How did people pre 1998 survive?

BMJD

nc19 wrote: »

When I go over to my mother's at the weekend the street is empty. When I was a kid on that street there would at least 3/4 kids out playing, sometimes as many as 20 when the weather was good. Football, cops and robbers, rounders, kick the can, manhunt, bikes, rollerskates, squares, starting secret clubs etc etc......staying in doors all day was a punishment. Not one of us was kidnapped much to our parents dismay!

I pity the youth of today.

And when Wimbledon was on EVERYONE would be out playing tennis with their £1 racquet!

Cold War Kid

BMJD wrote: »

The summers used to last forever in the 80s, not like the pissy 5 days we get now.

1985/6 were two of the worst summers on record at the time.

kfallon

The worst thing about playing football on the road was this

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/c0/8a/3f/c08a3f5e0e6ff2bd530e518ecb954c01.jpg

The Backwards Man

Cold War Kid wrote: »

1985/6 were two of the worst summers on record at the time.

In 1985 we didn't get the turf home until the day before Halloween. Shite year.

Bongalongherb

BMJD wrote: »

The summers used to last forever in the 80s, not like the pissy 5 days we get now.

It's a bit hazy now thinking of the early 80's summers but you are right. I remember summers back then to be very long and sunny almost all days, it was definitely much longer sunny summers back then listening to sunshine 101.

B.A._Baracus

It's funny to think that in 20 or 30 years time people will look back at us now and say the same.

That smart phones, smart watches, flat screen tv's etc are all crappy.

Bongalongherb

Cold War Kid wrote: »

1985/6 were two of the worst summers on record at the time.

I remember that one, the lightning storms were amazing, we haven't had one like that since. Looking out the top floor window all night looking at the fork lightning was crazy. All I could get on the transistor radio was static, no radio stations, only white noise.

I changed to AM radio and you could hear the lightning strikes crackling through it.

Cold War Kid

Bongalongherb wrote: »

It's a bit hazy now thinking of the early 80's summers but you are right. I remember summers back then to be very long and sunny almost all days, it was definitely much longer sunny summers back then listening to sunshine 101.

I dunno. I saw someone here, who was born in the 90s, saying that about the summers they remember as a kid, whereas there were actually no great summers between 1995 and 2003 (although the latter was a shortlived heatwave - 2006 was much better).
Irish summers overall are not great - sure, they have their moments, but it's not true that there was a time of constant great summers; that's just remembering the good and forgetting about the bad.

Two of the best summers of my entire life (born late 70s) were just last year and the year before.

The Backwards Man

Bongalongherb wrote: »

It's a bit hazy now thinking of the early 80's summers but you are right. I remember summers back then to be very long and sunny almost all days, it was definitely much longer sunny summers back then listening to sunshine 101.

Summers are like Malcolm McDowell movies, you only remember the good ones

kfallon

Cold War Kid wrote: »

Two of the best summers of my entire life (born late 70s) were just last year and the year before.

I'm the same but tbh I can't remember anything from before 2012 :P

Cienciano

salmocab wrote: »

OP disc mans were sh1te you had to sit still, walkmans were far superior. It was great you made arrangements to meet in a pub at 8 o clock and everyone turned up, no dicks ringing at ten past saying they will meet you later in a different part of town.

Now that's rose tinted glasses! It was a pain in the hole meeting for a night out if you were going into the city centre. This is what actually happened:

The Dark Side wrote: »

"FFS! I thought you meant O'Neill's on Suffolk Street, not O'Neill's on Pearse Street."



"Anyway - did ye end up having a good night?"

I remember waiting for an hour outside Duncan Donuts on Grafton Street and found out the next day my mate was outside Duncan Donuts in UCD.

Bongalongherb

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

It's funny to think that in 20 or 30 years time people will look back at us now and say the same.

That smart phones, smart watches, flat screen tv's etc are all crappy.

Indeed. Very interesting times ahead the way the speed of technology is going.

Bongalongherb

Probably, but I suppose time passed much slower back then and seemed much longer, but I do remember great long summers in the very early 80's. Now-a-days time is going too fast it seems.

