[Closed] Things you used to do in the olden days?

Wind up windows in the car

Change the channel by pressing the buttons on it

Dial up internet and that awful racket

PYO fruit,

Worrying about checking chain on a bike and how much life its got.

Having fun - it was cheaper back then

Walk a lot , actually walking everywhere

Start a car using a choke (1974mk1 Escort)
Wait for Xmas to see a decent film on TV
Adjust said TV ariel for a good signal
Post that came twice per day
Excitedly wait for the pop man.
Browse a video shop for entertainment
(From the North West)

[i]Walk a lot , actually walking everywhere[/i]

Oh I still frequently indulge... oh sorry waLking 😳

take my gf out to the pub with a crisp blue Lady Godiva in my pocket, have a few drinks each and still have enough change for a bag of chips on the way home

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work out what had gone wrong with my car engine without the need for a £20 diagnostic tool, drag tool box from under stairs, lift bonnet, repair or replace bit that had gone wrong, start car again...

I don't miss cars that needed constant fiddling with to make sure they ran properly, I do miss that when I lift a bonnet (last car I bought sales idiot didn't even know how to as so few people ask anymore) that I don't really understand what Im looking at, and know that I probably can't repair any of it.

Start a car using a choke

Back in the very early 60s listening to 'proper' pop music wasn't that easy. There wasn't much on the radio for teenagers. Mostly we bought singles from the local music shop & played them at home. Jukeboxes were in a few cafes.
The usual method was to tune into Radio Luxembourg at 11pm every Sunday night & tape record the 'Top 20'. This only changed when the off-shore pirate radio stations started in 1964. We piled into a car & drove to Clacton a few times during the mods & rockers era.
We had to wait another couple of years in the north when Radio 270 started up off Scarborough.
Good days!

I do miss that when I lift a bonnet (last car I bought sales idiot didn't even know how to as so few people ask anymore) that I don't really understand what Im looking at, and know that I probably can't repair any of it.

That's your fault though not the car's. I never worked on cars without a computer. If I had a car that was not running right in some way and I didn't have a computer dongle I'd have no idea how to definitively diagnose it. My first car was mechanical, for a while when warm it wouldn't idle but would drive ok. Turns out that the vacuum timing advance mechanism was sticking. How the hell would I have known that? Only reason we found out was by asking around and someone had had similar issues.

The computer gives me a solid basis on which to start working. It seems to me that in the old days you just had to know all the possibly symptoms in your head before starting. And half the time it just tells you what to fix - sensor X has gone, replace sensor X, happy days.

That's your fault though not the car's

well, quite. I know it is, I wan't suggesting otherwise.

Older engines had less to go wrong, and it was pretty much a process of trail and error (and a Haynes Manual) 😆

I used to store parts of magazines in a data retrieval system, the mad crazy lawbreaking rebel that I was in those days!

[quote=molgrips ]The computer gives me a solid basis on which to start working. It seems to me that in the old days you just had to know all the possibly symptoms in your head before starting. And half the time it just tells you what to fix - sensor X has gone, replace sensor X, happy days.

Presumably with a diagnostic computer plugged in problem finding is straightforward and you don't ever end up spending months going back to the mechanic and failing to fix the problem?

molgrips - My first car was mechanical, for a while when warm it wouldn't idle but would drive ok. Turns out that the vacuum timing advance mechanism was sticking. How the hell would I have known that?

Easy; Car running, but not right?
Check fuel is flowing
Check spark is happening.
If both are OK,check timing; Strobe light connected, disconnect vacuum pipe and block. Rev engine to watch timing move. Then suck/blow on vacuum pipe and watch timing change. When it didn't you knew what to do 😉

So now, it's 'plug in computer, read code'

Still watch DVDs. Old TV shows in standard def.

Still listen to radio in FM in the car. No DAB, no inputs of any other sort. Only CD player (does MP3 though, but CDs in the car are a faff). Slightly narked that Jack FM is being killed off in my area. "Digital" only.

Major thing I don't do any more is go into a town centre and "shop". Not even browse magazines and not buy them in WHSmiths (or going back a long long time, go into WHSmiths and type rude programs on the Spectrums 😀 ). Likewise rarely go to a large supermarket. Pop round the local express shop (like a cornershop in the old days) and everything else buy online.

Sit on the floor watching Crown Court in the hope something more interesting to watch was up next.

So now, it's 'plug in computer, read code'

Or as it was in the old days - fix 99% of problems with a can of WD40 a wirebrush or a hammer.

Sit on the floor watching Crown Court in the hope something more interesting to watch was up next.

<thread hijack>
One of the problems with mechanics being so reliant on the computer to tell them what's wrong with the car is that sometimes the car doesn't say anything is wrong.

My car is a bit skittish on bumpy B-roads. It's not always behaved like that, but diagnostics aren't saying anything. I don't have much faith in my local garage diagnosing or even spotting there's a problem unless they take the car out for a drive with me. What should I do?
</thread hijack>

kennyp - Member
I used to store parts of magazines in a data retrieval system, the mad crazy lawbreaking rebel that I was in those days!

Horse and Hound?
Is your real name Nigel?

Things you used to do in the olden days?

Fishing in river and sea.

kennyp - Member
I used to store parts of magazines in a data retrieval system, the mad crazy lawbreaking rebel that I was in those days!

Horse and Hound?
Is your real name Nigel?

Well, it's not as if they know where he lives.

