Blast from the past - remind us of a thing

[bodhi]

AW111 said:

What about spud guns?

They were more difficult to run around the house with pretending you were John Wayne

[bigpriest]

Snap-fit mini motorbike kits, coffee-scented pencil erasers, beer can pencil sharpeners and whistlepops - all available from the chemist shop.

[AW111]

bigpriest said:

Your local suburban record shop was a section in a small electrical appliance & repair shop.
Opening a new pack of weetabix, ignoring the food and delving down to reach the Dr Who collector cards (cybermen again).
Everything you sent off for (x-ray specs) took 28 days to arrive and disappointed you.
Single trifles from the local bakers with a tiny plastic shovel.

I remember digging in the cornflakes packet for plastic spacecraft (Apollo era).

My cruel and horrible mother said I should wait till the box was empty, instead of crushing all the cornflakes.

[JagYouAre]

The Rotrex Kid said:

Last Visit said:

The joy of making a mobile phone call, there being no answer. But then being called back. No longer worrying about spending 42ppm or whatever the circa 1995 rate was, someone elses problem now.

‘Pranking’ is what we used to do, when you had no ‘credit’ and couldn’t send a ‘text’ either.

Or go to a phone box and do a reverse charge call.

Yes, calling home for three rings and hanging up to let parents know you'd arrived somewhere safely (long before mobiles and texting).

Pretty sure this was frowned upon by telcos/the law(?) but we always did it anyway.

[beagrizzly]

bigpriest said:

beagrizzly said:

Lost Soul said:

bigpriest said:

Your local suburban record shop was a section in a small electrical appliance & repair shop.
Opening a new pack of weetabix, ignoring the food and delving down to reach the Dr Who collector cards (cybermen again).
Everything you sent off for (x-ray specs) took 28 days to arrive and disappointed you.
Single trifles from the local bakers with a tiny plastic shovel.

When i was a kid, there were two local record stores in the town i lived in
One was a single shop kind of like the Virgin Record stores from back in the day

The second one was an alladins cave. Basement was all tapes and cd's, ground level was vinyl, first floor was vhs video rental.
WH Smith had a section back then too and i can remember buying all sorts of singles and lp's cheap when they wanted to get rid of the music section for arts & crafts instead

& Boots used to have a record section back in the day (1990s for me), amongst other things. They even sold Boots branded classical CDs - I still have one!

Your Aladdin's cave sounds perfect for wasting a whole day browsing! I'd have to travel to the city centre for an equivalent - like the underground market in Manchester. (There's another blast from the past).

My second local choice was in the "precinct" - a bookshop with a spiral staircase leading to a small area with a few racks of records. Amazingly the bloke who owned this shop seemed to get all the new releases before anyone else, must have had a contact in the music retail industry.

Talk of Manchester and record shops reminds me of an early 90s discount CD shop that was tucked away somewhere - if memory serves somewhere near the big theatre that we used to visit for the more famous shows - Evita etc. I grew up in Chester so we only visited Manchester a few times a year but I'd make a beeline for this shop because it was somewhat cheaper than the norm, and my budget was somewhat limited as a teenager.

[bigpriest]

beagrizzly said:

Talk of Manchester and record shops reminds me of an early 90s discount CD shop that was tucked away somewhere - if memory serves somewhere near the big theatre that we used to visit for the more famous shows - Evita etc. I grew up in Chester so we only visited Manchester a few times a year but I'd make a beeline for this shop because it was somewhat cheaper than the norm, and my budget was somewhat limited as a teenager.

The only one I can recall is Yanks or Powercuts which was downstairs somewhere on Oxford Road near the Palace Theatre but I only knew it as a record store - the 1982 CD revolution was never going to catch on.

[AW111]

Using a pencil (remember them?) to rewind a cassette tape (ditto) that had been snarled up by the player in the car.

[beagrizzly]

bigpriest said:

beagrizzly said:

Talk of Manchester and record shops reminds me of an early 90s discount CD shop that was tucked away somewhere - if memory serves somewhere near the big theatre that we used to visit for the more famous shows - Evita etc. I grew up in Chester so we only visited Manchester a few times a year but I'd make a beeline for this shop because it was somewhat cheaper than the norm, and my budget was somewhat limited as a teenager.

The only one I can recall is Yanks or Powercuts which was downstairs somewhere on Oxford Road near the Palace Theatre but I only knew it as a record store - the 1982 CD revolution was never going to catch on.

If memory serves, I'd pass the Palace Theatre on my left on Oxford Road, then hang a right shortly after going under the railway and it was a 'block' or so away from the Oxford Road. Possibly inaccurate, we're talking over 30 years ago... :-(

The immediate area was a bit rundown/semi derelic/wasteland, so I expect it's been redeveloped now.

