# What became ubiquitous then went away in your lifetime? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 10, 2026, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180 "2026-04-10T22:01:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 48
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2026, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/941 "2026-10-08T23:33:38Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > Pontiac Firebirds I’m gonna say sporty-ish coupes in general are less common. I’m not sure when exactly when they became ubiquitous, perhaps a bit before my lifetime, but it seemed like they really peaked by the 1980s - early 90s, when it seemed like every automaker had one in their lineup. I don’t necessarily mean serious performance cars, I mean stuff like the Toyota Celica, Honda Prelude, Dodge Daytona, Mitsubishi Eclipse, Ford Probe, as well as the American pony cars like the Mustang, Camero, and Firebird. They’re not completely dead – the Mustang is still around, and the Toyota GT86 is effectively the new Celica, but it’s a much smaller niche than it used to be. Come to think of it, another class of car that used to be ubiquitous was “personal luxury car” – two door pseudo-luxury cars like the Olds Cutlass Supreme. Those became really popular around the late 1970s (so slightly before my lifetime, since I was born in 1980), and now that class of car is pretty much dead. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2026, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/942 "2026-10-08T23:48:01Z")
I’m wondering if flash mobs might fit the criteria. Remember when people in a mall or train station would “spontaneously” burst into song, often with an elaborately-choreographed dance? In the late 2000s and early 2010s, they weren’t necessarily all over the place, but they got wide exposure through YouTube. I suppose that they haven’t totally disappeared, but now, you don’t hear or see much about them. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2026, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/943 "2026-10-08T23:52:18Z")
It seems more late a fad to me, which we’ve agreed isn’t really for the thread. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderMagnolia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@LavenderMagnolia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderMagnolia)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/944 "2026-10-09T00:53:38Z")
I am not sure when this became ubiquitous, but…I was born in the late '80s and I have childhood memories of '90s, early 2000s grocery stores/supermarkets employing more baggers (or “courtesy clerks”). There were more cashiers and almost all of them had a bagger at their checkout lane. In the early 2010s, I was a supervisor/shift leader at a couple of grocery store chains. By then it was common for the cashiers to do most of the bagging. One or two baggers would float between checkout lanes, or a supervisor might step in if we were really busy. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/945 "2026-10-09T01:01:19Z")
Having baggers was quite common in the 60s when I was a child, so it’s not something that became ubiquitous afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/946 "2026-10-09T03:26:21Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Come to think of it, another class of car that used to be ubiquitous was “personal luxury car” – two door pseudo-luxury cars like the Olds Cutlass Supreme. Those became really popular around the late 1970s (so slightly before my lifetime, since I was born in 1980), and now that class of car is pretty much dead. And another one would be the minivan. Chrysler pioneered the minivan segment with the Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager in 1984, though the Toyota “Van” was apparently introduced in the U.S. at about the same time. (And, arguably, the VW Microbus was a minivan, decades earlier.) Soon, nearly every manufacturer other than the luxury brands were offering minivans, which became popular as family transportation, and largely killed off the station wagon body style. That boom lasted until around 2000, when SUVs and smaller “crossover” SUVs took over, and the minivan became known as something that only a soccer mom – and an uncool one, at that --would drive. Minivans still exist, though it’s a very small portion of the market now; the Dodge Caravan, which one might consider the exemplar of the class, was discontinued in 2008 (though the “Grand Caravan” lingered on until 2020). ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/947 "2026-10-09T03:41:56Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > And another one would be the minivan. That’s come up in this thread before. It’s interesting because minivans are still more popular than SUVs in Japan. ---
**Author:** ![Ancient\_Nerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/948 "2026-10-09T07:08:13Z")
Punched computer cards. Usually called IBM cards. Starting in the 60’s, every bill in the mail came with one that you were supposed to mail back with your check. The instructions ‘Do not bend, fold, spindle, or mutilate.’ were printed on them and widely quoted as a social commentary. They were last seen in the 2000 election with the whole hanging chad mess. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/949 "2026-10-09T07:24:00Z")
Punched cards go way back. Their use predates anyone on this message board. > At the end of the 1800s [Herman Hollerith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Hollerith "Herman Hollerith") created a method for recording data on a medium that could then be read by a machine,[[11]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card#cite_note-CH_ETS-11)[[12]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card#cite_note-Randell_1982-12)[[13]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card#cite_note-Hollerith_1884-13)[[14]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card#cite_note-Patent_2-14) developing punched-card data-processing technology for the [1890 U.S. census](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1890_United_States_census "1890 United States census").[[15]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card#cite_note-daCruz_2019-15) ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/950 "2026-10-09T07:40:28Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > Punched cards go way back. Their use predates anyone on this message board. They may have been around in, say, 1910, but were they _ubiquitous_? ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/951 "2026-10-09T07:52:35Z")
They were already when I was child. I don’t know about for everyone. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/952 "2026-10-09T08:08:56Z")
Thinking more about it, my father worked in what would now be called IT, and brought home boxes of punch cards that he used for memo paper. So our family had punch cards from before my memory started. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/953 "2026-10-09T09:18:19Z")
Another IT related one - Data Entry. This was a job (primarily for young ladies) who would enter computer code into the mainframe computer that the programmers had written (on carbon-backed forms). It was actually identified as a career that provided regular employment - until programmers could enter their code directly from a terminal. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/954 "2026-10-09T12:25:32Z")
I thought I had a great entry for this thread: traveler’s checks. They were a Big Thing at some point in my youth (Don’t Leave Home Without Them!), but now they’ve virtually disappeared. So I wondered when they were first introduced. Google tells me it was in…1772! I’m old, but not quite that old. So, not a good example for this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/955 "2026-10-09T17:17:15Z")
I already covered electric typewriters in [post # 602](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/602) back in July. ---
**Author:** ![Ancient\_Nerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/956 "2026-10-09T19:33:56Z")
> [@Wallaby](#): > > Another IT related one - Data Entry. This was a job (primarily for young ladies) Typing was seen as women’s work. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/957 "2026-10-09T20:54:04Z")
> [@Wallaby](#): > > It was actually identified as a career that provided regular employment - until programmers could enter their code directly from a terminal. Could they load reels of tape, punched cards, or collect printouts directly from a terminal? [1950s/1960s " IBM GIRLS " WOMEN IN DATA PROCESSING AND MANAGEMENT / MAINFRAME COMPUTERS 17684 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/17684womeninibmusingcomputersvwr) ---
**Author:** ![sunacres](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@sunacres](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunacres)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2026, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/958 "2026-10-10T16:16:27Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > So, not a good example for this thread. I just wanted to salute @Railer13 for elegantly sidestepping the OP’s narrow and diligently enforced thread topic boundaries. Nicely done. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderMagnolia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@LavenderMagnolia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderMagnolia)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2026, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/959 "2026-10-11T12:06:35Z")
People buying songs on iTunes and other websites for their MP3 players. Renting DVDs/Blu-Rays by mail. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2026, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180/960 "2026-10-11T23:03:09Z")
Have bank gifts for opening an account been mentioned? I certainly haven’t see any in quite a while. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180.md?page=47) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-ubiquitous-then-went-away-in-your-lifetime/1029180.md?page=49)