And it was back in 1984.....
🙂

I used to read the first post in a thread and respond to that question. Nowadays I just base my answer on the thread title. 😛

Phone that magic number (was is 123 or 139 or something) that would re-dial your landline as a test, so your folks answered it.. Oh how we laughed. Again and again...

Check the hedges for grot mags.

Recieve an annual pay rise.

Last one 10% Drac?

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Arrange to meet people in town without a mobile phone

Ooh I've got another; watching schools tv when at home off ill from school. I'm found that far more enlightening than actually being there! (Do you remember the countdown clock?). Ace.

Not a Politician then..

Eat chips in newspaper.
(Pre kids) Not worry about running out of cash this month.
Have Sunday lie-ins with the papers and breakfast.

Set an alarm clock.

And it was back in 1984.....

Although I did write to tell them what I'd done.

Gardenhopping.
Knock & run.
Scrumping.

Whatever I felt like.....that time has passed

Ride a mountain bike a few times a week. Clean said bike in the bath using the shower.
Cranbrat was 6 yesterday so the bike riding may pick up soon but I doubt the luxury of baths with my bike will ever return.

Ride a bike

Laugh out loud.

Knock & run.

That still gets played. However these days it's called Parcelforce!

I'd buy a magazine or two every week. I'd even buy books.

Haven't bought either since the 90s. Even electronic versions seem an impossibly rigid and antiquated concept now. Like the album - something else I haven't bought since the 90s and can't imagine playing anymore.

In the olden days when the car needed fixing I took it to a sad git and his apprentice, both of them covered in oil and grease.

These days when the car needs fixing I take it to a sad git with a computer who then hands it to his intern who is covered in oil and grease.

I'd buy a magazine or two every week. I'd even buy books.

I still do, A lot of my work is screen based, the idea of spending leisure time (natch) on them as well...

same as Albums, Moon Shaped Pool in the car CD, gets listened all the way through most days...listened to a couple of others last night as well. Lots of classical stuff "needs" the whole to be listened to, rather than "songs/movments" as it makes no sense*

*poncy, I know, apologies. 😳

walk 4 miles to school with my friends and laugh a lot (this was the mid 70s)

not know about and therefore not care about all the sh1t going on in the world

go on bike adventures with my friends - on a 3 speed Chopper 3 miles was a big adventure and the ride down from Tottington to Bury Road was the highlight

Watch Doctor Who (again in the 70s)

Lots of classical stuff "needs" the whole to be listened to, rather than "songs/movments" as it makes no sense*

You know you can still listen to whole albums on MP3 etc format, don't you? You don't have to have it shuffled.

oh yeah and I forgot

headbang to Deep Purple and Black Sabbath at the school disco

Head or finger?

I still do, A lot of my work is screen based, the idea of spending leisure time (natch) on them as well...

I often find myself thinking I'll just use the search facility when I'm looking for a tool in the workshop. My workshop doesn't have a search facility. This annoys me. Maybe I can implement something with RFIDs?

Press play and record at the right moment of the chart show, and stop again before the DJ spoke...

Lunchtime drinking...

Lunchtime drinking...

Indeed. When I first worked in Manchester in the 90's (granted... it was in meedya), it wasn't unusual for the entire office to relocate to the pub every single lunchtime. A lot of the time it wasn't unusual to not bother going back.

Eeeeeeeeee..... them were't days

*hic*

Knock & run.

You mean knock knock ginger?

You mean knock knock ginger?

You mean Chappie?

You know you can still listen to whole albums on MP3 etc format, don't you? You don't have to have it shuffled.

No, really? Can you do that? wow, learn something new everyday... 😆 🙄

was talking about CDs...

You mean Chappie?

The movie?

Thats proper lunchtime drinking Binners My lunchtime drinking was done as a student, some lunchtimes could be as long as 60 hours though.
(There may have been some tactical sleeping involved)

The movie?

No. The dog food.

binners - Member
Lunchtime drinking...
Indeed. When I first worked in Manchester in the 90's (granted... it was in meedya), it wasn't unusual for the entire office to relocate to the pub every single lunchtime. A lot of the time it wasn't unusual to not bother going back.

As a copy boy on the Daily Express and Star in the 80's, my job was to find out which pub the editorial team were in and get them back to finish the paper.
🙂

Usually either the Cheshire Cheese, The Land O'Cakes or the Press Club.
Used to take a couple of hours of herding to find them all, inevitability someone would be ill or asleep on the bog somewhere.....
Sunday afternoons especially were always a bit slack, so pretty much everyone would just hit the boozer.
😀

Happy days.

Whatever happened to.....
Proper seasons
White dog poo
The corner shop
Penny Sweets

Buy food without being told it was high in fat/sugar/salt or going to give me cancer or contained a billion additives that would make my hyperactive or anything. And nobody else worrying about any of that either.

ratnips - Member

Turn up at a place and time arranged without any phone calls from mobile phones.

Funnily enough was talking about this last night to 17 yo daughter.My first climbing trip to the Alps with friends from uni was organised by nothing more than "meet you in the Bar National sometime on June xxth", whereas she can't meet her friends at Costa without twenty million phone calls, texts, snapchats,instagrams etc.

Okay,twenty million, I exaggerate! but you get the picture

When I first worked in Manchester in the 90's (granted... it was in meedya), it wasn't unusual for the entire office to relocate to the pub every single lunchtime