Questions for the seniors

[Risso]

On 2/25/2018 at 22:11, Shropshire Lad said:

Yep, the Posada in Wolverhampton has “snob glass”. Having asked the staff there about it, it would seem the men would drink in the main bar while women would use a different entrance and drink upstairs. The snob glass there is essentially little windows so the bar staff could hand the drinks through to the women without being seen by the men. The Barton Arms has snob glass too, but I think that was more of class division thing. 

The snug bars and the like are touched upon in this documentary about the post war relationship Britain has with alcohol.

 

My local when I lived in Douglas had a men only bar. (No, not like *that*). To get to it from the main lounge area you had to walk through the men’s bogs which I think is how it came about.

[Risso]

The 1970s were grim. Everything was shit and didn’t work properly.  No money, dead end jobs, terrible fashion, strikes, horrible buildings, crap food. The decade that taste forgot.

[mjmooney]

27 minutes ago, Risso said:

The 1970s were grim. Everything was shit and didn’t work properly.  No money, dead end jobs, terrible fashion, strikes, horrible buildings, crap food. The decade that taste forgot.

Sounds like the 80s to me. 

[mjmooney]

I don't think that 'eras' (in music, fashions, etc.) naturally divide into neat decades though. My (entirely subjective) split would go something like: 

1954-1962: GOOD - because I was a small child, didn't really understand anything, but mostly had fun. 

1963-1972: FANTASTIC - pop music was the best ever, transition to grammar school and teenage years, no responsibilities. 

1973-1976: GOOD - student life, but music going a bit stale, and the prospect of adult life, jobs, etc. looming.

1977-1981: POOR - music and fahion getting worse, poverty, Thatcher, etc. The only bright spot was the Villa. 

1982-1989: GOOD - career, marriage, kids (offsetting the music getting even worse). 

1990-2013: MIXED - slight improvement in the music, political false dawn of Blair, getting bogged down professionally and domestically. Technology getting interesting. 

2014-date: EXCELLENT - retirement, granddaughter, music picking up again. 

I think my point is that we each inevitably perceive different periods filtered through what age we were at the time, and what was going on in our lives. 

 

[sidcow]

On 24/02/2018 at 13:44, lapal_fan said:

What's the biggest thing you can think of?

ONLY FRIGGIN' KIDDING!! HAR HAR.

No, I'm somewhat fascinated by life in the 60s and 70s at the minute.. it's from my old man and mom, who lived through the time.  But there's loads of things and questions I'm asking him about that time like;

What was it like before motorways?  The M5 was built outside my mom's mom's house, and she used to sit on the side waiting ages for a car to come past.. now look at the ****.

It seemed we went from Steam engines, to electric really quickly.. when did diesels fit in?  What did you think when they pulled up all the local train stations? 

As my parents were never from affluent families, it be interesting to know what life was like for people from the middle classes in those days.  Having cars when not many people did etc.

A lot happened and I'll think of more, feel free to ask more, but it would be cool to get the people in their 40/50/60s answers (if they don't mind!!)

I am probably not as old as the answers you seek but I DO remember going for a walk near Bromsgrove and standing in the middle of the M42 with a precipice in front of me where they were due to build a bridge over a road. 

I also once screamed my head off as a little kid when I was eating boiled egg with soldiers and watching Big John Little John when everything went pitch black,  no lights, no telly.  It was the 70's power cuts.  Can you imagine it now how people would react of the electricity was cut off regularly for hours at a time, there would be riots. 

Thatcher gets SO much bad press (history is not written by the Victor's but by those who come after and the press) but people really have forgotten just how badly broken this country was before she arrived. 

I used to meet girls by talking to them on the CB radio (breaker on the side) which was our Internet. My handle was Drainpipes before it was Sidcow. 

I also recall McDonald's coming to a standstill with people being totally wowed by a guy carrying one of those brick sized mobiles that everyone laughs at now.  Beware kids in the future you will see comedians making jokes about the ridiculous iPhones everyone used to think were so cool and clever. 

You could dial a phone number to listen to records. Your parents would go nuts because it cost a bomb.  Phone calls cost a bomb. 

People used to open the train doors and jump out at Aston station when they got on the express to Sutton by mistake.  You could really open a train door whilst it was moving. 