[eskidavies]

bodhi said:

The noise and the smell of these things, and the constant rollockings for using them in the house

Yeah folding the roll as tightly as possible then smacking it with a hammer on hard surface,i wonder sometimes why I’ve got tinnitus

[Stella Tortoise]

beagrizzly said:

Smurfs with fuel from Gulf filling stations.

National filling stations I recall.

[beagrizzly]

Stella Tortoise said:

beagrizzly said:

Smurfs with fuel from Gulf filling stations.

National filling stations I recall.

I think you may be right.

[DickyC]

eskidavies said:

bodhi said:

The noise and the smell of these things, and the constant rollockings for using them in the house

Yeah folding the roll as tightly as possible then smacking it with a hammer on hard surface,i wonder sometimes why I’ve got tinnitus

Did you make genies out of bangers as well? They were quieter.

[shed driver]

bigpriest said:

My second local choice was in the "precinct" - a bookshop with a spiral staircase leading to a small area with a few racks of records. Amazingly the bloke who owned this shop seemed to get all the new releases before anyone else, must have had a contact in the music retail industry.

Was this the one in Urmston by any chance? A veritable jewel.

SD.

[eskidavies]

DickyC said:

Did you make genies out of bangers as well? They were quieter.

Yeah and tried decanting bangers into something more robust like copper tube hoping for a bigger bang,couldn’t quite get it right,
Now I’m older and wiser I reckon I could make it work,can you still get bangers/gun powder

[blue_haddock]

how have we got to page 6 on a post about blasts from the past without a mention for white dog poo???

[CypSIdders]

Late 60s, early 70s, the collecting "coins" that Sell gave out with petrol, I remember a Space oriented set and a "cars through the ages" set, I seem to remember a "World cup" set as well..
Fortunately my mate's dad owned the local Shell garage so we had full sets of everything.

Collecting cards you got in packets of tea, can't remember where the albums, you stuck them in, came from.
They were all very educational as far as I can remember. We seemed to have loads of them, not sure who was drinking all the tea, although I expect it was two sets of grandparents doing the heavy lifting.

[AW111]

eskidavies said:

Yeah and tried decanting bangers into something more robust like copper tube hoping for a bigger bang,couldn’t quite get it right,
Now I’m older and wiser I reckon I could make it work,can you still get bangers/gun powder

If you scrape the heads off matches, the scrapings do a good gunpowder impersonation, or at least they did in the 1970s.

[bigpriest]

shed driver said:

bigpriest said:

My second local choice was in the "precinct" - a bookshop with a spiral staircase leading to a small area with a few racks of records. Amazingly the bloke who owned this shop seemed to get all the new releases before anyone else, must have had a contact in the music retail industry.

Was this the one in Urmston by any chance? A veritable jewel.

SD.

Yep - "Bookmark" I think it was called

[bigpriest]

beagrizzly said:

bigpriest said:

beagrizzly said:

Talk of Manchester and record shops reminds me of an early 90s discount CD shop that was tucked away somewhere - if memory serves somewhere near the big theatre that we used to visit for the more famous shows - Evita etc. I grew up in Chester so we only visited Manchester a few times a year but I'd make a beeline for this shop because it was somewhat cheaper than the norm, and my budget was somewhat limited as a teenager.

The only one I can recall is Yanks or Powercuts which was downstairs somewhere on Oxford Road near the Palace Theatre but I only knew it as a record store - the 1982 CD revolution was never going to catch on.

If memory serves, I'd pass the Palace Theatre on my left on Oxford Road, then hang a right shortly after going under the railway and it was a 'block' or so away from the Oxford Road. Possibly inaccurate, we're talking over 30 years ago... :-(

The immediate area was a bit rundown/semi derelic/wasteland, so I expect it's been redeveloped now.

You were brave! Have a look on Street View at some of those streets (New Wakefield St, Hulme St, Chester St) and you can go back to the 1980's today. Oxford Road Station and the surrounding area hasn't seen enough development.

[P5BNij]

Dad leaning over his armchair at 10pm saying ''right you get to bed, school tomorrow'' as the closing credits of 'The Sweeney' appear with the wonderfully melancholia tinged version of the theme tune.

Desperately hoping the heating oil tanker doesn't turn up at school during the winter of discontent, so we can slope off and go home early.

Dalek shaped paraffin heaters stinking the house out.

Dad shouting at the TV whenever Ted Heath appears on it.

Speed & Power magazine.

Saving up pocket money to buy the large scale Airifix Me109 kit.