BellaOnline Forums News and Politics Senior Issues Nana, What's a Phone-booth?

My grandson, 6-1/2 asked me this question the other day, when he overheard me mention Superman changing into his cape at a phone-booth. It totally took me aback, and I realized that there were lots of things that have disappeared since my childhood! What things can you think of (words and things)that have disappeared in your lifetime that you miss? Here is my list of favorites - come and tell us about yours!
1. skate keys
2. 8 track tapes (or reel-to-reel tapes!)
3. toilet paper in colors
4. staying out all day to play without having to check in with Mom
5. penny candy

How about 5 cent candy bars? Fizzies?

Taking pictures on slides? Some still do this but not many.

It's hard to even find a pay phone anymore. Most were removed with the advent of the cell phone.

It's funny, but I actually forgot that toilet paper at one time came in colors! To match your bathroom of course.

Some things I remember:

1. You had to wait for a movie to come on TV before you could see it again.
2. There were a variety of songs on one radio station.
3. Everything came in glass bottles.
4. Sandwiches were always wrapped in wax paper.
5. You had to go to the library to do research.

Black n white TV
Rabbit ears on top of the tv
Roof top antennas to get a picture on the tv

1.Having only one TV channel!
2.White bread was In!
3.You looked forward to Walt Disney Presents because they replayed movies like Pollyanna.
4.Haley Mills was about the only teen role model, except for Twiggy.
5.The only cartoons on TV were on Saturday mornings.

This is fun.

Ah, Haley Mills! What memories there!
Come back and post again if you think of anything else...
I was thinking of manual typewriters, since I am working on an article about seniors and technology...
How about dial phones?

how about directory asst. you spoke to a human not a machine ;o)

Black and white TVs?
Watching TV with the whole family on Sunday nights (Disney and Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom)?
walking or taking the bus to get places?
baking from scratch?
TV dinners were a treat?

records LOL

Oh yeah! LP's (or even 78's and 45's) are REALLY fun to explain to a 6 year old! ROFL

Postage stamps costing two cents!

Like the penny postcard - long lost in the annals of history!

Having to bake in the oven, never thought of a microwave

how about eating together as a family? Does anyone do that anymore? TV, cell phone, iPod, etc. etc. all seem to serve to isolate us from one another, although the Internet and Email seem to help our communications... 'tis a puzzlement!

How about no TV remote controls (you had to either sit real close to the TV or get up to change the channel - which would of course be in black and white,) every kid had a pair of Keds, watching Lassie on Sunday afternoons and no ATM machines!

Did anyone else used to listen to "Peter and the Wolf" on the record player?

Shay

1. Drive thru banking
2. Gas station attendant fille up your gas, checked oil and cleaned windows

3. Toast machine where you placed the toast on each side of the coil and watched it being toasted.

4. outhouses

I remember Peter and the Wolf on records! AND I had a complete set of Leonard Berstein Young People's Concerts....

How about coffee? No varieties, no beans, no fancy machines on your kitchen counter! No Starbucks or Peets...same goes for tea, we had black tea. Period!

How about "carbon paper" -- not the stuff that is built into multi-page forms, but the stuff you had to actually insert between pages?

Speaking of carbon paper - for some reason we were discussing it at the dinner table - and the 6-1/2 year old thought his mom said carpenter paper! Then when he grasped the idea of paper you typed on (oh, my, had to go into what typewriters were then....) he thought carbon paper was some kind of magical thing!
When he asked where you could find carbon paper, my son-in-law and I both said together..."in phone booths!"

I'm too young to be here, but I have been following this thread with great interest. I also thought of a few things that are not yet on your list:

*paper gift certificates (often in pre-set amounts)
*letter writing
*traditional (not digital) clocks -not gone, but their popularity is definitely waning
*charge accounts at local stores -not a credit card, but simply saying "put it on my account/tab" on your way out the door and not paying until the end of the month.
*check writing -again, not gone but going
*stand alone butcher shops -I've never seen one of these. Are they extinct?

If you can remember some of these things, you may not be too young after all! ROFL.
I think Stand-alone butcher shops are BIG city things (thinking NYC for example) although there is one in the Ferry Building in San Francisco... I think of them as an English village sort of thing!
Of the clocks in my house, (I love clocks!) only my hubby's bedside clock (and the ones on the appliances and DVD etc.) is digital - the rest are the face and hands kind! I don't think those will ever be gone, as long as the beauty and charm remains! Like dial phones though, I guess you can find them, they are just outmoded...sigh...

I remember as a young child going into a shop and my father buying loose biscuits - they were taken from the tins behind the counter...
I was one of 5 kids so my parents had to watch every penny (another thing gone!) Dad often bought very hard biscuits that weren't particularly nice but we ate them anyway...
My mother discovered some weeks later, the reason they were cheaper than the other biscuits - they were dog biscuits!
Drive-in movies - there is still a drive-in in Melbourne but when I was a kid, they were everywhere...
The "outside toilet" with the pan that was emptied every fortnight - I vaguely remember my elderly aunt's outside toilet...
The chamber pot - for night time...

There are still drive-ins all around where we live now, in Northern CA., but we are in a big city/rural setting, where there is still land for that kind of thing!
I personally don't remember outside toilets (except when camping!) or chamber pots - so maybe there are some things about the "good old days" that we don't miss so much? ;0

Just last week the social worker came for our annual assessment - I am a home health care worker for my son and she had carbon paper for all the copies I had to sign and we each got a page. I had remarked about it as well. I thought that stuff was obsolete.

My earliest memory as a child was in NJ at age 3 (1963) waiting for the counter person at the bakery to slice our cinnamon bread. I loved the smell.

Also having delivery service to the car at the hot dog and burger place. And milk delivery service to your door in those glass bottles - like on I Love Lucy. Another thing gone around here in the city is kids delivery newspapers.

Laura - I've just turned 50 so the "outside loo" and chamber pots I recall would date from about 1963...my aunt lived in the country and hadn't upgraded her toilet - in fact, she never did...
I hated using the outside toilet - it was a wooden outhouse covered in ivy - I'm terrified of spiders - I also, hated the smell over the summer months and the wooden seat...I agree...thank goodness for progress - in this regard anyway...
Cinnamon bread - sounds delicious - I love cinnamon...don't think we ever had cinnamon bread in Australia - we had Banana Bread and Nut Loaf...I'll have to look for a recipe.

My mom (70) moved into the household at Christmas. She brought a lot of "old" things with her and is having a blast explaining things to my 9 and 3 year olds.

1. Records topped the list followed by the victrola.
2. AM only radios. (What, no SIRIUS, XM or HD Radio???)
3. Crayons only coming in 8 basic colors.
4. Sewing machines (we now have a treadle in the house)
5. Butter churns (you mean it doesn't just come from supermarkets?)

Cameras with film. They are still available but not as common as digital cameras.

The first time I used mine with my nephew he was completely baffled as he could not see the picture after I took it. Try explaining the concept of film to a three year old!