Tellies were rented. 

We had the only double sided video recorder. A Phillips 2000, it never even made it to the VHS/Betamax battle. 

teletext was living in the information age, a truly wondrous thing. 

We were supposed to be living on the moon by 1999.

Villa were brilliant. 

You can truly pity anyone who never got to stand on the original Holte End. 

Schools never closed, teachers could routinely hit you or throw stuff at you and you actually got educated. 

Microwave meals were just a Sunday lunch type affair with meat, peas, carrots and potatoes. They were dry and horrible and you knew they would disappear forever as soon as you had your first microwaved lasagne. 

There was only 1 McDonald's anywhere in Birmingham (on the ramp) but several Wimpeys. 

Central locking in cars was like witchcraft. Cars had vinyl black roofs and nobody knows why. 

Workmen wore Donkey Jackets no hi viz anywhere.  

Kids could buy sweets that were like cigarettes with a glowing end, basically a toy cigarette you could eat. 

You had to stand up and walk to the telly to turn it on/off/change channel unless you were really really posh and had a remote control connected to the telly with a wire. 

All milk came in glass bottles from the milkman who would sometimes sell fizzy pop as well.  Plastic bottles were almost non existent. 

People judged far less.

Life was better. 

When I was a kid pre double glazing you would wake up in the morning after a really cold night and there would be ice on the inside of the window. 

We had proper snow then also. 

Edited February 27, 2018 by sidcow

[sidcow]

How about this for the Oldies. 

Remember what a desolate hole the old Bullring Centre was circa 1983?

The current Bullring will be about the same age as that next year. 

If that doesn't prove that 60's concrete architecture was shit I don't know what will. 

[sidcow]

On 25/02/2018 at 09:33, Demitri_C said:

My dad use to talk about the mods and rockers back in the day. No idea who they were but apaprently biker gangs but they died out.

He also use to say the 70s were great it was such a happy period. Everyone use to wear bright colors and although people didnt have much they were happy. Unlike now days.

You really need to watch Quadrophenia. All will become clear and at the same time you get to hear some brilliant music and watch Leslie Ash less trout lips being rodgered in an alleyway. 

[WhatAboutTheFinish]

1 hour ago, mjmooney said:

1982-1989: GOOD - career, marriage, kids (offsetting the music getting even worse). 

 

[Mark Albrighton]

@sidcow has already preempted what I was wondering. 

There was a lot of redevelopment in the sixties, a fair few buildings that were built that aren’t considered attractive. I’d be curious to know if people at the time looked at them as modern/futuristic or whether they were met with derision. Or simply a necessity.

One that has always irked me is the market hall in Shrewsbury. The old Victorian one....

....being replaced by the current one in the mid sixties...

 

[sidcow]

On 25/02/2018 at 10:56, VILLAMARV said:

In relation to technology - obviously mobile phones are the standout thing along with the birth of the internet that's had a massive societal change in most of our lifetimes. But when I think back I remember push button phones seeming futuristic compared to the dials.

Colour TV came into my house in the late 80's. Until then my folks rented a black and white telly from radio rentals. Wouldn't have had a VCR (toploader ftw) until the early 90's. Although my mate next door (who after his folks split up would get bought all kinds of stuff - I used to think he was so lucky!) had a beta max so we would all pile round his to watch stuff and he had a colour telly in his room.

He was the first person I knew who had a computer (The old rubber keys Spectrum) Manic Miner and the like were where it was at kids. But like others have said about popping down to the house on the street with a phone to make a phone call and that sort of thing it was common to congregate round someones house to watch something on telly or play on their computers. A lad up the street got an atari cartiridge thing. That was a cool summer spent mostly at the park/down the cut or everyone on our street round his when it was raining. FA Cup finals were always round my mates house (he had colour telly......in his room ffs!) 83 - 86 were all there. For whatever reason I can still remember watching the 87 cup final and Cov winning with Keith Houchen's flying header in extra time at mine though on the little PYE black and white portable in my folks room (My folks not into footie would have banished me from the big TV). TV's had a dial you turned to tune the TV channels in like a non DAB radio there btw kids. Buttons were probably extra on the rental!

My dad did walk in the door with a ZX81 one day. That little white PYE portable with the dial got some 1k graphics pumped through it I tell you. The day the 5k ram extension pack got bought out! Oh my days! 6k?

