Objects you noticed as a child that aren't around anymore...

[Joe Fields]

I vividly remember my father replacing tubes from our black and white television and going to the local drug store, where a large section of the drug store was stocked with all kinds of tubes for TV sets.

What do you all remember that isn't around anymore?

[Richardo]

1. 'Splashdowns'

Returning spacecraft plummeting into the sea. On purpose.

[Joe Fields]

9. I used to sit glued to the tv when I was a child...

to watch those splashdowns. They were important to me because they represented a successful end to a mission.

[marzipanni]

77. Last night we watched PBS's "Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History"

on January 31, 1961, Ham the chimpanzee was the first to go up (157 miles above the earth) and land in his capsule in the ocean. Just two and a half months later, the Soviet Union became the first nation to put a man into space when Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth for nearly two hours on April 12,1961.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/31/newsid_4693000/4693174.stm

[guitar man]

2. Fender skirts

and whitewall tires

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

139. And suicide knobs

useful for one-handed driving when power steering was a rarity.

[guitar man]

148. I had one of those knobs

On a '63 ford pickup with no power steering, no power brakes, 292 v8 with a 4 speed granny box. good times :)

[Ptah]

3. Glass milk jug

[HopeHoops]

18. Oh, you can still get them. Around here we have Trickling Springs (organic).

Their milk is awesome and they make the best damn eggnog! The bottles are returnable (pay a deposit).

And Yeungling brewery has returnable beer bottles (also with a deposit).

[applegrove]

79. There was a little milk window in my grandmother's house where the milkman would

put the fresh bottles of milk. It was a cabinet that had doors that opened from both the inside of the house and the outside. That house also had garden doors that opened to the basement and a full attic upstairs with trunks, ball gowns and top hats. I loved that house.

[Canuckistanian]

81. My grandparents had that, too

But they ALSO had a "coal storage room" in the basement. The coal truck used to dump it into a basement window and there was still the little "chute" that the coal ran down to get into the house.

[applegrove]

84. That is so cool. My grandparents house also had the remains of a well outside.

[Posteritatis]

4. Playgrounds that aren't entirely bright, low to the ground plastic. (nt)

[marzipanni]

17. I miss those!

At one of the elementary schools I went to in the mid 50s there was a large iron pipe jungle gym. It was tall enough to be a bit daunting at first, even to a tree-climbing first-grader.
It looked like this-?v=1&c=NewsMaker&k=2&d=38FCB2103A208D773E947D6EE88F2ACB9858AEC211D7E88D8BA3555DBC3B01BB

Of course, when I saw it later, it didn't seem very big.

This is pretty cool-
http://www.capetowndailyphoto.com/blog/2009/05/playpark-slide-for-big-kids/

[Kali]

29. I can remember playground equipment on asphalt!

I went to several different elementary schools and clearly remember two of them with the swings and metal pipe jungle gyms installed over asphalt pavement.

[surrealAmerican]

44. They had to pave them.

It made it that much easier to clean off all the blood. Most of had scraped knees for years on end.

[Kali]

52. ...

:rofl:

[txwhitedove]

74. 5th grade game of Whiplash on asphalt was treacherous....

Kids line up arm in arm and swing everyone around, around, faster, faster... I was still a skinny runt then, at the end of the "whip" and suddenly went flying airborne then sliding across asphalt. Yeah, skinned knees, arms, owwiieee.

[Art_from_Ark]

48. Our playground was grass

And there were grasshoppers hopping everywhere, providing a feast for the local birds.
The school installed an "athletic course" when I was in 3rd grade, but almost none of us kids liked it so we just played kickball most of the time.
No swings because they were too dangerous.
The first time I saw an asphalt playground was in California, and I wondered what kind of idiot would design such a wretched thing-- someone who hated kids, no doubt.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

196. Our school's jungle gym had a huge sandpile under it

because (or therefore?) kids would get up on the top and jump off.

We also had swingsets on the playgound, only these were on grass, which was a good thing, because we'd wait till we were swinging really high and then jump out and forward. My mom didn't worry about that, even though she was and is a worrywart in many ways. In fact, she taught me how to jump out of a swing when I mentioned that other kids were doing it and I couldn't figure out how.

[carlyhippy]

65. ours were high up, metal or iron, painted (no telling what kind of paint it was)

and hard solid dirt underneath, over the years the dirt was hollowed out, making a trench under each piece of equipment, which was interesting after a hard rain, trying to keep from falling into the mud and water.

[tigereye]

161. probably lead-based paint, right?

that's exactly what we had- mud-pit under the slide and monkey bars..

[Sabriel]

128. Teeter-totters made from solid wood and metal

Not those boingy springy ones you see today.

The old ones were great for smashing down on the heads of unsuspecting passersby.

[tigereye]

162. I am sorry to say that I broke a friend's arm smashing down too hard one time

still feel kinda bad about it...

[snagglepuss]

217. Tall metal slides some of which had a bump half way down.

[Aristus]

5. All the neighborhood kids playing together outside unsupervised until dark.

It's been replaced with endless videogames and "playdates."

[Posteritatis]

6. My neighborhood reacquired that a couple years ago, actually

The Fear still tends to dominate around here though, like it does everywhere else, of course.

[Joe Fields]

10. Absolutely. That's exactly how it was when I was growing up.

We "invented" our own games.

