You know, fellow members, this list is getting long. With that I get to feeling older.

Tinyman

Meeting someone at the airport at the gate. No security. Just walk right to the gate.

A lot of things, but the one I miss the most is the M-80's we use to buy. Thousands of fun uses. Of course we couldn't buy them in NY, but we would go crazy buying them on trips to Southern states.

Lawn darts with very sharp spikes called Jarts.

Neighborhoods where all the kids played outside all day

Building tree forts and overnight camping in the woods

Model rockets and balsa airplanes

Filling the gas tank for under $5

Getting a real education

There are a lot more but they are all family and friends that have passed away

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
A big mahogany console containing a radio with AM, FM, and shortwave bands. And a 78 RPM turntable.

I have one of those, but it hasn't worked in 40 years. The record changer mechanism is a hoot to watch! It was my parents' 5th wedding anniversary purchase.

clip-on roller skates?
amusement parks with REAL fun houses
cherry bombs
push reel-type lawn mowers
Red Rover, Crack the Whip, and Dodgeball
terpin hydrate cough medicine OTC
mercurochrome
castor oil (one tbsp every morning)
Coca Cola with codeine
buying cigarettes (for my parents) at the drugstore as a child (a task I hated!)
teeter-totters
playground slides with steel surfaces
milk delivery at the home (my dad was a Milkman)
Saturday matineés (cartoons, serial, 2 features)
upright manual typewriters
keypunch machines and IBM cards
dot-matrix printers
mimeograph machines and their special paper
hektograph copy process (may still be extant)
slide rules
mechanical slot machines

That's enough for now.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Lawn darts with very sharp spikes called Jarts.

Being able to walk into a gun store of any kind - Sears, Army-Navy, Western Auto or just plain hardware store and purchase a gun. Cash and carry, get a receipt and walk out the door.

Cheap guns and ammo, too. Usually military surplus.

Person. Beverly

Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs, Mercurys and Plymouths.

Clouds of DDT sprayed in the summertime streets. We used to pretend we were angels floating in the clouds.

I liked some of my kin a whole lot more back then. Ignorance was bliss.

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
rabbit ears antenna

With tin/aluminum foil wrapped around them for better reception.

Many people mentioned phone related things, but no mention of the

Phonebook

Big, heavy, yellow, dropped off at your door. So very necessary.

Antenna rotors
Guns sold in just about every hardware store - and Sears
Being able to burn anything you wanted on your property
Howard Johnson restaurant s and motels on all the highways
Being a kid and being able to walk around with a rifle and not getting a second look
Kerosene pumps at the gas stations
Timex 'test' watches
Making your own fireworks - you'd get arrested doing that now
Comedians that were actually funny
Not having ticks with diseases everywhere
Real Coca-Cola

Tube testers at the drug store.

Muntz brand electronics.

JJ Newberry

Hard to find stuff not already mentioned. I thought of a few restaurants and roadside places, like:
Stuckey's - seemingly as ubiquitous as Howard Johnson's.
Sambo's - like Denny's but much better.
Zuider Zee's - fast seafood. Dutch if you can believe it.

quote:

Originally posted by tleddy:
Hand-crank telephones

Wow, I would not have thought of this.
The most recent reference to those I can remember is their use as a redneck fishing tool, a kind of get fish quick scheme.

Fiddling with the UHF dial on the analog TV hooked to cable TV so we could get glimpses of static-filled boobs from the playboy station.

TV repair shops.

A plain-jane, standard shift bench seat single cab pickup you could buy for $4000.

Dodge D100 bought in 1974. According to the online inflation calculator, that'd be about $21,000 today. No such thing as far as I know.

quote:

Originally posted by 64dodge:
Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs, Mercurys and Plymouths.

Edsel also.


I must be really old, many of the things mention were new when I was an adult.
8 tracks, cassettes, VCRs