Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[BobHufford]

The Ice Cream Truck... Everyday after school... Hasn't been in my parts since the 80's...

The Kiddie-Kart Ice Cream company has been sounding the familiar "ding-ding, ding-ding" around here (Springfield, Missouri) since 1961. They were taken over by Jack's Ice Cream (out of Joplin) this past year, but are still using the traditional, open-top, Jeep CJ-5 to cruise the neighborhoods.

These kids are a bit older than most.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Air raid sirens were a thing of the past when I was a kid. I think there was a resurgence in them in the 'duck and cover' era, but that was before my time, too (I was born in 1969).
I have seen several over the years in various places repurposed as tornado or tsunami warnings, though.

In the industrial parts of Houston near the refineries and chemical plants (Pasadena, Deer Park, LaPorte, etc) they have warning sirens and a broadcast system for use in the event of a chemical release. They test them weekly, so you can still hear the siren go off at noon on Thursdays. And while schools don't "duck and cover" anymore, they occasionally have to "shelter in place".

 

[BobHufford]

We have a tornado siren just across the street from us. Drives the dog nuts when they test it.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

My wife just made one for a movie. Or rather, decorated one. She got hold of tons of NOS stickers with all the old ice cream treats, etc. and of course it turned out fantastic. We still have them here in Pasadena, but I would not let a kid within 100 yards of them! It's not your Dad's Good Humor truck!

I spent my summers in the '50s in the Linda Vista neighborhood of Pasadena. I still remember the music played by the ice cream truck that caused a Pavlovian frenzy among the neighborhood kids who came out frantically to buy fudgesickles and dreamsickles. A few years ago, here in the tiny town in New Mexico where I live now, we had an ice cream truck working the town and it was playing exactly the same music!

 

[Stearmen]

The Ice Cream Truck... Everyday after school... Hasn't been in my parts since the 80's...

We still have them. On a funny note, a friend of mine had a car shop over in an industrial area, during the summer the ice cream truck would come by. The first time I heard the truck I said, that's weird, why is he hear, my friend said, "wait," sure enough here comes all these men out of the near by shop, lining up, to funny!

 

[Stearmen]

For a period, I lived near an Army base.It was routine to hear the morning reveille & evening call of the trumpet.
Like all things, it was replaced by a speaker/recording of the trumpet. Imagine listening to this when
the record would get stuck.

Then there was the National Anthem played at the end of the day in the days when televisions sets
required a rabbit & you had to get near the box to adjust the vertical & horizontal controls.
The only remotes available was small transistor radios.

When the weather is right, I can hear Reveille, Retreat, and Taps from the nearby Air Force base. Have to remind my self, I don't have to get up!

 

[Zombie_61]

Air raid sirens were a thing of the past when I was a kid. I think there was a resurgence in them in the 'duck and cover' era, but that was before my time, too (I was born in 1969)...

The "air raid" (or whatever it was) siren in our neighborhood was mounted on the roof of a phone company building about a mile from my parents' house, and they tested it every Friday at 11:00 a.m. until some time around 1980 (I think) when they tore the building down. After that, I suppose our "warning" would have been the sound of the missiles exploding as they hit their targets.

 

[GHT]

In the 1950's and up to the Cuban missile incident in 1962, we had, what was termed, the four minute warning. Meaning that if the warning sounded for real, we could expect a nuclear explosion within four minutes, that being the flight time from picking up the missile on radar to the point of impact. Four minutes was so pathetic that it was a popular source of jokes in the press. One letter stated that four minutes wasn't enough time to boil the water to make a last hot drink. that was followed by a very comical piece by a woman who said her love life was so quick that her husband could have foreplay, sex and a cigarette within four minutes.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We still have them. On a funny note, a friend of mine had a car shop over in an industrial area, during the summer the ice cream truck would come by. The first time I heard the truck I said, that's weird, why is he hear, my friend said, "wait," sure enough here comes all these men out of the near by shop, lining up, to funny!

We still have ice cream trucks here, but they stopped coming down my street about ten years ago, when the last of the neighborhood kids passed out of the age range where ice cream trucks are a source of excitement. Which annoyed me because the ice cream truck is the only place you can get a root beer popsicle without having to buy all the other repulsive flavors that come in the "multi flavor box."

We also still have a horse-drawn vegetable wagon -- it's a converted milk wagon, but I don't think the vegetable guy is very particular. It causes great annoyance to tourists in the summer by holding up traffic downtown, which causes me to say "More power to him. And to his horse."

 

[DNO]

Ice cream trucks are still a daily visitor on my street during the summer and have been for a long time. It's still popular with neighbourhood kids.

Barber shops have been mentioned before. There was a period when they all seemed to disappear, yielding to 'hair salons' but I've started to notice a resurgence here in Toronto. Barber shops have been springing up here and there, complete with red and white barber poles...with no mention of 'salon' or 'styling'. Interesting.

