Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[2jakes]

^^^ It's tough to say as it definitely isn't the full-on whoosh we all know.......

One of the things that still has a “full-on whoosh” .

Dr. Pepper in a bottle is another, depending on the temperature.

 

[belfastboy]

Had my tonsils out when I was four, and emerged from it able to do all sorts of different voices. It stood me well in radio for a long time, which kind of makes up for the crappy oatmeal and *no ice cream* I got in the hospital.

When my older sister had hers out I was pissed. She got to eat ice cream all she wanted, for days. I wanted to have mine taken out, I was desparate. But, alas I still have mine but on the upside I can still sing the tenor parts.

 

[BobHufford]

One of the things that still has a “full-on whoosh” .

Tried to find tennis balls in the sporting goods section of a rural Wal-Mart (not to play tennis ... I needed to replace a make-shift drain plug in the laundry room). Nothing tennis related there, but I did find some in the dog toys section.

 

[LizzieMaine]

For that matter, when was the last time anybody saw a *white* tennis ball?

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Passenger buses haven't entirely disappeared, but they have become exceedingly uncommon. 30+ years ago, when traveling on major highways it seemed that every third or fourth vehicle you saw was a long-range passenger bus, usually Greyhound or Trailways, but there were many smaller lines. Now I can drive for hundreds of miles on the Interstates without lying eyes on a bus. They've gone the way of the passenger train and the streetcar.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We still have Trailways here, but it seems to be mostly a short line to Boston and back, since we have no passenger rail service, and the local airport is the bunk. Having gone New York to LA in three days twice on a Greyhound Americruiser, transcontinental bus service offers decidedly mixed memories. I enjoyed seeing the country, but I could have done without the smelly fat guy sitting next to me for half the trip, sucking on a stinking black rope cigar.

I thought the experience was going to be like in "It Happened One Night," with everybody having singalongs to "Man On The Flying Trapeze" and having intriguing romantic adventures in tourist camps, but alas, it was not.

 

[Fading Fast]

Passenger buses haven't entirely disappeared, but they have become exceedingly uncommon. 30+ years ago, when traveling on major highways it seemed that every third or fourth vehicle you saw was a long-range passenger bus, usually Greyhound or Trailways, but there were many smaller lines. Now I can drive for hundreds of miles on the Interstates without lying eyes on a bus. They've gone the way of the passenger train and the streetcar.

My guess, airfare is so cheap - if you search hard enough, are flexible, etc. - that it made bus travel impartial.

My girlfriend is going home to see her parents for a few days (they are older and we like to check in a few times during the year in addition to our going home at Christmas) this upcoming week. We searched for the cheapest fare for a few months as she can be flexible since the trip's purpose is to see them "this summer."

For a little less than $300, she got a direct round-trip flight from NYC to MI - I've never priced a bus, but I know that it beats the price of a train and is a heck of a lot quicker. Also, unless the bus is insanely cheaper, sitting on a bus for how many days / hours versus a two hour flight - if you can afford the difference - that decision is easy. We aren't talking about $1000 versus $100. My quick internet search showed the bus would cost around $150 (and that's before I find out what the "extras" are). For about $150 difference, I personally would skip lunch for three weeks to fly versus taking a bus. That said, there is a reason why they call airplanes buses in the skies these days as the plane will have all the elegance of Lizzie's description of her cross country Trailways trip.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Passenger buses haven't entirely disappeared, but they have become exceedingly uncommon. 30+ years ago, when traveling on major highways it seemed that every third or fourth vehicle you saw was a long-range passenger bus, usually Greyhound or Trailways, but there were many smaller lines. Now I can drive for hundreds of miles on the Interstates without lying eyes on a bus. They've gone the way of the passenger train and the streetcar.

It was always the transportation mode of last resort. My best neighborhood childhood friend's dad was an exec for Greyhound, and even he (the kid) would prefer to be put on a train or a plane when sent out of state to visit his grandparents.

Riding the Dog was something I hated doing even in college when home was less than 200 miles away. Amtrak coach class wasn't a hell of a lot better in the early to mid 70's: I quickly learned that the extra twenty buck back then (a lot more now) to get a roomette or a parlor car seat (when I did a summer internship in another city and went home for a weekend) was money well spent. I preferred the solitude and quiet as it accorded a chance to study or read in quiet. My dad thought that I was throwing good money away, but to me it was money well spent. The coaches were usually filled with either pot smoking college kids heading to one of the several universities on the line, enlisted Air Force types going to and from a major installation, or families with screechy kids heading off to visit their extended kin.

And I often would put on a coat and tie when travelling if I planned on taking dinner in the dining car: found that it really made a difference in how I was treated. I always tipped well, providing I got at least passible service, as well: just because you're a starving college kid does not give one the right to stiff hardworking people.

 

[BobHufford]

We have a fairly new Greyhound station and there are still many charters going through on their way to Branson, Missouri.

