Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[O2BSwank]

Our local Savemart has two kiddie rides, some type of big truck by one entrance and a merry go round by the other. I remember taking my now 23 year old son to the store to ride the Batmobile.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

It was a big treat when I was a kid to get to ride on one of those!

 

[sheeplady]

Yuck! I hate box cakes. They always use too much baking soda or baking powder and I can taste it.:eusa_doh:
Here:

I have no pineapple in the house. Grr. What a time to run out of a staple!

I don't get why people use boxed cakes (although a cake mix is better than just a store bought cake). It's saving 3 minutes. Literally. All that's in the box is the sugar, flour, and baking soda/ baking powder. Maybe some flavoring of some sort. You still have to measure out the water, oil, etc. and mix it up.

 

[Wally_Hood]

Between men who can't build or fix things and women who can't cook or sew, we as a society are now equal -- equally useless.

Accurately put, sir.

 

[rue]

Ok, where is the cake?

Maybe if you're nice I'll bring you some

 

[Touchofevil]

Walmart has them out here too. My boys love the crazy things. I almost feeling like buying one to save money.

I saw one for sale at an antique mall this past weekend! My lady and I both thought it funny to see one as we hadn't seen one in years.

 

[scottyrocks]

Between men who can't build or fix things and women who can't cook or sew, we as a society are now equal -- equally useless.

I hate the phrase, 'Call somebody, as in 'call somebody to fix it.' I like doing things myself.

 

[lframe]

I'm pretty amazed by this. How can people not know what pineapple upside down cake is? Now I want pineapple upside down cake.

I'm convinced it's part of the "not cooking and baking culture" we have in current society. It's easier to buy a cake loaded with additives than it is to stir together some flour, eggs, sugar, and oil, dump it in a pan, and leave it in a hot oven for 30 minutes. Even a boxed cake seems beyond most people.

I know what I'm baking tomorrow. Suddenly have a monster craving.

I still dry apples the way my great-aunt did, on sheets, in the sun. Also make dried applesauce cake -- with all the tiny layers and applesauce between each one.

 

[Wally_Hood]

I know what I'm baking tomorrow. Suddenly have a monster craving.

I still dry apples the way my great-aunt did, on sheets, in the sun. Also make dried applesauce cake -- with all the tiny layers and applesauce between each one.

I remember my mother making applesauce at home: boiling the apples and then mashing the apples through a large perforated cone, using a wooden pestle (is that the word?) that had a rounded grip on one end, tapering to point at the other, the shape all the better to rotate around the inside of the cone. What a lot of work that was.

 

[lframe]

I remember my mother making applesauce at home: boiling the apples and then mashing the apples through a large perforated cone, using a wooden pestle (is that the word?) that had a rounded grip on one end, tapering to point at the other, the shape all the better to rotate around the inside of the cone. What a lot of work that was.

That's what I use to can jam! I boil fruit and sugar and run it through. It's a giant sieve.

 

[Shangas]

I make most of my own baked goods. Cookies, cakes, pies, etc.

I baked this last week. My first-ever apple pie. And my first pie EVER:

It's certainly nothing fancy, but it tasted delicious...

 

[JFriday]

Though mentioned way back near the beginning of this thread by others I have to say the pay phone (especially the classic models with the separate coin sort/drop at the top, the last of them were disapearing when I was a kid), and even more so the classic phone booth for said phones. I just noticed two more removed near where I live in the past month. I am now in the process of photographing the few remaining ones and their locations before they are no more. I also remember Fire Alarm Boxes, which departed in the 1980's, and can still find the odd old utility pole with the red and white paint fading into history, I am taking photographs of them as well. I am still fortunate to have a functioning rotary wall mount phone, and a service that can support that classic technology, at least for now.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Almost all gone around here, those coin-op rides outside the grocery stores.

Here they're all over the place. There's two in front of the supermarket right by my house and some more at a Stater Brothers further away.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I also remember Fire Alarm Boxes, which departed in the 1980's, and can still find the odd old utility pole with the red and white paint fading into history, I am taking photographs of them as well..

We only just deactivated our fire boxes last year -- we hosted a charity auction at work the other night and one of the boxes was auctioned off to benefit our local Main Street Association. Sold for $125 with a fresh coat of red enamel. Meanwhile I was looking out the window at the box still mounted on the building across the street, all "X-d" out with tape, and thinking about the hacksaw and the bolt cutters in the trunk of my car.

 

[Tango Yankee]

One thing I've noticed that I suppose is a response to the lack of public telephones is the re-emergence of police call boxes. In this case they're ones used by the public rather than a beat cop, like the fire call boxes referenced above. I have generally seen them in parking lots. They're marked by a blue light.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Otateral]

Non-Digital cameras.

Something that intrigued me lately was the "click" sound made when using a digital camera. It's modeled after the sound that old non-digital cameras made when taking a picture. I hardly notice the sound, and it never quite occurred to me until recently that it's not the ACTUAL sound of the camera taking the picture, but just an audio file being played by the camera's mini internal speaker.

It strikes me that my kids have never known a world in which non-digital cameras were popular. The concept of film, and not being able to view the picture immediately on the the camera's LCD screen is completely alien to them.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Several of my co-workers still like to shoot film, and one of them was telling me the other night about taking some pictures at a family birthday party. One of the kids actually flew into a tantrum because he didn't understand that he had to wait for the pictures to be developed before he could see them. Immediate gratification, thy name is modernity.

 

[Tango Yankee]

I've not seen tantrums, but I have seen very perplexed faces on small children when they try to pull my camera around so they can see the photo of them I've just taken and all that's there is the back of the camera.

 

[lframe]

Well then just make some. I'll be over in 45 minutes.
Here:
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
9 slices pineapple in juice (from 14-oz can), drained
9 maraschino cherries without stems
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup shortening
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
Heat oven to 350°F. In 9-inch square pan, melt butter in oven. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over melted butter. Arrange pineapple slices over brown sugar. Place cherry in center of each pineapple slice. In medium bowl, beat remaining ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour batter over pineapple and cherries. Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately place heatproof serving plate upside down over pan; turn plate and pan over. Leave pan over cake a few minutes so brown sugar mixture can drizzle over cake; remove pan. Serve warm. Store cake loosely covered.

I usually double(except the fruit) this but you can do what you want. I like a fair amount of cake. This will make it sort of flat if you don't double it.

Mine turned out beautifully!

 

[rue]

I make most of my own baked goods. Cookies, cakes, pies, etc.

I baked this last week. My first-ever apple pie. And my first pie EVER:

It's certainly nothing fancy, but it tasted delicious...

Well done Shangas!