Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[rocketeer]

I think you will find a modern version of the pillarless hard top in some of the Mercedes range, as for wraparounds, yes long gone.
Sheeplady! I personally knew children from a 5 year old to a 10 YO that could not read a clock face, but this was in the digital explosion of the early 80s

 

[LizzieMaine]

I made sure my nieces knew how to use a rotary dial phone from the time they were very young. Whatever other lessons I tried to teach them that they might have ignored, they'll always know how to do that.

 

[HardBoiledMarlowe]

Speaking of which, that's something else that's gone, wrap around glass, and pillarless 'hardtops.'

As well as safety belts as optional, non-standard equipment.

 

[reetpleat]

As well as safety belts as optional, non-standard equipment.

In Washington, if your car is a certain age or older, you can not get a ticket for no seat belts because they were not standard equipment.

 

[sheeplady]

I made sure my nieces knew how to use a rotary dial phone from the time they were very young. Whatever other lessons I tried to teach them that they might have ignored, they'll always know how to do that.

I was thinking about this the other day: did someone teach me to use a payphone? Honestly, we had one in school (local calls were a dime) and I can remember using it since at least middle school. Now I can't think of a single payphone.

Regarding vintage things that have disappeared: phone manners. Announce who you are at some point. No, I don't know who you are, unless you're my husband, parents, or in-laws. My voice recognition is not that good beyond those people. Introduce yourself. Ask nicely for who you are calling.

Also, I don't think I will ever get over when I call someone and they answer with "Hello" and my name. Totally throws me off.

 

[jamespowers]

I never took any photo's that came out but my 1960 Cadillac was a flat top model, it was white and just for fun painted some 'shark' teeth on it just behind the front wheel arch in a similar fashion to a P40 fighter. I then took it to a car show but was not allowed in as I did not take the show organisers meaning of 'Classic' car seriously enough.(The water based paint washed off later in the month

As for cars of this era being different and instantly recognisable, for 1959-60 all the glass, the front doors and many other parts are interchangeable between makes and models across the GM range except the limousines. That is to say a front screen from a 1959 Cadillac Coupe de Ville will fit a 1960 Chevrolet Impala also a Buick or Pontiac. Come to think of it I think the convertibles screen will even fit the flat top series. The higher screen from the 1960 Sedan de Ville also fits the 1959 Biscayne.(And so on)

I would love to see you try to fit a 59 cad's windshield on a 60 Chevy. Been there and done that. It doesn't work. The 59 is wider and taller. Good luck with the doors too. They are completely different. The Cadillac has longer doors than the Chevy.

 

[jamespowers]

In Washington, if your car is a certain age or older, you can not get a ticket for no seat belts because they were not standard equipment.

Same in California---before 1965 you are safe. I know. A cop tried when I was in my 1959 Oldsmobile. :rofl: I hate seat belts but if you want to use them go ahead.

 

[Wally_Hood]

My friend bought a vintage typewriter the other day at a flea market and when he showed it to his 5 year old daughter she asked what it was. I know it shouldn't have shocked me, but it did.

About fifteen years ago my daughter who was in kindergarten came home and said that the teacher had played music with some sort of flat thing that spun around. She had never seen an LP record.

 

[Stanley Doble]

It still goes on around here -- all those bottles of Five O'Clock Gin and Allen's Coffee Brandy you find in the gutter aren't being served at distinguished cocktail parties, and with drugs added in it's even worse. And the glamorization of college binge drinking is just starting a whole new generation off on the same foot.

In the Era they had things like the Keeley Cure, where binge drinkers would be locked up and *forced* to drink at regular intervals until they couldn't stand the sight of the stuff. Film comedian Buster Keaton -- who went on a horrendous bender in 1933 and came out of it married to a woman he didn't recognize -- was one of the most famous graduates of the Keeley program.

One vintage thing you don't hear so much about anymore is "Temperance," the idea that avoiding alcohol altogether or taking it only in extreme moderation is the best way to live. Generally if you don't partake of "social drinking" nowadays people look at you funny.

There are health nuts who consider tea and coffee too toxic and would run a mile from a bottle of whiskey. But you are right, the temperance movement as such seems to be as dead as the dodo birds.

I know what you mean though. All my mother's family was WCTU from way back. I have a panoramic picture of a local WCTU convention from the 20s that must have 200 people in it. All gone now.

My mother refused to marry my father until he swore off drinking. They were married 57 years and in all that time the only time I saw him take a drink was a small glass of wine at a friend's house one Christmas. Mom was not around lol or he would have heard about it.

While we are on the subject how long has it been since you have heard the term "health nut"? When did concern for health and longevity cease to be considered nutty? I know the term was in common use till the fifties.

