Explaining the concept of video stores to the girls So if someone else in your town was watching Harry Potter then you couldnt watch it? *20 minutes of actual rolling on the floor laughing
I almost broke my students when I explained and showed them what IRC looked like
Try telling them this was a state of the art computer game Personally, I`d follow it up with mentioning you could play the video on a video recorder and TV that you RENTED, because that`s what people did. Step back. Wait.
Well, it not "one person" more like 10-20, but still that`s so funny because I never really thought about it before. It was just a trip to the store & to choose from whatever was available! But now even the concept of going to a physical store to choose a film to watch!
or Avon ladies
Did Harry Potter make it to video?
And having to rewind the tapes before returning!!!
Start on about floppy discs.. they`ll never go for it. Call you a liar, scream obscenities and set the pet badger on you. Maybe not the badger bit but ..
My Dr`s still has a message at the end of their voicemail saying "you may now replace the receiver. Always makes me chuckle.
Yes. Who`s Harry Potter? You know the Last film was released 10 years ago? FeelingOld
We told ours that back to the future was a really good film. And they asked if it was in black and white. Deadly serious as well.
Love this. Forgot all about it. Literally only five copies of the latest movie between everyone. My brother worked in a video shop, used to get him to put aside the ones we wanted to watch.
Its quite amazing how far things have come and how much our expectations have grown
My eldest two loved a trip to good ole blockbusters.
Reserving your copy for a week Saturday
Its true though. Im afraid that ones out was the start of many a dreary evening... Did you tell them that we video-taped TV programmes? Often badly too... I wanted Match of the Day, I got Gardeners World!
Getting charged for not rewinding the movie before taking it back!
Or going into the newsagent next to our video store (after renting the outlaw josey Wales ) only to see on the front of the radio Times said film was on telly that night .......
Blew my mind a bit when I realised my niece had no idea what this hand gesture meant because shed never seen a phone that was curved. Apparently she and her friends just use a flat hand held six inches from their face because they all use speaker I had the same problem with books in the library, except people could keep those for 20 days now it`s just kindle and go.
Dont mention the money box on the back of the rented tele
When titanic was released, video stores in my town requires deposit and only allow half day rent.
When we explained to our children that we could remember not even having a TV, their response was: how did you watch videos!
My son has a standard question were you alive then?. Doesnt matter if the subject is WWl or the fire of London - same question.
As a kid, these words caused me more heartbreak than any other. Everything is exactly as awful as it is awesome.
You could dial a number & a woman would tell you the time
You knew your weekend was gonna be epic when your parents said "Right let`s go Blockbuster" on a Friday night!!!!!
Ive still got a PlayStation 3 game I rented from blockbuster before it closed down.
Carry on and ill put the phone down on you! Youll what?
Remember when netflix started as DVDs through the post!
Even in the 2000s, larger uk Blockbusters rented out games consoles and dvd players.
Dial 1800 Help.
Yes, that sucked but... it was an opportunity to discover other movies. I remember watching D.A.R.Y.L. [never heard about it] because The Return of the Jedi wasn`t available.
especially talking about late fees.
Kids... Get a rotary dial phone, that`ll really stump them.
Be kind and rewind. Im going waaaaaay back. Blockbuster adding multiple copies (compared to the local independent) seemed absolutely revolutionary at the time, like yeah, Ill be able to watch whatever I want!
When I was a kid, we used to rent the TV!
Have you explained having the compulsory Biro handy, because of the selfish, lazy twerps who didn`t rewind!!
Having to rewind a VHS tape before returning... Little sods don`t know they`re born!
They used to put empty boxes on the shelves! Alright, there`d be a sticker on it saying "sold out" or whatever. But you wouldn`t notice that. You`d take it to the checkout and the shop assistant would be like, "oh sorry, this one`s on loan". The girls are right to laugh.
You should tell them about dial up internet and Windows 98/classic Mac and how you had to have the computer plugged into a wall to go online
That`s very funny.
Tried to explain going to Blockbuster to my 7 year old daughter......she just looked at me like I`d spoken a foreign language then went back to playing Minecraft with thousands of people all over the globe
I did that more than once
Instead of proximity keys. Explaining how to use a car key, asked where to put it? Errr...in the key holster?? then came the manual handbrake confusion
Wait until you tell them that once, we only had 2 channels in B&W, then colour with only 3, then eventually 4!
See when you put it like that, it`s actually weird to get your head round. Kids these days, don`t know how tough we had it
As a design teacher, explaining the concept of waiting for films to be developed, a week!! Not knowing what you were paying for and the dismay of the stickers hilighting your ineptitude at photo taking!
Like the rotary phone, it seems like a hundred years ago.
Rumour had it that the Queen Mother (the present Queen`s mum) rented a telly because she was too frugal to buy one.
Get up to change channel? Luxury. We had to get up to hold the aerial just to keep a channel.
My daughter once asked what social media did you have as a kid? I said it was called going outside.
Seem to recall renting my first saucy 18 (or was it X then?) movie Emmanuelle and getting away with it when I was about 14.
