I agree that they’re nowhere near as common as they once were, but you do still see Hari Krishnas in the New York subways, at least as of the last time I was there. In fact the last time I was in New York my hotel was right across the street from the Hari Krishna temple.
The pedant in me compels me to point out it’s “Hare Krishna”, not “Hari Krishna”.
I admit I just blindly copy/pasted from the post I quoted and didn’t bother checking the spelling.
and what’s even stranger, there’s a HK temple 4 blocks away, but I never see them on the street! Back in the day, they even used to have free meals on Sundays (after talk/chanting of course)
I’ve seen Hare Krishnas set up outside the Chick-Fil-A in downtown Silver Spring, MD fairly recently.
When I was a freshman at UCSD, the Krishnas came out in force the first few weeks of the new school year, handing out leaflets and emphasizing the free meals. A couple of friends went, but their report convinced me it wasn’t worth staying through the chanting/praying/proselytizing: No meat! Screw that. Even the cafeteria served Mystery Meat!
not to mention bland/no seasonings, but the food did tend to be on sweet side
Also known as Jackrabbit Krishnas.
my bad, I guess my old boss’s name came up from the past to confuse me
The wife had a Pilot that had a very sensitive alarm. There was a motorcycle down the street that would set it off when it drove by, plus heavy rain, thunder and high winds.
I thought of another one, although it’s pretty minor: Long distance calling cards.
I suppose that prepaid cell plan cards are their direct descendant, but AFAIK, nobody buys cards specifically for making long distance calls from any phone, like we used to in the early 90s.
Mentioned upthread by a few folks, including myself, though it was back in April.
Kind of related to Long Distance Calling cards, but telephone cards for using a public telephone have mostly gone away in Japan. Public telephones in Japan take coins and also cards, but now most people have a cell phone, or buy a pre-paid sim if they are tourists.
Also, regarding long distance cards there is a spoken line from the song by Projecto Uno Al Otro lado del mar (From the other side of the sea) that reads like (translating): “I’m going to buy a card and call you” which these days probably would not make sense to a lot of people.
//i\\
They’re still around, although less common. A Hari Krishna tried to shove a book in my hand outside the Atlanta airport a couple years ago. I wonder if they aren’t allowed in to solicit in the building any more.
Ashtrays. Not just in autos, but in homes. And when I was in college, classrooms had aluminum foil ashtrays on the desks.
Unless you’re more than 125 years old, I don’t think this meets the first criterion of the OP: became ubiquitous in your lifetime.
Related to that, book Matches. They were everywhere, mostly advertising for businesses, restaurants, everything. Nobody actually bought matches, I don’t believe. Not very often. Now they are almost extinct.
Very best small local company commercials. Yes, some big national companies have spent millions to make a great ad, but Trunk Monkey is the best any local company has done.
As noted just above your post, we are looking for things that became ubiquitous in your lifetime.
Actually mentioned in the OP itself.
Grumble grumble… yeah, OK point taken. I’m old, I’m not that old.
How about Butane lighters? Those big weighted ornate things were seemingly on every Coffee table. Disposables, like the BIC debuted in 1972 but show no sign of going away anytime soon.