How did people pre 1998 survive?

lickme

Sure didn't we ****e in trenches, ran the gays out of the village, used a donkey to plow the fields for a few spuds and cabbage, women were as hairy as ****, walk 5 KM to school and get cracked across the knuckles by a fat **** of a priest or nun, subscribed to playboy for 14 pounds to have fun with yourself, women were easier to ride, if you didn't like your dinner you didn't eat, could thumb anywhere, people were better communicators, anyone with depression was was called "his nerves are at him", sharing room with four or give siblings was common, most people didn't go to secondary school,

Buona Fortuna

Working in the 90s was an absolute dream compared to now.

There were mobiles about but they were expensive, so you could fock off out of the office and no one bothered you. Eventually they decided to give us pagers they were OK. Around 96/7, some donkey said "We really should have mobiles". The end of the innocence and you can never put the $hit back in the donkey.

In 1993 we moved into a brand new office block. State of the art. A pc at every desk. Never been known before (in out company). Thankfully IT couldn't work out e-mail. They started with a pm system. This was a bit of a laugh until someone fed up with his job pm'd the general manager and told him what a cnut he was. I nearly pi$$ed myself as Burt went total ape$hit and the pm system was shut down.

A few years later they brought in the mysery that is e-mail. Spend your day out of the office and then come home and deal with the dross that people decided to send you, ask you and "cc just for fun". It struck me then that we were paying for that time pre e-mail and mobiles.

Happy days.

jonnny68

life was much less stressful and carefree in the 80's without all this technology, kids these days will never understand.

Formosa

WTF???

Buona Fortuna

Formosa wrote: »

WTF???

Thought it was a tad ridiculous too - unless its just for laffs

Eugene Norman

jonnny68 wrote: »

life was much less stressful and carefree in the 80's without all this technology, kids these days will never understand.

I'm sure somebody in the 80's was saying that about the 50's. With more reason

The Black Oil

Audiobooks on tape cassette.

Eugene Norman

I really think everybody is over estimating how things have changed, and mostly the references are to smart phones ( people "used to talk to each other"). It's rude to use smart phones in company but all they have done for most people is replace the newspaper or book they would be reading on a commute, or the discman they would be listening to, with the news on the phone, the kindle, the music on the phone. There have been some additions like watching movies on a mobile ( although there were portable DVD players)

Kids are still paying on the estate I live by, and the older kids still drinking. I kinda wished that had changed.

Smidge

Cold War Kid wrote: »

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.

I left primary in 88 and that summer (to my recollection ) was glorious. I remember leaving the school on the very last day(I was SOOO grown up coz I was going to secondary soon)and the breeze was warm, properly warm. I can still remember that day as if it were yesterday.

Do kids still play kick the can/releevio or wrap a rope around a steel pole for a swing?

TheBeardedLady

Smidge wrote: »

I left primary in 88 and that summer (to my recollection ) was glorious. I remember leaving the school on the very last day(I was SOOO grown up coz I was going to secondary soon)and the breeze was warm, properly warm. I can still remember that day as if it were yesterday.

Do kids still play kick the can/releevio or wrap a rope around a steel pole for a swing?

I have no idea if weather was better in the 80s but I do know the beaches of my hometown in Dublin were packed with people down from the city all through the Summer, the fairground was jammers as was the casino and I remember running about on the beach and in sea in my swimming togs a lot as a kid. I don't know if it was because there were no cheap flights to Spain back then and people put up with it being a bit chilly or whether it really was nicer back then. I certainly don't remember the Summers being as bad as they can be now, though. I played outside for most of the Summer, as far as I remember.

You can't really trust your memory though.

Stojkovic

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

Yes but everyone saw it on VHS at the time so that didnt work.

Eugene Norman

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

This of course largely over estimates everything. The economy was capitalistic/social democratic and there would have been no choice for labdlines anyway and mobiles were years away. The Catholic Church was powerful but I both watched the life of Brian and my parents had contraception in the 80's. Bit upsetting to find that stuff hanging around as an 8 year old in 1988.

