Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[missjo]

Telephone booths.
They are almost gone.

I live in Amsterdam, relatively big city, lots of tourists.
But almost no telephone booths.

A while ago my telephone broke, so I had to contact the telephone company to send someone to fix it.
I tried being modern and send them an email, but alas, they insisted I'd call them.
But how am I supposed to call them with a phone about a broken phone...
So I walked around the city looking for telephone booths.... the few I found were broken and vandalised but in stead of being repaired they were being removed.
It took me a few days of exploring the city to find one that actually still worked, while I was walking around I actually saw a booth one day that was gone the next!

And when I called them from a booth.... one of the first things they asked me was my mobile phone number for when they send someone around...
I told them I didn't have one, their computer software wouldn't even let them put that into the form!
That option did not exist...
Eventually I insisted on speaking to a superior who then laughed, agreed with me on everything bad with this modern situation and then made up a fake mobile phone number for me.
So fraud was the only way to even get to the next page of the computer form...

But anyway, it was quite an ordeal.
If you live in Amsterdam and you don't have a mobile phone or neighbours who's phone you want to borrow, or when you're a tourist who's mobile phone doesn't work somehow, you're in trouble.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I think someone here at the Lounge called it "The Presumption of Technology."

 

[John in Covina]

Telephone booths. They are almost gone.

Same thing in So Cal. I remember going to big hotels and they would have a bank of phone booths. In some places the drug store (pharmacey) would have a booth or 2 in the back. I recall the old phone booth that was inside at McSorley's in manhatten.

 

[Shangas]

The only phone-booth I remember is outside the local supermarket. To my knowledge, they have almost certainly, all disappeared from the center of town.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There's still an original wooden phone booth at a popular diner a couple towns over from here, but otherwise all we have left are kiosks on the street, which aren't much good when you want to get out of the rain.

I've been suggesting for years that we install an old wooden booth in our lobby -- if not to install a payphone in it, then to have it be a place where people who come out of the show yapping into cellphones are required to go. You can hear them inside the theatre, and few things are more irritating to the rest of the patrons then hearing somebody going on and on about who's supposed to pick up the kid after jai-alai practice or whatever the desperate crisis is.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Seems the value people put on friendships is gone, or at least greatly diminished.

I understand as our lives change, the time we have to put into friendships isn't always there like it was when we're young and seem to have all the time in the world. Still, I think when it takes little to no effort to say hello when back in town, or bumping into someone on the street, you should do so.

 

[jamespowers]

Seems the value people put on friendships is gone, or at least greatly diminished.

I understand as our lives change, the time we have to put into friendships isn't always there like it was when we're young and seem to have all the time in the world. Still, I think when it takes little to no effort to say hello when back in town, or bumping into someone on the street, you should do so.

If you have just one good friend throughout life then you are actually doing good. Two or three and you are blessed.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Well, one of my very best friends passed away back in April. I'm still left with three good ones. But two of the three have been leashed to their women so close that they hardly get to leave the house anymore. The other is married, has a little girl, and another on the way, and always finds time to throw back a couple beers with his ol' buddy Tom. His wife usually joins us, too. She's definitely my favorite of my friends' women lol

If you have just one good friend throughout life then you are actually doing good. Two or three and you are blessed.

 

[jamespowers]

Well, one of my very best friends passed away back in April. I'm still left with three good ones. But two of the three have been leashed to their women so close that they hardly get to leave the house anymore. The other is married, has a little girl, and another on the way, and always finds time to throw back a couple beers with his ol' buddy Tom. His wife usually joins us, too. She's definitely my favorite of my friends' women lol

Three throughout life would be good. You never know what is ahead though.
Your friends' lashed situation is a good example for you to run away from---screaming.

 

[Gregg Axley]

The value of friendships is a good point Tom.
I have plenty of people on my FB page, many of who would drop everything to help me.
But we don't go out for activities often, we don't call each other on the phone, or anything else that people did in the "golden era."
Now we e-mail, or comment on each other's FB page. While it's a new way of doing things, it's not the same IMHO.
I agree though, you really only have 2-3 close friends that you could call with any problem and they'd help you out, even if it's just to listen.
That's a 2 way street, you'd do the same thing for them.
Very good points Tom...:eusa_clap

 

[dnjan]

But two of the three have been leashed to their women so close that they hardly get to leave the house anymore. The other is married, has a little girl, and another on the way, and always finds time to throw back a couple beers with his ol' buddy Tom. His wife usually joins us, too. She's definitely my favorite of my friends' women lol

Perhaps the wives of the first two consider you a bad influence - can't trust them hat-wearers!
On the other hand, you should get the wife of the third to bring along one of her friends sometime ...

 

[ThemThereEyes]

Seems the value people put on friendships is gone, or at least greatly diminished.

