Things that confirm your age

[ikks]

3 hours ago, Owd Bob said:

...when you still have 78rpm records, admittedly they are hand mi downs from my parents.

When my father in law passed a couple of years ago, our mum asked if we could clear out his music room and his shed which was choc a bloc full of old 78's, lots of 33rpm Lp's  and a few CD's, mainly band and militiary music, had a look at ebay but no, too hard. I knew our local tip had a shop area for such stuff, so I took them there, it took me about two and a half hours to unload them from my trailer, there were that bloody many and let me tell you those old 78's are heavy. Anyway three weeks later I took another pile of crap from the same source and the records were gone.......one bloke took the lot!!

 

Mike

Edited September 13, 2020 by ikks

[eastglosmog]

22 hours ago, Sarahagain said:

RE: Old children's programming.

 

Four Feather Falls anyone?

 

 

 

 

 

Bill and Ben the Flower pot men?

1st episode of Blue Peter?

[melmerby]

3 minutes ago, eastglosmog said:

Bill and Ben the Flower pot men?

 

Flubbulub

Weeeeeed.

[J. S. Bach]

5 hours ago, Owd Bob said:

...when you still have 78rpm records, admittedly they are hand mi downs from my parents.

Not I, my parents interest in music was limited to a rarely used table radio, Lawrence Welk, and Mitch Miller. I bought most of my 78s and still do some fast-spinning:

 

There is a wealth of great music on 78s that will probably never be available in any other format. This one is quite "spicy":

 

I still search out older 78s, but not any of the popular ones like Miller, Goodman, etc as their stuff is readily available elsewher and in better fidelity. This album is an exception as I believe that I am the first person to handle these records since someone put them in the album at the factory (note the cardboard stiffener to prevent the records from getting broken due to bending in transit):

 

Edited September 13, 2020 by J. S. Bach
To add a missing word.

[iL Dottore]

54 minutes ago, melmerby said:

I know I'm old as I can remember the introduction of commercial CDs.

I was an early adopter in 1985 and I had to take my CD deck into work so the rest could see exactly what it was.

Now they are obsolescent!...

Not for me they aren’t. Whilst it is true that, for convenience, I have transferred some of the music and spoken word from CD to MP3, I keep my CDs pristine and they remain as a permanent backup and archive.
I still hang onto a fairly extensive 33 rpm record collection, although I still have yet to get a good quality turntable to plug into my computer and thus transfer music from LP to a hard drive.  The audio quality of many of the LPs has yet to be surpassed, especially those pressings from Deutsche Grammophon.  I have a recording of Gregorian Chants (on DG) where in the second or two before they start singing you hear the creak of choir’s leather sandals as they stand to sing.

51 minutes ago, ikks said:

When my father in law passed a couple of years ago, our mum asked if we could clear out his music room and his shed which was choc a bloc full of old 78's, lots of 33rpm Lp's  and a few CD's, mainly band and militiary music, had a look at ebay but no, too hard. I knew our local tip had a shop area for such stuff, so I took them there, ....Anyway three weeks later I took another pile of crap from the same source and the records were gone.......one bloke took the lot!!

 

Mike

And probably made a small fortune in the process. Apparently, or so I am reliably told, Flea-Bay is not a good source for rare and valuable items and the dedicated and knowledgeable supplier of records and other old but valuable items to collectors will visit the tips and the charity shops on a regular basis.  And in order to make any sort of money doing this, they really need to know the subject inside out.
Knowing that the internationally famous pop group “X” made a disastrous demo record when they called themselves “the spuds“, is one thing; knowing the colour of the label on that demo record, knowing the artwork of the cover, knowing who pressed it and how many are thought to survive makes the difference between shelling out a few quid for something that could be sold to a collector for a decent amount of money  and shelling out a few quid for a box of unplayable vinyl.

24 minutes ago, eastglosmog said:

Bill and Ben the Flower pot men?

1st episode of Blue Peter?

I certainly remember Bill and Ben, but when I became aware of them being on television I thought they were too childish for me (and I think I came to that conclusion at the grown-up age of eight years old).

I certainly remember the Gerry Anderson Marionation television programmes; I kind of missed Fireball XL5, but certainly watched Supercar and Thunderbirds.

One thing that has stayed with me, all these years, are the opening titles to Supercar: when the announcer says “anything can happen in the next half hour“ and then there was 30 seconds of complete chaos as the titles rolled. Indeed, it has stayed with me so long (probably because of the impact it made on my young psyche) that often when I was going into a difficult meeting with a colleague I would mutter to him or her “anything can happen in the next half hour“ confident that there would be ensuing chaos...

[TheQ]

Of 78s back in the early 1970s dad had to do a audit of the Sergeants mess on Benbecula in the outer Hebridies.  He discovered an unplayed original Glenn Miller LP, still valued at 2/6. Needless to say it was worth a lot more. It, I believe was later sold off,  but I have somewhere, a cassette of its first playing.. Dad is a big Glenn Miller fan.

  I have a much later complete set of all GM's tune on CD,over 200 tracks... My God is there a lot of dross.. 

