[retrotecchie]

Apropos of nothing, I've just let the steam-powered jukebox have free reign (random shuffle mode, in modern vernacular?) on my vast and eclectic music collection.

It rootled around in my 80s archives and happened upon a copy of The Message (from 1982) by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, which rather spookily contains the following lines:

"Got a bum education, double-digit inflation
Can't take the train to the job, there's a strike at the station"

Art imitating life, or life imitating art?

[retrotecchie]

I was just mulling over how things have moved on since I began mooching the t'interwebs, back in the 90s.

Real-time chat rooms were popular for chatting, and one that I spent much time in on AOL back in the day was the Parents Chat Room. By some very strange coincidence, there were five or six 'regulars' in every evening who had originally come in to discuss parenting (as did I because my first was on the way) but it turned out we all owned Land Rovers. In a short space of time, we turned the room into a Land Rover Owners hangout.

We'd still get a few random newbs in, and we still discussed offspring (as well as off-Road springs) but most of the 'visitors' tended to be kids because the parents themselves were not really up to speed on this new-fangled medium.

A previously unseen username (screen name) would appear and almost universally, their first question was 'ASL?'. Age, Sex, Location?

Stock response from the 'olds' was often something along the lines of 'Older than you, Clearly yes as we have kids or kids on the way, Sat in front of the computer ...now clear off and annoy someone else.

No specifics required (A - we're mostly chronologically gifted, S - we've determined we are mostly, if not all, he/him) but I was thinking that L might be useful to know. Not down to the exact OS reference, or even town or county, but at least to a DNO operating area or general area of the UK. So for example if someone from Much Moaning on Sea posted a question about 'who does my wires' or 'how much should my EPG gas units cost?' we could perhaps know who was best placed (geographically) and might have an answer to hand rather than having to look it up.

A fair few questions seem to require different answers depending on area, e.g. Tariff rates, who's in charge of your wires/pipes, etc. Just in case someone in the North East asks a question and we can only advise based on a Southwest or Scotland experience, or whatever. Just a thought?

Within bounds of OSA of course!

So me. West Wales geographically. South Wales for tariff region, National Grid (just changed from Western Power) DNO.

Just thought it might be beneficial to say 'ah, you are in @ so and so's area and maybe they could... Yada yada yada'

What think you, @meldrewreborn @JoeSoap ?

[meldrewreborn]

@retrotecchie
North West London ,eastern region, DNO? Don’t know and don’t care.

[retrotecchie]

@meldrewreborn

Full service hot and cold running electricity and tarmac roads then...I'm slightly jealous!

[Beki]

@JoeSoap Really interesting subject on pronouns. I am really supportive of how people wish to be referred to so it's great to hear that you are happy for us to refer to you as he/him. 😊

I remember I was taught in English Lang/Lit in school the pronouns they/them, and I suppose, it's just something that I always think about when responding to posts here on the Community as I try to be inclusive of every person that comes here.

There was a mention by the team to perhaps suggest adding pronouns to the profile questions to fill out if they wanted to. Personally, I don't think they are necessary as we don't hold data such as names and titles etc. I would love to know what you think. 😊

[retrotecchie]

Originally Posted by Beki_EONNext

@JoeSoap
I remember I was taught in English Lang/Lit in school the pronouns they/them...

When God's dog was still a pup and I, @JoeSoap and @meldrewreborn used to sit at our desks in short trousers, scratching away on a slate...everything was still 'thee', 'thou' and 'thy'...and pounds, shillings and pence, come to that. And the regular examinations by the 'nit nurse', or trips to the school dentist, are an experience I wouldn't wish on anyone of a younger disposition!

Thou shalt give thanks, forsooth, that thou art not as chronologically gifted as some of us.

[Beki]

@retrotecchie There is often a lot to learn from the 'chronologically gifted' and sometimes, vice versa 😁

[meldrewreborn]

@retrotecchie

i’ve more anno’s than you , but nit nurse and dentist don’t figure in my memory, and it’s not a memory lapse. But Hackney and Islington might have had different policies to other locations. I do remember red cod liver oil capsules, and listening to special radio broadcasts of educational topics. And the terrible winter of 62/63 when spring was truncated.

[retrotecchie]

@meldrewreborn

School dentists were maybe a 70s thing...or maybe just a Dorset thing!

Log tables and sliderules were mainstream in my day. They didn't allow calculators in O Level exams until 83.

And an old black and white telly on a trolley for watching schools TV...

[retrotecchie]

Originally Posted by Beki_EONNext

@retrotecchie There is often a lot to learn from the 'chronologically gifted' and sometimes, vice versa 😁

When I was but a wee laddie teenogre, we were one of the first in our street to get a video recorder. Betamax it was. I remember having to teach my parents how to program the timer to record Eastenders when it first launched. Fast forward to today, I have to go to great lengths to explain to my neighbour's bairns just what a VCR is. I still use one to this day...and they look at me in amazement when I show them a tape and tell them their mobile phones can store more run-time and in better quality.