Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[EngProf]

"Rolling coal"??!! - Around here (mid-South), I have never seen or even heard of such a thing. Must be a Northeastern thing...
The fact that New Jersey has to have a specific law against it is a sign that it's more prevalent up there.
(However, from a Southern perspective, Northeastern States have a propensity to regulate and tax *everything* - driving, eating, sleeping, walking, talking, thinking, etc.)

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Paper weights. People now collect them as antiques. Long ago, offices had windows that could be opened, which happened in hot weather. The weights kept papers from scattering in sudden gusts. Haven't seen them used except as ornaments in ages.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Apparently coal rolling is very much a thing among the freedumb-loving pencil-necks way out there in Colorado. The trend has moved beyond gassing Prius drivers, to obnoxicating any sort of protest or movement that the coal-roller finds threatening to his own highly artificial masculinity. I'd be happy to contribute to a fund that would get these twerps the therapy they so desperately need.

 

[rosscoinc1]

What I think has gotten worse over the last forty or so years I've been following politics is the combination of a decline in the general civility of our political debates and the willingness and desire - even the broad acceptance of it - to attack the "other" person as being of ill intent / evil / mean / sub-human, etc.

When I say civility, I don't mean nice manners - those are whatever - I mean respecting your opponent as a person, treating them as a person of good will who disagrees with you and - and this is the big one - attacking their ideas with arguments not attacking the person with snark and venom.

To be sure, there are many, many, many example of incivility and personal attacks throughout our history - and, as Lizzie notes, there are times in our history that have been worse - but again, as a matter of degree, frequency and general acceptance, what I think has changed in the last four decades is the brutal attacks (both sides do it, I'm not arguing otherwise) that happen regularly and - and this too has changed for the worse - from main-stream politicians and commentators on an opponent's character and motivation, not simply their ideas.

I've had it happen to me here at FL. On the good side, Lizzie and I have almost no overlap in our political views, but she has never been anything but courtesy and polite to me while not giving an inch (a millimeter ) on the ideas. That's fair and that's one of the reasons I have great respect for her and, I hope, she has a little for me. Despite our all but obverse political views, I'm proud to call her a friend.

Conversely, I have had others here (just a few) attack me with snark, snide asides and ad hominem arguments that reflect anger, but usually, not a rational argument against my ideas. Individually, in my life and at FL, I just ignore those people, but collectively, that is the behavior that is causing our society to become more angry and divisive. That - the personal attacks and the general acceptance of that - is the difference I've seen over the past forty years.

Well said. And it is terribly sad...and dangerous...

 

[rosscoinc1]

Yup. Prior appropriation and all that.

I was a bit taken aback on learning that in Colorado, where I had recently relocated, it was unlawful to gather the rainwater falling on one's roof. In the far cooler and damper Maritime Northwest, where I had resided over the preceding 46 years, residential rain barrels had become a common sight.

Legislation in Colorado changed that a couple sessions back. Now residents are allowed two 55-gallon barrels, I believe. And few people have adopted the rain-gathering practice, leastwise not many I've noticed.

Even if a majority of residents gathered the rainwater falling on their roofs, limited to no more than 110 gallons on hand at any time (the overflow going into the soil or the storm sewer), it would still amount to a minuscule portion of the water descending from on high.

I have had 10 rain catching 55-gallon drums in my backyard, hidden, for several years now. One of the silliest law's I have ever heard of. It also means I have a 550 gallon reserve in case of disaster (not that many disasters happen in CO).

 

[rosscoinc1]

Apparently coal rolling is very much a thing among the freedumb-loving pencil-necks way out there in Colorado. The trend has moved beyond gassing Prius drivers, to obnoxicating any sort of protest or movement that the coal-roller finds threatening to his own highly artificial masculinity. I'd be happy to contribute to a fund that would get these twerps the therapy they so desperately need.

Thats silly...I have lived here for 54 years, am very politically active, drive the roads every day and this is the first I have heard of it. I had to look up what it was.

 

[LizzieMaine]

You're lucky. Colorado's one of two states that have had the sense to ban the practice: https://coloradopolitics.com/colorado-to-outlaw-rolling-coal-nuisance-exhaust/.

Apparently the main motivation in outlawing it there was the hazard coal-rolling poses to bicyclists, who are, along with Prius drivers and protest rallies, among the more popular candidates for gassing by the kind of chortling Yoo Toob dillweeds who think they're making a point by doing this.

 

[vitanola]

"Rolling coal"??!! - Around here (mid-South), I have never seen or even heard of such a thing. Must be a Northeastern thing...
The fact that New Jersey has to have a specific law against it is a sign that it's more prevalent up there.
(However, from a Southern perspective, Northeastern States have a propensity to regulate and tax *everything* - driving, eating, sleeping, walking, talking, thinking, etc.)

I'm really surprised that you had not heard of it. I have seen it everywhere that I drive from Georgia to Michigan, though I think that the fad peaked in 2015-2016 and that rolling coal is now distinctly passé. I'm also suprised that you haven't heard of this deplorable practice. The Daily Caller and Breitbart rather heavily promoted it for a while, after all, but that was back in 2014. These days it seems that the practice is relegated to the more remote parts of the country.