In any case the op was asking about life in general, not just Ireland.

ToddyDoody

Many a glass of The Blue Nun Wine to pass the time

Pumpkinseeds

Just thinking about 'selfies', the idea of sending pictures to everyone who knew you, let alone random strangers, so they'd pay you compliments would have had your friends laughing their asses off at you. People who didn't know you probably would have assumed that you had some sort of mental illness. Better simpler times they were.

Eugene Norman

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

Just thinking about 'selfies', the idea of sending pictures to everyone who knew you, let alone random strangers, so they'd pay you compliments would have had your friends laughing their asses off at you. People who didn't know you probably would have assumed that you had some sort of mental illness. Better simpler times they were.

People have been taking photos for years. Including selfies although they weren't called that. Before cameras they got painted selfies called portraits. Quite the business it was.

Pumpkinseeds

Eugene Norman wrote: »

People have been taking photos for years. Including selfies although they weren't called that. Before cameras they got painted selfies called portraits. Quite the business it was.

Yep, totally different thing Eugene.

Pretzill

ToddyDoody wrote: »

Many a glass of The Blue Nun Wine to pass the time

Or the height of sophistication that was Black Tower!

anncoates

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

Just thinking about 'selfies', the idea of sending pictures to everyone who knew you, let alone random strangers, so they'd pay you compliments would have had your friends laughing their asses off at you. People who didn't know you probably would have assumed that you had some sort of mental illness. Better simpler times they were.

If you want to be really reductive about it, they'd be equally amazed at you criticizing them on social media to garner compliments from random strangers.

And obviously at me criticizing you for criticizing them to garner compliments from random strangers.

And so on.

Pinch Flat

Pretzill wrote: »

Or the height of sophistication that was Black Tower!

Was more of a Liebfraumilch man my self, but each to their own

Pretzill

Pinch Flat wrote: »

Was more of a Liebfraumilch man my self, but each to their own

So I take it Red Piat D'or was off the menu too! I suppose wine wasn't in it's heyday in 80's Ireland.

Pumpkinseeds

Pretzill wrote: »

Or the height of sophistication that was Black Tower!

I thought the boxes of wine were supposed to be the height of sophistication. I can remember my mother raving about them one Christmas. Even as a kid there just seemed to be something a bit tacky about wine in a box with a tap, but I was always a snob.

Colser

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

I thought the boxes of wine were supposed to be the height of sophistication. I can remember my mother raving about them one Christmas. Even as a kid there just seemed to be something a bit tacky about wine in a box with a tap, but I was always a snob.

Do you remember Babycham.All the snobs drank it..:D

Pumpkinseeds

Colser wrote: »

Do you remember Babycham.All the snobs drank it..:D

Apparently my monster in law was a big fan of them.

Colser

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

Apparently my monster in law was a big fan of them.

I remember my Mam sipping one on special occasions:rolleyes: Dont know where I got my lip from..:pac:

Stojkovic

The question should really be...... how would young people nowadays survive before 1998 ?

Wurzelbert

Stojkovic wrote: »

The question should really be...... how would young people nowadays survive before 1998 ?

sort of like kids from the 80s would in the middle ages, i suppose...

jimgoose

Pinch Flat wrote: »

Was more of a Liebfraumilch man my self, but each to their own

Black Tower is a Liebfraumilch, in fact it's one of the better-known ones.

Wurzelbert wrote: »

sort of like kids from the 80s would in the middle ages, i suppose...

A friend of mine lent his 12-year-old niece his cellphone the other day. It's one of the old ones that's pretty much just a telephone, with buttons an' all. The look of confused horror on the poor child's face wouldn't have been any more pronounced if he'd handed her a sextant. :pac:

di11on

Cool thread!

Life was great in the 80s. I remember being huddled by the fire watching Knight Rider on a tiny Sony Trinitron colour TV.

I also remember climbing scaffolding on building sites and making slingshots from wood, elastic and clothes hangers! Those were the days.

