OT : Silly things you remember but are now long gone

[mrtailgate]

Sports related -

1- Goal posts on the goal line. Think about that for a second with the risk of injury and you shake your head that this was the way you remember it.

2- Pitcher striking out - A wonderful tradition where the opposing catcher flipped the ball to the pitcher who had just struck out for him to take to the mound.

3- You will never forget the best PA man ever Dave Zinkoff telling you that Earl Monroe was at the line shooting three for two and how the words rolled off his tongue. Ditto for him saying whoever was shooting t-eeeeeeeew.

4- The best ever tradition of the fielding team leaving their gloves on the field when they went to hit.


Non Sports Related

I can’t understand it but you youngins will never have to eat pistachios with dyed red shells and then washing your hands to get the dye off it. Just about every pistachio nut bag you could buy were red.

As a kid I remember “Japanese Apples” which became known later as pomegranates. They were garbage often given to farm animals. You could buy them for nothing at the store. Then they became a wonder fruit.

What else you got for stuff you remember that are gone or changed dramatically.

 

[AWS1022]

Putting aluminum foil on your rabbit ears to get a better television picture.

The skip in the middle of a song as the 8 track jumped from one program to the next...and it was always in the middle of the best song on the album.

Jamming up keys as you typed on a typewriter.

Getting your Atari and thinking the graphics were really amazing.

 

[LionJim]

Erections.

 

[AWS1022]

Erections.

They have those in Japan in November right?

 

[bkmtnittany1]

Erections.

 

[fairgambit]

You may not believe this but when I was a teenager we had these vinyl discs that had groves on them. You took this disc and put it on a thing called a turntable that went round and round. Now here is the best part. As it went round and round you could hear music coming off it! Like magic!!!
Ah man. It was really something!

 

[Beachwineguy]

Growing up in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, I remember eating crab apples and paw-paws, making Shrink-a-Dinks (small plastic figures you could color, then bake and they would shrink to a much smaller size), and drinking red cream soda.

 

[wex18]

Keebler Dutch apple cookies
Chocolate flavor straws
Fizzies
Telephone party lines
Burma Shave signs

 

[mrtailgate]

Putting aluminum foil on your rabbit ears to get a better television picture.

The skip in the middle of a song as the 8 track jumped from one program to the next...and it was always in the middle of the best song on the album.

Jamming up keys as you typed on a typewriter.

Getting your Atari and thinking the graphics were really amazing.

Outstanding! Each one of these hit a chord with me like it was yesterday,

 

[mrtailgate]

I forgot another one. The playing of the National Anthem at 2AM and then getting static until the next morning.

 

[Beachwineguy]

Going to an arcade to play video games

 

[Mile High Lion]

Ashtrays - Every home had them even the parents didn't smoke. It was just the polite thing to have available in case someone came to your home and wanted a cigarette. I remember taking an art class in middle school or summer school or something and one of the options for a ceramics projects was to make an ashtray for your parents.

Going to the record store and looking through the bins of albums. Some were new, some were used but you never knew what you would find and the artwork was amazing.

Slide rules - My father had one for his job. He taught me how to use it but by the time I was old enough calculators were coming into existence. They calculated how to build rockets and fly to the moon with those things!

 

[Nitwit]

The Good Humor man coming through your neighborhood selling ice cream treats from his truck.

 

[Op2]

Putting aluminum foil on your rabbit ears to get a better television picture.

Having a pair of pliers in the room with the TV so you could change the channel because the channel changer was stripped because of people turning it too fast.

 

[Lion Lineage]

The Walkman (Sony or otherwise). They were about the size of a grocery store romance novel and came with cheap earphones that would hurt your ears if left on too long - the foam was paper thin. Oh, and taking the cassette out and turning it over at the end of a side.

 

[CVLion]

The Good Humor man coming through your neighborhood selling ice cream treats from his truck.

During the COVID lockdown there has been a Renaissance of ice cream trucks coming to our neighborhood. I hope it continues.

 

[McMick]

56 Chevy, 100 MPH, no seatbelts, and balloons for tires.

 

[AWS1022]

Having a pair of pliers in the room with the TV so you could change the channel because the channel changer was stripped because of people turning it too fast.

Vice grips worked better because you could lock them and leave them on.

 

[Waltwam]

Putting aluminum foil on your rabbit ears to get a better television picture.

The skip in the middle of a song as the 8 track jumped from one program to the next...and it was always in the middle of the best song on the album.

Jamming up keys as you typed on a typewriter.

Getting your Atari and thinking the graphics were really amazing.

I have a CD of a band no one here remembers named Bread!!!! Every time I listen to it, on one particular song, I tell my wife....this is where my 8 track would skip. I think the title of the song is Daughter!!!!!

 

[AWS1022]

I have a CD of a band no one here remembers named Bread!!!! Every time I listen to it, on one particular song, I tell my wife....this is where my 8 track would skip. I think the title of the song is Daughter!!!!!

Bread....I remember them....Baby I’m A Want You.

 

[katchthis]

Erections.

Don’t use electric hedge trimmers Jim !

 

[ILLINOISLION]

You may not believe this but when I was a teenager we had these vinyl discs that had groves on them. You took this disc and put it on a thing called a turntable that went round and round. Now here is the best part. As it went round and round you could hear music coming off it! Like magic!!!
Ah man. It was really something!

Magic music.....whenever they (The Beverly Hillbillies) heard that, turns out someone was at their front door. They never did figure out where that music came from!

 

[Ward Hog]

The milk box on the front porch.

