Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[HudsonHawk]

Checks still have their places, but those places are becoming fewer and fewer. Me, I shed no tears for their demise.

I wrote a check this morning sending in my vehicle registration. I noticed in my checkbook that the last check I wrote was for my vehicle registration last December.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I still pay most of my bills, from the mortgage to the light bill to the phone bill by check -- automatic withdrawal doesn't work for me, because I can never predict when I'll have enough money to go thru. I hold off sending checks until I know I've got enough funds to back them. Such is life.

 

[Fading Fast]

I still pay most of my bills, from the mortgage to the light bill to the phone bill by check -- automatic withdrawal doesn't work for me, because I can never predict when I'll have enough money to go thru. I hold off sending checks until I know I've got enough funds to back them. Such is life.

I sincerely get this - and if sometimes you have to come in a bit over the line, then it is what it is, but every company (I'd have to check to be absolutely sure, but believe this is true) I "autopay" takes the money out of my account on the last day possible which, since I used to send checks in with a little room for the variability of mail, means I actually pay later than I used to when I paid by mail.

And while small, I do save on stamps and envelopes. And I even use my credit card for autopay now so that I can also pick up the points.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I tend to consider "due dates" more as a suggestion. Sort of like "Dry Clean Only."

 

[Fading Fast]

I tend to consider "due dates" more as a suggestion. Sort of like "Dry Clean Only."

My dad believed that if your envelope had the postmark date of the due date, you had met your obligation.

"Dry Clean Only" is really manufacturer speak for "cover our butts" so that you can't sue us if you ruin your clothes in the washing machine. Obviously, some things truly are dry clean only, but we wash many "dry clean only" items in a machine without issue (and save a bunch of money).

"Refrigerate after Opening" is not one we screw around with though.

 

[2jakes]

"Shrink-To-Fit" blue jeans.

Still available but haven't bought a pair since I was a kid.

Actually, my folks bought the jeans for me that were super
long in the cuffs.

If you have seen Gene, Roy or
"early" John Wayne westerns...

you'll get the picture of how I
walked around as I headed
"into the sunset".

 

[sheeplady]

I've postdated a few checks in my life.

 

[2jakes]

One of my first jobs was as a salesclerk at Macy's.

One time, a customer, a really
sweet old lady, paid with a check.
She signed it, "JesusChrist".
I asked for an I.D.
She told me in a very gentle manner.
"Don't worry young man... have
faith.... and trust that it will be
taken care of."

It was so long ago, I don't recall
what happened afterwards.
I do recall feeling for a moment
like I was in that movie "Harvey"
with Jimmy Stewart. She was so
sweet, I didn't have the heart to
tell her otherwise.
I believe the mgr. took over.

 

[WineGuy]

I'm sure someone has said this already but I'm just too lazy to screen 257 pages for it..."manners"

 

[HudsonHawk]

I've postdated a few checks in my life.

Not really postdated checks, but there was a time when my regular routine was...let's see, if I write a check after 5 pm, they can't deposit until the next day, won't clear until the day after that, I get paid on Friday, I can take an early lunch to go to the bank to deposit my paycheck before noon...WooHoo...I can buy groceries on Wednesday!

 

[Trenchfriend]

I'm sure someone has said this already but I'm just too lazy to screen 257 pages for it..."manners"

Forget it. "Hedonistic era" is going on.

If you are using public transportation, always go secure and carry a musicplayer with earphones with you.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Mechanical "twist" doorbells in the middle of the front door. They were once as ubiquitous as the mail slot beneath them. Besides announcing a visitor,the postman would put your mail through the slot and give the doorbell a twist. I don't remember when I last saw one.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Believe it or not I sae a yellow stop sign today. It was old, made of steel and rusted.

 

[tonyb]

Believe it or not I sae a yellow stop sign today. It was old, made of steel and rusted.

Was it in its natural habitat? Or in an antique shop or some such?

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

I remember when stop signs and some other traffic signs had clear marbles embedded in them over a reflective backing. Of course, kids were always prying the marbles out of them.

 

[tonyb]

I remember when stop signs and some other traffic signs had clear marbles embedded in them over a reflective backing. Of course, kids were always prying the marbles out of them.

Oh yeah, those were still to found every now and then when I was a kid.

I can get a tad misty-eyed over some of what we've lost, such as the variations in traffic signs from state to state. But uniform signage nationwide just has to be better for interstate commerce and traffic safety.

There are still minor differences, though. In greater Denver are signs reading "no double turn." Out on the left coast it's "right turn from right lane only" or "left turn from left lane only." The numerals on the speed limit signs on I-5 in Oregon differ from those in Washington and California. Any others? Does Iowa still have those big yellow triangular "no passing zone" signs?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I saw my last active yellow stop sign about forty years ago --"THRU STOP WAY"-- and all others since then have been nailed to garage doors or for sale in antique stores. The yellow "YIELD" signs disappeared around then as well.

We still have a few marble-reflector signs on duty up in the backwoodsy parts of the state, although most have bullet holes in them. Maybe they figure there's no point in putting up new ones because they're just going to get shot. You also might see a few of them in the cruddier sections of rail yards.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

The sign I saw was at the exit of a parking lot.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Oh yeah, those were still to found every now and then when I was a kid.

I can get a tad misty-eyed over some of what we've lost, such as the variations in traffic signs from state to state. But uniform signage nationwide just has to be better for interstate commerce and traffic safety.

There are still minor differences, though. In greater Denver are signs reading "no double turn." Out on the left coast it's "right turn from right lane only" or "left turn from left lane only." The numerals on the speed limit signs on I-5 in Oregon differ from those in Washington and California. Any others? Does Iowa still have those big yellow triangular "no passing zone" signs?

The Interstates in California don't have the green mile markers that every other state I've been in have. Instead they have tiny markings down on the curb that are hard to see. I always found that annoying.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Billboards. I don't mean outdoor signs, I mean the actual wooden structures upon which advertising signs were pasted. They were made of telephone-pole sized posts driven deep into the ground alongside a road, with a wooden framework built onto them holding up a long row of flat boards, or plywood sheets, onto which the advertisng would be glued. Usually there was a wooden catwalk attached to the front for the bill-posters to stand on when changing the ad. These were much more substantial-looking than the aluminum poles with vinyl banners stretched over them that show up as soon as you cross the New Hampshire border.

Billboards were banned in Maine in the 1970s, and nearly all of these structures were demolished and removed. I only know of one that survived, in my home town, which was taken over by a campground and repurposed into a sign for the business. But driving by it today on the way to my mother's house, I noticed that the campground has closed and the billboard is painted over -- which suggests its demolition may be imminent. The last survivor of something that was once so common and familiar you hardly even noticed it.