Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[Joan]

There's not much I miss. I certainly don't miss merthiolate or dial phones or skates with keys!

I sometimes miss having a typewriter. I miss the old dime stores (Kresge's is now Kmart -- not really an improvement, IMO). I miss being able to get a doctor's appointment on the day you call. I miss good grooming being the norm. I could definitely use a clothesline.

We can get milk in glass bottles (with a deposit) at a shop down the street; the dairy bottles nonhomogenized milk, too!

 

[Bourbon Guy]

Test patterns on televisions.
Horizontal and vertical adjustment knobs on TV's.
Towns where all the tv stations go off the air at midnight.

We still have milk in glass bottles and eggs delivered weekly .

 

[Dr Doran]

There's not much I miss. I certainly don't miss merthiolate or dial phones or skates with keys!

I sometimes miss having a typewriter. I miss the old dime stores (Kresge's is now Kmart -- not really an improvement, IMO). I miss being able to get a doctor's appointment on the day you call. I miss good grooming being the norm. I could definitely use a clothesline.

We can get milk in glass bottles (with a deposit) at a shop down the street; the dairy bottles nonhomogenized milk, too!

There is non-homogenized organic milk available in glass bottles here in Berkeley, but not delivered.

When I was a kid, we got milk delivered in glass bottles, and also huge bottles of water that we'd turn upside-down and fit on top of a water dispenser.

 

[tuppence]

What we lost.

A proper Ladies room. On my very first job, the department store I worked at had the most wonderful Ladies room, complete with chintz sitting room area, writing desks with accouterments, and a very helpful attendant. Perhaps they still exist somewhere in the world, but certainly not in Australia. Sigh.

Did you work at Myers?

How about the posties on bicycles (in their little shorts ).Now we have them on motorbikes. They also came twice a day when I was young.

Garbage cans(and men), now we have wheelie bins that the garbage truck lifts up,No labour required.

Playing outside and knowing all you neighbours. We were basically shoved out the door and told not to come back until dinnertime.

Having to call adults Mr/Mrs such and such. I believe it was worth a smack to call an adult by their first name.

We also called a lot of the older neighbours Auntie/Uncle.

Corparal punishment. No more wooden spoons at home. and the strap at School (although only boys were getting strap when I was young). However I did have a crazy prep teacher(5 years old) who made the whole class line up and hold out our hands for a smack, because we made too much noise.

Also the outdoor toilet "Dunny" The girl next door had one, so she would always run home and use hers, because I think our indoor toilet was a bit intimidating.

Oh my goodness I could go on for hours. But i'm sure your bored already.

 

[Dr Doran]

Having to call adults Mr/Mrs such and such. I believe it was worth a smack to call an adult by their first name.

I agree that Mr/Mrs/Ms is more elegant and I wish it would come back. Plus, there are many more Jims for each Mr Elderwood (or whatever). Calling people by their last name reduces confusion.

Corparal punishment. No more wooden spoons at home. and the strap at School (although only boys were getting strap when I was young). However I did have a crazy prep teacher(5 years old) who made the whole class line up and hold out our hands for a smack, because we made too much noise.

Corporal punishment, especially spanking, has an entirely different set of associations now. I could never possibly spank a child because of this change.

Also the outdoor toilet "Dunny" The girl next door had one, so she would always run home and use hers, because I think our indoor toilet was a bit intimidating.

That is one modern thing I love. Functional modern toilets rock.

 

[BrewCrew]

Corporal punishment, especially spanking, has an entirely different set of associations now. I could never possibly spank a child because of this change.

Boy is this ever true, which is a real shame because kids run rampant all over their parents. Several times I have stepped in to verbally defend a parent who swatted her rambunctious child in front of a pooh-poohing, politically correct bystander.

Corparal punishment. No more wooden spoons at home. and the strap at School (although only boys were getting strap when I was young). However I did have a crazy prep teacher(5 years old) who made the whole class line up and hold out our hands for a smack, because we made too much noise.

In eighth grade my teacher made a dozen males of my class kneel on a marble floor for a half hour to punish them for some transgression. There's obviously a thin line there, but it's an indictment of our society that many teachers are blamed for their student's behavior by the parents ("oh my little Suzie would never do that"). If my parents heard I had done something bad my parents never thought of questioning the veracity of the teacher.

It drives me completely crazy how unwilling parents are now to trust their children to survive.

