Old & Nostalgic

[EddieA]

Those were the days when people dealing with the public
would call you sir or madam instead of mate or pal. 

A few things have not changed like GPs' receptionists
who are invariably less than helpful and Post Office queues
where somebody is gossiping with the  counter clerk about
someones' wife. husband or budgie.

Despite all their so called "Mission statements" printed in every
language except Klingon many local authority employees are often
less than helpful or downright stupid.

When my Dad died on Christmas Day 2011 I went to
the registrar's office on the 27th  and was asked if I had
made an appointment, I replied that I did'nt know he was
going to die leading to a frosty look from the minion
who was  dealing with me.

Some things I don't miss

Max Bygraves
Smoking in eating places
Gilbert O'Sullivan
Elvis movies
Vesta curries.......

Vesta Curries - now that takes me back to my childhood in the late 60's... (unfortunately Pot Noodles are still with us )

But seriously 'smoking in eating places' - I remember well when the smoking ban came into effect (hoorah!) going into a pub a few weeks later. The difference was great.

But for me nostalgic is some of the shops that are now longer with us - 'Woolies' is the one that springs to mind (our local one is now a Poundland!).

Also more recently, in the balance as I type, Jessops and HMV.

Some of us maybe don't want to shop on the Internet and prefer to go into a proper shop, speak to a real person, see and handle the goods before we buy, pay and walk out with them in a poly bag!

OK, I'm a GOM...

[longbridge]

Yep things just ain't the same, I am glad I am 69 years old and wont have to put up with this crazy world for to much longer, crikey they cant even show a decent Animal Documentary without showing all the gory bits, they think we don't have an imagination 

I look at my Grandkids and wonder what kind of life they will have 

[justintime]

Oh "The Good Old Days".  Buying sweet tobacco from the corner shop as a kid (do gooders would have a coronary if that was sold to children today).  Buying 2 park drive in a white paper bag at the grand age of 14, getting 2/6d a week for doing a paper round 7 mornings & 6 evenings and best of all watching steam trains being serviced from the local park Oh and discovering girls 

[trainsdownunder]

Oh "The Good Old Days".  Buying sweet tobacco from the corner shop as a kid (do gooders would have a coronary if that was sold to children today).  Buying 2 park drive in a white paper bag at the grand age of 14, getting 2/6d a week for doing a paper round 7 mornings & 6 evenings and best of all watching steam trains being serviced from the local park Oh and discovering girls 

Brace yourself everyone - I feel a huge wave of Nostalgia approaching

Pass the sick bag Alice 

[Pengi]

I think that I am lucky to live in the timescale that I am in. We've had a total eclipse and other rare natural phenomena, Olympics/Paralmpics in London, some of the greatest sportsmen and women and animals (e.g. Federer, Ellen MacArthur, Frankel, Kauto Star etc) of all time, the rail tunnel under the channel was built and opened, smart phones etc, etc

However, I am sad to see names like Jessops disappearing.

[Malc]

What about the craze for Victory V lozenges and licorice imps? Button A and B public telephones? Those machines on station platforms that you could use to stamp out a metal strip with letters on?  Paynes chocolate peanuts?

[Oldman]

Fruit Salad chews and Decent sized wagon wheels from the school tuck shop.
Met some incredible people over the years.
Dr Barnes Wallis, Andy Green(Thrust land speed driver), Murray Walker, Patrick Moore. Donald Campbell
The changes in technology. From Sinclair ZX81 to  modern laptops. Cars that will do more than 60MPH. Artic lorries that have increased massively. Colour TV-  can still remember B&W. Pirate radio stations like Radio Caroline,listening to Radio Luxemburg at weekends after dark.
The old analogue mobile phone system where phones were just for calls, personal  pagers and Pounds,Shillings and Pence.
Falklands War, Fall of the Berlin Wall, Space Travel, The first jet passenger planes on package holidays. Day trips to france when you did not need a passport.

Just a few of my memories.

[Agrippa]

Re your reply Oldman, mention of wagon wheels reminds me of a family tale.
My dad was brought up in the thirties , in a single parent family scraping by,
few or no social services handouts with my granny working as a cleaner
in shops. They had little money and when my Dad was starting school
it was feared that my Granny would have to get his clothes from
the parish as it was called in Glasgow, ie stuff that other kids would know
where it came from and ridicule you.However my gran  worshipped at a small
gospel church and one of other worshippers was one of the Weston
family of wagon wheels fame who arranged for new clothes and shoes for my
Dad bought from a high class outfitters.

PS in later life my Dad voted Conservative.
It's a funny old game !

I

[EtchedPixels]

Funny thing is go back a couple of generations further and the shops delivered your orders at least if you were posh. The internet stuff isn't "new" - although Amazon is a slightly larger scale than the grocers boy and bicycle.

For the most part I much prefer internet ordering and having the shopping delivered. Mind you ebook readers are dangerous. That looks a good book, click, oops 

[Hailstone]

I miss the days when if you had a problem with a service or something you had bought, If you called them you would speak to someone from that company who actually knew what you were talking about and would do something to help, instead of a foreign call centre manned by polite but useless people reading from scripts that do not help at all

[Caz]

And when you get through to one of those call centres all I keep having to do is ask them to repeat what they said as I can't understand what they are saying with their heavy accents.   

[scotsoft]

And when you get through to one of those call centres all I keep having to do is ask them to repeat what they said as I can't understand what they are saying with their heavy accents.   

The last couple I have used have sent me an email afterwards, containing a link asking me to complete a customer satisfaction survey.  I complete the survey with relish and give full vent to "heavily accented" help centres 

If enough folk did this they might eventually realise these heavily accented call centres are not liked.

cheers John.

[trainsdownunder]

Getting off topic a bit now - Call centres should be in the angry thread !

[port perran]

Ah Welcome to the Call Centre.
The most annoying one is when broadband breaks down and the recorded message tells you that further help can be
obtained by visiting www.nohelpatall.com.
How can you visit the website when the internet isn't working ?

[EtchedPixels]

I miss the days when if you had a problem with a service or something you had bought, If you called them you would speak to someone from that company who actually knew what you were talking about and would do something to help, instead of a foreign call centre manned by polite but useless people reading from scripts that do not help at all

Thats why my ISP is Andrews & Arnold. It costs a little bit more but I get fixed addresses, can run my own mail and web server if I want. The staff understand the subject and the management people do things like writing pieces of PBX software in their spare time.

You can get good customer service from an ISP but it's more expensive than employing low paid muppets to script read on the far side of the planet.