Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[LizzieMaine]

When's the last time anybody saw a bottle of Hires root beer? In the Era, Hires was the unquestioned king of all root beers, the only one to have full national distribution across the United States, and it remained the market leader at least into the 1980s. When I wanted root beer, and wasn't near a fountain offering RICHardson's on draft, I reached for Hires. But I can't remember the last time I saw it in a store or a vending machine -- and I read now that its latest corporate owner is phasing it out in favor of A&W, which it also owns.

But "phasing out" implies it's still sold somewhere, in small quantities. Not anywhere around here, certainly. The only trace of it left is my ironing bottle, which originally contained twelve ounces of Hires.

Among other things, Hires made the best-tasting homemade frozen root beer popsicles.

 

[Trenchfriend]

What I've noticed is that men's sizing has stayed pretty consistent over my life. I'm 6'1", 150lbs and have been since thirty years ago when I was in college. My "sizes" have been 32 waist, 33 length, 15 neck, 34 sleeve, medium fit shirt, 40L suit or sport coat. A particular brand or style might cause me to buy a 31 or 33 waist, but 90%+ of the time I'm a 32. But the "cut" of those items have fluctuated as, for example, in the 1990s, the "big" trend was in and a medium shirt would have the right neck size and sleeve length for me but the arm holes were cut low and there was a general "loose" fit to the garment with a lot of extra material. Now, I buy a medium and the neck size and sleeve length are just like in the '90s and fit me fine, but the shirt has high arm holes and very little extra fabric.

During that time period though, my girlfriend who is also very consistent in her body size at 5'11" and about 135lbs, but she has gone from being an 6-8 and sometimes a 10 in almost everything, to a 4-8 today as "vanity" sizing kicked in. Apparently, "vanity" sizing is when the manufacturers label the larger sizes smaller to make the wearer feel better about buying it. This is why craziness like size "0" exists because as they "reduced the 10s to 8s and 8s to 6s, etc., the smaller sizes had to go down so, "0" came into being as a size. All this drives my girlfriend nuts as she likes to buy her clothes on-line and all this gamesmanship with sizing makes her have to either guess or order two sizes and return one - very silly.

Luckily, today, I visited the old-fashioned "Karstadt" again, after visiting my usual "Adler"-clothing store, and at Karstadt, they still got my size 32"/32" on seemingly every modell of jeans and simple cotton-trousers! Like always, a good idea, to visit both stores.

I took two from different storebrands, with the beige colour, I was searching for and tried on. And both were fitting absolutely nice and correct, just like a 32/32 has to fit!
I took the one with the better build quality and I'm still happy to got what I wanted, for combining with my jeans-jacket. But, this well made storebrands aren't that cheap. Partly, they are costing the same, like original brands, for example Pioneer, Paddocks, Wrangler and so on. Means 49,99 Euro.

PS: Today, I further saw on the washing-tag of my old-fashioned, black and heavy robust Mustang-jeans from circa 2003, that 32/32 = "46". Ah, so I got "46" below and "48" above. But the usual trousers-sizes, here in Germany, are still the old inch-sizes.

 

[ChrisB]

When's the last time anybody saw a bottle of Hires root beer? In the Era, Hires was the unquestioned king of all root beers, the only one to have full national distribution across the United States, and it remained the market leader at least into the 1980s. When I wanted root beer, and wasn't near a fountain offering RICHardson's on draft, I reached for Hires. But I can't remember the last time I saw it in a store or a vending machine -- and I read now that its latest corporate owner is phasing it out in favor of A&W, which it also owns.

But "phasing out" implies it's still sold somewhere, in small quantities. Not anywhere around here, certainly. The only trace of it left is my ironing bottle, which originally contained twelve ounces of Hires.

Among other things, Hires made the best-tasting homemade frozen root beer popsicles.

Since safrole, the main ingredient in root beer (derived from sassafras root) was banned by the FDA, real root beer is no longer available.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Since safrole, the main ingredient in root beer (derived from sassafras root) was banned by the FDA, real root beer is no longer available.

Barq's Root Beer, Hires' main competition in the early days, made their root beer from sarsaparilla rather than sassafras, and I assume they still do. Interestingly, sodas marketed as "sarsaparilla" at the time were made from sassafras, not sarsaparilla.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Aah, also that was the name of this haircut!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beehive_(hairstyle)

 

[vitanola]

Aah, also that was the name of this haircut!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beehive_(hairstyle)

"Sasparilla"? "Root Beer"? Never heard of a "B-52" called either of those.

 

[plain old dave]

Shortwave radio. The ORIGINAL alt-news media. I actually miss Radio Moscow... Even before you listened long enough to tell it was RM, you could tell their audio quality (or lack thereof) immediately. They always sounded like they were broadcasting from one of the old wooden phone booths in the old Main Post Office in downtown Knoxville.

 

[vitanola]

Oh, how I miss Deutsche Welle! Such music!

 

[LizzieMaine]

I was fascinated by "Moscow Mailbag" as a kid, and always wanted to write him a letter. But my mother told me the FBI would get me if I did.

I also enjoyed listening to ball games on "American Forces" radio. In those pre-internet days it was the only way to hear all the different broadcast teams. "This is Ken Allan from AFRTS Control in Washington DC!"

I still listen to Radio Habana Cuba, which comes in loud and strong on the 49 meter band every night, and Radio Romania is still on the air as well. But it's depressing to scan the bands and get little else but American crackpot fundamentalists, gold-hoarders, and survivalists. And they're not even entertaining. At least Pastor Gene Scott was worth a laugh or two.

