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Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

Messages
11,579
Location
Covina, Califonia 91722
Sterling silver telephone dialers have disappeared ... even Tiffany & Co. doesn't sell 'em anymore. "Where have you gone, Holly Golightly?"
phonedialer.jpg

Now and then you'll read about people bringing in old devices and items into a class room for grade school kids to look at and try to figure out what it was for with interesting results. A rotary dial phone is something of a defining item since they have been replaced by push button dialing phones and for quite a while so that many kids have no clue how they work. So an item used for saving your finger nails when using a rotary dial phone is even more remote from todays life.
 
Now and then you'll read about people bringing in old devices and items into a class room for grade school kids to look at and try to figure out what it was for with interesting results. A rotary dial phone is something of a defining item since they have been replaced by push button dialing phones and for quite a while so that many kids have no clue how they work. So an item used for saving your finger nails when using a rotary dial phone is even more remote from todays life.

Even more interesting is the reaction my 5 year old son gets from people when he actually knows what a record is. :p
 

C-dot

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,908
Location
Toronto, Canada
Now and then you'll read about people bringing in old devices and items into a class room for grade school kids to look at and try to figure out what it was for with interesting results. A rotary dial phone is something of a defining item since they have been replaced by push button dialing phones and for quite a while so that many kids have no clue how they work. So an item used for saving your finger nails when using a rotary dial phone is even more remote from todays life.

Isn't that awful? When I was a kiddie, maybe 8 or 9, a younger teacher brought in a turntable for show-and-tell intending to show the class how it worked. She was having some trouble, so I approached, took the record from her hand, and did it with ease. She and the class looked at me like I had 3 heads!

My parents don't live in a time warp, but they had old things around the house. One of them was a rotary phone manufactured in 1948 that sits on my desk beside me as I type this. I always knew how to use it, and spent a few weekends with my dad getting it to work again (it hadn't in some time.) I was maybe 16 when we did... Wasn't that long ago. I get my contemporaries to play with it whenever I can, because its funny to watch them try and figure it out.
 
Isn't that awful? When I was a kiddie, maybe 8 or 9, a younger teacher brought in a turntable for show-and-tell intending to show the class how it worked. She was having some trouble, so I approached, took the record from her hand, and did it with ease. She and the class looked at me like I had 3 heads!

My parents don't live in a time warp, but they had old things around the house. One of them was a rotary phone manufactured in 1948 that sits on my desk beside me as I type this. I always knew how to use it, and spent a few weekends with my dad getting it to work again (it hadn't in some time.) I was maybe 16 when we did... Wasn't that long ago. I get my contemporaries to play with it whenever I can, because its funny to watch them try and figure it out.

They can't figure out how to use a rotary phone?! lol lol lol Can they open Ketchup bottles? :p
 

C-dot

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,908
Location
Toronto, Canada
They can't figure out how to use a rotary phone?! lol lol lol Can they open Ketchup bottles? :p

I kid you not! They usually start by pushing on the numbers, then try to wiggle the dial back and forth instead of pulling it over to the finger stop. I don't let them touch my turntable or gramophone, but their faces when they see me do it are priceless.

As for ketchup, we always bring a guy along, just in case ;)
 
I kid you not! They usually start by pushing on the numbers, then try to wiggle the dial back and forth instead of pulling it over to the finger stop. I don't let them touch my turntable or gramophone, but their faces when they see me do it are priceless.

As for ketchup, we always bring a guy along, just in case ;)

That would be hilarious to see. lol

Bring a guy along! :rofl:
 

Gingerella72

A-List Customer
Messages
428
Location
Nebraska, USA
Haven't they ever seen a rotary phone in use on TV reruns or older movies? :eeek:

Regarding vinyl, my husband said he saw something in the news yesterday how vinyl record sales increased by 40% this past year. It's either a hipster trend or kids today are discovering how much better sound quality they have over their iPhones.
 
Messages
13,466
Location
Orange County, CA
I kid you not! They usually start by pushing on the numbers, then try to wiggle the dial back and forth instead of pulling it over to the finger stop. I don't let them touch my turntable or gramophone, but their faces when they see me do it are priceless.

As for ketchup, we always bring a guy along, just in case ;)

Does ketchup even come in glass containers anymore? All I see are those upside-down plastic squeeze containers.
 

C-dot

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,908
Location
Toronto, Canada
In many restaurants here they still come in glass containers.

There's another thing that's a lost art (it's probably somewhere in this thread already, but...) - Glass bottles! I love the ones I need a bottle opener for. Seeing someone these days try to open one reminds me of Marty McFly lol
 

Gregg Axley

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,125
Location
Tennessee
Maybe it's just me, but I'd have to say colored toilet paper.
We got to talking about the pink bathroom, and then absurd ads, and it hit me...
Am I wrong in this?
I remember as a kid watching my mom get toilet paper to match the bathroom.
 

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