Holy cow!
I’m feeling pretty old in this thread and I’m only 31!
Can’t find big wheels anymore, and I had a heck of a time finding a plain old tri-cycle! I remember I had a red one with one step on the back, and a green one with TWO steps.
My mom used to use “Gee your hair smells terrific” and I just looked for it the other day. I’m always keeping my eye out for it, but I’m not spending as much as was quoted here earlier.
My grandmother used to use Herbal Essence and I loved the smell of that as well. It was a bright green color and smelled more earthy than flowery like today.
I’m having a hard time finding cookie cutters of old. The solid metal ones. Not the plastic or flimsy metal ones. I have a bunch I “borrowed” from my mom about ten years ago. They are so beaten and abused. They have been used for many things…playdough on rainy days, three days worth of christmas baking, and to make christmas ornaments with.
My grandfather used to deliver fuel oil to houses. I guess one year dad and my uncle decided to help when someone called with a late night emergency and filled their basement with coal instead of the bin.
Hubby got the boys cap guns and actually found paper caps, but they don’t work as well as they used to. It was mom (me) who dug out the hammer and showed those boys how to really use them.
I think my cousin has two sets of those clackers. The big balls on the string that they no longer make because someone deemed them unsafe. Heck, we never did much damage to each other. Okay, one broken finger and and a few lumps to the head, but we are better people for it now. 
Holy cow!
I’m feeling pretty old in this thread and I’m only 31!
Can’t find big wheels anymore, and I had a heck of a time finding a plain old tri-cycle! I remember I had a red one with one step on the back, and a green one with TWO steps.
My mom used to use “Gee your hair smells terrific” and I just looked for it the other day. I’m always keeping my eye out for it, but I’m not spending as much as was quoted here earlier.
My grandmother used to use Herbal Essence and I loved the smell of that as well. It was a bright green color and smelled more earthy than flowery like today.
I’m having a hard time finding cookie cutters of old. The solid metal ones. Not the plastic or flimsy metal ones. I have a bunch I “borrowed” from my mom about ten years ago. They are so beaten and abused. They have been used for many things…playdough on rainy days, three days worth of christmas baking, and to make christmas ornaments with.
My grandfather used to deliver fuel oil to houses. I guess one year dad and my uncle decided to help when someone called with a late night emergency and filled their basement with coal instead of the bin.
Hubby got the boys cap guns and actually found paper caps, but they don’t work as well as they used to. It was mom (me) who dug out the hammer and showed those boys how to really use them.
I think my cousin has two sets of those clackers. The big balls on the string that they no longer make because someone deemed them unsafe. Heck, we never did much damage to each other. Okay, one broken finger and and a few lumps to the head, but we are better people for it now.
Oh, I remembered another!
Tv dinners came in tin foil/aluminum pans and pudding came in little tins. I remember sitting in front of the television eating those as a small child. I want to say it was like a Dick VanDyke variety type show. Did he have one of those? Maybe it was the Carol Burnnet show?
Evil Captor, if you haven’t seen it already, check out http://www.roadsideamerica.com/
A lot of those weird roadside attractions are still around. I’ve been meaning to make a trip to this one some day:
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/UTWENmetaphor.html
I think they’re getting rid of all the tire playgrounds (made out of used truck tires). Don’t know why… I have many fond memories of mucking around in stagnant rainwater that had collected, and getting utterly filthy on the rubber.
You need to get out of the city. Plano has a roller rink just off Parker and 75 and there is a DQ on Park and K St (Greenville).
I absolutely love pocket watches, and if there’s one article of clothing I’d bring back, it’s spats. Suspenders, too–not enough men wear suspenders anymore.
~mixie
Well, I actually live north of Dallas in Richardson, close to Plano: but I don’t mean a kiddy roller rink ( I believe my 8 yr old just went to a birthday party at the one you cite). I’m talking about those seedy ones in the bad area of town (Harry Hines Avenue) where the teenagers hung out and skated fast on a Saturday night, and close by the cars lined Forest Lane and cruised all night.
There’s a DQ on Park? I’ll be damned.
On the racy side, those X-rated drive-ins appear to have gone the way of the dinosaur as well!
Here in Saigon, you can still get big blocks of ice delivered. (My spare bedroom has an ice-powered fan rather than A/C.) Actually, a whole array of vendors push their carts through the alleyways advertising their various wares with chants incomprehensible even to most native speakers.
There’s a roller rink right down the street from me. No drive in theaters though. Most people don’t have cars so drive ins would be a little awkward. Benches in darkened areas by the river serve the same cultural role. A bit whiffy though, if you know what I mean. I’m glad I have my own place!
Sorry, I must hijack.
