Remember when...

It was. But fun. You made me feel old. Cheers.

On the mobile one. Being embarrassed to be seen with one. My dad was a tech head so always got the "gimmicks'. I was notorious for not ringing home when I was out, so given this massive Nokia that was using a billion doube a batteries. I'd be less furtive selling drugs than using that yoke.

I was lucky to have a few foreign holidays before the Euro changeover. Last few days were the same, being told to watch your money, don’t be breaking notes, check if you can pay with the coins that you have first cos they won’t take coins in the bureau de change.

That just reminded me of the following -

Remember in 1991 when Homer ate a poisonous fugu in a sushi restaurant, was given 22 hours to live - said a touching goodbye to his family in the night and went downstairs to listen to the bible on tape in his last moments.

Cut to a shot of the next morning, he's in the same chair listening and suddenly slumps down, the tape deck falls out of his hand. Cue image of the house from the outside, camera zooming out.

Now we all know what happens next, but I have such a vivid memory of being 7, seeing that image and literally thinking Homer was dead.

Means nothing to people now given how synonymous the Simpsons is these days with crap tv, but back then the show was such a big deal. Be interesting to see how adult animation would have played out over the proceeding decades if they'd ended the show there!

Oh The Simpsons is a crap, unwatchable hot mess. Has been for decades.

Should have ended after season 9. Was a perfect show up until that point.

I am 100% biased as I grew up watching it every week from episode 1 but what they have done to it is absolutely unforgivable. Well from my point of view anyway as I loved the show so much.

Imagine if, after The Sopranos reached it's peak at season 6, they continued it for another 28 seasons. By literally having guest starts appear randomly.

Tony Soprano, fresh off a recent job is taking a stroll along the boardwalk. He hears a skateboard approaching.

Tony Soprano: 'Hi Tony Hawk!'

Tony Hawk: 'Hi Tony Soprano!'

Tony Soprano: 'We have the same first name, LOL''

Tony Hawk: 'I know, LOL'

Absolutely outrageous, but that's been The Simpsons now for a very, very long time.

Edit - I shall be watching The Sugar Thief this evening, what an episode!

I remember when I bought a watch that had a clock face AND a small digital screen underneath it. I thought I was James Bond!! (From Dr. No era)

I don't think I turned on the chime because that would be showing off.

...

Credit card imprinter machines.

You put the card in the machine with some carbon paper on top and pull the handle back and forth to make a copy of the customers details.

Interestingly enough, those of you that still have physical cards, you will see that all of your information is raised up off the face of the card, which would allow the carbon paper to make a copy of the details.

Cha chunk

Well, there was Emily Davison, the English suffragette who threw herself in front of the King's horse in the Epsom Derby in 1913. That was over 100 years ago. Not the Grand National, but still. (Women still got equal suffrage in Ireland before they did in England.)

When stuff like this use be in cereal boxes.

Memory is weird. I would never have recalled supercans, but just reading the word here and I remember them and everything about them.

Cards with raised details are dying out. Most don't have them now.

The white payphones (c. 1994) could be tampered with. Insert a thin piece of paper at a certain angle and bingo! Free calls. Until the lord of the land opened it up to take out the coins to pay the bill.

TV channels closed down around midnight , people listen to UK radio or radio Luxembourg. as there were no pop music radio stations in Ireland before pirate radio stations started broadcasting . I can remember a time when there was no talk of global warming

There were a few environmental groups who protested about the use of oil gas fossil fuels

Now it seems every week there's records being broken in terms of hot days and extreme weather events

People used to buy black and white TVs

Remember when pin badges were the thing everyone was collecting in school. You would have school bags and jackets literally covered in badges for bands and tv shows and other popular memes of the time. I remember I had one for "Wham!" that was done in the style of the punching animation from the Batman TV show of the time that would pop up every time Batman punched the joker in the face.

Actually since this is a thread of people being nostalgic maybe someone can help me. I was trying to find a picture of - and even more ideally buy - a school bag I had back in the 80s. It was a dark green single strap shoulder bag that was very popular for a short time.

If I google "Canvas Messanger Bag" I get some examples that are generally in the right direction. But this one was a bit different. The clasps I remember were metal turn key style where you pushed the metal through the hole and turned it to close it.

Can't think what to google to find a picture or to see if it is possible to buy it - or something close to it - today. Would love to get one for my friends daughter who has recently been buying 80s type fashion stuff.

It was a great bag for pinning the badges to. And she's been collecting those too.

Army Bargains still do those canvas schoolbag-style bags. I haven't seen one with the turn fasteners though.