₦airaland Forum

Beeron:
You were a privileged kid from a rich home.

Smh.

Incidentally, most homes I know had those gadgets yet we did not see it as privileges. This is why the mentality of Lagosians are different and why humility is part of our upbringing.

In fact, I am surprised that these are called privileges. Smh.

What even comes close to what we later saw as privileges of being Lagosians are not on the list by OP.

johnie:
I got to know the meaning of LP, EP, Side A & B and tracks through this.

These carried on to the audio cassettes.

Those coming across the term "track" today may not realise it came from the tracks (circular ridges on the discs.

Exactly!

The difference between an album and a single. The albums were usually the big vinyl records while the singles were on smaller discs.

The different speeds. 33⅓, 45rpm, 78.

naptu2:
Video cassette recorder (VCR)

We got our very first VCR in 1979. It was a top loading VHS VCR. The video cassette was loaded into the VCR from the top.

I've just remembered something funny. We sometimes banged the top of the VCR when the picture was not clear and it would become clear.

I thought our situation was bad, but I didn't know anything.

I spent my holiday with family friends in Ikeja in 1985 and you needed to see the way that they banged their VCR. In fact, someone suggested that they should take their VCR outside and ride their bikes on it.

Of course I knew how to use methylated spirit and tissue to clean the video head when it was dirty (although we sometimes had video head cleaning cassettes).


The VCR in the first picture looks very much like the type that we bought in 1979, but I can also see some differences (the socket for the remote control is not there). It was a top loading VCR and although we got other more modern VCRs, this one lasted until 1993.


That VCR had a remote control, but it came with a cord that you had to attach to the VCR before it could function.

Here is a picture of that exact type of remote control (second picture).


I made that remote my microphone.

Don't forget the manual and later electronic video cassette reminders.

For audio cassettes, your Bic biro pen was always very useful, especially after you manage to remove tangled tape from the cassette player.

Thanks for the memories!

GodHimself:
He's above 50, if not 60.

Yea, 60 or above

I had my own apartment in 1985 ( the whole house because it was a newly built story building then at Ketu, Lagos). I still prefer the Lagos Island, and hardly stays there until one fine babe made me

I was giving a Rowenta pressing iron, a color, round, Sony TV, and a double cassette grudng (not sure of the name now).

Those were good old days. I was having my industrial attachments (that's after OND, in those days) then at one of this big company in Ikeja

Poor men children will say it's AI

johnie:
Don't forget the manual and later electronic video cassette reminders.

For audio cassettes, your Bic biro pen was always very useful, especially after you manage to remove tangled tape from the cassette player.

Thanks for the memories!

And the cassette surgeries, when you need to open the cassette to disentangle the tape.

TheStoriesOfMan:
Those legacy objects you say in the 70's was what I had in the 50's.

America and Japan were producing new gadgets, especially the Atari games far back in the 60's. I worked in NPA, so I got them first hand before anybody in the country does. Good ol days when travelling from Nigeria to UK was a snap of the finger. Na monthly allowance I dey use fly plane.

You didn't even mentioned terrestrial dish mounted on the ground with thick iron poles.

When I checked my store, I had so many gadgets as a single man that year. I just smiled.

Atari was founded in 1972.

VHS players came on steam in the mid 1970s.

bfire:
Yea, 60 or above

I had my own apartment in 1985 ( the whole house because it was a newly built story building then at Ketu, Lagos). I still prefer the Lagos Island, and hardly stays there until one fine babe made me

I was giving a Rowenta pressing iron, a color, round, Sony TV, and a double cassette grudng (not sure of the name now).

Those were good old days. I was having my industrial attachments (that's after OND, in those days) then at one of this big company in Ikeja

Grundig. Used to make very decent radios and other electronics

Kayblaqq:
Normally person born that year suppose to don get like 7 children 🏃

Grand children broo

Discountsempai:
Atari was founded in 1972.

VHS players came on steam in the mid 1970s.

That guy was trying to troll. Just laugh and ignore him.

Do you still have all these items? If yes, pls keep them well (even if not functional again) they are valuable antiquities. I cannot even figure out how many of my parents' and grandparents' own take waka. It's paining me now.

Discountsempai:
If he had an Atari console, then he must have been at least eleven years old by 1982. Atari ...which was one of the OG computer gaming companies...collapsed in 1983.

I ask you? Children of this days sha

Rapture4real:
I'm happy reading this price. Very educative and informative especially to the indomie generation.

Anybody who owned these gadgets in those days was a big man. We had to crowd around our landlord's parlour to watch small.black.amd white TV.

Things have changed now rapidly.

Exactly, very few people has those things then and meaning all the SUVs , inverters, cameras, home appliances of today will be old school in the next 30 to 40years

oluwaseunamos33:
why not 14 children?

Or 47 children....

naptu2:
It was because of the rectangular shape of the remote and the cord that I converted it into my "microphone" while watching music videos.

Exactly had a rectangular shape...the good old days!. Quite recently I have been thinking of converting the VHS tapes, that's if they are still okay. It's been a long time I checked on them. They are have been in storage for over a decade now. We've also got phonograph records together.

