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Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

beth

Familiar Face
Messages
72
Location
Houston
One change is that because kids have so much home work in some areas, are playing computer games and have helicopter parents that won't allow them out with out constant supervision you don't hardly see kids playing outside anymore.

I know what you mean. But as Sheeplady said, thankfully it isn't always like that. In our neighborhood we have a group of 15+ kids that frequently are spending time with each other.
You will always see a few kids outside. I don't know how much some of our neighbors appreciate all the 'wars', forts, football and other commotion/activity though.
 

DNO

One Too Many
Messages
1,815
Location
Toronto, Canada
Ice delivery, the milk man, 78 records, 45 records, cassette tapes, 5 1/4" floppy discs, 3 1/2" floppy discs, zip drives, F7 Diesel locomotives, black and white TV's, no-draft windows on cars, neighbourhood movie theatres, burlesque...this is getting depressing, got to stop.
 

Miss Moonlight

A-List Customer
Messages
440
Location
San Diego
Ice delivery, the milk man, 78 records, 45 records, cassette tapes, 5 1/4" floppy discs, 3 1/2" floppy discs, zip drives, F7 Diesel locomotives, black and white TV's, no-draft windows on cars, neighbourhood movie theatres, burlesque...this is getting depressing, got to stop.

Actually- Portland has many neighborhood theatres, many have turned into movie pubs. Burlesque is completely in revival, probably not ever as big as it was again, but there are so many burlesque troops these days.

No one ever promises $1000 or free burial if you should die of fright watching a movie or the spook show.

tumblr_kuz88sI5m81qz72v7o1_500.jpg


Not to mention, there are no longer spook shows at the movie theater.

spooksonstage.jpg
 
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Mr Vim

One Too Many
Messages
1,306
Location
Juneau, Alaska
I'm sure someone before has mentioned it but rotary telephones... My grandmother had one for years and years and I use to get excited when I knew we were going to visit and then one day it was gone... I know that wasn't their end but it was sometime in 1989 so pretty darn close.

Caveat: This statement written at 0248 AM while on a night watch, I am exhausted.
 
Messages
10,883
Location
Portage, Wis.
Cortelco produced the 500 style rotary phone until 2006.

I'm sure someone before has mentioned it but rotary telephones... My grandmother had one for years and years and I use to get excited when I knew we were going to visit and then one day it was gone... I know that wasn't their end but it was sometime in 1989 so pretty darn close.

Caveat: This statement written at 0248 AM while on a night watch, I am exhausted.
 
Messages
13,459
Location
Orange County, CA
I know what you mean. But as Sheeplady said, thankfully it isn't always like that. In our neighborhood we have a group of 15+ kids that frequently are spending time with each other.
You will always see a few kids outside. I don't know how much some of our neighbors appreciate all the 'wars', forts, football and other commotion/activity though.

Generally, the kids I see out playing are the (expletive deleted) skateboarders. I can't stand them as they act like they own the streets.
 

sheeplady

I'll Lock Up
Bartender
Messages
4,479
Location
Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, USA
I remember a time when you had to have the separate numbers for the local fire department, the county sheriff, and the ambulance service because there was no single emergency number (911 in the US).

One could always call the operator, but that took longer if you new the right number. In the US, can you still pick up a phone and dial 0 to get an operator???
 

R.G. White

One of the Regulars
Messages
162
Location
Wisconsin
I had a tour group of junior-high aged kids come thru the theatre today and I was explaining film projection to them. "Our film is just like the film in a 35mm camera you'd use to take pictures," I started to say, and every one of them looked at me blankly. They had no idea what *film* -- a transparent strip of celluloid covered with photographic emulsion -- is, no frame of reference for it whatsoever. They've never seen film, handled film, or even thought about film. Which was a terribly startling thought to me.

I'm a senior in high-school and I'm positive the majority of my class has actually seen/used a film camera. I find it difficult to believe that kids four or five years younger than me are completely oblivious to them. I believe you, it's just strange is all...
 
Messages
10,883
Location
Portage, Wis.
That's how fast things are advancing. I'm shocked how many people I know that don't understand what Rabbit ears on a TV are for, and didn't know that people don't have Cable/Dish.

I'm a senior in high-school and I'm positive the majority of my class has actually seen/used a film camera. I find it difficult to believe that kids four or five years younger than me are completely oblivious to them. I believe you, it's just strange is all...
 

R.G. White

One of the Regulars
Messages
162
Location
Wisconsin
That's how fast things are advancing. I'm shocked how many people I know that don't understand what Rabbit ears on a TV are for, and didn't know that people don't have Cable/Dish.

What's really shocking is how people see old things utilized in the media (i.e. T.V., movies) and they still have no idea what you're talking about.
 
Messages
10,883
Location
Portage, Wis.
Well, I remember one Television, already a relic in my childhood, with a remote connected by a cord, and when you'd change the channel, it'd turn the dial on the TV, clicking. Not sure if that's why, but that's why I always thought it was.

I've mentioned it before but most of us have forgotten why the T.V. remote is called a "clicker".
Tom D.
 

Pompidou

One Too Many
Messages
1,242
Location
Plainfield, CT
Black and white TVs were still kicking around when I was little. My first bedroom TV was a little black and white one, because I needed something for my Nintendo. I didn't miss it when color TVs of gradually larger sizes replaced it in subsequent years. Lots of our first TVs still had rabbit ears, and the family TV was one of those gigantic, living-room, wooden furniture deals from before TVs were solely electronic gadgets.
 

Shangas

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,116
Location
Melbourne, Australia
That's how fast things are advancing. I'm shocked how many people I know that don't understand what Rabbit ears on a TV are for, and didn't know that people don't have Cable/Dish.

OH MY GOD!! Rabbit Ears!!

I remember those! We had them on our first television set. I remember as a kid, constantly tweaking them and fiddling around with them to try and get the best TV reception. Gosh I haven't seen a pair of those in years! I doubt anyone below the age of 20 would even KNOW what rabbit-ears are. Gosh...

rabbit+ears.jpg


Last time I had to fiddle with one of those things to watch television, I was...five years old.
 

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