# 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:** 41
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/805 "2021-03-28T20:00:31Z")
I remember only being able to call certain relatives back east like in NYC once a month because they only got so many free calls and then they had to pay per call whether it was local or not to last year’s remarks on landlines …we still have ours due to the social security admin and other social services not accepting cell numbers as valid phone numbers or as proof of residence until a couple of o f years ago … But spectrum bundles it in with our cable internet… I think its 9.99 a month if you separate it so if you want a landline we get an actual non-junk mail call about twice a week ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/806 "2021-03-28T23:18:28Z")
I find it faster and more convenient to grab a separate calculator (when I’m doing something requiring one, there’s generally one within arms’ reach) than to open an app and have it take up a chunk of my screen space. The calculator which does only that requires fewer clicks than hauling out my phone and working my way around to its calculator. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2021, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/807 "2021-03-29T14:23:17Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2021, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/808 "2021-03-29T16:35:02Z")
[quote=“RealityChuck, post:802, topic:927703, full:true”] > [@panache45](#): > > > [@Treppenwitz](#): > > > > > Which in turn made me think of slide rules - I still have one somewhere, you know… > > > [/quote] > > > > > > I’ve got an abacus. > > I have both. And can use them. You’re not cool until you’ve got a Curta calculator: > **[Curta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curta)** > > The Curta is a hand-held mechanical calculator designed by Curt Herzstark. It is known for its extremely compact design: a small cylinder that fits in the palm of the hand. It was affectionately known as the "pepper grinder" or "peppermill" due to its shape and means of operation; its superficial resemblance to a certain type of hand grenade also earned it the nickname "math grenade". > Curtas were considered the best portable calculators available until they were displaced by electronic calculato... (Don’t feel bad - I’m not cool either…) ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2021, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/809 "2021-03-29T16:49:25Z")
I’ve always been fascinated by those! ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2021, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/810 "2021-03-29T17:16:37Z")
My 1790 farm house (which is still on a farm) is chockablock with discarded ideas made, well, not flesh, but wood and brick anyway. The original house consisted of what is called a 'two over two", two ‘parlors’ separated by a tiny front hall which also contained the narrow steep stair which wound around the central chimney to the other two rooms. In the back was probably originally a one-story with a second chimney, called the ‘keeping room’, where meals were cooked and eaten. Every room was heated by a large fireplace. At least a dozen children and related adults lived there at a time for much of the 19th century (the keeping room was early on replaced with a two story ell with a lot more sleeping area upstairs). The road got electricity post WWII some time. Indoor plumbing came after that. History continues to flow over the house. There was probably no central heat until the 1970’s – there were some decades when it was owned by retired people who only lived here in the summer. It was rented by the room to students after that, and wired for separate electric heaters. Then when the people we bought it from moved in they put in a boiler and radiators. We will eventually get solar voltaic panels and minisplits and take out the boiler. The remains of the primeval forests cut down by the first European settlers are part of my house – the unpeeled logs serving as floor joists down in the stone cellar, the yellow pine and chestnut boards on the floors, some of them 18" wide. Imagine what those people saw, wore, ate. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2021, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/811 "2021-03-29T23:32:28Z")
In the '60s, I used to participate in sports car rallies, The “arrive at checkpoints on time” variety. Several club members used the Curta for their calculations. I never had one, but I did have a large diameter circular slide rule that did the calculations. It couldn’t do anything else though while the Curta could be. ---
**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 29, 2021, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/812 "2021-03-29T23:42:14Z")
In the early 70s, before getting my first electronic calculator, I used one of [these](https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/71705819039109365/). ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/813 "2021-03-30T01:11:20Z")