Absolutely true, but for a lot of urban kids, it's not a question of kids getting into physical danger because of their environment, but having absolutely nothing to do. I'm talking those gated community kids who can, what? bike in circles aimlessly, play video games, start smoking pot because of sheer boredom?

Lastly a contribution to disappearing things: GERMS. I think everyone has heard of reports that we are over sanitizing our homes kids are not developing immune responses. Kind of ridiculous.
Sorry if this got a little too offtopic, I am venting

 

[Dr Doran]

Lastly a contribution to disappearing things: GERMS. I think everyone has heard of reports that we are over sanitizing our homes kids are not developing immune responses. Kind of ridiculous.
Sorry if this got a little too offtopic, I am venting

Well, I for one do think this one is rather important. (But if others think it is off-topic, we can agree to disagree, and this is that last I will say on germs for now anyway, so here goes.)

It is now considered by smarter doctors healthier to raise children in a constant environment of low-level germs and allergens. This helps their immune system. You don't want spots of hot germs occasionally against a no-germ environment, but rather a constant low level.

The absolutely freakish level of people in American society with weird sicknesses and with allergies to the most bizarre things (e.g. wheat), beautifully and drily satirized in the superb Julianne Moore film SAFER, must be at least partially caused by the freakishly clean homes people keep. Hand sanitizers. Anti-bacteria soap. etc.

I admit (FedoraGent knows this) I am tempted to use hand sanitizer after handling money as E Coli is so prevalent on it. But how can a growing organism develop resistances without encountering germs and allergens constantly when a child?

Bring back the vintage germs.

 

[Minerva]

What is there to sign anymore besides greeting cards? Everything is done by email and electronic "signature". I admire anyone who was born within the past 15 years and has nice writing.

I still write checks! The State Archives don't take electrons for their document copies, and I need those documents for my genealogy research.

I miss letters, though. I send letters to relatives, and they email back. :eusa_doh:

Speaking of things that have disappeared, do they no longer make non-self-adhesive stamps? I miss licking stamps for letters, and our post office clerk said they don't stock them anymore. The peel and stick ones aren't the same.

 

[Kassia]

I
Speaking of things that have disappeared, do they no longer make non-self-adhesive stamps? I miss licking stamps for letters, and our post office clerk said they don't stock them anymore. The peel and stick ones aren't the same.

Hmmm to bad you dont live in Canada! I hate licking stamps and am glad we have peel and stick ones now..
Want me to send you some? LOL....

 

[Lady Day]

My family was POOR, so in the 80's we were able to get US Government canned pork, chicken, honey, cereal as cheese.

I remember loving to starkly generic graphics on the packages.

LD

 

[Flivver]

In the upper midwest it was likewise known as mercurochrome. It was tinted a horrible orange-red and was already losing ground when I was a wee sprog in the early '70s to newer preparations such as Bactine. If you got scraped or cut in the presence of an elderly relative, it might still have been treated with iodine (iodoform), which as it turned out really wasn't any great shakes as a germ killer.

We called it Mercurochrome in Central Mass too!

When I was a kid, Mercurochrome was a must for any cut or scrape. We boys viewed it as some kind of a badge of honor...announcing our injuries to the world. (This was when we were about five) I remember some of the better co-ordinated kids, who didn't skin their knees too often, having their Moms apply Mercurochrome to their un-skinned knees just so they could be part of the crowd.

 

[LizzieMaine]

My family was POOR, so in the 80's we were able to get US Government canned pork, chicken, honey, cereal as cheese.

I remember loving to starkly generic graphics on the packages.

LD

Oh, jeez -- talk about memory smacking one in the head. We got this stuff in the '70s, and I actually really really liked the cheese. Better than anything storebought, I thought. Well aged in the warehouse, I think.

The canned pork, though, was rough stuff. I'd take it to school, and people could tell *immediately* what it was, because nobody else made meat in a round can, and the thick slices were a dead giveaway. Kids could be vicious about such things, too, so to save face I'd cut the slices into a rectangle shape and tell everyone it was Spam.

I think my mother still has a sack or two of surplus corn meal buried in the back of the cupboard, just in case.

 

[Sunny]

Garbage cans(and men), now we have wheelie bins that the garbage truck lifts up,No labour required.

My city still has trash men! Good thing, too, because we have no place to put those huge ol' wheeled bins. Neighboring cities that them, though.

