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What's something modern you won't miss when it becomes obsolete?

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,756
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
We started Little League at 8 (actually I was 7 because of goofy LL age rules), but we pitched to each other, no tee-ball. And don't get me started on "select ball" and other such crap, especially at that age. I could preach all day on that. A 7-year old can barely hold up a glove, no time to be dividing them up into the "haves" and "have nots".

I've seen where tee-ball has a place, but I agree, otherwise healthy kids need more imagination and less parental interference.

Girls weren't allowed in Little League when I was that age -- there was an alternate called "Lassie League," but even at the time it seemed like a demeaning substitute for the real thing. My eyes were starting to go by then anyway, so I doubt I would have "made the team," especially since the only people who got picked were the coach's kid's friends.

Neighborhood games were much more fun -- I might not have been able to see a baseball very well, but I was unbeatable at Dingbat, a game played by throwing a kickball and hitting it with a regular wooden bat.
 
Neighborhood games were much more fun -- I might not have been able to see a baseball very well, but I was unbeatable at Dingbat, a game played by throwing a kickball and hitting it with a regular wooden bat.


Aside from the organized league, we played all manner of "bat and ball" games. Whether there was two of us or ten of us, we figured something out. We used regular baseballs, tennis balls, crunched up paper cups...if you could throw it, we'd find a way to hit it with a stick. And by stick, I mean bats, broom handles, tree branches, whatever we could find.
 

EliasRDA

One of the Regulars
Messages
193
Location
Oceanic Peninsula (DelMarVa) USA
There is a reason the fist bump has/is popular nowadays, the health community advocates it instead of hand shaking during cold & flu season. I try to cough or sneeze into my elbow when I cant get a handkerchief handy, but my sneezes tend to be ahh unpredicatable & loud.
I do not want to subject others to shaking my hand after I sneeze or cough, even if its into a handkerchief, they are not waterproof. And I do not always use/carry hand sanitizer with me.

Yes, I could not go out in public during that time but then I would be home 80-90% of the time because I also suffer from sever allergies so most of the time I am sneezing or coughing. [huh]

So, until the medical community stops telling people to fist bump instead of hand shaking, it will be around. Me, I just try to not shake hands & explain I'm not trying to be impolite, I just dont want to spread my sneezes. Or I shake hands after putting on hand goop & I deal with the cracks later, some people like to shake over deals. ;p
 
Messages
13,466
Location
Orange County, CA
Aside from the organized league, we played all manner of "bat and ball" games. Whether there was two of us or ten of us, we figured something out. We used regular baseballs, tennis balls, crunched up paper cups...if you could throw it, we'd find a way to hit it with a stick. And by stick, I mean bats, broom handles, tree branches, whatever we could find.

:p

Calvinball+5-27-90.jpg
 

rjb1

Practically Family
Messages
561
Location
Nashville
One game that we made up was what I now refer to as "foot-polo", although at the time we had never heard of the real game of polo.
Since every baby-boomer family had a croquet set, and croquet was the dullest game in the world, we modified it to suit ourselves by using just one ball, issuing each kid a mallet, and designating one tree as the goal. The object was to be the person who whacked the ball into the tree while everyone else tried to keep you from doing so and trying to do it themselves.
Having a herd of kids running, screaming, and swinging mallets was a LOT of fun.
(Parents would probably get arrested if they let their kids do that today.)
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,756
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
(Parents would probably get arrested if they let their kids do that today.)

The best thing about growing up "free range," as the trendy phrase puts it, is that you never thought you were bad off because you didn't have all the latest fads and toys. *All the world* was your toybox, and anything you picked up off the ground could be whatever you wanted it to be. Some kids in my neighborhood once dragged home a rusted-out oil tank from the junkyard, and set it up in the lot behind an abandoned gas station at the end of our street. For that whole summer it became a clubhouse, a playhouse, a space capsule, a hide-and-seek hiding place, and a communal storage locker for all of us. Nobody cared if they went home every night reeking of kerosene, and if our parents noticed, they didn't care because it was keeping us out of their hair for another day.

Nobody died of lockjaw from playing in it, either.

Another kid stole an old telephone pole from some out-of-stater's summer cottage and cut it into workable chunks with his father's chain saw. He then used the chunks as the foundation for a raft, using driftwood and pieces of scrap lumber from that same junkyard to build up the deck. He tethered it to the town dock and we all took turns riding it out into the bay, even those of us (like me) who couldn't swim. That used up almost a whole summer until it broke loose during a storm and disappeared into the Atlantic Ocean. It may wash up in Europe someday, or it might still be out there menacing navigation. We didn't care one way or another, we were too busy having fun.
 

scottyrocks

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,178
Location
Isle of Langerhan, NY
On my block, we used to look forward to when a new refrigerator was purchased so we could play with the box all day. It would start out as a fort, and then when the bottom fell out, it would become a caterpillar-type tank.
 
Messages
13,466
Location
Orange County, CA
The best thing about growing up "free range," as the trendy phrase puts it, is that you never thought you were bad off because you didn't have all the latest fads and toys. *All the world* was your toybox, and anything you picked up off the ground could be whatever you wanted it to be. Some kids in my neighborhood once dragged home a rusted-out oil tank from the junkyard, and set it up in the lot behind an abandoned gas station at the end of our street. For that whole summer it became a clubhouse, a playhouse, a space capsule, a hide-and-seek hiding place, and a communal storage locker for all of us. Nobody cared if they went home every night reeking of kerosene, and if our parents noticed, they didn't care because it was keeping us out of their hair for another day.

Nobody died of lockjaw from playing in it, either.

Another kid stole an old telephone pole from some out-of-stater's summer cottage and cut it into workable chunks with his father's chain saw. He then used the chunks as the foundation for a raft, using driftwood and pieces of scrap lumber from that same junkyard to build up the deck. He tethered it to the town dock and we all took turns riding it out into the bay, even those of us (like me) who couldn't swim. That used up almost a whole summer until it broke loose during a storm and disappeared into the Atlantic Ocean. It may wash up in Europe someday, or it might still be out there menacing navigation. We didn't care one way or another, we were too busy having fun.

The Ghost Raft. :p

The Lizzie Celeste :D
 

Gregg Axley

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,125
Location
Tennessee
I have one of the cheaper spin brushes on the market.
Works well, my dentist is happy, and I don't spend much to replace the head on it.
Of course my dentist said "oh the sonic care brush is the best for getting rid of tartar and plaque."
Yeah, so is chewing sugarless gum.
I found this out after stopping a bad habit many southerners have, involving the term snuff.
My tartar and plaque went down after using the Nicorette gum.
After that, I swapped to sugarless gum, and have no need for a high dollar, nasa tooth brush to get a good report.
 

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