Or could it just be all an illusion ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnfHdZrmMAw

scream

This is how I survived the 80's. Isn't she a beauty? That's real metal casing too, and a built-in ROM cartridge slot on the right there. A full 16k of memory too!

I read somewhere that it was basically the American version of the BBC Micro, which was the official computer of British schools, I think. Was in our school anyway.

I don't think I ever saw another home computer with a metal case. My god, she was truly beautiful.

jimbobaloobob

It was a much happier time, mentally less stressful and i think socially there were better happenings.

People would look at you when they talked and work ended when you left it at work.
You were out of contact once you left on holidays.

Mighty times.

jimbobaloobob

in 1999 i had no tv or radio and found out 3 months later that they had stopped air strikes in sarajevo

Grayson

thegreatgonzo wrote: »

Well that's odd because as I remember, most people shopped local in the 80's. What has been very bad for small towns and villages was the arrival of Tesco in the 90's which took loads of business away from smaller shops. Places like Ballinasloe started declining almost at the same time the boom started everywhere else.

In the 80's when I was a kid in Mullingar there was a Dunnes and another one which was at various times a H Williams, Crazy Prices, Quinnsworth & now Tesco. There were also a load of smaller supermarkets, some of which later became Supervalu's

Cold War Kid

Bongalongherb wrote: »

Probably, but I suppose time passed much slower back then and seemed much longer, but I do remember great long summers in the very early 80's. Now-a-days time is going too fast it seems.

Or could it just be all an illusion ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnfHdZrmMAw

Top tune.

It's not the times, it's due to getting aulder.

In my case anyway, from my late teens onwards, it's like a fast-forward button has been pressed - one of those ones that keeps getting faster.

Hans Bricks

I'm 23 and I'll say my childhood was a lot more memorable and nostalgic than whatever it is now. Definitely agree on the narcissistic, self absorbed virtual reality **** who need to record every pint, meal, person they meet on a night out, visiting relative, snuggles with the other half, casual car spin to Lough whogivesafuck, moment before heading out, #sundayselfie ... on and on and on and on ....

I've found myself on numerous occasions sitting with groups of friends, work colleagues, relatives etc. all with their heads beat into their phones until they're forced to divert their attention back to reality while I'm just sitting there staring at a corner of the ceiling or nearby point of interest pondering the meaning of life.

Cold War Kid

Hans Bricks wrote: »

I'm 23 and I'll say my childhood was a lot more memorable and nostalgic than whatever it is now. Definitely agree on the narcissistic, self absorbed virtual reality **** who need to record every pint, meal, person they meet on a night out, visiting relative, snuggles with the other half, casual car spin to Lough whogivesafuck, moment before heading out, #sundayselfie ... on and on and on and on ....

I've found myself on numerous occasions sitting with groups of friends, work colleagues, relatives etc. all with their heads beat into their phones until they're forced to divert their attention back to reality while I'm just sitting there staring at a corner of the ceiling or nearby point of interest pondering the meaning of life.

Crikey, thought you would be a lot older (no offence like :pac: - but seriously, I don't mean anything bad by that). I was 13/14 when you were born. People my age would view your age group as the spoilt, narcissistic generation, but I don't think that's fair - you guys left school when the sh-t had really hit the fan economically.
Those whom I know of your age really value having a job, doesn't matter what it is.

I think my generation is the spoilt one. When we left school/college in the late 90s/early 2000s there were tons and tons of jobs - you could get a job no bother at all, even as a college dropout and with feck all skills. Had a degree? Elected. Things were tougher on the job front when we were children/teens but we didn't have to worry about that. The "boom" commenced in the mid '90s when were towards the end of school. As young adults we knew nothing but opportunity, even if it was built on sand. I used to flit from job to job not a bother in the early to mid 2000s. I worked in one place where I could just say "I'll come in for overtime, need extra money" - "No prob, just fill in your hours, without requiring any back-up, when you're done".

The recession was a serious ****ing land for me and my friends.

Bongalongherb

Hans Bricks wrote: »

I'm 23 and I'll say my childhood was a lot more memorable and nostalgic than whatever it is now. Definitely agree on the narcissistic, self absorbed virtual reality **** who need to record every pint, meal, person they meet on a night out, visiting relative, snuggles with the other half, casual car spin to Lough whogivesafuck, moment before heading out, #sundayselfie ... on and on and on and on ....

