Going ... going ... gone


This is not particularly funny but I thought it was interesting (and I might be mispronouncing boring when I say interesting) enough to share with my beloved readers. Here is a list of items that are either obsolete or well on their way.

• Truly ‘blind’ dates

• Mix tapes

• Land lines

• Short basketball shorts

• “While You Were Out” Pads

• Word processors

• Electric typewriters

• Shorthand

• Floppy disks

• Rolodexes

• Lickable stamps

• Bike messengers

• Printer paper with holes on the sides

• Tape decks

• Walkmans

• Portable CD players

• Record stores

• Boomboxes

• Flicking lighters at a concert’s end

• Standing in line for tickets

• Shoehorns

• Teased hair

• Catalogue shopping

• Stonewashed jeans

• Men with one earring

• Press-on nails

• Bolo ties

• Hair crimpers

• Suspenders

• Dial-up

• E-mails written with the formality of letters

• Sound of the modem starting up

• Non-wireless Internet

• AOL CDs in the mail

• Doctor-administered pregnancy tests

• Diaper pins

• Diaper delivery services

• Smoking while pregnant

• Glass baby bottles

• Paper routes

• Having to learn to touch-type

• Trapper Keepers

• College acceptance letters via mail

• Choose your own adventure books

• Slide rules

• Film projectors in classrooms

• Good penmanship

• Pocket protectors

• Home economics class

• Manual windows in cars

• Getting out to open the garage door

• Full-service gas stations

• DVD-less road trips

• Cigarette lighters

• Nonstandard air bags

• Gas less than $3 a gallon

• Stovetop popcorn poppers

• TV dinners

• Electric frying pans

• New Coke

• Tab in soda machines

• Flash cubes for cameras

• Travel agents

• Plane tickets sent in the mail

• Hotel room keys

• Smoking on planes

• Stewardesses in wigs

• Hitchiking

• In-flight meals

• Traveler’s checks

• Money belts

• Elevator operators

• Saying goodbye at the airport gate

• Doctors making house calls

• Plaster casts

• Orthodontic headgear

• Tonsillectomies

• Sanitary napkin belts

• Having to ask a store clerk for condoms

• Water beds

• Dustbusters

• Photo albums

• Handwritten letters

• Toilets with pulls

• Stereo systems

• Analog clocks

• Wooden tennis rackets

• Ignoring the World Cup

• Thinking Europeans can’t play basketball

• The set shot

• High diving boards

• Biking without helmets

• Cigarette machines

• Renting movies on a Friday night

• “Cocktail table” Ms. Pac-Man

• Finding dates in bars

Comments

  1. Anonymous3/25/2008

    Ha, oh my gosh, I have to disagree on a lot or perhaps I am resistant to change?! What an exhaustive list hehe

    One of my best friends still wears a stud in his ear, and i cant imagine not being formal in my emails because i despise the phone! Speaking of land lines - comcast is making me lose my land line if i dont go 'digital' - still deciding on that one...

    No renting movies on Friday nights?! hmmm your list is now scaring me....ha cuz pay-per-view is now $7/movie sometimes and blockbuster is $5 bleh

    Your list makes one ponder the things we (I) still hold on to, that is for sure! :) Great post!

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  2. The only thing I would have to disagree with is the shoehorn. No gentleman should be without one. After all, how else am I supposed to put on my underpants?
    Sorry about WTF, I tried to warn you....besides, it was your post that prompted the search in the first place so actually, I don't apologise at all.You only have yourself to blame.

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  3. this is not boring. quite interesting. and also somewhat sad to me.

    mix tapes, floppy disks, trapper keepers? photo albums? thinking europeans can't play basketball? it's all so sad. so, so, sad.

    however, I must disagree on just a couple...

    1. dial-up internet.
    we still have this at my house. I think we are the only people left in the world with this, but it's okay, because I steal wireless from my neighbors.
    2. hitchhiking.
    oddly enough, I definitely saw someone trying to hitchhike on a main street here. but that is only this city.
    3. teased hair.
    I still see a ton of girls my age teasing their hair. don't know what that's about, but hey, why not?

    and that is it. other than that, this list is definitely complete. and definitely sad.

