# In the dustbin of our cultural history **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 10, 2020, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703 "2020-12-10T00:57:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 40
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/785 "2021-03-14T12:25:56Z")
Speaking of promotional items: Plastic dodecahedrons (12-sided figures) with months of the calendar on each face. They once were very common in offices. (If you don’t know what I’m referring to, try searching that auction site for “dodecahedron calendar” and for “dodecahedron souvenir”.) ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/786 "2021-03-14T12:30:34Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Don’t forget mud wrestling. It was popular for a while. And mechanical bull riding. Does it still exist? ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/787 "2021-03-14T15:09:24Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > And promotional marketing items used to have risque ladies all over them as well. I presume some manufacturers still distribute pin-up calendars to their customers… It’s not a calendar, but this instantly made me think of Big D peanuts. See how well it worked as advertising? - I can still remember the brand decades later. They were a brand of peanuts sold in pubs, with the individual packs of nuts presented on a sort of cardboard poster of a scantily clad woman, covering the image. The display would be hung behind the bar - illustrated here, scroll down one screen: [https://www.retrospace.org/2011/07/sex-sells-26-big-d-nuts.html](https://www.retrospace.org/2011/07/sex-sells-26-big-d-nuts.html) - the idea was, if you bought more peanuts, more of the scantily clad woman would be revealed. And I just found a wiki for them. [This is how they are described in Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_D_(peanuts)#Promotional_displays). > During the 1970s and 1980s, the product was notorious for its [saucy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_comedy) promotional displays, whereby the packets of peanuts were [tessellated](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tessellation) in front of a picture of a scantily clad woman. They re designed their pack formats in 2016 and moved away from the card designs of previous years. That seems to imply they were still doing it _five years_ ago. Sheesh. j ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/788 "2021-03-14T15:20:28Z")
Did you ever read J.D. Fitzgerald’s books _Papa Married a Mormon_, and _Mama’s Boarding House_? In the latter you get to see the kids as young adults. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/789 "2021-03-14T15:52:46Z")
It hasn’t been that long since they had one at an outdoor bar outside Nationals Park. My kids and I tried it, and I think their smaller size made it so they could stay on longer than old Dad. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/790 "2021-03-14T22:07:18Z")
The house we moved to in 1958 had a concrete incinerator in the back yard. It had 4 trapezoidal sides, held together by wires cast into each corner. We’d burn all the paper trash back there. One day, a few years later, one of us boys tossed an aerosol spray can in with the trash before lighting the fire. The explosion blew apart the rusted wires, laying out all four sides onto the ground. My evil dad was a college frat boy at Franklin College just before WW II. He told us the frat had a “privy council” dedicated to turning over outhouses. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/791 "2021-03-15T18:54:03Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > The house we moved to in 1958 had a concrete incinerator in the back yard. It had 4 trapezoidal sides, held together by wires cast into each corner. We’d burn all the paper trash back there. One day, a few years later, one of us boys tossed an aerosol spray can in with the trash before lighting the fire. The explosion blew apart the rusted wires, laying out all four sides onto the ground. We used to use them to burn leaves. We were doing it at my neighbor’s house and somehow a aerosol can got mixed. It exploded upward, luckily. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2021, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/792 "2021-03-20T07:32:54Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > More like in the coal scuttle of our social history. It’s called a dustbin because, after the rags and bones man takes the rags and bones, glass and metal, all that was left was the ash from the coal fires. [Victorian dust-yards: early recycling - Groundsure](https://www.groundsure.com/resources/victorian-dust-yards-early-example-recycling-uk/) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2021, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/793 "2021-03-20T21:08:45Z")
Thank you! I’d always wondered about the etymology. Interestingly, in US English “ash can” is an archaic (mid 20th century & before) term for what Commonwealth English calls a “dustbin” and modern US parlance calls a “garbage can” or “trash can”. Presumably from the same trash-picking proto-recycling history. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2021, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/794 "2021-03-21T14:23:14Z")
So an example of something from our dustbin is a dustbin. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2021, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/795 "2021-03-21T17:53:52Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > We just switched out of our gym uniforms (shorts and t-shirt) when gym was over. Usually washed them every term. Whether they needed it or not. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2021, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/796 "2021-03-22T00:24:56Z")
Well, the nice thing is that they didnt need to be carried, they walked home by themselves. 😆 ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2021, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/797 "2021-03-27T17:23:46Z")
Until the mid-60’s, our local tennis club had a sign posted on the gate: WHITES ONLY. It was understood that it was referring to the apparel to be worn on the court. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2021, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/798 "2021-03-27T18:36:05Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > Speaking of promotional items: Plastic dodecahedrons (12-sided figures) with months of the calendar on each face. They once were very common in offices. (If you don’t know what I’m referring to, try searching that auction site for “dodecahedron calendar” and for “dodecahedron souvenir”.) A boy who had a crush on me in high school made me a dodecahedron with cartoons and other pictures glued on. I had it for a number of years, but it finally just fell apart. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/799 "2021-03-28T14:16:47Z")
Tidying up some stationery in my office, I happened across a pocket calculator. It was long unused, with a dead battery. Have we dispensed with them as well? Time was, when we used to write things down on paper, you would do any sums you needed with a calculator; these days if you’re writing something you’re probably using a keyboard, and have an app handy for that sort of thing. If you’re out and about, you’ll have something on your phone you can use. I checked and you can still buy them - but if they’re not a thing of the past, they very nearly are, I think. Which in turn made me think of slide rules - I still have one somewhere, you know… j ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/800 "2021-03-28T17:29:04Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > Which in turn made me think of slide rules - I still have one somewhere, you know… I’ve got an abacus. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/801 "2021-03-28T17:31:46Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I’ve got an abacus. _Show off!_ 😉 j ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/802 "2021-03-28T18:04:12Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > > [@Treppenwitz](#): > > > > Which in turn made me think of slide rules - I still have one somewhere, you know… > > I’ve got an abacus. I have both. And can use them. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/803 "2021-03-28T18:32:27Z")
I have a pocket calculator. I find it handier than an app, because 99% of the time I use it is at my desk. And it’s solar powered so there’s no battery to run down. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/804 "2021-03-28T19:36:00Z")
Oh you modern things, stick with Napiers bones for authenticity [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703.md?page=39) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703.md?page=41)