Anti nostalgia- things that used to be shit but are now really good

[Captain Willard]

Couldn’t find a thread on this so apologies if it’s been posted before. Anyway this is the opposite of saying Mars bars used to be bigger, this is a thread about things that used to be shit but are now really good. Here are my top 3;

 

1) takeaways - next to impossible to get deliveries even 5 years ago. That’s why they were called takeaways, you had to go and collect it from the curry house and it would invariably spill in the footwell of your car on the way home.

 

2) coffee - nobody took it seriously, shit Nescafé was all you could get out and about.

 

3) milk - fuck knows what they put in it but it lasts a lot longer than it used to. 
 

see also porn, drugs and cars. 

 

 

 

[Bjornebye]

TV choice. 

 

15 years ago you needed to catch Vorderman on Countdown for a crafty afternoon wank, nowadays 3 clicks and you can be watching "Hitlers Secret Sex life" on Netflix 

[Tony Moanero]

Television and film choice, actual televisions, the internet (YouTube, etc, Spotify, etc.), online shopping and mobile phones, are all much better than they used to be. Other than those things, I genuinely can’t think of anything else that I’m arsed about that is better. If time travel was possible, and I could access the internet and not have to watch television on a shit screen, I’d happily go back to 1977 and stay there.

[Red Lead]

Being able to breathe in a pub now without choking on cigarette smoke.

[Mook]

Pornography.

 

Edit, just noticed it's in the OP. So much better it is worth reiterating. 30/40 years ago you had to go into a shop & completely embarrass yourself to get one item of porn, now an entire universe of utter filth is a couple of clicks away.

[Section_31]

TV definitely, Sopranos kicked off the golden age. 

 

Saturday afternoon telly was basically Grandstand, horse racing, horse racing, and a black and white cowboy film.

 

Eating out. Even around 2000/2001 when I started eating out regularly in town there must have been fewer than a dozen restaurants, if that, mostly Italian.

[Tony Moanero]

Actually, McVitie’s Jaffa Jonuts are nicer than ordinary Jaffa Cakes.

[manwiththestick]

Having an A to Z in your glove box or having to jot down or print off directions from the Internet.

[Chip Butty]

Coats, tellies and weather forecasting. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Trumo]

Skoda - used to be a byword for 'Eastern European shitheap', but now they are probably at the upper end of the VW group's range.

 

Supermarket own brand soft drinks - once was a time when Coke and Pepsi were obviously superior but now the difference is not all that apparent, and the big brands can cost up to 4 times as much.

[Pureblood]

Bandwidth.

[Babb'sBurstNad]

DIY stuff. The quality of tools you can get now is amazing. I've got a cordless Makita circular saw that'll go through a concrete lintel with ease.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Restaurants in Liverpool.

Beer.

Racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. - still shit, but nothing like the 70s and 80s.

Cameras - unless you spent an absolute fortune, you'd have a clunky box with a limited focal range and you wouldn't know whether your pictures were shit until you got them back from Max Spielmann. You now get something better on every phone.

[Section_31]

Pub beer is a good shout.

 

Carling, Fosters, John Smiths or Blackthorn. Rinse and repeat.

[Clem H Fandango]

3 hours ago, Mook said:

Pornography.

 

Edit, just noticed it's in the OP. So much better it is worth reiterating. 30/40 years ago you had to go into a shop & completely embarrass yourself to get one item of porn, now an entire universe of utter filth is a couple of clicks away.

Disagree.

Back in childhood days...finding a bongo mag in some bushes was like a holy grail quest giving a huge dopamine rush that you just don't get these days.

[Ezekiel 25:17]

Turdseye, seems to have something of a purpose now.

[Numero Veinticinco]

4 hours ago, Tony Moanero said:

Actually, McVitie’s Jaffa Jonuts are nicer than ordinary Jaffa Cakes.

What the absolute fuck is a Jonut. 

[Tony Moanero]

19 minutes ago, Numero Veinticinco said:

What the absolute fuck is a Jonut. 

 

 

The sponge isn’t as dry as ordinary Jaffa Cake sponge.

[Numero Veinticinco]

I will try those. They look and sound mental. 

[General Dryness]

6 hours ago, Mook said:

Pornography.

 

Edit, just noticed it's in the OP. So much better it is worth reiterating. 30/40 years ago you had to go into a shop & completely embarrass yourself to get one item of porn, now an entire universe of utter filth is a couple of clicks away.

Hardcore as well. The shops just had the soft stuff. If you wanted full on shag action back in the day, you had to have a mate who would nick videos out of his dad's collection because his dad had a contact who brought stuff back from  Amsterdam. 

[General Dryness]

2 hours ago, Ezekiel 25:17 said:

Turdseye, seems to have something of a purpose now.

It's the pure dedication of running at least two accounts on here that gives him focus.

[A Red]

When I was a kid estate's were full of blokes in overalls fixing their cars

[Mook]

8 hours ago, Clem H Fandango said:

Disagree.

Back in childhood days...finding a bongo mag in some bushes was like a holy grail quest giving a huge dopamine rush that you just don't get these days.

There is that side of it too.

 

Music is similar, easy access to a World of 'free' music now but the feeling of discovering a new album by hearing a track on the radio or at your mate's house and going into a record shop to get it is gone for most people, which is a shame.

[stringvest]

Minges.  Having to fight through clumps of 13 amp fuse wire was never good. 

 

 

[Harry Squatter]

Travel. Now you can do a bit of research before you go anywhere, especially with hotels. I stayed in LA once and the hotel offered to me was near Santa Monica. When I got there it fucking wasn't and was basically an airport hotel and looked like something from the A Team or Hart to Hart. If I'd had TripAdvisor I could have fucked it off straight away. 

 

When me and my mate used to go away we would book our flights and hotels with STA Travel in Bold Street, which involved us going up there on our lunch and waiting ages behind dozy students who would be discussing going on a gap year but not actually booking anything. 

 

Although Ryanair are cunts and Easyjet are to some degree the only flights you could get to cities were main airlines that would cost a fortune or you'd have to transit somewhere.

 

I can remember my Dad being amazed that you could fly to Barcelona for under £100 from Liverpool Airport and be there in 2 hours. When he went to Barcelona in 1976 to watch us he had to take 3 days off work and get trains and coaches.