Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[olive bleu]

Beeman's Gum!

I still chew Beeman's We have a candy store here that sells all manner of oldtime goodies that you thought you would never see again.It is just down the street from where i work and it is a happy day when i find myself short on busfare and have to duck in to make change

 

[SuperKawaiiMama]

A proper Ladies room. On my very first job, the department store I worked at had the most wonderful Ladies room, complete with chintz sitting room area, writing desks with accouterments, and a very helpful attendant. Perhaps they still exist somewhere in the world, but certainly not in Australia. Sigh.

 

[KittyT]

I remember also having a hot water bottle... and ice bags. These seemed to be replaced be sticky-back apliques and electric heating pads or ACE freezer ice packs and those bend and snap chemicle ones. Thinking about it now, I miss my hot water bottle. I'm sure they still exist (and I know my grandma still has them at her house), but I haven't seen them in any retail stores in *years*.

I still see traditional ice bags at the local drug store chain. They are also easy to find online - Vermont country Store sells both, as well has lambskin hot water bottle covers.

 

[KittyT]

Roller skates that are all metal and that you attach to the sole of your shoe. They required a "skate key" to fasten them to your shoe.

There is a reason these aren't available anymore! At least rollerskating wasn't completely eclipsed by inline skating and has started coming back in style thanks to roller derby. It could have really been lost - roller rinks are few and far between these days.

 

[Sunny]

Roller skates that are all metal and that you attach to the sole of your shoe. They required a "skate key" to fasten them to your shoe.

My mother hated those! They'd always come off her shoe in mid-skate. OW!

 

[CherryRed]

That's the stuff!! Yep, a little brown bottle of liquid with a wand to apply it. And it was orange!! Bactine didn't hurt nearly so much. I can actually remember the smell of that. My Mom saved Merthiolate for the really bad cuts. Of course the mercury in it could explain an awful lot about me... lol lol

Is that the same as Iodine? I remember that being in a little brown bottle, was orange and had the little stick applicator in the bottle cap.

 

[LizzieMaine]

My mother hated those! They'd always come off her shoe in mid-skate. OW!

Yep, i have scars on my knees to attest to the fact that this happened. A *lot*.

 

[John in Covina]

Photos at a famous Niteclub

Polaroid "Instant" Pictures. Take a picture, Pull it out, what the specified time, rub the fixer on the picture and presto a picture you can look at like magic!

An off shoot of this was, when you went to a really neat restaurant or famous nightclub, a guy or girl came up with a Polaroid Land Camera and asked if you'd like your picture taken. In our photos there is (somewheres) a picture of mom and dad on a date with friends at Jack Dempsey's Restaurant in NY.

 

[Fletch]

I still see traditional ice bags at the local drug store chain. They are also easy to find online - Vermont country Store sells both, as well has lambskin hot water bottle covers.

Maybe, just for fairness' sake, we ought to qualify the thread to: Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime AND from Vermont Country Store.

 

[Lefty]

:arated:, and any other kind of toy gun or slingshot that would get a 10 year old arrested these days.

As a kid I used to love playing with those metal cap-guns that you would feed the red paper into. I loved the bang! and the smell.

 

[Joie DeVive]

Is that the same as Iodine? I remember that being in a little brown bottle, was orange and had the little stick applicator in the bottle cap.

Nope. Possibly packaged the same, definitely looked similar, but not the same stuff. Iodine as you refer to it is also an antiseptic, but it is made from a compound of the element Iodine. I think you can still get that today.

Merthiolate (Which I didn't know how to spell, I grew up calling it Methiolade- hepkitten helped me out with that ) was an antiseptic tincture made from a mercury compound. If I understand right, it was the mercury that killed the germs. It was commonly used in the 1950s, and 1960s, even in the mouth . I think you could buy it up through the 1970s, or early 1980s. Due to the mercury in it, it is no longer available.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

Nope. Possibly packaged the same, definitely looked similar, but not the same stuff. Iodine as you refer to it is also an antiseptic, but it is made from a compound of the element Iodine. I think you can still get that today.