 

[EngProf]

I'm really surprised that you had not heard of it. I have seen it everywhere that I drive from Georgia to Michigan, though I think that the fad peaked in 2015-2016 and that rolling coal is now distinctly passé. I'm also suprised that you haven't heard of this deplorable practice. The Daily Caller and Breitbart rather heavily promoted it for a while, after all, but that was back in 2014. These days it seems that the practice is relegated to the more remote parts of the country.

I spent ten years as an "Environmental Engineer" in my first career (my actual job title), so I'd certainly notice it if I had seen it in person or heard about it on the news.
Truly zero around these parts, for whatever reason... Literally the first time I had seen the term was here on FL.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Another thing that the coal rollers in my neck of the woods do is they remove the factory exhaust & install exhaust stacks through holes in the bed similar to a semi.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Well, now they've taken to gassing each other, so I guess that's something positive.

 

[HanauMan]

Reminds me of my youth when folk would remove the exhaust mufflers on small motorcycles to make them sound more powerful and louder (in fact, it did increase power a little).

 

[Fading Fast]

I spent ten years as an "Environmental Engineer" in my first career (my actual job title), so I'd certainly notice it if I had seen it in person or heard about it on the news.
Truly zero around these parts, for whatever reason... Literally the first time I had seen the term was here on FL.

Same here in NYC - never saw it and never heard about it until this thread. When you jam 8+million people onto an island, certain behaviors (if they are attempted) are quickly quashed as they would be untenable. Conflating from another thread, it's probably the same reason that we don't have the problem of individuals shooting off fireworks in NYC.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Up here it's primarily an expression of what, for want of a better term, I'll call "neoredneck" culture -- a loud subset of young, mostly male, and entirely white working-class people who channel their social and economic frustrations into pretending they're characters from "The Dukes of Hazzard."

There is a pretty close overlap between the "neoredneck" lifestyle and the opioid crisis up here, suggesting that perhaps rolling coal and flying Confederate flags with a raised middle finger superimposed over the center off the backs of rusted-out Dodge Rams is not realliy accomplishing much.

 

[Fading Fast]

Up here it's primarily an expression of what, for want of a better term, I'll call "neoredneck" culture -- a loud subset of young, mostly male, and entirely white working-class people who channel their social and economic frustrations into pretending they're characters from "The Dukes of Hazzard."

There is a pretty close overlap between the "neoredneck" lifestyle and the opioid crisis up here, suggesting that perhaps rolling coal and flying Confederate flags with a raised middle finger superimposed over the center off the backs of rusted-out Dodge Rams is not realliy accomplishing much.

Down here, young males that feel outcast channel their social and economic frustrations into becoming drug dealers (if they're poor) and buying from drug dealers (if they're rich).

 

[LizzieMaine]

Ours cut out the middleman -- they break into the the houses of elderly people to steal their back-pain medicine. Or they go full-walrus, and open meth labs.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Well, now they've taken to gassing each other, so I guess that's something positive.

The "Tide Pod Challenge" for rednecks. Where are Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy, and Ron White when you need them? I can just picture myself laughing until my sides hurt over their take on this!

This brings to mind a less agressive bumper sticker I saw on a beat up pick-up about two years ago. It read "My truck is a hybrid. It burns gas AND oil."

 

[EngProf]

Up here it's primarily an expression of what, for want of a better term, I'll call "neoredneck" culture -- a loud subset of young, mostly male, and entirely white working-class people who channel their social and economic frustrations into pretending they're characters from "The Dukes of Hazzard."

There is a pretty close overlap between the "neoredneck" lifestyle and the opioid crisis up here, suggesting that perhaps rolling coal and flying Confederate flags with a raised middle finger superimposed over the center off the backs of rusted-out Dodge Rams is not realliy accomplishing much.

It strikes me as funny and odd that you have pseudo-"Dukes of Hazzard" folks way up North there in Maine and down here in the mid-South I had never even seen or heard of the strange "rolling coal" practice.
(In the days since it was mentioned I have been actively watching for it - so far still zero...)

 

[EngProf]

Same here in NYC - never saw it and never heard about it until this thread. When you jam 8+million people onto an island, certain behaviors (if they are attempted) are quickly quashed as they would be untenable. Conflating from another thread, it's probably the same reason that we don't have the problem of individuals shooting off fireworks in NYC.

One thing we definitely have here in the South is fireworks (!!). So it was before I was a kid, so it was when I was a kid, and so it goes on down through the generations.
"The Rocket's red glare, the Bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that it was the 4th of July" in Nashville..."
Since I used to do that stuff myself, I can't be hypocritical and complain about the people doing it now. I step out for a while, look up, say "Wow!", and then go back inside.
Just to keep the Southern spirit of rebellion alive, or maybe the Spirit of '76, it's illegal to shoot fireworks inside the city now, and was also illegal decades ago when I was a kid. NO ONE pays (or paid) any attention to that at all. The cops in recent years have begun putting announcements on the local news not to bother calling them about fireworks since they won't show up.

 

[tonyb]

Blanket ban on fireworks in my municipality. But a short drive away are places that sell what we used to think professional grade.

I just pray for rain.