# Little things you remember, now consigned to the past **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 26, 2007, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256 "2007-07-26T17:37:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256/21 "2007-07-26T18:42:37Z")
[QUOTE=AHunter3] Mimeo machines, with that weird **purple type**. Remember the smell of it? [/QUOTE] That’s exactly what I came here to say! All our school newsletters used to be with that and I remember sitting sniffing the paper! ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256/22 "2007-07-26T18:43:05Z")
Pot-bellied pro rasslers who were juiced up on fats and carbohydrates instead of steroids. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256/23 "2007-07-26T18:46:09Z")
On those rotary dialed phones, you always hated to dial a “9” because either your finger would fall out of the hole halfway around and you have to start dialing all over, or because it took so long to unwind back to the start. _zhhhweet… chu chu chu chu chu chu chu chu chu_ ---
**Author:** ![rhythmonly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee59a6/32.png) [@rhythmonly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhythmonly)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256/24 "2007-07-26T18:50:02Z")
Milk man (mentioned above). We also had a Bakery Man, who had fresh apple turnovers. Radium-painted hands on your watch, that glowed in the dark after being subjected to a flashlight. Mail being deleivered twice a day during the holidays. A scoop of ice cream was a nickel. Cigarettes out of a vending machine for 50 cents a pack. The guy at the gas station would fix your flat tire for free. Guys wearing a suit, tie and hat at the ballpark. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256/25 "2007-07-26T18:59:03Z")
- That little switchbox used on first generation video game systems that you had to hook up to the UHF antenna connection and slide to choose “game” or “tv”. -That soft off-white paper with the faded blue solid and dashed lines used to practice penmanship on in gradeschool. -cash register endcaps loaded down with 35mm film rolls. -bananna seats on kids bikes. -A&W rootbeer that could be bought in a gallon jug from the restaurant to take home. -Slush Puppies. (Kmarts version of the slurpee) -Paperboys who came around to “collect”. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256/26 "2007-07-26T19:04:57Z")
[QUOTE=Hampshire] -Slush Puppies. (Kmarts version of the slurpee) [/QUOTE] Yeah, but I think Slushpuppies were made with _Apple juice_ which made them SO much better. "Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun! ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256/27 "2007-07-26T19:10:04Z")
Bread in cellophane or plastic bags whose ends were sealed flat against the end of the loaf by a square paper label instead of being secured by a bread tag. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256/28 "2007-07-26T20:36:52Z")
[QUOTE=ivylass] Funny story…my stepbrother is fixing up the house next to his mom’s and inside the kitchen is a rotary dial phone. My daughter recognized it as a phone, but she couldn’t figure out how to make it work. I about fell on the floor laughing at her. She kept poking her fingers in the holes, trying to press the “button.” [/QUOTE] The same thing happened to me in kindergarten or first grade (this would have been in the very early 80s)- I wasn’t feeling well, and tried to use the school office phone to call my mom. But it was a rotary phone, which I had never used before. I had to ask the secretary how to do it, and she laughed at me. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256/29 "2007-07-26T21:01:39Z")
When I was a kid, the Wanamaker’s downtown had a really cool little train that you could ride in that circled the ceiling of the toy department. I haven’t been back to Philadelphia in a long, long time and for all I know there isn’t even a Wanamaker’s anymore. In fact, there may not be a Wanamaker’s anywhere anymore. \*Googles Nope, there isn’t. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256/30 "2007-07-26T21:02:46Z")
I have a typewriter on my desk, but it’s a IBM Selectric II where the typing element moves. I remember manual typewriters where the carriage moved. And heaven help you if you put a full coffee cup too close to the carriage. ---
**Author:** ![Gus\_Gusterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@Gus\_Gusterson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Gusterson)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256/31 "2007-07-26T21:07:43Z")
[QUOTE=Giles] Telephones with dials [/QUOTE] The house I just bought has a rotary telephone in the basement, still plugged in and working. It sure takes forever to call someone now that we have to use 10-digit dialing. I found a Little People person in the attic. It’s from a long time ago when they were made of wood. They all had the same basic shape, but the faces were different. This one was a baby with a little curlycue on top. ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256/32 "2007-07-26T21:15:33Z")
