Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[John in Covina]

That icon is called "The Bug", which I find appropriate.

People are experiencing picture burn in from those bugs. I hate that lower section advertisement that breaks in to tell you about some up coming show, drives me nuts!

 

[John in Covina]

Story behind the "United States Notes" is JFK was moving to pull the plug on the Federal Reserve--depending on who you believe, he may or may not have actually finished the paperwork on an Executive Order but never got a chance to move it off paper and into reality. And because going much farther is as much economics, politics and psych-of-power (which tacks dangerously close to politics), that's all I'm going to say, especially since I'm uncertain about the validity of some of the claims about JFK's proposed reforms and possible plans myself. Besides, going too far into this one gets dangerously close to the Tinfoil Brigade... where it's difficult to separate truth from paranoia and outright lies.

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SCARY! Are there any black helicopters circling your home yet?
"Hi, I'm from the Federal Government, I'm here to help."

 

[Feraud]

Decent diners are disappearing from our area.

 

[John in Covina]

Decent diners are disappearing from our area.

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The restaurant business is a tough business. As prices go up it's harder to present a good meal that appears to be a good value. (Many of the fianancial experts say we can expect inflation to kick in hard shortly.)

Out this way the hamburger chain Carl's Junior introduced a Big Carl and to keep the price low they dropped the pickle, tomato and onions. It's 2 patties, lettuce, special sauce and cheese on a bun. I did not realize how much I expected tomato and onions before!

Another chain had a special burrito for 99 cents when I got it, it was a miniature burrito and looked like it was half the size of the one in the picture!

We are seeing shifts in respnse to costs.

 

[John in Covina]

I just noticed that on my keyboard there is no cents symbol.
I have a dollar symbol $ but no c with the line thru it cents symbol.

I think my old typewriter had one. Something else that has disappeared!

 

[Diamondback]

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SCARY! Are there any black helicopters circling your home yet?
"Hi, I'm from the Federal Government, I'm here to help."

John, I don't believe all or even most of it myself--the existence of the "US Notes" and his issues with FRS are facts, I was just saying that some folks have used those datapoints as foundations for theories that border on the ludicrous.

There are, after all, still those who believe that the Earth is flat...
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Now playing: Jerry Goldsmith - The Poppy Fields (Main Title)
via FoxyTunes

 

[John in Covina]

John, I don't believe all or even most of it myself--the existence of the "US Notes" and his issues with FRS are facts, I was just saying that some folks have used those datapoints as foundations for theories that border on the ludicrous.

I was just teasing.

We've had some wild things happen in the past, and sometimes the vying for power between the Executive, legislature and judicial can get plan wierd.

 

[Diamondback]

Guess that shows ya how well I "read" people in casual conversation, huh? lol

 

[John in Covina]

I often forget to use the emoticons.

 

[Ethan Bentley]

-Phone booths and pay phones.
-Drive in theaters are all but gone, with a few straglers hanging in there by a thread.

There is a small resurrection tomorrow in the UK city of Portsmouth.
A drive-in theatre will be set up on Southsea Common. Where else can you watch a film and have a view of castle built by Henry VIII?

http://www.portsmouthfilmfestival.org.uk/whatson.aspx

 

[John in Covina]

Here in the US you might have the screen, the snack bar and playground equipment in the shape of dinosaurs or whales or something.

 

[LizzieMaine]

People are experiencing picture burn in from those bugs. I hate that lower section advertisement that breaks in to tell you about some up coming show, drives me nuts!

I'll go one further and denounce in the strongest possible terms the flooding of the screen during news or sports programs with scrolling information, inserts, tabs, and other irritating "information points." Everything I can't stand about the internet, brought to the TV screen. One of the wonderful things about owning a pre-1960 TV is that the picture tube is masked in such a way that much of this irrelevance is not visible.

As Fred Allen once said, "The coming generations will have eyes the size of basketballs and no brains at all."

 

[Fletch]

I'll go one further and denounce in the strongest possible terms the flooding of the screen during news or sports programs with scrolling information, inserts, tabs, and other irritating "information points." Everything I can't stand about the internet, brought to the TV screen.

The extra ribbon atop the "crawl" at the bottom of the screen is also a sneakily coy way of obscuring female personalities' shoes, which happen to be a point of interest for some of us guys (there, I've said it).

 

[Miss 1929]

Now we know your dark secret.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Banks that look like *banks* and not suburban orthodontist's offices. What ever happened to marble floors and heavy, dark-stained woodwork, and substantial, ornamented counters with the tellers all lined up between heavy barred bronze cages. And the writing desks with the deposit and withdrawal slips all neatly stacked and those little calendar things with engraved date signs that slipped in and out of windows. And everything was very formal and dignified and everyone spoke in hushed tones, like they were at church.

At my bank, it's nothing but plywood, drywall, smelly grey industrial carpet, screaming kids running around loose, and tellers yelling back and forth to each other about what was on TV last night. They don't even keep the deposit slips out on the writing desk anymore "for security reasons." Bah.

We have one classically-styled bank left in town, but it's been turned into yet another twee art gallery. Bah again.

 

[ThesFlishThngs]

Banks that have real employees who know what they're doing and how to help you, rather than a gang of casually-clad, barely-college-aged characters who just punch buttons on a computer and follow directions. Or not.

 

[Foofoogal]

Real buildings that people can hide in when hurricanes and tornadoes are threatening. Should be law to not make schools out of tin portable buildings.

 

[ThesFlishThngs]

 

[John in Covina]

Banks that look like *banks* and not suburban orthodontist's offices. What ever happened to marble floors and heavy, dark-stained woodwork, and substantial, ornamented counters with the tellers all lined up between heavy barred bronze cages. And the writing desks with the deposit and withdrawal slips all neatly stacked and those little calendar things with engraved date signs that slipped in and out of windows. And everything was very formal and dignified and everyone spoke in hushed tones, like they were at church.

Classic Banks were "Institutions" not some convienience store. I don't mind some of the things they can do quickly with a computer, but it seems at nearly every visit I get the newbie that has to get everything signed off and struggles with some point of my transaction making a morgage payment.

Out this way there are the old bank buildings in most small town old town sections but few are banks, most are Starbucks or some trendy restaurant.

fftopic:
Many banks out this way were built in the late 50's and 60's in that "modern" style that you get the odd vibes from. strange geometric decorations to the building, the windows and such. Caught in the change from the Atomic era to the rocketship era to the futuristic era of building styles. School buildings, banks, some government buildings and "industry" shot up in this style a post twilight zone moderne, very evident in the boom years in Southern California.

 

[ThesFlishThngs]

My bank will often have five or six people standing behind the counter, but only one dealing with customers. And that person usually has to ask someone else to come help them figure something out.

The Mr. and I (after one particularly disappointing bank visit) decided that when we have uncountable sums of money, we are going to re-open one of the grand old bank buildings, hire only blue-haired ladies with pencil skirts and chains on their glasses, and require that every transaction be duplicated on paper, in a little bank book. Customers may have to pay a nominal annual fee to keep this bank going, but they'll still be lining up to do so!