Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[Hemingway Jones]

I was born in 1967, so in my lifetime that I can think of:

-4 digit telephone numbers. Within neighborhoods, you could dial the last four numbers.
-Words and letters in phone numbers: "Greenwood 7-5342,"that sort of thing."
-Evening editions of newspapers, and soon, newspapers! When I was young, there was an evening edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
-Gas station attendants, uniformed and more than one checking oil, tires, et al.
-Greenstamps; I think they've gone away, have they?
-Leaded gasoline
-Few, very few, foreign cars on the road
-my favorite, and I forget what it is called, so you all can help me here, in Philadelphia it was called the Horn & Hardot, or something like that, and it was a Lunch-O-Matic, with the little doors that you put money into and took out your food. The architecture was totally atomic. I loved that place as a child.
-Shoe shine stations all over the place
-Steel Pier in Atlantic City. Wow. It's a mall now.
-Doctors making house calls

 

[KittyT]

Chains and snow tires are gone?

When did this happen? I left the NW 3 years ago for Pete's sake and had chains, T-bar chains, and Studded snow tires when I left. As a ski instructor I was up on the pass maybe 5 times a week. Granted I got away with the snow tires most of the time, but what are people using now?

NO, they've not gone away! Just in certain parts of the country where they aren't really needed much anyway or are banned because of the road damage they do. Sure, you need chains when driving the mountain passes in the NW. You don't need chains driving down I-90 in MA.

I do think a lot of people are passing over snow tires in favor of all-season tires, in part because they don't want to pay the extra cost, and in part because they're too lazy to bother changing them out.

 

[Lefty]

I was driving around Lake Tahoe in Fall of 2003 when the first snow of the season hit. Roads were immediately closed and, on that same day, the snow was being measured in feet. They have snow tires in Tahoe.

 

[Kassia]

Bac-A-Belt Kits. You used to be able to find them at any notions counter, and they were invaluable for making matched belts and covered buckles for dresses. And then about ten years ago, they simply didn't exist anymore, and now nobody in the fabric department even knows what they are.

Wax paper bread wrappers. I came in just at the end of these, and can remember sitting on them to go faster on the playground slide. It's not the same with a polyethylene bag.


Sunday blue laws. Around here this meant no stores larger than a certain size allowed to be open at all on Sunday, so the corner groceries always did a booming business.

[/QUOTE]

You can't find wax paper there anymore? I see it all the time in the grocery stores i go to in Western Canada...

As to the bac a belt kits i never heard of them but that got me to thinking that no stores here have a fabric department any more... For that matter we don't even have KMart in Canada anymore...

Sunday blue laws... Never heard it called that but i do remember when all the stores started to open on Sundays..
If you still lived in Lynden WA you would not be able to shop on Sunday at all. I am not sure if it is a law or because of religious tendancies...

 

[Sunny]

-4 digit telephone numbers. Within neighborhoods, you could dial the last four numbers.

There's still 5-digit dialing on the Texas A&M campus, for all dorms and offices. And the first digit only indicates whether it is a dorm or an office.

 

[Kassia]

I was born in 1967, so in my lifetime that I can think of:

-Evening editions of newspapers, and soon, newspapers! When I was young, there was an evening edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Hmmm when i grew up there was a morning and an evening edition of our newspapers but as one time they decided to go to only a morning edition.. My mom and dad still hate that!

-Gas station attendants, uniformed and more than one checking oil, tires, et al.

One municipality were i live has no self serve gas stations so they still "jump to the pump for you".. What i rarely see here is gas station with a garage attached to it any more.. You take your car back to the dealer to get fixed. No more neighborhood mechanics anymore..

-Greenstamps; I think they've gone away, have they?

We never had those in Canada so....

-Leaded gasoline

Illegal here in Canada for many many years...

---Shoe shine stations all over the place

Only seen in airports now?


-Doctors making house calls

Hmmm i know a few doctors that still make house calls but as you say it is very rare.. My Mom is housebound now and her doctor comes if she really needs it.. She also has home visits from the nurses association when she needs her flu shot done in the fall...
And my doctor still delivers babies!! Not many GP's do that anymore...

