drinks. They place their phones in a pile on the table, and the first one to pick up a phone to check messages, or to answer a call or a text has to pay the tab. Answering the damn things, or checking them has become such second nature for many, that someone usually gets caught out and stuck with the bill.

A friend told me once that I should have a phone in case of an emergency. I don't even buy into that argument. After all most of us on here have spent most of our lives successfully dealing with emergencies withhout cell phones.

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Yes, I remember all those things....the long drop, the binoil, the coaloil......the tin bath and filling the copper on Friday night for bath night. reading bits of the newspaper before using it..........!
They were happy days, even if we didn't have much...life was much less complicated, people seemed gentler...more ready to help out if you needed a hand.

I get where you are coming from........technology has influenced so many things, things we could never have dreamed of...but whether life is truly better because of them....well, some things are I suppose. But I wouldn't swap my childhood for the ones that the children of today have.

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Well from my point of view dave,they were very happy days, family never had much, but society in general was much better than now.I.M.H.O.;)

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Spot on Cashy!

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Damn right.:alright:

We have progressed from newspaper in the outside bog to ... OH MY GOD, I CAN'T LIKE WIPE MY ASS; I DON'T HAVE AN APP FOR IT.:eek:

Re: fourpence to the future
 

what on earth is an App?
And why would you wipe your bum on an apple? That has to be horrible...especially if you have to eat it later EEEEEwwwwwww!
Sorry....couldn't resist:).

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That is ridiculous Margaret, what would happen if you didn't have one, or how could you register if you didn't have a computer, not every body have mobiles and computers

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I have to admit I had to ask my Granddaughter what an App was, kept seeing these ads on telly, they're applications granddad doh

Re: fourpence to the future
 

You mean like pile cream...that's an application:)

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Ya but thats a bum example Margaret:rolleyes:

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Apps, are just another way to get money off us....although I do have one or two at allow me to get the weather at any airport in the world, does come in handy.
That said, I do wish mobile phones had never been invented. I used to have two phones when I lived in Morocco, one was a uk one. Now I still have two, ones a company phone.. B@@@£r

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Bill Turner & I had all ready spent several weeks down at the Public Record Office, long before things started to become available on the internet.
Life has just got easier this past few years.
Fortunately I have a daughter living in the area so that kept costs down.
Keeping things to local research, would have been ridiculous, it doesn't work that way.

Retlaw

Re: fourpence to the future
 

when we look back at our childhood, and the things we had then, and were happier! would we have felt the same if we had to worry about a mortgage or rent, the leccy and gas bill.

Some things I wish were still here, but I am glad I dont have to put my bum on the bottom of a galvanised bath in winter, or having to take a shovel accross the yard clearing snow before I can perform. (sorry to put that vision in your head)


.

Re: fourpence to the future
 

You were singing in the backyard ??? :D

Re: fourpence to the future
 

just to play devils advocate, the society of today is the society that we have given the world through our children. Have we advanced materially and lost compassion

Re: fourpence to the future
 

you had to sing, as there was no lock on the privvy door:music8:

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I suppose if you are passionate about something then you pursue it regardless, I have to say I commented without really knowing what it was you were researching or why
:bingobang

Re: fourpence to the future
 

it is Ok Dave.....been there done that.
As for the cold bottom of the tin bath....Ma used to empty a kettle of boiling water into the bath first....the the ladin tin was used to fill it up with water.
The maiden was put around the bath to afford some privacy and also keep the draught off you while you were naked.
Being a girl, I was always allowed to bathe first...with one of the babies....then the lads came in order of muckiness...muckiest was last.
I thought it was lovely sitting in the bath in front of the fire...then cocoa afterwards....and listening to the radio by the light of the fire.
Simple pleasures...we didn't ask for much.

Re: fourpence to the future
 

put your number on here and you will never be off the phone, they may be reverse charges though.

:couchplus

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Brilliant that margaret brings back memories of doing the same at me grans before she had the bathroom put in i was about 4 i think its one of my earliest memories happy days:):Banane30::Banane30:

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sounds very similar to our bathing routine, but it was usually sunday night, then we watched Sunday night at the London paladium, on a very small black and white telly with a large oil filled magnifier in front of the screen

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Oh, you must've been posh. We didn't have a telly...just a radio and that ran on gas:)
No it was Relay Vision one and threepence a week for rental...four programmes.

Re: fourpence to the future
 

You had a telly back then?:eek: jeez yeh musta bin posh, never even had a nail in yard fer our bath, it used to sit ont benk.

Re: fourpence to the future
 

I guess I was lucky; I was an only child. Can't remember too much of the cocoa ... but there was Horlicks sometimes. And sometimes spuds tossed into the fire. Peel off the black; add salt; butter or marge if we were flush.

And I still like a maiden around when I'm naked;):D

Re: fourpence to the future
 

I'll bet you do Eric, but this one was made of wood, held together with webbing and draped with towels...or sometimes washing...not a bit exotic...and I would guess, not the kind that would float your boat. :)

Re: fourpence to the future
 

I know what a maiden is;) ... there are still more than a couple of us on here who do ... and the rack: simple stuff; but it worked. Didn't really take up all that much room either.