[MichiganVote]

182. Oh hell yes...and Halloween trick/treat till midnight w/o supervision

[Ptah]

7. curb feelers

[BillStein]

8. most of my hair

on top of my head, that is... the rest is still there

[Gormy Cuss]

43. Thread over.

We have a winner.

[abq e streeter]

11. Monarch butterflies; moderate and even liberal republicans

[HughBeaumont]

32. Yesterday's Klansman is now today's "Teabagger".

Yesterday's Eisenhower Conservative is now today's DLC'er.

Yesterday's "Liberal" is now today's "Professional Left".

Tangled web 'tis woven . . .

[abq e streeter]

36. Not to hijack a lighthearted thread with seriousness, but...

you're of course absolutely right. Someone posted the 1956 REPUBLICAN platform here recently, and it looked like some commie, tree hugger, bleeding heart evil librul document.

[Demoiselle]

123. Yes and YES!

Where are the Monarchs? I know I should probably miss liberal/moderate Republicans more than bugs, but they (the mod repukes) haven't been all that effective for years anyway.
Unlike a fine fluttering butterfly, who can still make my day...

[fishwax]

178. I still see Monarchs around

They come through here (central Illinois) in mid-to-late summer--hopefully will be arriving soon :)

Random story about monarchs -- a couple of years ago I was out jogging one day along my usual route, and there was a corner with a flower garden planted along a stretch of fence a little less than a block. When I turned that corner, I found myself running through a forest of Monarch butterflies--they had all been settled in on those flowers, and in running by I had disturbed a few, who then took flight, setting off a chain reaction whereby dozens more took flight and then dozens more. I was just swarmed by Monarchs for half a block. It was pretty awesome :D. The next several weeks they were there--really thick for a couple of weeks and then slowly thinning out as the season wore on.

Alas, they've taken out most of the flowers since then, so I don't know if I'll see them this year ...

[tigereye]

164. yeah, usually I just see swallow-tails...

[LynneSin]

12. lawn darts and candy cigarettes

Ahhhh.....them were the days

:hide:

[Joe Fields]

13. yeah, candy cigarettes...

[SoCalDem]

46. I have a pristine set of Jarts! I was offered $300 but I'm keeping them

[kentauros]

141. How about bubblegum cigarettes?

(courtesy of Archie McPhee :D)


I remember seeing video in recent years of the guys at Survival Research Laboratories and their catapult-launched parking-lot darts... }(

[City of Mills]

142. Great stuff

I remember blowing on those to eject the powdered sugar 'smoke'...LOL. I also liked eating the candy cigarettes. Somehow, I grew up a nonsmoker...probably because tobacco tastes nothing like bubblegum when chewed.

Do they still make Big League Chew?

[kentauros]

143. According to Wrigley.com, they still make it

but I've never looked for it. I tend to prefer the weirder candies, like from Archie McPhee ;)

Big League Chew

Commie Mints

[MajorChode]

145. You can still get candy cigs also

But you won't see it for sale on every street corner like you did 30 years ago.

[kentauros]

146. Thankfully, there are still the "weird" convenience stores.

You know, the ones that still carry this old candy (and it looks like it's just as old!) :P

[MajorChode]

147. If they have any of these, they are probably worth some money

[kentauros]

149. I would suspect they'd carry the cheap imported knockoffs.

Usually that's what I find at the weird convenience stores (inconvenience stores.) Things that are normal to them and just plain odd to us :)

[City of Mills]

150. I went to a place like this a few months ago, you can order online too

It's in Kittery Maine, not too far from me... take a trip down 'old candy' memory lane!

Yummies!
http://www.yummies.com/browse.cfm/memory-lane/2,15.html

[kentauros]

151. Cool! :)

Although some of the candies pictured were as disgusting back then as they are now. I don't even like looking at those peanut-marshmallow things

[City of Mills]

152. I'm with you there

My grandmother used to keep a bag of them in her dresser, one time when I was about 7 or 8 I got into the bag and ate most of it...I vomited profusely later that day...can't stand the sight or smell of them to this day :puke:

[kentauros]

155. In her dresser!

:rofl:

Sorry, that just sounds so wrong! :P
Sorry you got so sick.

For me it was never about eating too many of them, just that the texture was lousy, mushy junk. Gimme candy corns (made with cane sugar) any day :D

[tigereye]

165. we used to love those- buy em at the little store near the school

people would be horrified nowdays! :rofl:

[kentauros]

168. Find the ones that would be horrified and taunt them

:P

Imagine taking a pack of those out at your desk just to see how people react }(

[Taitertots]

187. My buddy has original Jarts that we still use n/t

[ElboRuum]

215. Can't help you with the lawn darts... but...

Try here: http://www.candycrate.com

[Tuesday Afternoon]

14. phone booths

[Joe Fields]

71. How in the world did we ever get along without cell phones? lol

When, away from the house you actually had to go to the corner and use a pay phone?:rofl:

[City of Mills]

154. When I was a kid I always used pay phones and called the operator

And asked for the current time...LOL...you didn't have to pay a dime!

[Joe Fields]

172. lol

[City of Mills]

153. Nowadays we have these

[Callalily]

15. Camera with flash

cubes. I had one similar to this.

