From Invention to Obsolete in my Lifetime

[1042 Trooper]

Was just thinking of Keith and then this weird topic - things that came to life, lived and then died or became second tier / obsolete or even collector items (for the most part) in your own lifetime. It really started adding up, so here's a few to start:


The original Apple Computer
The original Mcintosh computer
Cassette tapes
VHS tapes
VCRs
VHS Camcorders
8mm film movie cameras
8mm camcorders
sacharine (sp?)
UHF Television
analogue cell phones
Twin Sonic chain driven light bars
Bar Arm Control Hold
Speedloaders
Pull tab (the kind that came off) soda cans
Bromoseltzer
VHF analogue television
Huge 6' TV satalite dishes (backyard type)
Leaded gasoline
Low Lead gasoline
Oil cans with the push in spout
Original Teflon skilletts
Blow dryers for doods
Hi Karate After Shave :D
Platform shoes for doods
Big Bell pants for doods
Liesure suits
Scarfs for doods
386 processor compters
486 processor computers
Atari home game consoles
Neru jackets
The Beatles
The Archies
The Monkeys
Magnum PI
Hill Street Blues
Kojak
NYPD Blue
Adam 12
Car 54 Where are You
The Partridge Family
The Cosby Show
Cop Rock
Third Watch
McGiver
Dallas
The Sopranos


More????

[Presence]

Wow, that's quite a list, Old man! :)

jk...

I'm gonna throw the commodore 64 out there...

atari game system...

and the CD was born and is becoming obsolete...

[RoadKingTrooper]

Beta max movies?

[Bigtexan44]

WOW, some of you folks are old....errr....."seasoned?" ;)

[stormz5192]

Colecovision.

[rubyrose]

Electronic typewriters
Women getting a style and "set" (i.e., rollers under the salon hairdryer)
"Big Hair"
Something men don't want to hear about in re: women's hygiene products
CP/M operating system for computers
Kaypro computers
Floppy disks
baby "walkers" (you put the kid in before he can walk and he scoots around -- these have been determined to be not good for babies)
"going steady" (or so it seems)
getting "pinned" (frat boy gives girl his frat pin to signify "ownership") -- ok, started before my time
student residence curfew hours (college)
"in loco parentis" concept for colleges -- ok, maybe invented before my time
Dr. Spock (as in child-rearing guru)


I'll think of some more later...

[hxd]

5.25" floppy diskettes

[Explorer528]

I got nothing...

[Monkeybomb]

8 tracks

The pocket fisherman

Real lawn darts

HD DVD'S

Pong (the video Game console)

The Georgia State Patrol Takedown

[Narco]

^ what's that about the GSP takedown? they still throw down when they need to!

[Southflaguy]

Super Nintendo...
Sega Genesis...
:confused:

[hxd]

Super Nintendo...
Sega Genesis...
:confused:

Oh, don't go there, young'un. I still have my original NES plugged into my TV. I have mastered TLOZ and Contra several times over. It sits right above my (functional) woodgrain Atari 2600. I even dust that off and play Pitfall and Kaboom! once in awhile when I'm feeling nostalgic.

[Southflaguy]

Oh, don't go there, young'un. I still have my original NES plugged into my TV. I have mastered TLOZ and Contra several times over. It sits right above my (functional) woodgrain Atari 2600. I even dust that off and play Pitfall and Kaboom! once in awhile when I'm feeling nostalgic.

You MUST master Street Fighter and or Mortal Kombat...

Add those two to the list...Dial up internet too...:D

[Steve354]

What ever happen to the good old days. The old 78's 45's then there's the 12inch 33 speed. I can still recall wastch the steam trains go by and travelling on them. Speaking of after shave there was that come out called JR after JR from Dalles the tv show. I can even remember going to the shop and getting 5c worth of candy in a good sizes bag not these day you can't .

