[Closed] Actually the past was just great...

You could spot dog shit at night, because it was white.

You could spot dog shit at night, because it was white.

Unless your front door and letterbox were also white.

As a child would I rather grow up now or in 1970.

I would take 1970.

Hedgepron

Technology was easier to understand.

Boredom was a thing. It lasted hours, days even.

It wasn't what happened to you in the 5 seconds before you could press "Skip Ad"

You only needed one bike.

Technology was easier to understand.

10 PRINT "YoKaiser"
20 GOTO 10

Stinky finger under a tree in the park.

10p mix
a quarter of pineapple chunks

Technology was easier to understand.

Ha not in my house. That kid on the advert that could get it to collect an apple was a genius.

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jimmy saville, rolf harris, etc

Proper Transformers, not like the CGI rubbish you get these days.

This is why the Costa del Sol exists. So like minded aged people can flee the ghastly modern world and seek easier, better times with other like minded people. Bloody immigrants etc.

Stinky finger under a tree in the park.

Playing in the woods, building dens, tarzan swing, catching sticklebacks, shooting bottles with the Black Widow slingshot, etc all before riding home for 'tea' ie baked potatoes and sausage. Then retreating to mission control to chat to girls in neighbouring, er, neighbourhoods (via brother's CB Radio in shared bedroom) - or a quick blast on Star Raiders on the Atari. After 9pm began parent-haggling to get to see Hammer House Of Horror.

Of course I needed a bike to get about

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70s - Half penny chews and a pound note was a massive amount of money. Star Wars at the cinema, without CGI nonsense!

Being able to go out on your own from age of 7 and not expected back until dark (or at least had to say which friend's house you were going to be at, but probably were off somewhere else mucking about).

80s though... Seeing the ZX Spectrum in WHSmiths for the first time, and programming rude words to flash on the screen.

Unless your front door and letterbox were also white.

This is getting funnier and funnier 😆

I had a red Tomahawk, and the Chopper that replaced it was a thing of beauty. Black with holographic decals (flames coming out of the exhaust decal on the chain guard), I loved that bike.

I also had a Tomahawk but my favourite bike was this:

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Far cry from small boys in the park, jumpers for goalposts. Rush goalie. Two at the back, three in the middle, four up front, one's gone home for his tea. Beans on toast? Possibly, don't quote me on that. Marvellous.

*gasp*
EverReady lights!

EverReady lights!

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And a wired speedo that at any one point could be reading 10mph or 30mph irrespective of actual speed 🙂

I also had a Tomahawk but my favourite bike was this:

I just sold one of those Bombers!

I agree I grew up in the 70's and 80's and I look at the freedom we had ( and the danger we put ourselves in) compared to the cossetted lives my kids live. They have no idea on what they are missing out on. Life for me was a bit like a very working class version of the famous five where with load of playing for days on end in the countryside or on bikes but Dorset was replaced with building sites and open cast waste heaps

On the otherside they do things in their holidays and weekends that I never dreamed off (we had no money) and their friends and cousins don't experience. Plus they have access to technology we couldn't imagined.

But in balance life for my kids now is like growing up in a really nice prison with lots of great supervised trips out.

I just sold one of those Bombers!

[url= http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-original-Raleigh-Bomber-/132100717003?hash=item1ec1d0f9cb:g:0j0AAOSwd0BVtRi5 ] 8O[/url]

I agree I grew up in the 70's and 80's and I look at the freedom we had ( and the danger we put ourselves in) compared to the cossetted lives my kids live. They have no idea on what they are missing out on. Life for me was a bit like a very working class version of the famous five where with load of playing for days on end in the countryside or on bikes but Dorset was replaced with building sites and open cast waste heaps

About £250

I think people are getting their childhood and the past mixed up. Sure childhood was great, no job, no cares etc. but would I want to go back to my childhood era to live as an adult? Nah, never have we had it so good than as now thanks.

Ricketts
Diptheria

You're not selling the past to me. These bike reminiscing are all well and good but they weren't better than bikes that are available nowadays. Are they?

These bike reminiscing are all well and good but they weren't better than bikes that are available nowadays. Are they?

Course they were better.

You'll never appreciate life more than you do when you realised that you've survived, immediately after riding down a coal bing on a Raleigh Chopper.

Ricketts
Diptheria

Ah yes, they were the days!

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^^^ Diptheria is a cruel disease right enough 🙂

*This*, this is another reason why yesteryear was pretty good.
Edit: let me change that for a UK car.
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matt, why is that car any better than the GTIs available now?
objectively: no power steering, no central locking, wind down windows, no abs, no cruise control. etc. Just because you have fond memories of bombing about in one with your mates does not make it better....

