00:00
If you're old enough to remember when phones had cords and the only thing that went viral was a cold,  then you're in the right place. Welcome to the Big Six-O with Kaylee Harris and Guy Rowlison. Because who better to discuss life's second act than two people who still think mature is a type of cheese.

00:35
friend.  Hello how are you?  I'm good I'm ready for another podcast we've come up with  an idea for this  this particular episode that involves around  jobs  and stuff that don't exist anymore. Well my job doesn't exist anymore.  What was your job? ah Probably being a father.  My kids don't want to know they love.

01:01
Don't lie to I'm just saying. You know what got me thinking about this one was my first job I got was working, they used to have, do you remember microfilm processes, like microfilm machines where somehow they used to be able to store documents in them, but they had to go into the machine, be photographed, and then somehow they'd get stored. One of my first jobs when I was 15 was I had to sit on the floor in this office with an iron.

01:31
and a towel and I had to iron the bits of paper so they could be fed into the microprocessing machine. Now the iron had to be pretty hot and the smoke that used to come off these documents with the ink and everything, I lasted I think two hours and I had a splitting headache and I just got up and walked out and went home. I remember saying to my dad, I can't do that job, I can't sit there and iron paper all day.

01:59
There's so much wrong with all that story. know, right? I know, but it just got me thinking about microfilm processes and how we... And another job I had when I was 16 was working at a radio station, digital, putting all the names of all the records and everything into a computer, a very, very early computer so that we had...

02:21
on the computer all the names of all the records that we had as well as physical copies of them because up until that point I think everything was like a card system. But you weren't sitting on the floor, young woman sitting on the floor with a towel and a hot iron breathing in toxic fumes. That's yeah. I think it got to like 10.30 and I'm like can't do this and I was too scared to tell the boss that I didn't, it was my first day and I didn't want to do it so I just

02:49
went out for a break and then just jumped on the train and went home. Well there goes your superannuation payout from that job right? Did you do the search to see whether you're eligible for any super from that job?  No, I don't think super was the only thing  then. And that's probably something that doesn't exist anymore either really as the old super payments from back in the day. That's right.  But you used to categorise what from cards when you moved to the radio station to actually type in

03:17
Yeah, so you'd type in the Beach Boys  and then the song and then how long it went for  into the computer. How long was the intro, from when the music starts to when the vocals actually kick in. You'd have to put all that information  in. And that was the job. getting it all onto computer. Yeah. All those jobs that, I mean, there's a multitude of them. We'll probably only tip of the iceberg. But I remember  when we used to have a tea lady. Yes.

03:47
I was a tea lady at a job. Really? Yes. Yeah. With a little trolley? Did you have a trolley? Yes, I had a trolley. I worked in an office in Sydney and for an accounting firm, I think was one of my first jobs. Sounds like I had a lot of first jobs, didn't I? But anyway, this was that was around that period 16, 15, something like that. And yeah, I got a job as the tea lady and I would go around and what would you like? And I had a trolley. And yeah. You got to meet everyone in the office and knew what their

04:15
white tea with one sugar and what everyone had and you'd push your trolley around. about you? Did you, where you worked, did you have tea leaves? We had it,  I thought it was the best thing ever.  I'd had a couple of jobs before I moved to this particular place and I'd just been working at Channel 7  in Sydney  in the newsroom there. We didn't have a tea lady there. ah But  the next job I moved to, yes this lady came along with the trolley and you know.

04:40
she needed to know your name because you were the new kid on the block and how did you have your tea or your coffee? And did you wanted, I think we even had cream biscuits. I mean, we didn't even just have them. Yeah. But I was only there probably three months and they sort of got rid of the tea lady. It was that transition time where tea ladies were a thing of the past. And so I got to experience three months with the tea lady and the trolley. Yeah. Well, I worked at T.U.W. in the

05:08
in the  1980s, I started in the early 80s and we had a tea lady and she was a  lovely Greek lady called Rula.  No. And she would come around and uh she had the lovely Greek accent and she'd lecture all of us girls about the dangers of smoking because  back in those days you had your cigarettes and your ashtray on your desk.