I still recall fish &chips getting raped in newspaper

Back in the 70's here for $4.00 you buy a good feed of fish&chips. Now you pay $7.00 just for the fish.:eek:


Has for tv shows well There was on the buses, steptoe and son, young docters, I love Luscy, lost in space, I dream of jeannie, emergency,my three sons, I love this one Bonanza, Benny Hill, where is the good old cartoons from them days tom&jerry, Donld ,Micky

[RoadKingTrooper]

The Georgia State Patrol Takedown
Monkeybomb....PR24 Instructor
How about 4 tracks?

[DACP]

Atari 2600
DOS operating system
the old rabbit ears on the TV

[DACP]

getting "pinned" (frat boy gives girl his frat pin to signify "ownership") -- ok, started before my time


Think they call that getting knocked up now

[luvmylabs]

punch cards for computers.
Actually learning how to write a "basic" computer program.
Actually learning cobalt and fortran (sp?)
decwriters.

[JasperST]

Mini skirts :mad:
Quadraphonic sound systems
HD DVD (Blueray won out)
Laserdisks

[Timey25]

The Delorean, Oregon Trail,Thundercats...lol:rolleyes:

[DACP]

AM radio was standard, FM was an add on in a new car.

[Timey25]

:rolleyes::eek:The K-pot

[luvmylabs]

Mini skirts :mad:


came , went, came again, went again, they will be back soon. Give it 2 years.

[Taylor13]

I got nothing.. too young.

[willowdared]

Atari 2600
DOS operating system
the old rabbit ears on the TV

DOS is hiding under windows. ;)

WYSIWYG

Laser discs

did anyone say polaroids yet?

flash cubes...and flash bulbs for that matter

[willowdared]

Anyone else start their online life using Prodigy? :D

[Steve354]

came , went, came again, went again, they will be back soon. Give it 2 years.

I seem them everytime I am out :D 1/2 inch below the butt to short for my liken

[rubyrose]

I still recall fish &chips getting raped in newspaper

Steve, I don't normally call out folks for their typos, but this one is a funny.

You meant wrapped, not raped. LOL. :D

Someone I ran into online called this "typonese." That is, the language you end up having to figure out online because it's all typed, and few of us are good typists.

So, your sentence as-is is "typonese." We know what you meant. Still, it's a funny! :D

(I read about your disability. I'm not making fun of you. This is an error many would make.)

[rubyrose]

Strict dress codes in k-12 schools (these are staging a comeback in some places)
reel-to-reel tape recorders
Halloweens where everyone AT LEAST wore a mask for trick-or-treating, and you stopped doing it around age 12.
manual credit-card imprinters
Dot matrix printers
daisy wheel printers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_wheel_printer) (I still have one & it still works)
Palm Pilots & similar organizers (no internet access or phone or email or texting)
Hand held calculators (only purpose mathematical)
Baby "car seats" that hung over the back of the seat & had a little steering wheel -- setting the kid up for going straight through the windshield in an accident.

[Seventy2002]

286 processor chip
math co-processors
dot-matrix printers
trackballs
monchrome monitors
anything that uses a serial port
Zip drives
IBM Selectric typewriter

[rubyrose]

Think they call that getting knocked up now

Only if they are really dumb! We all know how to keep that from happening, don't we?

[Steve354]

Remember Gomer Pyle:D:D Jim Neighbors

[luvmylabs]

Strict dress codes in k-12 schools


I never had a dress code imposed by schools (Mom was another matter) but around here they are actually starting to have dress codes of white shirts and navy pants, almost as bad as a full school uniform. Yuck. If I had kids in school I would fight it as a parent. Gov't should not tell me how to dress my kids. If I had a girl I would want her in cute little dresses and stuff.

[rubyrose]

Variety shows on tv (mix of dance, singing, joke-telling, short comic dramas, a la Jack Benny, Carol Burnette, etc)
Westerns on tv
Innocent comic family dramas on tv (e.g., Leave it to Beaver) where the kids knew absolutely nothing about grown up stuff like sex
Prime time tv shows that don't have any sex or reference to sex in them
Tv shows that didn't have unmarried people sleeping together, not even by joking reference
Tv shows where kids didn't sass their parents or any other adult


(oh I could go on....I am old, old, old!)

