fourpence to the future

[davemac]

I was messing about with my phone recently, thinking, this phone connects to the internet, its got bluetooth (I can put it in my pocket and talk through an earpiece) takes photos, its an alarm clock, a compass, it sends emails and receives them, it texts. In fact it will do a million other things if I choose to download an app for it. Most people have a mobile phone nowadays, plus a landline used for calls and internet connection.


This set me thinking, in my liftime I have come from a period when not many houses had phones (my mother when she could afford a phone had a party line, this was a shared line with another house, who would put up with that nowaday) , and most people had to go out and find a red phone box.
This entailed putting 4 old pennies in the box and pressing button A, then if the person on the other end answered you pressed button B to talk to them.



So the question is, what part of modern life do you think has advanced your life the most, or what do you think should never have been invented.

[cashman]

Think probably the internet has advanced my life greatly,not that i understand much about the mechanics of it,

[Retlaw]

Originally Posted by cashman

Think probably the internet has advanced my life greatly,not that i understand much about the mechanics of it,

Without the internet, Iwould have had to spend months in the Public Record Office in London, to even get 1/2 way to where I am now with my research.
Retlaw.

[davemac]

Originally Posted by cashman

Think probably the internet has advanced my life greatly,not that i understand much about the mechanics of it,

I think the internet would be on the top of the list here as everyone reading this uses the internet, so I suppose thats fair enough

[davemac]

Originally Posted by Retlaw

Without the internet, Iwould have had to spend months in the Public Record Office in London, to even get 1/2 way to where I am now with my research.
Retlaw.

you could argue that without the internet you may not have started your research in the first place, or kept it local

[Eric]

Viagara

[cashman]

Originally Posted by davemac

you could argue that without the internet you may not have started your research in the first place, or kept it local

Thats n argument am sure would be lost.

[Mancie]

One of the major advances since the 80's has to be football.. the old boring style of play from teams like Liverpool has been advanced no end.

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by davemac

I was messing about with my phone recently, thinking, this phone connects to the internet, its got bluetooth (I can put it in my pocket and talk through an earpiece) takes photos, its an alarm clock, a compass, it sends emails and receives them, it texts. In fact it will do a million other things if I choose to download an app for it. Most people have a mobile phone nowadays, plus a landline used for calls and internet connection.


This set me thinking, in my liftime I have come from a period when not many houses had phones (my mother when she could afford a phone had a party line, this was a shared line with another house, who would put up with that nowaday) , and most people had to go out and find a red phone box.
This entailed putting 4 old pennies in the box and pressing button A, then if the person on the other end answered you pressed button B to talk to them.



So the question is, what part of modern life do you think has advanced your life the most, or what do you think should never have been invented.

Now come on Dave you pressed button A to conect, button B to get your money back if nobody answered

[jaysay]

It was well into the 70s when my mum got a phone and that was only because I had it installed, while I was working away. As you say Dave most people have a mobile these days, I have one but its always switched off unless I go out and its a bog standard on too not these new all singing all dancing models. I can remember the days when, if you wanted to make a call while you were out, you had to search for a red box that wasn't vandalised, which was no mean feat, now if people don't have a mobile stuck to their ear theres something wrong with them, sure it won't be long before we get telephone ear as a new illness

[davemac]

Originally Posted by jaysay

Now come on Dave you pressed button A to conect, button B to get your money back if nobody answered

I dont remember it that way, but you are right. I am getting old now so I remember the principal but not the fine detail

[davemac]

Originally Posted by Eric

Viagara

well it has its place.
Around here they give it to all the males in old peoples homes of an evening along with the horlicks.

it stops them falling out of bed, and they have a good nights sleep

[Margaret Pilkington]

Button B was to get your money back........I remember when we were children we would go into the phone box and press button B to see if we could get fourpence......you could buy a lot of Rainbow drops with fourpence, quite a few aniseed balls, black jacks and fruit salad....or buy four enormous bubbly gums.(the kind that filled your mouth so full you hardly had room to chew it.......in fact we used to bite it in half and share it with a friend(we didn't care about getting germs.....after all it was only spit and none of us ever died from drinking out of the same pop bottle).
Thanks for bringing back some happy memories.

[Boeing Guy]

Too young for that, but I do remember dialling and waiting for the pips with a handful of tuppences.

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by davemac

I dont remember it that way, but you are right. I am getting old now so I remember the principal but not the fine detail

Used to be a saying Press Button B and get your money back, if ya remember Dave you slotted your four pennies into the slow and waited then when they answered whap your thumb on button A to talk