Do You Remember.....................

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I was a Naval cadet (CCF), yes we did stuff that would give people heart failure nowadays. We did similar night exercises with military grade thunderflashes, got to fire a Bofors 40mm which was fun, also winched up into a Wessex helicopter with just a strop under my arms. I remember the safety briefing for that - "don't lift your arms up or you'll fall out of it and die" :D
Helicopters - that's another one which I forgot about.
Sometimes we were flown in them, and if they knew it was your first time, they stalled the engine to scare the shit out of you - it worked to be fair
 
I remember having a bbc micro computer when i was a kid and i thought it was the dogs. My favourite game was 3d grandprix
 
Too right John - going out to the woods with mates to climb trees, coming home with grazed knees and muddy clothes, summer hols in teens taking off on bikes with a couple of mates, with a picnic as we were out for the day round country lanes while parents were at work, no satnav or mobile phones then, imagine the "yoof" of today being told to do that, let alone the parents of today telling their offspring to do it!

Yup, remember all of that. Fortunate enough to live near quite a substantial wooded area for the first 20 years of my life.

Happy times.

I think windows 95 came on 13 floppy disks lol

I remember The Lotus Suite being on 27 3.5" floppies, Ami Pro was the Word Processor, I still use the Lotus Organiser from way back then, a useful little program, forgotten the name of the database and presentation programs though.

I see your 27 x 3.5" floppies and raise you 31 floppies for Microsoft Office 4.3 (Professional) for Windows 3.1 back in 1992 I think it was.

You can't beat installing it only to find say disk 28 as an unrecoverable read-error.

:eek: What happened to that?

White dog shyte was because dogs used to be fed bone meal I understand.

Their diet has vastly improved in the intervening years fortunately.
 
Dad had a Sinclair ZX with a casette drive and linked to an old B&W 625 line TV, had to use it after he died trying to unscramble his investments to get probate, nightmare! Then a friend gave our son a 286 computer with about 0Mb RAM and 40Mb HDD, again a nightmare. As for the first time I had to use dial-up to submit a morning report from offshore - at that time it meant instead of my radio operator typing my report onto paper tape for the telex while I had breakfast, then doing the corrections and sending it, I had to spend hours in front of a slow computer doing it myself - Progress???? The yoof of today have no idea what they've missed while we suffered the developments they take for granted!
 
Ripspeed shop in Edmonton (the real thing, not the current Halfords brand of cheap spoilers).
Or Avonbar the mini specialists. Always my dream to have a mini with an Avonbar 1380 mated to a Jack Knight developments 5 speed box. I did end up buying something from Avonbar - bucket seats for my Alfa Sprint.
 
I had a Mongoose BMX with rear trick posts. My older sister had a budgie. My younger brother had a flash Raleigh that made noises with some white sound box thing on the main frame. Can't remember what it was called though.
I think the Raleigh was called a Vector? If you ever go to MB World at Brooklands have a look in Brooklands museum. They have a superb bicycle display with loads of 1970’s and 80’s bikes from Raleigh. Including a Vector, Bomber, Boxer, Burner BMX etc

i had a Redline BMX
 
Harrington jackets.

StaPrest in shiny colour-changing fabric - AKA two tone strides.

Tassled loafers.

White socks.

Checked Ben Shermans with button down collars and short sleeves.
I wear a Harrington now, it’s a Barracuta. Actually I still wear Fred Perry, Fila, Ellesse, Sergio Tacchini...some things don’t change!
 
Campri ski jackets. Which were useless when it rained.
 
Harrington waxed jacket oiled, big leather motorcycle boots like Gestapo officers, Everoak bash helmet, and Big f##k off, 500 BSA Gold star single, bike. Happy Dangerous Days.but exciting stuff. Loved it, ..............🚴🥃💤
 
I can remember using one in my dad’s London accountancy office back in the mid 50s when I went there for a day to get out of my mum’s hair. I thought it was brilliant winding the handle and seeing all the numbers change.
With the electric ones you could divide 10,000,000 by 1 and the thing would keep going until it did the 10,000,000 revolutions or burnt itself out.
The neatest one I ever came across was a pocket version that a surveyor I worked with, back in the late 60's, used to do his calcs with. It was manufactured in Liechtenstein and was an amazing piece of engineering. The one below is for sale for over £1000.00 on ebay. I used it quite a lot during my time out in Ireland and from memory the ring at the top flipped out and you basically hung it on a finger on your left hand and operated it with your right hand , the hand held calculator of the 60's.
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I used to be a computer operator for Ford at their Swansea Plant in the early 70's. The bloody thing was about half the size of a Ford Cortina and the external discs were about 400mm dia and had a thick plastic cover with a carry handle to move them about.
 