Edited September 13, 2020 by TheQ

[jonny777]

On 12/09/2020 at 13:43, jcm@gwr said:

 

 

 

Also, 3 more for the list-

advice or advise

practice or practise

licence or license

 

I thought that the first spellings in your list were nouns, and the second were verbs. 

 

Have I been wrong all these years?

 

[rab]

59 minutes ago, jonny777 said:

 

I thought that the first spellings in your list were nouns, and the second were verbs. 

 

Have I been wrong all these years?

 

They were, but not any more, it seems.

[IWCR]

“anything can happen in the next half hour“

I thought that was stingray? or was it used in both?.

I cant remeber it but I can remember my dad commenting "how do they know it will be half an hour"

Dont remember watching supercar but I do remember stingray.

 

Pete

[jcm@gwr]

1 hour ago, jonny777 said:

 

I thought that the first spellings in your list were nouns, and the second were verbs. 

 

Have I been wrong all these years?

 

 

I hadn't thought about listing or categorising by verb, noun, adverb, adjective, etc,

just words that sound similar, that people regularly mix up!

The list is simply as they popped into my head!

Edited September 13, 2020 by jcm@gwr
further explanation

[Hroth]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

One thing that has stayed with me, all these years, are the opening titles to Supercar: when the announcer says “anything can happen in the next half hour“

 

Its Stingray

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 13, 2020 by Hroth

[iL Dottore]

3 hours ago, jonny777 said:

 

I thought that the first spellings in your list were nouns, and the second were verbs. 

 

Have I been wrong all these years?

 

Nope, it was my ageing memory: I should have written Stingray, not Supercar!

Yep, I’m getting old....

[62613]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

 

Its Stingray

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wow! 1964! That brought back a few memories!

[Ruffnut Thorston]

Absolutely fantastic....

 

As were most Gerry Anderson opening sequences...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 13, 2020 by Sarahagain

[pH]

By coincidence, one of my wife’s friends has just sent her a collection of “Do you remember these?” items. One that really brought back memories for both of us was covering school textbooks in brown paper. There were commercial versions for standard sizes of books which came in two parts, with a gummed flap to stick them together. But mostly we used sheets of wrapping paper and Sellotape, and got pretty good at producing neat results. We called this “battering” a book, and the cover a “batter” - what the reason for that was, I do not know.

Edited September 14, 2020 by pH

[ikks]

12 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

And probably made a small fortune in the process. Apparently, or so I am reliably told, Flea-Bay is not a good source for rare and valuable items and the dedicated and knowledgeable supplier of records and other old but valuable items to collectors will visit the tips and the charity shops on a regular basis.  And in order to make any sort of money doing this, they really need to know the subject inside out.
Knowing that the internationally famous pop group “X” made a disastrous demo record when they called themselves “the spuds“, is one thing; knowing the colour of the label on that demo record, knowing the artwork of the cover, knowing who pressed it and how many are thought to survive makes the difference between shelling out a few quid for something that could be sold to a collector for a decent amount of money  and shelling out a few quid for a box of unplayable vinyl.

I hope whoever took them did do well, father in law was member of quite a number of music societies and the collection was offered in part or whole to all of them but no interest was shown, only reference to collectors or specialist shops were given and we received virtually the same reaction from them. So.......to the tip they went!!

Mike

[Hroth]

5 hours ago, pH said:

One that really brought back memories for both of us was covering school textbooks in brown paper.

 

In our school we backed books with brown paper (The arty types used other sorts of paper) when the book was issued at the beginning of the year, because if it was returned in a significantly worse state then house points were deducted. A well wrapped book was proof of good intent.

 

Thr return day was like the intro sequence of "Branded" (remember that?) as the teacher inspected the book, passed or failed it and then ceremonially removed the backing, ready for next years victim...

 

 

 

[jonny777]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

 

In our school we backed books with brown paper (The arty types used other sorts of paper) when the book was issued at the beginning of the year, because if it was returned in a significantly worse state then house points were deducted. A well wrapped book was proof of good intent.

 

Thr return day was like the intro sequence of "Branded" (remember that?) as the teacher inspected the book, passed or failed it and then ceremonially removed the backing, ready for next years victim...

 

 

 

 

 

I don't wish to sound insulting, but at our school that kind of thing was "what girls did", so we didn't do it. 

 

I don't remember house points being deducted, but there was a form stuck inside the front cover for indicating book condition and the dates they were given out, and handed back, together with our name. It was interesting to look at some of the earlier names when we were in the 1st/2nd year and think 'wow, he is now an upper 6th prefect' or head boy. We thought we were privileged to have the same copy as the current head boy had had; and even more so if it was further back and the original pupil was now on the teaching staff. 

 

How times have changed. 

[57xx]

19 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Talking of Cds who cam remember them going on Tomorrows World and claiming they were indistructable playing even after Raymond Baxter drove over them on a tractor. Mmm

Get a fingerprint on them and they skip 

 

I don't remember the Tomorrow's World piece, but do remember Peter Powell spreading jam on one on ORS (Oxford Road Show).

[TheQ]

1 hour ago, jonny777 said:

 

 

I don't wish to sound insulting, but at our school that kind of thing was "what girls did", so we didn't do it. 

