Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[kiwilrdg]

Mine has two wires coming out of it. You attach each one to a spark plug and put the plug wire back on top of it. You can do it on modern cars as long as you can get under it.

Most cars today do not have accessable spark plugs. Spark plug replacement runs around $400 for labor on some cars.

 

[jamespowers]

Most cars today do not have accessable spark plugs. Spark plug replacement runs around $400 for labor on some cars.

I can usually get to two wires from underneath. It would also work on the starter wires from what I understand.

 

[scottyrocks]

Most cars today do not have accessable spark plugs. Spark plug replacement runs around $400 for labor on some cars.

The other side of that is spark plugs last 100k miles these days instead of 10k.

 

[jamespowers]

The other side of that is spark plugs last 100k miles these days instead of 10k.

They should. They cost ten times more. lol lol

 

[scottyrocks]

Not quite.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Speaking of automotive products, when's the last time anyone saw or used one of those metal spouts for punching a hole in the top of a can of motor oil? I hate the plastic bottles they use now -- I always end up spilling more on the engine block than I get in the crankcase.

 

[jamespowers]

Not quite.

Close enough.

 

[Earl Needham]

Speaking of automotive products, when's the last time anyone saw or used one of those metal spouts for punching a hole in the top of a can of motor oil? I hate the plastic bottles they use now -- I always end up spilling more on the engine block than I get in the crankcase.

I know where to find a couple, plus something even earlier -- GLASS oil BOTTLES with the funnel-shaped tops!

 

[jamespowers]

I know where to find a couple, plus something even earlier -- GLASS oil BOTTLES with the funnel-shaped tops!

I have a few of the glass ones in my garage. They work better that a lot of the other stuff out there. I also have the metal spouts but there is really nothing to use them on anymore. At least with the glass oil bottles you just pour it in there and then use it.

 

[Earl Needham]

I kinda miss those old paper oil "cans".

And STP in the paper cans, too!

 

[LizzieMaine]

I still have the galvanized metal "oil measure" can from our gas station, with the gooseneck pouring spout, and it's the only way I can get oil into the Plodge without spilling half of it on the garage floor.

 

[John in Covina]

I kinda miss those old paper oil "cans". And STP in the paper cans, too!

My mom's uncle Jens "John" Christensen was involved with the development of those spiral form papaer cans.

 

[scottyrocks]

Speaking of automotive products, when's the last time anyone saw or used one of those metal spouts for punching a hole in the top of a can of motor oil? I hate the plastic bottles they use now -- I always end up spilling more on the engine block than I get in the crankcase.

I had that same problem until I took the first empty and cut it in half. The top half makes a nice funnel.

 

[richie1958]

I splosh Castrol GP50 into my old Norton. It was available when the bike was built in 1954; it's still made and even the gallon tins have hardly changed over the last half century or so. I buy new old stock KLG spark plugs as originally recommended by Norton Motors when they turn up. The last eight I bought had the original price printed on the little individual cardboard boxes of 5/- which was five shillings, now 25p, which is 40 cents US. I have to pay a bit more than that for them these days!
I spoil that bike!
Richie

 

[LizzieMaine]

Something I've been noticing for quite a while now -- the disappearance of traditional Northern US working-class culture, and its replacement by a pastiche of Southern culture. I grew up in a world where no one ever heard of NASCAR, nobody ever called themselves "redneck," if anyone listened to country music it was Dick Curless, Lone Pine, and Stacey's Country Jamboree, not whatever was coming out of Nashville, and people would have gagged at the thought of drinking "sweet tea." But now, for most people, "working class culture" is synonymous with Southern culture.

Which is fine if you're from below the Mason Dixon Line, but it strikes me as odd and artificial in this part of the country, almost as though it's been foisted upon us by, say, a gigantic cut-rate retail chain based in, say, Arkansas or something.

 

[sheeplady]

Something I've been noticing for quite a while now -- the disappearance of traditional Northern US working-class culture, and its replacement by a pastiche of Southern culture. I grew up in a world where no one ever heard of NASCAR, nobody ever called themselves "redneck," if anyone listened to country music it was Dick Curless, Lone Pine, and Stacey's Country Jamboree, not whatever was coming out of Nashville, and people would have gagged at the thought of drinking "sweet tea." But now, for most people, "working class culture" is synonymous with Southern culture.

