LizzieMaine
Bartender
- Messages
- 33,038
- Location
- Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
I was riding home from work tonight and passed an excavation pit in the middle of the street with flashing LED pylons around the perimeter to keep the unwary from falling in -- and I had a flashback to when I was little, and they used to ring such pits with these round black metal things about the size of a cantaloupe with a flaming wick in the top. I used to think they were bombs, but they were just a very old form of safety light. I haven't seen these, or even thought about them in ages, but when they came to mind it got me thinking about other vintage things that just seem to have quietly disappeared in the past 45 years or so --
Vent windows in cars. I miss them terribly -- nothing nicer on a hot drive than that blast of wind right in your face.
Refillable glass soda bottles, the real heavy kind. I know they still have them in a few places, but they haven't been seen here since the late '80s.
Yellow stop signs. We still had a few in the town where I grew up, with STOP spelled out in little reflectors. They got older and rustier every year until one day they were just gone. Are there any left anywhere?
Bac-A-Belt Kits. You used to be able to find them at any notions counter, and they were invaluable for making matched belts and covered buckles for dresses. And then about ten years ago, they simply didn't exist anymore, and now nobody in the fabric department even knows what they are.
Wax paper bread wrappers. I came in just at the end of these, and can remember sitting on them to go faster on the playground slide. It's not the same with a polyethylene bag.
Theatrical cartoon shorts. There are occasional efforts to revive these, but as recently as the early 70s they were still commonplace at your neighborhood theatre. Our local house showed Walter Lantz cartoons before every feature, but only the later lousy ones where Woody Woodpecker was a boring suburbanite.
Sunday blue laws. Around here this meant no stores larger than a certain size allowed to be open at all on Sunday, so the corner groceries always did a booming business.
Probably all of us can think of something vintage that they've managed to outlive -- what's yours?
Vent windows in cars. I miss them terribly -- nothing nicer on a hot drive than that blast of wind right in your face.
Refillable glass soda bottles, the real heavy kind. I know they still have them in a few places, but they haven't been seen here since the late '80s.
Yellow stop signs. We still had a few in the town where I grew up, with STOP spelled out in little reflectors. They got older and rustier every year until one day they were just gone. Are there any left anywhere?
Bac-A-Belt Kits. You used to be able to find them at any notions counter, and they were invaluable for making matched belts and covered buckles for dresses. And then about ten years ago, they simply didn't exist anymore, and now nobody in the fabric department even knows what they are.
Wax paper bread wrappers. I came in just at the end of these, and can remember sitting on them to go faster on the playground slide. It's not the same with a polyethylene bag.
Theatrical cartoon shorts. There are occasional efforts to revive these, but as recently as the early 70s they were still commonplace at your neighborhood theatre. Our local house showed Walter Lantz cartoons before every feature, but only the later lousy ones where Woody Woodpecker was a boring suburbanite.
Sunday blue laws. Around here this meant no stores larger than a certain size allowed to be open at all on Sunday, so the corner groceries always did a booming business.
Probably all of us can think of something vintage that they've managed to outlive -- what's yours?