[QUOTE=koeeoaddi] When I was a kid, the Wanamaker’s downtown had a really cool little train that you could ride in that circled the ceiling of the toy department. I haven’t been back to Philadelphia in a long, long time and for all I know there isn’t even a Wanamaker’s anymore. In fact, there may not be a Wanamaker’s anywhere anymore. \*Googles Nope, there isn’t. ☹ [/QUOTE] It circled the _ceiling_? That would be cool! I watched _Fast Times at Ridgemont High_ with my son not long ago; he was completely baffled during the scene in Mr. Hand’s class on the first day of school, when all the characters simultaneously raise their papers to their faces and inhale deeply. Photocopies are easier to read, but there’s nothing like the smell of mimeographs. It’s the smell of purple. I can remember when the local grocery store had ashtrays at the end of each aisle. Also my Peter Pan peanut butter came in glass jars, which my mother would re-use when she made jelly. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256/33 "2007-07-26T21:16:47Z")
[QUOTE=Bricker] We had milk deivered to the front door in the mornings when I was a kid, by the milkman. Getting to have the cream on the top was cool. [/QUOTE] I remember the little “selector” that you’d leave out for the milk man. Had all the different products on tabs and you rotated out the ones with the products you wanted. Like a set of cardboard feeler gauges with a dairy product on each one. I still have a rotary phone and ice tongs and a butter churn and a barrel of telephone insulators (and a thousand other old gizmos). ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256/34 "2007-07-26T21:20:15Z")
sex with another person ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256/35 "2007-07-26T21:31:56Z")
[QUOTE=calm kiwi] That’s exactly what I came here to say! All our school newsletters used to be with that and I remember sitting sniffing the paper! [/QUOTE] Young’un checking in here (age 20). My junior high school still used those! I never realized that they were not designed to have type upon them, but rather to provide delicious smells. (At least I assume that we’re talking about the same thing. What I’m thinking about, I never saw the machine, but it produced low quality copies with purple ink?) ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256/36 "2007-07-26T21:49:46Z")
Going to Macy’s or any other department store, and hearing those odd “bing - bing - bing” tones every now and then. I think they were some kind of early paging system, since the tones would get repeated 2 or 3 times every time, but also differ in pattern between invocations. It had a fairly distinct tone quality – it wasn’t a bell, it wasn’t a dial tone, it was… the department store “bing”. It’s been many years since I’ve heard it. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256/37 "2007-07-26T22:22:00Z")
[QUOTE=Hampshire] -That soft off-white paper with the faded blue solid and dashed lines used to practice penmanship on in gradeschool. [/QUOTE] While I’m sure these are still around, your post reminded me of something I personally haven’t seen in years - those wire chalk holders used to draw parallel lines on the blackboard. Teachers would put two or three pieces in at one to draw those same lines to teach penmanship, and I was flabbergasted in junior high when the music teacher put chalk in ALL FIVE holders to make a musical staff! ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256/38 "2007-07-26T22:28:42Z")
Grocery store baggers that knew how to bag things well. You could set the bag down, cut it away, and the contents stayed in place. Kids as TV remotes. Kids as garage door opener. Garbage men that collected the garbage at the house, not at the street. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256/39 "2007-07-26T22:37:38Z")
Toy spaceships that actually shot real “laser pellets.” Coca-Cola made with sugar, in bottles. The little blue dice that came with the D&D basic box set. A tape drive for the VIC-20. Floppy disks the size of a waffle iron. Dialing up a BBS on the phone, waiting for the handshake signal, and plugging it quickly into the jack of a 1200-baud modem. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256/40 "2007-07-26T22:40:14Z")
A real Avon lady who came to our house with a sample case and showed my Mom all the latest products. Likewise a doctor who visited us with an actual black bag full of doctor stuff. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-remember-now-consigned-to-the-past/413256.md?page=3)