> [@PB\_J](#): > > Caller stated that my line would be checked again in a few minutes. I flew down the basement and disconnected the phone. I never heard about it again. To this day I wonder if that was someone just being mean. Almost certainly not. Before the breakup, AT&T was _very_ strict about “unauthorized equipment” on their lines, their reasoning being it might screw up the whole network. Hell, Hush-A-Phone had to [sue the FCC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hush-A-Phone#1948%E2%80%931957:_legal_battles_with_AT&T) (and by extension, AT&T) to give users the right to put a rubber privacy guard on the mouthpiece. > FCC official Jack Werner’s suggestion was that the telephone company should suspend service to any consumer failing to comply with the regulation prohibiting foreign attachments.[[31]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hush-A-Phone#cite_note-hitsback-31) > … > The FCC’s 1955 decision was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals on November 8, 1956, in the landmark case _[Hush-A-Phone v. United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hush-A-Phone_v._United_States)_ , with the decision stating it was an “unwarranted interference with the telephone subscriber’s right reasonably to use his telephone in ways which are privately beneficial without becoming publicly detrimental”.[[39]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hush-A-Phone#cite_note-39) ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/814 "2021-03-30T08:00:21Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > I don’t know what the situation was at home, but when her senior class went to Washington, DC she refused to set foot or sit (her exact words were “set ass”) anywhere her friend couldn’t. Even the chaperones were unprepared by the issues they ran into (somehow they got the hotel to look the other way). When [The Pentagon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pentagon#Construction) was built, starting in October 1941, the bathrooms and dining facilities were segregated. FDR insisted they be integrated. > The Pentagon was designed in accordance with the [racial segregation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation_in_the_United_States) laws in force in the state of Virginia at the time, with separate eating and lavatory accommodations for white and black persons; the sets of lavatories were side by side, and the dining areas for black persons were in the basement.[[41]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pentagon#cite_note-41)[[42]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pentagon#cite_note-Carroll,_James_2006._p.4-5-42) However, when Roosevelt visited the facility before its dedication, he ordered removal of the “Whites Only” signs, and the Pentagon became the only building in Virginia where segregation laws (which remained in force until 1965) were not enforced. The side-by-side sets of restrooms still exist, but are used by all.[[42]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pentagon#cite_note-Carroll,_James_2006._p.4-5-42) ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/815 "2021-03-30T08:28:23Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > When I was a kid, every house in the neighborhood had a milk box on the porch - a metal cube that the guy who delivered the dairy stuff early in the morning could put the stuff in. When I was four and we were living in Los Angeles milk was delivered by Carnation Dairy. We didn’t have a box, but a carrier rather like a soda six-pack only made of metal wire and scaled up to fit milk bottles. For additions to the regular order we had a pack of cardboard cards that were fastened together with a rivet at one end and were color coded with an initial for the product. You’d swivel out what you wanted and stick the pack in the neck of an empty bottle so the milkman could see it from his truck and make only one trip. White with a blue S was sour cream and the other one I remember was tan with a brown C – chocolate milk. Mom got a couple bottles of chocolate milk until she got the bill, and flagged the driver down the next time she saw him. “Why am I being charged for the chocolate milk?” “Because you ordered them.” “No I didn’t – I thought they were samples.” “The card was in the bottle.” Two pairs of eyes fell upon The Kid. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/816 "2021-03-30T09:05:53Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > A good friend of mine has worked for Mystic Stamp Company (one of the big US stamp dealers) for the past decade, writing copy for their sales materials. When I was in the navy I collected stamps because it was a more portable hobby than model railroading. I would buy a pound of stamps on paper from Mystic, soak them off, and sell the inevitable duplicates back to Mystic for store credit. I must have processed a thousand 8-cent Eisenhowers. One afternoon when we were both off duty I was busy with my latest batch I mused aloud to my roommate, “I wonder where Mystic gets these?” He was a person of faith and said, “Don’t you know? The church ladies save them and the church sends them in for money. My aunt’s done that for all her life.” I held up one where the scissors had cut into the bottom of a stamp. “Tell your aunt to be more careful!” and we laughed as I tossed it into the trash basket. ---
**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 30, 2021, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/817 "2021-03-30T20:34:20Z")
Oh yes, I remember Mystic Stamp Company from the '50s. Surprised to find they’re still around. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/818 "2021-03-30T21:06:28Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > Two pairs of eyes fell upon The Kid. Did you live? ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2021, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/819 "2021-03-31T01:15:42Z")
