Remember when...

I don't feel all that old, but sometimes I think about how much things have changed since I was a kid, a teenager even, and decide that actually, maybe I am getting on a bit!

So this is a list those in their mid-thirties, or thereabouts, may appreciate.

• There were only sales in January, not year-round.
• No 'buy one get one free' or three for two offers.
• No store loyalty cards.
• No lottery.

• I remember life before M&Ms and Skittles. And when Snickers were Marathons and Starbursts were Opal Fruits.
• You could only really buy cheese and tomato pizzas in the supermarket.
• And ice-cream was pretty much vanilla, strawberry, chocolate or mint.
• As for crisps, it was ready salted, salt and vinegar, cheese and onion and beef. Pickled onion Monster Munch was very exciting!
• The ring pulls on drinks cans came off.

• Friends never hugged each other and certainly never kissed on greeting! I clearly recall seeing friends at college do this for the first time and was quite bemused!
• The clatter of milk bottles as the milkfloat came down the street.
• Collecting milk bottle tops and silver foil for the guide dogs.
• I remember half pennies and the introduction of £1 coins. And when 5p, 10p and 50p coins used to be huge!
• My bus fare to school was 10p...

• I remember just having 3 TV channels.
• Sometimes you had to wait for a programme to be on TV. That meant watching the test card screen with the girl and the clown.
• If you missed a film at the cinema, you'd have to wait a couple of years for it to come out on video and even longer for it to be on TV.
• Missing any programme on TV was annoying as it could be years before it was repeated.
• Finding a space on a cassette or video tape to try and record the Top 10 or a TV programme. Constant forwarding and rewinding!
• The record section in Woolies - the large LPs, in front of those were the 45s, then CDs were introduced and in front of those were cassette tapes.
• The weather man sticking on clouds, sunshines, rain clouds etc in say, Scotland and them falling all the way down to the south of England! 

• No soft play areas, just the occasional small ball pit.
• No antibacterial hand gel. A day at the farm just meant washing hands with soap and water before lunch.
• The introduction of phone cards for public pay phones seemed very modern and advanced!
• Deciding what to take a photo of, as you didn't want to waste your 36 exposures. Then having to wait months to get around to developing them.
• When doing a school project, having to go to the library to get an address, or maybe phone directory enquiries and write off for information, then waiting weeks for them to send back an info pack. No Internet in those days!
• Of course, no mobile phones. I didn't have one until two years after I left university!
• I remember life before we had a video recorder and a Microwave. I've still never used a dishwasher...

The world has certainly changed. Things change so quickly nowadays. What do you remember from growing up??