Which is fine if you're from below the Mason Dixon Line, but it strikes me as odd and artificial in this part of the country, almost as though it's been foisted upon us by, say, a gigantic cut-rate retail chain based in, say, Arkansas or something.

When did you start noticing this? I ask because in the area I grew up in (the Adirondacks in NYS) there has always been a strong local influence, but it is definitely the land of country western, a fair bit of NASCAR, etc. mixed in as long as I have been alive. Although, I don't think people where I am from know what tea is (yet alone sweet tea).

 

[jamespowers]

We are out west so a lot of country stuff is home grown here. Before all the city building and everything, we were rednecks who toiled in the sun farming and ranching. I know my great grandparents and grandparents did. That only lasted so long for my grandparents though. They were working in factories by the mid 1920s. NASCAR isn't that big here but Cars and the car culture are HUGE so we know cars and racing here too. In essence, us natives from a few generations back know what being country is still. I won't mention about the 1940s invasion fromt he east that changed us and the 1960s invasion that changed us for the worst though.

 

[LizzieMaine]

When did you start noticing this? I ask because in the area I grew up in (the Adirondacks in NYS) there has always been a strong local influence, but it is definitely the land of country western, a fair bit of NASCAR, etc. mixed in as long as I have been alive. Although, I don't think people where I am from know what tea is (yet alone sweet tea).

There were bits of it bythe late '70s -- when "The Dukes of Hazzard" was popular on television, I first started to hear people going "yee-hawwwwww" and wearing Confederate flag patches on their coats. But it didn't really start dominate until the early-mid '90, or at least that's when I noticed it enough that it began to irritate me -- and coincidentally, that's when a certain large Southern-based retail chain first appeared here.

It's a culture totally unlike the one I knew -- when I was growing up "working class culture" meant you knew at least one person who snipped the heads and tails off sardines in a cannery, you always had beans and hot dogs on Saturday nights, bought raw mackerel off red wagons pulled up the street by kids, drank unsweetened ice tea mixed from a powder that came in a jar, went upstreet for a Dairy Joy or a Hoodsie cup after supper in the summer, had no idea what the word "evangelical" meant, the only sport anyone paid attention to was baseball, "car culture" was slipping the mechanic an extra five bucks to get your car thru inspection, and "redneck" meant someone who was having an allergic reaction to the collar of their red-and-black checkered lumberjack coat.

 

[sheeplady]

There were bits of it bythe late '70s -- when "The Dukes of Hazzard" was popular on television, I first started to hear people going "yee-hawwwwww" and wearing Confederate flag patches on their coats. But it didn't really start dominate until the early-mid '90, or at least that's when I noticed it enough that it began to irritate me -- and coincidentally, that's when a certain large Southern-based retail chain first appeared here.

It's a culture totally unlike the one I knew -- when I was growing up "working class culture" meant you knew at least one person who snipped the heads and tails off sardines in a cannery, you always had beans and hot dogs on Saturday nights, bought raw mackerel off red wagons pulled up the street by kids, drank unsweetened ice tea mixed from a powder that came in a jar, went upstreet for a Dairy Joy or a Hoodsie cup after supper in the summer, had no idea what the word "evangelical" meant, the only sport anyone paid attention to was baseball, "car culture" was slipping the mechanic an extra five bucks to get your car thru inspection, and "redneck" meant someone who was having an allergic reaction to the collar of their red-and-black checkered lumberjack coat.

In my experience, a lot of self-proclaimed "rednecks" haven't a country bone in their body. A lot of the confederate flag flying, big wheel truck driving, slightly off accent, beer swilling NASCAR fans have never lived a day in their lives in the country and couldn't drive a tractor to save their butt. They're posers, just like the suburban kids I see running around with false ghetto lingo, rap blaring from their rimmed mommy and daddy purchased cars, and gold chains around their neck.

Neither group would last a minute in the environments they are supposed be "a part of."

 

[jamespowers]

In my experience, a lot of self-proclaimed "rednecks" haven't a country bone in their body. A lot of the confederate flag flying, big wheel truck driving, slightly off accent, beer swilling NASCAR fans have never lived a day in their lives in the country and couldn't drive a tractor to save their butt. They're posers, just like the suburban kids I see running around with false ghetto lingo, rap blaring from their rimmed mommy and daddy purchased cars, and gold chains around their neck.

Neither group would last a minute in the environments they are supposed be "a part of."

:rofl: Good point