Having to call adults Mr/Mrs such and such. I believe it was worth a smack to call an adult by their first name.

I grew up doing that, and still do to my parents' friends. It's funny, now that I call everyone I work with (managers included) by their first names, but it's still Mr. and Mrs. when I see other people. And I'm only 25, by the way. I think these people will still be Mr. and Mrs. when I'm 50!

I still write checks, too. I like writing checks, and I keep better track of my money that way.

It is now considered by smarter doctors healthier to raise children in a constant environment of low-level germs and allergens. This helps their immune system. You don't want spots of hot germs occasionally against a no-germ environment, but rather a constant low level.

The absolutely freakish level of people in American society with weird sicknesses and with allergies to the most bizarre things (e.g. wheat), beautifully and drily satirized in the superb Julianne Moore film SAFER, must be at least partially caused by the freakishly clean homes people keep. Hand sanitizers. Anti-bacteria soap. etc.

I kind of agree with this, too. As Agatha Christie put it in one of her books, my mother brought up my brothers and me to absorb a healthy amount of dirt (and germs). lol

 

[carter]

Doctor's making house calls.
Doctor's with offices in houses rather than medical buildings or hospitals.
Howard Johnson's.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I grew up doing that, and still do to my parents' friends. It's funny, now that I call everyone I work with (managers included) by their first names, but it's still Mr. and Mrs. when I see other people. And I'm only 25, by the way. I think these people will still be Mr. and Mrs. when I'm 50!

I was taught growing up that you only called your peers by their first name --people your own age or younger. Everybody else was Mr. or Mrs. or Miss or Doctor, or Reverend, or whatever the title might be, *especially* teachers and other authority figures. This wasn't a sign of kowtowing, it was a recognition that they were entitled to a certain level of respect, that different people in society held different degrees of authority, and it was only appropriate to grant that recognition to them. Adults maintained a certain distance from kids then -- they didn't try to be peers or pals, because they *weren't* such and the Mr/Mrs. stuff was an acknowledgement of that. By contrast, my niece habitually calls her teachers by their first names -- and even hangs out with them after school, which makes no sense to me at all.

To this day I still call authority figures by titles rather than first names -- old habits die hard.

 

[BeBopBaby]

Oh, jeez -- talk about memory smacking one in the head. We got this stuff in the '70s, and I actually really really liked the cheese. Better than anything storebought, I thought. Well aged in the warehouse, I think.

Is it me, or did the cheese make the *best* grilled cheese sandwiches ever?

 

[Sunny]

To this day I still call authority figures by titles rather than first names -- old habits die hard.

I would want to at work, most likely; but it's a large corporate company and a first-name basis is expected. To insist on a title and last name here and now is not going to be taken as a sign of respect. It will make people uncomfortable, either making them feel old, or giving them impression of a formal stiffness or calling down, as when my parents used my full first, middle, and last names when I'm was in trouble way back when. At the worst, it makes me sound extremely pretensious, artificial, or stuck up.

Incidentally, the vast majority of my coworkers - my peers - are around or over 50. It is emphatically not a trendy, youngster-driven company.

I certainly never did - nor do now - call my teachers by their first names, except for a couple of T.A.'s who were nearly my peers.

 

[scotrace]

To this day I still call authority figures by titles rather than first names -- old habits die hard.

I am the same way about encountering former teachers. They will always be Miss Kennedy, Mr. Nixon, Mr. Lombardo,* even though they have long since granted permission to do otherwise. Also, anyone from the WWII generation (or older) automatically gets title-surname, because they have always been my elders. And I still prefer using title-surname until given permission to do otherwise, and prefer others treat me the same way.




*No relation to famous people.

 

[KittyT]

I just thought of one, lye soap. My mother swears that there is nothing better for getting dirty stuff clean. I guess she used one of her last bars (made by her grandmother) cleaning her first apartment after she got married.

Lye soap is GREAT! I used to use it to clean the dirty, pomade-caked collars of my ex's undershirts and it's incredible, though a bit labor intensive. It definitely requires scrubbing. You can buy it at (surprise, surprise!!) the Vermont Country Store.

There are gentle lye soaps that ladies used to use on their skin as well, since they leave no residue. My mom has been using lye soap on her skin and she loves it.

 

[olive bleu]

My teachers didn't even get their last names in there. They were just "Sir" & "Miss"