Things that you just don't see anymore. [Archive]

Sylkyn

02-12-2005, 09:02 AM

Metal ice cube trays.

I have four metal ice cube trays in my upstairs refrigerator, and I believe my mother has three or four, herself. Yes, they still yank skin off just about every time they're handled.

To the OP:

Leisure suits. (That's really a good thing, though...we shouldn't have ever been subjected to them in the first place.)

Glass blenders. I mean the actual unit you put things into to be chopped, blended, or whatever. The last couple I bought were plastic. While they're easier on the wrist for pouring, I just like the glass ones better. I imagine you can still obtain the glass ones, but I also am pretty sure they cost a whole lot more, too. Quality does, as a rule. In fact, glass everything has slowly been replaced by plastic over the years. I know it's cheaper and all that, but I just like glass containers (most of the time) better than plastic.

Percolaters. Sure, you can still get them, but hardly anyone uses them anymore. I think the next time I have to get a coffee maker, I'm going back to a percolater. Coffee made with drip-makers just don't taste as good, IMO.

501 Levis. Of course styles and fashions change, but 501 Levis for women were just so 80's-great. Although I can safely bet once the bell-bottom trend fades away, we'll be seeing a new emergence of these, even if they're renamed.

El Zagna

02-12-2005, 09:09 AM

Slide rules (http://www.sliderule.ca/).

Eats_Crayons

02-12-2005, 09:09 AM

KRC

02-12-2005, 09:27 AM

Drugstore soda fountains. I think the last time I saw one was around 1976.

I still have a rotary dial phone, though. It's confusing as all get out to kids who want to use it--they have to ask me how it works.

ParentalAdvisory

02-12-2005, 10:17 AM

Lawn darts.

SteveG1

02-12-2005, 10:38 AM

Slide rules (http://www.sliderule.ca/).
I still have some of mine. It's funny when I hear "what's that thing".

NoClueBoy

02-12-2005, 10:47 AM

Door to door salesmen (commercial, not political or religious).

Campers on pick ups. Not the shells, I mean the little houses that had a piece of them overhaging the cab.

Local camera stores. Used to be about a dozen here. Now, one.

Darkroom rentals.

Big Wheels™

Mens hats that aren't baseball caps.

Sunday morning dress up to go to church and then a little picnis right after while still in your church clothes.

Console TVs.

Sidewalks.

Working shutters on houses.

Kids playing outside.

Millions of birds flying way overhead in V formations.

Fishing with a bobber.

Tamales $3 a dozen sold out of a pick up with a camper on the side of the road I took going to work.

astro

02-12-2005, 10:51 AM

Soda vending machines that dispense glass bottles. Remember those with the little glass door and you had to "pull" the bottle out.

4 wheel (non-inline) roller skates

Large downtown shopping areas in medium to med-small cities and towns (all malls now).

Bottles that dispensed "Sucaryl" (saccarhine) drops.

TAB soda (very rare)

Dot Matrix printers. They were everywhere once! Now they're mostly for older POS (point of sale) retail systems or in back rooms for institutional multi-part forms.

Waist length mink coats

IrreverentTone

02-12-2005, 10:52 AM

Those cool, fuzzy, black and red electric shoe shine machines.

Zsofia

02-12-2005, 12:07 PM

My dad owns one of those hotel red and black shoe shine things - got it from the Sharper Image. He loves it.

I was just thinking about it last night - you know, you never hear about Elvis sightings anymore? They used to be what tabloids fell back on when the royals and Michael Landon hadn't done anything lately.

Ignatz

02-12-2005, 12:32 PM

Slide rules (http://www.sliderule.ca/).

I still have my K&E (Kuefell and Esser) log log duplex decitrig model with leather sheaf that looped onto my belt.

RandomLetters

02-12-2005, 01:01 PM

It seems that SAMSUNG has come up with a WEB-Capable toaster! You can surf the net whilst waiting for your toast to brown. What a stupid idea!

Actually, that could be a good idea - if they used a Prescott core Pentium 4 for the CPU, you could use the waste heat to make the toast, no need for a separate heating element. ;)

Shagnasty

02-12-2005, 01:11 PM

I have several $2 bills in my wallet right now. They still make them but the demand isn't very high.

John Travolota has a very cool tricked out Boeing 707.

Dot Matrix printers are still used in the corporate and manufacturing worlds that I work in. They are the only ones that can produce multiple-part copies.

I have a new glass blender that I made margaritas in last night.

My nomination:
Cherry Bombs

FrostySonofThunder

02-12-2005, 02:46 PM

Metal ice cube trays.

Are you talking about the ones with a handle/lever on the dividers that you lift up to break up the cubes? Those are great. You may lose skin to the metal, but at least you can get the damn ice cubes out of the tray. My mother has a couple of those that she got with the Fridgidaire dad got for her when I was a baby. That refrigerator is in their garage and still works. Comes in handy around the holidays.

Back to the OP:
Studebakers, DeSotos, or Ramblers...no big loss on the Ramblers though:)

Home delivery of milk. (For a while, ours was delivered daily right from the cow. (un)Fortunately, she died before I got the hang of milking her by hand.)

Those cans of compressed air that were sold to unclog drains. I forget what they were called, but the ramifications of not using them correctly probably led to them being yanked off the market for legal reasons. I imagine that quite a few people used them to get rid of a clog in one sink, went to another sink in the house, and went "How the hell did this muck get all over the place?"

Fizzies.

Wood burning kits.....no, no, no, not that kind....The ones that had a tool that looked like a big soldering iron you were supposed to use to char designs on pieces of wood. Can't imagine why that isn't sold any longer;)

Erector sets

mambocrow

02-12-2005, 03:01 PM

Powdered eggs. (Not egg substitute in liquid form).

