Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[Stormy]

College dormitories have been replaced by "university housing" aka crappy, on-campus apartment buildings.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

And I hate how they call any sort of building complex a "campus."
Are we still in high school???

 

[LizzieMaine]

I never heard "campus" applied to high school facilities when I was in high school. The correct phrase was "School Grounds." As in, "Smoking On School Grounds allowed at the South Exit only." "No public displays of affection allowed On School Grounds." "Inappropriately dressed students will not be permitted to remain On School Grounds."

 

[jamespowers]

As in, "Smoking On School Grounds allowed at the South Exit only." "No public displays of affection allowed On School Grounds." "Inappropriately dressed students will not be permitted to remain On School Grounds."

All of those restrictions would make a school empty nowadays. lol

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Same here. Campus is reserved for colleges.

I never heard "campus" applied to high school facilities when I was in high school. The correct phrase was "School Grounds." As in, "Smoking On School Grounds allowed at the South Exit only." "No public displays of affection allowed On School Grounds." "Inappropriately dressed students will not be permitted to remain On School Grounds."

 

[LizzieMaine]

An equally annoying modern habit is the trend for calling mid-level high school administrators "deans." When I was in school the assistant principal was the assistant principal -- a tubby, balding WW2 vet who stood on the stairs and made for damn sure you weren't running, "roughhousing" or carrying contraband between classes. Now, the person who holds that job in my old school is the "Dean of Students," a skinny thirtysomething who seems to take himself far too seriously.

Whenever I see him, I think of a local brand of hot dogs that used to call itself "The Dean of Franks," and had as its logo a hot dog wearing glasses and a mortarboard hat. The resemblance is uncanny.

 

[sheeplady]

An equally annoying modern habit is the trend for calling mid-level high school administrators "deans." When I was in school the assistant principal was the assistant principal -- a tubby, balding WW2 vet who stood on the stairs and made for damn sure you weren't running, "roughhousing" or carrying contraband between classes. Now, the person who holds that job in my old school is the "Dean of Students," a skinny thirtysomething who seems to take himself far too seriously.

Whenever I see him, I think of a local brand of hot dogs that used to call itself "The Dean of Franks," and had as its logo a hot dog wearing glasses and a mortarboard hat. The resemblance is uncanny.

This seems like a private school thing- like they'd have deans and headmasters (mistresses) etc. There's far more administration in schools now (particularly public ones) than even 20 years ago.

 

[St. Louis]

Speaking of schools, how about mimeograph machines? They used a type of ink that was intoxicating and addictive. I wish I could get a bottle just so I could sniff it occasionally. Not that it would bring back such great memories ... I went to a very strict Catholic parochial school and wore a perfectly hideous maroon jumper with a nylon blouse and a tie under the collar. Lest you all think I'm even older than I am, this was a very cash-strapped school that still used wooden (i.e., not particle board) desks and blackboards (i.e., not white boards.)

Mimeos had to be typed by very accurate typists, because the forms and memos had to be typed on special stencil paper that was unforgiving of errors. My computer has left me completely incapable of typing more than two or three words without mistakes. This old technology was much cheaper and probably much more environmentally friendly. The ink sure had to be cheaper than the modern bizarrely expensive printer cartridges, and since mimeos were time-consuming to create, there was probably a little bit of thought before the administration wall-papered the school with its effusions.

 

[Shangas]

When I was in school, it was always "school grounds" or "School yard".

"Campus" was occasionally used, but it generally referred more to universities.

Something else that has disappeared during my lifetime. I forget if I mentioned this before, I don't think so...

- Chalkboards in schools.

When I was a kid in school, all the way up to about...grade...8 or 9...I think. Every classroom, without exception, had a blackboard and chalk, and it was students' duties to clap out the dusters, and occasionally teachers would sponge down the boards to wash off the grey chalkdust and make it nice and black again.

I remember the smell of the chalk-dust, the scraping, the squeaking, the texture and feel. The crumbly powder-like touch. Everything.

These days everyone uses whiteboard markers and whiteboards, which I suppose have their advantages, but I would prefer chalkboards.

I know in some schools, clapping out dusters was given as a punishment for some children. But in our school, we loved doing it. It was fun to smack them together and watch all the chalk-dust go fluffing all over the place.

 

[LizzieMaine]

What's the rationale for getting rid of blackboards, anyway? It can't be that those markers are cheaper than chalk, and the fumes from those things, and the solvent you have to use to clean them, has to be at least as bad to breathe as chalk dust. So what's the point?

In my school it was considered the thing to do to spell out comments in chalk dust against the back of the school building while clapping the erasers. You had to watch your language, though, because the teachers knew who they assigned to do the clapping.

 

[sheeplady]

Plenty of the poorer (income wise) schools around here still have blackboards. Even in my university we still have a lot of buildings that only have chalkboards.

 

[Shangas]

I preferred chalkboards purely because white on black is easier for me to read because of my eyesight. Black on white is impossible. Especially when you count in the reflective properties of whiteboards.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

This seems like a private school thing- like they'd have deans and headmasters (mistresses) etc. There's far more administration in schools now (particularly public ones) than even 20 years ago.

Sounds like a British thing because for years even public schools (in the American sense of the word) had "headmasters" rather than principals.

 

[Gregg Axley]

I was thinking of this earlier, but I rarely see people use placemats for dinner.
When I was a kid (in the 70's), that was the first thing laid on the table as we were preparing to eat.
Always color coordinated to match the wallpaper, carpet, or blinds.
Am I the only one that remembers these as a household staple?

 

[rue]

What's the rationale for getting rid of blackboards, anyway? It can't be that those markers are cheaper than chalk, and the fumes from those things, and the solvent you have to use to clean them, has to be at least as bad to breathe as chalk dust. So what's the point?

In my school it was considered the thing to do to spell out comments in chalk dust against the back of the school building while clapping the erasers. You had to watch your language, though, because the teachers knew who they assigned to do the clapping.

I really don't understand the change either. Can anyone explain?

 

[rue]

I was thinking of this earlier, but I rarely see people use placemats for dinner.
When I was a kid (in the 70's), that was the first thing laid on the table as we were preparing to eat.
Always color coordinated to match the wallpaper, carpet, or blinds.
Am I the only one that remembers these as a household staple?

I still do! I set the table every night with cloth napkins too

 

[Stanley Doble]

Does anyone else remember an oilcloth table cloth on the old wooden kitchen table? They seemed to disappear when Formica and Arborite chrome kitchen sets came in.

 

[Shangas]

I still use place-mats for dinner. If nothing else, they catch dropped food and stuff that might damage the table-surface.

 

[St. Louis]

I use table cloths and real napkins every day. I have a whole closet shelf full of beautiful damask linen cloths and napkins that I find at thrift and antiques shops. There are also literally thousands of embroidered napkins out there, completely unused, or even if used, with only minimal staining. They make the table look so inviting and special. I really feel that they are meant to be used, but when people come over to the house, they often have to be persuaded to wipe their lips on them. Usually, soaking and then washing them with some kind of oxygen powder takes out any food stains.

The fact that unused damask and embroidered linens are so easy to find, and so inexpensive, makes me wonder how many young couples received them as wedding gifts and then never used them. (i.e., saved them "for best" -- a "best" that apparently never came!) That is why I say, use these beautiful linens and enjoy them.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I have a bunch of cheap dimestore tablecloths for my cheap dimestore kitchen table -- they're woven of cotton "crash" in various plaid-type patterns -- and I always use a cotton placemat to keep the tablecloths from getting dirty. It's easier to wash a placemat than a tablecloth.