 

[Fading Fast]

Ice cream trucks are still a daily visitor on my street during the summer and have been for a long time. It's still popular with neighbourhood kids.

Barber shops have been mentioned before. There was a period when they all seemed to disappear, yielding to 'hair salons' but I've started to notice a resurgence here in Toronto. Barber shops have been springing up here and there, complete with red and white barber poles...with no mention of 'salon' or 'styling'. Interesting.

Same thing in NYC. As you noted, the ones opening up have a vintage vibe - the big old barber chairs and, in some, even barbers in those old-style barber smocks - which, I bet, ties into the whole Hipster "authenticity" thing.

 

[BobHufford]

We also still have a horse-drawn vegetable wagon

I remember a fellow in the 1960s that would sell tamales from a insulated box on the back of a large tricycle. It still seems like an odd choice of product to peddle (pedal?) throughout the neighborhoods in mid-century Springfield Missouri.

I hope to be that guy after I retire ...

 

[Bamaboots]

We still have ice cream trucks (vans) that cover the neighborhoods during the summer. They're owned and operated by a group from Poland who bring over a group of college age kids to operate them. They rent apartments for them and at the end of the season they return to Poland.

The group that I'm aware of operate a coal delivery service, for home heating during the winter months in Poland.

 

[philosophygirl78]

We still have ice cream trucks (vans) that cover the neighborhoods during the summer. They're owned and operated by a group from Poland who bring over a group of college age kids to operate them. They rent apartments for them and at the end of the season they return to Poland.

The group that I'm aware of operate a coal delivery service, for home heating during the winter months in Poland.

that's very neat!

 

[scottyrocks]

The air raid siren was on my street, on a high pole in front of my cousins' house, and God help you if you were standing in front of it when it went off. Our town blew what we called "the dinner whistle" every day at 11:30 am, and sounded it again as a curfew at 9:15 pm. Even today when I hear a siren go off in, say, a movie about the London Blitz, my first thought is that it's time to eat.

Pavlov would be proud.

 

[scottyrocks]

The grocery delivery boy dissappeared in my lifetime. I used to do that in high school when I worked in the grocery. Customers would call in their orders, I'd do the shopping and then deliver the groceries by pickup truck and collect the money.

Some groceries around here have recently started to take phone or internet orders and do the shopping but you have to drive over and pick up the groceries yourself.

Drug stores used to deliver, too.

We have a store here called Stop-n-Shop that has a service called Peapod. Shop and pay online, schedule a delivery window, and a truck comes to the house with your groceries.

 

[scottyrocks]

Carnation Malted chocolate & original powder were acquired by Nestlé in 1985.
It has changed in flavor & content.
The closest to the taste I recall is by combining Carnation chocolate powder with Hershey’s
Natural Unsweetened powder which is 100 % Cacoa. And at best, this is mostly
wishful thinking on my part.

There was also Kraft Chocolate Malted Milk Powder which came in square
tin cans, but that also has gone the way of the Dodo.

Ovaltine (an acquired taste) was another favorite that was available
in chocolate crystals. This has changed .
Although the BFM would have us believe that it’s the same flavor since
the bottles are stamped “original flavor”. It’s not.

I need to check into Horlick’s. Thanks.

Fox's u-bet is still made in the same place it's been for over a hundred years, right in the neighborhood in which I work. Driving by there is like driving by a good steakhouse or deli. The smell makes me wanna stop in and sample the goods.

 

[Zombie_61]

In the 1950's and up to the Cuban missile incident in 1962, we had, what was termed, the four minute warning. Meaning that if the warning sounded for real, we could expect a nuclear explosion within four minutes, that being the flight time from picking up the missile on radar to the point of impact. Four minutes was so pathetic that it was a popular source of jokes in the press. One letter stated that four minutes wasn't enough time to boil the water to make a last hot drink. that was followed by a very comical piece by a woman who said her love life was so quick that her husband could have foreplay, sex and a cigarette within four minutes.

That's ridiculous. I've never been able to smoke a cigarette in under five minutes.

 

[Stearmen]

Ice cream trucks are still a daily visitor on my street during the summer and have been for a long time. It's still popular with neighbourhood kids.

Barber shops have been mentioned before. There was a period when they all seemed to disappear, yielding to 'hair salons' but I've started to notice a resurgence here in Toronto. Barber shops have been springing up here and there, complete with red and white barber poles...with no mention of 'salon' or 'styling'. Interesting.

They are making a come back here also! Ironically, my new Barbour is a young lady. She does a great job, she will also shave or trim your beard, and shave my neck, complete with hot towel, my favorite part of the haircut!

 

[GHT]

Does anyone still have coin operated phone booths? I can't remember seeing one in London for years. The cell phone has all but killed off the need for public phones, but our phone companies are duty bound, in law, to still provide them, so they make them credit/debit card use only. That way they save on the cost of emptying the coin box and the risk of theft of said coin boxes.
Someone told me that more money is made from selling off our iconic red phone booths than is made from their proper use as a public telephone.