Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Things We Don't See Anymore

Something happened... I don't remember what, but it occurred to me, "Man, you don't see that anymore."

I came up with a quick list of things I used to see but rarely if ever do now.

Sweat stains
Girdle lines
Dandruff (at least I don't)
Overheating cars on the side of the road.
Teased hair
Beehive hairdo
Frosted hair
Wrinkled cotton clothes
Bare light bulbs dangling from a wire
Secretaries
Five & Dime Stores
Kids collecting glass soda bottles for money

I asked a few writer friends for their thoughts on things they don't see anymore.

Lenora Worth said, "How about the
mullet?" To which Kristin Billerbeck responded, "How about the bullet? With the bald part in the back."

Lissa Halls Johnson said she never sees:
Waxed paper bags for sandwichesMailing things wrapped in brown grocery bags and tied with string
TV
remotes that "click" (and take some effort to push the buttons)
The
bakery guy who comes to your house, opens the back of his specialized wagon and pulls out a drawers filled with yummy breads.
A cardboard cap for the glass milk jar.
A machine that slices the bread for you when you buy it at the corner grocery
Over the counter medicinal products without any kind of extra wrapping and seals (You could buy a bottle of aspirin, pop off the top and there were aspirin! Sometimes a cotton ball, but never anything else."
Kids playing outside after dark in a neighborhood. Young kids playing outside by themselves
Kids riding in cars without seatbelts
Anyone riding in cars without seatbelts
Kids riding in the back of open pickup trucks
Kids sleeping in that hollow space of the back window in the car

Author and friend Carolyne Aarsen sent a great list!
Rolls of film by the checkout counter in a grocery store or drugstore.
Mascara that came in little blocks with a brush. You'd have to make the block wet with the brush and then put it on.
Pay phones.
Sanitary napkin belts.
Cassette tapes
Floppy disks
People smoking in restaurants
Paying for groceries with a cheque. (She's from Canada, but we love her!)
Milk being delivered by a milk truck

Historical author who wanted to be anonymous wrote:
Crooked teeth
Public telephones
Women pulling up their
sagging panty hose
Service Station attendants pumping gas and washing car windows

Friend and author Debora Raney offered these great ideas:
Garters
Pantyhose
Black-and-white TVs
Typewriters
Outhouses
Smallpox vaccination scars on children's arms.
Women in public with spongy pink curlers in their hair.
Telephone party lines
Phone cords (at least not very many)
Butter churns (except in museums)

What about you? What items do you think are of "days gone by?"

4 comments:

PatriciaW said...

Rabbit ears/TV antennas
Television miniseries (on broadcast channels)
Plain shredded wheat where you ate a big, single brick of it
Coffee percolators
Leggs Eggs (pantyhose container)
Rotary dial telephones
Vacuum tubes (like used to be inside the television)
Jergens lotion (maybe they still make it, but I never see it; makes me think of my mother)
Lifesavers in the rolls, not the bags
Peanut chews (one of my favorites)

Rachel Hauck said...

Such a great list, Patricia. Coffee percolators! I remember those! And the big ole vacuum tube TVs.

Well, I remember everything on your list. LOL. I'm not sure what peanut chews are though.

XO,
Rachel

Hey, do you want a book or audio book from the give away?

asian bridal said...

Nobody knows why a nerd captured the confusing arm.

Jeff Rivera said...

Really a good collection of list. Enjoyed reading the info