Things I Used As A Kid that Are No More

[maxamuus]

Candy Cigarettes.

I was in Virginia City Nevada a couple years back and a candy store had them and i bought like 2 cases and gave them out to my friends and everyone remembered them as kids.

 

[Bokonon]

That reminded me. Standing up, walking to the television to change channels.

Oooh that one reminded me of one. Wired "remote controls" our first betamax tape player had one. IIRC the cord was about 25 feet

 

[maxamuus]

Adults back then had remote controls. They were called kids. I remember my dad telling me to go change the channel all the time.

 

[Mermaid]

Atari 2600 !!

A "boom box" (plastic portable stereo with 2 speakers, casette player, and AM/FM radio. Lugged that thing everywhere.

Roller skates (lace up, with big orange wheels)

+1 on vinyl LPs, although I still do listen to some old records from time to time, just for nostalgia sake.

NeHi pineapple soda (pop)
Green River soda (they still make Green River but it's made with different sweetener and flavoring now, which makes it taste like household cleaner)

Mechanical pinball machine (used to love this old "Captain Fantastic" pinball machine they had at the ice rink where my brother played hockey)

 

[sensortech]

Phone book

 

[the_bird]

"Vertical hold" on a television set. The old black-and-white set I had in my bedroom, if you sneezed the picture would start rolling up the screen.

Cigarette vending machines. A smoking area at the high school (they removed it the year before I went).

EDIT: Five-digit phone numbers. There's still a few old-timers around, I ask them for their phone number and they just give me the five digits, it always throws me off and I have to ask for it again.

 

[Mermaid]

EDIT: Five-digit phone numbers. There's still a few old-timers around, I ask them for their phone number and they just give me the five digits, it always throws me off and I have to ask for it again.

+1 I only remember this because it's the way my grandmother would refer to old phone numbers. She would use the "exchange" followed by the numbers.

 

[JohnnyO]

That little "Computer/TV" slide switch you would have to use on the back of the TV if you wanted to play Atari.


Be Kind - ReWind.

 

[EoinMag]

My hair
My athletic physique......

 

[ChshreCat]

Not sure about the 5 digit phone numbers, but when I was a kid we only dialed 4 digits for local calls.

How about...

Nobody ever wearing a seatbelt? I remember taking long car rides and sleeping on the ledge in the back window while going down the highway.

 

[EoinMag]

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

 

[Joos]

Respect for your elders.

 

[maxamuus]

Those refillable soda bottles. Remember scouting the neighborhood for those bottles so we could return them and get the money for them.

 

[Scooby_Brew]

-phone booths and payphones
-phonebooks i.e. yellow pages
-TV "remote control" with a cable attached to the TV
-pagers (can you believe I still use one at work?)
-cameras with film in them and "camera shops", where you went to have your film developed and buy new rolls of film.
-carburetors in cars
-CB radios (remember "Convoy"?)
-expensive cars with huge 10-feet tall antennas on them, for their "car phones"
-floppy discs, especially 3.5 in. floppy was so cool and high tech!
-Farrah Fawcett poster, you know the one I'm talkin about

 

[david_42]

Red Ball and Black Ball Jets. Sneakers that were sneakers, not running shoes, walking shoes, jogging shoes, cross training shoes, etc. Something you put on the day after school let out and didn't take off until the Fall. Shoes you could wear any time or place, except church, with suction cup soles that would clamp onto a gym floor so tight your ankle would break before they let go.

Looked at a site's "retro" sneakers. They were all from the '80s!

 

[DeafSmith]

Burma Shave signs along the roadside.

http://seniors-site.com/funstuff/burma.html

 

[Bernie Brewer]

-Those metal roller skates that you strapped to your shoes ( I've got a brand new pair of roller skates, you have a brand new key....)

- Going outside to play all day (and night) and not having to worry about getting abducted

-Marbles

-Jacks

-Playing Kick the Can well after dark

-Playing Solitaire with REAL cards

 

[Hang Glider]

Ms-dos

My first computer, a Zenith Data Systems - no hard drive, ran on two 5.25" floppys, and ran CP/M - not DOS. (early 80's)

Take out the garbage was moving the paper grocery bag from under the kitchen sink to the metal trashcan outside. The trash men walked down driveways to retrieve your metal cans. (Seattle - 1960's)

 

[ChshreCat]

We didn't have garbage men when I was a kid. We took the trash out to a bin (built from old plywood) by the garage that had 4 huge cans in it and then once a month I helped my dad take them to the dump.

 

[Fletch78]

I remember getting tobacco spit rubbed on my face after a yellow jacket sting, when my neck and face was swelling up. Last week, my neighbor called the ambulance because a spider bit her toddler. The future ain't what it used to be.

 

[DeafSmith]

We didn't have garbage men when I was a kid. We took the trash out to a bin (built from old plywood) by the garage that had 4 huge cans in it and then once a month I helped my dad take them to the dump.

I remember in small towns people would burn their garbage in 55 gallon drums. No EPA in those days!

 

[Fletch78]

I remember in small towns people would burn their garbage in 55 gallon drums. No EPA in those days!

In rural areas in GA it's still legal to burn your trash, unless it's in a drought. And by rural, I mean everywhere except Atlanta. In some places you have to get a permit, but for the most part it's still legal. And it should be.

 

[ChshreCat]

Oh we did that too, but just the paper trash. One of my chores as a kid was to take the paper bin out to the burn barrel and burn it. For a kid who liked to play with fire, it rocked. I got PAID an allowance to BURN THINGS! It was just the junk mail, news papers, any paper packaging, even paper towels.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Parents spanking you, or your friends parents spanking you. Now it's child abuse. How bout Pong, my first video game (beofre Atari). Just slide the little paddles up and down! TRS-80 was my first computer. I think it was made by TI. Or the Commodore 64 that friends had.

 

[sensortech]

The TRS-80 was Radio Shack I think. TI had the 99/4a, that's what I had!

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

The TRS-80 was Radio Shack I think. TI had the 99/4a, that's what I had!

Thanks. Too long ago to remember!

 

[iaefebs]

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.

 

[maxamuus]

Or the Commodore 64 that friends had.

We had a Commodore 64. And a Commodore 128. I think my watch has more memory then those.

Got my first real pc my senior year of high school. It a was so cool, it had a thing called a modem. 2800 bps. It would download one picture of porn in like 20 minutes.

 

[ChshreCat]

My first computer:

My mother won it in a door prize when Radio Shack opened in my home town. Had one external floppy drive that connected via ribbon cable to a big cartridge that stuck into the side of the computer.

 

[ChshreCat]

Up until then, this was my favorite toy:

Evil Knievel Stunt Cycle!!!