Living in the past.

And wasn't it exciting when we heard that a friend of a friend's auntie had a colour tv!

We still have a Camberwick Green LP somewhere in the attic!

vq I was scared of my smartphone when I first got it but now I love it.

I think my smart phone is smarter than me.

Each time I see the title of this thread I can hear Jethro Tull singing 'living in the past'. I expect that means I am!

Me too, rubysong, on both counts!

I could put up with the 96 TV channels if you didn't find the same programme on at least 6 of them. All those channels and it comes down to about 12 programmes of which you might want to watch one (on a good night)

In our first house there was no phone, and we were on a waiting list for one when our 1st son was due. DH had to go across to a neighbours to phone the midwife. When we eventually were connected we had a "party line" which we shared with someone unknown. If they were on the line, we couldn't use it.

I remember the party lines from when I was a telephone operator. If one party wanted to phone the other, they had to dial the operator, who told them to put down their receiver, then pick up in a minute. The operator then rang the other party, and told them to hold the line. Very long drawn out system.
We only had 2 channels as well, I remember the great excitement when BBC2 came along, was it 1964? And the thrill of staying up late on a Saturday night for the Midnight movie, it felt so decadent!

Like a good many more people we had a television for the Coronation in 1953. It arrived a little bit early so dad was able to watch the cup final too. He had been very ill with pneumonia, grandma and auntie came to sit with mum overnight while they waited for the 'crisis'. It never came, antibiotics had worked their magic and he recovered quite quickly. Grandma thought it was a miracle. Her thoughts on the telly were never recorded.......and with that happy memory I shall retire to my bed.

We didn't have a tv as early as that, it would have been 1961 when we started renting one from Radio Rentals.
Several years later they persuaded us that it was obsolete and we should get a new one, again rented.

I remember the party line Numberplease. If my memory serves me right you could actually listen in to someone else's conversation when you picked up the receiver to make a call!!!

It took me months to work out how to use Cable TV and then months to work out how to use Sky when I moved house.

Rosesarered - Yes I've just realised you can record really easily on Sky. I don't have a Smart phone or a Tablet but feel quite proud that I'm posting here.

There are some amazing things about technology if you can keep up with it. I've made contact with lost relatives on FB. My old dad who used to make wirelesses would have been fascinated by that.

In my first job I had to make "person to person" calls to Scotland. It took about ten minutes and the call went to London, the Midlands and then up to Scotland. The operator would ring back to say how long the call took!

Hey, maybe things were complicated back in the day but complicated in a different way.

I can't imagine life now without all the ease of modern technology. Well, actually I can, and I wouldn't regress for the world! The days with three small children and standing in front of a twin tub washing machine, no duvets and fitted sheets, no quick and simple communication. When DH was on an unaccompanied posting to Belize, all we had was letters, which invariably crossed. I love my iPad, my iPhone etc etc. and, since I am seriously geographically challenged, GPS was made for me. But isn't it interesting to look back?

(There are, by the way, hundreds of Camberwick Green episodes on YouTube. And other blasts from the past which are fun to look at.)

Loved Camberwick Green and also Trumpton. Watched it everyday when my kids were little. I know all the words for the intro to Trumpton. Also all the names of the characters.

Oh the twin tub - what a nightmare. Remember getting my first automatic washing machine and tumble dryer. Both broke down quite frequently but could be repaired. Also remember the wonder of the first duvet.

Not really to do with this thread but I learnt all the words for Makapacka in the Nightgarden and the actions. My Grandkids think I'm amazing.

Oh yes, Falconbird! DD is five years older than her brothers, so I watched all those programmes with her, then over again with the boys!

Irrelevant but - when I was researching the role of the Miller in Chaucer's "Miller's Tale" I learned that the stereotypical mediaeval miller was a drunken cheat. Remember Windy Miller asleep in front of his windmill with a jug of something at his side?

Last time GD had a sleepover I asked her if she wanted me to put her record ( audio CD ) in the machine, this set her off giggling. Earlier we had a discussion about television and told her that we didn't have one until 1967 when we got married, " did you just watch it on catch up on your computer ?"

My DGD was much amused recently when I said we were going to the pictures

Watch with mother, Andy Pandy, the Woodentops....nostalgia
My children despair when I talk about things when they were young let alone when I was a child!
Party phone lines - if the party line left the phone off the hook you were stumped!

I still say the pictures or the flicks. I remember Windy Miller and I'm also a big fan of Chaucer.

The thing was puzzled me was that the sails on the windmill came right down almost to the ground. Poor Windy had to wait until it was safe to dodge in and if he had been sozzled then it would have been perilous.

It was when I became particularly involved with an episode of Camberwick Green or Trumpton that I realised it was time to think about going back to work of some kind. (I was a thirty something at the time.) Happy Days.

While on the subject of children's progs. Is anyone old enough to remember Listen with Mother? Some of those stories were really weird and terribly moralistic.

Yes, I do remember Listen with Mother - generally my mother did the ironing whilst it was on, but can't remember any of the content!
Also remember Mrs. Dale's Diary and a programme where people (? Forces families) could send messages and requests, Round the Horn and Music While You Work.

Yes! It was two way Family Favourites! Remember listening when we were stationed in Germany. I also loved Round the Horn and The Goons. I also remember Listen with Mother and wasn't there a schools music programme??

My mother loved Mrs Dales Diary. She was always 'worried about Jim'. Mrs Dale not my mum

Music and Movement.....was that it? And who can forget Uncle Mac on Children's Favourites? The Runaway Train, Sparky's Magic Piano, Three Billy Goats Gruff - sure I read somewhere that Uncle Mac was a grumpy old sod who didn't like children.

Music and movement was the schools dancing and movement programme - once a week and the children loved it dancing around the hall and acting make believe stories. Singing together was one of the music/singing ones. that also was once a week but for a junior school age. The BBC did wonderful schools programmes really and we had very good books to go with them. The only downside with either the radio or TV ones was that for many years you needed to remember when they were on and be all set up with the children ready before the programme started. Recorders - tape or video made life a lot simpler. I had the job in one school of recording all the TV programmes for the entire school - primary - luckily for me we hired (normal thing to do then) a great JVC machine from somewhere like Radio Rentals and it had a timer programmer and I could set them to repeat each week. Luckily I was able to time things where I could change the tapes first thing in the morning, playtimes to lunchtime. Happy days!

It was ever thus! I recall my little brother being totally impressed with my nana's mangle! 'What a good idea mummy, can we have one?'

There was a wonderful series on the schools programmes in the 50's which had someone going back into the past and telling us what was happening. I remember being entranced by the stone age one, and it was so good for encouraging your imagination.

In the 90s we used to watch "Words and Pictures" which was a BBC English programme. It must have been pretty ancient then because Wordy Wordstar was the golf ball part of a golf ball typewriter, but the school had them on ancient video tapes. Oh the joy of trying to find the right place on the tape, while the class rioted