 

[Joie DeVive]

Chains and snow tires are gone?

KittyT is right these are still very much used in some places. In Colorado, chains and snow tires are still in common use for mountain driving in the winter. I think this may be true in the Sierra Mountains as well. I think when it comes to driving on a steep icy grade there just isn't a replacement.

I miss old fashioned playground equipment. It's all been replaced with plastic safety stuff.

So true!! The worst loss on this? Metal slides. I'm sorry, but you cannot get a descent speed on plastic!! :eusa_doh:

 

[LizzieMaine]

Slides are **plastic** now??? Gad, a wave of depravity is sweeping across the land....

 

[Kassia]

A few more things I've thought of --

Non-dial telephones.
Downtown dime-stores.
Tire chains.
Pilot crackers.

My dad still has a rotary dial phone.. When it came time to give it back to the phone company he begged them to let him keep it.... It sits on the table, beside his computer, in my parents dining room...

Dime stores seem to have been replaced with Loonie, or as you call them in the USA, dollar stores..

Tire chains are still out there but unless you live in the mountains, or are driving thru the mountains, there is not much need for them on the Pacific Coast of Canada...

Pilot Crackers? Do you mean soda crackers? Square crackers with salted tops? They are the ones my Mom used to force me to eat when i was sick.

 

[LizzieMaine]

You can't find wax paper there anymore? I see it all the time in the grocery stores i go to in Western Canada...

We can still get wax paper in rolls, for sandwiches and such, but it's getting hard to come by. But wax paper bread wrappers had a different texture -- more slippery, I think, and very good for lubricating metal playground slides.

The wrappers folded over the loaf of bread, and the ends were sealed with printed paper labels -- usually there'd be some kind of recipe or premium offer printed on the back of the labels, so they'd often get saved. The main disadvantage in the wax wrappers was that once you'd opened them, the bread tended to go stale fast.

The good thing about plastic bread bags, though, was that they made excellent liners for rubber winter boots.

 

[Kassia]

I keep thinking afternoon newspapers, clove gum, milk in glass bottles, etc., have disappeared, and then I remember they're still hanging on in places. The Ames Tribune is and has always been an afternoon paper.

So I'll say the two-paper town. One morning, one evening.

Avalon Dairy, here in Vancouver BC, still uses glass bottles.. And as far as i know still does home delivery...

In think in the future you will see more beverages going back into glass bottles as we learn about the environmentally unfriendly aspects of plastics..

Did you know it takes more resources and materials to make a paper bag?
So now there is a huge campaign to use cloth bags whenever you shop.. Most stores sell them for $1 now..

 

[Rachael]

So true!! The worst loss on this? Metal slides. I'm sorry, but you cannot get a descent speed on plastic!! :eusa_doh:

I loved metal slides; the ones with a bump in the middle were the best. But oh the burns... maybe some changes aren't so bad.

 

[Kassia]

Glass pop bottles that you returned to the grocery store. (We still have milk delivered in glass bottles)

Dial telephones.

Houses with no hot water.

Inner tubes.

Seeing the Milky Way except from the wilderness.

Ok so in BC Canada we recycle all our bottles and beverage containers with the exception of milk jugs and smaller containers..
We have places called Encorp and they are usually attached to a grocery store where you take everything back.. Aluminum cans, glass and plastic bottle, tetra pacs, store packaging, plastic bags and, i am sure, other things.
In our home recycling we can put in paper, plastic, newspapers, tins and glass.
We have city garbage pick up but are allowed one can per week... If you have more than that you have to by a tag, for about $1, and attach it to the other can/bag..

I already posted that my Dad still has, and uses, a dial phone.

Houses with no hot water? I guess you havent been to any countries in the developing world then?

I think they still make large truck tires with inner tubes.. Must ask dh about that cause i still see them at the lake..