And these days I'm not all that picky ... first I check for a pulse, then ... mmm ... no, just a pulse; that will do it for me. Sometimes, in other circumstances, all I need to do is check my wallet to see if I have enough cash.:D

Re: fourpence to the future
 

I remember having a radio from relay vision.
I wouldnt say we were posh, it certainly didnt feel like it when I was carrying two potties downstairs. Thats a job I am glad vanished with time.

I have a vivid memory of carrying two potties downstairs and trying to turn the stairs light off with my mouth, those large brown bakalite switches were vicious, it trapped my top lip. I was stuck there with a poe in each hand, lip trapped in switch, now that is really taking the .........put your own word in here.

Now I have told you that I dont want anyone to mention it again as I am still traumatised

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Oh for the days when you could just dump them out of the upstairs window onto the folks passing below:alright:

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Haven't seen my mobile phone for a couple of months as my youngest son has nicked it. He's received no calls for me in that time (just a few Xmas/NY messages from my 2 best friends) poor me, nobody loves me:rolleyes::o

The last time I needed it was when in the UK last Oct. for messaging home -mad panic just as I was leaving for the airport as it had disappeared (blamed son again!). It was found by chance a month later in the basket of my bike. I do carry it with me when out cycling as we're in the middle of the countryside and you never know when you might meet a sex-maniac. No luck so far!;):D

Re: fourpence to the future
 

I remember, as one of the first things I did in woodwork lessons, making a maiden and hinged by webbing, in fact when my Dad died back in 2003 we threw it out, think it was past its sell by date:D

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That comment reminds me of what I thought was my ideal woman when I was young, think it had to be a deaf and dumb nymphomaniac who's dad had a pub:D

Re: fourpence to the future
 

When the guzunder had been emtied, it was washed, dried and turned upside down on the bottom step....and whoever was going upstairs ,it fell to them to take them up and put them in the respective rooms. A posh pot, one decorated with flowers went under Ma and Pa's bed...we had a very utilitarian model....white enamel...that went under the big double bed, that we kids slept in.
My brother was asked to take the jerry's upstairs and was most dischuffed about this........anyway after a long argument and threats from Ma, he took it up.....met the cat coming down, was tripped by the cat and the jerry bounced down the stairs and cracked his napper.......mother said this was divine judgement.
Another of my brothers hated bringing the jerry downstairs and would slop waz on the stairs so that he didn't get asked again......baaaad move....Ma told him if he did that again she would make him lick it up.....she gave him a bowl of hot water a brush and a chunk of carbolic soap to clean up the mess........the stairs were wood and uncarpeted at the time.

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Oh, poor baby ... just nip into the nearest men's bog, and write on the wall: "For a good time, call ... " and put down your number:D Oh, and make it an up-scale bog; you don't want a bunch of calls from low-life scum like me. ;)

Re: fourpence to the future
 

You can still buy these jerries but they are in antique shops, I didnt think at the time that they would be collectors items. Can you imagine the kids of today having to use, and empty one of those.

Re: fourpence to the future
 

The advice still holds, put your number on here and you will never lose it again, as it will be ringing all the time.

Re: fourpence to the future
 

I know what the children of today would say...it goes something like thise 'eeeeeewwwwww, totally GROSS'

Re: fourpence to the future
 

"Like" should be in there somewhere, and maybe "OH MY GOD":D

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Luckily I never had the pleasure of having to use one.

They make nice plant pots these days.

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Returning to bath-time routines as Margaret described - I remember Mum telling me that very often, when lads used to call asking her out, she'd send my Gran with the message that she had to stay in as she'd washed her hair if it was such-n-such who she didn't like.

It was a good excuse back then as there were no hair-dryers and she had to sit in front of the fire all evening to get it dry!

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Doubt if luck had owt to do wi it, Think the reason is more likely here,;)The Poni-Tails - Born Too Late (1958) - YouTube

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Nice song that Cashman, good melody,you can hear the words,good 50s song.

Re: fourpence to the future
 

those were the days, Perry Como, Val Doonican, I remember listening to Uncle Mac on Saturday mornings, three little fishes= Franky Howard, My Brother= Terry Scott, My boomerang wont come back= Charlie Drake.

and not a swear word in them.

Re: fourpence to the future
 

I have earphones on now while typing this listening to The Four Aces.

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Well they did in those days too, self watering, and occasionally a bit of manure too:D

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Is that the chapel bells were ringing claytonx:D

Re: fourpence to the future
 

How I long to hear the organ in the chaple in the moonlight while your strolling down the aisle. and there's more

I went to see them at Accy hippodrome long, long, time ago might have been when Frank Randle owned it-----my be not?

