It was just different

There are some things about the contemporary world which I find difficult to believe. Like Google’s driverless cars, or drones delivering packages to your door.

Yet there are things in the fairly recent past that, looking back, seem equally unlikely. Here are a few of them, and before you accuse me of making them up , first check with someone over fifty.

School pupils, especially boys, would be regularly beaten with canes by the teaching staff.

You could fix the vertical hold on your TV by belting the side of the set.

Many thirteen year old boys owned air rifles.

Children spent nearly all of their leisure time away from their parents who were oblivious as to where they were.

School children were forced to drink bottles of milk which had been stored without refrigeration and almost curdled.

A cube of cheddar cheese and a piece of pineapple on a stick were all you needed to add glamour to a party
Teenagers would happily travel in complete strangers cars to reach their destination – it was called hitch hiking.

Airmail letters cost so much that they were written on special thin paper.

The only way to copy a letter was to type it using carbon paper.

Having a good fire in a back yard drum was the accepted way of disposing of rubbish.

Telephoning overseas involved first booking a time slot – and was mostly only done at Christmas.

Wages were paid in cash.

If you wanted something but couldn’t afford it the shop would ‘put it aside’ until you had payed it off in agreed instalments.

People rarely worked at weekends.

Banks only opened for public business between the hours of 10 am and 3 pm.

Cars were not totally reliable and it was usual to see cars stopped by boiling radiators on the long winding hills.

My point isn’t that the past was better of worse than the present, it was just different.