A poll for Friday

[wellinghall]

[Poll #1172594]

Comments

[gayalondiel.livejournal.com]

Only just black and white TV - we didn't have one but our neighbour did. Ours was a reasonably-sized colour TV from the word go.

I remember only having four channels...

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

I was working before there were four TV channels.

[nja.livejournal.com]

I don't specifically remember the school leaving age being raised to sixteen, but I was half that age when it happened so I've ticked the box. All the rest, yes. We had a black and white TV until the late seventies, and I still have a small b/w portable somewhere in the attic.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

We've got one in the spare bedroom. It still works.

[overconvergent.livejournal.com]

There was still pre-decimal currency in circulation when I was growing up.

[brightlywoven.livejournal.com]

I remember elm trees, but only because the beetle didn't make it to my home land!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I was waiting for a comment from someone from overseas ... ;-)

[frandowdsofa.livejournal.com]

Rose-hip syrup.

I had graduated, emigrated, and was nearly married before there were four tv channels.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Rose-hip syrup.

Good one.

[bookwormsarah.livejournal.com]

To be strictly accurate, we had a black and white television until about 1990, and the dial was a bit dodgy so we just got three channels... We had school milk or squash at plyschool and reception, although it was a tiny trickle in the mug and I always had the squash. My former boss had a betamax recorder in her basement, and I remember seeing them at car boot sales. We do have some 8-track tape in the shed somewhere.

I remember when pre-decimal currency was in use at the same time as standard, ie when two shilling pieces could be used as 10ps, but The Change happened several years before I was born (about the time of the Winter of Discontent).

[miss-t-ide.livejournal.com]

If it's a poll for Friday, should I wait until tomorrow to fill it out?

(It's Thursday today)

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

I never had a Betamax, though my brother had a VR2000 (and a spare for parts) which he kept for years on the principle it was the best of the video formats.

Remember when there were three TV channels? I can remember when there was one.

I also remember (all too vividly) watching Quatermass and the Pit from behind the sofa...

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what you mean by "remember". I remember people discussing some of them, in the few cases when I was of an age, but I don't really remember them affecting me directly.

So, we had a colour TV for instance, but I wasn't aware how many channels there were. But I knew others who had a black and white. And I knew other people had a video recorder/player, but we didn't have one.

We had milk at school in the mid 1980s, even though it was a long time after free milk had been removed. I remember milk tokens.

[sir-rosealot.livejournal.com]

What happened to elm trees?

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Dutch elm disease devastated Britain's elm trees in the late 60s and early 70s. There used to be mature elms all over the countryside. Now, they get to be teenagers, then fall over.

Christ, man, I'm 45 years in age.

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

It's what happened LAST week that I'm beginning to have trouble remembering.

(I'm sorry, what were we talking about again? I can't recall.)

Re: Christ, man, I'm 45 years in age.

[alitalf.livejournal.com]

Ah, a youngster, then...

[alitalf.livejournal.com]

I remember there being only two channels of black and white TV. I have a faint memory of the second one being introduced, at least in some areas.

I also remember there being one radio in the house, it used valves, and was normally tuned either to the Home Service or the Light Programme.

I remember that the parking meters in the centre of Sheffield used to accept only sixpences, and kept on doing so as sixpences were withdrawn, presumably as a way to get them out of circulation double quick.

In fact, I remember farthings ceasing to be legal tender...

[deepbluemermaid.livejournal.com]

Hell, I remember only having two TV channels! New Zealand didn't get a third channel until 1989, when I was 10, and I remember everyone watching on the first night.

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

Er I was selling people Betamax or VHS video recorders as the latter had yet to dominate ... oh and trying to interest them in these LP sized laser disk and the players!

Unlike some people our school milk was mostly ok, not overheated or sour.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

To be accurate, I don't remember elms as such, but I do remember "dedelms." I didn't know what they were for a while, but my Mum often used to say, "look, there's another dedelm."

We had black and white TV until I was 7. I was quite disturbed to discover that Bagpuss wasn't a grey cat.

I'm of an age to remember Betamax, but I never met one.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I think I was lucky with my telly timing, if you had a black and white one then, as we are of an age. My parents bought one when I became 'a pain in the neck*' - not sure what year that was, but apparently late enough that the telly they bought to keep me quiet for half an hour from time to time was a colour one.

* I like to think this is a status I have never entirely lost.

[muuranker.livejournal.com]

I saw the launch of Ch4 on a black and white television in a student flat.

I loved the winter of discontent. Back then, we only lit candles when the electricity went off, and I adore candles.

[juliebeth.livejournal.com]

As an American, I never got to use non-decimal currency, but I remember when the switch happened. I wore a sixpence in my shoe at my wedding. :)

We had some lovely old elms in our yard when we lived in Montana twenty years ago. Alas, Dutch elm may have claimed them by now.

The Vietnam war was a constant in my childhood and teen years. My father, who retired from the USAF in 1968, spent time in the 1950's taking aerial photographs of a little-known country called Vietnam.

What was the winter of discontent?

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

It refers to widespread industrial unrest during the winter of 1978/9.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_discontent

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

I came to elm trees rather late in life, being introduced to some as an undergraduate as part of the ecology course. They are nice and some of them are still managing to outgrow Dutch Elm Disease, yay!

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

I've still got a black and white TV. In fact, 2. I was certainly using one as my main TV until 1997 due to not being able to afford a. a colour TV and b. a colour licence. Snooker doesn't work on a B&W. Most other things do though.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Strangely I came across two Betamax video cassettes in our Canary Wharf office today.

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Possibly I *should* remember some of those that I don't, of course. And I was *very* tempted to tick pre-decimal currency, but in the end decided to 'be good' and answer the way I'm sure ('sure' because of the way sixpences were listed as a separate thing) you inteded, i.e. that I don't remember it because I don't remember when shillings really were shillings. But of course I do remember pre-decimal currency, besides sixpences, being in valid circulation, just with a new value. Just as when I was aware of sixpences, I knew they were worth two-and-a-half p ;-)

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

I remember pre-decimal currency, but not in active use. I did however have a big bag of the stuff which came in very useful as markers in assorted games.

Plus of course shillings and florins were in regular use as pocket money (-:

I remember watching the launch of C4, and the raising of the Mary Rose, in the TV in the hall at junior school.

I also remember ITV being accounted not proper telly :-)

[mrkinch.livejournal.com]

School milk in bottles, even, and so cold it was hard to drink it.

I didn't live in a house with a tv until I married, but my first ex built a Heathkit color set in time for the Moon landing. We had a living room full of astrophysics students in to watch.

[asklepia.livejournal.com]

I remember all of them. I feel very old.

[lalwendeboggart.livejournal.com]

I only don't remember Betamax because our dad wouldn't let us have a video until I bought one myself in 1989 to take to Uni ;)

All the currency changes I remember despite not being old enough because my parents ran a garage and shop, and the Winter of Discontent because they lost their business :(

I remember all the Elm trees in Southport being cut down, it was very sad. I didn't understand why, but I remember seeing the patches of black tarmac on the sides of the pavements covered with Victorian black tiles - they've gone now, too, apparently.