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(1990, 6am on an August Monday morning, Pooley Bridge to Glenridding, it wasn't big, it wasn't clever, I will not post the time it took, but it was less than it should have been.)

jekkyl - Member

matt, why is that car any better than the GTIs available now?
objectively: no power steering, no central locking, wind down windows, no abs, no cruise control. etc.

Which of these things make a car fun to drive? None of them would make a Proper GTI into a better car.

(OK, obviously this will now deteriorate into an STW Driving Thread)

I dunno, safer = better for me. That thing with the cruise control where it actually brakes the car is pretty cool.

If we're talking bikes,

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I was never allowed a bike as a kid. My mum reckoned I was dangerous enough on foot. I had a car before I had a pedal bike.

I see your Grifter and raise you a Boxer...
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like a BMX, but much shitter

matt, why is that car any better than the GTIs available now?

Well it looks better for a start. Most new cars just look like generic safety-blobs. Whether they're worth 6k or 60k.

I see your Grifter and raise you a Boxer...

No, the Boxer was definitely lower.

My mate at the time was into his bikes, he and his brother had a Grifter and two Boxers between them. As my mum wouldn't let me have a bike for safety reasons I spent years hacking about on their cast-off Boxer, clearly it's far safer to be hurtling down hills on an old ill-maintained bike with no brakes or guards (you could 'brake' by putting your foot up on the back tyre).

I had a Grifter. Wasn't it made out of cast-iron? Got a Raleigh Burner after that which was my pride & joy. Until it got nicked. Something broke inside me that day 😥

Chopping up "Fire Bomb Repeaters" to get at the individual canisters.
Far better than bangers.

Turning every icy hill into a proper slide.

I had a Grifter. Wasn't it made out of cast-iron?

I vaguely remember there was a Mk1 and a Mk2 - the Mk2 was no lightweight but the Mk1 was considerably heavier.

I was raising the "it was shit" stakes, not the "it was good" 😛

The boxer was for little kids - I got mine Xmas 1980 I think.

Got a Raleigh Burner

Vesta Chow Mein - soft and crispy noodles

Marathon bars - a bargain 2p versus 3p for a Mars

Fagging 🙂

Atomic ARC skis in 203 size and black and red graphics

Boredom was a thing. It lasted hours, days even.
It wasn't what happened to you in the 5 seconds before you could press "Skip Ad"

This is why the Costa del Sol exists. So like minded aged people can flee the ghastly modern world and seek easier, better times with other like minded people.

I was 3 in 1970 and 13 in 1980!

I had a Tomahawk (mine was Red) and I always wanted a Grifter.

I loved being bored - it never lasted very long and was always a pre-cursor to a great adventure 😆

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Look at that vertically compliant yet laterally stiff downtube! Thievsey little Jeff Jones...

Laundrettes, like tinder and you get your clobber cleaned.

and you get your clobber cleaned

I'm hoping that is a euphemism...

damn I miss the 70s and early 80s

but its an age thing - it wasnt any better or worse

but for me at that time, it was easier and more exciting

Petrol station kiosks were tiny sheds no cool drinks for sale,so if you were thirsty tough drink out the tap, no chocolate for sale, just a till some oil maybe stp, a nude calender on the wall and if it was Esso you could never get the team token you were looking for just shite teams like Burnley, Preston North End or Bury

matt, why is that car any better than the GTIs available now?
objectively: no power steering, no central locking, wind down windows, no abs, no cruise control. etc. Just because you have fond memories of bombing about in one with your mates does not make it better....

Well, it weighed 950Kg and later ones had power steering, electric windows etc and could crack 40mpg. The 16v was a hoot.

Modern cars are nicer places to sit and better made but I'd have more fun throwing an 80s GTI around than the modern iteration.

But nothing comes close to 1980s stinky finger in the park.

Back in those days, people new how to spell diphtheria.

Hurry Neil, you have time...

Richard Donner films.

70s and 80s for me.

We talked. Endlessly. Instead of standing at the bus stop for school with earphones in and a screen full of eyebrows, bullying posts and pubescent cocks.

I used to get up at 5am on a Saturday and go shooting magpies in the woods with my Webley Vulcan (.22 of course) without worrying about India 99 and an ARV.

No drugs. Just a cheeky pint of Boddies in the "easy" pub - ordered with a contrived deep voice and a smidgen of sister's mascara to enhance my 'tache.

Fab times.

And not forgetting the battles in the subway with mini rockets, air bomb repeaters and jet screams...

Unless you have a fair budget modern cars have more grip than power.

The 205 I used to have is similar in weight and power to the c2 I'm stuck with at the moment but the pug was a laugh , maybe slower but you always had a grin.

I don't have children but none of my friends kids have the freedom I had growing up through the 80s and 90s

Bike wise my 2003 enduro sx is still my preferred ride despite having a good choice for social rides

It snowed every winter - real proper snow.

