Another Age Test

~ beetleypete

See if you are old enough to remember all this.

The ice cream lady in the cinema.

Ringing TIM.

Grannies who looked like grannies.

Wind up windows in cars.

Buttercup proof.

Listening to the sea in a shell.

Very uncomfortable swimwear.

Filing card systems.

The excitement of labelling everything using your Dymo machine.

Not having central heating or double-glazing.

72 thoughts on “Another Age Test”

    1. There would be an intermission between the two films, (always two films back then, or a break in a very long film like Cleopatra which was almost 4 hours long) and the ladies would appear at the front of the auditorium, one either side. We would leave our seats to go and buy ice cream, and then when they were on their way back before the film started, anyone who had changed their mind could call them over and buy something. It stopped before 1980, once the cinemas began to have kiosks in the foyer.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  6. About rolling down windows, my daughter is 5. Which means she questions everything, including English phrases. I have to explain to her how the world was before technology made everything accessible. She asks me what a postman is; what a post is; why I shy away from making video calls all the time; how the world managed without electricity, YouTube and Google…

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    1. I think it is great that she wants to know everything, and also important that she understands what it was like before. Show her this post, and she what she makes of the photos. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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    1. They used to stand at the front during the ‘Intermission’ between films. Then as they walked back, you could signal them to come over if you had not gone to the front previously. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  10. Tick all the box’s with this, Went to pictures (cinema) in Kaikoura about 15 years ago, not only an ice cream lady but a 15 min intermission, nearly choked on me choc ice

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  12. (1) Sign in a movie theater: “We pop the corn. You pop the cherries.”
    (2a) I haven’t called Time to see what time it is in a very long time. Maybe I need to call Time to find out how much time has passed since the last time I called.
    (2b) My grandma used to call Time to set the grandfather clock, which over time had become set in its ways: always running slow, just like grandpa.
    (3) Elizabeth Hurley needs a grandchild. I’d like to volunteer.
    (4) I decided to roll out a song:
    ♬ Where have all the wing vents gone
    ♬ Long time passing
    ♬ Where have all the wing vents gone
    ♬ Long time ago
    (5) The first time I saw a yellow plastic flower, I gasped, “I can’t believe it’s not butter!”
    (6) I once put my ear in a seashell, and then threw the shell back in the water. I’ve been hearing whale songs and outboard motors ever since.
    (7) Bubble Ho-Tep looked at the girls and asked, “Ooh, nice! Is your mummy at home?”
    (8) Girl searching in the card catalog: “I see Block. And I see Bloke. But for Pete’s sake, where’s Blog?”
    (9) I had one of those label makers, but all it printed out was Libby’s, Libby’s, Libby’s.
    (10) Forget the windows. I want double-glazed donuts!

    Note: I remember 7 out of 10.

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  14. “At the tone the time will be…” Oh I hated those bathing suits!! “Going to the pictures” was such a treat. No stinky popcorn in those days. Library research…oh yes. How many books did I cart about. The label machine, yup and the frosted windows. Not so very long ago. But I bet you don’t remember gas lighting.

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    1. I do remember the man lighting the gas lamps when I was very young. He had a device that lit the burner. But there were not many of them left where we lived, and they were all-electric by the early 1960s.
      However, there are still many gas lamps in London, I found this for you.
      “There are still 1500 gas lamps in London. They don’t need lighting every night, but the timer that lights them automatically needs adjusting every fortnight to keep pace with shorter or longer days. Before timers, lamps were lit with an 8ft long brass pole with a pilot light – last used around Temple 1976.”
      As for going to the pictures…

      Going to The Pictures


      Best wishes, Pete.

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    1. Thanks, Dorothy. Yes, you can still call 123 here to get the time. But it is a chargeable call, and with the popularity of mobile phones that have clocks, very few people ring 123 now.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  26. I remember all but the last one, and I even had a yellow bubble swimsuit. Mum always had the central heating on maximum and we never had ice on the inside of the windows, possibly the reason I cannot stand much heat nowadays. However, Sam remembers icy windows in his house.

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    1. We had those icy windows in our flat when I was first married, in 1977. The mirror in the bathroom used to ice up too, and I had to rub warm water on it to see to have a shave. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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