Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[kampkatz]

Grange halls are still getting heavy use in rural Pennsylvania. Many organizations(Boy/Girl Scouts, churches, hunting clubs, etc) hold regular meetings in some wood-frame buildings that may be 100 or so years old.

 

[Ace Fedora]

Do any of you live in a town that has resurrected the weekend farmers market? They do that here and it's a huge success.. From spring to fall we can get the best, fresh produce right here in town...

We have two that I know of, one of which just started up this year. The pickings aren't as nice as previous years, but it's good to know that the idea is spreading!

 

[Kassia]

We have two that I know of, one of which just started up this year. The pickings aren't as nice as previous years, but it's good to know that the idea is spreading!

I think with the high cost of fuel we will see more and more local markets springing up in the future....

 

[Warbaby]

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...

Most of my photography is digital now, but I still have and occasionally use Olympus OM-1s. I have two of them (one for color, one for B&W) in pristine condition with motor drives and a bunch of lenses, filters and the usual gizmos. I also have the machined aluminum TiltAll tripod I bought new in '68. They were still being made by the Marchioni brothers in their garage in New Jersey then, and the quality of their work speaks for itself - the tripod still as solid and works as well as it did when I got it 40 years ago.

 

[SpitfireXIV]

Local drugstores
Local drugstores with soda fountains
Payphones/phone booths
"Five and Dimes"

 

[Joie DeVive]

Local drugstores with soda fountains

Oh and old fashioned ice-cream sodas. Those things are rare as hen's teeth anymore. I would have killed for one during the hot days this summer. Lemon, with lemon chiffon ice cream, please....
I think they still serve them up in a mountain town I know of, but I'm not sure. Imagine, an hours trek into the mountains for an ice cream soda.. :eusa_doh: lol

 

[Kassia]

Oh and old fashioned ice-cream sodas. not sure. Imagine, an hours trek into the mountains for an ice cream soda.. :eusa_doh: lol

LOL, that sounds like a devine way to spend a day!!!! Let's pack the picnic basket too.. I'll drive and, if the weather is good, we can put the top down on my car... Bring a hat so you don't sunburn your head...

 

[Miss Hattie]

Oh how I miss them

Horlicks Tablets- gosh they were yummy . I still remember the day I went to the chemist with my mummy after play school to buy a packet, just to be told that they were no longer available. Well what can I say...I was devastated.

 

[52Styleline]

The sizzle grinder. An older gentleman who came to your house either on foot pushing his equipment, or in a van with sharpening equipment installed. He would sharpen lawnmowers, knives, scissors and whatever you had.

The Gillette Friday Night Fights. You didn't have to fork out vast quantities of money to see the best fighters in the sport. They were all there....for free.

Local kid's morning and afternoon TV shows. Here in the Pacific Northwet it was JP Patches, King's Klubhouse, Breakman Bill, Captain Puget, and Gardner's Garage in Seattle and Tacoma.

Cottage Cheese in colorful aluminum tumblers delivered to your door. Collect one of every color...I never did.

Soda pop caps with real cork linings. You could peel the cork loose and then use it to stick the metal cap on your shirt as a medal for being a hero in the war game of the day.

Stomping metal oil cans until they bent and clamped around the sole of your shoes...then clomping all over the place.

New high top boots with a genuine boy scout knife in the little leather pocket at the top. In fact, taking a pocket knife to school at all. Nobody in my crowd felt dressed without a good old trusty kamp king in his pocket.

 

[52Styleline]

Horlicks Tablets- gosh they were yummy . I still remember the day I went to the chemist with my mummy after play school to buy a packet, just to be told that they were no longer available. Well what can I say...I was devastated.

Vermont Country Store has those from time to time.

 

[Kassia]

Anyone remember when the Fuller Brush man came door to door?

 

[52Styleline]

Anyone remember when the Fuller Brush man came door to door?

Yes, certainly. In fact I still have one of those brown plastic letter openers they used to give away when they visited.

There was also the door to door Watkins man. My mother never used anything but Watkins vanilla extract in baking.

 

[Joie DeVive]

LOL, that sounds like a devine way to spend a day!!!! Let's pack the picnic basket too.. I'll drive and, if the weather is good, we can put the top down on my car... Bring a hat so you don't sunburn your head...

Wow. it sounds pretty swell the way you say it!! Thanks for making lemonade out of lemons for me.

We'll also want a towel in case we decide to stop and wade in a stream.. And bring a few extra pennies with you, there's a traditional candy store up there that makes candy by hand that's to die for...

 

[Brinybay]

mimeograph machines. and if anyone can explain to me how that purple bottle of ink made copies, I could sleep nights.

And what was in that ink that made fresh copies smell so good?

 

[Miss Neecerie]

And what was in that ink that made fresh copies smell so good?

all the toxic chemicals of course.....

nothing -good- for you smells that nice....

 

[Brinybay]

Local kid's morning and afternoon TV shows. Here in the Pacific Northwet it was JP Patches, King's Klubhouse, Breakman Bill, Captain Puget, and Gardner's Garage in Seattle and Tacoma.

King's Klubhouse - Was that the one with Stan Boreson? My little brother and I made up a parody of his opening theme song. You don't want to hear it. I don't recall Gardener's Garage, but we were in the northern burbs so maybe we didn't get it. But I do remember Nightmare Theatre, b/w, vacuum-tube TV with an antenna. We thought we were fancy because we had an antenna that stood on the ground so it could be turned w/o climbing onto the roof.

 

[Brinybay]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Dick, Jane, and Spot:

And of more recent "vintage", I really miss this guy:

 

[Kassia]

Dick and Jane are alive and well on fabric now.. There is a line of cotton fabric for quilters made by Michael Miller..
http://www.michaelmillerfabrics.com/MMF/Swatch.cfm?&Kwds=dick%20&%20jane

 

[Flivver]

Anyone remember when the Fuller Brush man came door to door?

I remember the Fuller Brush man well. In my pre-school years, my Mom would tell me to be quiet and get out of sight of the door when the Fuller Brush man approached. She didn't want to answer the doorbell and be asked to buy something she didn't want.

As he came to the door and announced "Fuller Brush", we would sit quietly out of sight until he went away.

Accordingly, I thought that people who actually *bought* stuff from the Fuller Brush man lived in the lap of luxury.

 

[CherryRed]

Dick and Jane books are still in print. I bought a copy for my son a few years back.