Mo-Peds.

Ephemera

02-12-2005, 03:06 PM

Rufus Xavier

02-12-2005, 03:14 PM

When I was a kid, every weekend you could hear the ice cream truck making its rounds. Now that I think of it, I haven't seen or heard an ice cream truck in years.

Jayn_Newell

02-12-2005, 03:21 PM

I have several $2 bills in my wallet right now. They still make them but the demand isn't very high.

I'm Canadian, ours got replaced with toonies a few years ago.

I got a wood burning kit a few years ago as a Christmas present. I never did much with it though--Dad has it now.

I was half expecting someone to post 'sea monkeys,' partly just so I could say that I actually have seen them just today. There's a store downtown that sells them.

And my parents still get home delivered milk, in some areas it's a practice that's still alive and well. We had a thread on it not too long ago.

Another addition--you used to be able to get really small bottles of pop. Haven't seen them in years, but now they're bringing it back in can form. Which of course begs the questions, 'why'd you stop in the first place?'

RancidYakButterTeaParty

02-12-2005, 03:32 PM

Non-digital clocks are getting harder and harder to find, many of the students in my classes can't tell time!

Videos on MTV

VCR's are still around, but are definitely an endangered species.

Lemonade stands.

Socks with colored stripes.

Teens without cell phones

danceswithcats

02-12-2005, 04:34 PM

Twin-lens cameras
Instamatic cameras
Flashbulbs/flashcubes
Bumper jacks
Hand operated water pumps
Lawn mowers started with 2 feet of rope with a wood handle
Beer cans that required a 'church key' to open
Rabbit ear TV antennas
Digital clocks that had flipper number panels
Fender skirts
Curb feelers
8mm home movies
Manual egg-beaters
Motor oil in quart/gallon cans that needed the piercing spout
8 tracks
Bosco chocolate syrup (little toy under the extended top)
The Fuller Brush man
Mimeograph machines (yes, I'd sniff the papers, too)
Crystal Bic pens for 19 cents (and their ads, too)
John Cameron Swayze pitching Timex watches
Cartoons before movies
Oil-checking, windshield-washing, headlight-cleaning gas pumpers with free air
Charge card imprint machines that took a three part form-manual roller to operate
Carbon paper
7-11 stores that were open from 7AM to 11PM-not 24 hour
Cigarettes with coupons on the back of the pack
Burma Shave signs

ivylass

02-12-2005, 05:11 PM

30 second TV commercials.

Umm, what? I work in broadcasting, and I can attest that the majority of our commercials are :30 long.

Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor

02-12-2005, 05:21 PM

Square-toed men's boots.

Fringed leather jackets.

Baker

02-12-2005, 05:47 PM

Percolaters. Sure, you can still get them, but hardly anyone uses them anymore. I think the next time I have to get a coffee maker, I'm going back to a percolater. Coffee made with drip-makers just don't taste as good, IMO.

I haven't seen anyplace that has the old glass percolaters. My mom broke hers, years ago, and couldn't find one. But they still populate garage sales, so she's got quite a collection now, from little 4-cuppers up to the big 8-cuppers. I got mine from her, and I agree with you, the coffee from a percolater tastes better than that from a coffee machine.

Beware of Doug

02-12-2005, 06:04 PM

Evening newspapers.

Wax lips. I suppose only middle-aged dorks buy 'em now, in a handsomely packed gift box that costs about $4.50 per pair.

Silver dollars and 50¢ pieces.

Brown high boots for the horsy set. Nowadays they're only worn in the show ring, where they have to be black.

Those kicky low-rise cowboy boot things women wore about 1995.

Collect calls. When was the last time you made one? Can you still call collect without dialing some number that begins with ten? Can you still even dial ten?

Ice cream sold in cups covered with paper, supplied with a wooden "spoon."

Speaking of ice cream: Rufus Xavier mentioned he hadn't recently seen it sold out of a truck. I can only conclude he lives outside the greater NYC metro area, where Mister Softee is still such a force in the culture that it's actually hard to find hand dipped ice cream sold by the cone in a parlor. Mr S is less famous for the quality of its product (which all tastes like it's shot from air guns) than the annoying loudness of its truck-top speaker jingle. I can personally attest that a passing Mister Softee truck once drowned out the 100-ton Riverside Church carillon, the largest such instrument in the world at the time.

ralph124c

02-12-2005, 06:10 PM

Checker "Marathon" cabs..plus driver wearing uniforms
-phone booths (everybody has cell phones now
-tooth powder
-recycled motor oil at gas stations (in glass bottles)
-chinese laundries
-car hops
-HEATHKIT "do it yourself" TV kits
-garbage collectors
-democratic politicians
-Communist organizations; the "DALY WORKER" newspaper
-Cub Scout uniforms (remember those fetching little beanies?)

Wrenchslinger

02-12-2005, 06:24 PM

Powdered eggs. (Not egg substitute in liquid form).

Mo-Peds.
That's because they were all bought by enterprising food delivery guys here in NYC.

Incense sellers, burnouts, and drug dealers along the boarded up theaters of 42nd street all eyeing me as I to the 1/9 after dark.

Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor

02-12-2005, 06:35 PM

Motor scooters.

LouisB

02-12-2005, 06:46 PM

When I was a kid, every weekend you could hear the ice cream truck making its rounds. Now that I think of it, I haven't seen or heard an ice cream truck in years. I see and hear one here every day.

