@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
7 months
12) most sports were not professional, and those that were didn't have much appeal anyway. Sport was both amateurish and accessible, but also not the be all and end all. Not every kid decent at a sport was thinking about turning a pro. It was just for fun. All types played
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@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
7 months
2) Shops were nearly all closed on Sundays. Most people did not work. You did stuff together, or went somewhere, or visited family, or knocked about watching tv together. Even football on a Sunday had only recently started.
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@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
7 months
3) The internet wasn't really a thing yet for most people. Gaming wasn't really a thing yet for most people - you played computer games, yes, but they were less immersive, and often a shared activity as not everyone had a console.
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@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
7 months
4) Barely anyone had a mobile. Those who did didn't have games on it, until a little later when snake appeared on the nokia. Everyone used the hone phone, sometimes with a comically long lead. Privacy? Flirting? Forget it. Your family knew everything. And everyone.
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@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
7 months
5) You watched tv together. Even the stuff you hated. Watching Saturday night tv together was legitimate entertainment, and most of your friends and adults around you watched the same thing. Just about everyone watched the nightly news.
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@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
7 months
6) you mostly trusted people in charge. Police, doctors, teachers, anyone with a uniform really. That might be my child-memory overstating things, but your parents/grandparents generally did the same. And they generally took the adult's side over you if there was an issue
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@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
7 months
7) where you from was probably your most important (only?) 'identity'. And this was often hyper local
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@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
7 months
8) for those who grew up on a council estate... they were more socially and professionally diverse. It wasn't unusual for (eg) teachers, or social workers, or mechanics, or nurses, or arty types to be living on them.
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@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
7 months
9) most people you met were born and brought up in the place you met them. Most had not been to university. There was generally more scepticism about the need and desirability of doing so. And about education more generally I think?
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@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
7 months
10) there was a general respect for, and affinity with, the Christian faith. It was nornal for this to provide the words and images and symbolism for communal events. Nobody really questioned this much. Nearly all schools sang hymns and said prayer.
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@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
7 months
11) most people's Mam's were working at home whilst they were at school. Most people's Dad's worked outside the home. Not working was a thing that others felt fit to pass comment on (this could be hurtful). Whingeing about work was a norm and often a social event.
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@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
7 months
13) nicknames were standard - everybody had one. This carriednon into adulthood. Kids could use adult's nicknames at social gatherings, but only if they weren't family, or were a teacher or policeman or whatever
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@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
7 months
14) as everyone generally consumed the same media and the same news, there were shared cultural reference points - the same politicians, tv presenters, singers, sportsmen and women, actors etc. These people slowly passing on has huge cultural resonance often not given due weight
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@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
7 months
15) There wasn't the same approbation around drinking, eating take-aways, smoking. Health and lifestyle weren't really things yet, beyond Mr Motivator. Health was when sonething went wrong, not preventative self-analysis and lifestyle choices.
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@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
7 months
16) there were very different attitudes to health and safety, especially at work. Accidents were generally just seen as a misfortune, a sort of there but for the grace of God. It often led to a life on 'benefits' but this wasn't judged negatively like 'the dole'.
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@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
7 months
17) big one - as there was high trust children had much more leeway. As an infant, you could walk home alone at lunchtime for some dinner. When out playing, you could knock on a door and ask to use the loo (😱). You could roam quite far, but only until the (street) lights came on
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@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
7 months
18) you got your clothes out of the catalogue and this was fine - most people did it. Hardly anyone went on 'shopping sprees' or 'retail therapy'. Charity shops weren't as much of a thing. Renting household items, like tvs or a hoover, was pretty normal.
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@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
7 months
Anyway pausing now as am neglecting the kids. The point I'm making is the changed world people see and say they dislike, or the old world they say they miss, is (it seems to me) less about immigration and more to do with cultural changes we all cheered and brought about together
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@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
7 months
I'm not saying immigration hasn't been transformative in some areas. I am saying that this is just one aspect of change, and the other stuff is more whoesale, and neglected. And where will you find many of those traditions preserved? Well, in immigrant households. The great irony
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@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
5 months
Great example:
@growing_daniel
Daniel
5 months
In retrospect it’s crazy that phone companies were like hey we’re going to put your name and address and phone number in a book and print a million copies to pass out all over town and everyone was like oh yeah of course
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@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
5 months
Fleshing this one out a little
@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
5 months
Quick thread on what I mean by this. I grew up in council in Stockton-on-Tees. Next door to us was Jack Casey, aka Eli Woods, famous-ish stage performer from Portrack
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@bennewmark
Ben Newmark
7 months
@michael_merrick Less coverage made the big games much more special. The FA Cup Final was huge. Everyone watched it.
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@michael_merrick
Michael Merrick
7 months
@bennewmark Also, at school, playing for your school trumped club, and playing district/county was a properly big deal - it took precedence over (say) playing for your club, even if you were at a pro team.
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@Matt_Severn
Matt Severn
5 months
@michael_merrick This is complete nonsense. Football has been professional since the 1890s and the Premier League began in 1992. Union turned pro in 1995, League always has been and cricket in 1962. Darts 1992. Snooker in 1927. The difference is the salaries were low for most until the 1990s
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@hashtagsellout
#SELLOUT
5 months
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