 

[Stanley Doble]

By the way, I know heavy drinking still goes on... what I was talking about was a life of sobriety punctuated by periods of heavy drinking. I know it was once common but seems to have petered out.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I've had a few cars like that, myself.

As well as safety belts as optional, non-standard equipment.

I think most places they're 'grandfathered.'

In Washington, if your car is a certain age or older, you can not get a ticket for no seat belts because they were not standard equipment.

Is the cut-off '65? I didn't think they were in all vehicles until '68?

Same in California---before 1965 you are safe. I know. A cop tried when I was in my 1959 Oldsmobile. :rofl: I hate seat belts but if you want to use them go ahead.

That reminds me of the fact that only a few years ago, I could recite the telephone numbers of all my closest friends off the top of my head. Since I've gotten a cell phone and went to using it regularly, that's long gone.

I was told a story once about a 9 year old who didn't know how to use a landline (push button) telephone. I don't know if I totally believe the story or if the kid was pulling the story-teller's leg. Didn't the kid ever see any movies?

 

[jamespowers]

Is the cut-off '65? I didn't think they were in all vehicles until '68?

Well in California the state government, in their finite wisdom, they required them after 1965 in all cars----adding $150 cost to every car sold. I won't even mention the SMOG trash.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Oh, yes, that's right. I see those early smog California cars out here every now and then.

Well in California the state government, in their finite wisdom, they required them after 1965 in all cars----adding $150 cost to every car sold. I won't even mention the SMOG trash.

 

[jamespowers]

Oh, yes, that's right. I see those early smog California cars out here every now and then.

Take the stuff off. Throw it away and retune the engine. That stuff made the engines run horribly. Eventually they got it straightened out---in the 1980s.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

That's common when the California cars make their way east. I was just looking at a '73 Grand Safari recently. It's got a 455, but it's a smogged 455. Heck my 4.6 in my old Vic will outperform that!

Take the stuff off. Throw it away and retune the engine. That stuff made the engines run horribly. Eventually they got it straightened out---in the 1980s.

 

[jamespowers]

That's common when the California cars make their way east. I was just looking at a '73 Grand Safari recently. It's got a 455, but it's a smogged 455. Heck my 4.6 in my old Vic will outperform that!

Take all the crap off and it won't.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Oh, I know lol Unfortunately, he still wants more than twice what it's worth. It's a lifetime Wisconsin car and the underside shows it. It's a 1500 dollar car, tops, with a 3000 dollar price tag.

It has a cool clamshell gate, though. Whatever happened to those?!

[video=youtube;dA9CKTb_4oc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA9CKTb_4oc[/video]

Take all the crap off and it won't.

 

[jamespowers]

Oh, I know lol Unfortunately, he still wants more than twice what it's worth. It's a lifetime Wisconsin car and the underside shows it. It's a 1500 dollar car, tops, with a 3000 dollar price tag.

It has a cool clamshell gate, though. Whatever happened to those?!

[video=youtube;dA9CKTb_4oc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA9CKTb_4oc[/video]

3 grand? Tell him it isn't a California car.

Those tailgates were an engineering nightmare. The motors went, they leaked and people screwed them up thinking they knew how to repair them themselves. It would be easy to do today with our modern technolgy but back then it was just as much a feat as was the retractable hardtop in the 1950s.

 

[vitanola]

Same in California---before 1965 you are safe. I know. A cop tried when I was in my 1959 Oldsmobile. :rofl: I hate seat belts but if you want to use them go ahead.

Seat belts! How about brake lights?

Nearly thirty years ago I received a several of tickets over the span of a few months for not having brake lights on my Ford, although I was religiously using proper hand signals. Of course they were thrown out in court, but lo and behold, after the passage of the post-911 snoop laws in 2010I found that my state would not renew my license, for Alabama maintained that I had a violation which had not been addressed. I dimly remember being pulled over when travelling, but a letter from the porsecutor was supposed to have fixed the matter back in 1985.

I am still trying to straighten matters out. Alabama claims a moving violation for no brake light on a 1916 Ford, which, of course had no brake lights (a Coal Oil brake light would be a difficult thing to manage) and will not release unless I admit the violation and pay nearly $3000 in fines and fees. Even so, the BMV there does admit that it is not a violation to drive an automobile which pre-dates 1935 which is not so equipped, but they claim that they can do nothing about the violation.

 

[rue]

About fifteen years ago my daughter who was in kindergarten came home and said that the teacher had played music with some sort of flat thing that spun around. She had never seen an LP record.

Really? I've been playing my Christmas and Big Band records every year since before my kids were born, so they've always known about them. Now all my son buys are LPs, because he says they're pure.... whatever that means [huh]