Sarah

I listened to the radio, which seems so archaic now in retrospect.

SultanOfSwing

Twenty years ago, I was 12. I hadn't quite got to the sitting up all night stage then but I used to be up late playing the computer. At the time I had a CPC, so a lot of my time was spent waiting for the games to actually load. I remember getting up early on a Saturday for more playing time too.

Once I upgraded to an Amiga and discovered Championship Manager that was pretty much it though, but it was Civilization that I first played right through the night until sunrise during the summer. CM, Civ and Sensible World of Soccer were my usuall sources of entertainment when I wasn't having one off the wrist.

avanutria

Twenty years ago...I was on the internet. My older brother was an early adopter and used BBS chats, and then we got "internet" via Prodigy. They felt that email was a limited resource so we got 30 free ones a month and then they wanted to charge 25 cents per email sent.

That didn't last too long. Nor, for that matter, did Prodigy.

Pre-internet, I remember reading, listening to the radio, and watching late night tv. My brother loved Saturday Night Live so I saw quite a bit of that too.

Egg and Cress

I know that seems odd - but I had a friend whose window I could see from my window, and it was lit up like mine because both of us were night-owls, it was a wonderful, warm feeling to be able to trot across the street, creep up the stairs (so as to not wake others in the building) and end up having a pot of coffee while we discussed the problems of life that were keeping us awake. Each of us felt comfortable enough with the other to do that and I really miss it.

Oh, and we didn't have Ceefax - still don't, damn it!

SultanOfSwing

Ceefax, now there's a blast from the past ! I used to love getting up early on a Sunday morning, or during school holidays in the '80s to watch Pages from Ceefax and Test Card F. Even now when I hear that cheesy smooth jazz stuff they used to play on the TV or in a shop, it raises a smile . . .

Funny, once I had a TV that actually picked up Ceefax, it wasn't as fun. Bloody handy before I had the internet though for footy news and the like though.

tamms_1965

Yeah, we had it because of my husband's job. That's how he worked from home during computer "emergencies" at the hospital he worked for. I wasn't really interested in it....just the games and word processing.

Egg and Cress

When my OH called me from England, he'd tell me about news items he'd read on Ceefax - expecting to have a bit of a discussion about it. Trouble was, it was stuff we hadn't heard about yet (and wouldn't for another couple of days, if at all). I'd then often have information that wasn't yet general knowledge here, which was really cool because, to some folks, I appeared to be able to tell the future.

SultanOfSwing

Ceefax is (was? Please tell me it still is) brilliant and anyone who says otherwise is probably still inside a bollock.

Bob

I thought it got switched off? I used to play the crappy word games and loved it.

SultanOfSwing

Next year, apparently. It is transmitted with the analogue signal, and once UK TV goes digital in 2012, that's it for Ceefax

I'm properly sad now, actually. That was a huge chunk of my childhood, watching Ceefax waiting for children's TV to come on before BBC even had continuous daytime TV, let alone went 24 hour.

I suppose they don't do The Learning Zone on BBC2 either anymore?

Ozzidoc

Bibliophile

Englishman43

Me & Girlfriend of the time would watch the idiot box , seems like there wasn't so much idiotness on it back then, or go to the pub for a sociable beer. Sometimes followed by a walk on the forest - lived in the New Forest at the time.

Ja5on

I got in so much trouble when I was a young that my parents would take away my TV, Stereo and Playstation and the only time I was allowed out was to go to the library or walk the dogs.....So by no fault of my own I ended up reading a ton of books between the ages of 14 and 16.

Also I had forgot about bamboozle!

Check out the wiki!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboozle

Lola-Monmouth

20 years ago?.....Tuesdays and Saturdays ballroom dancing. Thursdays, badminton. Wednesdays and Sunday mornings, swimming. Cleaning, ironing on Mondays and on Fridays the gym with BF followed by a curry and bottle of wine each in my house. Sunday evening I would meet my married lover for an hour or two of aerobic excercise Bliss!