Things we used to do

[Levo-Lon]

I once made a explosive device..i say explosive as i simply wrapped a roll of caps you put in a cap gun up in tin foil...then hit it with a lump hammer...%€£=÷×= bloody hell..the dog yelped in the house 30yds away and my ears rang for hrs..
the hammer took off and fortunately missed my head....
not a good idea in hindsight..

 

[Ian H]

I am old enough to have used a tea strainer,not of your poncy tea bags in my youf.

It was Tetley in 1953 that drove the introduction of tea bags in Britain, but other companies soon caught up. In the early 1960s, tea bags made up less than 3 per cent of the British market, but this has been growing steadily ever since. By 2007 tea bags made up a phenomenal 96 per cent of the British market, and there can hardly be a home or workplace in Britain that does not have a stash of the humble, but vital, tea bag.

We still use loose tea and a strainer.

My great aunt would make tea in her favourite mug by adding in turn a spoonful of tea, some milk and hot water. For a subsequent cup she would top-up all the ingredients. This would repeat until the cup was half-full of tea leaves, whereupon she would empty it and start again.

 

[Dave the Smeghead]

I put the milk cartons in the recycling now, whereas 'in the old days', we put the milk bottles out on the doorstep.

I still do this....
And make a coffee for him every Saturday when he wants paying and we chat for 10 minutes usually on the b*stards that haven't paid him in weeks

 

[raleighnut]

We still use loose tea and a strainer.

My great aunt would make tea in her favourite mug by adding in turn a spoonful of tea, some milk and hot water. For a subsequent cup she would top-up all the ingredients. This would repeat until the cup was half-full of tea leaves, whereupon she would empty it and start again.

 

[MontyVeda]

Drinking Lucozade medicinally when ill and buying it from the chemist in all it's orange cellophane wrapped glory.

being told by my dad not to eat his Lockets, "...because they're medicine."

 

[Ciar]

Riding with my mates on our BMX's round Wanstead park, using the two ponds as race tracks to fly round thinking we were one of the top American teams like Diamonback or Mongoose back in the 80's

or using the pedalback brake on the same said bike only for loose chain to come flying of and me getting up close and personal with a car, i never used it again!

or playing on what would become the A406 which runs through the edge of Wanstead Park now, back as a kid it was like playing in trenches and once they built the actual road, before opening we used to take very large bits of plywood and make ramps only to fall and proper hurt yourself, oh heady days and lots of grazes

 

[tyred]

I have just seen someone using a telephone box for its intended purpose! She even had the receiver in her hand and everything.
I thought the phone boxes around here were only used as:
a) a display board for the "ladies of the night" cards
b) somewhere to stand out of the wind when making a call on your mobile
c) a lavatory for when the walk between pubs or the pub and home is just too long

I used one last December when I needed to make a phone call and couldn't find any network coverage (very remote area). It had ivy growing inside it and opening the door sounded like the doors in old spooky horror films.

It's nice though, shut out the outside world and make your call instead of standing shouting competing with passing cars which is the modern way of making calls on the move.

 

[Illaveago]

I can remember a time when I could go upstairs without forgetting what I went up for!

 

[mybike]

I can remember a time when I could go upstairs without forgetting what I went up for!

I don't recall such a time.

 

[MontyVeda]

I can remember a time when I could go upstairs without forgetting what I went up for!

do you stubbornly stand at the top until you remember?

 

[Illaveago]

do you stubbornly stand at the top until y remember?

Yes, it happened this morning, I eventually remembered what it was........................I'm trying to remember what it was now.

 

[Bazzer]

I once made a explosive device..i say explosive as i simply wrapped a roll of caps you put in a cap gun up in tin foil...then hit it with a lump hammer...%€£=÷×= bloody hell..the dog yelped in the house 30yds away and my ears rang for hrs..
the hammer took off and fortunately missed my head....
not a good idea in hindsight..

Once did something similar. Whilst at secondary school, a friend acquired some blanks used for starting pistols. I took one home and having failed to work out how to extract the explosive element, sat on the front door step and hit it with a hammer. Fortunatley before my parents arrived home as I would probably have had a good walloping from each of them and got my friend expelled from school as they were probably acquired from school in the first place.
Trying to clean up powder burns from a concrete step with shaking hands, whilst desperately preventing ones bowels from emptying, with ears feeling like they were directly plugged into a stack of Marshall amps at a thrash metal concert, is not recommended.

 

[MontyVeda]

Yes, it happened this morning, I eventually remembered what it was........................I'm trying to remember what it was now.

since I live in a flat, I don't really have the stairs problem... what I do do is pop to the kitchen for a screwdriver or pliers or something and return with nothing but a cup of tea.

 

[Illaveago]

Once did something similar. Whilst at secondary school, a friend acquired some blanks used for starting pistols. I took one home and having failed to work out how to extract the explosive element, sat on the front door step and hit it with a hammer. Fortunatley before my parents arrived home as I would probably have had a good walloping from each of them and got my friend expelled from school as they were probably acquired from school in the first place.
Trying to clean up powder burns from a concrete step with shaking hands, whilst desperately preventing ones bowels from emptying, with ears feeling like they were directly plugged into a stack of Marshall amps at a thrash metal concert, is not recommended.

My friend and I did a similar thing in the 60's. He was older than me and his dad worked on the railway. He came up with a circular object the size of a small tin of pellets. " Shall we set this off". He said .
" Yes, what is it?" I replied not having a clue.
" It's a detonator "
Still none the wiser. Anyway one hit with a sledge hammer only flattened it, but the second one did it. One almighty loud bang, nothing but white powder where this thing used to be. A very loud ringing in our ears and the two of us rolling around laughing our heads off. Our older brothers had come rushing down from the top of the field to see what had happened, only to find two loonies still laughing.

 

[raleighnut]

My friend and I did a similar thing in the 60's. He was older than me and his dad worked on the railway. He came up with a circular object the size of a small tin of pellets. " Shall we set this off". He said .
" Yes, what is it?" I replied not having a clue.
" It's a detonator "
Still none the wiser. Anyway one hit with a sledge hammer only flattened it, but the second one did it. One almighty loud bang, nothing but white powder where this thing used to be. A very loud ringing in our ears and the two of us rolling around laughing our heads off. Our older brothers had come rushing down from the top of the field to see what had happened, only to find two loonies still laughing.

They were used on railway lines to tell the driver to stop in the event of signal failure, I think it was 3 of them spaced at intervals that meant stop immediately.

EDIT - Linky
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&r...ilway)&usg=AFQjCNH2qkUTT3h8o1woVJjJQba1Yve_Fg