Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[vitanola]

I know as a Canadian living in the Great White North I have been in a funk ever since Al Gore promised me palm trees and water front property and has failed to deliver. We had our snowiest winter/latest spring in a very long time.

Well, that is only to be expected if the climate models are accurate. They certainly seem to be getting better from year to year. Worldwide, January 2017 is the third warmest on record, but 0.2 degrees C cooler than the record setting 2016, and but a couple hundreths of a degree shy of 2015.

Remember that we are re-creating the effects of the late Permian period, some 250,000,000 years ago, when CO2 levels spiked after massive coal deposits were set on fire by volcanic activity. The planet has been here before, you see. Only this time WE are the ones in the driver's seat.

 

[LizzieMaine]

When you think about it that way, you can't help also but to think that we're all well on our way to becoming, our own selves, the world's future petroleum supply.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Today it's snowing here in New Mexico. Here, we call this, "spring in New Mexico." Tomorrow it'll probably be 80 degrees outside, then another snowstorm on Monday. By the end of the month, just hot and dry.

 

[belfastboy]

When you think about it that way, you can't help also but to think that we're all well on our way to becoming, our own selves, the world's future petroleum supply.

I take great solace in this. My bones may be more valuable in death than in life! Delicious irony.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Speaking of things that have disappeared and political correctness gone mad, have any of you bird seed fans noticed that you can no longer buy Niger seed at your local hardware store? It is now Nyjer seed. I kid you not.

 

[Zombie_61]

I take great solace in this. My bones may be more valuable in death than in life! Delicious irony.

Yeah, but they'll have to wait about 10,000 years before they can cash in on them.

 

[Fading Fast]

Speaking of things that have disappeared and political correctness gone mad, have any of you bird seed fans noticed that you can no longer buy Niger seed at your local hardware store? It is now Nyger seed. I kid you not.

Is this true. It took me a bit to get to your point, as my mind locked in on the Niger River and was wondering if that had been trademarked or something nuts like that. Once I freed my brain of that craziness and I put on my "what would offend the always-ready-to-be-offended subset of the world" hat, I got it.

...When the last hungry kid is fed, when the last sick person has the care they need, when everyone has a job, a home, and a sense that getting out of bed in the morning is not just one more miserable, dragging step toward the cold and lonely embrace of the grave, then, and only then, will I have a F. to give about crayons....

Wow, quite the sentence. Not surprising from you - and I'll restrain all of my political comments - but for a great example of a breathless, Gatling-gun style of writing, I salute you.

 

[2jakes]

Wow, quite the sentence. Not surprising from you - and I'll restrain all of my political comments - but for a great example of a breathless, Gatling-gun style of writing, I salute you.

Be careful. Gatling-gun doesn't give a F.
and you may get hurt saluting it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Just doing my bit to keep this discussion from devolving into yet another pointless jaunt down OMG I FIND THESE WHINY PEE CEE PEOPLE SO OFFENSIVE Avenue. That particular chunk of gristle has been thoroughly masticated in too many other places, and the Lounge will not become a "safe space" for such discussions.

And for what it's worth, "Nyjer Seed" is indeed a registered trademark of the Wild Bird Feeding Industry for a particular variety of so-called "thistle seed." You can still get plain generic "niger seed" if you want it, but keep in mind that it's pronounced "ny-zheer," in the French manner. It's not the word itself that causes offense, it's the illiterate mispronunciation of it by smirking nose-pickers that causes offense.

 

[Stormy]

I kinda miss seeing toddlers in those traditional white walking boots. I think my grandson's first walking shoes were a pair of Nikes

 

[Fading Fast]

I kinda miss seeing toddlers in those traditional white walking boots. I think my grandson's first walking shoes were a pair of Nikes

In the same vein, parents used to dress their toddlers in sailor suits. Based on pictures I've seen, it seemed popular from (at least) the end of the 19th Century to the middle ('60s) of the 20th Century.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I still have one of mine sitting on a bookshelf -- I use it to store loose change. I had to wear high-top leather shoes until I was six years old due to flat feet.

 

[2jakes]

I kinda miss seeing toddlers in those traditional white walking boots. I think my grandson's first walking shoes were a pair of Nikes

Bronzing was a popular tradition in my hometown.
Although my baby shoes weren't as high tech as Nike's.

By age five I wore cowboy boots.
And I believe that for the most part, '50s kids have somewhere a photo of
themselves dressed as either Gene or Roy next to their bicycle.

 

[belfastboy]

Bronzing was a popular tradition in my hometown.
Although my baby shoes weren't as high tech as Nike's.

By age five I wore cowboy boots.
And I believe that for the most part, every '50s kid has somewhere a photo of
themselves dressed as either Gene or Roy next to their bicycle.

Yep, except I had a strong attraction to Zorro. Went to see him as a 5 year old and had an autographed picture of him on Diablo. Roy Rogers was a close second though.

 

[MisterCairo]

In the same vein, parents used to dress their toddlers in sailor suits. Based on pictures I've seen, it seemed popular from (at least) the end of the 19th Century to the middle ('60s) of the 20th Century.

Not just their toddlers. My dad is about eight in this photo:

 

[MisterCairo]

Once I freed my brain of that craziness and I put on my "what would offend the always-ready-to-be-offended subset of the world" hat, I got it.

In the fourth grade, I was leaving the classroom and started looking at the globe near the door.

I was randomly reading out loud various nations, and, ahem, mis-pronounced the African nation of Niger (and having no idea the other "word" existed).

My teacher laughed out loud before correcting me!

 

[tonyb]

In the fourth grade, I was leaving the classroom and started looking at the globe near the door.

I was randomly reading out loud various nations, and, ahem, mis-pronounced the African nation of Niger (and having no idea the other "word" existed).

My teacher laughed out loud before correcting me!

Many, many others did the same, I'm sure. I recall my 5th-grade teacher heading that one off by carefully pronouncing it correctly herself before anyone else got the chance to mispronounce it.

I didn't like that woman, and she gave every indication that the feeling was mutual, but she wasn't wholly evil.

 

[BobHufford]

And I believe that for the most part, '50s kids have somewhere a photo of
themselves dressed as either Gene or Roy next to their bicycle.

My brother was Roy ... I was Dale.

 

[belfastboy]

My brother was Roy ... I was Dale.

Luckily I was the eldest son so I got first dibs on the best gun/holster/hat and namesake.....never had to wear the dress!

 

[belfastboy]

Many, many others did the same, I'm sure. I recall my 5th-grade teacher heading that one off by carefully pronouncing it correctly herself before anyone else got the chance to mispronounce it.

I didn't like that woman, and she gave every indication that the feeling was mutual, but she wasn't wholly evil.

I remember very clearly one day I used the word niggardly to describe someone to a friend who had just married a Black man. An uncomfortable pause hung in the air for what seemed a long while. I was most relieved to uncover, on arriving home, that it is very much a different word, not related to that other "N" word at all. However, I vowed from this point forward to use the much less dangerous....miserly or parsimmoneous. As I recall Christopher Hitchens has an humorous anecdote about using this word.