[Deep13]

20. My mom had one of those.

I still have some cameras that can use flash cubes or a flash bar. I have one camera that actually uses individual flash bulbs.

[Callalily]

56. I'm sure it's difficult to

get film for those cameras. And here, there's only one place that develops 35m film.

I had a Nikonos that used flash bulbs and 35m film, but sad to say, it died on my some time ago.

[Deep13]

60. I have a Ppolaroid 600...

...and I bought a bunch of film packs. I can only use it outdoors because of a lack of flashbars. I have a 110 Instamatic and a fancy 110 with rangefinder focus. I have a Kodak Duoflex 620. No film, no developing. And a working Kodak Signet 40 from the 1950s in 35mm. That's a range finder with Ectar lens and controls for aperture and shutter speed. That's the one that takes flash bulbs and I have saved a few boxes. There are clear bulbs for B&W and blue bulbs for color.

[Callalily]

100. Oh gosh!

I forgot about the clear/blue bulbs, but yes, you are right!

You are lucky to still have those cameras. Mind are long gone.

[Art_from_Ark]

50. Polaroid's "Swinger" camera

The 1968 TV commercial was "va-va-va-voom" to a 10 year-old boy, as it showed an amazing close-up of Ally McGraw's bikini bottom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7k2uwJmwxo&feature=player_embedded

[Callalily]

54. That's Ali McGraw?

Quite a racey commercial for it's time! ;-)

I remember that camera, and although I don't remember that particular commercial, I do remember the song/music.

Ahhhhh . . . what memories.

[Art_from_Ark]

58. That was one of my very favorite commercials from the '60s

:evilgrin:

And apparently, that was Ali McGraw strolling down the beach.

Another of my favorite commercials from around the same time was the Benson and Hedges cigarette commercial. It was quintessential '60s. I had to drop everything and run into the living room every time that-- and the Polaroid swinger commercial-- came on.

http://www.tvparty.com/g2c/bensonhedges00.ram

[Recovered Repug]

179. Cameras with film are headed in that direction.

[Petrushka]

16. Shoe-fitter Xray machines

When we were kids in the 40s, our favorite shoe store was the only one with one of these contraptions . . . especially because they allowed us to look at the bones in our feet whether we were being fitting for shoes or not --->

[trof]

45. I remember those. And now I have toe cancer.

;-)

[Roon]

158. You better call a toe truck

[Deep13]

19. Pay phones, triangular automotive vent windows, ...

...ashtrays in malls and stores (don't miss that!), rabbit ears covered in aluminum foil, 8-tracks, a lot more barbershops than there are now, quart-sized glass bottles of soda.

[Joe Fields]

24. I really do miss the vents. They worked great.

[Jade Fox]

88. Yeah they did!

I was just thinking about those recently. Wing windows.

[ChoralScholar]

101. Speaking of cars....

how about seatbelts that folded up into a little clip over the door, rather than being on a retractable reel....

[Deep13]

110. My '71 Dart had those.

There was a different fastener for the lap and the shoulder. It did have push-button releases. My '65 Coronet had the fasters that were on a hinge.

[Kali]

114. or waist belts only

I remember our 64 station wagon - it had front seatbelts (lower only) and I can see my dad installing aftermarket belts in the back seat.

good sturdy METAL dashboard too:rofl:

[ChoralScholar]

116. My dad cut the things out....

It's not like we were going to use them anyway, I rode in the back window of our '72 Plymouth most of the time.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

197. Cars with concave rear windows

We had a car about 1964-65 that had an automatic up and down rear window. The bottom of the window slanted inward. The advantage was said to be that you could sit in the back seat, have the breeze blowing on the back of your head, and the sun not beating down.

[snagglepuss]

218. I love those triangular vent windows. I forgot about ashtrays being everywhere.

[Seneca]

21. You ripped me off

:P I want royalties.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x9465864

[Joe Fields]

25. So so sorry. Great minds sometimes think alike!

[Arkansas Granny]

22. Do you remember when most cars had one of these in the trunk:

Because you had to have one to put some of this in your car:

http://ih2.redbubble.net/work.2881749.3.flat,550x550,075,f.vintage-motor-oil-can-collection.jpg

[Joe Fields]

26. yep. I was a pump jockey while growing up.

[TorchTheWitch]

239. I remember a real tire in the trunk for a spare

instead of those silly nearly worthless "doughnut" spare tires.

Yeah, and I REALLY miss those triangular vent windows! Why the hell don't cars have these anymore?

[Green_Lantern]

23. two food related items

McDonald's deep fried pies



Happy meal boxes:

[Kali]

30. Mc D's doesn't have those any more?

heh. Only had them a few times but I didn't know they discontinued them. I prefer my greasy fried stuff to be salty:P

[zabet]

31. The Mickey D's here

still has the fried pies.....2 for $1.

[suninvited]

37. but they arent fried anymore, they are baked

and they only carry apple. No cherry.

[canadianbeaver]

211. Our A&W restaurants have these now......but they are

now covered with a bit of Cinnamon Sugar too.....Very good....better than the baked ones from MC'Ds.....by far

[marzipanni]

27. Cheap toys made in Japan @ the 5 & 10 (¢ store)

We would peer into gaps in the toy to see the graphics inside, printed on the can the toy had been made from.