Now we get a text, email and internet post when our kids are late reporting to school. You'd need to be a Chinese master hacker to skip school these days.

Pinch Flat

jimgoose wrote: »

Black Tower is a Liebfraumilch, in fact it's one of the better-known ones

Ok I'll have to defer to your expertise there :pac:

My one memory is Liebfraumilch was that it was the only thing available in the various wine bars in lesson street, which seemed to be one of the few places you could get booze. None of the places had beer licences, so many a night in the early 90s was spent quaffing back Luke warm white wine :eek:

jimgoose

Pinch Flat wrote: »

Ok I'll have to defer to your expertise there :pac:

My one memory is Liebfraumilch was that it was the only thing available in the various wine bars in lesson street, which seemed to be one of the few places you could get booze. None of the places had beer licences, so many a night in the early 90s was spent quaffing back Luke warm white wine :eek:

Yes, I too remember when the facility of quaffing Chateau de Dagenite on Leeson Street at 4am was the height of Continong-style urbanity. :pac:

sbsquarepants

Deleted User wrote: »

I used to go down lanes and start fires. I wish I was joking. They never got out of control, thank god.

I spent a huge percentage of my time doing the very same thing. I'm still fascinated by watching things burn, although I tend not to light fires very often these days!

sbsquarepants

Pinch Flat wrote: »

Ok I'll have to defer to your expertise there :pac:

My one memory is Liebfraumilch was that it was the only thing available in the various wine bars in lesson street, which seemed to be one of the few places you could get booze. None of the places had beer licences, so many a night in the early 90s was spent quaffing back Luke warm white wine :eek:

£11 for a bottle of piss warm ritz, plus 11 more for whatever god awfull mutton dressed as lamb skank I was working my magic on at the time. It would quite literally have been cheaper to get a hooker! This of course was before MILFs were popular, in those days they we're just called aul ones.
Also worth noting that in the early 90's that was a days wages for 2 bottles of revolting warm perry - to this day I can't look at a bottle of it without shuddering, I'm not sure which is the more traumatic memory, the perry or the aul ones.:D

jimgoose

sbsquarepants wrote: »

£11 for a bottle of piss warm ritz, plus 11 more for whatever god awfull mutton dressed as lamb skank I was working my magic on at the time. It would quite literally have been cheaper to get a hooker! This of course was before MILFs were popular, in those days they we're just called aul ones.
Also worth noting that in the early 90's that was a days wages for 2 bottles of revolting warm perry - to this day I can't look at a bottle of it without shuddering, I'm not sure which is the more traumatic memory, the perry or the aul ones.:D

'Twas fine dear stuff for an oul' yoke that was burning oil! :pac::pac::pac:

josephineperry

They survived ynd it was cool. I don't want to complain about all the possibilities the internet gives us, but I sometimes wish I was young back in the 70s or something. I imagine it was much more romantic/free/creative than nowdays.

Menas

josephineperry wrote: »

They survived ynd it was cool. I don't want to complain about all the possibilities the internet gives us, but I sometimes wish I was young back in the 70s or something. I imagine it was much more romantic/free/creative than nowdays.

Not really, it was the same but different!
Kids today have more possibilities and seem to have more confidence. They grow up in more comfort and have higher expectations of themselves. Thats a good thing in my book...

Colser

sbsquarepants wrote: »

£11 for a bottle of piss warm ritz, plus 11 more for whatever god awfull mutton dressed as lamb skank I was working my magic on at the time. It would quite literally have been cheaper to get a hooker! This of course was before MILFs were popular, in those days they we're just called aul ones.
Also worth noting that in the early 90's that was a days wages for 2 bottles of revolting warm perry - to this day I can't look at a bottle of it without shuddering, I'm not sure which is the more traumatic memory, the perry or the aul ones.:D

What was wrong with you that you couldnt pull anything other than an "aul one"?

catbear

Glad I had a childhood before safety was invented. There was a lot of material poverty though, shocking stuff. Not that it doesn't happen now but it was common enough then not be commented on.
Emigration was really tough, loading a bag of coins for a five minute call home from the US.
Hand on heart all though we had more freedom then we were also aware that we were expendable. All my friends were from big family's, sex education was minimal. For me contraception had a bigger impact than the internet. Suddenly a huge gulf had opened between generations.
The arrival of the internet only augmented that mood of change.

sbsquarepants

Colser wrote: »

What was wrong with you that you couldnt pull anything other than an "aul one"?