Shirley Ujest

02-12-2005, 06:58 PM

Soda vending machines that dispense glass bottles. Remember those with the little glass door and you had to "pull" the bottle out.

I've seen these in Germany along with Cigerette Machines .

The problem with Weeping Willows is that they need lots of water to thrive. Their root system spreads very far and wide and can decimate a household's plumbing and water supply. This is why most are seen by lakes and rivers.

Shirley Ujest

02-12-2005, 07:03 PM

Baker maybe this is something she is looking for: Delonghi (http://www.125west.com/DeLonghi_Kitchen_Coffeemakers_Retro_Percolator_coffee_percolator.html)

Danalan

02-12-2005, 07:04 PM

Those cans of compressed air that were sold to unclog drains. I forget what they were called, but the ramifications of not using them correctly probably led to them being yanked off the market for legal reasons. I imagine that quite a few people used them to get rid of a clog in one sink, went to another sink in the house, and went "How the hell did this muck get all over the place?"Actually, people would (contrary to directions) first try to unclog the drain with Drano or something. Then, when that didn't work, they'd whip out the compressed air canister and spray caustic muck all over the place. Not a good idea.
Wood burning kits.....no, no, no, not that kind....The ones that had a tool that looked like a big soldering iron you were supposed to use to char designs on pieces of wood. Can't imagine why that isn't sold any longer;)You can still find those in hobby stores -- they just aren't popular. Probably never really were all that popular.
Erector setsI just bought an erector set today at K-mart. Definitely still sold.

ivylass

02-12-2005, 07:21 PM

ianzin

02-12-2005, 08:28 PM

(From a British perspective, and not a very young one either)

Flint 'wands' for lighting gas stoves
Concept albums, with gatefold sleeves and sci-fi artwork
Pro sports players whose shirts are not sponsor-blighted
CND rallies, protests and propaganda
Ushers in cinemas walking backwards holding a torch
Milk in glass bottles with coloured foil denoting variations
Offices without PCs everywhere
Typewriters
All-in-one radio / cassette player / alarm clock units, green LEDs on front
Stylophones
Theramins
Rock keyboard players with teetering walled stacks of assorted keyboards
Libraries that rubber stamp the books
Telly ads of the 'Can you tell Stork from butter?' variety
Compilation LPs of current hits by studio musicians trying their 'soundalike' best
Traditional striped barber shop poles
Traditional pawn broker's signs
Cars with a manual 'choke' on the dashboard
Green Shield stamps and similar, petrol stations boasting 'Quad stamps!'
The test card, and afternoon 'test' transmissions on BBC2
Pogo sticks
Frozen ice lollies with riddles on the wooden sticks
Kids' playgrounds without fences, warning signs or legal notices
Crisps with little blue bags of salt
TV sci-fi, primitive super-imposition effects with jaggy fringing round the actors
Medicine sold with a clear plastic teaspoon strapped to the bottle
Lucozade sold in stiff yellow cellophane for no known reason
Vesta ready meals
Hai Karate aftershave and is absurd TV ad campaigns
The Oxo family
Sitcoms based entirely on a non-white family having moved in next door
Bicycles with cast iron frames
Lace-up leather footballs
Sitcoms based entirely on a divorced partner having moved in next door
Trimphones
Police officers with whistles for summoning assistance
Panda cars
Black and white holiday snaps
People holding up colour photo negs, intrigued by the reversed colours
Small red plastic barrels advertising Watney's Red Barrel
Bovril signs
Travel agents with nothing in the window except a big model aeroplane
Signal boxes on the railways
Smoking chimney stacks
Electric fires, 'flame effect' via flickering lights under a moulded plastic 'coal fire'
TV sets with rotary dials for 'tuning in'
Ker-ching! cash registers with pop-up flags for all the different amounts
Shops with working balance scales and a neat pile of brass weights
Bus conductors with manually operated machines for printing real paper tickets
Specialist book shops silent within except for the ticking of the clock
Haberdashery departments
'All because the lady loves Milk Tray' adverts
Boxers, interviewed before the big fight, wishing the other fellow good luck
Timothy White chemist shops
Night watchmen's huts
Big rectangular metal bread bins with 'Bread' printed on the front
Singular blue 'fog' lamps on the fronts of cars
Adverts by the Milk Marketing Board and similar pre-privatisation bodies
Safety films telling you to wear something white if it's foggy
Toy dogs on wheels
TV drama serials broadcast live
Pre-pasted vinyl wallpaper
Toy: hairless cartoon face + iron filings under plastic screen, magnetic pen
Clockwork metal robots

...I could go on (and on and on) but I won't.

meowpossum

02-12-2005, 08:28 PM

Lightning rods and TV antennas on houses.
Soap flakes.
White canvas Tretorn sneakers.
Zagnut bars and Zero bars.
Wire hangers.
Bedspreads (not comforters, quilts, or duvets)
Underoos.
Cream deodorant.
Vaccination scars.
Prell shampoo in a tube.
See-saws, roundabouts, and those animals on springs at playgrounds.
Little mechanical rides for kids at the grocery store.
Booberry cereal.
Eggnog-flavored instant breakfast.

ZebraShaSha

02-12-2005, 10:02 PM

I just wore the other day a fringed leather jacket and square toed snakeskin boots, Bosda. No special occasion, I just go out of my way to find things I like. Similarily, I just taught myself how to use a slide rule today. Some things never go out of style.

For my suggestions, you certainly don't hear about people going cross country anymore on road trips, catching rides with whoever wants to stop. Were hitch hikers ever really popular, though? Along with that, CB radios are making a come back I hear, but still don't see them at all.

