What Thing From the Olden Days Would You Bring Back?

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If you can restore one thing from days of yore what would it be?

― MarkH (MarkH), Saturday, 8 January 2005 12:06 (twenty years ago)

I would quite like to bring back big shops with long counters where the staff do all the running around and get stuff for you in place of supermarkets. Well one particular supermarket actually, the Sainsbury's in Oxford's Westgate which is unrivalled in its awfulness.

― MarkH (MarkH), Saturday, 8 January 2005 12:08 (twenty years ago)

I miss video game arcades. Bring those back, dammit.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 8 January 2005 12:12 (twenty years ago)

Uh, my twenties?

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Saturday, 8 January 2005 14:08 (twenty years ago)

No, really. I went to a bar last night and I have less bills in my wallet than when I left the apartment.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Saturday, 8 January 2005 14:09 (twenty years ago)

Neighbours who talk to each other.

― Markelby (Mark C), Saturday, 8 January 2005 14:18 (twenty years ago)

Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens (Vauxhall's such a shithole these days and I have to go through it every time I get on a train).

― Markelby (Mark C), Saturday, 8 January 2005 14:19 (twenty years ago)

The Mappin Terraces at Earls Court exhibition hall

― mark grout (mark grout), Saturday, 8 January 2005 14:46 (twenty years ago)

Acid.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Saturday, 8 January 2005 14:48 (twenty years ago)

secular humanism.

― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Saturday, 8 January 2005 15:13 (twenty years ago)

failing that, mini-skirts and hot pants.

― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Saturday, 8 January 2005 15:14 (twenty years ago)

how about secular humanists in mini-skirts and hotpants?

― MarkH (MarkH), Saturday, 8 January 2005 15:16 (twenty years ago)

streetcars and interurbans.

― teeny (teeny), Saturday, 8 January 2005 15:18 (twenty years ago)

when people were decent and hard-working.
TEH CRUSADES!!!!!!!1

― fauxhemian (fauxhemian), Saturday, 8 January 2005 20:56 (twenty years ago)

Automats

― Jimmy Mod always makes friends with women before bedding them down (ModJ), Saturday, 8 January 2005 21:05 (twenty years ago)

more telegrams. sent frivolously, or from across the street.

― youn, Saturday, 8 January 2005 21:11 (twenty years ago)

Neighbours who talk to each other.
-- Markelby (boyincorduro...) (webmail), January 8th, 2005. (Mark C)

careful what you wish for...

― J Cutler (will), Saturday, 8 January 2005 21:27 (twenty years ago)

DISCO! and sex, pre-AIDS.

― kevin says relax (daddy warbuxx), Sunday, 9 January 2005 08:00 (twenty years ago)

Real stockings, with seams, made of 100% nylon and Cuban manicures.

― Miss Misery (thatgirl), Sunday, 9 January 2005 09:22 (twenty years ago)

Gutta Percha.

― papa november (papa november), Sunday, 9 January 2005 14:00 (twenty years ago)

Coca cola with cocaine in it
Good hip hop
Men wearing hats
Women wearing bright red lipstick
The idea of exploration (unknown countries...but not colonialism)
The days before pop-psychology speak
Novelists being socially important. First-name-basis "celebrities" being less so.
Govt economic support for the needy (in the US)

― paulhw (paulhw), Sunday, 9 January 2005 22:00 (twenty years ago)

Bear baiting.

― Kevin Gilchrist (Mr Fusion), Sunday, 9 January 2005 22:04 (twenty years ago)

*andhi

― abbnab, Sunday, 9 January 2005 23:01 (twenty years ago)

3 million unemployed

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 9 January 2005 23:05 (twenty years ago)

The birch/young people with respect for others and property

― Markelby (Mark C), Sunday, 9 January 2005 23:09 (twenty years ago)

Olde time bikes!

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Sunday, 9 January 2005 23:09 (twenty years ago)

I can't really think of anything! Gareth Gates being a major pop star would probably be the main one, if that counts.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Sunday, 9 January 2005 23:12 (twenty years ago)

Also if someone could reassemble the 'Darklands' team, that'd be good.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Sunday, 9 January 2005 23:13 (twenty years ago)

Those... slanted caps with the enormous feather coming out the top, like what Robin Hood used to wear.

