obsolete items your kids will never recognize

[Legion]

I remember my father rented Star Wars for my birthday party when I was a little kid. On 16mm film. We all thought it was great, but apparently they had shortened the film to about 45 minutes, to fit on a few reels, and it no longer made any sense. To this day my father thinks Star Wars is rubbish.

 

[Saltwater Cowboy]

I was thinking rotary phones as well. VCR's will be a fun one to explain haha. Shoot, I wouldn't be surprised if phones without a touchscreen are obsolete in the next few years.

My house is still equipped with two rotary phones. One downstairs is hard wired, one upstairs is converted to modular plug.

 

[mekler]

A BBS (bulliten board system).. electronic communication before the Internet was mainstream. I remember dialing in to a BBS to "chat" with other members and play text based rpg games like LoRD.. those were the days! LoRD is still around oddly enough.

 

[mekler]

I remember my father rented Star Wars for my birthday party when I was a little kid. On 16mm film. We all thought it was great, but apparently they had shortened the film to about 45 minutes, to fit on a few reels, and it no longer made any sense. To this day my father thinks Star Wars is rubbish.

That's hilarious! That gave me a good laugh, thank you.

 

[jamesspo]

+1. I buy my cars with manual transmissions and manual windows. They can still be had...

Geez, I actually have a car with manual window cranks, and it is only 6 years old

 

[jamesspo]

+1...lots of good times spent on BBS systems (and extended store and forward networks like Fidonet, etc) before the Internet became more accessible to the masses in the early 90's. Check out "BBS: The Documentary" for some great flashbacks to that time.

A BBS (bulliten board system).. electronic communication before the Internet was mainstream. I remember dialing in to a BBS to "chat" with other members and play text based rpg games like LoRD.. those were the days! LoRD is still around oddly enough.


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[inspiringK]

Geez, I actually have a car with manual window cranks, and it is only 6 years old

+1. I buy my cars with manual transmissions and manual windows. They can still be had...

The reason why I mentioned crank windows: My buddy recently bought a Honda Civic and asked them to keep it as stripped down as possible. Being handy around cars, he wanted the minimum to go wrong and for the things that do go wrong to be fixable at home. This means no power wherever no power is an option - we all have to lock our own doors when we drive with him for instance. No AC, no power mirrors, manual transmission, etc.

The one power option he could not get rid of is the auto windows. The dealers told him that they simply do not make a Civic with crank windows anymore.

 

[jamesspo]

Oh yeah, indeed. They're going away to be sure, and probably not offered by every maker.

The reason why I mentioned crank windows: My buddy recently bought a Honda Civic and asked them to keep it as stripped down as possible. Being handy around cars, he wanted the minimum to go wrong and for the things that do go wrong to be fixable at home. This means no power wherever no power is an option - we all have to lock our own doors when we drive with him for instance. No AC, no power mirrors, manual transmission, etc.

The one power option he could not get rid of is the auto windows. The dealers told him that they simply do not make a Civic with crank windows anymore.

 

[whereisandy]

Speaking of encyclopedias those have gone the way of the Dodo. I remember having a set on the shelf in our living room when I was a kid but my kids wouldn't have a clue what all those big books were for other than to hold a door open.

Check out this book: "Obsolete: an Encyclopedia of Once Common Things Passing Us By", by Anna Jane Grossman. Find it on Amazon and you can browse the Table of Contents. Many of the items covered have already been mentioned here.

 

[k2clones29]

Pagers are still used quite a bit in hospitals (at least in Canada). Doctors and health professionals apparently stick with them to this day

I wonder if that's because they don't interfere with the hospital machines (because you're always supposed to turn your phone off, which nobody ever does). I'm sure the medical profession will get that straightened out, they always do

 

[oc_in_fw]

I'm sure its been said, but floppy disks, video stores, and the phrase be kind rewind. I remember we bought a rewinder that would rewind in triple the time the VCR would, how crazy is that?

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but ever wonder what happens to your digital music when you die? Back in the day, vinyl, cassettes, and even CDs could be passed down to future generations to enjoy. I read somewhere that according to the Itunes agreement, you don't actually own music in a physical asset sense. So when you die, you relinquish the rights of the music. I know the last thing anybody cares about when someone dies is who gets so and so's music, but its still interesting to think about.

That is why I download very little music. I buy the CD and import it. In the day where HD is becoming the norm, we are settling for lower quality music and streaming movies. I cannot fathom it- media trumps streaming five ways to Sunday. Yeah, when walking around I may listen to the iPod, but you cannot beat a stereo system with a real CD.

 

[ReAndyMator]

My first computer, the one that got me through college, was an Osborne 2 running CP/M. 128k of RAM. Two 182k floppy disc drives. Had to load the OS off a disc to boot it up. I also accessed my first online communities, including FidoNet, using my smokin' fast 300 baud modem.

Pfft. My first computer :


Never mind loading the OS, I had to sacrifice virgins. And I'm telling you, they weren't easy to find in the west country.

The reason why I mentioned crank windows: My buddy recently bought a Honda Civic and asked them to keep it as stripped down as possible. Being handy around cars, he wanted the minimum to go wrong and for the things that do go wrong to be fixable at home. This means no power wherever no power is an option - we all have to lock our own doors when we drive with him for instance. No AC, no power mirrors, manual transmission, etc.

Personally, I tend to buy cars with automatic transmissions to have less to go wrong. No clutch to fail, for starters, and less opportunity for the previous driver to have revved the tappets off it every time he fired it up.

you cannot beat a stereo system with a real CD

Well. Except for a decent valve amp / turntable system (IMNESHO)

 

[rushchairman]

after school "Play Clothes"

 

[BrianL]

My hair.

 

[Big_John]

The reason why I mentioned crank windows: My buddy recently bought a Honda Civic and asked them to keep it as stripped down as possible. Being handy around cars, he wanted the minimum to go wrong and for the things that do go wrong to be fixable at home. This means no power wherever no power is an option - we all have to lock our own doors when we drive with him for instance. No AC, no power mirrors, manual transmission, etc.

The one power option he could not get rid of is the auto windows. The dealers told him that they simply do not make a Civic with crank windows anymore.

Most likely you can only get power windows because of three reasons. First, the space in the door gets a bit crowded with the side curtain airbags. The power "winder" is pretty small now and can be put anywhere in the door. The manual crank has to be located so it's comfortable to use. Second, the power mechanism is probably about the same cost as a manual mechanism and third there probably isn't much demand for crank windows anymore.

 

[rajagra]

CRTs. Try explaining that it used to take two people to lift a 29" screen.

 

[SIG9]

"Free" checking accounts. Or "free" anything with regard to financial institutions. Remember the days when they used to give people things for opening new accounts, i.e. toasters!

 

[BigWill]

"Free" checking accounts. Or "free" anything with regard to financial institutions. Remember the days when they used to give people things for opening new accounts, i.e. toasters!

Ahh the good ole' days when the government regulated everything a bank could do. Capped interest rates, per check fees, no ATMs to stock with $50,000 in cash. No online access, no online bill pay. Your deposits taking 3-14 days to clear. Number of branches capped at 3.

Man, do I miss my free toaster.

 

[The Zigster]

Luckily they still exist in my part of the world.

 

[The Zigster]

1.Telex Machines at work


2 . Milk Box in the house so the milk man could deliver milk, cheese, bread to your house




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