05:27
And she'd go, you guys, you can't do a accent, but she would have a go at us and bring us our tea. But she was a lover, a love ruler. She knew everything going on in the office. She knew all the gossip. She knew what everyone was doing. It was lovely. I'm glad that politicism kicked in there and you decided not to try and do a Greek accent to stereotype anyone about listeners or friends who may actually be of Greek descent. Thank you. That's probably why you had a lot of first jobs.

05:54
because you were out the door by five o'clock that day. That's right. They only lasted a week at the most. Yeah. But there were some great, there are great jobs that just don't exist anymore. And there's one that I shouldn't start with this one, but there's one that would just have my kids scratching their head and say, you are kidding me. And I'll use a colloquialism, but they used to be the dunny man.

06:23
He used to come around in un-suited sort of, and he would do that, they'd come around and it was like a long drop or a short drop or whatever you call it. And he used to come and collect. Yeah. You'd have your toilet in the backyard and he would come to the back and he would, I don't even know how it worked. How did they get down in there and clean it? Well, it used to be like a big tin, like a big, big...

06:50
Oh, he just take the tin away. And he'd take the tin on the shoulder and go and empty it into the truck and give you give you a new tin and thinking I have so much respect for those people. Can you believe that? mean, they're in the days of you know, when you talk about recycling these days. I mean, that's the ultimate piece of recycling, isn't it? Absolutely. Yeah, he will take it.

07:09
you will take your toilet away and we'll put in the new tin and off you go, mate.  Can you imagine if you were a kid at school and some kids said, what does your dad do?  You'd be really embarrassed, wouldn't you, say that that's what your dad did. But what an incredible job. Incredible job.  And, you know, I guess  in some places it still existed up until probably 30 years ago. And I'm sure where there's still no sewer. that they probably had, uh what do you call it, uh septic tanks that still needed to be emptied. those old long drops are short. I'm not sure which one.

07:39
which  they still had the truck that would come around and the  dunny man, and that was the colloquialism, would come along and empty. And I don't know how you would do that day in, day out.  I really couldn't. Well, there's a whole scope there for people who used to come to your house. Like the man who, before refrigerators, the ice man used to come and bring a massive big block of ice that would go into your um ice, what was it called? The icebox, whatever it is. speaker. And the milk, even the milkman.

08:08
Yeah. the milkman used to, the fittest person on the planet would run up and down the street with his milk bottles and delivering milk bottles to everyone's front doors.  Yeah. And we used to trust and put the money under the mat for the same, for the bread man. We used to have a bread man that used to come and deliver the fielders' bread on the, yeah. So the milkman was super fit. The bread man would come along and then the garbos who would run along the side of the truck.

08:31
That's right. And they would use your garbage lid, because it was the old metal garbage lid, and they'd frisbee it back onto your front yard.  remember that?  They used to make so much noise, these guys.  how fit were they? I know. And they'd ride along on the back of the truck. Can't do that anymore. Yeah, like you'd run up and down. I don't know how long. I mean,

08:52
And we used to stick everything in that bin. I mean, these days we've got a yellow bin and a green bin and a red bin. And you  used to have these tiny little metal bins that collected once a week and you managed to put everything in there. I  I know. And these days you need all three bins or a fourth in some places  and you still complain saying, oh, I can't fit everything in there. I mean, I guess we used to go down to the backyard incinerator and burn everything else if it didn't fit in.

09:22
But yeah, so bread man, milk man, Garbo, the Dunny man, Kayleigh ironing things on the floor. Do you know what I remember? I was thinking about before we talked about doing this particular podcast. I'm old enough to remember when this would have been in the 70s, early 70s, I think we went 10 pin bowling and it was actually physically someone's job to reset the pins up.

09:47
Before there was a machine,  there was actually someone, there'd be someone up the back of the  alley and they would be somewhere in there where they were and then once you'd bowled your ball down and that all gone, that person would pop out of somewhere and put your 10 pins back up and then quickly jump out of the way before you threw another ball down. That's a career choice. That is a career choice, isn't it? I think they were called pin setters or pin collectors or something.

