Things I Used As A Kid that Are No More

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the_bird said:
We used to save bacon fat, to use later when we fried eggs. Probably while smoking cigarettes and lighting our bicycles on fire.
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I still save bacon grease, it's a crime to throw such good stuff away!

Nobody wore bicycle helmets when I was a kid.
Those cars that you inserted a nylon zip-tie sort of thing into and pulled to get the 'flywheel' going, then put it down and watched it go...about 20 feet.
Those stickers (came in a pack of inedible gum IIRC) that were goofs on popular products.
Green Stamps at the grocery check-out.
Those tall orange flags some people put on their bicycles.
 
Easy Bake oven....ok I grew up with 3 older sisters and we used to bake the cakes and sell them out front with cool-aid.
 
iaefebs said:
Milkman, and the little chutes in your house they would put it in. Penny candy. The first long phone cord that allowed you to travel to a different room in the house for privacy. Using electrical tape to repair a baseball. Oh and the crack in the street was second base and not something people smoked.
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We had a metal box lined with styrofoam out by the front door the milkman would put the milk in.
 
Boxes of small round pizzas about 5" across, I used to love those things and wish they were around today. I wonder why they stopped making them round?
 
Turntables and vinyl are still very much around.

They've just moved a bit upscale.

gavia_triplanar_ufo_01_600_399.jpg



Same thing with Tube amplifiers.

MA-1mk307.jpg


If you would care to come to the Rocky Mountain Audiofest in Denver http://audiofest.net/2010/index.php
October 15-17 you can see quite a few turntables, tube amps, horn speakers, open reel tape machines and literally tons of vinyl for sale.
 
Balsa wood planes. I know you can still find them, bought one several years ago for fun, but you don't see kids playing with them like we did.
 
going to the store in cousin's/uncle's/AUNT's cars that had a big block and 4 speed, and stopping at the gas station on the way home to get 260 Sunoco 'cause it didn't run on anything else very well

boomerangs
unicycles
cinnamon toothpicks
Flintstones cigarette commercials
cut off jean shorts
kites
drag race venues where the neighbors didn't complain
setting the lifters on '68 Hemi
towbars
silver coins
oil fried popcorn
N gauge trainsets
drinking and driving
snowmobile drinking
vitalis
tang
hotdogs, slit, stuffed with block cheese slices, wrapped in bacon, cooked in the oven for dinner
soda shops, with a 'jerk' and spinning stools
wood fish boats and cane poles
getting stopped with open beer as a minor and told to go home
legal acid
princeton hair cut
chemistry sets
orbiting the earth
rotary phones
B&W TV
beatnics
hitting people when they mouthed off and no cops come
 
I have three young boys now and the toys they have to choose from suck in my opinion. I used to love:

Stompers - the little motorized trucks that ran on 1 AA Battery. When the motor quit you could just tear it out and push them around.
Pea Shooters - lots of fun for a nickel.
Green Army Men - why can I not find green army men anymore?
A truck/car you can play in the sandbox with and just push it around ... one that isn't motorized and doesn't have lights and a make a ton of annoying sounds.

My son does have a roll cap gun and has a great time with it. It is of course plastic and lasts maybe a week before we have to buy him a new one.

Anyone remember Mexican Jumping Beans?
 
JohnnyO said:
4 hours+ of good Saturday morning cartoons.
Click to expand...

Yeah I miss that, even in my old age. And also:

Commodore 64
Texas Instruments TI-99/4A
Calculator
Radio Shack TRS-80
Putting cards in my bike tire with a clothes pin to make it sound like a motorcycle
 
Dad was an Electronics Repairman. Anyone else remember HeathKits?

Or remeber when Radio Shack was more about buying the bits to build a Radio rather than juts buying the Radio.
 
GilaMinumBeer said:
Dad was an Electronics Repairman. Anyone else remember HeathKits?

Or remeber when Radio Shack was more about buying the bits to build a Radio rather than juts buying the Radio.
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heh, oldest brother was building a heath kit short wave at 14; I was reading the color codes from salvaged tvs and radios so we could sort them at 5 ('65).
 
GilaMinumBeer said:
Dad was an Electronics Repairman. Anyone else remember HeathKits?

Or remeber when Radio Shack was more about buying the bits to build a Radio rather than juts buying the Radio.
Click to expand...

