What Old-Fashioned Things Do You Remember?

T teller wrote:

Why is this thread still going? Should have ended on page 1. We have a winner!

Never doubt the power of nostalgia.

Not what I thought wrote:

Sea monkeys.

I had sea monkeys. Didn't know they needed an air pump, though...

HRE wrote:

Roy Rogers was my first hero. Sky King was not on the one channel we got but we'd visit relatives in Pittsburgh and my cousin there loved it. I remember seeing it once or twice but that's all.

Sky King: Out of the blue of the Western Sky.

Every week was the same plot: his hot niece Penny got kidnapped by bank robbers/cattle thieves/bums, and he had to find her, in his plane no less.

Penny came before Annette and Tuesday Weld in my prepubescent pantheon.

More, after talking with a sibling:

Mail-- a good portion of life-blood printed communications came via US Mail. Best of all: Love Letters. It doesn't seem that was actually me, that person who wrote at least 3 letters weekly from college (1980-84).

Tang powdered orange drink (bonus if you remember the grapefruit flavor) and Space Food Sticks (think rod-shaped mini-PowerBars, only less gritty and more chemical-tasting)-- products peddled to exploit Space-Age Technology.

Smoking was everywhere, not just in smoking sections, and pay phones were almost everywhere. It was hard to get away from smoke. Prices were stamped on products, not in front of them on the shelf.

Perhaps the best thing about "old times" was that television was free, not a $100 (or more) a month ball and chain. Commercials AND subscription fees...what a scam. Never thought I would see big events, such as the NCAA tournament, on pay tv.

Kodachrome slides. My parents friends and their kids would come over on Saturday night and we would all sit around in the den in the dark while my Dad operated the clicker. Show off the family car trip to Canada or the beach. The slides that got put in upside down. How posed all the pictures would be--my Dad would try to make every shot perfect as film and slides were expensive. Can still hear the sound of the clicker as it moved the try and the slide drops down into the slot.

Unwrapped candy, in a 'candy' store

xlev2 wrote:

Kodachrome slides. My parents friends and their kids would come over on Saturday night and we would all sit around in the den in the dark while my Dad operated the clicker. Show off the family car trip to Canada or the beach. The slides that got put in upside down. How posed all the pictures would be--my Dad would try to make every shot perfect as film and slides were expensive. Can still hear the sound of the clicker as it moved the try and the slide drops down into the slot.

Add home movies to this.

xlev2 wrote:

Kodachrome slides. My parents friends and their kids would come over on Saturday night and we would all sit around in the den in the dark while my Dad operated the clicker. Show off the family car trip to Canada or the beach. The slides that got put in upside down. How posed all the pictures would be--my Dad would try to make every shot perfect as film and slides were expensive. Can still hear the sound of the clicker as it moved the try and the slide drops down into the slot.

There was a Mad Men episode that touched on this (sort of):

I will be thirty in a few months.

Dial-up internet

No computer in house

VHS tapes (I actually still have some)

Having several early outs in the early and very late portions of the school year because the schools didn't have air conditioning

black and white Gameboy pocket

Along the lines of mail, cursive script and letter writing: Pen Pals

Reebok basketball shoes that you could pump up by pressing the basketball on the tongue of the shoe. I doubt it did much, but it was a psychological lift. :-D

Wearing Chuck Taylor's for function, not fashion.

Taking your picture tube from your TV to test it out on the little kiosk by the cashiers at Kmart to see whether it was blown out.

Store clerks had a book of bad credit card numbers and would flip through the pages to make sure your credit card was ok.

Shop class in elementary school. In 1st and 2nd grade we all got to play around with coping saws and making dinosaur shaped cutting boards for our moms.

Bob Hope specials on TV. His opening monologues are a lesson in comedic timing and delivery that holds up over all these years. The rest of the show, not so much.

Trick or treat for UNICEF.

Watching my dad use a heat gun to peel the lead paint of the siding of our house.

Gocarts that were nothing more than a couple of 2x4s nailed together with baby carriage wheels and a rope for a steering wheel.

My dissertation housed in cardboard boxes full of punch cards.

Estes model rockets

Guillow balsa model airplanes with the rubberband-driven propellers

Community/neighborhood slot car tracks

Recording an album off the radio to a cassette tape.

The Dr Demento show

Eating a new burger at the state fair from a place called Wendy's.

Blasts From the Past wrote:

Tang powdered orange drink (bonus if you remember the grapefruit flavor) and Space Food Sticks (think rod-shaped mini-PowerBars, only less gritty and more chemical-tasting)-- products peddled to exploit Space-Age Technology.

Choc space food sticks were the best. Peanut butter were the worst.

Carnation bars were big too. Then they changed the recipe to make them new and improved and I would eat too many and get a bad stomache.