[Crystal Clarity]

33. Cap Guns!!!

Someone else already mentioned Candy Cigs.... :hide:

[carlyhippy]

66. no what kind of cap gun I got, I always ending up pinching the web between my thumb and finger

I loved the smell of the spent caps,I can still smell that. I would get aggravated with getting pinched, and would use a rock to set off the rest of the cap ribbon.

[Crystal Clarity]

99. Hey, me too

I used to waste whole rolls of them using rocks and loved the smell of them too. It's weird; the things that we remember... :-)

[snagglepuss]

220. OMG the smell of spent caps. That just brings back some vivid memories.

[Art_from_Ark]

51. My brother bought a whole bunch of that stuff for me

at the local Five-and-dime for my 7th birthday. Ten cheapie-cheap toys for less than a buck.

[raccoon]

28. Fifty cent pieces. nt

[TroglodyteScholar]

85. There's a local pub called Shillings that gives $.50 pieces for change regularly...

What a nice gimmick ;)

On edit: Got one in my pocket right now!

[raccoon]

103. Gosh, I don't think I've seen one for about 4 decades! Are these all old ones they give you?

Because I don't think they are minted any more.

[TroglodyteScholar]

121. All are dated 1976...

:D

[Art_from_Ark]

134. Actually, they would be dated 1776-1976

For some reason, the Bicentennial coins (quarters, halves and dollars), which were minted in both 1975 and 1976. all have the dual dates 1776-1976. If they don't contain any silver, then they don't have any particular value if they've ever been in circulation.

[TroglodyteScholar]

135. Of course they have value!

$.50!

[Art_from_Ark]

156. OK, you've got me there

They are worth 50 cents. :dunce:

[Kali]

115. Ed at the feed store in town does that too.

[rurallib]

34. I am an old guy so there is a lot

Start with electric trolleys that used to run by my house.
10 cent comics and penny candy.
double features at the movies with a cartoon.
door-to-door milk delivery
phone numbers with 4 digits dialed on a dial phone that came in black only.

oh - so much more.

[Art_from_Ark]

55. I remember double features with a cartoon

Everyone would clap and cheer if it was a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

[Joe Fields]

73. Yeah, I remember 10 cent comic books, the milkman...

and penny candy. Everyone on our block used to have a metal container on their porch for the milkman to put the milk in. We didn't have 4 digit phone numbers, but we did have a party line all while I was growing up.

[Petrushka]

89. Phones without dials --->

To use such a phone, you needed one of these --->

[pintobean]

35. rotary dial phone

I kept one in the basement, for power outages, until we had cell phones.

[zabet]

39. Still use one of those.....

just like that but putrid yellow and the cord is 10 feet long.

[Deep13]

104. Still have one. nt

[Lydia Leftcoast]

198. Princess phones

Clocks with the numbers painted in radium-based paint so that they would glow in the dark ("When the sun goes down, the dial lights up.")

[suninvited]

38. ashtrays

they were everywhere. Inside peoples houses, on restaraunt tables, built inside cars (in several locations). You just dont see ashtrays anymore.

[Crystal Clarity]

40. Even in Doctor and Hospital waiting rooms, Movie Theaters ect.

I'm not THAT old, yet can remember people smoking in Doctor's office waiting rooms. They had those giant ashtrays with sand in them. :yoiks:

[marzipanni]

72. LOL- First I thought you meant a giant version of one of these

sand bag ashtrays- apparently they're still sold.

[Crystal Clarity]

98. LOL. No that wouldn't have worked well

for the bored kids who used to "drive" their Matchbox cars through the cigarette and gum laden 'sand dunes'. :puke:

[Dr Morbius]

90. How about: really cool ashtrays?

I recall my mother had a huge pink one shaped like some kind of fish, with grooves for the cigarettes along what would be the spine (along with dozens of others). I still have one which looks like a little frying pan, which I got from her when she quit smoking. It's made of cast iron; I still have it because it's unbreakable! I used to have one myself which was a rubber tire around a small glass ashtray with the name of a tire retailer.

I remember seeing ashtrays shaped like states, or clever ones with fans to suck down the smoke (it never really worked anyway). Once, you could make one at the Museum of Science and Industry (in Chicago) in a glass-faced stamping machine which before your very eyes turned an aluminum disk into a difficult-to-clean ashtray for only fifty cents.

Heh. I suppose it's best that people don't allow smoking indoors anymore and that obviates the need for ashtrays, but some ashtrays were memorable.

[Dr Morbius]

92. TVs with knobs.

Black and white TVs.

"Console" televisions, essentially enormous pieces of furniture with a modest-sized TV screen in the center and large speakers on either side.

Rotary telephones.

Hell, telephones with CORDS!

Bell-bottom pants.

Typewriters.

Wired remotes; that is, a little box you held in your hand which had a cable running to the front of your television set.

Phonograph players. Records. 8-track tapes.

I've gone on enough.

[Digit]

163. They had the clip on ones in the grocery stores, too

I remember those.

[snagglepuss]

221. You mention several places ashtrays in a car. I was always mesmerized

by the ones built into the back of the front seat.

[smokey nj]

41. Shrinky Dinks and Super Elastic Bubble Plastic.

[carlyhippy]

68. super elastic bubble plastic....instant contact high

That stuff was so fumey, wow...that stuff couldn't have been safe. I would either be lightheaded from the fumes or from nearly busting an artery while trying to blow up a bubble, that stuff was nearly impossible to blow a bubble thru those little straws.