Merthiolate (Which I didn't know how to spell, I grew up calling it Methiolade- hepkitten helped me out with that ) was an antiseptic tincture made from a mercury compound. If I understand right, it was the mercury that killed the germs. It was commonly used in the 1950s, and 1960s, even in the mouth . I think you could buy it up through the 1970s, or early 1980s. Due to the mercury in it, it is no longer available.

And you can still buy mercury-free methiolate....no idea what is in it now..etc.. but it is sitting right next to the other old fashioned tinctures in the hispanic remedies section of my CVS....

 

[Kassia]

A random thing that is probably seldom used and I know of no place that retails them besides antiques stores: a bed warmer.

, I miss my hot water bottle. I'm sure they still exist (and I know my grandma still has them at her house), but I haven't seen them in any retail stores in *years*.

I see them at our pharmacy chain stores so i know they still make them..
I also have a small one, funky colour, that i found at the book store Chapters.
I use it when i go on holildays...

 

[Kassia]

Polaroid "Instant" Pictures. Take a picture, Pull it out, what the specified time, rub the fixer on the picture and presto a picture you can look at like magic!

An off shoot of this was, when you went to a really neat restaurant or famous nightclub, a guy or girl came up with a Polaroid Land Camera and asked if you'd like your picture taken. In our photos there is (somewheres) a picture of mom and dad on a date with friends at Jack Dempsey's Restaurant in NY.

And an offshoot to polaroids.. Does anyone here actually still have, and use, a manual SLR camera? I have one but rarely use it but it sure does take good pictures.. My friend was just in Yellowstone and used hers the whole time..
For the really one ones out there, that's a camera that uses film and you have to adjust manually...

 

[John in Covina]

Due to the mercury in it, it is no longer available.

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See, they always take away the good stuff!

I liked this skin cleanser called PHISOHEX the stuff worked great. Then they said it was bad for babies and took it off the market. I would have prefered a big label that said "Don't Use On Babies!" or maybe "Adults Only Formula" something like the dry cleaner bags that say 'don't wrap you children in this plastic bag, it would be bad.'

 

[Bingles]

I still have a rotary phone from the 20's in my sitting room. When I first got it, my younger brother (who is 9 years my junior) thought it was broken because "all the buttons were missing".

- I remember when TVs and radios still had to "warm up" when you turned them on.

- Every Halloween I lament the loss of wax lips and candy cigarettes

- As a new teacher (trying to find a job), I am very upset that many schools are planning on phasing out cursive writing all together. Most students can not read it when I write it on the board. So sad.

 

[John in Covina]

Does anyone here actually still have, and use, a manual SLR camera?

**********

I have a minolta SRT-SCII which is a lot like an SRT-101. it needs to be cleaned and re-lubed. totally manual with match needle metering. Great camera.

 

[Forgotten Man]

I had a flashback to when I was little, and they used to ring such pits with these round black metal things about the size of a cantaloupe with a flaming wick in the top. I used to think they were bombs, but they were just a very old form of safety light.

Those were smudge pots of the road hazard type:

My land lord has a few of those... I think their neat! In fact, they even had a bunch of old ones at Fort McArthur this year at the LA Air Raid... neat!

Now, for my memories of things that just faded away.

I recall when I was a kid, they used to have FUN play grounds made of METAL and swings that were really high and you could really get goin' on those... but, now they're all short swings and boring. Also, the big tall rockets they used to have... the kind you'd climb up to the top and play with a steering wheel... and then they had a slide that came out the second stage of the thing... I recall sliding down the slide and then falling off the slide half way down... I wasn't hurt, just shook up a little lol

Now all those rockets are GONE! (Insert whinny vice) because they aren't safe enough... Bah! What's good enough for me, is good enough for everyone! lol

 

[John in Covina]

- As a new teacher (trying to find a job), I am very upset that many schools are planning on phasing out cursive writing all together. Most students can not read it when I write it on the board. So sad.

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Maybe it was found to be too difficult for today's youth and therefor bad for their self esteem.

 

[Lefty]

There's a sizable group of film enthusiasts here, some of whom use cameras that predate SLRs - which aren't all that old.

In terms of Polariods, the expense of film was always pretty high. I'm happy to see digital replace them for purposes of instant gratification.