Seeing the stars at all in a big city never mind the Milky Way.. We go camping alot so have some great stops for star gazing.. Why just a couple weeks ago we were able to see the Persieds meteor shower..

 

[Kassia]

-
Phone booths and pay phones.

-Full service fuel stations: free air, someone to wash your window & pump the gas. Also, leaded gas (for the better).

-Vinyl records, 8-tracks, cassets and CDs have been replaced by mp3 and similar formats.

-Oldsmobiles.

--Drive in theaters are all but gone, with a few straglers hanging in there by a thread.

-Home economics that teaches practicle skills such a sewing a button or garment (instead it's a pillow) or cooking a meal (now it's a pretzel).

We still have pay phones in Canada... In fact i wish cell phones would be come obsolete.. They are bloody annoying things.. The last thing i want to do is listen to somebody have a conversation in the bathroom.. YECK..

I don't think cd's will go away just yet... Since mp3 need to be downloaded off the computer it's becoming a huge issue with the music industry because of the royalties issue..

Oldsmobles? My friend drives on and it's not that old... I think they still make them!

As for drive in theaters, i do with we had a few more around.. We do have one nearby but i have never been to it..

I happen to know a few Home Ec teachers that actually do teach "life" skills in their classroom.. But perhaps they are few and far between now.. I don't know as i don't have any kids, school age or not!!

 

[Joie DeVive]

Slides are **plastic** now??? Gad, a wave of depravity is sweeping across the land....

Yup, presumably for safety concerns. But you ought to see the poor little mites try to slide down them on mornings with just a little dew. They push and push on the sides of the slides with their arms, because the plastic and the dew kinda make the kids stick.

 

[Kassia]

.

Industrial Arts classes. We still need craftsmanship.

Ok so speaking of craftmanship then we also need to get our schools, highschools and colleges to teach kids the trades..
We need auto mechanics, plumbers, welders, machinists, auto body workers, stucco and cement workers, carpenters and framers....
And i am sure there are alot more trades that i just can't think of right now..

 

[Kassia]

Slide rules.

Hahaaaa, my Dad's a civil engineer and he still has the one he used at university..

So what happens to all these modern electornics when there is no power or all the batteries are dead?
Who is left that know how to use a slide rule or an adding machine?
That is something that actually scares me.... We are so reliant on electricity now that i don't think we can live with out it... I mean in the "west" or developed world.. I know there are places that still don't have phones and lights and indoor plumbing...

Somebody mentioned the abacus? It is still used in some Chinatowns...

 

[LizzieMaine]

We still have pay phones in Canada... In fact i wish cell phones would be come obsolete.. They are bloody annoying things.. The last thing i want to do is listen to somebody have a conversation in the bathroom.. YECK..!

The moment where the decline of Western Civilization became inevitable might well be pinpointed as that moment when real, proper phone booths had to be replaced by those little street kiosk things. There was a lunch room in the town where I grew up with one of the classic dark wooden booths with an original three-slot, two-piece payphone inside, such as this one:

It was wired in such a way that you dialed the number first, waited for the phone to be answered on the other side, and then you had to drop your dime in to make the transmitter work. But we kids had it worked out with our mothers that we'd call them and *not* drop the dime in and when they didn't hear anything on the line, they'd know it was us, hang up, and call the restaurant back. The payphone would ring, we'd pick up, and tell them what we needed to tell them without spending any money. Eventually the phone company got wise to us, and put in a different phone...

 

[KittyT]

Hahaaaa, my Dad's a civil engineer and he still has the one he used at university..

Somebody mentioned the abacus? It is still used in some Chinatowns...

I did. I've never seen anyone use one before.

I think a lot of people in older generations still use slide rules - at least engineers. My dad's a mining engineer and he's had the same one as long as I can remember!

 

[rumblefish]

I

-my favorite, and I forget what it is called, so you all can help me here, in Philadelphia it was called the Horn & Hardot, or something like that, and it was a Lunch-O-Matic, with the little doors that you put money into and took out your food. The architecture was totally atomic. I loved that place as a child.

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