What did we do before the internet

[Elgrande]

I come on here less frequently now because it is a bit lacking in banter, but on a visit last night I was wondering what fans did before 24 hours news and the internet? Did we al get depressed and not know what to do with ourselves or did we not worry too much, read the paper and wait for the first game of the season? I would guess probably the latter, we went down the strand, swimming at the open air pool in Rochester, went to the coast and tried to pull a bird or if married get a look at the young birds on the beach. We might go to the social club and have a few beers, but I really don't remember fretting about who we had signed, how we played against Folkestone in a friendly or who was the new captain. we just turned up first home game had a sing and a shout and celebrated or moaned. Isn't it strange how instant contact makes us more critical / involved.
Now for 1066, Bunbury et al it must be great to be able to stay in contact, but for most of us have we just created a reason to moan / worry when in reality there is nothing we can do about anything?

[gillsfan1066]

Progress old darling they call it progress. The STRAND that brings back so many happy memories. Mum used to take us to the paddling pool all the time by the smelly old Gas Works, I can remember sometimes I used to get so excited because by the bar rite in the middle of the pool when it had been refilled it would be real deep , up to a 5 year olds bathing trunks and the pool where you ran in was painted white, slippery as hell when it got wet.
If we had been real good she would leave us there being looked after by some lady she had never met until half hour before,haha and go and get us or an ice cream from the cafe over the other side of the parking lot and we would eat jam sandwiches and then have to walk home, I thought she was being mean but of course she couldn't afford the bus fare two or three times a week . Real treat was a ride on the paddle boats , are they still there ??
Then as we got older we would get a season ticket to the big circular swiming pool,leave home early in the morning and not come home till it closed at like 7.30 or 8 and that's where I first tasted Cheese and Onion crisps.
I remember getting braver and braver climbing the wooden diving board until one day finally jump off the top board and of course after the first time that was it you could not keep us off it, and we would be able to swim across the pool from the two flat diving stations where they started the races from, what was it 50 yards across the pool and then spend a life time trying to climb up the sloping sides ??
Then one day everything changed we discovered tennis and started playing that 12 hours a day hanging your racket up on the fence a dozen or so of us would " book" the court all day,lol.
Then I remember the winter of I think 63 when my Grandfather and I walked out on the ice which was all over the river and when we got home and told Grandma she shouted at us for being stupid because we could have fallen though. Jumping off the wall onto the beach and one day we were throwing stones at a sign that said," People throwing stones at this sign would be prosecuted ,"lol, and a policeman wanted to ticket my Grandfather.
it was where the pipe went out into the river at the east end of the swimming pool , had a big DANGER sign on it, I guess that was the sign they didn't want you to throw the stones at, not the one saying don't throw stones at this sign
Then one night at like 8 o clock in the fall as it was dark we were down there on our bikes and we could here some guy out in the river, he had moored his boat and tried to walk through the mud and had got stuck, the tide was coming in and he was going to drown and we called the police and they sent panda cars , ambulances and a fire engine and a boat from the dockyard to save him.
Then a regular hiding place for me and the girlfriend was the "new parking lot" at the side of the cafe, got caught doing the wild thing on my GS 160, one night and then maybe a year later doing the same thing in the Triumph Herald, lol, guess some people never learn hahahaha.
Strange thing is I can NEVER remember playing football or cricket or anything like that down there ,remember skating round the Band Stand, running beside the little train when we didn't have the money to go on it, dam what a wonderful place the Strand was for us kids , happy memories , OH no I think I am going to cry, lol.

[sotongill]

Wonderful stuff 1066 , remember all of it well .

Afraid the boats and the old paddling pool have not been used for years - still there , but both dry with the Boat Club using the paddle boat area - in fact the new paddling pool is the bandstand area . The Miniature railway is still there though .

The swimming pool has changed as well , from the days that we'd ( I'm sure you did as well ) rush down from Arden Street ( the old school , not the present one ) after school and stay in until closing . They have a "lazy river" running all the way around the outside with rubber rings that you can float in . It does mean that you can't swim the 50 yards at The Chequers anymore . I seem to recall that I once had a certificate to say that I'd swum 1,350 yards in one go . Just read your piece out to my Wife as it's brought back happy memories for her as well .

However , we've probably hijacked the thread . In answer to Elg , and speaking as someone exiled in Southampton since 1986 ( not quite Chicago , like 1066 ) , pre-internet was waiting fro the Chatham News to be sent by my parents so that you knew what the pre-season fixtures were , and if you were lucky you'd also get a match report . Thankfully times have moved on , and I can now rely on people like FOM to give detailed updates on Websites , Facebook , & Twitter . Does that make us more critical and heighten expectations - probably , yes . Would I go back to the old ways - not at all .

[Elgrande]

I just find it all so sterile; even the match day experience has lost its charm. Maybe I was different; pre season friendlies apart from John Simpson's testimonial or similar held no excitement or had no relevance to the real thing. Transfers were of interest, but no big deal unless it was a Terry Cochrane type buy, but in reality summers were for playing up by the sea with your mates, not for worrying about something I could do nothing about. First home game of the season was different, a few beers a lot of singing and passion and then home for tea before a night out or back down the coast.

[gillsfan1066]

I also think you basically knew who was playing for the team on the first game of the season, just about the same team that finished the last game of the previous season,unless their retirement had been announced.
How many times back in the day would we have bought in 5 or 6 players during the summer, especially when 4 of them could all easily be named in the team for the first game of the season ??
I am trying to remember if I ever went to a pre season friendly, maybe if we played a first or second division club when we were in the 4th I might have ??

[Garawa]

Personally I can't remember. I thought probably most just went off to cricket and came back in August with little clue as to what the team was like. People are far more critical now thanks to numerous platforms to moan on but the ability to debate and talk about what was happening during the summer is great in my book, for me all it does is highten my excitement for the coming season. Judging by how many people complete lose touch or forget about these forums after a couple of weeks of inactivity that possibly isn't a bad thing.