h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Having just wound our clock downstairs, I realised that a lot of children would have difficulty with the idea that a clock or watch would need to be wound. Other than that one clock, I have one watch that needs to be wound. All the rest are battery operated or electrical.

There must still be a lot of wind-up clocks around, though, as the British Horological Institute reckons that there's a shortage of horologists.

we are living in digital age.

kids of now do not realize that things went slower. the kids of industrial revolution had simular thing that things went faster.

take time to dream,
because tomorrow is the future
and no one can realy say what will happen.

Pheloxi's in philosophy mode today, everyone.

B

may be kids will see A849116

btw ...pheloxi's in philosophy mode...

is actualy called pheloxiosophy <bigeyes.

I thought of clockwork watches, but as I still have some and then I thought they may still be around, but maybe not for the majority.

I like the one about phone ringing, hadn't thought of that but of course it is true.

Slide shows on rolls used in schools - you know the sort, the ones that usually melted if anyone "slide" was left showing too long.

"Bander" reporductions in schools again - I think that was the name, a cheap copy process that allowed a couple of colours and the sheets, when freshly done smelt of various solvents.

Any more?

CH

Records, as in black vinyl music discs, are still alive and well. The latest cool accessory for all teenagers is a disco deck where you can play vinyl versions of all the dance music.

Things our children won't remember:

78's
Radios with a "Magic Eye" to help you tune them
Black and White television
"Winking Willies" - these were a flashing lights suspended by wires in over the middle of a road junction. It flashed orange in one direction and red in the other, showing road priority.
Belisha beacons - they're dying out, being replaced by Pelican Crossings.
Public Telephone Boxes with a "Button A" and a "Button B".
Radio filler tunes played on bells which filled in the gaps in transmission.
The ceremony of locking the door at night (it was left unlocked during the day).

and soon phone boxes in general? Or at least phone boxes where you can use money?

On the "concept" front the idea that people willing drove around without wearing seat belts (UK reference - what is it like elsewhere?)

CH

kids ned lean about good music from when we where young

Not forgetting all the rebranding

Our kids will never know

Marathon - Snickers
Opal Fruits - Starburst
Jif - Cif
Lenningrad - St. Petersburg

I'm sorry Gnomon, *I* don't remember most of the things on your list...

When I started this conversation with my girlfriend, who is only 5 years younger than me, she looked at me blankly when Imentioned Dog Licences - I can even remember the price (37.5p I think)

So this is the reason why I opened it up to h2g2, interesting to see what already provokes blank stares in the yuonger members here.

Any more items we would like to have our children not have any knowledge of (and please no obvious ones like povety, war, hunger, Jim Davidson etc)



CH

Gnomon's list summed it up very well.

How about lace-up shoes. Leather shoes, even! I've never seen anyone lace up their trainers, they either slip into them and leave the bow done up or just walk about trailing the laces.

When I learned to drive, the indicator was an illuminated "arm" that flicked up at the side. No flashing lights next to head lights and rear lights!!

Do you still have to do hand signals as part of the driving test in Briatin?

In Germany, not long after the re-unification, I saw an interview with a 10-year-old girl in the East of Germany being asked what the German Democratic Republic was. She couldn't say. She certainly didn't realise she was standing in it.

And other countries have changed names - some several times - not only towns like Leningrad and Chemnitz (which used to be Karl-Marx-Stadt)

Siam, East Pakistan, Burma, Rhodesia, Tanzania - could all cause blank looks.

And, as my father found out when he was in Canada and reminisced about his wartime travels there: no one knew where Fort William was any more.

Tanzania's still Tanzania, but Tanganyika - as a nation - will draw blanks. So will Zaire, German South-West Africa and several others.

Oops - thanks for the correction.

I was trying to think whether I'd been anywhere that has changed its name since, but can only think of the awful border checks when crossing from West to East Berlin and trying to get a cup of coffee in East Berlin - you got sent out if you looked slightly Western. The horror of being split up from the rest of the party at Friedrichstrasse because I had a different passport from them.

Not to mention the transit autobahn across East Germany when driving from West Germany to West Berlin. And lots of other stuff like that. Not being able to take comics across the border. Wearing four pairs of tight s over the top of each other to smuggle them in.

It does seem strange that my kids (when I ever have any) won't know about the Berlin Wall - the tearing down of which, and fall of Soviet Russia are the first major world events I recall ("Daddy, whats a coup?")

Re Demondrawer's post 30

In the 60s there was a demographic survey done in the Soviet Union, in order to track population movement within the USSR.

One reply was:

Where were you born: St Petersburg
Where did you live when you became an adult: Petrograd
Where do you live now: Leningrad
Where would you like to live: St Petersburg

(Think about it...)

B

That's good

On a children's TV show a couple of days ago, a child called in with the suggestion that Old Trafford should be renamed 'David Beckham Stadium'. The child clearly felt that a hero of Beckham's magnitude was quite unique, and deserved special recognition.

The presenter attempted to make the point that David Beckham was just passing through the history of Old Trafford, by telling the child that he would only be playing for a few more years.

I think children will see players that are around now, and from now on, as sporting heroes, but anything earlier than that is just some old git in weird shorts and a dodgy haircut. The same attiude as I have really, about players from before about 1970.

To our children, Gary Lineker is a Sport pundit, same as Jimmy Hill is to me. I can still remember my surprise upon learning that Jimmy Hill used to *play* football.