Then you had to spend the next ten minutes rewinding the bloody thing before you could watch it.
Then tell them about the Netflix postal revolution.
I was explaining that this week, too! My daughter couldn`t grasp the concept AT ALL!
Getting the video and the previous person hadnt rewound it
You had to have a license to run a video shop too. My mates parents for years did it unlicensed. Then one day a copper came in. Panicked they expected the worst. Then the copper hired out ET and left... they could breathe again. After that they got properly licensed
People queuing up to ask for movie recommendations from pimply 15 year old boys
Did you remind them that Harry Potter didnt even exist back then too? Or that we could only have videos at the weekend as a special treat (if you were lucky enough to be able to afford one)? Otherwise you had to wait until it was on tv at Christmas.
We had the same conversation this week! Its a funny concept to my kids too
Libraries are going to blow their little minds
Try explaining a floppy disk to someone under 30. "But why have you got a 3D printed version of the Save icon?!" I remember having to pre-book new releases and the queue as you had to wait for others to return before you could get your video of you turned up too early.
Twentieth Century Flicks in Bristol. The best video shop around. We drove eight miles every Friday night to get videos. Always forgot to take them back on time!
Had a seven year old back in the 90`s. She had found my old LPs and asked me what they were. I explained they were recordings of tracks by bands. You played one side and then could flip it and play the other. She ran off to her mother screaming "Dad was bullshitting , again.
Oh that really brings home the age gap.
I remember a time when we had a video van come round on a Saturday night!! Like a small version of a library bus! You went into the back and searched for what you wanted!! Also a fish & chips van!!
Ha, love it.
Imagine what it was like, pre-video stores
Early version of streaming? You and your mates crowded into the phonebox listening to Dial a Disc - you just couldn`t choose which one - not to mention the audible tutting from the queue outside!
What a treat it was on a Friday night getting to go to Global video with my dad. Unless Id been a little shit, then he would take me and let me choose a video before telling me I couldnt have it. Cue meltdown. What a git. Same as library books ;)
Video ? Please explain.
Similarly, explaining what the `b` side of a record was...
We actually rented our TV and Video machine. That was UK.
Show them a slide rule or log tables and watch them hug their calculators
Sounds like theyve got it spot on - I remember seeing the person in front of me pick up the last copy of a film I wanted to watch
Not having wound your watch and having to ring the speaking clock to set the time...
I lived that as a child and that idea now blows my mind.
We got excited when they came in to class with a shoebox of electric CALCULATORS.
And before videos you had to wait for it to be shown on tv!
And having to return the tape rewound.
Try explaining the fact that you needed to have a wall so you could have a phone!
How the consumption of media has moved on. unless the video store had more than one copy..
You can learn the lyrics the "old fashioned " way. Watch an amateur singing in a family video recording on YouTube There was at least 5/6 copies of the good ones!
I thought this too. Looking through old photos one day, I remember asking what year they invented colour.
The fact that a shop owner would have to give up at least one wall of their entire shop to video rentals blows my mind and I remember them! Societal pressure did mean that you had to make a decision rather than spend all evening scrolling through options...
Just remembered blockbuster having this bin post box type thing you just chucked the cassette in
In 1993 I had to pay the local video store 105 penalty for a Norman Wisdom film my old mum had failed to return for 10 weeks. I doubt Norman had been paid that much to make it.
And when you`d gone down the betamax route and there was even less choice left in the shop.
Well, usually, there was always more than 1 copy and more than 1 video store?
The funny thing was that as someone who didn`t grow up with classical music, I recognised what he was doing as part of my world, could appreciate it immediately.
When I was last in the video shop I asked if I could have Batman Forever and was told I would have to take it back the next day.
When I told them the first remote control we had was on a wire attached to the video player they just looked at eachother in utter disgust and disbelief then burst out laughing. I`m.gonna hit them up with the video shop story later on.
not quite true but near enough
Definitely not. Mortifying.
I recall having a remote for the VCR that was attached to it by a wire which wasn`t really long enough to reach your seat so you had to shuffle across the floor to get to it!
Theyre not wrong though are they?
And your dad lurking in the doorway, saying "I`m paying for this,you know" while the draft from the front door whistles up your legwarmers.
Show them the Smash advert, much the same reaction
If you really want to blow their minds tell them about having a black and white tv license versus a colour tv license and the notion of watching potter in b&w
Have you seen the clip of two teenagers trying to make a call on an analogue phone with a dial?
Me running a creative writing class: By the time X was 25, he had written a novel, a book of short stories and a poetry collection. Gobsmacked Students: How did he find the time? Me: Because he was born in 1915 and had neither a TV nor a computer.
Have you tried telling them that waiting by the phone for it to ring used to be a thing?
Something else you don`t see any more is music cassette tape spread along half a mile of roadside verge after someone chucked a chewed up one out of the car window. Not sure if I`m glad or secretly miss it.
could you please try this with your girls
That`s a fab comment. I think there was a list as well of who rents next
Now explain that when I was a little girl, we had black and white TV, no videos/DVDs and I used to wait an entire year for my favourite film to be shown again at Christmas time.
