discussion What has Disappeared?

[Dave Ward]

My post on cars owned by fathers drew a lot of interest - far more than I expected. so here's another one.................
Life has changed a lot over the past 50-60 years, a lot of new ideas & gadgets have arrived, but what about those things that have vanished? I'm not talking about cars, or smartphones, but items/people that were swamped by technology/habits.
A lot will be peculiar to your country, but I imagine some are pretty universal.
A few I came up with - Slide Rules - Typewriters - Onion Johnnies - Wonderloaf - 'Pop man' - dogs by themselves!
Dave

 

[Jim R]

As a retired teacher the thing that was a vital part of teaching when I started in the early 70s but had totally been superseded by the time I retired was ......... the blackboard. A board rubber and coloured ckalks and loads of dust. Whiteboards and overhead projectors were not the same :smiling:

 

[spanner570]

Freedom of speech.
Knowing if you are male or female. instead of 'Other'

....Oh, and proper sized 'Wagon Wheels' etc.

 

[Gern]

Smallpox and polio.

And Spangles!

 

[Guest]

The size of Mars bars and Flakes....
Good manners and respect...
And as Ron said - male or female...
And yes a woman can have a P.... the operation is called a Strapadiktome.....

 

[Guest]

As a retired teacher the thing that was a vital part of teaching when I started in the early 70s but had totally been superseded by the time I retired was ......... the blackboard. A board rubber and coloured ckalks and loads of dust. Whiteboards and overhead projectors were not the same :smiling:

True,
Had a few of the board rubbers hit the back of my head, along with a full box of chalk almost right between the eyes, Old Evans the Welsh prop forward was a dead eye when aiming for you, his other trick was to grab you by the nipple and lift you out of the seat with his finger and thumb. The seat was one of those twin desk affairs with the fold up bench seat.:face-with-head-bandage:

 

[The Smythe Meister]

Calcs tables books.

 

[boatman]

WELL i loved horlicks tabs in a tin an seeein kids make a popgun to fire acorns an makin a duch arrows an bows an arrows an cata pults made from a bit of v hedgein an the ten bob note an pound note if you was well off lol as now they are a joke an buyin a gallon of petroll for a quid an takin bottles back to the shop or pub to get a refund on the bottles an green sheild stamps as we had them by the book loads an a metal punchure repair tin now they plastic urh an brown paper bags when i raided the sweet shop an penny chews an little demond bangars wow they were exsplosive as used to stick them in my plastic ships an send them on the pond an watch the boat get blown apart an sink an playin hopscotch with the girls as got many a girlfreind that way lol will think up some more later oh an scool sports day playin leapfrog with the girls lol oh an goin on the farm in harvest time to drive the tractors an ridin up the straw elevators to the straw stack top an ridein around on the combines watchin out for the corn level in the tank to warn the driver an makin a go cart with sails so on a windy day i would be blown down the rd an playin crickect in the rd way an catchin pealoads to sit an stuff ourselves with fresh peas mmmmhhhh oh those were the days my freind as we thought theyd never end oh an climbin trees an playin conkes as i had a twentier but i cheated an soaked it in vinegar lol an goin birds nestin but not to take the eggs though strick rule we put on ourselves that was oh an cap gun an the reel of caps to fire in the gun smash potatoes with them martions

 

[Allen Dewire]

Cheap concert tickets...

Apple/BBgun fights...

Hitch hiking everywhere without the worry of being picked up by a sicko who wants to rob you, kill you or worse, and the police, because it's kind of illegal to hitch hike anywhere today...

Back then, the police would even pick you up when the weather was really bad and give you a ride. Sheriff's or state police...

 

[Ian M]

Responsibility,
Common sense,
Politeness,
History.

 

[Tim Marlow]

I’ll leave the politics to Ron and Mike because this thread is much more interesting than that.

Chocolate wrapped in foil rather than plastic….I’m sure it tasted better.

Decent voice reproduction on TV programs. This isn’t my ears, by the way. Old programs on repeat are as clear as a bell, but new stuff is muddy and unintelligible at times.

Kids carrying boomboxes. Once common, now completely disappeared. Not saying I miss them, just that they are no longer there.

Rural bus services……and bus conductors.

Milkmen and milk floats. They disappeared quickly once the supermarkets were allowed to use milk as a loss leader to get people in. I know they are nominally still around, but it’s a completely different animal to that existing before about 1985.

Corona lorries delivering fizzy drink, and the corona itself of course. Again, I think it tasted better from glass bottles.

Proper yoghurt, not the tasteless plastic crap we get sold these days. It used to be made with milk and cream. These days it’s just thickeners and emulsifiers.

Log tables and log paper. Once common where I work they were completely unknown by the time I retired, as was the ability to interpolate data from a graph.

Fountain pens. I know they are still around, but they are far less common. At school, for example, they were all we were allowed to use.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Responsibility,
Common sense,
Politeness,
History.

Sorry Ian, don’t agree with any of those. I can cite examples of the lack of them going right back to my young childhood. You can find them, or the lack of them, if you look in any age.

 

[rickoshea52]

White dog poo and finding someone’s jazz mag stash by accident.

 

[yak face]

Phone boxes , telephones with a rotary dial on the front , dial a disc, newsagents selling rolls of paper caps for a penny and boxes of bryant and may matches also a penny , being able to buy a penknife from the shops even though youre only ten !
Public information films ( green cross code , charlie says , “I am the spirit of dark and lonely water “ , - that one used to spook me !!:smiling5

 

[yak face]

White dog poo and finding someone’s jazz mag stash by accident.

Yes , you never see white dog poo anymore , we used to think it was only white poodles that did it ! :smiling5:

 

[Guest]

Opal Fruits (now starburst)
Marathon (now snickers)
Dime bars (now Daim)
Pop Man delivering pop (Cream Soda, Dandelion and Burdock, Cherryaide every week)
all TV channels going off at midnight
Cresta "it's frothy man!"
Encyclopedias - taking 40 mins to look up a simple fact to end an arguement
Gerry Anderson tv series (UFO, Thunderbirds, Capt Scarlet)
Taping the latest songs off the radio
Laughing at the latest "Ronco gadgets" they try to sell each christmas
Being super excited about the space race/space exploration/Neil and Buzz on the Moon.
Having to use a bottle opener to open a can of pop (addition to that, using ring pulls as 'flyers' when they first came out)
Having a TV with the first remote control and your mum constantly tripping up over the cable and pulling it out
Typewriters
Good music

and walking down the street and saying hello to everyone you pass, these days they are glued to their phones and ignore you.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Having to use a bottle opener to open a can of pop (addition to that, using ring pulls as 'flyers' when they first came out)

I remember party sevens that needed a special can opener to get in them. Everyone took them to family gatherings and parties, and nobody had the tool to open them properly :crying: Usually opened by piercing them with a screwdriver and spraying the stuff everywhere. And it wasn’t even good beer……

 

[Tim Marlow]

Just for you Tony…..sleep well…..Donald Pleasense apparently voiced this.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Oh, and the Green Cross man should spook you as well…..after all, he went over to the dark side…..

 

[wotan]

Elastic garters for cubs socks with little green tabs on them.
Philips cassette recorder and microphone.
Church fetes
Coconut shies
point to point races
Murray Walker
John Peel and The Old Grey Whistle Test.
Crystal set radios
The Beano

John