Good posts naptu... These kind of things should be recorded for posterity.

[quote author=JuanDeDios post=139007959][/quote]

SisterAnn:
The title said things he had in his palour then and you are talking about been a kid.

Having those things didn't qualify as well to do then because my dad had all those things and even Datsun car but was not anywhere called rich.

The only take from this thread is that dude is as old as Methuselah now for him to have owned these properties.

But probably because he's an APC supporter and a tribal bigot, sense became far from him.

Nope SisterAnn, are you sure read the whole article? It's not things in his (op) parlour but his father's own. There's a place he stated his father always call them to come change the TV channels while he's sitting close to it.
And as for being rich or not. I was born in 1980, majority or half of parents who owns those things are either ok financially or even rich.
In the street I grew up, I don't think we have up to 5 people that has tv in their homes.

CJStarz:
Those good old days... When somebody's child was everybody's child.

No be lie bro

farady:
naptu2 is a senior man in his late 50s or early 60s. Man really had a privileged beginning to have had these gadgets at that time. I think it was in 1980 our dad bought the first television set in the home; a 12" President Black and White tv. Before now, we go to neighbours apartment to watch tv. Then the stations commence transmission by 4:30pm on weekdays and either 12 noon or 1pm on weekends. Prior to that time, some vertical lines would appear at about 4pm with a continuous single pilot sound.

I could relate with the submissions from the op. For radio, dad had this die hard transistor radio that has MW, SW1, SW2 and SW3. In the early 80s, I fell in love with the BBC world service that transmits on SW2 or 3. Next was the VOA. The BBC till date has remained my favourite news channel.

Like the op, i monitored the coups of Dec 31st 1983, 1985 via the radio.

Thank God for the advance in technology but things have really turned crazy in Nigeria.

I pray God to restore the lost glory of Nigeria

See my senior men in the house.
If as at 83, 85 when I was still 3, 5yrs old you were monitoring the coup of that time, that means you be agba o, tuwale sir.

Ojady:
@Op: you cannot be less than 45 years of age. This is because all these were typical of a middle class home circa 1969 to 1994. If your living room was like this or had any of these, your family was not poor. If we press further, you'd probably say your folks had either a Peugeot, a Datsun, a Passat/Santana, Volkswagen Beetle, Benz 200 etc; that one if not both folks was employed and the other had a grocery shop; that you either went to FGC, Command or Missionary School etc Oh! how things have changed!!!

The Op is going to 60 years old. He is either a grandfather or about to. Those years he mentioned were a long time ago and I was already born then (early 70s). I saw and used most of those gadgets in Mushin, Lagos state.

We used black and white tv. I also played those games in the 70s - 80s in Mushin Police Barracks Olosan, Lagos state.

Those memories are the best forever. I wish I could turn back the hands of time to relive it.

Our presidents pulled Nigeria into a state of hopeleness because of their greed. Nigeria would've been rubbing shoulders with US and UK. However, our leaders with their low mentality and greed, decided to sink us deeper into the ocean until we cannot breathe anymore.

The days of Zik, Awolowo and Shagari were the best times, compared to the rest wolves in sheep's clothing.

They would all bite the dust someday.

Nice write-up by the Op.

The Op is going to 60 years old. He is either a grandfather or about to. Those years he mentioned were a long time ago and I was already born then (early 70s). I saw and used most of those gadgets in Mushin, Lagos state.

We used black and white tv. I also played those games in the 70s - 80s in Mushin Police Barracks Olosan, Lagos state.

Those memories are the best forever. I wish I could turn back the hands of time to relive it.

Our presidents pulled Nigeria into a state of hopeleness because of their greed. Nigeria would've been rubbing shoulders with US and UK. However, our leaders with their low mentality and greed, decided to sink us deeper into the ocean until we cannot breathe anymore.

The days of Zik, Awolowo and Shagari were the best times, compared to the rest wolves in sheep's clothing.

They would all bite the dust someday

sandra2025:
The Op is going to 60 years old. He is either a grandfather or about to. Those years he mentioned were a long time ago and I was already born then (early 70s). I saw and used most of those gadgets in Mushin, Lagos state.

We used black and white tv. I also played those games in the 70s - 80s in Mushin Police Barracks Olosan, Lagos state.

Those memories are the best forever. I wish I could turn back the hands of time to relive it.

Our presidents pulled Nigeria into a state of hopeleness because of their greed. Nigeria would've been rubbing shoulders with US and UK. However, our leaders with their low mentality and greed, decided to sink us deeper into the ocean until we cannot breathe anymore.

The days of Zik, Awolowo and Shagari were the best times, compared to the rest wolves in sheep's clothing.

They would all bite the dust someday.