[willowdared]

I grew up with a dress code! Girls could wear pants in the winter - under our dresses! And yes, we had the whole "kneel on the floor" test.

No jeans (except Sadie Hawkin's day) and no tennis shoes.

My son's school does have a dress code/uniform....white or navy tops, black, navy or jean bottoms.

[rubyrose]

I grew up with a dress code! Girls could wear pants in the winter - under our dresses! And yes, we had the whole "kneel on the floor" test.

No jeans (except Sadie Hawkin's day) and no tennis shoes.

My son's school does have a dress code/uniform....white or navy tops, black, navy or jean bottoms.

My first year of college was at a Catholic women's college. We had a dress code that included having to wear skirts everywhere. The only place we could wear pants/jeans was in the private areas of the dormitories, or on our way out to go off campus.

We also couldn't wear sandals in the cafeteria. The reasoning was that people shouldn't have to look at nearly bare feet while eating.

We also had 2 nights of "sit down" dinners where we all sat at tables and got served by the students on "work study." Candlelight. Had to dress up nicely. During those dinners often one girl or another "passed the candle" to signify either engagement or plans to go into the convent. White candle for wedding plans. Black for convent.

[rubyrose]

I never had a dress code imposed by schools (Mom was another matter) but around here they are actually starting to have dress codes of white shirts and navy pants, almost as bad as a full school uniform. Yuck. If I had kids in school I would fight it as a parent. Gov't should not tell me how to dress my kids. If I had a girl I would want her in cute little dresses and stuff.

In my day girls had to be in "cute little dresses" whether they liked it or not!

The kind of dress codes I'm talking about aren't about uniforms, but things like no jeans for anyone, skirts/dresses only for girls, skirt length below the knee, no sneakers, boys with shirts tucked in, no "duck tail" haircuts (a la Elvis Presley), etc.

[luvmylabs]

[QUOTE=willowdared;1618697]I grew up with a dress code! Girls could wear pants in the winter - under our dresses! And yes, we had the whole "kneel on the floor" test.

No jeans (except Sadie Hawkin's day) and no tennis shoes.

QUOTE]

Oh god, no jeans, no sneakers, my mom's rules. It really sucked being one of the few kids who's parents came from a place where public schools had, and still do uniforms. My mom always wished we had uniforms so there would be no battle about what to wear to school.
When I was senior in high school mini skirts were starting to come back in style. I was one of the first in my school to wear one. It didn't violate Mom's no jeans, etc rule. She tried to say something, and I simply pulled out a ton of pics of her from the 60's with her butt barely covered.

[Retired96]

The blue, red and green piece of plastic you put over your tv screen to give you color tv. ( Must be over 55 to remember those)

Rin Tin Tin
Sky King
Whirlybirds
Howdy Doodie show
Ed Sullivan show
Telephone party lines

I'll take the 50's and 60's when life was so much better than today.

[luvmylabs]

3 channels on TV, cause that's all the antenna would pick up.

[rubyrose]

Maverick! (You know, the TV show!)
Bonanza



I'll take the 50's and 60's but without segregation & keeping women out of the workplace. Also add in more reliable birth control.

[Guams]

Rescue 911. I loved that show when I was a kid.
Flipper
Mr. Wizard

Okay, so those aren't "things," but they sure have disappeared. :(

[AgentMan]

Good funny Cartoon Shows.

[AgentMan]

Maverick! (You know, the TV show!)
Bonanza



I'll take the 50's and 60's but without segregation & keeping women out of the workplace. Also add in more reliable birth control.