Don't know if they still sell them but Radio Shack had the 101 electronics projects kits where you wired in different circuits and made sounds etc. I had one and they are really cool and can get a kid interested and at least learn something. One of the coolest was the electric ear; it was actually a snooping device.
 
lschiavo said:
I have three young boys now and the toys they have to choose from suck in my opinion. I used to love:

Stompers - the little motorized trucks that ran on 1 AA Battery. When the motor quit you could just tear it out and push them around.
Pea Shooters - lots of fun for a nickel.
Green Army Men - why can I not find green army men anymore?
A truck/car you can play in the sandbox with and just push it around ... one that isn't motorized and doesn't have lights and a make a ton of annoying sounds.

My son does have a roll cap gun and has a great time with it. It is of course plastic and lasts maybe a week before we have to buy him a new one.

Anyone remember Mexican Jumping Beans?
Click to expand...

We also had cowboys and indians when I was a kid.
 
Baja_Brewer said:
Okay OP, I'm 20 years younger than you, and I've used 1,2,4,7,9,11, 13, 14, 15...

I exchange my propane tank and actually bought a popcorn machine today.. I had creepy crawlers, played marbles for keepsies in elementary, Pogs (I bet you guys didn't have those, they were a short lived fad while I was in elementary.) Played computer games on those old mac's with the 10 inch screens....

But then again we had alot of recycled things when I was growing up- hand me down computers and such (we had one with a 5" floppy drive... in 1996)
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I am 28 and also had all those things. Along with creepy crawlers and POGS. POGS were awesome. And I bet they did have them, they were just called milk caps back then. That's where they came from.
 
-- Building Revell model airplanes/ships/cars
-- Setting the aforementioned models on fire while the glue was still wet if they didn't turn out good
-- Pop Tarts in the foil-lined paper pouches that had a pull tab/string down the side
-- Playing "Kill the man w/ the ball"/"Smear the Qu##r" for hours at a time
-- The toy department at any department store
-- Trying to convince your parents that you wanted to sell the "GRIT" newspaper that was advertised in comic books
-- Being able to type "¢" w/o having to use a character map program; it was right on the keyboard
 
Rabbit ears have made a comeback thanks to HDTV. I really miss arcades not only existing but having a bright, fun atmosphere instead of being a dark room full of identical video game cabinets.
 
gak27 said:
-- Building Revell model airplanes/ships/cars
-- Setting the aforementioned models on fire while the glue was still wet if they didn't turn out good
-- Pop Tarts in the foil-lined paper pouches that had a pull tab/string down the side
-- Playing "Kill the man w/ the ball"/"Smear the Qu##r" for hours at a time
-- The toy department at any department store
-- Trying to convince your parents that you wanted to sell the "GRIT" newspaper that was advertised in comic books
-- Being able to type "¢" w/o having to use a character map program; it was right on the keyboard
Click to expand...

That's funny, me and my friends thought we invented that game.
 
GilaMinumBeer said:
Or remeber when Radio Shack was more about buying the bits to build a Radio rather than juts buying the Radio.
Click to expand...

Oh, yeah...

in fact, when I was working on something recently, I walked into Radio Shack for the first time in a LONG time and looked around blankly not seeing any components.

I finally had to ask if they still sold that stuff, and then they then took me to a chaotic/disorganized nook at the back of the store with that stuff in it.
 
Points and Carbs on cars and trucks.
.99 for a gallon of gas.
$2.00 for a pack of Marlboro
Golden Key and Laneco (supermarket chain)
5 and Dimes (.99 store)
Bethlehem steel
VHS
 
Cast iron hibachi's.

My dad likes to use them with his camper, but could only find the cheap ones that last about one season. I searched and searched and found one online for him.
 
oil bath air cleaners
6 volt vehicle systems
front vent windows
plastic convertible rear windows
AM only radios with a speaker in the middle of the back seat
riding in the rear window on long trips
7 grades of gas
starting the tractor with a crank
floor switch brights
no seatbelts
space age marketing terms and style cues
Harley Clubs that instill fear and kick your ass
 
HenryHill said:
oil bath air cleaners
6 volt vehicle systems
front vent windows
plastic convertible rear windows
AM only radios with a speaker in the middle of the back seat
riding in the rear window on long trips
7 grades of gas
starting the tractor with a crank
floor switch brights
no seatbelts
space age marketing terms and style cues
Harley Clubs that instill fear and kick your ass
Click to expand...

I have a '66 Ford stake body truck with both of those things.
 
Walker said:
Oh, yeah...

in fact, when I was working on something recently, I walked into Radio Shack for the first time in a LONG time and looked around blankly not seeing any components.

I finally had to ask if they still sold that stuff, and then they then took me to a chaotic/disorganized nook at the back of the store with that stuff in it.
Click to expand...

I've been in Radio Shack ONCE in the past fifteen years, to buy parts to build a stirplate. I'm amazed that they stay in business.
 

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