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I have a burning need to know stuff and I love asking awkward questions.

Monday, April 04, 2016

Back in My Day We had None of That…..

I suppose that it’s a combination of a couple of things – the fact that I’m just coming to the end of a book about Western achievements over the last 1000 years, the fact that I’m 56 in a few days or the fact that my Mother is 80 on Wednesday and when we spoke about it recently I remarked ‘Oh, the things you must have seen…..’

Which, naturally got me thinking about some of the things I’ve seen or remember over the last 50+ years. No doubt my younger readers will dismiss the idea that I remember a time when we had two TV channels (BBC1 and BBC2) which transmitted during limited hours, shutting down late into the evening, and, of course, only transmitted in black & white. I was part of that generation that straddled the gap between listening to the radio and watching TV. Some of my earliest memories are of listening to radio plays which honestly gripped this little boy’s heart and wouldn’t let go. I don’t know if it’s a real memory or not but I remember listening to the adventures of Dick Barton, Special Agent but that might have been the 1972 revival. Of course I remember the launch of Channel Four in 1982 bringing up to four the TV channels available swiftly followed by the cable explosion.

I fondly remember the arrival of the New Wave, New Romantics and, of course, Punk which both shocked and delighted me in equal measure. I remember seeing my first Punk (actually two of them) walking along a street in Wigan (about 7 miles from my parents’ house) who literally stopped traffic as they walked along. I’m surprised that they didn’t cause a few traffic accidents. I remember the dawn of the IT age and the days I spent hunting down an early model Sinclair Spectrum and badgering my parents to buy it for me. I loved that thing to death and not just because I could play games on it. I’d been gaming since 1974 when I first came across an arcade style game called Pong. The rest, as they say is history.

Many things have left no impression at all. I have no memory of the Cuban Missile Crisis (aged just over 3) or the Kennedy Assassination. I must have known about it but both events simply didn’t register. I remember watching the Moon landings and having my Mother wake me up in the very early hours to watch it live. I strongly remember Apollo 13 as my school had TV’s set up across the campus and actually advised us to watch the events as they unfolded throughout the day. I also have strong memories of Vietnam and have had a ‘double image’ type thing going on when I see documentaries about the War – remembering seeing the footage live on TV at the time. I particularly remember the ditching of helicopters over the side of aircraft carriers to allow more refugees to escape the final days.

I remember, possibly for the first time ever, standing in line to watch a movie that everyone was talking about – Star Wars in 1977. I remembered really liking it up until the rather lame medal ceremony at the end. Most of what are now regarded as 70’s and 80’s classics I saw either at the local cinema or, more frequently on VHS video (remember that?). I remember seeing my first mobile phone in London – complete with handy battery carrying case. I even remember the early Internet, and more shockingly a time before the Internet even existed, the AOL Online and USENet. Oh the heady days of jumping across the world from computer system to system with that still evocative sound of a modem ‘handshaking’ across the phone lines. It still sends a delightful shiver down my back every time I hear one.

So much to remember if I put my mind to it, so much probably forgotten. It’s nice when a deep memory pops up like an old friend though. It’s all rather cosy when you think about it….      

4 comments:

Stephen said...

I remember being aware of the environment changing around me for the first time when cassette tapes gave way to CDs.

When did you first start getting online? For me it was 1999. The internet was catching like wildfire back then -- there were gobs of "Free" ISPs sending out discs. Netzero is the only name that's lasted from those. My first chatrooms and forums were game-related, though I lost interest in chatrooms and don't haunt forums nearly as much as I used to.

CyberKitten said...

I think I was online in the mid 90's. I remember how excited I was getting my first 14.4K modem. It was actually my first credit card purchase! No webpage web that we see these days back then of course. Navigation was difficult and time consuming. I remember when I upgraded to 56K and how amazed I was at the speed... [snigger] The 14.4 was fitted to a lone machine from work which was a 386SX with a 40Mb hard drive [lol]. Just imagine.... I have much more storage in my rather antiquated phone.... Funny how what initially seems amazing quickly becomes laughable.

Stephen said...

Every so often someone brings a floppy disk into the library hoping to retrieve the files from it. Those were so time-consuming to write to, and I had piles of them! Recently while rummaging through a toolbox filled with middle-school odds and ends (pogs, marbles, notes) I found a floppy disk labelled "Roswell Incident Pics" with an alien skull on it.

I was an odd child.

CyberKitten said...

I was throwing out an old box of floppy drives with some very 'odd' titles. Was tempted to check them out.... but finally just binned them.