They are still around but it is just strange to see them as they are uncommon, what would that be?

Bit-o-honey and Mary Janes. Do people really still eat those?

fluther users

Not sure if this counts. My aunt collects glove making molds. A entire massive wall in her living room that is shelved has hundred of these things. Creepy as hell. All hers are ceramic.

Presidential candidates.

Cheques, or as many of you would write, checks.

Wooden skiis, leather ski boots, old fashioned outerwear that you had to pay to get waterproofed.

A good, wooden sailboat with with oaken structure, hardwood decks, real brasswork, hemp lines, duck sails. They are heavy, high-maintenance but nearly indestructible, unlike these fiberglass eggshells we sail today. No more daintiness when pulling up to the dock. There are still a few being made in places like Haiti where a fisherman must build his own boat. Thirty footers with cabins, white gas stoves, kerosene lamps. Purists go down there to have their hulls made of imported oak, bulkheads of mohagany, decks of teak, interiors done in rosewood, cherrywood, angelique with brass fittings by these amazing fisherman-artisans who ask very little for their traditional expertise and labor. Built to last a century whereas the dispensible craft most of us sail today are lucky to see thirty years.

Vinyl records and record players.

Inspired by @Earthbound_Misfit: CD players and CDs, for that matter. Technology is zipping right along.

A corded phone. (I use one at home)

Handwritten personal letters, delivered through the post.

Slim, intelligent Americans

Happy Democrats

I still have a TV antenna on the roof. It gets about 15 channels and doubles as a lightning rod.

Public pay phones. I was recently in the Mohave desert area and saw one. It looked like a modern version of the calcified animal skull seen in typical westerns.

drive in movies

Rotary dial phones. I had one in my old office. One of my clients had to call his office and I turned the phone to him and he stared at it for 30 seconds or so before he remembered how to use one.

Re: the corded wall phone – I have one, too, @anniereborn! It’s for if the power ever goes out and the cordless phones don’t work.

Percolator coffee makers.

Label makers – I’m not sure what they’re called, but they have a little wheel on them and they make the press out lettered labels that stick on to things.

“View Mastr” – the old toys kids used to use (they were popular when I was little) that had paper discs that you inserted, and the discs had photos on them and you’d hold them up to the light to view the photos and advance the wheel.

This question was worthy of a “Good Question!”

I still have a label maker (two in fact). I use them to label all sorts of things @jca. I also have a corded phone for the same reason as you @jca. If the power goes out, I still have a phone.

Phone booths

Real whipped cream is a novelty now, and I’m not talking about the kind sold in bakery departments of grocery stores. That stuff has additives that make it taste nasty.

A TV with a cathode-ray tube.

A car with a cassette player.

And, for @josie, a rational Republican.

@dxs I LOVE Bit o Honey and Mary Janes Peanut Butter Kisses. I eat them. They Bit o Honey is easy to find here, but I only find the Mary Janes at Halloween.

I saw flash cubes for sale the other day. Who the heck still uses flash cubes?

@zenvelo
I thought the OP meant that once they were here, but now they are generally gone.
When were there ever rational Republicans-in the 20–21st Century anyway?

@josie
John Anderson
John Lindsay
Nelson Rockefeller
Dwight Eisenhower.

@jca. I was thinking about percolators the other day. I read up on them and found out why they aren’t popular. Apparently, the water gets too hot and blanches the beans, making this amazing coffee smell, but not a very flavorful drink. The drip coffee makers were just as convenient, but made a better tasting brew.

Real root beer. The kind with a thick, tan head like Guinness and smells like bubble gum from the next room. Then drop a scoop of real vanilla ice cream in and real whipped cream on top.

@snowberry: In my family, we’re “real whipped cream” makers!

Door to door Encyclopedia salespeople.

@zenvelo

Cool. Didn’t get a chance to know any of them, but I believe you.

So does that mean there are only four happy Democrats?

I have a pair of the wood frame and rawhide snowshoes. They’re heavier that the modern ones but I like the look and it gives your legs a heck of a workout.

Quickly dispappearing: fax machines. And in the company I work for, filing cabinets. I haven’t filed a hard copy of anything in years.

Kerosene lamps. (Kerosene, distilled from petroleum, sometimes called “coal oil”) replaced whale oil.