[BillStein]

107. did you chew it up

after the bubbles had burst? It's amazing we don't all have cancer!

[Crystal Clarity]

42. Just thought of another disturbing image

Trucks going around my neighborhood spraying DDT. My friends and I used to follow the truck around, running through the weird smelling whitish haze, saying "Mosquito Man! Mosquito Man!" ... :yoiks:

[Art_from_Ark]

53. I remember those from around 1965-67

and the kids in my neighborhood would also run behind then to get a whiff of that weird-smelling fog.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

137. I remember rolling up the windows in the car

when the spray truck went up and down the aisles at the drive-in theater.

What a smell.

:hi:

[SoxFan]

157. LOL! I was about to post this

The arrival of the fog truck was a highlight of the summer in mid-70s suburban Boston! We'd find snorkeling masks, hop on our bikes, and go nuts.

Which probably explains a lot, 35 years down the road! :crazy:

[Art_from_Ark]

47. Sergeant Toppit whipped cream in a can

Sunshine Yum-Yums (cookies with chocolate, coconut and walnuts)
Jungle Juice fruit punch (was only stocked in summers)
Fizzies (make-your-own soda pop)
"Learn how to swim at the YMCA" public service commercial
Great Society public service commercials
Locally-owned newspapers
Locally-owned hamburger stands
Schools and shopping within easy bicycling distance
Vibrant downtown business districts
Neighborhood movie theaters showing Saturday matinees
Palm-sized transistor radios
Silver dimes, quarters and half dollars

[mcollins]

49. Lawndarts. nt

[NoPasaran]

57. Little turtles on sale at five and dime stores

For that matter, five and dime stores.

[BillStein]

108. They're still around...

...they're called "Dollar Stores" now

[hippywife]

59. All of the above and

Fuzzy Wuzzy Bath Soap. :rofl:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaRnYNzQp5Y

http://www.feelingretro.com/toys/Misc-Toys/fuzzy-wuzzy-soap.php

[Tom_Foolery]

62. I used that soap. n/t

[snagglepuss]

223. OMG fuzzy wuzzy bath soap. nt

[foxfeet]

61. Dwight Eisenhower.

[Skittles]

63. my favorite doll as a child was a Golliwog

named "Noddy", from an Enid Blyton book

[frogmarch]

64. Fluoroscopes in shoe stores

They were devices to help fit shoes - shoe-fitting fluoroscopes.

Every time my parents bought my sisters and me new shoes in the early 50s, we put our feet, with the new shoes on, into the devices so our parents could see how well the shoes fit. My sisters and I thought it was fun to see how skeletonized feet. Now it's scary to even think about.

[dbt]

67. Jet trails that actually disappear--

instead of lingering and spreading and becoming deliberately generated artificial cloud cover.

:evilgrin:

[av8rdave]

102. Those still exist

Though I rarely switch on that mode, since my artificial cloud generating assignments usually take up most of my work day.

[Ikonoklast]

129. Just in case, I remember these:

Ah, the Good Old Days of the Cold War.

[Odin2005]

69. Phone booths, Poloroid cameras, Surge pop, candy cigarettes.

TVs and phones with dials instead of buttons
Rabbit-Ear antennas
Metal playground equipment.
music tape cassettes

[carlyhippy]

70. 8 track players, barbie dolls with real eyelashes (not painted on)

10 speed bikes
water wiggle
johnny and jane west dolls, horses and accesories
clackers (the toy with 2 acrylic balls and a ring in the middle, hold the ring and clack the balls)
Jolly rancher fire stix, grape stix, (and they were a fairly large piece of candy)
spice flavored certs (I got a package every time I went to the skating rink every Friday night)
drive-in theatres
tickle deordorant :)
roach clip, leather and feather hair accessories
pet rocks
silk baseball jackets

[snagglepuss]

222. LOL Johnny West dolls and spice flavored certs, Totally forgot about

those.

[txwhitedove]

75. Water-coolers. It was my job to fill the water cooler, but not too much

or it would spray out on grandpa in the house...... hehe.....

[tinymontgomery]

76. Milk being delivered to the steps

of the house I lived in. Also catholic school kids riding the same bus as the public school kids though 8th grade. (I was a catholic school kid). It was pretty funny we all got a long but we would say things like "their the publics, and obviously they would say its the catholics). Schools were with a mile or so of each other. Times were much simply then, we all got along.

[Seneca]

91. There are a few milkmen left

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/07/the-milkman-still-delivers-in-los-angeles-after-all-these-years.html

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

105. There's a milkman who covers my neighborhood

But I don't have it delivered. I could, though, my house has a milk chute door.

[tinymontgomery]

122. Wow

I thought they were all gone. I also remember Postmen walking up to each house. Not very viable now a days.

[Mendocino]

78. Stingray bicycles

Cheap pop in glass bottles, 10 cents

A milkbox

WWI Veterans

3 channels on TV (unless the sky was just right, then we could get channel 9 from Windsor)

Gasoline for .29/gallon

BubbsDaddy Gum, a nickel for a cylinder of gum about as big around as your pinkie and a footlong

Batman on TV

Playing kick the can, climbing trees, and riding our bikes till the streetlights came on



My gosh, I've become a geezer!