This was leeson street - there weren't too many young ones to aim for. It was mostly full of alcoholic desperados who didn't know when to go home and the occasional more money than sense type. (I was in the first category in case you're wondering:D)

jimgoose

sbsquarepants wrote: »

This was leeson street - there weren't too many young ones to aim for. It was mostly full of alcoholic desperados who didn't know when to go home and the occasional more money than sense type. (I was in the first category in case you're wondering:D)

Mmm - horny divorcee types pickled on gin and bitterness. As the Kerry farmer said, the grass is scarce, but the view is good!

Menas

jimgoose wrote: »

Mmm - horny divorcee types pickled on gin and bitterness. As the Kerry farmer said, the grass is scarce, but the view is good!

Actually - If I remember leeson street correctly they were more likely to be pickled on overpriced, brutal quality, juice that was supposed to be wine.

Ah the memories!

jimgoose

Menas wrote: »

Actually - If I remember leeson street correctly they were more likely to be pickled on overpriced, brutal quality, juice that was supposed to be wine...

Nah, they were well-pickled before they got within an asses roar of Leeson Street! :pac:

TheLastMohican

anncoates wrote: »

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.

Thank you Ann - that will be all

AUTHOR: Socrates (469–399 B.C.)
QUOTATION: The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

And one of the most sincere songs of all time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGDA0Hecw1k

Stojkovic

Wurzelbert wrote: »

sort of like kids from the 80s would in the middle ages, i suppose...

Thats a long long time ago.

Didnt even have B&W TV back then.

Or Space Invaders, Viking Invaders yes.

MonkeyTennis

We had pub quizzes every night and no one could cheat. Deadly

jimgoose

Stojkovic wrote: »

Thats a long long time ago.

Didnt even have B&W TV back then.

Or Space Invaders, Viking Invaders yes.

Space Invaders came out in 1978. There was a coffee-table style machine in one of the local pubs in the arsehole of East Limerick in the early '80s! :pac:

catbear

jimgoose wrote: »

Mmm - horny divorcee types pickled on gin and bitterness. As the Kerry farmer said, the grass is scarce, but the view is good!

Divorce wasn't legal till 95. Lots of very unhappy marriages. I remember my friends parents always fighting like Eamon and Mary in Father Ted and the minute divorce was legalised she kicked him out. I know she could have got a separation but the lifting of the ban inspired her to bypass that phase.

Personally I think young people are more thoughtful than the generation I grew up in. But we were expendable, products of a catholic Ireland that tolerated poverty in its resistance to family planning and personal freedoms.

The only things I feel someway nostalgic about are the freedoms of childhood in the countryside without many cars, playing on roads, coming home because I was tired and not because I had to. After that the past was an uncaring, dispassionate place where authority wasn't questioned.

Stojkovic

jimgoose wrote: »

Space Invaders came out in 1978. There was a coffee-table style machine in one of the local pubs in the arsehole of East Limerick in the early '80s! :pac:

Yes about 700 years after the Middle Ages.

Cold War Kid

I don't know why people go on about people not communicating with each other any more - not wanting to have their phone with them all the time etc... on the internet like. :pac:
We still communicate/talk.

I am glad as fooq that there was no social media/internet around when I was a kid, but I'm very glad of it now - it isn't romantic not being able to contact people if you've to be somewhere and there's a delay because of a traffic accident or something, it is a dream come true to have any music/information at the touch of a few buttons, etc. Ok the thrill of accessing the inaccessible is gone, but the alternative is still preferable IMO.