 

[katchthis]

Penny candy . Clackers. Hand held electronic football game. Putting baseball cards in your bike spokes instead of meticulously saving them . Balsa glider planes. The balsa plane with the wind up rubber band. The cheap plastic slingshot that launched army men with parachutes . Matchbox cars . Boil and bite football mouth guards. Tang. Gatorade when it first came out. Iron on tee shirt decals . Sewing a peace sign on a pair of bell bottom jeans. Lick and stick tattoos. Candy cigarettes . Cap guns . The barber dusting your neck with Clubman talc . Giving him the no thanks when he tries to splash rose water (?) on you .stressing out over school pictures . Hurrying home from school to watch MLB afternoon weekday playoff games . Whiffle ball games till 9 pm on a summer night .

 

[BW Lion]

Erections.

TMI

 

[OhioLion]

A man actually came out to your car, filled it with gas (after asking dad what’ll have), opening the hood, and washing the windshield.
Oh, and the car tires rang the bell inside the station.
Can’t recall the name, but a block or two shy of Park Ave. there is a station that still pumps your gas.

OL

 

[GSPMax]

Keebler Dutch apple cookies
Chocolate flavor straws
Fizzies
Telephone party lines
Burma Shave signs

Ah, Fizzies. Loved them fizzies. Also had a party line.

 

[Mile High Lion]

Penny candy . Clackers. Hand held electronic football game. Putting baseball cards in your bike spokes instead of meticulously saving them . Balsa glider planes. The balsa plane with the wind up rubber band. The cheap plastic slingshot that launched army men with parachutes . Matchbox cars . Boil and bite football mouth guards. Tang. Gatorade when it first came out. Iron on tee shirt decals . Sewing a peace sign on a pair of bell bottom jeans. Lick and stick tattoos. Candy cigarettes . Cap guns . The barber dusting your neck with Clubman talc . Giving him the no thanks when he tries to splash rose water (?) on you .stressing out over school pictures . Hurrying home from school to watch MLB afternoon weekday playoff games .

Tang. I was thinking about that the other day and wondered if it still existed so when I was in the grocery store I looked for it and it was there. You can still buy it!

 

[katchthis]

A man actually came out to your car, filled it with gas (after asking dad what’ll have), opening the hood, and washing the windshield.
Oh, and the car tires rang the bell inside the station.
Can’t recall the name, but a block or two shy of Park Ave. there is a station that still pumps your gas.

OL

Jumping on the hose that made the ding at the gas station .

 

[MrDibbs]

The Fly Back toy ... rubber ball on an elastic string stapled to a paddle. Mom always had the paddle for disciplinary purposes about a half hour after we got one.

 

[ILLINOISLION]

Tang. I was thinking about that the other day and wondered if it still existed so when I was in the grocery store I looked for it and it was there. You can still buy it!

Expiration date: 12/31/2050.

 

[dbbp]

My Discrambler. I bought and sold baseball cards. Used some of the profits. To buy a tv discrambler. I was 16 years old. By dumb luck i met this guy that made them. Price tag back in the 1990’s was 200 bucks. So I would have buddy’s over charge them 5 bucks. To watch the WrestleMania’s, Boxing fights. All that type stuff. Spice channel was free!. One day my mom was cleaning my room. Found my hidden compartment. I had installed in my dresser. Called my dad at work. Told him she found this black box. That was hooked to my tv. I thought I was in big trouble. Waited for him to get home. He was jacked! Not that I had it. He said son we have a 70 inch tv in the living room. So your telling me all this time. I could have been watching all of PPV’s for free. Go get it and hook it up.

 

[katchthis]

The Good Humor man coming through your neighborhood selling ice cream treats from his truck.

I think Lion Jim runs a soft serve ice cream truck , but it’s called Mr. Softee.

 

[Waltwam]

Bread....I remember them....Baby I’m A Want You.

I still pull out some of their songs when I am playing my guitar. Guitar man

 

[GSPMax]

Getting a coke in a bottle out of a machine.

 

[katchthis]

Watching halftime highlights on Monday Night Football. That was the only time you could see NFL highlights . When the HBO show of NFL highlights came with Len Dawson , it seemed like Netflix to me .

 

[mrtailgate]

Having a pair of pliers in the room with the TV so you could change the channel because the channel changer was stripped because of people turning it too fast.

Ha ha, a couple years earlier, you actually had to get up and turn the dial. I thought I was really living large when my parents got a remote or channel changer.

 

[mrtailgate]

Penny candy . Clackers. Hand held electronic football game. Putting baseball cards in your bike spokes instead of meticulously saving them . Balsa glider planes. The balsa plane with the wind up rubber band. The cheap plastic slingshot that launched army men with parachutes . Matchbox cars . Boil and bite football mouth guards. Tang. Gatorade when it first came out. Iron on tee shirt decals . Sewing a peace sign on a pair of bell bottom jeans. Lick and stick tattoos. Candy cigarettes . Cap guns . The barber dusting your neck with Clubman talc . Giving him the no thanks when he tries to splash rose water (?) on you .stressing out over school pictures . Hurrying home from school to watch MLB afternoon weekday playoff games . Whiffle ball games till 9 pm on a summer night .

Well done, well done.

 

[Shadow99]

It isn't "silly" but I was pleasantly surprised to see people recently using manual lawn mowers.

I have memories of one of my grandfathers allowing me to cut grass with the manual mower...was very surprised to see that they are still around, even seeing that they aren't just restored antiques, but that they are actually still sold...

 

[mrtailgate]

Watching halftime highlights on Monday Night Football. That was the only time you could see NFL highlights . When the HBO show of NFL highlights came with Len Dawson , it seemed like Netflix to me .

Howard Cosell doing the highlights was poetry in motion. That was as good as the game.