Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Anybody in one (or more) of those Facebook groups that are about old buildings/architecture/ street scenes? I imagine you guys might be. There are things in common that all of these groups share :


1. Everything was *always* better “back in the day”. From free school milk, to coalmen that carried 3 ton sacks on their shoulders and delivered them straight into your coal bunker. There is invariably an element of rank racism that creeps in here, usually a none too subtle insinuation that things were so much better before all the brown people got here.

2. Most of the posts are *utterly * pointless. Examples : “I worked there from 1968 to 1975.”. “My Uncle Cyril went to that pub every night and always drank a bottle of Mackeson”. “My granny used to sell blow jobs for 2 bob a time round the back of that church.” Who needs to know this stuff?

3. Mostly in city groups, such as Birmingham, there is always a heartfelt lamentation about soul-less/corrupt city planners who demolished beautiful classical architecture in order to erect bland glass and concrete monstrosities. I have some sympathy with this point of view.

Yeah, I'm in one for Ilford. It certainly ticks a lot of the boxes.

1. Ugly Nostalgia; From two really odd sources.
a. Photos of Dustmen from the 1930s with a load of "Mrs Brady" type:
"Proper Dustmen, used to carry your bins even if they were full of bricks / lead - not like these modern ones who have wheels on the bins". I pity some young boomer types who discover by inference that Granny was shagging the binmen.
b. Photos of high street shops:
Grumbles that the place has gone to the dogs and ain't like it used to be.
The tragedy of these is that they are grumbling about Indian / Sri Lankans running the shops.
The names are often from Jewish families that match old shop owners.
(Themselves founded by first generation immigrants or 2nd generation moved up from Whitechapel / Brick Lane).
I believe this is known as Priti Patel syndrome.

2. Totally Irrelevant shot, like a photo of the Osmonds captioned "Number one 40 years ago".
(OK, but why in the Ilford group)

3. The planning phase is largely absent. (except a few grumbles about new flats).
But there are some really interesting before and after.
pictures. Particularly where WW2 bombing created gaps.
Also some photos of memorials to particular night's bombing.

4. The real gold lies in simple stuff like school photos with a class and their teacher (or similar), and the sheer joy when a
couple of old pals discover that both are still alive.
old pals locate each other through

Ulktimately, Facebook does one thing extremely well.

It reminds us (I miss you George Carling) just how fucking stupid the average person is.

Don't, whatever you do, look at the Facebook page for Sunderland. They are still arguing about the demolition of then old town hall in 1968 (no, really) and all of the above.

'Secret Carshalton' is, however, magical. For a given value of a foetid shithole.

Bones McCoy wrote: ↑Tue May 24, 2022 11:28 pm
4. The real gold lies in simple stuff like school photos with a class and their teacher (or similar), and the sheer joy when a
couple of old pals discover that both are still alive.
old pals locate each other through

Agreed that's nice.
By contrast I'm in my old school's "aged 40+" FB group. Set up and admined by a bloke from my year, it's dominated by our year and those either side, so lots of people I remember. There's a lot of revisionism going on there, people who make out they were in with the cool kids/the hard kids when I remember them being mercilessly bullied by these people. There's one guy on there who is boasting about all the girls he went out with, I remember him as being very quiet and shy and never saw him with any girls ever. One of his alleged conquests is a lifelong friend of mine - she's never heard of him.
I find that stuff all rather sad.
Then there are the Tories and/or the racists, some of whom were my mates 40 years ago. I can't help wondering what the hell happened to turn them.
On a brighter note, I'm now good FB friends with a girl I had a crush on when I was 12. She's doesn't remember me from school at all (we were in different years) I was besotted with her for about a term. She has no idea that she rejected my advances without hesitation in 1976 after I'd finally plucked up the courage to ask her out. I was heartbroken for a week or two. I'm just waiting for the right moment to drop that on her.

I'm remined that Friends Reunited was instrumental in revealing the extent of Jimmy Savile's abuse.

Here's a quite lovely collection of images of little kids playing out and about in the 1950s and 1960s. Some really terrific shots.

But look at the comments all the way through, for nearly every image. Unending lamentations that "you couldn't do that today", "No need for Elf & Safety. Happy Days.", and the odd "too many bloody snowflakes around now". One, beside an image of a little black lass, longs, incredibly, for the days when "nobody cared about colour or creed". Oh yes, they bloody well did.

It's like some sort of disease.

Anyhoo, do enjoy looking at the pics.

https://www.facebook.com/rodtemplar02/p ... 3eyr3Jgevl

Groaniad had an article on the nostalgia recently: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/n ... tain-today

Seems to be quite late to the party, been seeing this stuff for years.

Edit: Grauniad makes more sense!

An excellent piece, young sparrows. Really gets it. Thanks for posting it up, I had missed its initial publication.

Have a look at this page.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063854974631

Monsieur Le Gall is a talented candid and street photographer whose work goes back decades. The responses are refreshing "I remember that" or "That's my uncle Jacques" or even "That Sylvie was a right cow."

Well worth a bit of your time.

(But however good you are, sometimes it's down to luck...)

Abernathy wrote:One, beside an image of a little black lass, longs, incredibly, for the days when "nobody cared about colour or creed".

If you ask any person of colour over a certain age they'll tell you this is absolutely true. If you weren't white and Christian nobody cared about you.

Of course, the people who leave those sort of comments are all white 'natural' British, and from their position of privilege wouldn't have noticed the casual racism and lack of consideration shown towards non-whites.

RedSparrows wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 1:28 pm Groaniad had an article on the nostalgia recently: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/n ... tain-today

Seems to be quite late to the party, been seeing this stuff for years.

