Life before Cellphones.

[Ming the Merciless]

I'd love to live in the 1950s. Brylcreem, Elvis, English Electric Lightning. Times were good.

Time to spend your 20p

 

[SpokeyDokey]

imeasles, rubella and mumps, whilst skin boils (abscesses) and impetigo were still common i

And rickets, many kids were malnourshed and kids like my brother were contracting polio.

Many people were desperately poor coming off the back of post war rationing

50's Britain was awful.

 

[Drago]

I'd have been an officer in the Army, perhaps a Major, definitely not staff rank, and all would have been rosy.

 

[mistyoptic]

Seems to be a lot of thread drift. OP was asking what we did before cellphones

 

[HMS_Dave]

At least in the 1950's Britain still had the odd Battleship. Now we just have moustached pillocks, who "manscape" and break aircraft carriers shortly after peeling off the cellophane...

 

[Ming the Merciless]

peeling off the cellophane

Life before cellophane is a different thread…

 

[HMS_Dave]

I'd have been an officer in the Army, perhaps a Major, definitely not staff rank, and all would have been rosy.

Definitely a Sergeant Major...

 

[stephec]

Only when i spend a couple of days in Lancashire do i use it to Facebook or CycleChat.

And when someone told me last week that the internet hadn't reached Yorkshire yet I thought they were joking. 🤣

 

[Tim Bennet.]

When travelling without a cell phone, we had to use 'Poste Restante' to hear from home.

In the late 70s I did a long walk along the Himalayas but had arranged for my next letter collection to be when I got down to Calcutta after about 5 months of being out of touch. I stood in line in the post office slowly making my way to the front of a very long queue. I gave my name and readied myself to collect an armful of letters from everyone I knew. Completely crushed didn't really cover it when told 'There's nothing for you'.

I actually felt embarrassed to tell other travellers what had happened as it seemed to reflect so badly on my popularity or lack of. But I did confess at the hostel some time later and they said "no worries - give them your first name tomorrow and try that, they sometimes file it under the first letter on the envelope. It worked and I spent the rest of the day organising them into date order so all the news made some sort of chronological sense. But opening Christmas cards in 95 degree heat in April was a bit odd.

 

[classic33]

We'd a bit more freedom. Now we're expected to answer the moment it goes off. I use a text message if I think the person I'm trying to get hold off doesn't answer, for whatever reason. And it's still the best way to get hold of me, rather than a phonecall.

The phone down the road was where I'd get a non local number. Writing it down for use later. Somewhere there's a small book with numbers that can no longer be dialled. When did Leeds stop using 0532, Bradford 0274?

Being in the middle of nowhere with no signal, can be good. No phones breaking the silence.

 

[slowmotion]

Back in the late 1970's, my parents bought a small cottage on a creek in Cornwall where we had spent all our childhood holidays. There was no landline. As a teenager, communication with my girlfriend was quite an epic...

- Fill pockets with coins
-Drag rowing boat 80yards to the beach
-Row 400 yards to the headland opposite. Stash boat.
-Walk half a mile to the nearest payphone.
-If phone was working and girlfiend was at home, make expensive call from phonebox.
-The journey back was the reverse of the above.

It's a bit easier these days but a lot less interesting.

 

[tyred]

I'd have been an officer in the Army, perhaps a Major, definitely not staff rank, and all would have been rosy.

I found a photo of you.

 

[Gwylan]

Life before mobile phones meant that once you were out, you were OUT. Especially in relation to the office.
When I first went self employed I actually looked at getting a licence for a radio system for the van so mrs Colly could speak to me if any potential customers had called and I might be in the area. Finding a phone box that wasn't vandalised or full of pish was impossible.

Edit: But younger still as a teen we did learn very useful skills such as 'tapping' out the number to get a free call.

Grief, all comes rushing back.
Jobs out there, in the field. Could disappear for a whole day.
Post your daily reports every night and so on.
Then nights at regular hotels where you'd get messages, a telex or a very trendy fax.

Later a sales trip to US or Europe meant you were safe for weeks. Wrote or telex to customers to make appointments.

 

[tyred]

I've had a mobile since c2000 but pre smart phone, I rarely had it on me as it rarely left the house or my car's glovebox.

Even today, I don't have a big circle of friends and make few calls and don't send many messages but with a smart phone, I can browse the internet, listen to music, take photos or read books or magazines on it so I do tend to have it handy.

Last year on my Ayrshire trip, I suddenly realised how important phones have become to us when after cycling about two miles out of Ayr, I suddenly remembered I had left my phone on the charger on the very inaccessible plug in my b&b bedroom and turned and went to pick it up. It wasn't just the value of the phone (which is old) but I had my accommodation reservations, my ferry tickets, etc on it and losing it would have been very inconvenient to say the least.

Then when I suffered a tyre failure a few days later, and my efforts to source a Brompton tyre in any of the bike shops drew a blank, I was able to order one from Ebay and have it sent to where I was staying. I think this indicates how useful a smart phone can be when things go wrong.

The worst thing is people that demand instant responses to messages. I have a friend who will send a message on FB messenger and if I don't reply promptly, she will send one on Whatsapp and then an SMS message asking if I had seen the other messages and I find that very irritating.

 

[classic33]

I've had a mobile since c2000 but pre smart phone, I rarely had it on me as it rarely left the house or my car's glovebox.

Even today, I don't have a big circle of friends and make few calls and don't send many messages but with a smart phone, I can browse the internet, listen to music, take photos or read books or magazines on it so I do tend to have it handy.

Last year on my Ayrshire trip, I suddenly realised how important phones have become to us when after cycling about two miles out of Ayr, I suddenly remembered I had left my phone on the charger on the very inaccessible plug in my b&b bedroom and turned and went to pick it up. It wasn't just the value of the phone (which is old) but I had my accommodation reservations, my ferry tickets, etc on it and losing it would have been very inconvenient to say the least.

Then when I suffered a tyre failure a few days later, and my efforts to source a Brompton tyre in any of the bike shops drew a blank, I was able to order one from Ebay and have it sent to where I was staying. I think this indicates how useful a smart phone can be when things go wrong.

The worst thing is people that demand instant responses to messages. I have a friend who will send a message on FB messenger and if I don't reply promptly, she will send one on Whatsapp and then an SMS message asking if I had seen the other messages and I find that very irritating.

If you went into a bike shop, per mobile, the staff could be expected to try ringing round a few of their other stores to find out if they had any in stock. And there'd be someone in store who'd know which ones would be the best ones to try.
Nowadays it's down to you to find this out.

Smart phones are shoving the searching onto the customer, as the staff don't seem able to manage without access to a phone or tablet.