10:14
That is genuinely one of those jobs that you say, you know, I think I can see a future in this because how on earth is that ever going to change? Yeah. And you had to fight the overwhelming urge to throw a ball down there while he was setting up because you just, it just became a target. Did ever do that once maybe? No, Kayleigh didn't do that. Kayleigh couldn't. But this was, I was so little when I remember this that I couldn't even barely lift the ball. So yeah. But really wanted to bowl one down there.

10:41
when you look at some of those and we mentioned the tea lady but they used to be typing pools and switchboard operators that just you know can you imagine kids now thinking oh there used to be someone sitting and predominantly women I that's not being sexist at all because that's just how it was and sitting there and they'd have the little plug and you'd plug you know you'd connect someone through to someone else and I know that was probably after our time but or before our time. No no it was I that was one of my

11:10
You were everything, you? I was one of those and it would have been in the very, it would have been like 1980 and I worked for this advertising company in North Sydney and they had one of the old Sylvester switchboards. you don't know what a Sylvester switchboard is, like Google it and you'll see. So it is the one that's got the cables and all the holes. So you've got two rows, let me try and explain, you've got two rows of cables that are retractable.

11:37
and a call would come through, you have a board in front of you and a little red light would light up. So you would put the back cable into the hole where the little red light was and then you could answer the call and you go, hello, whatever, you know, this is Kayleigh. And then they go, can I speak to Mr. Smith? And so you'd grab the equivalent front cord, drag it out and plug it into Mr. Smith's extension. it was...

12:04
I remember it was  old even when I had that job and thinking, oh my gosh. And I remember one day I answered a call and the  person didn't know who they wanted to speak to. So while I was thinking about who to put them through to,  I grabbed the front cord, getting ready to put it into an extension. And I leaned back on my chair and I put the cord into my mouth and it hit a filling and I got an electric shock and I went flying off the chair.

12:34
I don't know how I didn't dive. Anyway, I ended up on the floor. I can remember having this electric shock and shaking. anyway, you only did that once. But yeah, great, great party trick. But yeah, you just do that once and that's probably enough. Yeah, probably. And everything. You don't even you can't even say the word secretary anymore. That doesn't even that's not an acceptable term. No, no. And it's like all those.

13:01
Like you don't have, I know air hostesses, you can't say air hostess, what are they now called? Cabin crew? Is it just cabin crew? Yeah, my mum was an air hostess. Yeah. Yeah. DC3s and back then you couldn't do that job if you were married. Isn't that right? Yep. Once you got married, you had to give up the job. So mum flew with CAA and the old DC3 for about a year before she got married to dad and then she had to give it up.

13:31
Yeah, all those jobs that, you know, remember as a kid, you would take photographs and you go and get your film developed. Oh, yeah. And you'd have no idea what photographs you'd taken, but you'd still have to wait. There was was like a 48 hour Express photographic thing and you'd still come. Otherwise it was a week. Yeah, that's right. And you'd take it to the chemist or whatever. So there would have been someone somewhere just, you know, processing all those rolls of holiday, happy snaps and whatever.

14:00
else was on those roles that I'm sure they payment out. And they seem to disappear overnight. And they uh and again, like we talked about in one of our other podcasts about your whole story being put on the back of a postcard, some stranger in a shop seeing all your photos.

14:16
there would have been some photographs that they would have been talking about, I'm sure. I'm sure they would have been learning the police.  Yeah, there would have been.  But  I had to learn how to develop film as a young journo. That was one of  the stock and trade things that you had to learn where  you'd go and take photographs and you'd go into a dark room and you need to know how to process the film and develop your photographs.  But to do that as a job seven days a week or whatever it was to go and do everyone's little, you know.

14:44
here we are at the zoo and here we are at the school excursion and oh, here's a shot of mum and dad that mum and dad didn't know I took. Oh, you know. Yeah, but they'd be, you'd get, depending on how many photos you took, whether it was 12 or 24, you'd get your photo, you would have had to have paid for it and you'd find out half of them were blurry. Yeah, that's the one. Yeah. Yeah. it just, that's amazing when you think about it, but you talked about, you're a journal.

