Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[jamespowers]

I'd rather use tractors. Any smoke coming out of them ain't from Mary Jane.

:rofl:

 

[jamespowers]

Manned missions to the Moon.

Let me know how many you need.

 

[jamespowers]

It is even sub-standard for that!

Now, Cornmeal Mush, well, that's different.

:rofl: You may have a point there.

 

[BigFitz]

Let me know how many you need.

Looking to get rid of some hippies?

 

[jamespowers]

Looking to get rid of some hippies?

Some? No. ALL of them.

 

[Stanley Doble]

There's people that don't like grits?!!?!?!

I LOVE grits even though I was born in Canada and never tasted a grit until I was 35 years old.

But then I am a hot cereal man from way back. Oatmeal, Red River cereal, Cream of Wheat, nothing else will warm you up and keep you going on a cold winter day.

 

[LizzieMaine]

To say nothing of Wheatena and Hot Ralston.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Reading the Vintage Candy thread reminded me of a product that was a Maine institution for the entire 20th Century -- Seavey's Needhams. A Needham was a large flat square, with a filling made of mashed potatoes and shredded cocoanut, covered in a thick chocolate coating, and came in an orange-and-blue wax-paper bag. They tasted something like a Mounds bar, but were distinctively different -- and because they were only made in Maine, they were always fresh when you found them at the grocery store. I used to get a 24-count box of them every Christmas, but I haven't seen them around in years. Turns out the company in Lewiston that made them went out of business about ten years ago, a victim of the "New Maine" -- where all these foodies From Away claim to be all sophisticated and adventuresome in their eating, but don't think mashed potatoes and chocolate can mix. Phooey.

 

[Fletch]

A Needham was a large flat square, with a filling made of mashed potatoes and shredded cocoanut, covered in a thick chocolate coating

OK. The filling was potato and coconut. The coating was chocolate. But what was the square? Wafer? Graham cracker? Zwieback? Gutta-percha? Beaverboard? Imaginary?

 

[Kmadden]

LizzieMaine, you talked of "a 'New Maine' — where all these foodies From Away claim to be all sophisticated and adventuresome in their eating."

What's going on? Is Maine being invaded by hordes of yuppies from New York City or California or somewhere else?

 

[Espee]

Into the 1970s, "even here in southern California," my dad would obtain HARD rough-hewn flat blocks of maple sugar candy... when we wanted to eat some of it, we had to bring the little hammer out of the utility drawer and knock a few chunks off.
When I've asked around, people bring me catalogues and say "This shows something like you were talking about..." but it always turns out to be the soft candies, molded in maple leaves and Santa Clauses.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I had forgotten all about that. My mom worked at a candy factory when I was a kid and used to bring things like that home all the time. The ones I loved best were the huge chunks of chocolate she'd bring home and we'd break off some.

Into the 1970s, "even here in southern California," my dad would obtain HARD rough-hewn flat blocks of maple sugar candy... when we wanted to eat some of it, we had to bring the little hammer out of the utility drawer and knock a few chunks off.
When I've asked around, people bring me catalogues and say "This shows something like you were talking about..." but it always turns out to be the soft candies, molded in maple leaves and Santa Clauses.

 

[LizzieMaine]

LizzieMaine, you talked of "a 'New Maine' — where all these foodies From Away claim to be all sophisticated and adventuresome in their eating."

What's going on? Is Maine being invaded by hordes of yuppies from New York City or California or somewhere else?

That's exactly what's happening. When globalization killed manufacturing and the fishing industry here in the 1980s and 90s, all we had left was tourism, and when you live by the tourist, you die by gentrification when the tourists decide not to go home in September. We've got twenty art galleries and almost a dozen "upscale" restaurants on Main Street now, none of which offer anything within reach of the locals. I never thought I'd live to see the day when chunks of raw fish would be sold here under any sign other than "BAIT," but there you go. Cultural colonialism in action.

 

[kiwilrdg]

when you live by the tourist, you die by gentrification when the tourists decide not to go home in September.

You should have allowed more hunters to come for tourist season. You just didn't shoot enough of them.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Well, you do see the occasional "TOURIST HUNTING PERMIT" sticker in the back of a pickup truck, right next to the peeing-Calvin, but most of us have learned to live with the situation as long as the checks clear.

In all seriousness, though, I've lived in tourist towns all my life and there's always been grumbling about the "summer complaints," as my grandfather used to call them. But the difference is that in those days the tourists actually respected the locals. They came here to experience *our* culture and our way of life, not to force theirs down our throats. This new breed that's been relocating here the last twenty years or so seems determined to turn the whole coastline into North Westchester, with all the pretentious upper-middle-class suburban accoutrements to go along with it. It isn't enough to "go out to eat" for these folks -- you have to "dine." Especially if the difference between "eating" and "dining" is fifty dollars extra on the check at the end of the night.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Well, you do see the occasional "TOURIST HUNTING PERMIT" sticker in the back of a pickup truck, right next to the peeing-Calvin, but most of us have learned to live with the situation as long as the checks clear.

In all seriousness, though, I've lived in tourist towns all my life and there's always been grumbling about the "summer complaints," as my grandfather used to call them. But the difference is that in those days the tourists actually respected the locals. They came here to experience *our* culture and our way of life, not to force theirs down our throats. This new breed that's been relocating here the last twenty years or so seems determined to turn the whole coastline into North Westchester, with all the pretentious upper-middle-class suburban accoutrements to go along with it. It isn't enough to "go out to eat" for these folks -- you have to "dine." Especially if the difference between "eating" and "dining" is fifty dollars extra on the check at the end of the night.

"Williamsburg (Brooklyn) Today, Tomorrow the World"

Sounds like your neck of the woods has become a Hipster beachhead with $20 "artisanal" mayonnaise and backyard beekeeping (a particularly big hobby among Hipsters).

 

[LizzieMaine]

We actually have real native wild bees here who'd run off the artisanal rooftop kind without the slightest hesitation. And if they don't do it, the hornets in my attic will.

The day I saw an "artisanal" frozen pizza at the grocery store was the day I realized that the so-called "hipsters" are just the Boys From Marketing wearing clip-on beards.

 

[kiwilrdg]

If I start beekeeping after 30+ years of thinking about doing it does that make me a hipster? I want to do it to have better honey for when I make mead.

I remember looking at the bee supplies in the Montgomery Wards farm catalog as a kid and wishing I had enough money to buy a hive and the other tools. I guess I am just the trend setter for the hipsters.

On the other hand, I never buy anything "artisanal". Those things are usually the things that I make myself.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The day I saw an "artisanal" frozen pizza at the grocery store was the day I realized that the so-called "hipsters" are just the Boys From Marketing wearing clip-on beards.

And speaking of which, how did we go from this

to THIS???

Wish they'd bring back mock turtle soup though.

 

[LizzieMaine]

If you've been doing it for generations, in the country, on a farm, you're not a hipster. If you do it on your rooftop and carry on like you're, like yah, the FIRST PERSON EVER TO RAISE BEES and sell the honey for $30 a pint to other people who've never actually seen a wild bee, then yes, you're a hipster.

As for Campbell's Soup, gad. I can remember when they bought all the diseased cull chickens from the local poultry plants. I wonder if they still do that?

And what the heck is "quinoa" anyway? Sounds like a patent medicine you'd take to cure malaria.