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Three piece tonic suit, 12 buttons on each sleeve, 12 button waistcoat ,loads of pockets, shirt with jumbo collar , silk tie, pocket handkerchief (complete with tie tack), oxford brogues and a Crombie , plus the obligatory gallon of Brut or High Karate aftershave. Would not let mother iron any of my clobber ( I think she deliberately put double creases when ironing my gear to ensure I didn`t ask her to iron it). Lambretta bedecked with chrome one week then stripped back to bare framework the following weekend to get an extra couple of MPH ! Those were the days! I absolutely hate getting old but would not want to be eighteen today.
 
Lambretta bedecked with chrome one week then stripped back to bare framework the following weekend to get an extra couple of MPH !
My LI 150 , (Lousy Insides 150) would do all of 55mph down hill with a good wind . Was actually doing it downhill with a good wind one night , overtaking a bus, didn't see the car parked on the right until I hit it. It has amazed me , since that night nearly 50 years ago , how I survived with cuts, bruises and a twisted ankle after somersaulting through the air and hitting the tarmac at that speed.
 
I hate to admit it , but coming back from the pub one evening I went straight over a grassy roundabout on my Lambretta ( hybrid of a series one with series 2 headset and 150 engine with a 175 barrel and piston ) and landed up in a hedge. An old boy came out and helped me up , no injuries other than a sprained ankle. I thanked him for his help and he replied " I only came out because I thought you hit my car".
 
I used to be a computer operator for Ford at their Swansea Plant in the early 70's. The bloody thing was about half the size of a Ford Cortina and the external discs were about 400mm dia and had a thick plastic cover with a carry handle to move them about.

I was product manager for a DEC distribution company and we sold RA60 600MB (yes, MB not GB) disk drives for £15K each - that was way cheaper than any other disti who up till then almost had a cartel! The cables needed (BC26V-19 - how sad am I!) were almost £300 each and ideally 4 were needed. What the other distis did not know was that a sister company manufactured the cable for DEC so we bought at pennies and laid cost against the disks.

People in IT were making SERIOUS money in those days. Not me sadly!
 
Yup, remember all of that. Fortunate enough to live near quite a substantial wooded area for the first 20 years of my life.

Happy times.I see your 27 x 3.5" floppies and raise you 31 floppies for Microsoft Office 4.3 (Professional) for Windows 3.1 back in 1992 I think it was.
You can't beat installing it only to find say disk 28 as an unrecoverable read-error.
White dog shyte was because dogs used to be fed bone meal I understand.
Their diet has vastly improved in the intervening years fortunately.

Microsoft Office 4.3 (Professional) for Windows!

I think I have a Pirated copy of that in my Attic! :rolleyes:
 
Frig, that brings back some memories.
I was in the army cadets for about 4.5 years, I remember the Lee-Enfield 303's very well.
I'm also pleased to say I earned a marksman badge with that rifle, and also the .22 rifle which was used on indoor ranges.

And we didn't have any ear protection either.
Actually come to think of it, back then (35 odd years ago) there wasn't a terrible lot of H&S.
I can remember groups of us being out on night training exercises when away at weekends, and flash grenade type things going off very nearby.
And sparring also with no head gear.
I was in the Air Cadets in the late 1980’s and for sure there was less consideration for safety, however it taught you to take care of your own safety. Using pyrotechnics on night exercises etc. Saying that there was one time I thought we were pushing the limits a bit far. We had a fantastic Warrant Officer who was in the 21st SAS (Reserves) who did a lot of our training. For armed combat training he insisted we use our bayonets rather than the fake wooden knives we had as he didn’t see the point in learning to defend against a wooden toy! We also did CS gas training in a sealed section of fuselage (we were based at Brooklands when it was still British Aerospace) - after doing a cross country run. As the CS reacts with moisture it was quite uncomfortable.
 
[NoMoneyButaMerc,] Nobody likes to be old, the trick is never admit to anyone that you are, especially to yourself, if you do you will begin to feel Old , you may even look old, and you and all your friends will Know/think you're Old, stay Cool Stay Young, Enjoy Life live forever! And, keep washing your Hands ROCK ON!!!!!!!!🥃👍
 
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