You also don't see very intelligent and original sitcoms on TV anymore, with AD being a rare exception. Cassette tapes certainly aren't sold in stores, along with the other outdated tech. Toy guns for kids have definitely gone by the wayside, compared to a time when you were either with the indians or you were with the cowboys. Sometimes, you would even be slightly red, which brings us to something else, bomb shelters, even though they made a big comback during the Y2 scare. Just about anything menacing, especially for kids, like Easy Bake Ovens and Cabbage Patch Dolls. Really cheap movies are a rarity, too, as well as balconies in theatres. Even though I haven't been here for more then a couple decades, I could go on forever, but I'll stop.

nivlac

02-12-2005, 10:15 PM

full-size black and white televisions
5 cent candy bars
10 cent comic books
baseball doubleheaders (except for make-up games)
"All transistor" radios
25 pound laptops
5.25" floppy disks
floppy disk drives (close to extinction)
people using WordPerfect
monochrome computer monitors
free celebrity autographs
beta video cassette recorders
milk bottles (or for that matter, milkmen)
manual typewriters
log tables (à la slide rules)

RickJay

02-12-2005, 10:23 PM

You know what toy I loved as a kid? Nerf planes. Never see those anymore. Is there even Nerf anything anymore?

Othersider

02-12-2005, 10:28 PM

Videos on MTV
Or music on MTV, for that matter. Kinda makes you wonder; I always thought MTV stood for "music television". :dubious:

BrainGlutton

02-12-2005, 11:11 PM

Zombies. Remember the zombies? The slow kind? They weren't all that dangerous, but didn't they make life interesting? :)

BrainGlutton

02-12-2005, 11:15 PM

Is there even Nerf anything anymore?

I believe they're now making trucks and APCs for the Army. :(

F. U. Shakespeare

02-13-2005, 12:16 AM

I've worn no pants but Levi's 501s for a long time -- they've been around since the mid 19th century.

Do my laundry with me and you'll see them.

I'm a 45 year-old man, so if you're referring specifically to women's fashions, no disagreement.

501 Levis. Of course styles and fashions change, but 501 Levis for women were just so 80's-great. Although I can safely bet once the bell-bottom trend fades away, we'll be seeing a new emergence of these, even if they're renamed.

Cardinal

02-13-2005, 05:49 AM

Dot Matrix printers. They were everywhere once! Now they're mostly for older POS (point of sale) retail systems or in back rooms for institutional multi-part forms.
I just got my computer fixed from what turned out to be a very minor problem, and the invoice printint sounded odd. It was indeed a dot matrix printer that the two-man shop has never seen a real need to change since it still works.

I noticed he was entering my info on a screen with green character fields. I don't think that program used a gui at all. If it ain't broke, plod along, apparently.

Cardinal

02-13-2005, 05:51 AM

Dot Matrix printers are still used in the corporate and manufacturing worlds that I work in. They are the only ones that can produce multiple-part copies.
Ah, that makes sense, and explains why the shop was using it. He wanted to make print-through copies: one for each of us, and the paper needs to be physically struck.

Zsofia

02-13-2005, 12:02 PM

Lots and lots of businesses still use dot matrix printers, for a wide variety of uses. For some applications, for example, it's kinda nice that you get a continuous perforated sheet.

I, on the other hand, use it to make cards for my card catalogue at work. Chalk that bad boy up under things you don't see anymore.

Beware of Doug

02-13-2005, 12:12 PM

(From a British perspective, and not a very young one either)
[...]Theramins
Really? Were theremins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin) ever that common in Britain? I'd associated them mostly with Hollywood, or Russian-influenced avant-garde composers.

Spree

02-13-2005, 01:21 PM

Frogs in the summertime.

Butterflies.

Honeysuckle - haven't smelled it in years.

F. U. Shakespeare

02-13-2005, 01:39 PM

Led Zeppelin used one in live appearances -- Page played it in The Song Remains the Same (actually, he didn't really know how to play it, it was more of a special effect).

FWIW, the first place I ever saw a theremin played was, incredibly, on an episode of Pettycoat Junction!

Incidentally, there was a fascinating documentary about the life of Professor Theremin, who was long thought dead, but was located after the fall of the Soviet Union. He appears in the film.

Really? Were theremins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin) ever that common in Britain? I'd associated them mostly with Hollywood, or Russian-influenced avant-garde composers.

NoClueBoy

02-13-2005, 02:06 PM

Frogs in the summertime.

Butterflies.

Honeysuckle - haven't smelled it in years.
Got all those here.

Lots of wide open space, tho, even in the 'burbs. Woods, rivers, fields, etc, everywhere.

BrainGlutton

02-13-2005, 04:40 PM

spingears

02-13-2005, 08:30 PM

$2 bills
How bad do you want to see one?
A $5 and SASE will get you two each with consecutive serial nos.

Jayn_Newell

02-13-2005, 08:41 PM

How bad do you want to see one?
A $5 and SASE will get you two each with consecutive serial nos.
We have some at a lockbox at home, actually. If I want to see one, I'll just ask my parents in a week or so. We also have $1 bills as well, I do believe.

Mgcklmoon

02-13-2005, 08:46 PM

Wood burning kits.....no, no, no, not that kind....The ones that had a tool that looked like a big soldering iron you were supposed to use to char designs on pieces of wood. Can't imagine why that isn't sold any longer;)

Sorry but those are still being sold. I was in a craft store just this weekend and almost bought a kid's woodburning kit for a project I was working on. Decided against it because it did not have interchangable tips for the soldering iron. Though I was surprised that they were selling the kit for kids but no sets geared toward adults.

Shirley Ujest

02-13-2005, 09:25 PM

Rabbit ears for the TV.

