Remember when...

Padre_Pio · 26-07-2023 1:46pm

I remember renting SNES games in McDonnells on the Cord Road in Drogheda. It was the only place in town until Xtravison moved in.

My brother used to collect call cards and post cards from different countries.

He also used to have one of those Euro coin books were you could collect the euros from different countries.

Padre_Pio · 26-07-2023 1:47pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120882239#Comment_120882239

I worked with one of those as recently as 2012.

The J Stands for Jay · 26-07-2023 2:05pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120899176#Comment_120899176

A card with raised details, or one of those machines that uses them to make a docket to sign? I've only used one once, sometime round 2005/6.

Padre_Pio · 26-07-2023 2:36pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120899214#Comment_120899214

One of the click-clack machines, I was working in a new shop and they hadn't wired in the POS terminals yet.

Seriously dangerous, I had a stack of credit card info in the drawer. Good thing I'm honest :)

yourdeadwright · 26-07-2023 2:51pm

Was there some kind of thing with the telephone card where you could out them in the freeze & get minutes back ,

Or was that a urban legend in the early 90's ,

I recall someone telling me about as we played duck hunt & made a soda stream before a game of Subbuteo 1990 world cup edition

Hotblack Desiato · 26-07-2023 3:00pm

With the older payphones you could tap-tap-tap on the hook switch and get free calls.

The J Stands for Jay · 26-07-2023 3:07pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120899494#Comment_120899494

I vaguely remember the story also involved putting clear nail polish on the chip before you froze the card. Or was it after?

yourdeadwright · 26-07-2023 3:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120899588#Comment_120899588

So I'm not dreaming ,its like an unlocked memory i think it was after ,

sprucemoose · 26-07-2023 3:13pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120483698#Comment_120483698

ramblings of a lunatic would be my take on it, the type of thing that would be written in sh!t on a wall if the internet didnt exist

Gregor Samsa · 26-07-2023 3:47pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120890529#Comment_120890529

We found a call card with £10 on it one night on the way home. Decided the only thing to do with it was to call a sex line from a payphone. Went into a 24 hour shop and got a number from the ads in the Star or whatever, and use the card for the call. Five of us bet into the phone box.

Dial the number, and first off there was a welcome message that went on for far, far longer than was necessary. Then a recorded voice starts reciting all this legal and regulatory mumbo jumbo - who the provider was, the charges per minute, who you could make complaints to. Next thing the tenner credit runs out while they're still reciting the Ts&Cs, so we never got to experience the joys of awkward sex chat with a underpaid, bored woman at 2 in the morning from a piss-soaked phone box.

It was free for us, because we found the card, and we had a laugh, but I did feel sorry for the people that spend good money on those lines. I guess if you had a burgeoning GDPR fetish (this was way before GDPR), it would be money well spent.

circadian · 26-07-2023 6:56pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120899616#Comment_120899616

Remember when people would post stuff like that and you'd be pretty certain they were having you on?

banie01 · 26-07-2023 7:03pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120890529#Comment_120890529

I actually know a lad who is a massive collector of call cards and still runs a website related to them.

iamstop · 26-07-2023 7:47pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120899616#Comment_120899616

Probably after they came home from a night on the rip. That or 8 cans down by the canal.

iamstop · 31-07-2023 12:47pm

Dunno why this random thought came into my head. Does anyone remember those black string chockers with the silver clasps and usually some silver pendant like a peace sign or a skull or like, a dagger? Usually sold around the Temple Bar area or that rocker type shop in Stephen's Green.

Did a quick image search and this is the closest thing I could find. Basically these but a bit more goth/rocker.

Ger Roe · 01-08-2023 12:00pm

When concert tickets were physical, bespoke printed, with pictures/logos and they were collectible items.

iamstop · 01-08-2023 2:37pm

Remember when cans had full tear away tabs? They'd be littered everywhere. I vaguely remember a few drives to collect these tabs for rewards to help reduce the litter from them. They, thankfully phased out the tear away tabs for the now ubiquitous stay on tabs. Much better.

BraveDonut · 01-08-2023 3:37pm

A flight to London used to cost £300

Hotblack Desiato · 17-08-2023 12:37pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120926342#Comment_120926342

You can still see a good number of them mashed into the tarmac path in Stephen's Green, by the Leeson St / Earlsfort Tce gate. Had to explain to the kids what they were...

I spent the summer of '89 working in Germany, first time I'd seen cans where the tabs didn't come away. All of the soft drink and beer cans had them, it was another couple of years before they became the norm here. Also they had recycling bins, that took a LOT longer to catch on here...

Hotblack Desiato · 17-08-2023 12:37pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120926613#Comment_120926613

and you had to stay a Saturday night to get the 'cheap' rate.

iamstop · 17-08-2023 5:46pm

Did you ever get asked by the teacher to bring the chalk dusters outside and bang them together or on a wall?

Hotblack Desiato · 18-08-2023 12:07pm

Or sent to the shop to buy them smokes (and the shop selling a packet of 20 Carolls to a ten year old no questions asked?)

That teacher used to start every day by telling us to read a book, then laying out the Irish Independent flat on his desk and reading it for a good half hour while having a smoke... yecch

Remember when...

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