The Mountain Rescue team of which I was a member used pagers into this century
At my former job we had on call pagers up until around 2010. You also got a slight pay stipend for taking the pager for an overnight shift. I think I only got paged once or twice and it was always something that had been resolved by the time I was able to go into work and log in.
In unrelated news, one of the last mountains I made it to the top of was Mount Democrat near Breckenridge and I was surprised that I got cell phone service at the top. I got more bars than a lot of roadsides in New England. I used it to find out what they mined at the Climax Mine that you can see from the trail.
I did wind up seeing some in the Walstore during the last few weeks so they’re still around. But not nearly so common.
I don’t see many plain felt-tipped pens, either. Colorful sets and Sharpies and big stinky permanent markers are still there but not the plain blue or black or red medium tipped ones people used to use.
Indoor shopping malls. There’s a nearly abandoned mall here. The buildings are there but after Macy’s, Sears, J.C. Penny, and Radio Shack left, there’s hardly any stores still there. Spencer’s, Old Navy, some cell phone store, etc. Every year there’s 1 or 2 of the most pathetic carnivals in the parking lot.
Frixion erasable pens are easily found where pens are sold, Target, Walmart, Amazon, office supply stores. Lots of styles and colors, including erasable highlighters. They are made by Pilot.
Yes, i accidentally posted too soon, and saw that people had said that. And also that they might be banned when signing legal documents. I didn’t know if they are explicitly named anywhere, but you’d need to be either an idiot or a crook to use one to sign a legal document. (Or be counting on the document to immediately be photocopied.) That being said, different tools for different jobs, and they are good for crosswords, Sudoku, etc.
When I was a kid, the fridge in our kitchen had a small freezer compartment. It was only big enough to hold a couple of metal ice trays–the ones with the handle that you pulled up to release the ice.
Then in the early 60s, plastic ice trays appeared. You ‘flexed’ the tray to release the ice, which was easier than the metal trays. We thought it was a major improvement.
However, when my parents replaced the fridge, it came with a large freezing compartment, which included an icemaker. Gone were the ice trays, both metal and plastic. I haven’t seen an ice tray in years.
This gotta be a local/US thing. I still use ice trays in my kitchen freezer, which is less than five years old. An icemaker isn’t standard equipment in a normal-level fridge/freezer here
Ice trays are far from gone. You only don’t need them if you have a fridge that comes with an ice maker which is far from universal. None of my apartments have had one. I just checked and there are tons of them for sale at Target.
Fair enough. I stand corrected.
My stand-alone freezer came with some ice trays. I already had ice trays, so i use those for freezing random things that i might want a small quantity of, like beef tallow.
My kitchen fridge came with an ice maker, but as we don’t put ice in our beverages, and the freezer compartment was small, i removed it. I use its bucket to hold two ice trays (mostly for making pie crust) and a loaf of bread, and sometimes a ziplock baggie of homemade cookies.
Nah, I think you’re mostly (or at least partially) right. I remember when ice trays came with refrigerators when new. That is what went away. You can still buy ice trays, but they’re not standard accessories these days.
And in my case, while my fridge came with an ice maker (it was hard to find one that didn’t, at least among the ones Lowe’s had available right away, IIRC), my house does not have the plumbing for one, since they weren’t common in the early 1970s when it was built. Since I wasn’t about to go to the expense of having a plumber install the hook ups for the ice maker, I just kept using ice trays.
This actually makes me wonder, are the connections for an ice maker standard in new construction nowadays? That’s not something I’ve ever really looked into.
They’re still in the process of going away. They appeared like mushrooms in the mid-1970s. There are a couple near me that are still operating at near capacity.
I’m not involved in home construction in any way, shape, or form, but I cannot imagine a new house built without a cold-water hookup near the refrigerator location.
My pandemic freezer came with ice trays. 
(It’s the freezer i bought during the pandemic, so it was new ~2020.)
That doesn’t surprise me: freezers don’t usually have ice makers, so ice trays are probably standard issue with them. I don’t think any refrigerator we’ve purchased in the last 25 years (three, I think) came with ice trays but they all had built-in ice makers.
I just realized something. I’ve never purchased a refrigerator in my life. Weird, considering my age. As an adult I’ve only lived in California where pretty much every rental comes with a fridge and it is fairly common for them to be included in home sales, as they can be a minor pain to move. Every other major appliance I’ve had to replace, but very oddly never a fridge. The only one that ever died on me was an old, little-used one in a garage that was just left to sit there. Considering older models that last are pretty universally considered to be more robust than newer ones (known dogs excepted), I’ve just never felt an urge to upgrade.
Well now I’m confused because any time I’ve seen an icemaker it has been in the freezer part of the refrigerator.
I’ve owned a home for 32 years. Never purchased a refrigerator. They always came with the house we bought (this is our fourth house). The first three did not have ice makers or in-door cold water dispensers.
The one we have was built in 2006. We’ve had it for over ten years but have never used the in-door ice maker or water dispenser because we drink warm water. I couldn’t be arsed to change the filters every six months even if we didn’t use the thing, just for the sake of the occasional visitor who wants cold water.
I use ice cube trays for freezing homemade dog treats and occasionally for broth.