Re: fourpence to the future
 

OMG -that takes me back to Saturday evenings when we slept over at my Grandparents! We got to stay up late and watch Hawai-5-O too -very risqué back then -if mum had known she'd never have let us stay over!:D

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Poetic as ever Jay - you 'd sell 'em like hot cakes on Accy market;):D

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What about "torchy the battery boy" and "twizzle" the boy who could screw his legs out to make him taller.Both were puppets shows with all the strings showing
Then if I was lucky, I was treated to saturday morning at the pictures,I think it was sixpence but not sure, it was kids only. Flash Gordon, Roy Rodgers, Lone Ranger, Old Mother Riley and Kitty and lots more that have escaped my grey cells.

Re: fourpence to the future
 

That's going back some,Torchy and Old Mother Riley.

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Not sure how far back I can remember, dont have a year for these just memories. what about listen with mother.

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and Muffin The Mule.

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Sounds like bestiality to me.:eek:

Re: fourpence to the future
 

just done a search on you tube, it was watch with mother , that makes more sense, I cant believe I remember these, I was only three for some of the stuff transmitted, unless like today there were repeats. I was six for these transmissions though.



Torchy the Battery Boy (Episode 1 - part 1) - YouTube

Twizzle (1957) - "Twizzle and Footso" - YouTube


Watch with Mother - Rag, Tag and Bobtail (1957) pt 1 - YouTube

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Before my time I'm afraid. Used to get left at the Classic for the Saturday morning cinema show sometimes while mum did the shopping -remember Lassie and a few adventure series -pretty exciting as we got to bu:)y sweets and a bottle of pop!

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Like Woody Woodpecker and The Three Stooges eh Dave?

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Best of the Bowery Boys - YouTube who remembers these guys?:D

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Who remembers the Little Rascals?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPMFfTrb6ho

Have a look at this. I loved these films

Re: fourpence to the future
 

'Fraid your clips are way too early for me Margaret and Cashy.

I used to love watching Casey Jones and The Virginian. This really takes me back!

Tv Theme Casey Jones - YouTube
:D

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Ya puppets to well before the Muppets, Andy Pandy, Bill and Ben (flopalop:D) but I think Muffin the Mule was a bit risque:D

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Ya used to stand the market:D;)

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Saturday morning with Flash Gordon and the Clay Men (and that's not political:D) not forgetting Emperor Ming

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Was it the Saturday Club on Saturday mornings at the Odeon. I used to go but can't remember the club song. Can anyone remember

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Here it is
Odeon Saturday Morning song - YouTube

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Remember it well.:)

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When you go back and look at the stuff you were watching as a kid you dont realise how politicaly incorrect they are in todays society:egged:

Re: fourpence to the future
 

And you have to ask the question......were we damaged by all this politically incorrect stuff?
I don't think we were...do you?

Re: fourpence to the future
 

I used to love the Black and White Minstrel Show and used to watch it with my Golly from the Robinsons Jar, but alas no more:rolleyes:

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Of Course they are before your time Dianne...you have to remember that me 'n Cashy(or should that be Cashy and I) are old enough to be your parents :).

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I actually don't think we would be now but for all the dogooding numpties about, they seem to see things which don't exist, these people must lead a very boring lives if all they have to do all day is walk around wondering what might offend others who in truth don't actually give a damn:(

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....and I am older than the pair of them (not added together).

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It was a tradition when over at my Grandparents on Saturday evening to watch the B&W Minstrels. Used to collect the Gollies too with all the Golden shred marmalade we used to eat!

Didn't turn me into a raving loony racist (I mean, after all, I did marry an I-Tie!)- oh, and I loved the story of Little Black Sambo which they read us in first year juniors too. It is a Victorian classic story -what kids would not enjoy a tale of a boy outwitting some tigers and the idea of them running round and round until they turned into a pool of butter,imaginative stuff.:D

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:eek::eek::eek:Be careful what you say, who knows where the thought police are these days:eek::eek::eek:

Re: fourpence to the future
 

It wasn't politically incorrect it was everyday, it's only in these later years that "Political Correctness" has become such an issue due to certain elements of our "modern enlightened society".

Makes me want to puke, whining liberals, apologists & others who want to wipe everything about our past & history into oblivion by focussing only on the negative. :(

Re: fourpence to the future
 

A football commentator (I think) recently got into trouble for saying coloured instead of black when refering to a footballer, I dont think the offence is in the word, just in the way it is applied.
I remember my grandma had a black labradore called blackie, you darent call a dog that nowadays

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Not to mention Guy Gibson's dog:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger_(dog)

I guess in some versions of the movie you had to know morse code in order to be offended.:rolleyes:

Re: fourpence to the future
 

She also had a dog called that (not at the same time) but I gibbed at saying that

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Not forgetting his wife, Slag.

Though it's rumored the chocolate brown dog will be called Digger, she'll be called Eve, in the remake of The Dam Busters.

;)

Re: fourpence to the future
 

Frankly, I don't give a rat's ass what folks call their dogs, as long as they take care of them.

Maybe Gibson's VC should be taken away ... posthumously, obviously. (But that's the way many of them were awarded in the first place. :rolleyes:) The squareheads:eek: would support that.

Trouble with pcism is that it nibbles at the convenient edges of a problem. Doesn't tackle the problem itself. That requires real effort and big balls.

Now, I'm going back to google to find out more about Nigger's ghost. Fascinating stuff.