[YankeyMCC]

118. Fly Windows

the small windows on the front doors of cars in front of the main door window.

[sakabatou]

80. Good children's tv shows

Actually, there have been very few...

[snagglepuss]

224. If you have satellite tv, CBC has great commercial free kids programming

every day till about noon. TVO (TV Ontario) has great commercial-free kids tv for the entire day.

[Joe Fields]

82. great flocks of birds that filled the sky

[mysuzuki2]

83. My parents.

[MrsBrady]

86. awww

[quakerboy]

87. petrified white

dog poo. Never see it anymore. what happened to it?

[trackfan]

96. It's from bones.

When our dog gets real bones, he produces those. I think dogs were given more bones in the old days.

[quakerboy]

127. I assumed it had to do with weather

In colorado, it was anywhere there were dogs. Give it a couple weeks, and it turned white. Ive never seen it in oregon, since we arrived. But yours could be another explanation.

[ornotna]

130. bone meal

dog food back in the day was made with more bone meal. Mostly corn meal now.

[snagglepuss]

225. lol good question.

[Inchworm]

93. Bigwheels and Inchworms

;)

[cherokeeprogressive]

94. DING DING announcing your presence at the gas station. n/t

[Lorien]

192. Weird, I totally forgot about that!

It seems like it would make sense to still have that around, for safety's sake if for nothing else.

[Petrushka]

95. Carpet beaters, tin match-box holders, hand-embroidered day-of-the-week dish towels

[snagglepuss]

226. We had a metal match box holder for an old gas stove that neded to be

lit with matches. I don't think the large box of wooden matches that fit into the holder are even sold now. ANd I remember all my aunts had those type of towels. ANd guess what my parents still have an old metal rug beater somewhere in their basement.

[Angleae]

97. Saturday morning cartoons.

Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Yogi Bear, etc.

[TommyO]

106. The milkman, and Charles Chips deliveries to your house

[meow2u3]

109. Leaded gasoline at a quarter a gallon

And high octane gas (100+ octane) used to cost $.31 a gallon. That was when I was in New York.

[Drum]

111. Kick!

:-)

[bikebloke]

112. Home made skateboards

You'd split a roller skate, then nail both parts to a board. We'd start at the top of the hill, then coast down the sidewalk, clicky-clacking over the cracks.

[Digit]

160. That's how I started

Remember what would happen if you hit the least little pebble?

Luckily, I never broke any bones.

I am now 59....

[bikebloke]

166. Or murdered by angry car owners.

Our boards slammed into the sides of parked cars, right after we bailed out - with a cool war movie falls.

We had our scrapes (I seemed to have had perpetual knee scabs) but no one ever broke bones. Maybe all those "tumbling classes" in school PE taught us to fall without hurting ourselves.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

113. Multiple registers at fast food counters....

....I've noticed that where there used to be 4, now you find just 2, and only one of those is open. They cater more and more to the drive through and less to the walk-ups. Which sucks because I hate doing the drive through and always order in store.

[hedgehog]

117. Not exactly an object, but walking right up to the gate to

see someone off or pick someone up from the airport.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

199. Or actually following them onto the plane to say goodbye

Yes, that used to be possible.

[YankeyMCC]

119. The Generation Gap - Beloit College Mindset List

http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2014.php

[AngryOldDem]

120. Metal milk boxes.

Made for nice little backyard chairs -- except during heat waves.

[Redstone]

124. The telephone on its own table in the hall.

Redstone

[Brother Buzz]

126. Chances were good that telephone was on a party line, too

[snagglepuss]

227. My aunt lived in a ranch bungelow and in the hall coming from the bedrooms to

the living room had a little cubby hole for a telephone table. How many people now have phone in their front halls?

[Ivan Sputnik]

125. Crashmobiles

These were little toy cars with multi-part plastic bodies. You wound them up and let them run into something. All the pieces of the car would fly apart when it crashed. Then you'd collect the pieces and reassemble the car and... crash it again. Such fun. Haven't seen any in decades.

[Joe Fields]

131. I used to have one of those, but not for long.

Lost too many pieces to quickly. But man they were fun.

[handmade34]

132. wood cookstoves

[doc03]

133. My grandmother had a hand pump on her well and

an outhouse. We had milk striaght from the cow.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

136. The whetstone truck

I remember a guy who came through the neighborhood once a month to sharpen knives and scissors on a whetstone in the back of his truck.

I also remember workers from local berry farms who'd walk through the neighborhood shouting "Straaaaaw-burrIES!"

Then of course there was the milk man, the egg man (who also sold us our holiday turkeys and hams), and the Charles Chip man (who also sold ribbon candy at Xmastime).

And I remember our first car, an old Buick sedan from the 50s, which had no seat belts, but had a rope on the back of the front seat that we could hold onto in an emergency. And my car seat, which had a little plastic steering wheel, gear shift, and horn, and a cheesy plastic belt to hold me in place. I loved to try to copy my dad exactly as he drove, but then I'd get bored and oversteer like crazy. The Product Safety Commission would have been horrified by that car seat!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

138. Houses had coal chutes

and the ash cans were used for ashes.

That's a chore I don't miss.

:hi:

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

140. My kids still don't believe me on this....

In the city park when I was a kid, we had this....thing. I think it may have been homemade from 2" steel pipes and 2x12's.