I have a pair of wooden skis and bamboo poles in my shop as props and decoration.

Film cameras. parking meters. CRT screens.

@Earthbound_Misfit Record players and records are making a comeback here. They have brand new players and records you can buy. Don’t know if they work the exact same way as the old ones, but it would appear so.

Black boards. Most boards are white now. A bunch of schools are getting smartboards too, I find it rather amusing when teachers try to use them for the first time.

@Tropical_Willie, not just the sellers but the encyclopedias. Who buys them now? Access to the internet has replaced them.

And @zenvelo, I recently had to fax something to a university in Germany. They wouldn’t accept an emailed copy of a form. I couldn’t find anyone with international access on a fax machine and I work for a very large university! Who faxes these days (apart from German universities)?

@Symbeline, I agree vinyl is popular with purists, but I don’t think the average person doesn’t has a record player (or records) these days. I do agree vinyl is making a comeback for those who want the quality recordings they provide. I’ve got a vinyl collection and nothing to play them on. One day perhaps I’ll buy a record player.

Dialing 411 on the phone.

Dialing *69 (“Star-six nine”) to see who called you last.

@Earthbound_Misfit Cheques, or as many of you would write, checks.
A woman a few weeks ago did pay her tithe with a check, but as far as purchasing goods, I hardly see anyone, less some really old people, use a check, most hardly use cash as well, it is all on some card.

@anniereborn A corded phone. (I use one at home)
Outside of business, in private use, I only know one person and she is in her late 70s to Early 80s

@stanleybmanly drive in movies
Out of the three or four in this area when I was growing up, we are down to one, and if it were not for the fact that on the weekend days it served as a large flea market, I am sure it would be condos or a strip mall by now as well.

@zenvelo A TV with a cathode-ray tube.
Circling the drain if it has not already gone down there, my friend who had one of those rear projection big screens from when they were state of the art, finally knuckled under and got a flat screen. I see tubed TVs left at the side of the road with ”working” on them all the time, and they sit, and sit, and sit, then the city takes them away.

@Tropical_Willie Door to door Encyclopedia salespeople.
What is that!?! ~~ Not only are they not around here in decades, I have not seen an ad for encyclopedia in ages, and when I see them they are usually in garage sales at fire sale prices and still no one wants them.

Think of how many cars a day that actually have chrome bumpers and not that plastic stuff, or without any window tint at all, or even antennas and not the ”shark fin”, not to mention those that do not have seatbelts and shoulder harnesses for backseat passengers.

Real ice skates to rent at any ice rink. I’ve visited 3 recently and all they have are these ridiculous looking plastic skates that have the boots like big fat bulky roller blades. These are not real Ice Skates.

@snowberry I needed cream for a recipe when I visited my family in Wisconsin. I went into the local grocery store and couldn’t find any! It was all that fake stuff with additives, so I asked one of the workers and he looked at me like I had two heads. IN WISCONSIN! crazy. Later that week my sister told me how she was in the store talking to her friend who works there and he told her about this odd lady with a strange accent who came in asking for ‘real cream’ and complaining about ‘some people’.... She knew immediately it had been ME in the store looking for the cream. Life in a small town. We laughed.

@cazzie Are you kidding us. In America’s dairyland, no cream? Blasphemy.

@cazzie It was in how you asked. There really WAS real cream in their store, but you wanted cream without additives/preservatives! Your request was so far outside their frame of reference they thought you were “just plain weird”! Haha!

You needed to phrase your request in a way they could understand.

I had a similar experience when I went to a farmers market looking for real cheese, not the plastic tasting processed stuff. “But lady, this (processed cheese) IS real cheese!”

Bleh

^^ It’s called “Heavy Cream” where I come from. 32% milk fat. It’s delicious, makes the best sauces the way they were originally meant to be, whips easily with a little sugar, but it’s not supposed to be eaten every day.

Yes, heavy cream or sometimes I see it labeled “whipping cream.” It’s near the milk in the dairy aisle.

There is a difference between Heavy Cream and Whipping Cream, but both are fine for coffee and tea, and they’re both real cream, the fat content is different though.

The town I come from has About 5,000 in population. I simply had to drive to the next city to a bigger grocery store.

Burma shave commercials!

Comercials. All of em.