If the internet didn’t exist, would you punt ?

[yorkshirepunter3333]

In London I would look at adverts in phones boxes I had some really good punts from them, I would also use the phone book.

I remember that sometimes the escort page would be removed from the telephone book

Then move onto internet but no AW, browsing on very small screened nokia phones

[peter purves]

I, like many on here I imagine, used to punt pre internet, be it from Parlours or McCoys black book of escort recommendations, to trips up to SoHo to watch a peep show and the the old business cards in phone boxes. All a great thrill at the time!

But if that were the only way to punt now, I really don't think I would bother.....the internet has made it so easy to never retire.

If you are in the West End you can still follow the above script. You look at the card, make a call and ask the receptionist have they got a WG who is [                                     ]                        The maid says yes, then off you go.

Finally I would add that some - not all obviously - were a loose similitude of the WG you could meet.

[sparkus]

My entry into punting was well after the advent of the web but was initially aided by ads in local newspapers and newsagents windows.  The parlours and saunas were fairly settled back then so you quickly made a mind map of available places to call up plus a list of new places to try out.  Weekends were an adventure, where to try next? I suppose I am like that with TCMs now!

[sparkus]

In London I would look at adverts in phones boxes I had some really good punts from them, I would also use the phone book.

I remember that sometimes the escort page would be removed from the telephone book

Then move onto internet but no AW, browsing on very small screened nokia phones

I do remember Yellow Pages having an Escorts section but I imagined these were the kind of posh 'call girls' from films and it never even crossed my mind to try.

Even before smartphones and AW it was possible to get parlour numbers through 118 118 SMS, though not cheap, as they scoured local newspaper ads for you.  Not something I needed to do in London but I visited Bradford, Preston and places like that with work and didn't know anyone there so it was only form of entertainment to visit a Chinese brothel in some terraced street I was never likely to step foot in again.  The brothels were always the same, 40ish WG and a miserable 'security' watching TV in the front room.

I was very grateful to the two tache blokes of 118 118 

[Walsalllad15]

I used my 2 local papers Walsall Observer and The Bargin Pages. It was a risk just getting a description to see what was there when I got there

[Punterperson1971]

I used my 2 local papers Walsall Observer and The Bargin Pages. It was a risk just getting a description to see what was there when I got there

Observer as well I remember that paper

[sparkus]

Observer as well I remember that paper

The back pages of the East London Advertiser and Newham Recorder could enable a young man to have a fun afternoon.  Or an old man.  Then it all kicked off with Harriet Harman demanding they stop the ads

[Massboy]

I did before the internet.
I tested the waters at 16 holidaying in London sneaking off to a peep show in soho which was 50p.
It's was untill I was about 22 in the summer, I returned to soho walked to an upstair flat sheepishly and offered the buxom blond girl, 20£ but she turned me down
I saved up and  returned to Soho at Christmas time with £60 and did it  finally with another girl called zena.
In later years rarely went to Soho and used the LOOT newspaper, sunday sport and local papers.

Started using the internet about 2006, then discovered AW in 2009

[Wristspinner]

Started in the 80’s with Local paper ads, newsagent cards and some telephone cards, even looked in contact mags and made a couple of connections from them. Some of my best experiences were from those options and of course some of my worst, I think overall not much worse but I think the thrill was greater.

[John the Sextist]

Never even considered paying for sex until I stumbled upon this great site.No way I'd have been brave enough to chance it before.

Me neither DC,

After the aftermath of 2 affairs and my wife asking forgiveness I decided to give her another chance, as it happens it's worked out, financially it's expensive but I'm only spending her half of any settlement so should we end up splitting up she'll get fuck all anyway 

I'd be lost without this site, it's bloody addictive, fun and entertaining and I've had some cracking meets 

 

[rubric]

Started in the 80’s with Local paper ads, newsagent cards and some telephone cards

Started just pre-internet (or at least pre internet being used for reviews -- think the worldsexguide would have been the first time I saw them).  Generally stuck with finding reasonable parlours - assumed the telephone cards were likely false advertising and I'd end up meeting munters and would get hassle if I walked as they insisted on you booking an appointment.  Discovered the other site and then this one eventually both of which made punting easier -- so yes would have punted anyway, just differently.

[User176]

I'm too young to know what life was like before the internet.

[freeze44]

Don't think I would be punting if there was no internet. Must have been a real lottery before and all up for a bit of a risk but think if I didn't know or have a fair idea of what was behind the door before hand, then wouldn't have taken the step into punting.

AW let's you see the wg and UKP is a massive help in checking them out and knowing what you will be walking into. The information and advice you get here is invaluable.