We had a heck of a time finding a set ( Radio shack, which is not really near us and the internet had not been invented yet by Gore.) for our first years of marriage , before cable came our way. And we had no neighbors.....God...it was like being on Little House on the Prairie, only with 6 channels. Oh.The.Horrors!

Mercurochrome. Remember that? Putting it on a boo-boo to clean it. What ever happened to that stuff?

Cloth diapers are not completely gone, thanks to the internet.

gotpasswords

02-13-2005, 10:51 PM

This thread's making my home sound like some sort of old and forgotten-about things museum.

Most of my phones are dial - one touchtone phone is grudgingly plugged in to access our voice mail.

Despite appearing to be the home of not just high-tech but ultra-tech, Fry's sells several varieties of rabbit ears. I picked up a set just two weeks ago.

In the kitchen, we perk our coffee, have a glass blender and somewhere, we've got metal ice trays.

Oh, and what about my 25-pound Compaq portable computer with amber plasma screen?

KRC

02-14-2005, 01:54 AM

We used to have metal icetrays. It was my Dad's job to remove the ice for whatever softdrink we were having and believe me, we learned a lot of interesting new words as he tried to take the ice out of the tray. They generally were words you are not supposed to say at Sunday school. I still have a metal ice tray myself, although it hasn't caused me to invent new swears.

I must be living in an old fashioned neighborhood, because once I heard a funny noise and went to check it out--and there was a kid playing with a pogo stick! Later I saw a kid playing with a hula hoop. Never thought I'd see that.

DocCathode

02-14-2005, 02:08 AM

I see ice cream trucks every summer.

I have many vacuum tubes, and a tester.

I've got three slide rules, numerous 5.25" drives, 3.5" drives, 2 Betas I can't get to work, and a bunch of other 'outdated' equipment.

I hate all Windows wordprocessors and prefer to use Wordperfect.

Ianzin

The hairdresser iron filings toys are easy to get here. Most grocery stores have them for a dollar or two.

Nivlac
I see Zeros and Zagnuts all the time.

Somebody mentioned big wheels. What happened to them? AFAIK the toy companies that made them are still in business.

Television ads for Big League Chew. It's bubble gum sold in pouches, in shredded strips like tobacco. The pouches are covered with sport cartoons and it's aimed at young athletes. I used to see ads for it all the time. They still make and sell BLC. But, I never see it advertised.

Iceland_Blue

02-14-2005, 06:39 AM

Milk bottles...
There's another book somewhere about it :D

clayton_e

02-14-2005, 07:53 AM

Bicentennial quarters (back in.. oh, '93 or so I remember they were somewhat common)

Kids with super soakers (though this may just be a case of me growing up and not being around them anymore)

Scratch and sniff stickers (again, may be same reason as above)

Markers that smelled like cherry or orange or the never-smells-like-grape (again.. may be same reason as above)

Transformers toys

Lite Brite

Magic Rocks?? (not sure if that is the name.. the things that grew into little multi-color underwater stalagmites complete with plastic castle or sunken boat)

a movie with a real plot that isn't just special effects.

Wow... there's one big early 90's flashback for me.

Dorjän

02-14-2005, 10:44 AM

Hot air popcorn machines
Good cereal toy prizes (Those mini license plates, wacky wall-walkers...)
"Guvment" cheese

Derleth

02-14-2005, 11:09 AM

Something that went out before I was old enough to have children was peregoric. My dad said they used to sell this as a teething or colic relief for babies.

IIRC, it was cocaine or morphine or heroin based, so that didn't last long.A paregoric (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=paregoric) is a camphorated tincture of opium, as a matter of fact. It is a patent medicine of the same ilk as laudanum (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=laudanum).

(I post this because I've heard the term but I've never looked up the definition before. I think it's an interesting word in its own right.)

5.75 inch floppies. I still have a huge amount of 3.5 inchers, but I haven't seen the truly floppy floppies in a long time. (As a matter of fact, I've not used any floppies at all since I broke down and bought a 512 MB jump drive. My old sneakernet is a lot faster now. ;))

Software sold on floppies. I think everyone has moved to CD-ROMs now, regardless of how much data they're actually selling. But I don't really buy software much at all these days: I can download what I need online a lot more easily.

The old PC graphics characters. Remember those glyphs? IBM shoved them into the 0x80-0xFF range of the ROM character set to compensate for the lack of graphics in the PC's default text mode. In fact, I haven't seen EGA/CGA/VGA-style graphics in over a decade, I'm sure.

AOL floppies. Those were neat: For a while there, AOL was shipping people megabytes and megabytes of free storage. Flip the write-protect guard and you could write to them anything your heart desired. These days they only send out coasters.

Ataris. Amigas. Commodores. Any PC that isn't made by Apple or a clonemaker.

Band printers. In fact, daisy-wheels aren't even used much for letter-quality printing these days. I guess they think laser printers do an acceptable job of letter-making these days. Come to think of it, Selectrics aren't quite as common, either. I guess the IBM golfball's days are over.

Rabbit ears for the TV.I have a set with rabbit ears. They aren't 'pure', though: They have a third circular element between the two long antennas, and they have their own source of power to boost the reception. I can usually get the CBC and local stations pretty well on that set.

Mercurochrome. Remember that? Putting it on a boo-boo to clean it. What ever happened to that stuff?Uh, people decided that putting a toxic heavy metal on open wounds perhaps wasn't the best idea? :smack:

Cecil's done a column on it, BTW. (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040723.html)

I, on the other hand, use it to make cards for my card catalogue at work. Chalk that bad boy up under things you don't see anymore.Both of the libraries in town (the public and the college) have made cards formerly of their catalogues available to patrons as scratch paper and bookmarks. They do very well in both roles.

