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What items do you recall that were once....but are no more?

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mikephillips said:
OK, how about the old credit card sort of machines. They'd put the card on the tray, put a paper receipt on top and run a roller across to create a copy that was filled out with the amount while the card data was pressed into the paper with ink.
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I think I still have one of those credit card machines somewhere out in the garage. Those were the days!
 
Basil said:
I think I still have one of those credit card machines somewhere out in the garage. Those were the days!
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I was told back in the day the Ohio State Police had the credit card machines in the trunk of their car so you could pay for your speeding ticket on the spot.
 
Airmail, while I'm not old enough to remember it, I know most of y'all are.

I bought a book, The Standard Catalog of Smith and Wesson, off of Ebay. It arrived today with a plethora of stamps on it, including this airmail stamp from 1959 (I googled to the samp to figure that out). I cut it off the box before trashing it and noticed that the sixty-seven year old glue was starting to come loose and was able to carefully separate it from the cardboard.

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waltesefalcon said:
Airmail, while I'm not old enough to remember it, I know most of y'all are.

I bought a book, The Standard Catalog of Smith and Wesson, off of Ebay. It arrived today with a plethora of stamps on it, including this airmail stamp from 1959 (I googled to the samp to figure that out). I cut it off the box before trashing it and noticed that the sixty-seven year old glue was starting to come loose and was able to carefully separate it from the cardboard.

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Say what you will about the USPS but stamps are equal to cash.
I'm a big fan of the Postal System and the people that work there.
The carriers and the people behind the counter.
My guess is they are the best trained Civil Servants of all.
They are rarely stumped by my questions or requests.
 
mikephillips said:
OK, how about the old credit card sort of machines. They'd put the card on the tray, put a paper receipt on top and run a roller across to create a copy that was filled out with the amount while the card data was pressed into the paper with ink.

And from the 60s, how about those huge puffed up hairdos that so many young women would wear, make their heads look like they were 2-3 times as big as they were...

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It looks like the new credit cards won't work with the old machines - The numbers are no longer raised.
 
When I opened my shop in '73, the credit cards we accepted were BankAmericard and master charge...a few year later, those two became VISA and MasterCard...and the slips had real carbon paper in between.

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My last card with raised numbers expired probably ten years ago.
 
Here's another one I saw on tv, how about this big whip antennas attached to the back bumper and fastened down in the front of police and other service type cars. They may still exist in some places but I haven't seen one round here for years.
 
mikephillips said:
Here's another one I saw on tv, how about this big whip antennas attached to the back bumper and fastened down in the front of police and other service type cars. They may still exist in some places but I haven't seen one round here for years.
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I have (I think) in my garage. Have been trying to find a home for it.
 
OK, remember when the TV and the radio would take a few moments once switched on, that soft glow from inside and the fact that if they weer on for some time be careful touching the case if the radio at least as it could be quite warm. Why?? Yes our old friend the vacuum tube . Before the transistor, before the computer chip , all different sizes of them and each device had some number of them inside.
 
Basil said:
Yeah yeah yeah!

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But, to that picture. Pianos in homes (and increasingly people who can play instruments) It is fascinating to me the number of times I see 'free to a good home (you have to move it)' piano ads. In the churches I attend the musicians are increasingly Korean or Eastern European as it seems like Canadian born kids (and I presume American) don't take music lesson like they used to.

As a corollery to that, a while back I listened to a documentary on restoring pianos. There used to be a steady business repairing and restoring pianos in the 70's - which has almost entirely disappeared, not just because fewer people play but because the intruments themselves are another 50 years older and in many cases past viable repair.
 
JPSmit said:
But, to that picture. Pianos in homes (and increasingly people who can play instruments) It is fascinating to me the number of times I see 'free to a good home (you have to move it)' piano ads. In the churches I attend the musicians are increasingly Korean or Eastern European as it seems like Canadian born kids (and I presume American) don't take music lesson like they used to.

As a corollery to that, a while back I listened to a documentary on restoring pianos. There used to be a steady business repairing and restoring pianos in the 70's - which has almost entirely disappeared, not just because fewer people play but because the intruments themselves are another 50 years older and in many cases past viable repair.
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Back in the 1950s, my father brought home an old pump organ.
He quickly converted it with an electric blower.
I remember it had about a dozen 'Stops', which I still don't know what they do.
No one in the house was musical at all.
Our nextdoor neighbor however was and would come over and teach us a few tunes.
We learned Chopsticks and the Tennessee Waltz.
 
Well, I was thinking more the use of tube in things most used to have around the home such as radios and tvs. If you don't do the more specialized stuff like the electric guitar, and most don't, you wouldn't know what they are if you ran across older tech pieces.
 
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