Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[sheeplady]

I always liked the way the last institution I worked for (university school made up of what one would think of as three departments) did holiday giving. They adopt several families and provided the Christmas meal, gifts, and clothes. They now do three to four families a year as the school has grown. A staff member organizes the whole thing (distribution, takes money, collects items and cash, organizes and prevents duplicates, etc.) I am not sure where they get the families from- some local organization or the other. They've been doing it since they had 6 faculty and 3 staff members all the way up to nearly 40 faculty members and 12 staff members.

 

[Paisley]

Last summer, I was donating $1 to Heifer International for every troll comment I read on low carb/paleo blogs. The trolls were almost always vegans*, and HI provides poor people with livestock. I posted replies letting the trolls know what I was doing. After donating enough money to provide a share of a sheep and a water buffalo, the trolling all but stopped.

*If someone follows a vegan diet, that's fine with me. It's trolling that I don't like.

 

[jamespowers]

Last summer, I was donating $1 to Heifer International for every troll comment I read on low carb/paleo blogs. The trolls were almost always vegans*, and HI provides poor people with livestock. I posted replies letting the trolls know what I was doing. After donating enough money to provide a share of a sheep and a water buffalo, the trolling all but stopped.

*If someone follows a vegan diet, that's fine with me. It's trolling that I don't like.

Good idea! I am going to do that as well.

 

[Paisley]

Donations: about forty bucks. A troll-free community: priceless.

Patiently explaining science to them and pointing out that the low carb/paleo community is full of former vegetarians was pointless.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Patiently explaining science to them...was pointless.

It typically is .

 

[Paisley]

You have to threaten to milk a sheep.

 

[plain old dave]

Same thing with my family. Korea and WWII Red Cross left them a bit less than thrilled with them. :doh:

My experience with them was completely different. December 1990, my mother was killed by a drunk driver. The Navy/Marine Corps "Relief" Society refused to loan me even one cent for an airline ticket home from RTC Orlando as I was a Reservist. Red Cross took care of me. During the government shutdown last year, same old same old. I had just gotten a $68 drill check for September due to a prior overpayment, and October drill was canceled. So, I called NMCRS, and they again refused to help. Said I didn't qualify for help, as I was a Reservist. I have not given a dime to them in 20+ years.

 

[Stearmen]

I am not sure if this has been mentioned yet, the aluminum tube toothpaste containers. I miss, being able to roll up the tube as you used it! Yes, I know there are fancy little gizmos made for that, but, in the old days, you didn't need those.

 

[LizzieMaine]

For that matter, what ever happened to tooth powder? I much preferred it to paste -- I can't stand the gloppiness of paste or the insipid flavor. Colgate Tooth Powder was still available in the stores as recently as the '80s but I haven't seen it since.

 

[jamespowers]

For that matter, what ever happened to tooth powder? I much preferred it to paste -- I can't stand the gloppiness of paste or the insipid flavor. Colgate Tooth Powder was still available in the stores as recently as the '80s but I haven't seen it since.

It is a little spendy but you can still get it:
http://www.emporiumonnet.com/beauty_health/colgate/Colgate-Tooth-Powder.html

In a nice vintage tin too.

 

[dh66]

For that matter, what ever happened to tooth powder? I much preferred it to paste -- I can't stand the gloppiness of paste or the insipid flavor. Colgate Tooth Powder was still available in the stores as recently as the '80s but I haven't seen it since.

It is a little spendy but you can still get it:
http://www.emporiumonnet.com/beauty_health/colgate/Colgate-Tooth-Powder.html

In a nice vintage tin too.

We just used plain old baking soda.

Lizzie, I'm not so opposed to the minty flavor of toothpaste as much as to the horrible saccharine aftertaste.

But there's always worse

 

[LizzieMaine]

I use baking soda with a bit of salt in it -- cheap and refreshing.

I have used "vintage" tooth powder, having come upon an old-store-stock cache of it once. It was mostly precipitated chalk, a bit of baking soda, and a bit of finely powdered soap for foaming action, with a small amount of flavoring to cut the soapy aftertaste. The flavorings were not like the sicky-sticky-sweet fake mint flavor of today, they were not sweet at all and tended more toward a bracing medicinal tang. If they still made Pebeco, I'd be their best customer.

 

[dh66]

Veal cutlets and trout almondine from the menus of greasy spoon diners.

For that matter, mom-n-pop greasy spoon diners, with their formica topped tables and naugahyde covered booths are pretty sparse around here these days.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Excelsior, that fibrous packing material that breakables always used to be shipped in. It was a lot less of a mess than styrofoam peanuts and was invulnerable to static electricity.

 

[dh66]

Excelsior, that fibrous packing material that breakables always used to be shipped in. It was a lot less of a mess than styrofoam peanuts and was invulnerable to static electricity.

Now days those Styrofoam peanuts are biodegradable, but unfortunately start to turn into a horrible sticky white goo at the first sign of moisture. Walk inside with wet feet and step on a few of them that have landed on the floor and you've REALLY got a mess.

 

[jamespowers]

Now days those Styrofoam peanuts are biodegradable, but unfortunately start to turn into a horrible sticky white goo at the first sign of moisture. Walk inside with wet feet and step on a few of them that have landed on the floor and you've REALLY got a mess.

I understand you can eat the dang things like, well, popcorn. :doh:

 

[dh66]

I understand you can eat the dang things like, well, popcorn. :doh:

Go for it.
I'll pass.

 

[jamespowers]

Go for it.
I'll pass.

Already did. Tastes like popcorn. Weird.....:doh:

 

[HudsonHawk]

Already did. Tastes like popcorn. Weird.....:doh:

The new biodegradable "Styrofoam" peanuts are made from starch. They are essentially Cheetos without the cheese powder coating. And they don't hold static electricity!

 

[dh66]

The most annoying packing material I have ever encountered involved a pretty specialized (and expensive) laboratory fixture. It was wrapped in shrink wrap, placed in a crate, then the void space filled in with that expanding foam insulation that comes in the can.
It took all day just to unpack it.