15:11
What about print setters and typesetters and all those jobs that are in the media industry that are not there anymore? All gone, all gone. um I remember  as a young journalist, we used to have the offset printers that used to do this and compositors and  all those sort of careers. And proofreaders? Proofreaders. uh Compositing was,  for those who don't know,  when computers first came in,

15:38
And this was a hyperloop for a lot of people in the late 70s, early  80s, where bromide shiny pieces of paper and they used to wax them. And then these guys used to actually cut them out and you'd lay them down to, you know, in the form that, you know, someone that designed the paper before then  there were guys using hot metal that used to slide in pieces of hot metal or the like the characters on a piece of metal and put them into big wooden boxes and used to take an impression of those with ink.

16:08
create papers. So as  the media evolved, all these positions  have now gone by the wayside to the point where these days, of course, everyone is using chat GPT or,  you know, anything like that to believe that they are actually journalists, I think, and just  write what they're. So there's even proofreaders, sub editors, all those sort of things in my industry that have now gone by the wayside. um

16:35
But going back to before,  to your industry, but before our time,  before newspapers, there were town criers.  Oh, of course, of course. remember? doesn't love a good town crier? Yeah, they'd shake a bell and they'd announce what was happening.  that was the last time I saw a town crier was old Sydney town back  in the  80s. And they had a town crier that used to walk around. like, wow, look at that guy. And he had a big bellowing voice and he would yell out, you know,

17:03
shake his bell and yell out what was happening. And of course when there's uh any big royal announcement they still have that sort of you know the the royal sort of town cryer where it rings the bell and  you know it's all big medical stuff. Yeah  and that was a transmission of information back in the day that you know every town had to have that sort of that sort of information to hand so they they had that role.  Unlike and we're not going back too far did you ever work at a video shop as well?

17:31
I didn't. loved the video shop. I frequented it a lot in the  80s. But yeah, video, the guy who was in the video store that  knew  just about every video that he had, you just go and they go, have you got this? And he'd go, yep, it's over there. Yeah, that's it.  And I had a friend who, whose sole job, because the video manager and it was, can't remember which one it was, but  their job was to put the cassette tapes in and make sure they were all rewound. Of course.  Yeah.

18:00
Of course, that was a thing. That was their job. Like some of us worked at Maccas or KFC or something and their job was to go to the video shop  and they would work, you know, was a Saturday night or a Monday or whatever it was. And they just had to go through all the returns and make sure they were all rewound for the next person. But remember though that they went, you used to get fined if you didn't rewind it.  They'd put some note on your...

18:27
card on the computer and you'd be fined 20 cents or something if you didn't rewind your video back to the beginning for the next person. That's probably how they paid my  mate. You want to make sure that you know because this is the only way you're going to get paid. So yeah, good luck to him. I don't even know what he went in into doing but I'm sure it wasn't anything to do with video. No, no. What about encyclopedia salesman? oh The Funken Waggles. The Funken Waggles. Or even

18:54
Any door-to-door salesman, vacuum cleaner salesman used to come to the door and knock on the door and try and flog a vacuum cleaner to mum. We never got a vacuum cleaner salesman but the the Funkin Waggles or the Britannica or the whatever they were. Britannica I think it was. Oh the book Encyclopedia we had. Oh yeah once again we didn't we didn't have Encyclopedia we weren't we we weren't that flash at our place but what we did have we had an Avon lady. Oh yes.

19:23
The Avon Lady. Do you remember the Avon Lady? Yes, everyone's mum used to look forward to the Avon Lady coming and she could buy more stuff. Yeah, was always the thing. mum used to always, and she didn't knock on the door. And it was quite acceptable to just come hawking at people's houses and vlogging in cyclopedia back into Avon. It was exciting to see who was going to come knocking on the door when you were young. Were you allowed to answer the door when they came or did you have to leave that for mum?

19:52
No, no, were allowed to. Yeah. There you go. So that's how I think. Travel agents. Now you tell me, travel agents a dying thing or not? don't think so. I think they're still. No, because  I,  we talked about before I went to Spain last year and I used a travel agent. haven't for years used a travel agent, but on this particular trip, because there were so many components  to it, I went and saw a travel, a lady at Flight Center and she organized the whole thing for me. And it was fabulous.