It was roughly the shape of an octagon and looked a little bit like a Merry-Go-Round. You sat on the 2x12's facing the center. At each of the eight sections (wide enough to seat 2-3 kids), there was this contraption that looked a bit like a safety bar on a roller coaster, with a bar for your feet down below.

They are attached, and they acted as a pump to power this thing. You pushed off with your feet and pulled with your hands. Pushed, Pulled. Pushed, Pulled.

This thing would absolutely FLY. I remember times when kids were literally hanging on the 2x12 seat for dear life with centrifugal force extending their bodies out into midair. And if they let go, they'd fly 10-20 feet.

The thing was just a damned deathtrap.

God, it was fun.

[snagglepuss]

self delete dup

[snagglepuss]

228. I vaguely remember something like that. What it does remind of that is

more vivid is a similiar shaped octagon that you could either rock back and forth on or have someone strong grab a handle and spin the contraption in a circle.

[snagglepuss]

229. Your post prompted me to google old playground equipment. You gotta

check out the site. Terrific photography. The equipment I tried to describe is at link below.


http://web.mac.com/brendabiondo/oldplaygrounds/Environments.html


home pg


http://web.mac.com/brendabiondo/oldplaygrounds/Home.html

[justabob]

245. I remember those!

Those things were fun.... but definitely dangerous. :)

[chrisa]

144. Kids actually going outside.

Telephone cords that you could twirl when talking.

:)

[Wolf Frankula]

159. Air Raid Drills in Schools

Marching in PE. Perky Pies for a dime. They no longer exist and I mourn, they were much better than Hostess. High quality cap guns. I had one that looked exactly like a tommy gun.

Wolf

[Tabasco_Dave]

167. Metal ice cube trays

There was nothing better than pulling that lever watching and hearing that ice crack. I just broke a cheap plastic tray yesterday.

[Joe Fields]

173. You can still buy those online. My family had them when I was growing up.

I bought a set of four. They are the greatest.

[raccoon]

247. Shucks, you beat me to the post.

I don't miss fighting those ice trays!

[Hissyspit]

169. Trees.

Well, at least large old trees.

[kwassa]

170. Flexible Flyer sleds made of wood with metal rails

that would bend if you hit a rock or tree.

They were very steerable, though.

Wooden toboggans. Wooden skis.

Bathing caps on women.

Hats on men.

[mtowngman]

177. yep, had a couple of them flexible flyers. Best sleds ever.

[snagglepuss]

231. I remember both. My Dad never went out without wearing either his fedora, straw hat or

cap.

[velvet]

171. the iceman

Delivering big cubes of ice for my grandparents' ice-chest before they could afford an electric fridge. Two blocks per week.

I loved to see that ice, the wayward bubbles trapped inside fascinated me.

[Old Troop]

174. How about sonic booms? Air Force planes accelerating to supersonic

speed (over our houses) and creating a thunder-like effect.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

175. Sewing machines.

40 years ago, they seemed to be as mandatory in a house as a refrigerator or a stove. At least it looked that way to me.

[snagglepuss]

233. That's so true. nt

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

176. Campfire Marshmellows that came in a box

[Mojorabbit]

180. Those muslin bags with little yellow nugget gum nt

[MichiganVote]

181. Cig's 50 cents a pack from a machine nobody monitored.

[snagglepuss]

234. The cigarette machines. They'd always be in a movie theatre lobby.

The word cigarette itself seems to conjure up another era. Who, I wonder, came up with the 'ette' suffix as in dinette, launderette, cigarette.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

183. The bar pattern before TV programming started early morning, AND...

...its nightmare fuel equivalent, the signoff late at night and then BZZZZZZZZZZT. It looked macabre.

Doubly so for the Analog Forever Signoff, like this one from a Texas channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYgmSAmvG8Y - Brazil will have this in a few years.

[DFW]

184. The tiny airport at Bailey's Cross Roads

Now, it's all paved over--expensive condos and shopping malls.

The Virginia of my childhood has disappeared.

[704wipes]

185. wing windows on cars

sure could use one since the ac in mine is out
That little triangle shaped window at front of front side window...
You could really direct air into the car with it.
And, it would take my dad's cigarette smoke out of the car rather magically too.

[Kaleva]

186. Grandparents, parents, aunts & uncles.

[japple]

188. The trucks that came and sprayed DDT during the summer.

We used to follow it on our bikes.

[HEyHEY]

189. Those tiny little Heinz ketchup bottles in hotels and such.

[struggle4progress]

190. dinosaurs!

back in the day, we used to saddle up and ride

happy times ... happy times ...

[RedXIII]

191. Phonographs...

Before they had CD players they had Phonographs,i don't see them around anymore,except being used by DJ's.

[sea_dream]

193. Fireflies

Or lightening bugs depending which part of the country....

[mikeargo]

194. My favorite toys...

View Masters
"Real" chemistry sets
Doctor's kits with little candy pills
Jack and Jill magazine
Major Matt Mason
Close and Play phonographs
Give a Show Projectors

[Duncan Grant]

195. Cheap toys inside cereal boxes.

:

The records on the back of the box were always "neato".

Here's a cereal box archive link -- don't get lost in there.