"All the Mavericks please stand up" :D:D

[Jim1648]

This thread brings back some memories. When I was a kid growing up on a rural Minnesota dairy farm, we had a rotary dial telephone with a party line. I suspect many people here have not heard of this. You picked up the telephone receiver and sometimes, instead of getting a dial tone, you heard a neighbor already having a conversation. Often times it was in Finnish because some of the neighbors from the "old country" still spoke that. If a call came in you could not answer it right away. You had to wait to see if it was so many long rings or short rings to see if it was for your home.

You went to watch TV on the black and white television that had four channels from Duluth MN. Eventually we got a color set, but the stations signed off and did not broadcast 24 hours a day.

I missed school once when I was sick and their was an Apollo mission underway. All of the TV channels carried the mission right up to launch and beyond. You learned everything about the astronauts. They were heroes then, not somebody who plays football on an NFL team or plays music.

I recall my sister getting records and albums. When I was older I bought 8 track tapes.

I was interested in electronics and bought a CB radio. It only had 23 channels. Later I got a single sideband CB and also one that had 40 channels.

I eventually got a police scanner to learn about police work. I had to buy crystals to plug in for each channel. It was all analog then. There was no digital, no trunking, and I don't think the 800 mHz band was available yet for licensing.

I recall being in Duluth MN once and seeing a car with a mobile telephone in it! I thought, "Wow, he must be rich and important to have a telephone in his car!"

We did have "Show and Tell" in school as a kid. I think some students may have brought guns. It was okay, though, because they got to show the class their Remington Model 1100 shotgun that they used to shoot grouse.

The neighbors a couple of farms away were the "new people" even though they moved to the area about 20 years prior.

We still had one farm near us that did not have electricity. It was available, but they didn't have it. They milked their cows by hand and used lanterns in the barn for light. They made "loose hay" because they didn't even have a hay baler.

A different farmer near us did not have indoor plumbing because going to the bathroom in the house was dirty. He also did no farm work on Saturday evenings because he was watching the "fights" on TV (boxing).

I eventually went to college and we still had boyfriends and girlfriends then. I don't think I had even heard of a "baby daddy" then yet.

When I became a cop I was issued a revolver and had dump pouches. Sometime later I got Speedloaders. There was no computer or MDT in the car yet. We had analog FM VHF radios with no repeater. No rifles in squads yet, only a Remington 870.

When you needed to call a complainant, you had to stop by the PD or a fire station to make a telephone call. We also had a list of payphones where we would drive up and radio the dispatcher to call us at a certain payphone location.

There are many crimes now that we did not have then. For example, interfering with a 911 call. We did not have 911 yet, so how could it be a crime. Violation of an Order For Protection really wasn't something discussed much. If you arrested a drunk driver he had an option of a Breathalyzer because the Intoxilyzer wasn't in use yet.

Cops wore black Wellington boots in many departments. No cop was wearing black tennis shoes yet in uniform. Some cops carried Kel-Lites, but we read about a rechargeable Streamlight SL-20 advertised in Law & Order magazine.

If you went to a medical call nobody used latex gloves yet. AIDS and HIV wasn't mentioned in first aid training then yet.

If you picked up a juvenile he or she knew how to reach their parents. There parents were usually married to one another and actually lived in the same home where the child lived.

Once you went back on patrol you would tune in your car radio for entertainment and cuss out the city for buying an AM only radio in the squad car. If a storm was coming it was terrible trying to listen to a radio station.

When I became a suburban cop I learned that some people call the cops for absolutely everything. When I was a kid growing up on the farm you didn't call the sheriff office unless it was something important.

I usually typed my police reports on an IBM Selectric typewriter. Those reports looked better than my hand written reports.

Does anybody remember running radar with the old one with the antenna that was mounted on the window. And when you locked in a speed it did the triple BEEP-BEEP-BEEP that was annoying and could be heard on the radio when you called in.

How about drive in movies and genuine drive in restaurants. Girls, not guys, brought food out on the tray that attached to you window. How racy if they had an "R" rated movie at the drive in movie theater. Something like "Hot Teenage Nurses" or the like.