Except you know the op personally which I can't doubt, but @60 one is expected to be a grandfather if he or she already has children.
Me for example, I am 45 and my last daughter is 17. It's possible before I get to 52-55 I will be a grandfather. Not to talk of even before 50, that's if my first son who's 21 now don't carelessly impregnate someone's child

Kalulu44:
Except you know the op personally which I can't doubt, but @60 one is expected to be a grandfather if he or she already has children.
Me for example, I am 45 and my last daughter is 17. It's possible before I get to 52-55 I will be a grandfather. Not to talk of even before 50, that's if my first son who's 21 now don't carelessly impregnate someone's child

I was only playing a long shot with the Op's age. Best bet, is that Op is in-between 55.

Sonofgod1990:
I ask you? Children of this days sha

Well, I thought I was talking to a mature person, and I was not making fun of you.

Better watch your behaviour online.

I grew up to find most of this gadget in my grandpa parlor not working anymore just there for decoration 😂

Which kyn boring childhood be this? 😃

Thank God I be gen z

sandra2025:
Nice write-up by the Op.

The Op is going to 60 years old. He is either a grandfather or about to. Those years he mentioned were a long time ago and I was already born then (early 70s). I saw and used most of those gadgets in Mushin, Lagos state.

We used black and white tv. I also played those games in the 70s - 80s in Mushin Police Barracks Olosan, Lagos state.

Those memories are the best forever. I wish I could turn back the hands of time to relive it.

Our presidents pulled Nigeria into a state of hopeleness because of their greed. Nigeria would've been rubbing shoulders with US and UK. However, our leaders with their low mentality and greed, decided to sink us deeper into the ocean until we cannot breathe anymore.

The days of Zik, Awolowo and Shagari were the best times, compared to the rest wolves in sheep's clothing.

They would all bite the dust someday

Oh now I got your write up, I didn't read it well before making my first submission

This is quite nostalgic for me.. You forgot video sender on UHF frequency so the vcr could be watched in other rooms than the one it was in... I remember taking the vcr apart to clean the play head and destroying our portable because I wanted to understand how it worked... Also go shocked by our black and white tv when I took that apart.. The vcr still works to this day... I'm going to watch the ateam on it for old time sake

Nostalgia... And video sender to watch in different rooms, and those humongous headphones that the jack was as big as a child's pinky

naptu2:
Portable radio

Well, this wasn't always in the parlour, but it was there during certain specific times.

My dad had a portable radio that he kept in his room and took to work. The radio could be plugged in and powered by public electricity or it could be battery powered.

This radio had MW, SW and LW bands, but no FM band.

There are names of certain politicians that bring flashback to me because I remember eating breakfast at the same time as my dad (on a weekday) as we both prepared to leave home and start our day and listening to the Radio Nigeria 7am Network News and hearing names like, "The Anambra State governor, Mr Jim Nwobodo" or Melford Okilo, or Solomon Lar and all those other names.

Sometimes when we are watching a football match and the tension is too much, my dad would tell us to come and call him if they score. Then he would go to his room. I would go to call him when they score, only to discover that he's listening to commentaries on Radio Nigeria with this radio.

But this radio is relevant on this thread for a reason. Electricity supply was more stable back then. Nigeria's population was less and so was the demand for electricity. We had power cuts, but they would usually restore power within an hour or two. You could go an entire day or two without any power cuts.

In fact, someone once gave us an electricity generator as a present, but my dad gave it to someone else so he could use it in his village house. He said that we didn't need an electricity generator.

Back then, when there was a power cut, we would search the telephone directory for NEPA's number and call them. We would get NEPA Awolowo Road and they would direct us to NEPA Berkley. We would call NEPA Berkley and cry that we couldn't do our homework because there was a power cut. They would promise to restore power in 15 minutes or 30 minutes and sure enough, the power would be back by that time.

But sometimes things were different. There were times that it seemed like there was no power throughout the whole day. My dad would bring out this radio, put batteries in it and put it in the parlour. That's why there are song that I call "Radio Nigeria songs". These are songs that I listened to late at night on Radio Nigeria when there was no power.

Sure enough they would usually announce on the 10pm Network News that there was a fault somewhere and they would usually tell us when the fault would be repaired or how long the blackout would last. Power would usually be restored at that time.

It was similar with water. Water almost always came out of the taps back then and local government councils placed public taps on street corners. There would usually be an announcement on the radio whenever there was going to be an outage. They would tell you that they wanted to fix this or that pipeline or that there was a problem at Iju Waterworks and so there would be no water from this day till that day.

I had an aunt that lived at Glover Road in Ikoyi and Glover Road had its own separate mini waterworks and they always had water, so we would put jerrycans in the car and go to fetch water from my aunt's house. Their water was different from the regular tap water (I think it had a little too much chlorine).

I remember once when I fell ill and I had to receive this terrible injection every day for a week and this coincided with a water outage. I and the driver would go to the clinic on Gerard Road and they would give me this very painful injection, then I would go to my aunt's house to fetch water.

Sometimes we had to carry jerrycans and buckets and walk all the way to the army or police barracks to fetch water.

This is not the exact type of radio, but it looks very similar to this.

What a nostalgia! You are making me cry 😭 over my childhood memory. Back then, we were based in a place called Iyana-Oworo schooling at Saint-gregory while my Dad works at Onikan...how has Nigerian retrogressed! Every description so far was like walking down my memory lane