Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[herringbonekid]

1. Home delivery of milk in glass bottles, by those neat little trucks;

in the UK almost everyone had their milk delivered well into the 1970s. you couldn't usually buy milk at the corner shop (you didn't need to anyway) and the supermarket had yet to become the dominant force it has.

our local milkman was called Fred and he was always whistling.

 

[LizzieMaine]

When the milkman went away, he took with him the milk box, once a fixture on everybody's back doorstep.

Neighborhood brats would use the milk box as a repository for every sort of refuse -- filling the lives of milkmen and housewives with startling surprises.

 

[kiwilrdg]

I still have milk delivered. The plastic cooler they use today looks modern but I am sure it is a style that people would have preferred if it had been around.

 

[jamespowers]

When the milkman went away, he took with him the milk box, once a fixture on everybody's back doorstep.

Neighborhood brats would use the milk box as a repository for every sort of refuse -- filling the lives of milkmen and housewives with startling surprises.

Interesting. I literally have a milkbox built onto my house from way back then. I use it to store lawn food and stuff now. It is fairly large. I wonder how much milk they were using back then!

 

[vitanola]

The house in which I was raised (built in 1961) yet retains its milk chute, as do all of the other homes in the development. My maternal grandmother's house (built 1913) was also so equipped. My current residence (1845) never had a chute, but the home that I'm currently restoring (1912) has one, along with a door to allow outside icing of the Icebox (which is fitted with a drain, rather than the customary messy drip-pan) a California Cooler, and a Coal Chute.

Those little tin milk boxes were almost unknown in these parts, for cirtually every city and suburban home built between 1900 and 1980 was fitted with a milk chute. The only homes which did not have chutes were those old farm houses which had been overtaken by suburban development.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A lot of houses had a little airlock type of deal built into the wall by the back door -- a hollow compartment lined in galvanized tin with doors that opened from the outside of the house for delivery and from the inside to take the milk in without having to go out onto the back stoop in your bathrobe in the rain and sleet. The opportunities for mischief with these would also seem to be legion.

It was not uncommon here for the milk to be frozen solid when you brought it in in the morning, with an extruded stalk of milk pushing the cap out of the top of the bottle. These milk-sicles were highly coveted treats.

 

[jamespowers]

A lot of houses had a little airlock type of deal built into the wall by the back door -- a hollow compartment lined in galvanized tin with doors that opened from the outside of the house for delivery and from the inside to take the milk in without having to go out onto the back stoop in your bathrobe in the rain and sleet. The opportunities for mischief with these would also seem to be legion

I would have to go out to get the milk. It is on the other side of the fence near my back door. No one could see you from the street but it has a roof and overhang attached to the house so it would be ok.
When I was a youngster, I always wondered why the ousdie closet didn't have a lock on it. Well, it had to be open to get filled.
I am sure that where I live there was no such thing as milksikes.

 

[LizzieMaine]

What was really sad was to come down to breakfast on a winter morning and see a bowl of Rice Krispies sitting there with a chunk of frozen milk sitting in the middle of it, and your mother sitting there all slumped over, holding a cigarette and mumbling "Just deal with it, all right?"

 

[jamespowers]

What was really sad was to come down to breakfast on a winter morning and see a bowl of Rice Krispies sitting there with a chunk of frozen milk sitting in the middle of it, and your mother sitting there all slumped over, holding a cigarette and mumbling "Just deal with it, all right?"

Use the microwave to melt it.

 

[Espee]

Department store escalators with markings above, of What's Up There (or Down.)
So you know whether to bother going.
You're supposed to check the all-levels directory as you come in the store...

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Department store escalators with markings above, of What's Up There (or Down.)
So you know whether to bother going.
You're supposed to check the all-levels directory as you come in the store...

Department store elevators with elevator operators. The kind of elevator that made your stomach drop to the basement every time it stopped. I remember up to the early '70s the department stores in Downtown L.A. (Robinson's, May Company, and The Broadway) still had those elevators.

 

[John in Covina]

Interesting. I literally have a milkbox built onto my house from way back then. I use it to store lawn food and stuff now. It is fairly large. I wonder how much milk they were using back then!

The milk man brought milk, butter, eggs, cream, sour cream, cottage cheese and other stuff. Generally all of the items in the Dairy section of the market.

 

[John in Covina]

When i was little my mom had a "bread box" on the kitchen counter. I also remember someone having one with a curve front door that swung back into the box when opened.

 

[jamespowers]

The milk man brought milk, butter, eggs, cream, sour cream, cottage cheese and other stuff. Generally all of the items in the Dairy section of the market.

Yes, that is true. I suppose I could fit all of those in it and more.

 

[jamespowers]

When i was little my mom had a "bread box" on the kitchen counter. I also remember someone having one with a curve front door that swung back into the box when opened.

Like a roll top desk? I remember seeing one of those.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Mechanics that could work on cars that don't have to be plugged into a computer. You put a carburetor in front of these guys and they may as well be staring into the human brain.....

 

[St. Louis]

Department store elevators with elevator operators.

This reminds me of the wooden escalators that have pretty much vanished now. Back when I lived in Boston, the "T" (subway) had one last wooden escalator downtown. When I moved to St. Louis a few years ago, the old Famous Barr department store had one wooden escalator going to its top floor, which I believe was taken down when Macy's took over.

 

[this one guy]

Mechanics that could work on cars that don't have to be plugged into a computer. You put a carburetor in front of these guys and they may as well be staring into the human brain.....

There must not be an app for that.

 

[Aerojoe]

Department store elevators with elevator operators.

Well, I guess it's good their gone. Just think in the poor guy all day inside an elevator, up and down. I'd rather prefer a room in the Folsom prison. At least the cell stays in place.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

That's likely the problem. My dad had a small engine repair shop and really fixed anything. People used to bring him lamps and toasters and such to fix. I remember him fixing our school bus and the UPS truck, which both broke down in our driveway lol A good repairman should understand mechanics in general, not just what a computer says is wrong with a machine.

There must not be an app for that.