DocCathode

02-14-2005, 07:34 PM

Transformers toys

I haven't been to a toy store lately. But, as recently as a few months ago there was a line of Transformers (Transformers-Armada IIRC) in stores.

Magic Rocks?? (not sure if that is the name.. the things that grew into little multi-color underwater stalagmites complete with plastic castle or sunken boat)

Good cereal toy prizes (Those mini license plates, wacky wall-walkers...)

For a few years, they did go almost entirely to prizes you had to mail away for. Then, during the dot com era, there was a time when you had to go online and use a code inside the box to get a prize. Happily, the General Mills and the rest have gone back to prizes that are inside the box. At the market today, I pased a bunch of boxes with an Incredibles disc shooter inside the box.

BTW- I feel proud seeing just how much obsolete stuff from this thread I have.

Shirley Ujest

02-14-2005, 08:40 PM

I haven't seen Grape Bubble Yum in years.

Johanna

04-02-2005, 12:15 PM

There's a book on this subject: Going, Going, Gone: Vanishing Americana, by Susan Jonas and Marilyn Nissenson (Chronicle Books, 1998 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0811819191/qid=1108334983/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/104-3262639-5251944). It covers lots of things you don't see any more, like soda parlors, door-to-door salesmen, home delivery of milk, wedding-night virgins, men's clubs, and blue laws.
Sometimes nostalgia trips like this are simply innocent entertainment... and sometimes they're bent to a conservative political agenda. Especially when the focus is on something from the past we've "lost" and have to "regain." I can appreciate the sentiment in a mystical sense, since I would like to see the Goddess worship of early humanity restored. But when it's used politically, I'm wary of a reactionary right-wing agenda.

Bob Dylan seriously annoyed me when he sangWhen you gonna wake up
And strengthen the things that remainAnd get rid of those damned "Ay-rabs" while you're at it.

Ezra Pound wrote, I think it was in "A Lume Spento"—Make strong the old ways
Lest this our world lose heartThat sounds inspiringly Traditionalist, even Guénonian, expressed in a romantic way. And then old Ezra turned out to be a fucking Fascist. Damn it, Ezra, you had to go and ruin all that poetry.

And then Loreena McKennit, not the least bit political or right-wing, wrote and sang "The Old Ways"—As we cast our gaze on the tumbling sea
A vision came o'er me
Of thundering hooves and beating wings
In clouds above.

As you turned to go I heard you call my name.
You were like a bird in a cage, spreadings its
Wings to fly
"The old ways are lost" you sang as you flew
And I wondered whyWistful, aching Celtic romanticism that carries on the cultural trail pioneered by Yeats and Joyce, the uncreated conciousness of my race. Celts are not in a position to dominate other nations by brute force, so their nationalistic consciousness is not taking a Fascist turn. Even though Yeats himself went Fascist in his old age, in his dotage. Loreena is in no way an artist who could be exploited by the right wing. She is free from all that.

Duckster

04-02-2005, 01:48 PM

Rabbit ears for the TV.

I have a pair on top of my computer monitor at work.

Great internet reception.

Believe it or not but I still have folks who stop by and believe it, too!

monstro

04-02-2005, 03:59 PM

Those round, metal, spin-around things at the playground.

Boxes of cookies stacked against the window of McDonald's drive-thrus

Late night movies

Roller skating rings.

Roller skates (roller blades don't count)

Drive-in movies.

Those long, skinny Jolly Ranchers.

Fifty cent brand-name soda from the vending machine

Those little booths you could sit in and watch a quick cartoon. I haven't seen one of these in so long that I'm starting to think I imagined their whole existence.

dbygawdcapn

04-02-2005, 04:31 PM

State Policemen with a yardstick measuring how high your rear bumper was off the road. I used to see this all the time when I was much younger, but the trend these days seems to be how low you can get to the road.

Balle_M

04-02-2005, 04:44 PM

I've worn no pants but Levi's 501s for a long time -- they've been around since the mid 19th century.

Wow. Isn't it time to consider buying some new ones?

Racer1

04-02-2005, 06:07 PM

Milk in glass bottles with coloured foil denoting variations.

I still get those delivered to my door every morning in London. Blue for skimmed!

Good call on all the others though!

Silver Serpentine

04-03-2005, 01:40 PM

Rabbit ears are alive and well. I bought a set from Meijer when I lived in MI. Down here, I've seen them at Target, Best Buy, and Blockbuster. Not hard to find.

Also, I see Mercherochrome every now and then. Often enough to keep in stock if I used it.

stanger

04-03-2005, 02:22 PM

Although it has been over forty years since I have seen or used any Mercurochrome, I remember it. I remember my grandfather, and one time a neighbor, applying some to a scratch I got while playing and refering to it as "monkeys blood". Anybody else ever here it called that?

I also remember home milk delivery in the thick glass half-gallon bottles. They had a waxed cardboard stopper on top with a pull-tab. You usually had to shake the milk before you opened it to help mix up the cream that had accumulated at the top. My mother would take the old cardboard tops and wrap them in shiny aluminum foil and I would pretend they were silver dollars. Anybody else ever do this?