Yes I know..I delivered milk from age 12 to 16 start at 4am snow up to your shins, layers of socks and mothers pride bags inside korean army boots still frozen within an hour.

Fit as a fiddle though which I suspect we all were. I can only recall one over weight person in my school which probably the biggest change in the human condition between then and now.

Dad going ballistic:
a) because of the latest thing that Harold Wilson did/said
b) petrol hitting 50p per gallon

Canal freezing over every year; the Grand Union isn't very deep
Mum taking a whole gang of us to the circus in a Ford Anglia van, a circus with animals
Esso World Cup Coin Collection, "swappsies", loads of swappsies
Grandad's Ford Pop. Semaphore signals and opening flaps below the windscreen for air con
Wagon Wheels that were the size of an actual wagon wheel (it seemed)

My 20 year old son talks in exactly the same way about the early 2000's

go figure...

Douglas Adams said:

“I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:
1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.”

Beef dripping sandwiches. (That's going back a bit, mind...)

rumbledethumps - Member 
Richard Donner films.

First time watching Superman, and biggest screen, the opening credits was enough to blow you away. Just epic. The film was in love with itself (or Donner was in love with the film).

These days it would bore kids and doesn't contain enough whiz bang CG effects bombarding their senses every 15 seconds to keep them from their phones.

And then of course The Omen, though was way too young to watch that, but think must have been around 8 or 9 and someone had a VCR(might have been Betamax!) and a copy of The Omen, so we sort of watched it skipping through to the good stuff, then of course scared the crap out of me with the glass scene. Was also just impressive that you could watch a film when you wanted on a VCR and the ability to pause, fast forward and rewind them was amazing.

to pause, fast forward and rewind them was amazing.

you were easily pleased. 😆

to pause, fast forward and rewind them was amazing.

Especially if it involved boobs

PJM1974 - Member

matt, why is that car any better than the GTIs available now?
objectively: no power steering, no central locking, wind down windows, no abs, no cruise control. etc. Just because you have fond memories of bombing about in one with your mates does not make it better....

Well, it weighed 950Kg and later ones had power steering, electric windows etc and could crack 40mpg. The 16v was a hoot.

Modern cars are nicer places to sit and better made but I'd have more fun throwing an 80s GTI around than the modern iteration.

Erm...

I had one - 40mpg? Not if the engine was running. High 20's on a motorway run, still petrol was 50p a litre or less.

It was a lot of fun to drive, they're not especially fast by modern standards, but it's a road car, not a race car so more fun at a lower speed seems like a good plan to me.

I'd love another one, but it would sit in my garage and come out when I've got a couple of hours to take it for a drive, probably down memory lane. I wouldn't rely on it to get me to Mid Wales next week, or Healthrow the week after.

This is one of those Nokia arguments isn't it. "Oh wern't they wonderful, the best phone ever, none better - Oh you can still buy them? Oh no thanks - I'll have an iPhone please".

There's always someone looking for a car on STW - here's one

[url= http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/volkswagen/golf-gti-mk1-mk2/volkswagen-golf-1-8-16v-gti-3dr-1991/6832013 ]MK2 Golf[/url]

It's in slightly rough but very original condition for £3k - if you've got £6k to spend which isn't a huge amount these days you could have a full engine rebuild, new suspection and brakes, rust repair and maybe enough to make it look fresh and new again if the paint isn't too bad. If you had £10k It could be for all intents and purposes like when it rolled off the line in 1991 (but it's still very much an 80s car) - it wouldn't even be such a bad investment - really nice ones are being offered for sale for £15k upwards.

nickc - Member

3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.”

Unless it was trailed in sci-fi. I'm absolutely fine with my [s]smartphone[/s] tricorder.

I had one - 40mpg? Not if the engine was running. High 20's on a motorway run, still petrol was 50p a litre or less.

So did I, a Mk2 16v no less. No matter how hard I drove it, I could never get less than 31mpg out of it. A motorway run usually had me averaging 40mpg.

I'd love another one too, but the issue with the 16v is petrol - they like 98RON minimum and 97RON super unleaded can leave them breathless and drops power by an appreciable amount. You can't adjust the timing to retune them to lower rated fuel, as the K-Jetronic ignition system is mechanical and will just reset itself to default tune. There are options to install an aftermarket EMU or to rip the engine out, refit with a modern(ish) SEAT two litre 16v unit or even a 1.8T (or a VR6, but that makes handling very nose heavy).

I always have a moment of longing when looking at second hand Golfs on the internet (I had a "discussion" with Mrs PJM when Vicki Butler-Henderson's GTI 16v came on the market a few years back), but a seventeen owner car with rust, UV induced matte paintwork, no MOT and ten years missing paperwork for an optimistic £3k will never be anything more than a money pit.

If I had unlimited means, I'd buy two.

Yup, the past was awesome..

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