― haitch™ (haitch), Sunday, 9 January 2005 23:14 (twenty years ago)

Damn, I had one or two of those hats. (blushes)

I wish they still put manual chokes in cars.

― jim wentworth (wench), Monday, 10 January 2005 02:51 (twenty years ago)

corsets, hats and gloves, manners

― Holly (an appletross), Monday, 10 January 2005 02:58 (twenty years ago)

Dinosaurs.

― Bruce S. Urquhart (BanjoMania), Monday, 10 January 2005 03:00 (twenty years ago)

People wearing hats when outside, a hatstand at every door etc.

Cars that aren't pieces of Korean crap.

― Sasha (sgh), Monday, 10 January 2005 03:53 (twenty years ago)

do they seriously not have videogame arcades anymore??

― John (jdahlem), Monday, 10 January 2005 04:05 (twenty years ago)

omg manual chokes in cars! my first car had one, it ruled.

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 10 January 2005 04:16 (twenty years ago)

child labor

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 10 January 2005 04:20 (twenty years ago)

opium dens
laudanum

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Monday, 10 January 2005 04:25 (twenty years ago)

vaudeville

― gem (trisk), Monday, 10 January 2005 04:28 (twenty years ago)

minstrelry

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Monday, 10 January 2005 04:29 (twenty years ago)

Cars that don't look like melted jellybeans

― Jimmy Mod always makes friends with women before bedding them down (ModJ), Monday, 10 January 2005 04:32 (twenty years ago)

I thought this thread would be about the Olden Days of ILX.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 10 January 2005 04:32 (twenty years ago)

there are still video game arcades!

milk delivery every morning
full service gas stations

― Emilymv (Emilymv), Monday, 10 January 2005 04:32 (twenty years ago)

wooden baseball bats for all levels of play
bubble gum in baseball card packs
drive-in movies
soda foutains
car hops on roller skates

― jim wentworth (wench), Monday, 10 January 2005 05:21 (twenty years ago)

minstrelry
-- milozauckerman

who sez it went away?

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 10 January 2005 05:27 (twenty years ago)

Bubble gum in baseball cards is crucial.

Dollar coins that are not gay.

― Jimmy Mod always makes friends with women before bedding them down (ModJ), Monday, 10 January 2005 05:29 (twenty years ago)

Blowjobs in cars from girls who were afraid to go all the way.

― Oral B., Monday, 10 January 2005 05:29 (twenty years ago)

Spats!

― daria g (daria g), Monday, 10 January 2005 05:48 (twenty years ago)

The three-strip Technicolor process

― Jimmy Mod always makes friends with women before bedding them down (ModJ), Monday, 10 January 2005 05:49 (twenty years ago)

- the price of gas being under $1.00 a gallon (or, *sighs*, $0.90 a gallon -- yes, I do remember those times....)
- I second Emily's full-service gas stations mention
- children's clothing that looks like it's actually MEANT for children
- people at the supermarket whose job it is to help tote your groceries out to your vehicle and then put them in the trunk
- drivers who actually know to use their turn signal when indicating a desire to change lanes
- bedroom sets for adults that included FULL-size beds (not queen or king)
- new home constructions featuring bedrooms that are actually larger than 10' x 10'
- children who were actually respectful to their elders
- a time before cell phones
- "American Bandstand"
- MTV actually playing music videos (shock! horror!)
- more "independent" radio stations (though my Mega Radio Corp. ire is mainly directed at Cox Communications, not at That Usual Suspect)
- a time when women's magazines actually thought highly enough of their readership that they'd print lengthy articles in small print, vs. the sixth-grade textbook-size megaprint and short attention span-ish article size evidenced in those magazines today
- Woolworth's

I think that should be it.