Other things you don't see anymore:
Telephone numbers written with letters or "exchanges" in the prefix
Machines in stores that told you your weight and answered a trivia question for a nickel
The vacuum cleaner section at Sears with the ping-pong ball floating in the air above a vacuum outlet nozzle

PastAllReason

04-03-2005, 03:25 PM

And then Loreena McKennit, not the least bit political or right-wing, wrote and sang "The Old Ways"—Wistful, aching Celtic romanticism that carries on the cultural trail pioneered by Yeats and Joyce, the uncreated conciousness of my race. Celts are not in a position to dominate other nations by brute force, so their nationalistic consciousness is not taking a Fascist turn. Even though Yeats himself went Fascist in his old age, in his dotage. Loreena is in no way an artist who could be exploited by the right wing. She is free from all that.

Not commenting on the substance of what you said, but Loreena McKennit is actually Canadian, from small town Manitoba, a nation that is not in a position to dominate other nations by brute force.

Unregistered Bull

04-03-2005, 04:21 PM

Some that I don't think were mentioned:

Half-dollar and Silver Dollar coins

Quality traditional slip-joint pocket knives for a decent prices

Butane

Gunracks in pickups

Snow cone trucks with the crushed ice and syrup dispensers

TV repair shops

4X4 vehicles with locking hubs

*formerly Machetero

zagloba

04-03-2005, 07:01 PM

A couple of months ago I was given a half dollar coin in change. Surprised the heck out of me.

a pirahna brother

04-03-2005, 08:32 PM

Arcade games in stores, gas stations, and restaurants.

Fast food places selling real glasses as part of a promotion, I've got a set of Empire Strikes Back glasses I got a Burger King (IIRC) back in the 80's.

For that matter, decent premiums from fast food places, I've got a couple of records, 45's to be exact, from Burger Chef, yes, this does date me.

A TV repairman under the age of 60, if you can find one

Drugstores that sold medication, filled prescriptions, sold candy and greeting cards, and that was it.

Lunch Counters at Department Stores, not snack bars, but places you could get real food. Last ones I know of were the ones at Woolworths and older K-Mart stores.

Shampoo in glass bottles, I'm glad plastics took over here.

Fresnel lenses you put in front of your TV

Shoe repair shops, bigger cities have them, but it seemed most small towns had at least one.

Regular gas under $1/gallon

Re: some of the other items

Sears aluminum siding - I haven't seen ads for the siding, but I know of a Sears Monument Company, apparently its a division of Sears that sells grave markers. The only car I've ever seen there is apparently for the sole employee.

Rotary dial phones - we have one at work, if the power goes out, our regular system is dead, but a rotary dial can still dial out and recive incoming calls.

Motor oil in cans - This is something I'm glad you don't see anymore, I hated these things.

D. Pirahna

DrLoveGun

04-03-2005, 08:57 PM

Wood burning kits.....no, no, no, not that kind....The ones that had a tool that looked like a big soldering iron you were supposed to use to char designs on pieces of wood. Can't imagine why that isn't sold any longer;)

Erector sets[/QUOTE]

Wood Burning kits are still sold at many hobby shops. I only know this as my wife is forbidden from owning one. No good comes of this

Johanna

04-03-2005, 10:41 PM

Sorry I got all political with this thread, which had no politics in it before I so rashly injected politics. I'm just on edge about Fascism these days, with reason. Yes, I know Loreena is Canadian, I was referring to her aesthetic use of Celtic tradition, which is in large part similar to that of Yeats. (Except for the Fascism.)

Here's something you never seen any more: car lock buttons flaring upward like golf tees, with a wider circular top extending out over a thin stem. They were made until sometime in the mid to late 1970s. Perfect for when you locked your keys in the car and needed to let yourself back in with a coathanger. Just as perfect for car thieves with coathangers. That's why they don't make 'em any more.

Marlitharn

04-04-2005, 06:32 AM

Someone upthread mentioned Easy-Bake Ovens and Cabbage Patch Kids; they're both still around. I was half-watching some chatty daytime talk show the other day and they had the winner of the Easy-Bake Oven Bake-off on. And my daughter has two Cabbage Patch Kids, although come to think of it I don't remember seeing them in stores before last summer. They still smell like baby powder.

It's been a long time since I've seen that old animated Tootsie-Roll commercial, the one where all the kids are wearing bell-bottoms and singing, "Whatever it is I think I see/Becomes a Toosie Roll to me!" That and the "How many licks..." ad. It's like Tootsie Roll paid for two commercials in 1971 and they've been running them ever since.

Do they still show Schoolhouse Rock on ABC on Saturday mornings?
Conjunction junction, what's your function...

spingears

04-04-2005, 06:53 AM

Some things you may not have heard of let alone seen or experienced.
You might find some items in a museum, never for sale in a store.
Castoria
Carter's Little Liver Pills
Fels-Naptha laundry soap in bars.
Washboard
Laundry Plunger
Clothes Wringer, hand cranked.
Laundry (& bath) Tub.
Ink wells, and steel pen nibs and holders, blotters.
Fountain pens.
Bottles of ink.

Scoundrel Swanswater

04-04-2005, 07:21 AM

Commercials for aluminum siding from Sears. They used to be on TV all of the time, but I have not seen one in well over a decade. I do not even know if Sears even does aluminum siding any more.

What else?

Coincidentally I just looked out at the windows and they are covering the building next to me in aluminum sidings.
I thought that only existed in tv-shows about door-to-door salesmen, not in the real world.
And it isn't a small building either, it is a quite large warehouse.

Kalhoun

04-04-2005, 08:51 AM

Metal ice cube trays.

Remember the fun those were?

AIIIIIGGGGH! My fingers are stuck to the frozen metal!

I miss the good times of trying to outsmart a kitchen instrument.
Oh! I love these. My dad always said they freeze faster, so when I found some, I bought them for him. Evidently he was having a senior moment, because he said he hates them and is glad the majority of ice cube trays have tone to plastic.

