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Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

sheeplady

I'll Lock Up
Bartender
Messages
4,479
Location
Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, USA
When I travel, I pack 3 to 4 days clothes. I wash them out. My record is 3 weeks travel, 4 changes of clothes with the one on my back.

I use a stuff sack. I've only taken a small backpack overseas, although when my husband and i traveled last (2 weeks) we took a half filled rolly suitcase. I can't lift a rolly into the overhead bin (troubles lifting over my head) so it's a small bag or nothing.

Although, I realized sadly this last trip, 2 weeks is the longest I can go without taking my lymphedema pump. I'm really suffering after getting back, and it's still not under control. The only thing I can do at this point if I have to travel by myself is have the cabin crew help me get that in the bin. It would fit in my rolly, but it's a $12,000 piece of equipment and I only qualify for one in my lifetime... It's not getting checked.
 

sheeplady

I'll Lock Up
Bartender
Messages
4,479
Location
Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, USA
What happens when it wears out?
I will need to buy another. I am no longer with my old health insurance (current insurance explicitly does not cover it... I knew this going in... I had the pump already... but on my old insurance it would have been uncovered but played into my yearly cap for out of pocket expenses.) Therefore, under my current insurance it does not come under my yearly cap for out of pocket expenses, so it will be at my expense. I can, however, take it off my taxed income if it's like 20% of my gross income I want to say, but perhaps it's lower than that.

The alternative, which I've read is popular in Europe and Austrailia, is "decongestive therapy" which some argue is more effective, but has poorer compliance. This involves seeing a physical therapist/ massage therapist for one hour sessions, five days a week for 8 to 10 weeks; then once a week to once a month for the rest of your life. If you have a "flare" you do an intensive (5x a week for at least 4 weeks then back to maintenance.) These appointments, in the US, are $100 a shot. It also requires the use of lymphadema sleeves, which are $450 a shot each six months. All of this is uncovered by most insurance.

A pump is cheaper and doesn't require travel. I pay for my sleeves, $900 a year (which is a huge chunk of what I make) out of pocket. I used to get a grant through the Komen foundation. Now i pay out of pocket as that grant dried up.

If you cannot get these things, your arm swells up like a sausage and the hardens as the fluid turns into solid tissue. It is, to say the least, frightening. Years ago this didn't happen, because women like me with 20+ lymph nodes out died, because they don't take out that many lymph nodes unless your cancer is pretty advanced. Still, it's rarity to live long enough to get the side effects to catch up with you.

That said, as annoying as it is to be incapacitated by my pump 2 hours every night, I am thankful I am not one of the many woman I have met whose only dream is to have a pump. Very thankful.
 
Messages
16,883
Location
New York City
My grandmother always had a box of Mystic Mints in her refrigerator. She was not heavy (5'10", 140lbs), but she did have a sweet tooth that she modestly indulged.

When I stayed with her, I slept on a sofa in her living room and could see the kitchen from there (small apt). I'd wake up sometimes in the middle of the night and she'd be sitting at the kitchen table having a few Mystic Mints (she loved them cold, obviously). I haven't seen them in stores in years and my brief internet search kinda shows that they went away 20 or so years ago (conflicting dates out there).

il_570xN.925264003_kdad.jpg
 
Messages
16,883
Location
New York City
(With tongue firmly in cheek) I guess we can add "Coke Zero" to the list. The title of the article alone (see below) tells you Lizzie's Boys from Marketing are hard at work, but it is only backed up by the article which half-heartedly avers some taste difference as the reason when we all know the real reason is to highlight "zero sugar" from a marketing perspective.

I've always stayed with regular or diet Coke as all the other Coke iteration were too hard for me to keep straight. At least a mint or peanut butter Oreo is different from the original one in an obvious way - all these microscopic variations in soda are just too much nothing for me to bother with.

Coke Zero to be replaced in U.S. market with Coca-Cola Zero Sugar

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/co...s-market-with-coca-cola-zero-sugar-2017-07-26
 
Messages
10,403
Location
vancouver, canada
I travel for work 6-8 times per year and have my packing down to an art. Luckily it is usually for only 3 days. I now have a medium size courier bag that I can fit my test equipment into wrapped with the clothing I will need. I don't even have to worry about full overhead bins now as I can, if need be, fit it under the seat. However when we vacation, as owners of a decent sized motorhome,.....we just take everything then we don't have to fret about forgetting anything!
 

ChiTownScion

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,241
Location
The Great Pacific Northwest
American Plan resorts.

When I was a kid there were still a number of them in northern Wisconsin. You'd pay a flat per- person per- week rate and receive three full meals a day with your accommodation. I was in a men and boys choir of some renown as a kid, and the choir director would rent out one of these American Plan places (for as long as six full weeks) for us boys to enjoy our "summer camp." It was a lot nicer than the typical YMCA or church summer camp: these places were always approved by the AAA, and we slept in resort cabins, not typical summer camp bunk beds. I always wanted to go back as an adult and enjoy an American Plan resort vacation on my own terms, but American Plan seems to have gone the way of the pre- Amtrak trains that used to bring us choir boys up to the North Woods.

Safe to say that the rise of the automobile had a lot to do with it. People who have access to a car can go many miles for choice food, and it likely affords more variety than the old lodge dining rooms presented.
 

