Things we used to do

[Illaveago]

Used to find old pieces of wood and prams, take the wheels off and built my own go-carts. Then go down a hill at great speed with no protection. It was fun, but bloody hurts when you crash.

I think that is the main difference between virtual and actual reality. In the real world it hurts.

 

[Illaveago]

In the 60s whilst waiting for a train on the patform we used to pass the time away on a large cast iron machine. The machine was like a large box with a horizontal disc resembling a clock face,in the centre of which was an arrow or pointer and around the rim were letters and numbers. On the side of the machine I think there was a lever, a bit like a one arm bandit. By feeding the machine some pennies you could select numbers or letters and by pulling the lever a thin aluminium strip would be stamped, once you had finished another lever could be used to cut the strip off. I think it must have been the forunner of the hand held label machines of the 70s.

 

[Illaveago]

I can remember the first Who Done It ? I saw was with my mother, it was Bill and Ben! " Which of these two Flower Pot Men."
"Was it Bill or was it Ben?"
A real cliff hanger!

 

[Salar]

In the 60s whilst waiting for a train on the patform we used to pass the time away on a large cast iron machine. The machine was like a large box with a horizontal disc resembling a clock face,in the centre of which was an arrow or pointer and around the rim were letters and numbers. On the side of the machine I think there was a lever, a bit like a one arm bandit. By feeding the machine some pennies you could select numbers or letters and by pulling the lever a thin aluminium strip would be stamped, once you had finished another lever could be used to cut the strip off. I think it must have been the forunner of the hand held label machines of the 70s.

I remember them in the 60's, not sure what use the labels were though? The one I remember had a soup machine next to it, the soup was like salty dish water, some things don't change.

 

[vernon]

Buy Rag mags. Rag Week used to be a huge event with a procession of floats, lot's of events, Rag mag selling etc., etc., when I was an undergraduate in Leeds. There's very little evidence of the event now unless the fancy dress procession from pub to pub in Headingly that I sometimes encounter are part of it.

 

[Illaveago]

Buy Rag mags. Rag Week used to be a huge event with a procession of floats, lot's of events, Rag mag selling etc., etc., when I was an undergraduate in Leeds. There's very little evidence of the event now unless the fancy dress procession from pub to pub in Headingly that I sometimes encounter are part of it.

They used to have some good jokes in those mags.

 

[Illaveago]

Put things in a safe place never to find them again.

 

[Illaveago]

I can remember in the old days that cars and motorcycles used to have their oil changed from summer to winter grade oil, that was before the introduction of multi grade oil.

 

[BigAndyH]

Getting an X ray of your feet when you went to get new shoes. The machines didn't produce a print - you could see your feet on a round screen.

My wife convinced me I was inventing this, until I saw Michael Caine use just such a machine in a she shop to reveal the contents of a locked briefcase in Billion Dollar Brain.

 

[Tim Hall]

Getting an X ray of your feet when you went to get new shoes. The machines didn't produce a print - you could see your feet on a round screen.

My wife convinced me I was inventing this, until I saw Michael Caine use just such a machine in a she shop to reveal the contents of a locked briefcase in Billion Dollar Brain.

Except Michael Caine used it to show the deadly viruses inside the flask in the briefcase. Xray and super duper microscope all in one.

 

[Oldbloke]

I can remember in the old days that cars and motorcycles used to have their oil changed from summer to winter grade oil, that was before the introduction of multi grade oil.

Back in the 70's there were a few garages around Essex that had self service oil changing; at the machine pump you shoved a pipe down the oil filler tube, it was sucked out of the sump, then you refilled with your own oil.

Probably left all sorts of crud in the sump and filter.

 

[Illaveago]

It was fluoroscopy (an Xray 'movie' rather than an X-ray film as such). Our resident imaging expert, @Cunobelin, can explain why it was a very, very bad idea to have fluoroscopy in shoe shops.

When I have had X rays people disappear behind a screen. So in the old shoe shops everyone got to share it.

 

[MontyVeda]

Talking of shoe shops, there was one called Freeman, Hardy & Willis on Horseshoe Corner... ladies shoes downstairs, men's and kids on the first floor. They didn't have a till upstairs, but did have a counter, so you handed over the money upstairs which was loaded into a cylinder and popped into a pneumatic money transfer tube, then walked downstairs to get your change and receipt. It was brilliant as a kid, but thinking back, it was just bonkers @nickyboy will remember it.

 

[nickyboy]

Talking of shoe shops, there was one called Freeman, Hardy & Willis on Horseshoe Corner... ladies shoes downstairs, men's and kids on the first floor. They didn't have a till upstairs, but did have a counter, so you handed over the money upstairs which was loaded into a cylinder and popped into a pneumatic money transfer tube, then walked downstairs to get your change and receipt. It was brilliant as a kid, but thinking back, it was just bonkers @nickyboy will remember it.

I used to get my shoes from FHW too. Don't remember the transfer tube. Maybe I'm just a lot younger than you

 

[MontyVeda]

I used to get my shoes from FHW too. Don't remember the transfer tube. Maybe I'm just a lot younger than you

possibly... it was still in use in the early eighties i guess.