Old Tech thread

[Pyan]

This is what I had in my bedsit in the 70s - you could cook your way into any young lady's k ...affections with one of these!

 

[Danny McG]

This is what I had in my bedsit in the 70s - you could cook your way into any young lady's k ...affections with one of these!

View attachment 126494​

When I married my first wife in 1979 we took out a mortgage on a small terraced house and moved in with a baby.
We managed with one like that for almost three years!

Fair enough we alternated going to the in-laws every Christmas for a decent dinner.

 

[Toby Frost]

we took out a mortgage on a small terraced house and moved in with a baby

He was a good housemate, but he made a racket at nights, and all the chairs in the house were very high.

 

[Vertigo]

When I went to university (around 1976) I got an attic flat, a real garret, though I can't claim to have been any kind of artist. It was all one room other than the toilet, and I furnished the whole thing with under £20 from one of those second hand/house clearance places that abounded in cities in those days (Liverpool). This included a seriously battered electric cooker and an equally battered fridge. Luxury! Heating was provided (included in that furnishing) by one of these paraffin heaters, which meant you had to keep a window open or get a filthy headache. No one had told me about CO poisoning in those days so it was always a toss up between staying warm with a headache or being cold!

 

[farntfar]

one of those second hand/house clearance places that abounded in cities in those days (Liverpool).

Swainbanks. Every disused church or hall in the city.
They've almost died out now, as far as I know.

My student digs were furnished from there too.

 

[Vertigo]

Gone a bit upmarket now it would seem: "The concept is the brainchild of Steve Swainbank, who comes from a long line of Liverpool antique dealers and international traders."

LIVERPOOL ANTIQUE CENTRE BACK IN BUSINESS!

During lockdown we’ve been spending much more time at home and this will have led many of us to consider home improvements and perhaps even completely re-designing our homes. Well, whatever you’re looking for, Liverpool Antique Centre is an Aladdin’s cave and now they’re back in business —...

www.lavidaliverpool.co.uk

My one was just a little corner one, top of Prince's Avenue.

 

[farntfar]

I'm not sure. I think we used one in Wavertree.

 

[Ursa major]

This is what I had in my bedsit in the 70s - you could cook your way into any young lady's k ...affections with one of these!

View attachment 126494​

I can't recall if I've mentioned this before, but when I bought my first house, I got a proper oven for free from a colleague who was replacing it with a better, but also free, one. Eventually, I replaced it with a good oven...

...and got £50 off the cost by trading in my free one.

 

[Parson]

In the line of "never to be matched" good deals. In 1973 rented my first apartment (I would marry while living there), a large furnished two bedroom, one bath apartment over a grocery for the princely sum of $75 a month including utilities.

 

[dask]

 

[mosaix]

When Mrs Mosaix and I bought our first house we'd been living in a bedsit and had no possessions other than the the clothes we stood up in.

The owner of the house said that, as part of the sale, the purchaser had to buy all the carpets, the cooker, the fridge, the lawn mower, step ladders (that we still have), two double beds, a single bed and a dining table and six chairs (that my son has) and that here would be an extra charge for these over and above the price of the house.

We were broke at the time and asked in trepidation 'How much?'

'£120 and you can pay me at £10 per month.'

Needless to say we bought the house - four bedroom detached £5,250!

He'd been trying to sell the house for some time with no success. The reason? It was a multi-cultural area - Greeks, Poles, West Indians - perfect for us and in a way we were grateful that there were so many racists around who found the area distasteful and left the house just waiting for us.

There's a tale of incredible coincidence that goes with this house that I'll post in another thread.

 

[Pyan]

This is what my grandmother cooked on from the 1930s until the 1970s...

 

[Danny McG]

I remember having one of these in the early 1980s when the £1 coins were first introduced.
It's hardly worth the effort nowadays.

 

[Pyan]

Honestly can't remember the last time I used any coin. Doubt it was since 2020, though.

 

[Ursa major]

The local patisserie** (that's what they call themselves) only takes cash, so coins are always involved, either as payment or change. I go there up to three times a week (and only when I'm setting off on a 2+ hour walk, one that the fruit scone I buy never seems to survive).



** - Just recently, they were advertising a job, one that involves turning up to work at 04:30. Unlike the other two bakeries here in the "village", they bake everything they sell on the premises.

 

[Danny McG]

only when I'm setting off on a 2+ hour walk

I can't remember last time I did a walk solely for walking's sake.
No way would I get any pleasure out of such!

 

[mosaix]

I can't remember last time I did a walk solely for walking's sake.
No way would I get any pleasure out of such!

And you live in Cumbria! Suggest you do a house swap with some poor urban-bound citizen.

 

[Dave]

Honestly can't remember the last time I used any coin. Doubt it was since 2020, though.

I do keep £1 coins on me still. There are some car parks that still take cash only (not very many but I don't want to be caught out) and some of the voluntary organisations that I'm involved with insist on a few coins for tea and coffee, or to attend meetings (although I'd much rather just pay by bank transfer once a year, but some people want to cling onto "the way it was always done.")

Anyhow, I was in Derbyshire a few weeks ago and I found that all the public toilets (Bakewell and Dove Dale) wanted a 20p coin. Now, who the **** carries around ****** 20p coins anymore!!! Once I'd used up Mrs. Dave's supply of coins, we had to try to follow someone else through the barrier (as everyone else did too) and luckily, we found quite a number of the turnstiles were broken anyway.

This isn't the other moaning thread, but people shouldn't have to pay for public toilets anyway, it's a health provision. And when you do have to pay, I find they are usually the worst kept toilets, which makes you unsure what exactly you are paying for.

 

[Pyan]

Yes, the National Express bus station toilets in Southampton require a 20p piece - not, fortunately, for the disabled/baby change one, though. I asked the chap behind the ticket grill about it, he told me that they used to be free, but were being misused and left in a bad state.

'Kettle Belly' Baldwin had it right in RAH's Friday:
"In a healthy society public restrooms, toilets, washrooms, look and smell as clean and fresh as a bathroom in a decent private home. In a sick society — "

 

[Ursa major]

No way would I get any pleasure out of such!

Where I live, there are woods and heaths in/over which to walk... and the coast, with its sandy beaches and wooded chines, is only a few miles away.

I have no idea why, but I simply find such places pleasant to be in... and the exercise allows me to eat more of the things that I shouldn't really be eating....

I do keep £1 coins on me still. There are some car parks

The trolleys at the supermarkets around here require a pound coin to release them for use. I keep an old-style pound coin in the car for this purpose.