How did we manage?

[mercury]

I was just thinking about my answer to Scunners post re. his 5 questions.

How did we manage without computers?  We had the old fashioned plug in switchboard... A comptometor  to do the wages..Paid weekly in little packets with holes in the back so that you could see your wage slips. adding machines that worked in pounds shillings and pence. (not electrical). you needed strong fingers to bash them up and down.  We used to supply the power stations and mills with their coal (before the coal strikes).   Accounts were done monthly and each invoice copied into a huge heavy ledger by hand. Each company having their own ledger..There must have been huge amounts of paper used. All having to be filed every day.
These were then typed up  (no electric) equally heavy typewriter.. each letter banged down hard..
We also used shorthand..to take notes...any spare time I had I had to type each individual envelope. Hundreds of them to be stored in a drawer for future use..
Happy days loved them...

[Colwyn]

We had the old fashioned plug in switchboard..

Hilary worked on those. She kicks my leg under the table if I look like I am going to mention that she was a "GPO-trained telephonist".

[Younger members may need to look up "GPO".]

[KKOB]

The former Mrs KKOB was also a GPO-trained telephonist. She started with them in Maidstone in 1972.

[Scunner]

When you see the absolute panic when someone goes out without their mobile and others need to contact them, you do wonder how we managed.

I remember at work we had to find a telephone box (that worked) every day to call the office to see if there were any messages.

[marina]

I was just thinking about my answer to Scunners post re. his 5 questions.

How did we manage without computers?  We had the old fashioned plug in switchboard... A comptometor  to do the wages..Paid weekly in little packets with holes in the back so that you could see your wage slips. adding machines that worked in pounds shillings and pence. (not electrical). you needed strong fingers to bash them up and down.  We used to supply the power stations and mills with their coal (before the coal strikes).   Accounts were done monthly and each invoice copied into a huge heavy ledger by hand. Each company having their own ledger..There must have been huge amounts of paper used. All having to be filed every day.
These were then typed up  (no electric) equally heavy typewriter.. each letter banged down hard..
We also used shorthand..to take notes...any spare time I had I had to type each individual envelope. Hundreds of them to be stored in a drawer for future use..
Happy days loved them...

Yep, remember all of that mercury!  I can also remember the company I worked for had a new computer delivered one day. Great excitement!  It was the size of a shed and had to go up to the top floor, so a crane was used and all the large windows taken out for it to go through!   
Amazing to think I'm now typing this on my phone! 

[gillian handbury]

. My Grandparents days were ...the good old days... My Mum & Dads days were the good old days... Ours were and still our the good old days!!!! . The difference is that their take always consisted of fish bits or scraps from local chippy...and today it's .....well whatever it is.....Chinese ...Indian ....pizza....Italian ....etc...  Just phone in your order.....Was just gonna delete this...but then thought...No! How lucky are we!!!!...if you've not been there think yourself lucky!!!..

[KKOB]

I remember at work we had to find a telephone box (that worked) every day to call the office to see if there were any messages.

I was working as a traffic operator for TNT when they introduced the Overnite service. Some of our drivers were having to phone their depots upto a dozen times a day in order to get their next collection details. We on the otherhand were trying to answer these calls and also take details of further work from customers over the phone and pass them on to the drivers. Thesedays almost all collection and delivery details are transmitted via the web.

[KKOB]

Just phone in your order.....Was just gonna delete this...but then thought...No! How lucky are we!!!!...if you've not been there think yourself lucky!!!..

Just think, most under 25s in the UK have never known a life without mobile phones.

[Jacqui Harvey]

I worked for Unilever in their shipping department in Liverpool.  It was called The United Africa Company.  We had to type (on electric typewriters)  the bills of lading for the Palm Line fleet.  They were on thin paper with carbon at the back and no mistakes could be made.  After they were done, they went down to the Gestetner Room to be printed off.  I so hated these forms as they were so messy and if you touched the carbon, it was hell to get off your hands.   I mainly worked on the dictaphone section where the guys dictated letters and brought down the tapes to us and we put them on our machines and had a set of headphones and a pedal on the floor to listen to the letters being dictated. 
The good thing about working in that Office was, we were all on the Unilever Panel to test goods, so we regularly got two products each to take home and try.  My Mum loved that.

[mercury]

I have also heard loads of tails about how the newbies in firms and young apprentices got sent out for impossible items.. Barrie was a mechanic and the new ones used to get the grease gun shoved down their pants.. Or their b"""s dyed with micrometer blue.. Used to take months to wash off.. They were dumped in the tyre bath if they dared to answer back.. 
They also got the back of their elbows hit with the screwdriver if they weren't quick enough. Would this be allowed now? I doubt it.. One young lad took his Mum down to complain and they promptly sacked him as he had "no sense of humour".