# Ubiquitous items from relatively recently youngsters may not recognise **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 19, 2023, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362 "2023-03-19T15:27:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 20
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/381 "2023-05-04T12:21:25Z")
We also had a selection of gas station maps in the glove compartment, none of which were ever properly folded up once opened. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/382 "2023-05-04T12:41:48Z")
I got rid of them before the 2010s - when did Mapquest , etc come about? I was going to have to write out the directions if I used a map anyway - easier to do it online and print it. Which also had the advantage of not ever being a couple of years out of date. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/383 "2023-05-04T12:51:10Z")
I think Mapquest was available maybe twenty years ago. But it was only available on my desktop computer, not in the car, so I’d get the step-by-step directions from it and then copy and paste them to a Microsoft Word document, that I’d print at something like 24 point, so I could quickly refer to them in the car. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/384 "2023-05-04T15:50:22Z")
I remember having some sort of map book which included locations of motels, restaurants and other items of interest. This was useful because you didn’t have to rely on billboards to tell you where you could find things. Now, there are signs before exits which list gas stations, motels, and restaurants.available there. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/385 "2023-05-04T17:56:50Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > We also had a selection of gas station maps in the glove compartment, none of which were ever properly folded up once opened. That’s one of the main reasons I liked the Thomas Guides. No folding. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/386 "2023-05-05T23:36:40Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Most places around me are closed on Christmas. I’m also in the northeast. Maybe it’s regional. Everything’s closed except Chinese food places and movie theaters 🙂 Also in the Northeast, I can’t think of a single store I’ve ever seen open on Christmas day that wasn’t attached to a gas station. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/387 "2023-05-06T09:34:39Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > I used punch cards in high school math classes, back in 1974-75, and even wrote quite a few Fortran programs with them. It was sort of fun pounding them out on the keypunch machine, trying to not inhale stray card dust or chads. > > I saw my first green screens in med school, early 1980’s. by the end of that decade, they were gone. I used paper tape in my high school computer class, but never punch cards. However, i did vote on punch cards until the “hanging chads” debacle. ---
**Author:** ![TheTooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/919ad9/32.png) [@TheTooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheTooth)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/388 "2023-05-06T17:34:15Z")
I learned electronics on vacuum tubes in high school in the mid 1980’s. Junior’s not likely to run into one of those these days unless they’re into audio. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2023, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/389 "2023-05-07T03:17:38Z")
I was watching Independence Day earlier this week and heard the distinctive clip of a Zippo lighter. They’d probably figure it out if open but I wonder how many teens would recognize a closed Zippo as a lighter. ---
**Author:** ![Blindmellowjelly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindmellowjelly/32/13920_2.png) [@Blindmellowjelly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blindmellowjelly)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2023, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/390 "2023-05-07T04:44:23Z")
[20230507\_003303|375x500](https://boards.straightdope.com/uploads/short-url/h8BXx2iYKVkFs9JTA1jiqkRvStd.jpeg) MmmM. …pickles. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2023, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/391 "2023-05-07T05:53:23Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > As kids we would find soda bottles and take them to the grocery store to get a 2 cent deposit refund. Back in the late 50s, the local corner store also took the soda bottles. When I took them, I’d ask for the deposit back in penny candy! > [@TriPolar](#): > > Another form of punched card that people who saw them often don’t realize what they were, the perforated little cardboard tags that would be pinned or stapled to department store clothes. Kimball tags (ninja’d by Dewey\_Finn). I never had to work with them directly, but in the 80s I wrote a few report programs for them for a local department store. > **[Kimball tag](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimball_tag)** > > A Kimball tag was a cardboard tag that included both human and machine-readable data to support punched card processing. A Kimball tag was an early form of stock control label that, like its later successor the barcode, supported back office data processing functions. They were predominantly used by the retail clothing ("fashion") industry. > Tagging guns which use plastic toggles to attach price tags to clothing are still known as "Kimball guns" (or the corruption, "kimble guns"), although the t... ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2023, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/392 "2023-06-24T16:34:52Z")
My son is 12, and he walked into a shoe store for the first time in his life, yesterday. (Damn you, Amazon!) (Actually he probably was in one a few times when he was 3 or 4 years old, but he doesn’t remember.) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2023, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/393 "2023-06-24T16:39:17Z")
So…his first encounter with the Brannock Device? ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2023, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/394 "2023-06-24T16:39:58Z")
Yes! He said “it looks smaller than I expected.” Interesting. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2023, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/395 "2023-06-24T16:40:32Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Brannock Device That’s what those are called? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2023, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/396 "2023-06-24T16:41:23Z")
Yep. > **[The Brannock Device Company | The Brannock Device Company](https://brannock.com/)** > > The Brannock Device is the standard foot measuring tool for the world's footwear industry. Quality made in the USA. Invented in Central NY. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2023, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/397 "2023-06-24T16:43:00Z")
Do they still have those big metal ones at the stores? Last time I saw one it was a simpler plastic device. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2023, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/398 "2023-06-24T17:06:25Z")
Yup, that’s what they had in the Nike store on Chicago’s Miracle Mile, anyway. (But maybe in part as a nostalgic wink, like one wall of 70s-inspired new shoe designs). ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2023, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/399 "2023-06-24T18:31:18Z")
Tar trucks. I was out to dinner with my brother earlier this week and the subject of tar trucks came up. It used to be an open-bed truck or similar with a bunch of ladders, ropes, shovels, debris and junk in back, towing a smoking black trailer, misshapen from years of tar buildup and dripping that sticky stuff as it goes. But the big thing was you could smell it a long way before it came into sight. You never see/smell those anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2023, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/400 "2023-06-25T18:55:23Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > How about returnable beer bottles? When we holiday in Austria we often get a case of beer and we pay a specific “pfand” when purchasing. Taking the plastic crate and empty bottles back to the shop you can pop it in an autoamtic recycling machine that scans it all and gives you a deposit voucher that you can spend in the shop. On more beer of course. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362.md?page=19) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362.md?page=21)