Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[The one from the North]

An aunt of mine went to Sweden for holidays every year and always returned with a trunk full of bottled blueberries she made there, pure childhood goodness.

Blueberry season in full swing here!

 

[Trenchfriend]

Blueberry season in full swing here!

WTH? Do they still have Tchernobyl power in??

 

[The one from the North]

WTH? Do they still have Tchernobyl power in??

Of course! What do you think keeps me ticking...

 

[tonyb]

I see it was mentioned back in 2010, so I figure it’s been long enough ago now to mention it again …

Free roadmaps at the gas station. I have a couple-three of ‘em, among my collections of vintage paper ephemera. And I have one from 2020 in the same folding format, courtesy of the Arizona Office of Tourism. It features a photo of a ‘56 Chevy station wagon with vintage luggage strapped to its roof rack, on a scenic road near Sedona, by the looks of it.

Nostalgia sells. I picked up the map off the rack full of other touristy stuff at a car rental place.

 

[LostInTyme]

I loved road maps. Everywhere I ever travelled, I picked them up, for free, as you well know. I always had a stack of them in my "glove compartment" when they actually were big enough to hold more than a checkbook.

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

^^^I wonder if AAA still gives them out??
Now that i think about it i wonder if AAA even exists??
B

 

[LostInTyme]

AAA still exists. You can get "trip ticks" but I'm not sure about generaL road maps.

 

[tonyb]

Oh yes, AAA still exists. My missus sees to it we are members, and it has come in handy on a couple of occasions. I doubt it has saved us what our membership has cost in the time we’ve had it, but c’est la vie, as we say in the trailer park.

I haven’t used a paper roadmap in several years. Smartphones with mapping apps pretty well spelled the end of it, for most people, anyway. I haven’t had to ask for nor give driving directions since I can’t remember when.

What paper maps have over the apps is in their imparting a sense of the “big picture.” A paper map of the territory of which a person wishes to gain a general familiarity gives him just that: a bird’s eye view of an unfamiliar city or region.

 

[Woodtroll]

What paper maps have over the apps is in their imparting a sense of the “big picture.” A paper map of the territory of which a person wishes to gain a general familiarity gives him just that: a bird’s eye view of an unfamiliar city or region.

That's exactly right, and one reason that I will never let go completely of paper maps. Onboard GPS has its place, especially if you keep the device's mapping software up to date. But having learned map and compass in Scouting before I was a teenager, and continuing to use them throughout my careers in forestry and the fire service, I really appreciate being able to unfold a couple more sections and see the big picture without losing the fine detail. Try that with a video screen!

Pre-GPS, my wife turned into an excellent map reader, navigator, and co-pilot on our camping and travel adventures. She was almost offended when I bought a GPS for our truck.

 

[Trenchfriend]

GPS??

In th 90s, we didn't need these super tech! We only had to follow the street, haha...

Bundesstraße 85 – Wikipedia

de.wikipedia.org

 

[Turnip]

And before, in GDR/DDR, the road maps for private use had several blind spots, invisible roads and/or distorted areas in order to disorient all kinds of „enemies“ and potential republic escapees.

 

[Trenchfriend]

And before, in GDR/DDR, the road maps for private use had several blind spots, invisible roads and/or distorted areas in order to disorient all kinds of „enemies“ and potential republic escapees.

And Brocken-maps were not more published...

 

[tonyb]

I’ve been told that map publishers would deliberately put minor inaccuracies in the maps so as to catch cheating competitors who copy their work.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Team 2007s maps navi (GPS) device. Anyone else?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I’ve been told that map publishers would deliberately put minor inaccuracies in the maps so as to catch cheating competitors who copy their work.

Complilations of statitistics, such as the old "Baseball Guide" that used to be published every year, used to also do this -- one-digit "errors" buried deep in a table, or a name deliberately misspelled.

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

I’ve been told that map publishers would deliberately put minor inaccuracies in the maps so as to catch cheating competitors who copy their work.

Ahh…as Clouseau would say “the old be the deceiver to catch the deceiver ploy”.

That’s is vintage but don’t think it will ever go away.
B

 

[tonyb]

Hitchhiking.

It hasn’t disappeared entirely, but I rarely see hitchhikers anymore.

I hitched quite a bit in my late teens and well into my 20s, on trips of a mile or so to 3,000 miles or more. And that wasn’t at all unusual back then, not among the people I knew, at any rate. I doubt that’s common among young people these days.

My Dear Old Ma tells of her and her childhood friends hitchhiking out to the countryside to pick up a little work in the fields. But that was then. The very thought of little girls hitchhiking might send shudders down modern-day spines.

 

[belfastboy]

Oh yes, AAA still exists. My missus sees to it we are members, and it has come in handy on a couple of occasions. I doubt it has saved us what our membership has cost in the time we’ve had it, but c’est la vie, as we say in the trailer park.

I haven’t used a paper roadmap in several years. Smartphones with mapping apps pretty well spelled the end of it, for most people, anyway. I haven’t had to ask for nor give driving directions since I can’t remember when.

What paper maps have over the apps is in their imparting a sense of the “big picture.” A paper map of the territory of which a person wishes to gain a general familiarity gives him just that: a bird’s eye view of an unfamiliar city or region.

When we travelled in the motorhome...I drove, my wife was the navigator. We had our Garmin GPS but my wife also had a large format spiral bound Rand McNally Road Atlas of the USA open and on her lap. We would peruse it each night to plot our route and she used as we did not fully trust the Garmin.

We lost the Rand McNally a few years back and for our next road trip to Kentucky, NC and Tennessee I bought me a new Rand Road Atlas. It is big and I doubt we take it with us but it sure was fun plotting our route on a good ol' paper map.

 

[GHT]

Hitchhiking.

It hasn’t disappeared entirely, but I rarely see hitchhikers anymore.

Much the same on this side of the pond, Tony. It's decades since I saw anyone hitch-hiking. Back in my student days hitch-hiking was commonplace.

 

[GHT]

Oh yes, AAA still exists. My missus sees to it we are members, and it has come in handy on a couple of occasions. I doubt it has saved us what our membership has cost in the time we’ve had it, but c’est la vie, as we say in the trailer park.

I haven’t used a paper roadmap in several years. Smartphones with mapping apps pretty well spelled the end of it, for most people, anyway. I haven’t had to ask for nor give driving directions since I can’t remember when.

What paper maps have over the apps is in their imparting a sense of the “big picture.” A paper map of the territory of which a person wishes to gain a general familiarity gives him just that: a bird’s eye view of an unfamiliar city or region.

What paper maps don't have is an annoying voice that sighs heavily when you ignore an instruction and then, in a most patronising voice says: "When it's safe to do so, make a 'U' turn!"