Friday OT #1 - That's Not A Thing

[MeanDean]

Being really old, I'll add going downtown any small to medium city in Iowa to Christmas shop the few weeks before Christmas. Talking before the insertion of the mega-malls. It seemed like such a big deal to have $5.00 to spend on parents and grandparents plus that one cousin whose name was drawn for you in the Christmas exchange. With approximately 2 hours to do it, ALL on YOUR OWN.

People were much less worried about child abduction then. Probably just as prevalent but I hardly remember any warnings about talking to strangers. I do remember warnings not to accept rides from strangers.

 

[Cyclonepride]

The way I stumble into "things that aren't a thing anymore" is by making references that mystify my younger coworkers. My latest gems are referring to matching clothing as Garanimals (the Internet says that is still a thing, but most had never heard of them) and referring to a guy as giving me a Jeff Spicoli vibe (no one knew what I was talking about).

 

[Sighclone Fan]

Sports-related games (all of these are available on eBay, of course):

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Oh wow, I completely forgot about that basketball game. That was so awesome as a kid.

 

[MeanDean]

Do schools still have those Scholastic Book Club things? They may have been somehow associated with the Weekly Readers. Again, showing my age here. Soft cover trade paperbacks for either 29 cents or 39 cents. And begging parents to let you buy some.

 

[urb1]

Who remembers Fotomat? What a boring job that must have been.

 

[cyclonespiker33]

Does anybody else remember staying up late to watch the unedited version of Girls on Film on the USA network.

I remember staying up late to watch the girls gone wild commercials on E! There were some decent shows that time of night also if you weren't concerned about content.

 

[MeanDean]

Auto vent windows.

They were great on hot days to channel the wind directly onto you. Of course you might also get a few bugs - or even a bee or wasp. They also gave you a natural place to grab with your hand while you were hanging your arm out the window.

Once A/C became prevalent in cars they seemed unnecessary. I've also had people tell me they leaked. I never experienced actual water leakage, but they would sometimes whistle from air/wind at certain speeds.

 

[Cyclonepride]

I remember staying up late to watch the girls gone wild commercials on E! There were some decent shows that time of night also if you weren't concerned about content.

Wild On with Brook Burke was a personal favorite.

 

[jcyclonee]

Do schools still have those Scholastic Book Club things? They may have been somehow associated with the Weekly Readers. Again, showing my age here. Soft cover trade paperbacks for either 29 cents or 39 cents. And begging parents to let you buy some.

They do still have those though they aren't as popular. Every school has book fairs now so that tends to be how students buy their books.

 

[jcyclonee]

Wild On with Brook Burke was a personal favorite.

Brooke Burke was on my "List of 5" at one time.

 

[madguy30]

Had to look it up...apparently 'Book It' is still a thing with Pizza Hut.

Read enough to get yourself some really bad (for you) food. 'Murica.

 

[urb1]

Before electronics ...

 

[srjclone]

Riding your bike over to your friends house to see if they were 1) there and 2) wanted to play outside all day

 

[Cyclonepride]

Riding your bike over to your friends house to see if they were 1) there and 2) wanted to play outside all day

That brings up a related point- as teenagers, if our friends weren't home, we had to drive around until we found them lol. I think we pretty much all circled the town "strip" until we ran into each other, and then coordinated where we were going.

 

[BCClone]

Who remembers Fotomat? What a boring job that must have been.

You know that all pictures were developed. The inappropriate ones were blacked out on the film and photo put in the drawer. At a woman tell me this. She said she had a few people she knew that would tip her and get all their photos. Copies still put in the drawer though. Not ever having any, I felt relieved.

 

[madguy30]

That brings up a related point- as teenagers, if our friends weren't home, we had to drive around until we found them lol. I think we pretty much all circled the town "strip" until we ran into each other, and then coordinated where we were going.

Rural Iowa 101. Drive around, until we see X amount of friends' vehicles at one place, so we could stop and hang out like we didn't see each other all week in nearly every class and didn't do the same thing last weekend.

The best was my friends who had subwoofers so I could hear them coming from literally a mile away, when they'd pick me up to drive around and not even be able to hear ourselves think, to find X amount of our friends' cars at someone's house, so we could....

 

[wenkeej]

Looney Tunes on Saturday morning, miss those.

Looney Tunes every morning on Boomerang if you get that channel.

 

[jcyclonee]

You know that all pictures were developed. The inappropriate ones were blacked out on the film and photo put in the drawer. At a woman tell me this. She said she had a few people she knew that would tip her and get all their photos. Copies still put in the drawer though. Not ever having any, I felt relieved.

Quite frankly, I think we're all relieved you don't have any.

 

[wenkeej]

Brooke Burke was on my "List of 5" at one time.

I'm pretty sure Brooke Burke is still hanging up in the men's room at Welch Ave Station.

 

[SerenityNow]

Being able to dial 5 numbers to call who I wanted to in our small town.