 

[plain old dave]

I was fascinated by "Moscow Mailbag" as a kid, and always wanted to write him a letter. But my mother told me the FBI would get me if I did.

I also enjoyed listening to ball games on "American Forces" radio. In those pre-internet days it was the only way to hear all the different broadcast teams. "This is Ken Allan from AFRTS Control in Washington DC!"

I still listen to Radio Habana Cuba, which comes in loud and strong on the 49 meter band every night, and Radio Romania is still on the air as well. But it's depressing to scan the bands and get little else but American crackpot fundamentalists, gold-hoarders, and survivalists. And they're not even entertaining. At least Pastor Gene Scott was worth a laugh or two.

Yeah, the Internet has not been good to SWLing. I tried to QSL Radio Moscow several times, and only got a card after they became the Voice Of Russia. ..

Sent from my SM-G386T using Tapatalk

 

[PeterB]

We

When's the last time anybody saw a bottle of Hires root beer? In the Era, Hires was the unquestioned king of all root beers, the only one to have full national distribution across the United States, and it remained the market leader at least into the 1980s. When I wanted root beer, and wasn't near a fountain offering RICHardson's on draft, I reached for Hires. But I can't remember the last time I saw it in a store or a vending machine -- and I read now that its latest corporate owner is phasing it out in favor of A&W, which it also owns.

But "phasing out" implies it's still sold somewhere, in small quantities. Not anywhere around here, certainly. The only trace of it left is my ironing bottle, which originally contained twelve ounces of Hires.

Among other things, Hires made the best-tasting homemade frozen root beer popsicles.

We had Hires in Canada. Haven't thought of it for about 50 years.

 

[GHT]

There was a time when parents named their children with biblical names, then a trend set in of naming babies by a family or surname. That trend rolled on and now there are contrived names. I had no idea that Nevaeh was heaven spelt backwards. Yesterday I came across a young fellow by the name of Izak, his mother went to great lengths to make sure that it wasn't spelt Isaac. If the little guy had been called that in the 50's, his life would have been a misery in a British school. The name of the manufacturer of that course, sandpaper, toilet tissue was Izal. My name is Robert, I haven't met a young Robert, say under 30, ever. It's not that I don't mix with younger generations, far from it, I go to dances, classic car meets and bars, many of which are frequented by youngsters, but their names are more likely to be Sky, Summer or Brogan.
It doesn't really matter of course, unless you are the Zapper child: Moon Unit, is really OTT. However, there is name discrimination, I've yet to see a TV journalist called Chardonnay. Come the day that little Izak is in the job market, I wonder if, after a fruitless job search, he might spell his name on the application: Isaac?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Alternate spellings of common names were a fad in the early years of the twentieth century among the middle classes. There were a lot of girls named "Ysobel" rampant on college campuses in the twenties. And contrived names were around, too -- one of the most famous murder victims of the early thirties was a 25-year-old upper-class woman from Boston named "Starr Faithfull."

 

[Fading Fast]

My guess, if enough kids have these types of names, then when they go for job interviews it won't matter because the names won't sound "off" to their peers and even if the hiring managers are older, then they'll adjust to the names of the younger pool of workers. Also, this generation has been raised to be so nonjudgmental and free of any bias that bias toward a name would be an anathema to them. Some parents will always look for outlier names, thus some kids will always have to carry that through life - and if, for some, it's a speed bump, then so be it, life has plenty of speed bumps.

 

[GHT]

When The Beckhams named their first born Brooklyn, the British press had a field day with their mockery, especially after Victoria explained that Brooklyn is where their child was conceived. Popular social media wasn't around then, although we might have had: MySpace. How I wish that I could have commented a reply to a particularly nasty piece of vindictive. Rudyard Kipling was also named after his place of conception, the Kiplings were living in a cottage in an area known as The Lake District, in the village of Rudyard. I might have added my own piece of of vindictive nastiness by suggesting that it wasn't Walt Disney who wrote The Jungle Book, it was Rudyard Kipling.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The American radio comedienne Portland Hoffa, wife/comedy partner of Fred Allen, was so named because she was born in 1905 in Portland, Oregon. Her father, a waggish optometrist named Dr. Frederick Hoffa, insisted that his first three children be named after their birthplaces, so along with Portland there were Lebanon (Pennsylvania) and Harlem (New York.) The fourth Hoffa child came as a surprise, and was expected to be the last one, so she was named "Lastone." That would have been the end of it, except that not long after there came a fifth -- and Dr. Hoffa decided to go all out and name her "Doctor Fredericka Hoffa."

All the Hoffa kids grew up with their dad's sense of humor, which was no doubt a comfort in their later lives. Doctor, however, eventually dropped her first name and went by "Fred."

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^ Do what you like, but you've tipped a bit too far into crazyland when you are naming your kid "Doctor Fredericka Hoffa." Of course, as an adult, she would drop the "doctor" thing, how stupid and confusing would that be?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Doctor Fredericka grew up to become a psychology major, although she never got her doctorate. Doctor Doctor Fredericka Hoffa would have been too much. She did, however, go on to live a life of quiet anonymity in the Pacific Northwest, and always kept a sense of humor about her name. She passed away about ten years ago, and did not have children of her own.

 

[GHT]

She passed away about ten years ago, and did not have children of her own.

Had she done so, would they have been her children or her patients?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I imagine she'd have lost her patients by then.