I also remember us having a 'pong' type thing but it didn't get used much. Maybe we borrowed it from someone for a bit now I think about it.

Table top space invaders in pubs though, me and my bro thought they were the pinnacle! How cool were they!

Stackable record players seemed so cool when I was a nipper. I genuinely miss radiograms though I bet those old enough to remember them properly will think it's rose tinted specs but I was always amazed if we went round someone's house and they had a whole sideboard that was a radio and record player!

I can remember my mum standing over her toploader washing machine. And a mangle. She maintains to this day that the automatic washing machine is one of the best inventions in her lifetime.

Are you me Villamarv? I could have written this exactly other than I don't recall us having a black and white TV. it was rented obviously but I can only ever recall it being colour. 

Just remembered a good one, we must have got our first microwave around Christmas time because the first thing ever heated was a Mince Pie which destroyed my dad's mouth as he just heated it and bit into it, was about 10000 degrees. 

My brother had an Atari, maybe you used to visit him? I could play Asteroids on an at Atari using shield basically until I was too exhausted to carry on or ran out of time. 

A kid I went to school with, his dad worked for Sony and he had a bedroom kitted out with all sorts of stuff literally no one else had in their house let alone bedroom. 

Literally no one ever had a dishwasher. 

[sidcow]

4 hours ago, AVFC_Hitz said:

Did everyone's Mom live on Cheddar Road or was it just mine?

I got it Hitz

[VILLAMARV]

@Shropshire Lad Sheffield's 'Egg Box' probably a famous example. The town hall wasn't replaced but built on to with a 'modern' (concrete) extension. It was the most hideous building I think I've ever seen. It's gone now replaced by Sheffield Winter Gardens. It connected via a flyover walkway thing to the old building a la the motorway service stations of that time. Although it's claim to fame for me was that some of 'Threads' was filmed in it.

 

[VILLAMARV]

42 minutes ago, sidcow said:

How about this for the Oldies. 

Remember what a desolate hole the old Bullring Centre was circa 1983?

The current Bullring will be about the same age as that next year. 

If that doesn't prove that 60's concrete architecture was shit I don't know what will. 

 

[Xela]

Anyone remember this?  I think @NurembergVillan was narrating 

 

Edited February 27, 2018 by Xela

[sidcow]

17 minutes ago, VILLAMARV said:

 

How brilliantly British. The "autopark"  is a couple of blokes manually pulling and pushing a car around on a dolly thereby making the process more manual than one man just driving the vehicle into a space. 

I bet that system lasted less than a year, If indeed it ever really did happen at all I real life. 

[TheAuthority]

29 minutes ago, Xela said:

Anyone remember this?  I think @NurembergVillan was narrating 

 

"The glass museum at Dudlay?!" 

I think it's Harry Enfield speaking who got his start doing loads of voices for Spitting Image. But NV sounds more Brummie 

[chrisp65]

        

 

[TheAuthority]

One big change I can remember was the advent of "Savacentre" in Oldbury. My dad loved it because everything was under one roof and he didn't have to be dragged around outside in the freezing cold all Saturday afternoon. (Sometimes my mom would make us go to Dudley, Lye & Stourbridge to find what we needed!)

Of course the advent of supermarkets like Savacentre and Merry Hill led to the demise of smaller shopping towns where you had local butchers, bakers etc. 

I do remember Merry Hill being built. I wonder if the younger VT'ers realize that the whole thing was built on an abandoned mining area? My dad was in the building industry and there were rumors that Tarmac (construction company) lost 2 diggers overnight at the site. They had literally sunk into the ground because Merry Hill is built on the equivalent of Swiss Cheese!

[NurembergVillan]

42 minutes ago, Xela said:

Anyone remember this?  I think @NurembergVillan was narrating 

 

Racist.

[Risso]

Without wishing to get all Peter Kaye about things:

The pop man coming round being the highlight of the week.

Binning the pop man off because you'd got a Sodastream

Going back to the pop man because your parents couldn't be arsed to replace the gas canister in the Sodastream, and the cola, which was horrible at the best of times, was even worse when essentially flat.

 

Oh and @sidcow I loved Big John, Little John.  Nobody I've ever spoken to about it recalls it at all.