What are some things from the past that you rarely see today?
Asked by
chyna (
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August 29th, 2023
from iPhone
Of course, phone booths come to mind. But what other things can you think of? This morning I was thinking about cigarette machines. They used to be in just about every club, bar, restaurant or motel. I don’t think I’ve seen one in years. But then, I don’t get out much.
This question is just for fun and a respite from politics.
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TV cabinets that are actual furniture, the kind that you needed big guys to move, with the rotary dial phone perched on top.
Newspaper kiosks and juke boxes.
A phone mounted on the wall in the kitchen.
Formica counters.
Lucite grapes on a coffee table.
This hideous lamps with a sculpture in the center of plastic leaves and fake rain running down filament lines.
Jean Nate perfume.
Hai Karate cologne.
Thankfully the smoking section of airplanes and restaurants.
Free tire air pump stands. They used to be t every gas station and were free! (I have my own in my barn now. If you visit you can use it for free.)
Small TVs that sat on a table. Now they are all as big as a picture window.
Scantily clad lingerie models on the Home Shopping Network.
Also unprepared Home Shopping Network hosts talking about electronics.
A Sears catalogue.
Restaurants giving matchbooks with their logo on them, as advertisements.
@LuckyGuy go to the truck side of a truck stop for free air.
Plastic slipcovers on furniture.
Hot meals, full meals, served on airplanes, with china and silverware. Now you’re lucky if you get a cookie or a granola bar and a cup of soda.
@jca2 I remember those plastic slip covers. They stuck to your arm. So annoying!
Similar to above…plastic covers on car seats that made you sweat in the summer and left funny imprints on your legs. Both sets of grandparents had them. I remember them in the Rambler the most.
4 pack of cigarettes with an airline meal.
Cars that don’t say “UNLEADED GAS ONLY” on the gas gauge.
Bias ply tires.
@Hawaii_Jake our local newspaper publishes and distributes their “Yellow Pages”, with paid ads.
@Tropical_Willie I would be surprised if there are a lot of users of that who are below the age of 55.
Ghosts are hardly ever seen these days. Where have they all gone?
@flutherother The last time I saw a ghost was 20 years ago in Dallas, Texas. He looked like a soldier on the Mexican side of the Texas fight for independence.
Most of the ghosts got caught by this schlubby outfit in New York.
Newspapers, magazines and pocketbooks in public areas.
Video Rental Stores (VHS or DVD)
Toll Booths that you throw coins into
Racquetball Courts
Ash Trays in Cars
Cigarette lighters in cars
So many good answers already.
1. Televisions with buttons or a dial on the front of the TV.
2. Adults over age 25 wearing short shorts or mini skirts.
Where I live we have newspaper vending machines all over town for the local paper, and they often sell out by the end of the day. I get a phone book every year for the community that I keep, and I have used it a few times to look up phone numbers. I have formica counters, but they are the “fancier ones” if there is such a thing. A lot of people have the formica, but just as many have quartz and granite. My town is in the past in a lot of ways.
@Forever_Free ohh! All good things I hadn’t thought of.
@raginloli I love that car.
I haven’t seen a full service gas station, where they pump your gas for you, in many, many years.
@chyna In New Jersey, it is still forbidden to pump your own gas. But they don’t wear uniforms any more or wash your windshield.
@chyna IDK. I assume to protect gas jockeys’ jobs.
In fact, I think NJ is now the only state you can’t pump your own gas. It was Oregon and NJ for a long time, but just recently Oregon finally joined the other 48 states plus DC.
“Jersey Girls Don’t Pump Gas” is a saying, but actually in Jersey no one pumps gas except the attendant.
Originally, full serve gas stations didn’t want to be undercut in price by stations that only had self serve. I would assume some people don’t want the people who pump gas to lose their jobs. Then you have Jersey-ites (how do you say people from Jersey?) who don’t want to pump gas.
One of my friends here in Florida lived in NJ most of her adult life and she refuses to pump gas, she makes her husband do it. She outright says “Jersey girls don’t pump gas) but I think it’s unbecoming to say that.
When I moved to The Villages, one of the things that I thought would go over well here was full serve gas, but no one is doing it yet.
Ashtrays in people’s houses, restaurants, airplanes, etc.
@chyna The idea is to protect stupid gas customers from blowing themselves up while pumping gas and smoking.
@kritiper That’s what the NJ gas stations argued. My analogy would be doctors arguing patients can’t handle getting a test diagnoses directly from the lab. Yes, they can; and also, most Americans pump gas safely.
Double yolk eggs
Raw milk
Skating Rinks
Corded phone
Rabbit ears on TVs
I haven’t read all the responses, but if any of you say desk phone, my workplace has one and it’s the only thing we use to keep in touch with the outside world. It has been around since I started work.
I seem to have seen the disappearance of internet shops. It was all the rage back when I was young. To a lot of kids, it was their only way to access the internet, or even a computer. And back then the internet was a treasure, due to how difficult it was to gain access to it. It wasn’t uncommon for kids to run away from home for the shop. There were a lot of scandals involving game addiction and internet shops, and for a while internet shops took on a reputation of being a degenerate place. It was a vice for adults and a thrill for kids. Now that everyone has access to a computer and a smartphone, no one needs internet shops anymore.
Cuckoo clocks
Toilet paper in pastel shades of pink, yellow, and blue to match the decor
Grease cans in the kitchen
Coffee percolators
Candy dispensers in stores, similar to gumball machines, that are filled with Boston Baked Beans (candy covered peanuts)
Hot nut counters in department stores
Non-digital cameras
Player pianos
Soda vending machines that dispense glass bottles of soda
Soda dispensing machines that squirt soda into a paper cup
Giant glass bottles on water coolers with a paper cone-cup dispenser on the side
Louvered windows
Transom windows
@Kardomom Transom windows, do you mean high windows that don’t open? A lot of houses have that in Florida. They still build houses with transoms.