[rubyrose]

Birthday parties where your parents didn't hire any special "talent" to entertain you, and you had it at home, not in some restaurant or amusement park, and it didn't cost a small fortune, and your guests weren't expected to compete for the best, most expensive present.

You played "pin the tail on the donkey" or maybe had a pinata. Or you played "blind man's bluff."

Cake, ice cream. That's it. But you had a blast anyway because you were with your friends and your parents weren't trying to impress anybody by throwing the best party for you.

[TOMBSTONE]

Wow, I remember when there was only rock and roll all over the radio on FM...Now there is only hip hop.

I remember in 1987 riding in my buddy Russells mothers 86 Ford Taurus and he let me make a phone call on his dads "brick" Motorola Cellphone..It cost like $3.00 a minute and I called my mom and told her "You will never guess where I am...Im in a Car!!!...On the phone!!!"....lol

[just joe]

AM radio was standard, FM was an add on in a new car.

Or you could buy the FM converters. Remember those?

Does Bianchi still make their "speed strips?"

[redbird07]

My grandmother used this product in the 70's....AYD's, The chewy way to lose weight. Doubt it would sell with that name nowadays.

[Kieth M.]

Was just thinking of Keith and then this weird topic - things that came to life, lived and then died or became second tier / obsolete or even collector items (for the most part) in your own lifetime.

Let me get this straight, you're thinking of me and you come up with a weird topic? Scary!

How about:


Star Search.
Billy Beer.
Members Only jackets.
Discovery Zone.
Clutch Cargo.
Parachute pants.
Torn sweatwhirts (Flashdance style).
The Power Team (tearing apart phone books in the name of Jesus!)
Capt. Kangaroo.
Heath Ledger.
Bon Jour Jeans.
Ball Pits...you know the little plastic balls in McDonalds/Burger King the kids used to play in?


I don't know for sure, are American Bandstand and Soul Train still on TV?

[Kieth M.]

I hate to add this one:













































































The Village People!:rolleyes:

[Copp'rPenny]

Sony Walkmans
The Z Channel (first movie cable channel)
Publishing that required an x-acto knife and paste-up
The Associated Press machine that just tickered out the stories coming across "the wire"
Drive-up windows at banks (replaced by drive-up ATMs)
User groups before the www
Netscape
Dial-up for internet connection
The Cordoba (with fine, Corinthean leather!)
The Fiero
The MR2
The Acura NSX
Circuit City, Linens and Things, Mervyn's, Home Depot Expo, etc. :(

[pulicords]

Things that came and went:
1) Teletype machines (having to cut tapes for DMV info)
2) Pagers
3) CN and CS "Mace"
4) 1st Generation Tasers that wouldn't hold a charge
5) "Hot sheets"
6) "NATB" (now NICB) VIN books
7) .30 caliber carbines in officers' lockers "just in case"
8) Bullseye qualification courses (shot monthly)
9) Plastic PR-24 batons that would warp if left in the sun.
10) Call boxes
11) Huge walkie talkies w/extending antenna & slings
12) Body armor with only front and back panels
13) Softpoint duty ammo (because JHP was too controversial)
14) Breakfront holsters
15) Making your own "black duty boots" by dyeing Vietnam era combat boots.

[willowdared]

This thread brings back some memories. When I was a kid growing up on a rural Minnesota dairy farm, we had a rotary dial telephone with a party line. I suspect many people here have not heard of this. You picked up the telephone receiver and sometimes, instead of getting a dial tone, you heard a neighbor already having a conversation.

I grew up with a party line too! Remember you had ring patterns too, so you knew who the call was for.

A&W Rootbeer stands.....*sigh*

When I was a kid, we would go down to the locks to watch the boats go through.

[rubyrose]

An entire vocation -- typesetters. Invented with the early printing press, though (long before my time!).

The concept of shared sacrifice when we are at war, so that the burden of it isn't borne by only a small set of families.

Making do with what you have, rather than pulling out the plastic for stuff you can't afford and don't really need anyway.

Drive in restaurants with car hops.