Edit: Grauniad makes more sense!

That was a very informative read.

RedSparrows wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 1:28 pm Groaniad had an article on the nostalgia recently: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/n ... tain-today

Seems to be quite late to the party, been seeing this stuff for years.

Edit: Grauniad makes more sense!

Maybe we balance the picture with "Proper Managing Directors".
* Worked in the same building, did't jet all over the world.
* Small office in the corner, not some massive media centre
* Respected their staff, didn't call them out on social media.
* Got paid as much as three of them, not 30,000.
* Drove a slightly above average ford, not a private jet.
* Called themselves Managing Director, not CEO.

I’ve joined several simply for entertainment and every description here matches, I’m on the Newport simply for the inane posts and the admin posted some lovely photos of Newport Pride.

Generally the comments were quite nice but Brenda had to inform us all that the group was called old photos and these were only taken at the weekend.

She of course had no issues with the gays but felt the need to make that point to the admin. The admin posts all manner of bland and boring photos of Newport on a weekly basis a pet project of his was for visit the market on a Monday (all the stalls close on a Monday), Brenda seemingly never had an issue with them.

Southport is just all manner of moaners as described here, one bloke who had to blame Sefton council on every post, the best thing is nostalgia for the 90s I actually remember Southport in the 90s and it doesn’t match a single bit of the Sepia posts I keep seeing.

They were banging on about a DIY store a few days ago, my dad informed me this nostalgic funfair which they all happened to visit was actually generally shit.

I was that bored last week on a post what do you miss about your youth in Southport I wrote the bloke I used to sleep with on a particular golf course.

I got a few laughs and one angry, I guess he played the course a lot.

I wrote on the previous incaranation about a similar group from where I grew up, and the coded messages therein:

"You can't say anything these days" - I wish I could call my neighbour a Paki.
"Lovely old woman" - disgusting bigot.
"Things were better then" - everyone was white.
"Elfandsasfety wouldn't allow it now" - probably because it was a deathtrap.

And when you look at profile pages, the biggest flagshaggers were the school bullies.

mattomac wrote: ↑Wed Nov 30, 2022 10:25 pm I’ve joined several simply for entertainment and every description here matches, I’m on the Newport simply for the inane posts and the admin posted some lovely photos of Newport Pride.

Generally the comments were quite nice but Brenda had to inform us all that the group was called old photos and these were only taken at the weekend.

She of course had no issues with the gays but felt the need to make that point to the admin. The admin posts all manner of bland and boring photos of Newport on a weekly basis a pet project of his was for visit the market on a Monday (all the stalls close on a Monday), Brenda seemingly never had an issue with them.

Southport is just all manner of moaners as described here, one bloke who had to blame Sefton council on every post, the best thing is nostalgia for the 90s I actually remember Southport in the 90s and it doesn’t match a single bit of the Sepia posts I keep seeing.

They were banging on about a DIY store a few days ago, my dad informed me this nostalgic funfair which they all happened to visit was actually generally shit.

I was that bored last week on a post what do you miss about your youth in Southport I wrote the bloke I used to sleep with on a particular golf course.

I got a few laughs and one angry, I guess he played the course a lot.

I'm concerned about the last bit - which of you paid the green fees? [/Red Dwarf joke]

But yeah, it's an exercise in nostalgia and sometimes you get something that does remind you of happier times (e.g. the kids in the street doing a fancy dress show at a street party) that you might not see today, until you remember a few things:

1. By and large, the photos are still images, or if film clips, silent. This gives only a partial view of the event/scene.

2. Yes, people may well have been more neighbourly, but were they always? I grew up on a new build estate where there were lots of young families with kids of similar age, going to the same school, so of course we hung out together. Most of our mums didn't work (in paid employment) so they socialised as well. There was a pub on the edge of the estate where the adults went. It was a fucking dive where if you weren't with a recognised local, you got death glares at best. My grandma lived in a sheltered block of low-rise flats. She tried to have as little to do with the warden as possible (out of independence-mindedness, probably), and spoke to only a handful of other residents on a "Mr Smith/Mrs Jones" basis. Neighbourly spirit was often more out of necessity than choice.

3. Given the amount of trick or treaters we get in our relatively quiet backwater of Lancaster, the kids are still dressing up and doing things. We've just decided to draw inwards ourselves. Partly because showing an interest in other people's kids is a really bad idea.

The community spirit, the street parties and charity drives and all the rest of it, still exists and indeed flourishes in many places. What I think a lot of these Binmenism posts are trying to convey is a sense of exclusion from society by the commentator, putting all the blame on outside forces rather than examining their own choices to withdraw.

Andy, you've missed the totally bizarre disconnect shown by those who moan about things in "the good ol' days" not being done/allowed today. These rose-tinted-glasses wearers are often the same people who, in the very same Facebook group, are busily organising the modern equivalents of the very things they moan don't happen/aren't allowed these days. I see it time and time again in my local FB groups

I love it. It's one of the things that make my local community Facebook groups so hilarious.

A pet hate of mine on local FB groups is grainy old photos with ‘hey do you remember Grace Brothers department on the corner of the high street?’
‘Yeh, great days.’
Tedious beyond reason

I've never been on FB or any other social media for that matter, so I'm not exposed to much of this sort of nonsense:

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/n ... tain-today

You know that “Reels” thing that has started to appear on your Facebook timeline? Short video clips of stuff. Mine seems to be full of clips of young women with unfeasibly large thrupennies jiggling about in scanty underwear, or doing a strange thing where they make like they’re about to whip off a baggy t-shirt, then do so, to reveal their unfeasibly large jubblies in scanty underwear for about 2 seconds.

Surely I can’t be alone in seeing this ?