I've found myself on numerous occasions sitting with groups of friends, work colleagues, relatives etc. all with their heads beat into their phones until they're forced to divert their attention back to reality while I'm just sitting there staring at a corner of the ceiling or nearby point of interest pondering the meaning of life.

Very true. What gets me driving around dublin city is the amount of folk walking while looking into their phones and walking right onto a busy road as if the road and traffic didn't exist, I'm wearing my horn down with alerting them to come back to reality.

Not too far in the future a new generation will exist of which will only communicate through virtual means, and this is not good. The technology will be amazing, but folk will feel that they can get more pleasure from this than meeting and talking to another human being, possibly. It's a brave new world a-coming. You can be sure of that.

jimbobaloobob

Id imagine im similar age to you cold war but my experience seems to be polar opposite to yours in the late 90s early 00s

the recession made me tougher i think, or colder. definitely less sympathetic.

cml387

Oddly enough many of the older generation have relentlessly embraced facebook, sharing every minute of every day with ever more stupid posts.

Personally having lived through the 60's and 70's, the 80's were the worst. Penal taxation, Anne Lovatt, the abortion referendum (shudder), Charlie Haughey, recession.

Paradoxically the music was quite good though.

Bongalongherb

When I look at facefcuk I cringe. Skype is your man/woman, it does the trick. Face-book is just muck.

With head transplants and technology and all the spacerness of it all I'm going on a walk into the forest across the road to ponder on how to slow time down.

4zn76tysfajdxp

Hans Bricks wrote: »

I'm 23 and I'll say my childhood was a lot more memorable and nostalgic than whatever it is now.

The past is more nostalgic than the present? Wow.

SEPT 23 1989

The summer of 95

jimbobaloobob

the weather made his job easy that year

Pretzill

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

The summer of 95

What a fine hot summer that was. (Despite the many forest fires) It seemed to go on forever but it didn't start until late June and I am as always holding out hope for another scorcher

Bongalongherb

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

The summer of 95

Excellent. And there will be some tantalising thunder storms... That's a much better weather-show than the one's we have now on RTE.

SpaceTime

Texting on those rotary dial phones was very sore on the fingers though!

We had to invest in a dialling wand.

Hans Bricks

Saylor Unimportant Self-discipline wrote: »

The past is more nostalgic than the present? Wow.

.... .... My point being, when I look back in another ten years, I doubt I'll have as many fond memories concerning my early twenties as I have now of when I was 12/13.

TheLastMohican

Where was the OP in the early 90s?
Had an yule log mobile in the late 80s, got a little Motorola Flair in 1993 I think (this could be put in your shirt pocket) and then went to NEC (pull out aerial), half a dozen NOKIAS, a couple of SAMSUNGS before getting the little yoke I've now. The batteries for the Flair were over £80 Stg and would last 6 months :eek:

NachoBusiness

TheLastMohican wrote: »

.. then went to NEC (pull out aerial)..

My Dad bought me my first mobile in 2000 and it was a GD90. I must have snapped the aerial on the thing a dozen times or more. External aerials were a pain in the ass. I could believe it when the Nokia 3210 came out.

You mean the aerial is inside it?? How?!?

anncoates

nc19 wrote: »

When I go over to my mother's at the weekend the street is empty. When I was a kid on that street there would at least 3/4 kids out playing, sometimes as many as 20 when the weather was good. Football, cops and robbers, rounders, kick the can, manhunt, bikes, rollerskates, squares, starting secret clubs etc etc......staying in doors all day was a punishment. Not one of us was kidnapped much to our parents dismay!

I pity the youth of today.

Without wishing to invade your retro /Enid Blyton reveries, maybe there's no kids living on the road anymore. Our street and the green is always full of kids playing in the summer.