― Samantha Baker (Dee the Lurker), Monday, 10 January 2005 05:56 (twenty years ago)

flappers
speakeasies
moonshine
bathtub gin

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Monday, 10 January 2005 05:59 (twenty years ago)

Olde

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 10 January 2005 06:08 (twenty years ago)

Programs on the radio

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 10 January 2005 06:24 (twenty years ago)

bench seats

― gem (trisk), Monday, 10 January 2005 06:26 (twenty years ago)

drive ins

― gem (trisk), Monday, 10 January 2005 06:27 (twenty years ago)

Corvairs

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Monday, 10 January 2005 06:30 (twenty years ago)

milo-there is still moonshine and bathtub gin! clearly you haven't spent enought time in appalchia!

― Emilymv (Emilymv), Monday, 10 January 2005 08:35 (twenty years ago)

huge raves circa '87
linnen bonnets and blouses which accentuate the breast.
carribean piracy
not having to be aware of the damage we are doing to the planet
80s arobic jumpers with big necks like what jennifer beals wears in flashdance.

― lukey (Lukey G), Monday, 10 January 2005 09:56 (twenty years ago)

mutual respect for one's fellow man

hapiness stan's club night in farringdon

bowler hats (pre-clockwork orange), along with umbrellas, briefcases and the phrase "raining cats and dogs"

easily accessible housing associations

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Monday, 10 January 2005 10:02 (twenty years ago)

Manners.

― Puddin'Head Miller (PJ Miller), Monday, 10 January 2005 10:36 (twenty years ago)

Bazooka Joe comics
LCD watch games
when space missions were exciting

there are still video game arcades!

Yeah if you like dancing or driving.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Monday, 10 January 2005 10:51 (twenty years ago)

10 cent comics
Marcel waved hair
Food that doesn't taste like crap
The horse as a viable method of transportation
Forcing children to watch filmstrips of "In the Night Kitchen" and such
Double features
Vienna, ca. 1900

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Monday, 10 January 2005 13:20 (twenty years ago)

The horse as a viable method of transportation

YES!

― Ste (Fuzzy), Monday, 10 January 2005 13:24 (twenty years ago)

Pathe newsreels
Morse Code
Tomorrows World
Test Cards
Oracle
William Low
Galbraiths
The word 'gay' in it's innocent context

― Rumpington Lane, Monday, 10 January 2005 13:39 (twenty years ago)

another vote for dinosaurs here.

and, much harder to explain, a general excitement about the unknown and unfamiliar. similar to what someone said about exploring, but wider. (this has occurred to me several times recently, when i see or do things that people 'of yore' or even people from paw paw might find exceptionally exciting, but are just normal to me)it would be cool to be that excited about things i take for granted.

― colette (a2lette), Monday, 10 January 2005 14:09 (twenty years ago)

The Thames as a widespread, integrated and viable form of public transport in London.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Monday, 10 January 2005 14:11 (twenty years ago)

the days when the thames wended its way from highgate to w1.

― henry miller, Monday, 10 January 2005 14:12 (twenty years ago)

Isn't Ritchie Blackmore a wandering minstrel now?

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:09 (twenty years ago)

I'd bring back:

* tapes
* vhs
* queues

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:11 (twenty years ago)

MTV actually playing music videos (shock! horror!)

I thought of loads of things, but this comment made me pine for the days when the UK got MTV Europe and all the VJs had unplaceable Euro accents. I can't remember anything I wanted to put down now, although I still wear bright red lipstick quite a lot of the time.

― Anna (Anna), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:18 (twenty years ago)

terra cotta.

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:20 (twenty years ago)

* proper lunch hours
* working coz it needed to be done, not cause the man said so
* tea

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:23 (twenty years ago)

the price of gas being under $1.00 a gallon (or, *sighs*, $0.90 a gallon -- yes, I do remember those times....)

That's quite incredible. When are you talking about? The earliest I can clock this in the UK is in around 1980, where it was about £1.25 a gallon, this, at current exchange rates runs to about $2.30. I guess we're talking pre-energy crisis in the UK when it was $0.90 a gallon.

I suppose it's counting as the olden days though.

― KeithW (kmw), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:24 (twenty years ago)

Gas has always been cheaper in the US than anywhere else in the world.

