Yeah, imagine the mad panic when kids with chemistry sets liberated dihydrogen monoxide!!!

I blame all this crap on Ralph Nadir. Good intentions gone horribly awry and amok.

Another something gone: Going out to play instead of having a play date. Walking home from school instead of having mom drive her over-tall 4-wheel drive station wagon (There's something else that's gone) the five blocks to school to pick up her brat.

Sentences that don't begin with, or constantly refer to the word basically.

Morse code

Flat tires

Out-door plumbing

Cave-dwellers(excluding Geoff)

I am NOT a troglodyte! I inhabit an 1887 farm house that recently got floors and electricity. There is, however, still an Aermotor windmill water pump. I can sit outside by the windmill and watch the pump rod going up and down, up and down, up and down, obviating the need for naughty magazines or videos.

The Public Broadcasting System sans advertisements. Now Koch Industries are advertising on it. Time to quit donating!

An Ode to Indiana's Resident Hermit

I can sit by my windmill and rave
As I count the Green Stamps that I save,
And warn "Stay off my lawn"
Or as sure as I'm born
I'll hide out till you're gone in my cave.

Green Stamps see passe. At least they won't take mine at WalMart. And I have an entire attic full.

How to make yourself feel really old with one sentence...

"My mom used to collect Green Stamps. She redeemed them for a Breville sandwich toaster."

I vaguely remember S&H stamps.

quote:

I vaguely remember S&H stamps.

I have an attic full of them.

Pete Simmons took his shoes to a cobbler to have the heels replaced. When he got home, he learned a work project required him to leave immediately for Europe. He traveled the world for the next twenty years until he finally returned home. He was astonished at the changes in the city: skyscrapers had replaced tenements and hotels had sprung up blot out the sun.

So he was astonished to drive down a changed street and see, nestled between two huge office buildings, the old cobbler's shop. He recalled the shoes he had left and dug the tattered receipt out of his wallet. He went into the shop, not expecting to retrieve his goods after all this time, but was surprised to see the wizened old proprieter, tapping away at a pair of shoes.
"Can I help you?" asked the owner.
Simmons presented hist icket and the old man shuffled to the back where shoes lay in a cluttered pile. He began tossing pairs aside after checking their tag, muttering 'Simmons, Simmons..." Then he found the pair he sought and triumphantly brought them to the counter.

"Here they are," he said. "They'll be ready Thursday."

While I acn't be sure, I vaguely recall the above in Bennett Cerf's column, "The Cerfboard," ca. 1955. Now do you feel REALLY old?

I thought I was the only one who remembered Cerf. I still have a couple of hi books somewhere.

quote:

Originally posted by Proofreader:
I thought I was the only one who remembered Cerf. I still have a couple of hi books somewhere.

As do I. Wasn't he also on "What's My Line?" And didn't he get together with famous hooker Polly Adler to write, "A Random House is Not A Home?"

quote:

As do I. Wasn't he also on "What's My Line?" And didn't he get together with famous hooker Polly Adler to write, "A Random House is Not A Home?"

I think he published her book.

Ticker tape. Don’t parades now use shredded paper or even toilet paper?

Anyone using the term whipper-snapper. I believe the last person to say it was Gabby Hayes.

Originally posted by BobHale:
I feel far more in control in a manual vehicle as the gear changes are in my hands and can be done when I think they should be done not when the car thinks they should be done. I suspect that most people here feel the same way.

I drive my automatic at times like a stick. For example, when descending steep hills, I put it in a lower gear, and I do the same in heavy traffic to avoid rear-ending those in front.

Bank auto loans, You ow have to go thrugh the dealer.

Rotaries. For some reason we've taken the Brtish ound-abouts.

Zero or nothing in box scores. Everything is now "nil".

Wow, this is a drive down memory lane.

Hush Puppies shoes.

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US optical companies that weren't owned by an Italian company called Luxottica.

Railroad pocket watches

Hoodsie ice cream cups --ma be a regional thing

Is there a difference between pocket watches and RR ones? Pocket watches are back in style.

It is interesting to see which kinds of "oldies" come back in style again, and which don't. For women, we go from bell bottoms to skinny jeans - and back again. Or short mini dresses to long midi dresses. Or really short boy-looking hair to long, feminine curly hair. But, the one style that has never come back is women's hats, or at least how they used to be.

quote:

It is interesting to see which kinds of "oldies" come back in style ag

I've heard bustles are now in vogue....

Although icemen no longer deliver. I remember my mother leaving a sign in the window to let the iceman know how much we needed. Then he'd bring a big block inside for the icebox.

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The Fuller Brush man

Encyclopaedia Britannica - also once sold door-to-door.

Keds and PF Flyers

Me without a pot gut.

Me with hair.

Junk men. Today they are Public Sanitation workers, who pick up accumulated debris at no charge. When I was young a junk man would appear every week with a horse-draw cart and pay you (not often) for salvagable household items, or if you couldn't haul irreparable items to the dump, he would take them for a fee.

Back in the 40s a man made the rounds selling chickens at the start of the week and fish at the end. The chickens had heads detached but innards remained for my mother to yank out. Chicken man whistled as he walked up ans the cat learned he was in for a treat at the sound. Can you imagine how the Health Department would react to this busness model?

Damn right! Ralston Purina would have a hissy fit if all those cats got free food!
Come to think of it, what I miss most is the USA WITHOUT marketing/merchandising of every damned thing from dirt to politics.

Fire teams: I know firemen today wrk in teams but the description once applied to their vehicle, which was pulled by a team of horses. Any of them still extant?

Nah. Horses only live about thirty years at most. Fire still exists, though. So does dirt.

Why am I reminded of the old 2,000-year-old man routine? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOTKDgrdvdg

Here are some things kids no longer do