Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now

[GordonT]

The "SOS Messages" which used to be transmitted on the radio. I can't remember the format completely verbatim but it was along the lines of:
"Here is an SOS message. Would Mr Anthony Ponsonby believed to be touring in the Basingstoke area please contact his brother Mr Ernest Ponsonby regarding their mother Mrs Euphemia Ponsonby who is dangerously ill".

 

[johnnychips]

VHS tapes.

 

[Acey]

Concorde

 

[uglymonkey]

Waiting outside a phone box.

 

[James H]

Waiting till 6pm to make a phone call

 

[AlterEgo]

Waiting till 6pm to make a phone call

Or access dialup internet at off peak rates!

 

[Mag_seven]

Waiting outside a phone box.

Waiting till 6pm to make a phone call

On the phone theme, party lines!

 

[Cambus731]

Calling a railway TEB to ask for a message to be put out on the PA at a given station to imform Mrs Smith that Mr Smith will be an hour late.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Making a journey on a trolleybus.

 

[Merle Haggard]

The "SOS Messages" which used to be transmitted on the radio. I can't remember the format completely verbatim but it was along the lines of:
"Here is an SOS message. Would Mr Anthony Ponsonby believed to be touring in the Basingstoke area please contact his brother Mr Ernest Ponsonby regarding their mother Mrs Euphemia Ponsonby who is dangerously ill".

Wasn't the contact point in these broadcasts 'phone Whitehall 1212 for a message' ? Having a phone at home was rare.

I think it usually started 'Here is a police message for ----'.

 

[brad465]

Buying a Permit to Travel ticket at a remote station.

 

[Red Onion]

Cheque guarantee cards (maybe even cheques themselves…)

 

[Dr Hoo]

Heavy purses full of loose change, especially large pre-decimal pennies and halfpennies for bus fares and telephone calls.

The 'choke' on petrol car engines, paying extra for 'shots' of upper cylinder lubricant alongside gallons of petrol, leaded petrol, oiled up spark plugs on two-stoke engines, AA and RAC phone boxes...

 

[GRALISTAIR]

On the phone theme, party lines!

Yes we had one of those 1966-1968(ish) !

 

[najaB]

On the phone theme, party lines!

Rotary dialling.

Just thought of another one: pagers.

 

[adc82140]

Cheque guarantee cards (maybe even cheques themselves…)

I am currently in France. I waited in a supermarket this week behind someone who was writing a cheque. Then they used their contactless Visa card to guarantee it....

 

[AndrewE]

I am currently in France. I waited in a supermarket this week behind someone who was writing a cheque. Then they used their contactless Visa card to guarantee it....

I bet that delays the money coming out of their account for a few days, maybe the suprmarket can't refuse to accept payment that way.

 

[Foxhunter]

Gallons

 

[D6130]

AA and RAC phone boxes...

....and AA & RAC motorcycle patrolmen saluting badged members as they passed in the opposite direction.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I am old enough to remember gas mantles and how delicate they were.

 

[najaB]

I am old enough to remember gas mantles and how delicate they were.

Those aren't totally anachronistic - they're still used in camping lanterns.

 

[3141]

Wasn't the contact point in these broadcasts 'phone Whitehall 1212 for a message' ? Having a phone at home was rare.

I think it usually started 'Here is a police message for ----'.

There were in fact two sorts of message. SOS messages as described in post #1. These might sometimes say "Please contact Basingstoke Hospital, telephone number Basingstoke 2173...."

The second sort was the police message, which I had forgotten about, but which I think were mostly to do with accidents, about which the police were seeking further information. The number people were requested to contact would be relevant to the area in which event had occurred, so not necessarily the Met. Police at New Scotland yard, telephone Whitehall 1212.

As for "having a phone at home was rare", that depends exactly when and (probably) where. We didn't have a phone at home (Southgate, North London) till about 1947, but most of our neighbours had one roughly at that time. On the other hand, the people I lodged with in Longsight, Manchester when I first went to university didn't have one in 1958.

 

[dangie]

The Epilogue on television plus the National Anthem.
The white dot on the television when you turned it off.
The television Test Card (is that still available?)

 

[3141]

78 r.p.m. records. The first LPs went on sale in Britain in 1950. Or even 80 r.p.m., records which Columbia (The Columbia Graphophone Company) were issuing between the World Wars, and which, if you had a gramophone, you might well still be playing later. Many popular songs (not to be confused with "pop" songs) were composed so as to fit on one side of either a ten-inch or twelve-inch record.

VHS tapes.

And Betamax tapes. Also the various incarnations of the videotape system developed by Philips and Grundig.

 

[Trackman]

4-track tapes.
(I think that's what they were called, big bulky things we had a player in our car)

 

[Mike99]

Telegrams read out at weddings, unless it still happens. "To nephew John, stop. And the new Mrs Smith, stop. Congrats, Uncle Bill and wife stop".

 

[Buzby]

The television Test Card (is that still available?)

Only if someone makes a mistake! It was to provide a reference in the absence of programming that the screen was correctly aligned (whether in size or colour). As TV is now 24/7 the downtime is non-existent. There are still uses for saw-tooth generators and colour bars, and an electronically generated test card but not to be seen by the end user/viewer.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Those aren't totally anachronistic - they're still used in camping lanterns.

The type to which I referred were fitted to the room lighting system, with a thin metal tube descending from the ceiling and had two chains attached to the mechanism at the point where the gas passed through the gas mantles. It was in the year 1958 when I saw the last type of them.

 

[Springs Branch]

Jumping onto the open rear platform of a Corporation bus, sitting down and paying your fare to a roving conductor.

 

[GordonT]

Again on the phone theme:
Asking the operator to put you through to Helensburgh 1404 (family home in 1960s before the number altered to embrace an area dialling code and you dialled it yourself);
The small range of colours which became available for house phones as an alternative to black;
"Trimphones" with their chirrupy "ring";
The early cordless phones sometimes referred to as bricks.
Offices where the receptionist had a mini telephone exchange within reach and calls to/from the various extensions were enabled by cords being plugged in to wherever required for every call.