Try to be a good daughter....

enipla

04-04-2005, 09:02 AM

Rotary dial phones - we have one at work, if the power goes out, our regular system is dead, but a rotary dial can still dial out and recive incoming calls.
D. PirahnaSo can push button phones. As long as it's not cordless.

Clothahump

04-04-2005, 09:29 AM

I still have my K&E (Kuefell and Esser) log log duplex decitrig model with leather sheaf that looped onto my belt.

Wow. Flashback to memories of quick-draw contests in the hall outside 11th grade chemistry class. Pull the rule and flick the slidestick at your opponent.

TellMeI'mNotCrazy

04-04-2005, 09:30 AM

Pinball machines :( I was just in a huge arcade, and was delighted to see a row of pinball machines along the back. As I got closer though, I realized it was not to be. They were all dusty, and unplugged.

Where have all the pinball machines gone?

(To the warehouse, I guess.)

Johnny L.A.

04-04-2005, 09:57 AM

Shampoo in glass bottles, I'm glad plastics took over here.

Motor oil in cans - This is something I'm glad you don't see anymore, I hated these things.
I've never seen shampoo in glass bottles. Did it really come that way?

I miss the cans of motor oil. Hated them, but I miss them. I used to carry a bad reproduction army M3 knife in my car so that I could open them. In the desert I could never seem to keep those spouts clear of dirt and grit, and the knife was better if I needed to add oil while away from home. I hated adding oil on the road. Nothing like spilling oil on a hot engine! :eek:

Dad had a device that was like a funnel with a handle and trigger. You'd put the funnel spout into the oil filler hole and put the can on the handle, over the piercing thing. Pull the trigger (similar to one on a grease gun) and it would push the rear of the can, which pushed the top into the piercer allowing the oil to flow into the engine without spilling. He kept it in its original heavy plastic bag to keep the blowing dust and sand out of it.

The plastic bottles are much better than the cans, but I miss seeing the stacks of cans at the gas stations. It's also rather difficult to stack the bottles.

plnnr

04-04-2005, 10:26 AM

Weeping willows. I used to see them all the time as a kid and my friend had an enormous one on his front lawn that servec uas well for all sorts of games. THey used to be all over town -- I haven't seen a single one in years. Even more or less regionally, it's rare for me to see them. I love those trees!

You don't see them much because they're a really poor tree unless they're in the perfect place. They're weak-wooded, so they tend to break up easily, and they're hydrophilic, so they send roots everywhere in search of water (including septic lines, municipal water lines, etc. etc. ). They're great next to a pond or stream, but horrible anywhere else.

panache45

04-04-2005, 10:58 AM

Computer punch cards and paper tape (I still have a little "chicken plucker" device to punch holes)

Coon-skin caps

TVs with round screens

Kids playing ball in the street

Jalopies

Milk delivery trucks with huge blocks of ice in the back

Bonomo Turkish Taffy

Movie double features, separated by cartoons and newsreels

Gas for 25¢ a gallon

Typewriters that used a ball with all the characters on it (What were those called?)

People getting all dressed up, just to go shopping downtown.

People getting all dressed up, to travel in a plane or train.

Mimeograph machines and ditto machines

Slide projectors that would melt the slides if left on too long

Telegrams

Type shops

Indian-head or wheat-ear pennies, buffalo nickels, Mercury dimes, standing liberty quarters, any kind of half dollars

People yelling "Get a horse!" to people whose cars broke down by the side of the road

Inner tubes

Burma Shave signs

Terrorcotta

04-04-2005, 12:53 PM

...Wax lips. I suppose only middle-aged dorks buy 'em now, in a handsomely packed gift box that costs about $4.50 per pair

Not quite that expensive and I find they make grand birthday gifts to those born in October:

http://www.californiacandy.com

Dorjän

04-04-2005, 01:13 PM

Sparrows. They used to be everywhere, cute litte round brown birdies and their affinity for dust baths. I haven't seen one in at LEAST 7 years now. At least, not around Cleveland.

It's like they went extinct or something.

Tabby_Cat

04-04-2005, 01:14 PM

Electric fires, 'flame effect' via flickering lights under a moulded plastic 'coal fire'

Ah HAH! The lobby of my apartment has one. :D

GraphicsGal

04-04-2005, 01:18 PM

Amiga computers
Ipana toothpaste
TIPS for your breath (it's still around but you don't see it often)
Blue Waltz "perfume" at the dime store
Dime Stores
Psssst! for your hair (it was powder in a spray one used to "freshen" greasy hair)
Yardley cosmetics in that wonderful creative packaging
Candy cigarettes and gum cigarettes
6 packs of 32oz Coke in glass bottles (a heavyweight idea at beast)

<<shudder>>

I have reached the age of nostalgia....

a pirahna brother

04-04-2005, 01:41 PM

I've never seen shampoo in glass bottles. Did it really come that way?

Yep, I think they were phased out in the 60's or late 50's.

The plastic bottles are much better than the cans, but I miss seeing the stacks of cans at the gas stations. It's also rather difficult to stack the bottles.

Yeah, I remember the stacks of cans in that little rack out at the gas pumps.

What I never liked about cans was that once you opened one, it was a matter of time (for me at least) before you spilled it everywhere, that's why I like the plastic bottles.

TellMeI'mNotCrazy, pinball machines are getting harder to find nowdays in arcades, I usually see 1 or 2 in an arcade, if there is an arcade at all.
The collector market for old pinball machines is very strong, I want a Twilight Zone rather badly, but the things sell for $1200+ in good shape, so I may pass.

D. Pirahna