 

[Fading Fast]

...My dad thought that I was throwing good money away, but to me it was money well spent....

I quickly learned that there were some things it was so much better to just not tell my Dad or to even outright lie to him. Sorry if that sounds morally wrong, but he was a depression era kid and would never understand why I bought things like a walkman ("and now you are going to buy tapes, too, when you can hear the music for free on the radio"). So I learned to not tell him things or outright lie if I could - sometimes, life is about getting through the day without an unnecessary dust up and if a harmless lie helps, I'm all for it.

And, like you, I'd gladly pay up for a bit of privacy on a train trip. I am always amazed at how loud some people are on planes or trains, etc. - I am always trying not to disturb others. Amtrak, on some lines, now has a quiet car - no phones, only low-voice conversation, etc. - it's heaven and doesn't even cost extra.

 

[Zombie_61]

Buses are still the prevalent form of public transportation here in the Los Angeles area of southern California. If you see one of the long-range passenger buses they're usually ferrying groups of tourists to Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, or Universal Studios, or they're taking senior citizens to Las Vegas.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Greyhound was $99 non-stop coast to coast in the early '80s, when I made my trips. That included the local connection to New York, and the single Americruiser bus that made the NY to LA haul, as well as a connection from LA to anywhere else in California that you wanted to go. No plane fare in those days came anywhere close to that.

The bus itself was very comfortable, but as ChiTown says the passengers were a very motley lot, and the bus stations where you stopped along the way to eat were in the shabbiest parts of town and were usually dingy, dirty and not particularly appetizing places to get food. Most of them either incorporated a Burger King -- which was considered the lowest of low-end fast food in 1983 -- or Automat-type vending machines where you could get cold sandwiches in those wedge-shaped plastic containers. The only sit-down dining, as in counter-and-stool sit-down, was at the station in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where I got a plate of fried chicken that I wolfed down, and then violenty separated from about fifty miles down the highway.

The worst part, the very worst part of a three day cross-country bus trip is that the first thoughts you have when getting off the bus are (1.) "Los Angeles is the foulest-smelling hole of a city on the planet," and (2.) "Where can I buy a box of Ex-Lax?"

 

[Trenchfriend]

The worst part, the very worst part of a three day cross-country bus trip is that the first thoughts you have when getting off the bus are (1.) "Los Angeles is the foulest-smelling hole of a city on the planet,"

Ugh, the same dark, moist and rotten smell of L.A., coming from the TV-device, when you are watching "Blade Runner"??

 

[LizzieMaine]

The best way I can describe it is the smell of an old sweat sock that's been pulled over the tailpipe of a car in chronic need of a ring job and a tuneup. At least that's how it smelled in 1983. I haven't been back since to see if they've improved it any.

 

[Trenchfriend]

The best way I can describe it is the smell of an old sweat sock that's been pulled over the tailpipe of a car in chronic need of a ring job and a tuneup. At least that's how it smelled in 1983. I haven't been back since to see if they've improved it any.

Aah, sounds like the musty smell of "good old" brown-coal-heating.

 

[2jakes]

For that matter,
when was the last time anybody saw a *white* tennis ball?

Summer of ’63 in San Antonio, Texas.

Still have the ball.... probably good for another set.
I can’t say the same for the racket though.

Aaaaah....there’s nothing like the smell of old sweat Converse that
have been sitting in the rear seat of my ’63 VW beetle in the summer heat.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

When I was a kid & my family & I flew into LA in the 90's I remember descending in the plane & going through a cloud that was very dark grey. Turns out it was smog.

 

[ChiTownScion]

I still ache when I think of my last 24 hours in a coach Amtrak trip. Wife and baby flew down to Texas to see the in-laws, and she thought that since I liked trains, I might like going by rail. She wouldn't pop for a roomette so I was stuck sitting up all night in a coach seat both ways.

Wasn't too bad, by most standards: I shared my seat with young ladies both ways, one who was working her way through college (or so she told me... and I'm gullible enough to fall for it) by stripping in clubs up in Hamilton Ontario. I brought a couple bottles of cold champagne and a couple of flute glasses for such an occasion. As I recall we discussed art, history, and film. Bad part is that the train home was about 12 hours late, and my back was so messed up from that entire escapade that I ached for weeks.

I was 35: too damn old to be putting up with that. From now on when I ride Amtrak, it's a sleeper for ALL overnight trips. A 3 day coast to coast on a bus as our Miss Lizzie related? Just shoot me... it's more humane.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Looking it up just now, I could be on a bus to LA tonight for $255 one way. That's not too bad an increase over thirty-three years.

 

[tonyb]

Looking it up just now, I could be on a bus to LA tonight for $255 one way. That's not too bad an increase over thirty-three years.

But you could find a better airfare, provided you didn't have to go RIGHT NOW!
What's the best the silver dog can do for travel in a month or so?