Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now

[Shaw S Hunter]

Police patrolling on bicycles.

 

[Cloud Strife]

Dial-up internet in general seems ridiculously anachronistic! Or for that matter, landlines. I haven't had a landline in 13 years, and my work doesn't even have one. They can still receive calls if you call the main reception of the office complex, but the number isn't published in connection with us. All our internal communication is done via Google Meet and Slack, and we generally only phone people in-company if there's something incredibly urgent.

I could get a work mobile if I wanted, but it just wouldn't be needed, even contact with external business partners is via e-mail, Slack or Google Meet.

 

[GordonT]

Automobile Association (AA) patrolmen on motorbikes saluting drivers of vehicles with an enamel bright yellow "AA" badge on the exterior front of the vehicle signifying their membership;
AA Boxes at the roadside - what were they for? Telephoning for assistance maybe?
Police boxes for the use of local constabulary and BBC Time Lords.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

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

8 Track I thought?

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Pounds shillings and pence!

 

[philosopher]

Fax machines. I seem to recall these being quite common 20 years ago but are pretty much extinct now in the UK. Though I did read they are still quite common in Japan.

 

[Trackman]

8 Track I thought?

Indeed it was - Just looked it up, there were 8 track and 4 stereo channels.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Fax machines. I seem to recall these being quite common 20 years ago but are pretty much extinct now in the UK. Though I did read they are still quite common in Japan.

I remember Telex machines!

 

[D6130]

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.

Those were still in use in the booking office and waiting room at Helensburgh Upper until 1973.

 

[signed]

Cheque guarantee cards (maybe even cheques themselves…)

Checks are still used quite in France, usually the unguaranteed ones, but bank checks (the guarenteed ones) are used mostly for housing puposes (security deposits...).

There are still around 1 million transactions

Nombre de paiements par chèque en France | Statista

Le nombre de paiements par chèque a fortement chuté depuis le début des années 2000 en France.

fr.statista.com

The link above references statistics of check used in France

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Those were still in use in the booking office and waiting room at Helensburgh Upper until 1973.

That is over 50 years ago.

 

[gg1]

I'm in my later 40s and remember

99% of shops being closed on Sundays
The pop lorry
A rag and bone man with a horse and cart
Oil lamps as train tail lights
Turning the car heater on full blast on a hot summer day in an attempt to stop the engine overheating

And somewhat more recently that the others, smoking in the workplace.

 

[Donny Dave]

Fax machines. I seem to recall these being quite common 20 years ago but are pretty much extinct now in the UK. Though I did read they are still quite common in Japan.

Still common in the world of football, where teams and players need to receive, sign and send contracts, particularly in the run up to a transfer deadline.

 

[Ediswan]

Police patrolling on bicycles.

Very much current practice in some areas.

 

[LYradial]

Chemists selling “things” to make your own fi…works to ten year olds.

 

[Tester]

Those were still in use in the booking office and waiting room at Helensburgh Upper until 1973.

And in North Pole signalbox into the 1980s

(Gas mantle lighting)

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Lunchtime drinking then going back to work!

 

[gg1]

Lunchtime drinking then going back to work!

I'd forgotten about that one, it was the norm in my first office job in 1998 but don't remember it at any job since then, I must have caught it just as the trend was dying out.

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

Lunchtime drinking then going back to work!

I remember that very well, a massive productivity killer!

 

[JGurney]

13 to 16 year olds being allowed to stay in Youth Hostels without an adult.

The National Wanderbus ticket.

(I combined the two above to good effect for a number of school-holiday trips).

Child half rail fares only being available for under-14's, long after the school leaving age had gone up to 16.

 

[dangie]

Lunchtime drinking then going back to work!

Back in the early 1970's in the old CEGB power industry, on company courses you were given a bottle of beer with your lunchtime meal

 

[Jimini]

I'd forgotten about that one, it was the norm in my first office job in 1998 but don't remember it at any job since then, I must have caught it just as the trend was dying out.

It was very much alive and well into the early 2010s, certainly in the media industry / plenty of companies based in Canary Wharf, based on experience. Used to get the text from the big boss around 3ish telling us it was time to come back to the office SLPs (sneaky lunchtime pints) they were known as!

 

[D6130]

That is over 50 years ago.

Correct....but some fifteen years later than the example that you quoted.

 

[Ianigsy]

We have the ability to receive faxes at work, however they’re converted to PDF before they reach us. In theory they’ve all been replaced with scanners, but what we’re finding is that there are so many permutations of encryption and firewalls that there are always some that don’t work.

On the subject matter of telegrams, there was an old joke based on the parents of a new baby receiving a telegram saying “Dear Fred and Mary, Congratulations on the birth of your seventh child. Stop.”

 

[Titfield]

The original cash point machine were you had a number of cards to use and the machine kept the card. They were then posted back to you to use again.

I can also remember Match of The Day with unbiased commentators.......

 

[JGurney]

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.

There were some children in my junior school whose parents did not have a home 'phone by 1975. I don't recall it seeming unusual.

 

[Darandio]

Still common in the world of football, where teams and players need to receive, sign and send contracts, particularly in the run up to a transfer deadline.

I'm pretty sure that isn't true any more. They might well still refer to sending a fax before the deadline but it's a figure of speech. It's all e-mail and docusign these days, there was a special programme on Sky Sports about it 3-4 years ago.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Lunchtime drinking then going back to work!

I'd forgotten about that one, it was the norm in my first office job in 1998 but don't remember it at any job since then, I must have caught it just as the trend was dying out.

I remember that very well, a massive productivity killer!

In 1975 I started work in the Chemical industry (Courtaulds Red Scar Works Preston). On my first day we went to the club on site at lunchtime and I had 3 pints! Then I went back to handling chemicals. I am glad it went out of fashion. Stupid when I look back.

 

[JGurney]

Job adverts in the papers offering different salaries for men and women.

 

[Senex]

Chemists selling “things” to make your own fi…works to ten year olds.

That takes me back — the days when one could go into the chemist's and buy stuff not only for that but for use with one's chemistry-set — really nasty stuff you certainly wouldn't get today.