Saturday, August 18, 2007

Gone Now, Gone Soon

Boomers reminisce a lot; maybe everyone does.

I was thinking about some items and brands that older Boomers grew up with that are no longer around. I don’t miss all of these things; I’m just amused when I think that I never thought I’d see the day when they would be gone.

Here are a few examples for your amusement:

Already gone or almost non-existent -

- Phone booths

- Plymouths

- Phones with wires

- VCRs

- Oldsmobiles

- Manual Transmission – in America, but not anywhere else

- Film


Gone within the next few years -

- Checkbooks

- Tube TVs with 4:3 ratio

- Computers connected to anything with wires

- Cashiers


Would you like to add anything to the list?

7 comments:

Ian said...

Gone now:
Audio cassettes
Merv Griffin
Floppy Disks
Michael Vick
Pagers

In a few years:
CDs
Dick Clark
Dial-up modems
The Raiders in Oakland
iPhones (come on, you know they won't last)

Ian

Bernie said...

Good list, Ian! But you think iPhones will be gone in a few years? Guess it could happen - CDs just celebrated their 25th anniversary and they are already on their way out.

Anonymous said...

I don't have any new additions to what will no longer be, but I must say it made me sad to see film on your list. I know its true, but I hadn't really considered it.

When I was a kid, my grandmother and I would visit my great uncle, Robert, in Texas. He collected reel to reel movies from the 20s, 30s & 40s. He built a tiny theater in the back of his house, and everyone would gather there to watch "42nd Street" or any number of Carol Lombard or Fred and Ginger movies.

I used to sit and watch him meticulously splice and repair the films with some sort of a rudimentary looking contraption, and I was mesmerized.

Reading your post reminded me of those times. I know these changes are in the interest of advancement, but I just wish - though I know it makes no sense - that some things could remain, in addition to the evolution of it all.

Bernie said...

I'm torn about the demise of film. I've been shooting photos on film since I was a kid watching my Dad take pictures and develop them. In fact, I now have his WWII-vintage Leica camera as well as a camera bag full of my own Nikon camera bodies and lenses - all film. There are many reasons for making the switch to digital, but I'll miss film.

elizinashe said...

Hopefully such things will never disappear but we all know that there is a huge problem with healthcare..the availability for low-income class, education for crime ridden neighborhoods, resources and support for the mentally ill which is a bigger class of people than publicized. Social Security for my generation and those who follow and public smoking areas will certainly be wiped out. What I'd really like to see is a salary cap on our over paid professional athletes!! It's become more than ridiculous what these people make in a 5 year contract but as a nation we can't feed, clothe and educate our own peoples. Where are our priorities as a nation? eliz

Lee said...

My first car was an Olds. It was a great car..ask Eliza.

Good lists Bernie and Ian...
makes you really stop and think...so many things just seem to disappear and we don't even realize they are gone...

Lee

Carol Blymire said...

Gone now:
Manners
Teaching kids self-reliance

Gone soon:
Oprah Winfrey (wishful thinking, I know)