@Blackwater_Park Some of us are keeping the magic alive! I have a camping percolator that I use A) if I lose power and B) just sometimes for the soothing “bloop bloop”. :-D
Receiving and sending letters in the mail. Some people still do, but with email and social media, it’s becoming more and more infrequent.
Cars with manual transmissions.
^^ Still have one but it is rare.
My motorcycles have them Kaw – all 5 up. Honda – 1 down 4 up.
Left handed lug nuts on the left side of car. Right handed on the right side. Supposedly this was to reduce the chance of wheels working loose and unscrewing the lug nuts as you drove. Instead it caused infinite confusion and heartache for DIYers and mechanics.
Snow.
I can not remember the last time we had a proper winter.
@JLeslie Yes, MOST customers pump gas safely. But, as is usually the case, it is the few idiots that screw it up for the rest of us.
Oooo @ragingloli If you miss snow, you are welcome to come here and hang out for a while. With Lake Erie to our west and Lake Ontario to our north we have plenty. We’re about 90 minutes east of Buffalo and 90 minutes west of Syracuse, two cities famous for snow in the US. (Or is that “infamous”?)
We have more than enough to share.
@kritiper They probably should make more effort to educate people on do’s and don’ts. I used to hear it’s bad to use your cell phone near the pump, but now I need to use it at Walmart pump’s to get my discount. I put it back in my purse before pumping.
I know all the static precautions, turn off your car, and stay outside, etc. Obviously, no smoking.
There are gas fires in homes too, but we still put gas appliances in houses.
I do have a percolator for when I desire really HOT coffee.
I also have 2 vehicles with Standard Transmissions. Certainly an “Anti-Theft” device.
@JLeslie In the super dry, cold winter air of Kapuskasing we would touch our hand to the car body to discharge any built up static charge. You never wanted the pump nozzle to be the first thing to touch the metal car body. With our ungloved hands we would just tap something metal on the vehicle. Bumper, door handle. metal window trim, metal wheels. anything. Sometimes you’d hear the “snap” and thank yourself for following procedures.
This woman did not follow our rules:
Static Electricity Fire at Gas pump. Look how she get in and out of the car and adjusts her sweater generating static charge. To her credit, she handled the episode well.
@LuckyGuy I touch the car first even here in humid Florida. It’s habit having grown up in a cold weather climate. I figure better safe than sorry anyway.
I still have a manual transmission in my truck. I actually prefer it.
Someone in my family bought a new BMW about a year or two ago, and he wanted it with standard shift. Not only could he not get one with standard shift, but they said they don’t even make them so he couldn’t even order it.
@JLeslie They could make more of an effort to educate but you know as well as I do that it wouldn’t do any good…
It’s as if some people want to be idiots.
The reason why you can’t pump your own gas is so you won’t pump and run. This is why you have to pay before you pump at most places now, at least in cities.
We still have juke boxes but they’re all digital now. ;)
The Reference Desk/Department at the local public library.
My daughter thinks it’s amazing that when I was her age, we had to go to the library to do research for a term paper or project, or if we needed info on something.
People still use the library, although maybe less than in the past, but not for reference now, thanks to Google and other online search for research. Libraries have reinvented themselves and now have crafts, lectures, music, social events in order to stay relevant. Support your local library!
@jca2 Actually there are still reference desks at most libraries because libraries have access to special databases that are not always generally available. And librarians also help students with learning how to search and analyze sources. And books, you know. But I agree, they are not as crucial.
@janbb Yeah when I go to the library now, it’s more often to use the printer, or to go to a book sale, or a craft class, or music on the green. People should check their local library’s events calendars and see what they offer. One of the libraries that i frequent has sewing machines that you can use on-site, for sewing projects and they also have craft classes where you can learn to sew.
@jca2 Yes, and some have tools, sewing patterns or puzzles and games that you can borrow. I’ve been getting feature films on DVD from mine lately that aren’t available or are pay only on streaming.
I rarely go to one anymore, but I <3 libraries. I got my love of reading because my mom would take my brother and I to the library every single week and let us pick out books we wanted up to the checkout limit. That began when I was age 2 or 3.
I have this visual of a red wagon full of books, my mom pulling it and us walking alongside, but that’s prolly just my imagination :D
Ooh, just talked about another thing with a friend; those little wing windows on old cars. I miss those.
Photo/film processing labs.
I still have my darkroom in the basement. I haven’t used it in decades but it’s there if I ever need it.
I’d need new chemicals though.
@LuckyGuy What don’t you have at your compound. I swear you will survive nuclear war and will be set to revive civilization all by yourself.
^^ We can all go live with him! He has room for lots of jellies, especially since we’re so squishy!
@smudges Speak for yourself. Myself, I am sleek – sleek, I tell ya!
^^ Sleek can still be squishy…we’re jellyfishes!
@Hawaii_Jake I am certainly equipped for a disaster. With 5 acres, a sealed, metal barn and a huge basement there is lots of room for “stuff”. I can show you pictures of my disused darkroom. The enlarger is still set up but there is a lot of computer equipment on the counters. I have used the room to show my grandkids rocks and minerals that fluoresce under UV light so I guess I have used it a bit.
Sleek and squishy. Hmmmm. like tentacles…
Offers for recipe books and other promotional things on the backs of cereal boxes and boxes and cans of food. “Free offer. Send form with 25 cents for postage.”
That reminds me: do you remember the offers on match book covers saying “you can be an artist if you draw this picture “?
Turkish Taffy – “Smack ‘em and crack’em” but man, you could break your teeth on it.
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