Drive in theaters.

Childhoods where you got to be a child rather than getting railroaded through extra curricular activities from dawn to dusk.

Going to the airport for entertainment -- watching the planes take off, and being able to stand outside behind a chain link fence you could probably climb over if you wanted to, in order to watch them.

Large movie theaters that showed only 2 movies at most, and the interiors were plush all around, with balconies and heavy drapes and lots of gold filigree decorations.

Kids being able to ride public buses without fear for safety, even in the cities.

[Yogi298]

Roller Derby:D

[luvmylabs]

[INDENT].
Drive in restaurants with car hops.

INDENT]

We still have them, a chain called Sonics.

[texaschickeee]

couple restaurants that I miss...
Chuck wagon. (they had (THE BEST onion rings)
Del Taco- two pesos
Grandy's (cinnamon rolls to die for)
the red barn (a drive through only mom & pop hamburger joint. only burgers, fries, and rings. and shakes thick and rick and made right in front of you with hand scooped ice cream)
real news,
real people not surgery enhanced or altered
Beall's store
Montgomery wards
a gas station person filling your tank, checking your oils/
the star wars movie epics
jaws epic
the 3D thingy

my dog rebel :(
chevy citation

[texaschickeee]

We still have them, a chain called Sonics.

+1

[texaschickeee]

7-11 (in the Housotn area. been gone for years)
U-tot-m (another store)
Astro world
Astro dome
CHIPS (the TV show.:D)

[AuxNY]

The Smurfs
Strawberry Shortcake (making a comeback)
Double Dare
The Facts of Life

[10-74 S8]

Pong
Intellivision
Chevy S-10
B-Body(RWD Caprice, Fleetwood, and Roadmaster) from GM
Camaro
GM's ambition
Assault Weapons Ban.... might make a comeback
Real Saturday morning cartoons that lasted all morning
Conjunction Junction
The Disney Family shows on Sunday nights
The Incredible Hulk
Dallas
The Dukes of Hazzard
Knot's Landing
Dynasty
The Rockford Files
Hawaii Five-O
New Coke
Palobrajot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Write_Channel)
Freedom to roam your local streets after dark
StarTac cell phone
Bag Phones
Real GI Joe
Real People (the TV show -- Skip Stephenson and Sarah Purcell)
Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom
Emergency! (TV show Squad 51 -- Rampart)
Star Search
The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson
The original Superstation (TBS)
Menudo:rolleyes:
Duran Duran:p
Pepsi Clear
In The Heat of the Night (TV show)
Dinner AT the Dinner table with family
Whoopins for being bad
Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun
"Where's the Beef?"
A real Hardware store
Computer to computer bulletin boards
"The plane boss, the plane" (Fantasy Island)

[GlockGirl]

Soda pop was purchased in 8 pack returnable bottles (glass).

You could smoke, everywhere (I'm glad that is no longer).

Related to smoking, at 8 years old, I was sent to the grocery store, with a note from my mom to buy her smokes, and of course they sold them to me.

Dads worked and moms stayed home for the most part.

As a family we ate dinner every night together, at the kitchen table with no distractions like television or cell phones.

Pizza was not delivered, nor was any other kinds of prepared food.

I guess some of this is more "history" than invention to obsolete.

[MEA0306]

I never had a dress code imposed by schools (Mom was another matter) but around here they are actually starting to have dress codes of white shirts and navy pants, almost as bad as a full school uniform. Yuck. If I had kids in school I would fight it as a parent. Gov't should not tell me how to dress my kids. If I had a girl I would want her in cute little dresses and stuff.

Uniforms and dress codes of white shirts/navy pants are supposed to be "equalizers" to prevent rich kids from making fun of poor kids about clothes, etc. For example, if a family can't afford new clothes for school a school uniform (basically the same outfit worn every day) keeps this information relatively private.

This helps, but kids will always find something to create a hierarchy around.

[exdrip]

1 in 6 pop bottle caps wins you a free pop!