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  4. Don't forget about lawn jarts

    Groceries delivered to your home
    Milk/eggs on the doorstop in the AM. (If there were a local farm that would do this, I would sign up in a heartbeat... seems like I'm always going to the store for milk/eggs/cheese.)

    The White-out strips to put in a, gasp, typewriter to correct mistakes.

    and...
    The Muppet Show followed by Sha-Na-Na on a Saturday Night

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  5. I loved this list! Although, I'm not really sorry to see any of this stuff go!

    I did love TrapperKeepers, though!

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  6. Choose your own adventure books were the best!! I loved those.

    I don't have a cell phone or a landline! I still have a CD Walkman I guess you would call it, I don't use it much though it's gotten replaced by my IPOD just easier to workout with.

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  7. Anonymous3/26/2008

    I still make my popcorn on the stove...sheesh I guess I'm out of the loop =)

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  8. Amy Winehouse will see to it that teased hair doesn't become obsolete.

    Believe it or not, I purchase milk in ... wait for it... glass bottles!

    *adjusts sanitary napkin belt and exits*

    I'll be back.

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  9. i don't want to live a future without all that cool stuff. i might have to move to a remote village in africa that's slow to keep up with change.

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  10. I don't make mixtapes anymore...but I do call the mix CDs I make mixtapes...

    Cxx

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  11. I will never let choose your own adventure books die. Never!

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  12. Aaah the good old days!:) Trapper keepers ruled man. I had a new one for each year. Yeah I was really cool with the teased hair too. Thanks for taking us down memory lane!

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  13. Anonymous3/26/2008

    You forgot shoulder pads...

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  14. What a comprehensive list! I am impressed.
    I am quite happy to see some of those things go- for example teased hair, stone-washed jeans and the flash cube (who thought up THAT one?) but others- well, let's just say that I am saving all my duckie diaper pins for the grandchildren I will some day have, and my Walkman is on my head this very second.
    And I am very proud of my good penmanship.
    Uh-huh.

    ReplyDelete
  15. LMAO! What a great list...did you compile this all by yourself?! Brilliant! Did love my trappers though...that's ashame there. Not to let the young'ns utlilize those great trappers!
    Hugs,
    Robyn

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  16. Mixed tapes might be out the door, but I still burn mixed CDs. Does that make me old?

    Want scary old? We drove through Nyssa, Oregon and they still have enclosed payphones. In fact two of those poe punk towns have them.

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  17. 8 track tape players and water wiggles are getting hard to find too.
    No more Jiffy Pop popcorn, damn!

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  18. Anonymous3/26/2008

    wait a second Phats, if you dont have a cell phone or a landline - how do people reach you during the day?? lol ;)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Tina- First off sorry Shife to take over your comments haha
    I thought you knew this Tina, Cher reminds people every chance she gets. I like it this way nobody can get ahold of him ;) I don't need a phone

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  20. Cocktail Table Ms. Pac-Man...

    hopefully it sticks around long enough for me to find one. I've always wanted one but getting your hands on one in decent condition is uber difficult.

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  21. Winds of change are on their way. I think you just showed your age, and mine, damn it!

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  22. Long live bolo ties and tv dinners.

    By the way, glass baby bottles are making a comeback due to heath concerns of heating and reheating plastics.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Interesting. . .

    Does anyone under thirty know about "new Coke"???

    I've been teaching for twelve years and not once have I used a projector. At first everything was VHS. Nowadays my computer is hooked up to a television set and I play DVDs that way.

    How times have changed. My first year teaching I had to manually average grades, as in with a calculator.

    Karen

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  24. HMMMM... well i still use quite a few of these things listed here... but we do live in bum-fuck egypt.

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  25. who's roasted now shifeypoo? eh? eh? yeah, i thought so...

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  26. You forgot the Polaroid camera....they've stopped production of them this year. :'(

    Overhead projectors. You know, the ones that use the transparencies and the special markers?

    The ditto machine....our grade school's poor mans copier back in the day. Purple print rocks!

    One final one: the "Good old days" where kids could be kids in more places than just Chucky Cheese's!

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  27. I am little sad that record stores are on their way out.

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