20:20
I get it. So many of our friends now are just organizing. They're using AI, which can be a bit dangerous,  but  to organize their own trip and bypassing that whole sector altogether.  I don't know whether there's a benefit in that.  I don't know, but I.

20:37
I think it depends on where you're going and the travel agents knowledge of where you're going. It can be beneficial if they've got inside knowledge that you're not gonna find on the computer. And yeah, so certainly in my case, it was good. glad I did. Yeah, the little corner shop man too. And I know you and I remember fondly Mr. Mr. Perry. to the corner shop. They're few and far between now and that little man or lady that used to know.

21:06
the family and all those sort of things. They're long gone, aren't they? You take your five cents and get your five cents with the mixed lollies and you'd get 20 lollies for that. Oh, yeah. And that probably leads us onto another sort of line of discussion about the things that aren't necessarily the jobs, but the things that just aren't with us anymore. that whole you go in for, and I know 20 cents is not 20 cents anymore, but kids can't just go in and ask through, I want two of those and three of those and one of those is not right.

21:36
No you can't yeah. So is that that corner shop, milk bars, even the like I know there's one or there's a couple in Sydney, the local cinemas and even the drive-in I know there's still one drive-in but you know they proliferated Sydney there for a while. Yeah and I think it was probably before our time but back in the drive-ins in the 60s where someone would come to your car and bring you food. Oh really?

22:04
Yeah, like someone would come up and hand you, you'd order something and then I don't know how it worked, but they'd come up and deliver it to your car. Yeah, it could end badly. I was talking about this to some friends months, months, months ago, and there is still a drive in in Sydney. So if you're living sort of somewhere else in the world, let us know if there's still a drive in in your town or city. But it was so much fun. And I so want to take my grandson to one before it eventually closes.

22:33
But, you know, it was teetering there for a little while where  in the late 70s, early 80s, the only way they could get people in was having some fairly raunchy films on.  And that was the advent of the beta and the VHS tape, which didn't see light of day after that.  But handwritten letters are making a comeback.  So I hear that people are now just starting to write letters again. And that's something that fell off the perch as well, wasn't it?

23:02
Yeah, absolutely. And I think  if you can get it delivered,  good luck.  Wow. Yeah, just trying to get mail delivered is pretty let us deliver. But yeah, that's an old dying out. you were talking a bit, we're talking about the milk bar and some of the things that  are not around anymore or not the same are.

23:22
I remember the wagon wheel being heaps bigger  and thicker.  It was big. Or was it just us? It was bigger, wasn't it? No, everything was bigger. And that's not some euphemism for anything else other than like your Big Mac, which is sort of like  how big you are. it would fall apart in your hand. Your wagon wheel was massive. Golden Ruff, I'm sure, was thicker and bigger.

23:44
Yeah, peppermint patties or whatever they were, all those things were, you know, even your show bag when you went to, you know, whether it was the Ecker or the Sydney Royal Association, they had heaps of stuff in there. And they were things that used to be called sample bags because they cost next to nothing. And in back in the day, they were given away free because they were samples. So as you would then go and test drive, you know, whatever it was, and then potentially go and buy it now, you know, kids are spending.

24:12
You know, 20, 30, 40, 50 bucks on a I know, on a bag. It's ridiculous. It's crazy. And you talked about your time with the radio station. How many people still have records and cassettes, do you reckon? You have your diehard people that have collections. But other than that, no, I don't have any. I didn't keep any of my records. You'd have a mixtape from an old...

24:39
wouldn't you surely on a cassette? Do people... oh I think I digitised all of that as well. They're companies now you can take all that too and they digitise it for you. Yeah remember the mixtape. The mixtape was always...  When you say mixtape do you mean like of different songs or is it mixtape that you used to record yourself? No I used to record different songs and you used to either give it to a...