 

I don't remember house points being deducted, but there was a form stuck inside the front cover for indicating book condition and the dates they were given out, and handed back, together with our name. It was interesting to look at some of the earlier names when we were in the 1st/2nd year and think 'wow, he is now an upper 6th prefect' or head boy. We thought we were privileged to have the same copy as the current head boy had had; and even more so if it was further back and the original pupil was now on the teaching staff. 

 

How times have changed. 

I remember the books having to be covered, nothing to do with house points, it the book was returned defaced or damaged your parents could get a bill for a new one..

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

17 hours ago, Hroth said:

... Stingray

The first of the Gerry Anderson productions I got to see, when Pa was finally persuaded to shell out for the TV licence. Something of a story attaches. He got the TV for free having left DH's for more money at a 'piped aerial' business, for which he had to sort out the dire design of the line amplifiers and some wave guidey aspects. The TV was 'thrown in' with the job as field testing was required, and when he left after 8 months its return was not requested. 

3 hours ago, Hroth said:

In our school we backed books with brown paper (The arty types used other sorts of paper) when the book was issued at the beginning of the year, because if it was returned in a significantly worse state then house points were deducted. A well wrapped book was proof of good intent.

 

... return day was like the intro sequence of "Branded" (remember that?) as the teacher inspected the book, passed or failed it and then ceremonially removed the backing...

That does date us doesn't it? Our variation was that we had to remove the cover before presenting it for return. Fortunately I had received a key hint from a neighbour's year older daughter: inspect the book on receipt and insist on the teacher noting and signing on the inside cover for all pre-existing damage.  Only Sigismund the mad maths master refused to cooperate: 'All my books are perfect, [snarl]and will remain so![/snarl]'.

2 hours ago, jonny777 said:

... but at our school that kind of thing was "what girls did", so we didn't do it. 

I had observed by the latter end of primary school that 'the girls' enjoyed a far more tranquil path through their education, and one of them wised me up on the technique. She was sufficiently adept that in her last years at secondary she and few other girls regularly having a quick drag during assembly didn't occasion any trouble (by this stage we were seated adjacent the staff ashtray room, which provided 'cover').

 

And there's another thing, teachers regularly smoking in class...

 

 

[simontaylor484]

We had to back our books at high school in the 90s exercise books only most text books were tacky back covered. Even when i went to uni i wrapped my text books to preserve the value for resale. The Blackwells books branch in the uni would buy them back 

[John Harris]

21 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Not for me they aren’t. Whilst it is true that, for convenience, I have transferred some of the music and spoken word from CD to MP3, I keep my CDs pristine and they remain as a permanent backup and archive.

 

Without wishing to upset you, but CDs (and DVDs for that matter) cannot be regarded as a permanent back-up.  https://cdm.link/2017/02/a-generation-of-cds-is-already-rotting-and-dying/  Some disc media, evidently using faulty dyes, can fail in under ten years, via something unpleasantly dubbed “disc rot.”

 

This was a minor issue while I was working, supporting payroll services, as some offices decided that CDs were a better option than pile (and pile) of paper, but the supplier could not guarantee the CDs would last more than 20 years.

 

jh

Edited September 14, 2020 by John Harris

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, John Harris said:

 

Without wishing to upset you, but CDs (and DVDs for that matter) cannot be regarded as a permanent back-up.  https://cdm.link/2017/02/a-generation-of-cds-is-already-rotting-and-dying/  Some disc media, evidently using faulty dyes, can fail in under ten years, via something unpleasantly dubbed “disc rot.”

 

This was a minor issue while I was working, supporting payroll services, as some offices decided that CDs were a better option than pile (and pile) of paper, but the supplier could not guarantee the CDs would last more than 20 years.

 

jh

Depends on storage conditions from what I have seen.

 

Ones left where they might get UV deteriorate rapidly, Those kept cool and dark seem to last better

If the label side is damaged it can ruin a CD

On massed produced CDs the info is stamped into a blank, which is sprayed with a relective layer and sealed and the label printed on (all on the same side, it is read by the laser from the reverse (clear side)

Rewriteable discs are much more prone to early failure as there isn't a permanent pressed track to start with.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

There was quite rash of regular pressed read only CD failures in the early 90s, with two distinct modes of failure causing the large majority of these.

 

The first was the move to 'colourful decoration' particularly on pop releases, produced by use of dyes incompatible with the sealing lacquer that protects the thin aluminium reflective layer, which will oxidise and become transparent if atmospheric oxygen reaches it. Easily recognised, holes in the reflective layer typically tracking the outlines of blocks of colour.

 

The second was a visible bronzing of the reflective layer caused by defective lacquer application allowing atmospheric oxygen to begin oxidising the aluminium: usually from the outside edge of the CD.

 

(The remainder were physical damage due to faults in handling between production stages and packaging for shipment, as production volumes soared, and inattention to maintenance and equipment wear out took its toll.)

 

The polycarbonate substrate is unaffected by these oxidation of the aluminium layer processes: the data track is still present and restoring the reflective layer is certainly possible, which would make them playable should that ever be important enough...