# Sights and sounds of the past you miss...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sights-and-sounds-of-the-past-you-miss/845504>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [December 28, 2019, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sights-and-sounds-of-the-past-you-miss/845504 "2019-12-28T06:26:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![pabbybear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pabbybear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pabbybear)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2020, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sights-and-sounds-of-the-past-you-miss/845504/41 "2020-01-01T20:41:02Z")

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I live in a somewhat small town, really just a college town. There is one gas station that’s been there since I was a kid, or before, and I’m 75 now. It’s the only gas station I go to. The beeping hose is there, they pump the gas, wash the windshield and if you ask will check the oil. It’s one of the few places left from my childhood. And it still looks the same!

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**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2020, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sights-and-sounds-of-the-past-you-miss/845504/42 "2020-01-01T20:58:23Z")

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> [@Ulfreida](#):
>
> I miss the sound of meadowlarks. The fields of the Santa Clara Valley used to be full of them. Of course the fields are gone now. There are Eastern Meadowlarks here but I haven’t heard them.
> 
> Also ice cream trucks. It’s been fifty-odd years since I lived in a suburban neighborhood, so ice cream trucks are a sound from childhood for me.

When I was a kid (nineteen sixty something) we had Mr. Softee, and it … was … awesome. And I grew up in a small town (well under 20k at the time). Almost like a Dairy Queen on wheels. Soft serve cones, shakes and malts, sundaes, banana splits, etc. And the memorable Mr. Softee jingle playing over the loudspeakers. And at prices we could afford even with our meager pocket money.

Now even in larger cities not only are they rarer, they only have prepackaged ice cream sandwiches and fudge bars that cost more than a peanut butter parfait at DQ, with horrible tinny music.

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**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2020, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sights-and-sounds-of-the-past-you-miss/845504/43 "2020-01-01T21:15:36Z")

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Bus and train drivers calling out the name of the station. Some of them did it with humor, and a few were actually funny.

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**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2020, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sights-and-sounds-of-the-past-you-miss/845504/44 "2020-01-01T21:27:24Z")

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> [@kayT](#):
>
> The small town gas station took me back to how in the winter, when things were slow for farmers, my dad would go to the station and play cribbage with the owner/operator. That slapping sound of playing cards being shuffled is another one I don’t hear very often any more. Don’t know many card players and most people seem to play solitaire on their computers these days.

_“Fifteen 2, fifteen 4, fifteen 6, fifteen 8, and 8 for double run is 16.”_ Used to listen to my parents play cribbage. 🙂

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