General   (General discussion, talk about anything.)

Tom:

Yes, and that’s another thing about technology. Back in the 60s I worked in King Street, next door but one to Chamberlain’s music shop. I wanted to buy a particular LP by Roy Orbison called Crying so I went downstairs to where they sold records and asked the “old” lady at the counter if she could order it for me. Well, as a 17 year old she was old to me. I remember her clearly as she was very fragile looking, had grey hair tied up in a bun at the top of her head so, to me, she was old.

There were no computers back then, but she hauled out this huge ledger – must have been at least eight inches thick - and found what I wanted within seconds. She told me that the LP had now been withdrawn from British sales BUT, she said she’d make some enquiries. Anyway, there was just one left in the UK and she got it for me. That’s how things worked back then.

First Mate:

Yes, I remember those squares of newspaper in the lavvy at the bottom of the yard. Problem was, if it was damp, you got yesterday’s news tattooed on your bum! Not sure what that has to do with technology, but has a lot to do with the way things used to be and, in many ways, it was better. I no longer have a mobile phone, but most folk can’t actually survive or live without one now, especially the young kids who have one permanently stuck to their ears, which is not good, as they emit a small amount of radiation but, over years of use, what is that going to do to their brains?

I know we’re perhaps drifting a bit from I-Spy’s original post, but it’s a sign of the times that’s affecting our everyday lives without us gradually having to accept that change. We’re all from a different era that we’ve been used to all our lives, and I can imagine our grannies – well, mine anyway – found it hard to accept changes as well. My granny would have read the Observer in the late 1800s, and she only had gas lighting and candles in her home until she moved in her 80s, so that would have been a big change for her, but that would have been a welcome one that she found fascinating, along with the advent of radio and TV.