Every generation ever thinks The Kids are going to hell. It's almost an unwritten law.

thegreatgonzo

Grayson wrote: »

In the 80's when I was a kid in Mullingar there was a Dunnes and another one which was at various times a H Williams, Crazy Prices, Quinnsworth & now Tesco. There were also a load of smaller supermarkets, some of which later became Supervalu's

Well Mullingar would be more comparable with Athlone than say Ballinasloe in terms of size. Athlone also had Dunnes and the Tesco-H Williams-Quinnsworth-Tesco again as you mentioned during that time.

efb

Watching C4 now Kathy Burke talking bout the 90s

TheLastMohican

NachoBusiness wrote: »

My Dad bought me my first mobile in 2000 and it was a GD90. I must have snapped the aerial on the thing a dozen times or more. External aerials were a pain in the ass. I could believe it when the Nokia 3210 came out.

You mean the aerial is inside it?? How?!?

It was a thin wiry yoke - about 1 or 2 ml thick and 4 or 5 inches long. AFAIR it had a little cap on top. You pulled it out when the phone rang or when you wanted to call. But the coverage was brutal. Maybe 088 number.

Cold War Kid

I know every generation of kids/teens have their sh1t to deal with but I think the internet/social media brings an extra, and bigger, set of difficulties with. All the standard insecurity/bullying crap multiplied hugely.

Kwiecien

Got my first car in 1995 - a real banger. No NCT in those days.

Got my first phone the same year a Mitsubishi brick with a big battery pack that could be replaced with 6 aa batteries "088".

It was different back then, less traffic on the roads and somehow felt safer in many ways. I used to hitch/thumb for lifts in the early 90's when i started working. A woman on her own doing that nowadays - would never happen.

We didn't have all the technology prior to 1998 but life was good enough. The boom was creeping in and life here was positive. People didn't need to emigrate to find work, there were jobs if you were willing to work.

I'm glad i grew up in the 70's and 80's.

Bongalongherb

How do people in the 21st century in Ireland survive ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAksFcRwhiI

Alonso77

"How did people pre 1998 survive?" - bacon and cabbage....and poppies

Orizio

Playstation and N64...two vastly superior sources of entertainment to anything we have today.

dubscottie

Trees, playparks and fields. For play fun and as we got older, drinking fun.

We talked and made plans, none of this internet or text stuff.

If I had to look something up? A libaray. Learn more by books than looking up specific stuff on the web.

I still wait 2 weeks for someone to reply to an email. Thats how long it used to take when we wrote letters to family etc

hairyslug

And to play fantasy football with the evening Herald, you had to call a premium number and dial in your selections, I won sky sports for a year with that, it stopped me having to watch a tiny version of it on a cablelink channel that showed all of the sub. channels at the same time

Menas

I think life was simpler back then. You interacted with people in person...or email. Phone calls, even local, were expensive.
When you arranged to meet someone you met them at a place and time. If something happened that you could not make it then tough.
No shows at dates were frequent!

When I go on holidays I move my sim in to an old nokia. Its a little liberating. Forces you to focus on the people you are with...which is nice.

anto9

RayM wrote: »

Over what though? Live at Three?

Ah, Thelma...

She was the only good looking girl/woman in Ireland at the time .Its slightly better now .:D

Sam Kade

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

No broadband
No digital television
No mobile phones (except rare gigantic bricks)
No lots of other things we have now.


Even worse - how did people in the 80's survive?:eek: At least they had discmans in the 90's.


And how about the 70's?:eek::eek: Some tvs still did not have colour!

It just, it just does not bare thinking about how bleak life must have been.

Is there any boardsies of this vintage on AH to share their experiences of these desolate times?

Back then we survived just fine people actually talked to each other In fact I'd say people were better off back then.

Colser

Sam Kade wrote: »

Back then we survived just fine people actually talked to each other In fact I'd say people were better off back then.

I agree totally...I really wish my kids had the childhood that I had..Im always saying that I will get rid of the playstations ect but that wouldnt change anything really and would probably just isolate them from their friends if anything..Just have to roll with the times I suppose..

Chris_Bradley

I'm one of the lucky ones imo not to have a Facebook account these days, the amount of people that snoop on that and worse still - share every aspect of their lives on it is beyond weird.

I met my missus by socializing, that seems to be a near extinct way now.

RobertKK

Some people don't realise, you can't miss what you never had or didn't exist. So life then was like it is now and in 17 years time someone on boards might ask, how did people pre 2015 survive?

Life was good back in 1998, and it was easier to survive as I was younger...