25:03
girlfriend or a boyfriend or whatever and I mean sometimes you played in the car but you know you'd have that unrequited love that you'd say oh think I'm gonna give them this mixtape of all these favorite songs which you know they probably didn't know you you thought well but that brings me to listening to the radio and hitting the press record button hoping that the DJ you got the timing just right to do that tape did you ever do that and listen to Casey Casie on a Sunday night and the American Top 40

25:31
And you think, hang on, I really know the song's coming up. And as soon as I do, I'm going to press play record.  And there you go. And you record that and then you press stop.  those days. can imagine.  Remember all of  that. We talked about um photo albums and things like that that don't,  if you do have them, they're somewhere uh in the garage.  But checkbooks.  No one has a checkbook anymore. Were they?  Are checks still legal tender?

26:01
Yes, they are. I received one a few weeks ago  as a payment for something I received a check and uh my bank doesn't accept checks.  It's all digital. So what happens with that? So I had to go back to the person who had sent it to me and said, you need to electronically transfer the funds. They said, OK, well, you need to give us the check back. can't I just tear it up? Can't you just cancel it? They're like, no, we need to physically get it back. And I thought, oh, my goodness, this is...

26:28
Really? So you still have the ability to write a cheque. It's still legal currency, but a bank will not accept it. Some banks won't accept them. Some Some banks, not yet.  I think all the big four banks will still accept them. But my bank won't accept them. It's all digital.

26:47
Wow. So I've got it  on the magnet on the fridge. I've got to send  it back. Yeah. Okay. I'm sure if there was an extra dollar in it for processing fees, which is wonderful thing. And cash is probably starting to come back into itself. But do you remember as a kid, this is something I used to do.  you talk about sometimes in a kid say, Oh, I'm bored. I've got nothing to do. We haven't got a skate park at our local thing. And yeah, there's not enough stuff. And we, we, we probably didn't have any of that stuff.

27:17
I remember used to watching the little dot on the TV when you turn the TV off and the little diode thing. at night.  And it would stay there for ages until it  finally paid it.  Yeah, that's it.  TV, I mean, these days it's 24-7. You can watch whatever you want whenever you want and you search. From anywhere in the world. From anywhere in the world on any device, whether it's your phone, whether it's your watch, whether it's a tablet.  And of course,

27:44
TV used to shut down at half past 11 or midnight and you used to have the national anthem and  I remember little, was Channel 7 in Sydney, you used to have the kangaroo putting the joey into bed and  that was  it. The radio stations did as well. They closed down at midnight and then whoever the breakfast announcer was, they had to come in in the morning and turn all the equipment on to start the radio station again for breakfast. And it was  television as...

28:11
going along that path,  you'd have to wait.  There'd be movie of the week or whatever it was, and you'd see what the movies were coming up next Sunday night. And so you'd be waiting all week for that movie that was going to appear next Sunday night or this uh Saturday night at the movies. And you think, wow, ah that these days, know, tablets, phones, whatever it was. uh Yeah, it's  an embarrassment of riches. Gosh, so many things have changed, haven't they? Yeah, yeah. Fixed phones.

28:39
Imagine having that conversation with that boyfriend or whatever and you had like a three foot phone cord. You couldn't escape anywhere. Yeah. And you'd sell the phone for hours and hours.  Does anyone still have a fixed phone? A fixed phone? Yeah, we don't have a fixed phone anymore.

28:59
uh I'm sure there'll be people listening who do still have it but oh I don't know, don't know. All these things and more. Thank goodness at least house parties weren't documented on social media and you and I got away with way too much  that can never be sort of held against us in a quarter.  Hey you know what? Are we out of time again? I think we're out of time. All right. Sounds like a line from Back to the Future isn't it? Wasn't that the number played out of time?

29:26
Out of time, yes. Yeah, okay. All right, I'm going. you next time. Cheers. Bye. Hi.  The views and opinions expressed on the Big Six O are personal and reflect those of the hosts and guests.  They do not represent the views or positions of any affiliated organisations  or companies.  This podcast is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice. Please consult with a qualified professional for guidance on any personal matters.

29:55
Ah, and before we go,  let's give credit where credit is due.  Kaylee Harris and I came up with all the genius content for this week's episode.  Our producer,  Nick Abood,  well he keeps the lights on and makes sure we don't accidentally upload a cat video instead of a podcast. thanks for keeping us on track, Nick.  Nick?  Nick?