I understand as our lives change, the time we have to put into friendships isn't always there like it was when we're young and seem to have all the time in the world. Still, I think when it takes little to no effort to say hello when back in town, or bumping into someone on the street, you should do so.

This one is a huge one with me, and lately it has weighed heavily on my mind.
I have friends that are less becoming so because they seem to view me more as what I've discovered is called a "backup friend." Despite my own busyness, with being a single parent to small children, full time school, and part time work, I make efforts to stay in contact and to get together. Even if it is for just a short meeting for coffee and a movie, lunch, or what have you, I really look forward to fulfilling those plans. I understand cancelling for legitimate reasons as life happens.
However, more and more, I get flaked on. Here will come the day of said plans and the "friend" will either cancel with some excuse, or send a quick text a couple of days prior stating they had forgotten they had plans for being out of town! I've even had one not call at all, but then I discovered she instead went to lunch with a group of coworkers for one of their birthdays. The very same coworkers about whom she'd rant to me. That same person never answers her phone either, but hits the "ignore" button on me when I call. I have stopped making plans with the people that do this (because it was more than a once or twice thing), those that I thought valued my friendship as I did theirs.
It's all a bit depressing and I feel like I am the last of a dying breed.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I wondered if that was the case, because I have another friend who's wife thinks that. However, they don't really go anywhere or do anything with anybody. The better half wants their fella to themselves, it seems.

Perhaps the wives of the first two consider you a bad influence - can't trust them hat-wearers!
On the other hand, you should get the wife of the third to bring along one of her friends sometime ...

Being the backup friend is a bad feeling. It's like they know (or think they know) you don't have a life, so you're at their beck and call when it's convenient to them.

This one is a huge one with me, and lately it has weighed heavily on my mind.
I have friends that are less becoming so because they seem to view me more as what I've discovered is called a "backup friend." Despite my own busyness, with being a single parent to small children, full time school, and part time work, I make efforts to stay in contact and to get together. Even if it is for just a short meeting for coffee and a movie, lunch, or what have you, I really look forward to fulfilling those plans. I understand cancelling for legitimate reasons as life happens.
However, more and more, I get flaked on. Here will come the day of said plans and the "friend" will either cancel with some excuse, or send a quick text a couple of days prior stating they had forgotten they had plans for being out of town! I've even had one not call at all, but then I discovered she instead went to lunch with a group of coworkers for one of their birthdays. The very same coworkers about whom she'd rant to me. That same person never answers her phone either, but hits the "ignore" button on me when I call. I have stopped making plans with the people that do this (because it was more than a once or twice thing), those that I thought valued my friendship as I did theirs.
It's all a bit depressing and I feel like I am the last of a dying breed.

 

[jamespowers]

I wondered if that was the case, because I have another friend who's wife thinks that. However, they don't really go anywhere or do anything with anybody. The better half wants their fella to themselves, it seems.

That is just crazy and obsessive. Sounds like they haven't been married long enough to go completely insane though. lol lol

 

[nice hat dude!]

Probably a little off topic but I remember years ago back in my teens I was downtown with my older brother and when he came home he told our parents that they wouldn't believe all the friends that I had.Now I was a bit of a punk(not as in rock)and used to hang at the pool hall and on the street and being that type you tend to know a lot of people good,bad or otherwise,I had to explain to my brother that yes I had a lot of acquaintances but that didn't mean they were all my friends.A person can usually list their true friends on one hand and have fingers left over,but they will be there no matter what and if you're doing better than that Tom you're doing damn fine by my calculations.

 

[nice hat dude!]

That is just crazy and obsessive. Sounds like they haven't been married long enough to go completely insane though. lol lol

Yea once you been married long enough they beg you to go out(haha)

 

[jamespowers]

Yea once you been married long enough they beg you to go out(haha)

:rofl: I didn't say that but I suppose it is possible.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

On the other hand there's quite a few women out there who, sad to say, only want a husband or boyfriend who's just like the husbands and boyfriends of her girlfriends. Usually the type who at sixteen desperately wants a boyfriend only because her girlfriends are dating, at twenty-five she wants a husband because all her girlfriends are now married, at twenty-eight she wants children because her girlfriends are all Moms. And then at fifty-five she wants grandchildren because her girlfriends are now grandmothers. [huh]

 

[jamespowers]

On the other hand there's quite a few women out there who, sad to say, only want a husband or boyfriend who's just like the husbands and boyfriends of her girlfriends. Usually the type who at sixteen desperately wants a boyfriend only because her girlfriends are dating, at twenty-five she wants a husband because all her girlfriends are now married, at twenty-eight she wants children because her girlfriends are all Moms. And then at fifty-five she wants grandchildren because her girlfriends are now grandmothers. [huh]

In other words, someone who can't think for themselves. Sheeople. Baaaaahhhhh!

 

[nice hat dude!]