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:25 (twenty years ago)

80s arobic jumpers with big necks like what jennifer beals wears in flashdance.

People, like me, still wear these!

― Allyzay Needs Legs More (allyzay), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:35 (twenty years ago)

I still get milk delivered. And I have a window cleaner.

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:36 (twenty years ago)

The Hellfire Club

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:40 (twenty years ago)

Dallas
Dynasty
Blankety Blank

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:41 (twenty years ago)

The Plague
The Court of Star Chamber
Public Flogging
The Fyrd
Droit de Cuissage
La Gabelle

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

The entrance to the hollow earth

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:45 (twenty years ago)

CHILDHOOD

― peepee (peepee), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:45 (twenty years ago)

bakelite

― laurence kansas (lawrence kansas), Monday, 10 January 2005 19:11 (twenty years ago)

Burgess Meredith

― laurence kansas (lawrence kansas), Monday, 10 January 2005 19:13 (twenty years ago)

pubic hair

― LSTD (answer) (sexyDancer), Monday, 10 January 2005 19:18 (twenty years ago)

Creamola Foam, and Audiogalaxy.

― retort pouch (retort pouch), Monday, 10 January 2005 19:33 (twenty years ago)

affordable real estate

― TOMBOT, Monday, 10 January 2005 19:53 (twenty years ago)

are you talking about bakelite jewelry? my grandmother sells it on the internet! she has rooms full of vintge jewelry, and a sizable chunk of it is bakelite.

― Emilymv (Emilymv), Monday, 10 January 2005 21:17 (twenty years ago)

Whatever those dances are called where the women ask the men to dance, and everybody wears socks. I may be mixing up two different things.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 10 January 2005 21:22 (twenty years ago)

do they wear the socks on their feet or someplace else?

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 10 January 2005 21:23 (twenty years ago)

are you talking about a sock hop? i think they wore socks to those, but not shoes. and on their feet.

― Emilymv (Emilymv), Monday, 10 January 2005 21:30 (twenty years ago)

Sadie Hawkins dance are where girls ask boys.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Monday, 10 January 2005 21:33 (twenty years ago)

(ANNA! ANNA DEARIE! I miss you so, so, so much!)

(Does the UK get its own MTV now, BTW?)

Well, in the earliest childhood memories I have of going with my parents to the gas station, way back when I was maybe five years old or so, I remember gas prices being about $0.89 a gallon. And then, going back to the early '90s or so, I remember gas prices hovering at around the $0.99 a gallon mark for a seemingly long while. I don't remember gas prices in this town being at or above the $1.00 mark until about 1994.

What Kenan's said, BTW, isn't exactly true. Certainly I must point out that I live in an area where gas prices have historically been lower than in almost all the rest of the country, so these prices aren't necessarily indicative of the country's prices as a whole. (Even Dallas has higher gas prices than does S.A.) And even then, it must be pointed out that places such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan have rock-bottom gas prices and I remember Robert D. Kaplan going through some country in central Asia where he expressed surprise that gas was cheaper than water. So certainly those places would make the price of gas in the U.S. seem sky-high by comparison.

Um, anyway.

― Samantha Baker (Dee the Lurker), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 06:19 (twenty years ago)

well, what kind of water was he talking about? i mean, you could say that gas is cheaper than water here in the u.s. right now. if you meant the average 20oz bottled water (about $1) compared to a gallon of gas (about $2).

― Emilymv (Emilymv), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 06:25 (twenty years ago)

I think we had a Sadie Hawkins dance at my high school. I am from the Olden Days.

― youn, Tuesday, 11 January 2005 06:37 (twenty years ago)

trampoline parks! letters in your phone number! fern bars! small cars!
bidets! oh wait, i guess that's not olden just french.
layers of ridiculous, restrictive, decorative, well-fitting clothes!

― lolita corpus (lolitacorpus), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 07:22 (twenty years ago)

Right after the Exxon Valdez spill, I remember Exxon stations having gas at $.89 - that was 1989.

― wetmink (wetmink), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 08:54 (twenty years ago)

a healthy attitude towards sex in mainstream hollywood movies!

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 09:10 (twenty years ago)

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