Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[Fading Fast]

...Itinerant con men and hucksters seem not to be as common in real life as they used to be, probably because they've all moved to the Internet.

Agreed. Granted my life is different now, but there was much more "street" action - shady deals, grey market stuff, general hustling, etc. - that did seem to fade as the Internet came on in the second half of the '90s.

 

[tonyb]

... One day I walked into the office to see the walls lined with cheap stereo equipment -- apparently some guy in a truck showed up and sold him all this stuff promising BIG PROFITS if we carried the line. Didn't work out that way, and I always sort of suspected the stuff was hot anyway.

Itinerant con men and hucksters seem not to be as common in real life as they used to be, probably because they've all moved to the Internet.

An audiophile of my acquaintance informs me that his fellow stereo buffs refer to that sort of stuff as "white van" gear, because it is (or was) typically peddled by hucksters in generic white cargo vans. And it's almost surely not what the seller represents it to be. Point to almost any example of it, this friend informs me, and If it's of even mediocre quality he would be surprised.

 

[ChiTownScion]

As a kid in the late '60s/'70s, adults regularly had me get them a pack from the vending machine. Which - at least the most common one I remember - had a substantial round handle that you pulled out (took a bit of effort - no digital push pad) and, after a loud clunk, the cigarette pack plunked down and slid out of the metal shelf at the bottom. You'd hand the pack over to the adult who would "pack it down" with a few meaningful smacks on a table or counter top and they were good to go. There was, to my memory, no controls / oversight for age on those machines.

I remember a variation where the proprietor - usually in a gas station or restaurant- had to press a button under the counter to activate the vending machine, lest the underage be able to buy packs.

 

[Fading Fast]

I remember a variation where the proprietor - usually in a gas station or restaurant- had to press a button under the counter to activate the vending machine, lest the underage be able to buy packs.

That was very fancy schmancy for the day and well past any controls my neighborhood stores had.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's a relatively recent innovation, I would think -- the cig machines of my memory were purely mechanical. The same type of locking-slide mechanism was used in our candy machine, a six-foot-tall extravagance that vended "Tom's" products.

Not our actual machine, which long ago rolled off to the Great Scrapyard, but it was identical to this unit. The "Sandwiches" referred to on the ad glass were NAB-like peanut butter-cheese cracker deals. Like our cigarette machine, this device was retired when its coin mechanism was made obsolete by inflation in the early 1970s. It had settings for a nickel or a dime, but not both. I loved this machine because the coin sounded like it was dropping into a very deep well when it it the coin box, and it made a very satisfying chunk-clunk when you pulled out the handle for your choice. The toasted peanuts, however, were usually rancid. "Whaddaya want for a dime, go wan home now, ya botterin' me."

 

[Fading Fast]

This is pretty much the one I remember as a kid. Nothing fancy, mainly mechanical and, as Lizzie noted, very satisfying sounds both when the coin went in and when you tugged (and it needed a tug) on the round pull-out knob to choose your pack. Also, as with most of the vending machines of that time, the "coin return" feature - a "sliding" metal lever - if something went wrong (say they were out of your selection) was dicey at best. You never really expected to get all your money back - it was all part of the game.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Ours had a "BENT COIN RETURN," which always made me wonder. The machine did seem to pass washers and slugs quite nicely, judging from what I saw when I emptied the coin box.

 

[Fading Fast]

Ours had a "BENT COIN RETURN," which always made me wonder. The machine did seem to pass washers and slugs quite nicely, judging from what I saw when I emptied the coin box.

Almost every business figures out a way to "put a thumb on the scale" don't they.

 

[Zombie_61]

We had exactly that type of machine at the gas station -- a low-slung brown-painted metal thing that looked like a piece of industrial equipment. There was a window on the front behind which were displayed dummy packs of Camels, Lucky Strikes, Chesterfields, Winstons, and Salems. These packs were actually wooden blocks with pack wrappers glued around them, and were yellowed and faded from being in the sun for twenty years...

The last company I worked for still had one of these machines sitting near the Customer Service/loading dock area when they closed the doors in 2005. It hadn't been serviced in well over a decade--emptied of cigarettes and coins whenever the vendor had last visited the facility--and we all assumed he decided it was easier to leave it there for the company to dispose of rather than haul it off himself. It was a drab, sun faded, weathered relic of a fading era, but it had it's own charm in an odd sort of way.

 

[tonyb]

The last company I worked for still had one of these machines sitting near the Customer Service/loading dock area when they closed the doors in 2005. It hadn't been serviced in well over a decade--emptied of cigarettes and coins whenever the vendor had last visited the facility--and we all assumed he decided it was easier to leave it there for the company to dispose of rather than haul it off himself. It was a drab, sun faded, weathered relic of a fading era, but it had it's own charm in an odd sort of way.

And it's now collectible.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

The Japanese have vending machines for everything. For your own peace of mind, it's best not to look into some of the things they vend. The Japanese are also the world's champion sexual fetishists.

 

[Zombie_61]

And it's now collectible.

Yeah, I wish I'd thought to take it with me when I left on my last day.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Old german pensioners, on a short trip by train, with these funny old-fashion egg-boxes, beeing bored in the train and start to munch, promptly. And unboxing their sausage-sandwiches, of course.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q...orm=QBIR&pq=eierbehälter ddr&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk=

Man, I miss the 90s (not really...).

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Something that was a common sight when I was young was "Carriage steps." Already long obsolete by the '50s, they were small stone, brick or concrete steps, just two or three, set by the curb usually in front prominent houses. Decades earlier, horse-drawn carriages would pull up by them, and passengers would use them to step into the carriages. Sometimes they featured ornate carving. I don't remember when I last saw any.

 

[tonyb]

Something that was a common sight when I was young was "Carriage steps." Already long obsolete by the '50s, they were small stone, brick or concrete steps, just two or three, set by the curb usually in front prominent houses. Decades earlier, horse-drawn carriages would pull up by them, and passengers would use them to step into the carriages. Sometimes they featured ornate carving. I don't remember when I last saw any.

I recall old hitching posts out by the cobblestone streets in the older, one-time grander districts.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Something that was a common sight when I was young was "Carriage steps." Already long obsolete by the '50s, they were small stone, brick or concrete steps, just two or three, set by the curb usually in front prominent houses. Decades earlier, horse-drawn carriages would pull up by them, and passengers would use them to step into the carriages. Sometimes they featured ornate carving. I don't remember when I last saw any.

Interesting, thanks! I never heared of this, before.

 

[BobHufford]

Something that was a common sight when I was young was "Carriage steps."

There are a few left around here. Sometimes the house is gone, but the step remains.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Something that was a common sight when I was young was "Carriage steps." Already long obsolete by the '50s, they were small stone, brick or concrete steps, just two or three, set by the curb usually in front prominent houses. Decades earlier, horse-drawn carriages would pull up by them, and passengers would use them to step into the carriages. Sometimes they featured ornate carving. I don't remember when I last saw any.

There are still a few in my town.

 

[Haversack]

In some of the neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon, there are still loose steel rings set into the curb for the purpose of tying up a horse. The neighborhood I remember seeing them a lot was around SE Hawthorne east of the Bagdad Theater.

 

[MisterCairo]

Monopoly pieces that are now gone: wheelbarrow, thimble, and the boot.

Please welcome: a rubber duckie, a tyrannosaurus rex, and of course, a penguin.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/monopoloy-new-pieces-1.4029373