[valerief]

200. Menstrual belts. nt

[nytemare]

201. Dittos!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

202. And mimeographs!

My campus job in my senior year was doing clerical work for the language department. My least favorite job was typing handouts on ditto masters, because you had to scrape the mistakes away with a razor blade.

[mwb970]

203. Bedspreads.

It's all quilts and comforters now. Or just leave the bed unmade, I guess.

[mitchum]

204. My pretty face

[vanlassie]

205. The drive thru dairy- milk and cream and chocolate milk in glass bottles.

[BillStein]

243. we still have drive-thru dairy stores

in SE PA, but they don't use glass bottles

[jberryhill]

206. Spontaneous Erections

[XemaSab]

207. Teen Spirit

I wonder what percent of the people who listen to the Nirvana song know what that was. :P

[Submariner]

208. Bugs on my windshield

I remember as a kid riding from Boston into Maine and having hundreds of insects splattered all over the windshield of the car. Bugs were everywhere, including big juicy ones.

Last week I made a round trip from the Cape to Acadia National Park and counted a total of 4 bugs splattered on my windshield, and only one of them would be considered medium-large.

We are living the "Silent Spring." My guess is years of pesticide use and the acidic gases from the mid-west smokestacks have done them in.

[Art_from_Ark]

251. I don't remember bugs on the windshield so much as

bugs on the radiator grill. There always seemed to be a lot of them on that old Galaxy 500.

[Joe Fields]

209. Tiny glass creamers with paper lids in restaurants.

I can remember when they used to serve you real cream with your coffee.

[snagglepuss]

235. I was just thinking of those. And what about suger cubes wrapped a

paper?

[woo me with science]

210. carbon paper

[TrogL]

212. Ink wells

Yes, the kind you'd dip a girl's pigtails in.

For one year they forbade ball-point pens then gave up and got rid of the ink wells.

[Joe Fields]

213. Good lord, how old are you? lol

[Xipe Totec]

214. Slide Rulers

[Joe Fields]

216. good call. I was taught with slide rulers

[BillStein]

244. I was playing Sam Cooke (remember him?)

there's a line in "Wonderful World":

"Don't know what a slide rule is for"

No one in the room even knew what a slide rule was, let alone what it was used for!

Do they still teach logarithms?

[snagglepuss]

219. Perfume dispensing machines in Ladies washrooms. Two of the

perfumes available were Tabu and Chanel No 5.

[Rochester]

230. Stuff I don't notice out and about, but still use myself

I'm pretty old fashioned. I still use my manual typewriter, record player, slide rule, 35-mm film and Polaroid cameras, VCR, rotary phone, etc. I'm not a fan of the modern gizmos that are confusing to use, cost a fortune (all going to China, naturally) never seem to quite do what one wants them to do and break if you look at them cross-eyed. Also with the electronics instead of electromechanical or mechanical stuff it makes it harder to repair it if something does go wrong, or to make one's own modifications as we see fit. And of course the newer stuff it is easier for business to rape us with monthly service charges (I mean really! I want a device that will do stuff itself, or help me do it myself, not communicate with people halfway around the world who do stuff for $50 a month! I want my stuff to be a once-and-done expense!) Or planned obsolescence or stuff like that. My typewriter will never, ever, ever need a system upgrade or a new battery! Ok, a new ribbon now and then, but those are cheap. I can stock up on those.

[snagglepuss]

Hey Rochester welcome to DU.

:hi:

[Rochester]

237. Thanks! It's good to be here.

:)

[snagglepuss]

238. Did you just stumble upon DU tonight?

[Rochester]

250. I was aware of its existence, sort of, but...

I was inspired to join after reading Ted Rall's column about Democrats with balls being here.

[snagglepuss]

236. Hey Rochester welcome to DU.

:hi:

[asjr]

232. Log Cabin pancake syrup that

came in an actual tin version of a log cabin. I wish I had known to save one.

[TorchTheWitch]

240. lawn mowers with no engine

rotary phones
film cameras
toasters that weigh fifty pounds, always make perfect toast and last 50 years
turn tables, 8-track players, record albums, portable record players
manual typewriters
tv's with no remote control
home movie projectors that had reels
roller skates with wheels on both sides of the foot
water fountains almost everywhere public
soda cans where the tab actually came off
ashtrays in elevators
plastic rain hats that you rolled up and kept in a tiny little plastic case you could put in your pocket
"U" umbrellas (damn, I loved them)
Mars Bars, root beer barrel candies and dot candies that came on a strip of paper
peaches with fuzz

[REP]

241. Turntables; dot-matrix printers; computer programs on cassette; 8" floppies...

[woo me with science]

249. Yes, and the portable turntable in a little suitcase. nt

[old mark]

242. My grandfather's old DeSoto 4 door sedan. It was a giant car, I think a late'50's,

had a big v-8 in it. I just checked and it was a '54 DeSoto Firedome, with a hemi v-8. It was dark blue. They made their last one in '61, one of the ugliest cars ever made, IMO...


mark

[laylah]

246. Homemade ice cream from

the handcrank machine. There were 6 kids in my family so the ice cream was done, and gobbled up, in no time at all.

Stopping by the library after school to get a dime from my gram, which bought us an ice cream cone AND a soda.

Jenn

[woo me with science]

248. Counter checks at gas stations. nt

[SwampG8r]

252. my feet

i used to be able to see them from here