Stanley Doble

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,808
Location
Cobourg
Grossinger's is done for. It has been closed and abandoned since 1986. I guess that means no more "Jewish alps", no more Borscht Belt comedians, the end of something or other. It was an old fashioned American plan summer resort.

Opened in 1919, in 1972 they had 35 buildings on 1200 acres and served 150,000 guests. 14 years later, all gone.
 
Messages
11,913
Location
Southern California
A conversation in another thread prompted this one: "Birthday cigars" and "Baby cigars". I've never experienced the first (i.e., someone handing out cigars to celebrate a birthday), but have been the recipient of quite a few cigars over the years when someone has brought a new baby into the world. Maybe as I've gotten older many of our family members and friends have stopped having children, but as best I can remember I haven't received an "It's a boy/girl!" cigar in 20 years or more. Do people still do that, or has everyone become too "health conscious" for it?
 

2jakes

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,680
Location
Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
A conversation in another thread prompted this one: "Birthday cigars" and "Baby cigars". I've never experienced the first (i.e., someone handing out cigars to celebrate a birthday), but have been the recipient of quite a few cigars over the years when someone has brought a new baby into the world. Maybe as I've gotten older many of our family members and friends have stopped having children, but as best I can remember I haven't received an "It's a boy/girl!" cigar in 20 years or more. Do people still do that, or has everyone become too "health conscious" for it?

When I ride my bicycle around the neighborhood I have seen a stork cardboard displayed
in front of the yard.
Pink (girl) or blue (boy).

I don’t ever recall receiving a cigar at all.

I was told that the doctor made a visit to the house where I was born.
Back then doctors made house calls!

My uncle used to tell me that the doctor doing the delivery instead of slapping
my behind, slapped my father because I was a very ugly baby.
He thought that was really funny.

I cried.
But grandma would tell me to pay no never mind.
She said that my uncle was jealous because I was a beautiful baby
not ugly like my uncle.

Me
. IMG_9110.JPG
The reason for the bubbles is because I told my uncle where he could go and they
put a bar of Palmolive soap in my mouth as punishment!
:p:D:D;)
 
Messages
16,883
Location
New York City
A conversation in another thread prompted this one: "Birthday cigars" and "Baby cigars". I've never experienced the first (i.e., someone handing out cigars to celebrate a birthday), but have been the recipient of quite a few cigars over the years when someone has brought a new baby into the world. Maybe as I've gotten older many of our family members and friends have stopped having children, but as best I can remember I haven't received an "It's a boy/girl!" cigar in 20 years or more. Do people still do that, or has everyone become too "health conscious" for it?

I have a vague memory from the mid-'80s of a 40-ish year old father giving out cigars at work when his wife had a baby - I think that was the only time someone did that in my life (although, I see it in movies and TV shows from the '60s and older all the time).

And I think you are spot on for the reason - celebrating the birth of a child with what today is perceived as a death stick just isn't culturally sustainable at least, here were I live, in an uber-liberal, touchy feely Northeast city.
 

scottyrocks

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,161
Location
Isle of Langerhan, NY
Grossinger's is done for. It has been closed and abandoned since 1986. I guess that means no more "Jewish alps", no more Borscht Belt comedians, the end of something or other. It was an old fashioned American plan summer resort.

Opened in 1919, in 1972 they had 35 buildings on 1200 acres and served 150,000 guests. 14 years later, all gone.

Here's a good summary of the region and what happened to it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borscht_Belt
 
Messages
12,492
Location
Germany
The last time I received a cigar for a birth was in the mid 1980s when I was working at NBC in New York. Lots of babies born since then, but no cigars passed around.

I do remember a chocolate cigar or two since then, though.

Maybe, old-fashion analogue society 1.0 is gone. Same, as black, rockin' coffee is gone by today's latte machiato-kids. ;)
 

2jakes

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,680
Location
Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
The last time I received a cigar for a birth was in the mid 1980s when I was working at NBC in New York. Lots of babies born since then, but no cigars passed around.

I do remember a chocolate cigar or two since then, though.

I remember the bubble gum cigars that
came in different flavors.
Also the “candy” cigarettes that came in
boxes made to look like the real thing.
Tasted like sweet chalk.

Around Halloween time there was a
wax orange candy whistle plus the red lips, black mustache or vampire teeth.

Chewing at these things to taste a flavor that only a kid would enjoy.
But this only lasted for a very short period since the wax would harden and
the flavor would soon be gone.
 

2jakes

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,680
Location
Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
Things that have disappeared in my lifetime.

Dressing up mostly with what you could find at home,
perhaps a cheap paper mask from the 5 & 10.

Hanging out with the gang (no grownups).
Going from house to house (no malls)

And not worrying that someone would put something bad
in the candy.


8f805b556fe397b14c0885152b42fcfe.jpg
 

Zachary

One of the Regulars
Messages
167
Location
Vienna, Austria
I know that the attribution “vintage” isn’t really adequate for my year of birth, which is 1990 (yes, so young) — but anyhow, let’s assume I’m a “1990 vintage”.

The first movie I saw in the theaters was Casper. As a little child, I was a huge supporter of Ronald McDonald. I’m old enough to remember the times when the menu in the McD restaurants was a brown-bezeled giant tabular chart on the wall. Just a list of offered eating and drinking goods, no beautiful photos, no photoshopped commercials.
 

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