I had done a few stag do's where wg's were present years ago and although some guys were up for it, didn't work for me. Used to go to lap dancing clubs and found you could end up spending a fair bit with only some snail trail on ya jeans to show for it!

Think was bored one evening and found AW by chance and kinda got in my head to try it- only live once- and then found this site and not looked back since...happy days! 

[Home Alone]

I'm too young to know what life was like before the internet.

You don't know how old that makes some of us feel, User176! 

[dave451]

I started punting on a business trip to Hong Kong and continued when I get home. Back then, before the Internet, I also did not have mobile phones so I had to find ads in local papers' classified section, news agents' windows and phone-box cards etc. Then tramp the streets, with a pocket full of change, to find a phone box that actually worked and start calling the numbers from the ads. When I found a girl I liked, I needed to use an ' A to Z' paper map book to find the address as there was no Google Maps.

The sex industry was one of the early adopters of the Internet, but back then the first home computers were large and slow. Access to the Internet was via a dial-up modem. This device called your ISP on the normal land line and provided Internet connection at 1200 bps if you were lucky. WG ads were mostly on text-only bulletin boards and if there were any pictures they would be very slow to download. Video was out of the question. Given the cumbersome nature of computers, and the need to tie up the phone line, this access was only possible when I had the house to myself.

As many have said, the Internet has made things much easier, but if it vanished tomorrow I would still try to go punting. I am sure the WGs would quickly adapt to new ways of working, as they always have!

[sparkus]

The last post reminds me of the situation in France before the internet, which was the state-run text to terminal system called Minitel (kind of like Ceefax here but better/more interactive).  I was too young (but had plenty of relatives there) but apparently it was a hive of WGs offering their services.

[winkywanky]

It doesn't matter what the format of the communication platfom is, or what century you're in, one that's not tightly regulated will end up being a portal for the oldest profession.

Seems obvious, really  .

[catweazle]

My first paid for experience was in (I think) 1975, so well before t'interweb. I was aware of saunas and massage parlours from wankmags like Playbirds, which ran "stories" which where thinly disguised adverts, although predominantly London based.

Then I spotted a new "sauna"  on my way to work, and the rest, as the saying goes, is history!

[petermisc]

Before the internet, if you wanted proper porn (other than the lame stuff sold in newsagents), you had to go to a sex shop and buy a magazine or video.  These places also sold local contact magazines, usually on the same shelves as the porn magazines.  These contact magazines published real pictures, and usually a couple of lines of text, from each of the girls. The girls had to pay extra for colour photos, so most were only B&W.  These contact magazines gave you a much more realistic idea of who you were going to see than the cards in phone boxes, or the pages of small-print ads in The Sport newspaper.  Some of the pictures (and girls!) were dire. 

In those days, it was almost exclusively home-grown talent.  A girl advertising as "Swedish" usually just meant she was blonde. Fortunately, the rise of the internet coincided with increasing numbers of SPs from Europe, even before we joined the EU.

[jesse4585]

I'd definitely punt if the internet vanished. As someone who doesn't have specialist taste and is fairly adventurous/reckless, I'd expect it would make punting better.  At least, I remember pre-internet punting that way.

I started punting in the early 90s, sometimes using phone cards to find flats, but mostly  brothels which I normally found from the classified adds such as Timeout magazine.  Touch of Class sauna was a big fave in Camden,  or Wintstons when up in Leeds.

With the phone card punts, there was admittedly a higher rate of bad ones than I've had since finding the internet.  With the brothel punts, which were usually line up situations,  I remember lots of exceptional punts.  Back then I'd quite often find true stunners for only ~£80 a time.  Like most here already know,  the net helps punters link up with the best girls, but it also helps the most good looking lasses link up with high rollers.  Not complaining as I still have good punts in brothels, but it's more than 15 years since I've seen a genuine stunner in one, and I largely blame the net for that.  Roll on a solar EMP!   

[Bobbyplastic]

Yes, I started pre internet , using the classified ads in the local paper.

[kayak]

True but I do miss chatting to the maids while waiting in the brothels. One or two of them were hotter than the WG's. Those were the days.

I agree, it was loads of fun. I was shy as a kid, and a slow starter with girls, never that confident. There was something about the maid knowing why you were there (to punt of course), which gave me confidence, and I really had some lovely and flirty chats with maids over the years, I even got one or two of them into the room to participate 

Fond memories

[Handel2020]

I started as a young teen in 93. I would still punt because I liked the kick of finding and walking upto the flats, not knowing what I was going to get. I had a few gorgeous ones and some right lying munters but overall I liked the nervous energy of finding cards in phone boxes or ads in the local paper. I think the 90s were a good era though with the English inter city WGs working in flats in fairly nice areas of London, some just round the corner from me. Lost my virginity in a local flat with a lady three times my age and am still glad I did.