The bad old days - things that were crap
The bad old days - things that were crap
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Discussion

Skeptisk

Original Poster:

8,897 posts

140 months

Friday 11th October 2024
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.


Tango13

10,154 posts

207 months

Friday 11th October 2024
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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

12,650 posts

161 months

Friday 11th October 2024
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Cars in winter

Rough101

3,070 posts

106 months

Friday 11th October 2024
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Fords

normalbloke

8,961 posts

250 months

Friday 11th October 2024
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Street food. International cuisine. Fag smoke everywhere. White dogst.

mr momo

152 posts

262 months

Friday 11th October 2024
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Clothing (normal/sports) = no 'GoreTex' type weatherproof capability

a311

6,426 posts

208 months

Friday 11th October 2024
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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

2,887 posts

119 months

Friday 11th October 2024
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Antifreeze…

juice

9,913 posts

313 months

Friday 11th October 2024
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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

34,954 posts

204 months

Friday 11th October 2024
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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

14,292 posts

191 months

Friday 11th October 2024
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Central heating or lack there of.

shirt

25,503 posts

232 months

Friday 11th October 2024
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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

2,392 posts

158 months

Friday 11th October 2024
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Pea-soupers.


...and starting handles!

rek

146 posts

154 months

Friday 11th October 2024
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Pubs closing late afternoon and having to wait til 6 to go back…

Sheets Tabuer

21,495 posts

246 months

Friday 11th October 2024
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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

9,665 posts

247 months

Friday 11th October 2024
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Labour governments.

Super Sonic

14,680 posts

85 months

Friday 11th October 2024
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Having to turn a handle to make your window go up or down.

Super Sonic

14,680 posts

85 months

Friday 11th October 2024
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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.

Stick Legs

9,031 posts

196 months

Friday 11th October 2024
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Coffee.

Limited music choices, no matter how big your collection was you still had to pick 10 tapes for your car or whatever. Being at sea meant picking your favourite 20 or 30 CD’s for a 5 month trip!

The original iPod Classic was a revelation & I still have a few I use to this day.

Louis Balfour

28,176 posts

253 months

Friday 11th October 2024
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Toys.

Many 1970s toys and games just didn't work,

Colour Dip, Spirograph and Replica being examples.