I really think these were valuable lessons about dealing with disappointment and compromising! Plus, you could get sweets whilst you were there. And there was the responsibility of taking it back on time or incurring a heavy fine. Ooh them were the days!
BTW I think your one - line Bio is very funny !
You did use to find great films in a good store...what would now be called curated. I was introduced to a lot of music by borrowing records from my local library, which had a great selection. Hawkwind and Stockhausen!
My youngest laughed for far too long when he heard that I watched snooker on a black and white tv. Might blow his mind with the video rental lark...
Tell them about how netflix originally used to post dvds.
Getting charged 50c for not rewinding the video
This really made me laugh!
Oh my! Id forgotten this. The video shop would call you when it was back in
Wait while you tell them about pay to view TVs - were you had to put money in the TV to watch it!
Its like netflix but you have to and get the film rather than just sit on the sofa haha
Putting your name down on a list for a film my youngest daughter actually thought the world was in black and white when I was a kid
Or that you had to call a building on the off-chance that the person you wanted to speak to was there...
Wait til you explain landlines...
And the need to rewind tapes and always listen to music in the same order
Most had more than one copy of the popular titles, tbf
Explain Nice people rewind stickers
Remember having to pay extra for not rewinding..
Yes we had it tough back in the day
Oh, the Friday night visits to Blockbusters. Thats where the weekend used to start
My 6 y.o. granddaughter on being told my mother didn`t have electricity when she was little: "But how did she charge her iPad?"
I had a work colleague ask me how did I do research for my degree if I didn`t have the internet?! I explained there were libraries and we used CD-ROMs.
My first record player in the early 1950s was a wind up with a horn. Things change...
This meant all four of us could watch the TV ! In at least one sense they were better than streaming. You might have to wait a week or so, but for a small fee you could watch any film ever made provided it was > 3 months since release. I think there should be a law requiring all streaming services to do that.
Take a photo (actually have to take about 20 or 30), send the film cartridge to Bonusprint, wait for a week or so, receive glossy print, realise your photo is rubbish
Not to mention the lottery of the wrong video tape in the video tape box. Fined for not rewinding it. Or if it was late back.
Dial-a-Disc, anyone? How many teenage girls could you get in the phone box to listen to Disc of the Day?
How about a TV that only received one channel - 50% of what was available at the time. Though it did have a radio and came in a beautiful mahogany cabinet.
To be fair, they probably had two copies of Harry Potter.
What about 8-track cassettes from many years ago. Show them this video about them. Oh but the joy of then finding the movie you wanted in the returns basket / bin after all.
I remember the first time I went "on the internet". Text only. No pictures. Dial up to London.
Where a favourite Rogers Video store used to be closed and became a Kids R Us store and then that closed and now it`s a Liquor store. Go figure: can`t get the movies, can`t get toys and so may as well get a bottle. I don`t drink alcohol but the irony doesn`t escape me.
I remember actually booking the ones that were popular and getting very excited when it was our turn yo rent the film!
Yeah, I saw some telephones in a store once and asked my kids to dial my number. They were utterly confused. It was great and I got it all on video.
TV channels went for a midday nap when I was growing up.
Friend of mine with two young teenage daughters was asked by the eldest `how old where you when you got your first mobile phone ?` They`re still trying understand why it took him till he was 30 to persuade his dad to buy him one......
I went to Blockbuster and said Can I have Batman Forever?. They said, `No, for three days only`.
My Gran had a party line (phone line shared with a neighbour). Pick up & hear them chatting so had to wait for them to finish their call before you could make yours!
They used to have multiple copies but yes this was a problem . Did you tell them you had to re-wind the tape before you took it back or if you wanted to watch it again?
I remember the first time, on a plane, people were all watching the same movie at diff times. It blew my mind. I imagined loads of video players hidden away somewhere on the plane
Then Netflix broke the mould and ... eh ... posted the video out to you and you posted it back.
The basic premise of the film Local Hero must be incomprehensible to anyone under about 30.
And it didn`t immediately change - you`d to watch all the fuzzy, blank channels scroll by too!
Tell them before VCR we had to wait until it came on tv a year or two later and if we missed it then we had to wait even longer
Ah, the good old days. We were the first in our Street to get a colour TV and everyone piled into our house to watch Princess Anne`s wedding.
Even LoveFilm, the "video by post" service is a distant memory now.
Had to explain what a dial tone is to our teens yesterday
Do party lines next.
I remember we got so excited when we hired a VCR for the weekend. It was remote control, only the handset had a wire running all the way to the VCR .
I love watching The Holiday because of their trip to blockbusters. It gives me a warm feeling
How did we endure? Such barbaric times...
Also if I was on the phone then you couldnt use the internet. Thatd probably blow some minds...
This has brightened up my morning
YES, but you could pick up a few bags of popcorn and some Ben&Jerrys when you got the video so whos winning now??!
Kids today, they don`t they`re born. When I were a lad . . .
In the early 80s we had a van that came round once a fortnight
Try explaining to them that in the 60s/70s people rented their TVs. That`s always a winner
