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Before the internet...


8 Hairy Feet

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6 minutes ago, Kev's Halcyon said:

Simple answer is, you wouldn't have, but also, you wouldn't know that there was any up to date information, so you'd be non the wiser.

Yep. and it doesnt realy matter does it. Our first boat was advertised in Waterways world and was parked on the canal bank in Ansty when we bought it and the ad must have taken a couple of weeks to get out there.

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In the late 80's, we lived in Texas for a few years. I was lucky. I had a ham radio license so could get on the radio Saturday lunchtime and find someone in the UK to give me the footy results. Without a ham radio I would have been stuffed. Texan newspapers only carry texan news. Couldnt even get BBC world service there although my mate up in Clevland, Ohio could get the world service ok. I wonder what it will be like in 40 years time?

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39 minutes ago, 8 Hairy Feet said:

Please could you tell me how you

would have received up to date information

before we had the internet.

Young people sometimes ask me questions like this. I think on the whole the answer is that for most purposes in life you don't need up to date information, and when we did there was TV, radio, land line telephones and word of mouth, which meant people fairly soon found out about anything major that was happening. Not as instantly as nowadays, but soon enough. For less urgent information we wrote a letter, which in the 1970s was more economic than long distance phone calls; local calls were quite cheap but over a certain distance (56km?) phone calls became pricey.

What would really flummox the average young person today would be how we managed to meet up with people when out. Before mobile phones, it was necessary to arrange a time and place to meet and stick to it. If something went wrong, both parties could find a phone box (remember those?, there are still some about) and call a suitable intermediary such as a parent, secretary etc. to make a fresh arrangement, but this depended on both knowing or guessing who that suitable intermediary would be, it wasn't easy.

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1 minute ago, Peter X said:

Young people sometimes ask me questions like this. I think on the whole the answer is that for most purposes in life you don't need up to date information, and when we did there was TV, radio, land line telephones and word of mouth, which meant people fairly soon found out about anything major that was happening. Not as instantly as nowadays, but soon enough. For less urgent information we wrote a letter, which in the 1970s was more economic than long distance phone calls; local calls were quite cheap but over a certain distance (56km?) phone calls became pricey.

What would really flummox the average young person today would be how we managed to meet up with people when out. Before mobile phones, it was necessary to arrange a time and place to meet and stick to it. If something went wrong, both parties could find a phone box (remember those?, there are still some about) and call a suitable intermediary such as a parent, secretary etc. to make a fresh arrangement, but this depended on both knowing or guessing who that suitable intermediary would be, it wasn't easy.

Fab wasnt it. I remember telephoning my girlfriend at her parents place from the North Atlantic in the Arctic circle in the mid seventies. She thought it was amazing at the time that I could ring her from a warship lol.

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1 hour ago, Kev's Halcyon said:

Simple answer is, you wouldn't have, but also, you wouldn't know that there was any up to date information, so you'd be non the wiser.

For canal stoppages you rang a dedicated number (later two numbers for North and South) which had a recorded message listing stoppages.

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2 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

What! You mean there was a time before internet? How did anyone survive. 

We played footy in the street; climbed trees, fell out, broke an arm or two; went train spotting; made good use of the local swimming baths; went for long cycle rides, often on the pavement, got a clip round the ear from the local bobby; flew control line model aircraft, built Airfix model kits and a myriad of other outdoor activities. 

Edited by Ray T
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12 minutes ago, Ray T said:

We played footy in the street; climbed trees, fell out, broke an arm or two; went train spotting; made good use of the local swimming baths; went for long cycle rides, often on the pavement, got a clip round the ear from the local bobby; flew control line model aircraft, built Airfix model kits and a myriad of other outdoor activities. 

In short........We had a life!!

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1 hour ago, 8 Hairy Feet said:

Please could you tell me how you

would have received up to date information

before we had the internet.

 

Teletext and the other 'text on the telly' service run by ITV for all manner of useful information but not canal stoppages, if that is what you mean. 

Prior to that it was telephone recorded message services, newsletters in the post and notices on noticeboards. 

Oh and Telegrams if you needed to tell someone something urgently, and you were rich. 

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Just now, mrsmelly said:

I havnt!!........... I am again on the poxy internet:lol:

Good idea to use a proxy if you can, although it does slow the connection down a bit. :)

Just now, rusty69 said:

Good idea to use a proxy if you can, although it does slow the connection down a bit. :)

Eeeeeeeeeejut 

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32 minutes ago, Ray T said:

built Airfix model kits and a myriad of other outdoor activities.

I used to build my Airfix models in my bedroom!

44 minutes ago, Peter X said:

Before mobile phones, it was necessary to arrange a time and place to meet and stick to it.

Yes, this. In other words, we thought ahead... and arrived at meetings on time, usually.

Edited by Machpoint005
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We used to worship Thursdays because that was when Exchange & Mart came out, although if you had a paper round with the local Newsagent you could get a copy Wednesday night!

We were able to do paper rounds, help the milkman or give the Pop Man a hand because we were allowed out and didn't rely on an inhaler to drag our fat little bodies around.

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1 minute ago, zenataomm said:

We used to worship Thursdays because that was when Exchange & Mart came out, although if you had a paper round with the local Newsagent you could get a copy Wednesday night!

We were able to do paper rounds, help the milkman or give the Pop Man a hand because we were allowed out and didn't rely on an inhaler to drag our fat little bodies around.

I luuuuurved E and M I got it as a kid every week. Bought a fab microscope out of  it about 1965 and my stick insects that came live in a small cardboard box through the post.

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3 minutes ago, zenataomm said:

 

We were able to do paper rounds, help the milkman or give the Pop Man a hand because we were allowed out and didn't rely on an inhaler to drag our fat little bodies around.

 

This is one change I think very sad. When I was 11 I got my first paper round and by 12 I was working in the bike shop fixing bicycles. My kids seemed unable to get any sort of casual work until they were 16. This seems insane. 

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40 minutes ago, billS said:

We just sat in our caves and waited for the internet to be invented.

It is a pity that the internet and phobile mones were not around when 'The Flintstones' cartoon series were being made. It would have been interesting to see what comedic slant Hanna and Barbera would have put on them.

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