> [@Madam\_Librarian](#): > > In southern CA, they’re referred to as droolers, as well. Foamite in northern California. Caused me a moment’s pause when I first heard a COVID doctor refer to fomite as a route of infection. One thing that’s kept me sane the past year is [Virtual Railfan, Inc. – We bring the trains to you!](https://virtualrailfan.com/) Fifty-odd cameras at thirty-odd sites including a couple in the UK They have a Youtube channel as well. One slogan they used for a short time some months ago was, Staying at home watching trains on our screens – we’ve been ready _years_ for this. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2021, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/820 "2021-03-31T05:45:58Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > One thing that’s kept me sane the past year is > [Virtual Railfan, Inc. – We bring the trains to you!](https://virtualrailfan.com/) > > Fifty-odd cameras at thirty-odd sites including a couple in the UK Do they have the world-famous Tehachapi Loop? I used to go there from time to time to watch the trains go through. Someday I want to get together with some friends and rent a little airplane and fly over it. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2021, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/821 "2021-03-31T06:28:56Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > [This scene from _Mad Men_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDIvzDGBLWU) shows the Drapers having a picnic in a park and then casually just leaving their trash behind. That was in fact the attitude in the 1950s and early 1960s. Although some people today still behave this way, it marks you as a total asshole when 60 years ago it was normal. Normal for some parts of the country perhaps. When I was a Cub Scout circa 1960 we went on a short excursion in the desert. This new kid from New Jersey took out a stick of gum, unwrapped it and put the stick in his mouth while tossing away the wrapper. The Den Mother – my mother – admonished, “Cub Scouts don’t litter!” and the kid looked startled then retrieved the trash and stowed it in his pocket. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2021, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/822 "2021-03-31T06:39:09Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Do they have the world-famous Tehachapi Loop? Not them – it was already [covered](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0glSbcqM1o) by the museum in Tehachapi. VR has [Cajon Pass](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=353BNf1s5fY) and [Horseshoe Curve](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNkC7fpPsS8), though. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2021, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/823 "2021-03-31T07:49:13Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Note that calling overseas wasn’t easy in those days. As I remember, you called the operator and told her that you wanted to place an overseas call. They arranged it and then called you back later when they’d made the connection. Up until the mid-sixties or so when direct dial became almost universal in the US that’s how almost all long distance calls were made – you would call the long distance operator and ask to be connected to [name] in [city] along with their number if you had it. If there was a trunk line between your this connection was trivial to make but if not – frequently the case – the LD operator would call the rate-and-route operator who would figure out the trunk line(s) needed and the rate to be charged. The LD operator would then call the inward operator of the first trunk line, who would then call the next inward operator and so on until the local lines of wherever it was was reached where an operator would call [name] and announce, “Please hold for a call from [your name] in [your city].” Needless to say, this process could take a while so rather than have you wait on the line, your LD operator would have you hang up and then some minutes later call you back to complete the connection. You might remember in _It’s a Wonderful Life_ Mary waiting for a call from Sam Wainwright and it’s a minute after the phone rings before she’s talking to him with George listening in. A friend of mine wrote a [book](https://smile.amazon.com/Exploding-Phone-Untold-Teenagers-Outlaws-ebook/dp/B009SAV5W0/) on how the automated long distance system works – quite an engineering feat – and how the phone phreaks hacked it. I told him, “I made an operator-assisted call to what had to be the last holdout of direct dial in 1985.” I wanted to make a reservation at the Stovepipe Wells Hotel in Death Valley. The number in the Yellow Pages – that I had to go to the library to get – was _00 and ask for operator 54._ When I did that she put me on hold a couple minutes and came back with the hotel. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2021, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/824 "2021-03-31T08:30:23Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Speaking of which, have typewriters been mentioned upthread? Because ISTM they are definitely in the dustbin of our cultural history. Our household had one in the 70s and 80s, but there wasn’t much use for it after we got a computer and a printer. Just before the shutdown, the children’s art museum I volunteered at opened an exhibit about storytelling. One of the displays was a [Remington Quiet Riter](https://ber10thal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/original-images.jpg) on a pedestal with a sheaf of papers that you could roll in – they had a tough time finding a ribbon for it. The kids clearly had _no_ idea what to do with a manual typewriter. They’d tentatively poke the keys until I showed them how to pound on them with great vigor. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703.md?page=40) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703.md?page=42)