Tupperware™ parties have changed a lot in recent years. In some cases men fight each other to attend one hosted by blues diva and former porn acress Candye Kane. Some of the Phoenix dopers remember Candye and her band playing at TheLadyLion’s and my wedding reception. Candye kept her shirt on at the wedding but that was not true at her Tupperware party. She felt compelled to compare herself to the “boob cake” made in her honor and to try on the erotic jewelry that TLL made for her.
When I was a kid, we had to ride in a chariot to school. Horses weren’t domesticated yet, so we each got to take turns pulling. And we didn’t have books. We had to carry 7 tons of stone tablets back and forth every day.
Space food sticks are a regular item on my shopping list. I was born in the space age and have been living off them ever since.
KRC & Kricket-
My nephew recently received a tricycle/big wheel for his bday. It has three adjustment settings. Right now, it’s a tricycle. As he gets bigger, you adjust it and it ends up being a big wheel. It’s made by Fisher Price.
A lot of things disappear, some get better. I’m jealous, it’s way cooler than either the trike or big wheel I had as a child.
Our town has one drive-in left.
Lots of Dairy Queens and Dairy Queen Braziers around.
Red Barn restaurants: Home of the “Big Barney” hamburger.
Body On Tap shampoo: made with beer (supposedly).
Space Dust: ground up Pop Rocks.
Pepsi Light: lemon Pepsi that was actually good.
Colorforms.
Quisp cereal: it was brought back for a time – yes, I bought some. It was truly vomity.
Clackers! Hee! Concussion on a String!
Cherry bombs, TNT’s, and M80’s. Anyone in South Carolina could legally get (and if they were lucky keep) their hands on the equivalent of 1/4 stick of dynamite. This up until the late 1960’s.
That roller rink can’t get all that rambunctious 'cause they are next to an old folks home. It sure seems busy on weekend and weekend nights. There is also a skatepark in Downtown Plano. It’s on 15th just west of the train tracks.
The DQ is kinda hidden beside the AutoZone and it is on Plano’s Park, not one of those other fake Park like in Dallas. Frigging unimaginative gits. DQ’s website list 2 in Garland, 1 in Plano 1 in Carrollton and 1 in Farmer’s Branch. They don’t have a friendly link to post 'tho.
My kids have a Big Wheel. They love it. Wasn’t hard to find, either; I think we got it at Toys R Us.
There’s a Dairy Queen up the street.
The drive-in near Lexington (about 2 hours away) recently reopened as a community-owned drive-in. Here’s a link. I wish more people would do things like that. I loved the drive-in when I was little.
(Folks, in the nostalgia-driven world, you can find alot of old stuff somewhere, but you just don’t see it everyday anymore. Good thread JLA)
Stuff…
-Streamers coming out from bicycle handlebars.
-Kids playing Cops ‘n’ Robbers
-Little green army men
-Nurses with that little white nurse’s hat
-Avacoda green appliances
-Orange formica
-side load toasters
-rotary phones
-wind up watches
-full size spare tires in car trunks
-Old Maid card game
-baseball cards on bicycle wheel spokes
-metallic Christmas trees
-real window shutters
-Fuller Brush man
-Push button wall switches
-corded phones with the straight cord instead of the twisty one
-Philco
-AMC cars
-Metal milk crates
-soda shops
whiney kid voice But Lady Ice it’s not the same whiney kid voice
It might not be the way this thread was intended, but I was thinking of the things as I remember them from then and not what they have possibly turned into.
Like the herbal essence shampoo. You can still get it, but it’s not the same and it doesn’t bring back the same memories.
Philster, you want push button wall switches you can have them! I’ve got a few in my house still and they are to the point where they are getting touchy about working all the time. I also have those old wall outlets to where you have to turn the face of it a bit to be able to plug anything in.
my company still make & sell pocket watches. they dont do very well, but they are still available.
they used to make a drink called quatro, which was a fizzy 4 flavoured soft drink in the 80s. i used to drink gallons of the shit.
on a slightly more intangible note, any and all enthusiasm i had for my job no longer exists
Jeezopete, am I the only one that remembers milk before it was HOMOGENIZED? When we got milk delivered at home (I was just a little kid), the cream would separate and rise to the top. Then you could pull the little cardboard cap off and lick off the cream that stuck to the inner side of the cap. Mmmmmm… must be why I still love the taste of cream today.
Sinclair dinosaurs – remember those? I saw one on a sign not too long ago. When I was a kid, they had inflatable ones you could get from the Sinclair gas stations. I wanted one really bad – I had these neat visions of riding it in the swimming pool – but my dad wouldn’t get me one. <lower lip stuck out, pouting>