MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Things you're glad to see gone

Things you're glad to see gone

posted 3 years ago by BullSchmidt (3189)
115 replies | jump to latest

For me, pay toilets.

For those not old enough to remember the 1970s, they were common everywhere, at least here in the US. You had to put a dime into a coin operated lock on the stall door. Then it would unlock, and you could enter, sit down, and take care of business. You were wise to carry a few dimes with you when outside your home. You never knew when you might need them.

Otherwise you could end up having to cheat by sliding under the door. Humiliating, and quite difficult when wearing a fish costume. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bCjbCy76S5c/VQzOJTNk8PI/AAAAAAAAALc/ObtZg_hKtkQ/s1600/Fish%2BStory%2BWKRP%2Bpig%2Band%2Bfish.jpg

Women's lib changed that. Their leader called pay toilets sexist. Both genders had to pay to crap. But we dudes could use urinals and so we could pee for free. Women had to pay to do that.

Some men were in favor of women's lib. Those men shouted, "damn right!"

Some men were against women's lib. But they understood that the very existence of pay toilets was now in critical condition. Those men shouted, "damn right!"

And then, no more pay toilets.

What are things you don't miss about the past?

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

Glad to see the following gone:

Physical maps
Long queues at ATMs
Video cassettes

[–] Kowalski (75523) 3 years ago

REMIND ME NOT TO SEND YOU ON A TREASURE HUNT TO THE ATM TO GET CASH FOR VIDEOS.

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 3 years ago

> Physical maps

I'm not glad to see them gone, and I've got a Rand-McNally atlas I keep in my car just in case my Garmin GPS fails. But my God, a talking GPS unit is so much better! "In one quarter mile, turn right ..."

[–] AnubisRaydeen (7897) 3 years ago

I love maps. I don't use them to navigate but I have a big collection of maps. Just not road maps. I have many old political maps that are now inaccurate. I love those! Countries that only exist in memory and map like Czechoslovakia and Rhodesia.

My favorite map: a huge 5'x6' map of the world without water. Have that one up on the wall.

I hate to say that I am glad that anything is gone. I'm nostalgic for even lame-ass long phone cords. I am glad that slavery is gone (in MOST of the world) and paying to develop film.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

Where I grew up we had one brand that everyone bought for the street directory. Then I found a different one, smaller, with different style of drawing.

What's interesting is that it had marked a piece of land across from my house, on the river, as a recreational zone, whereas the other didn't. People used to camp on what I thought was private property but this map seemed to suggest it wasn't.

I thought that was cool.

[–] GlenEllyn (21526) 3 years ago

I love maps too, and so does my oldest grandson. We look at a Rand-McNally road atlas quite often when we're together.

I also have a "People's Handy Atlas of the World" from the 1910s. Along with the usual maps, it also includes maps showing the US's early territories, average size of US farms, values of the various US agricultural products, mean annual US rainfall, US elevations, US irrigation projects, and conservation of US forests. It also has a map of the US with a number of European countries superimposed on it to show size relationships.

It also has a list of principle US cities/towns, meaning those with a population over 5000. Example: in 1910 Grand Forks ND, pop. 12,478. Miami, FL, pop. 5471. Who'd have thought the "frozen tundra" town of Grand Forks would be more than twice as large as Miami?? Also, back then London had a population of 6,580,616 - largest city in the world.

[–] CyberVerm (117) 3 years ago

I’m really happy to see tobacco tv ads gone. When I was young it was all about that dumbass Marlboro man and even at that age as a boy I remember thinking “who in their right mind falls for this cancer crap??”

So I’m glad that’s gone

Oh the other hand I’m very sad about physical media going away. I was a big fan of renting movies, buying collectors box sets, putting all my floppy’s, cds and dvds in special shelves. Etc. I don’t buy anything like that anymore because it’s a waste of money when you have everything with a couple of subscription services.

Don’t get me wrong I’m thankful for how easy it has become. I just get nostalgic thinking about that stuff

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 3 years ago

> I just get nostalgic thinking about that stuff

I'm a computer guy, and I've had Internet email at home since 1990. I had a PC with SCO Unix which connected via UUCP with a 9600 baud modem. Three years later I got access to a dial-up connection by which I could have a "live" connection via TCP/IP. That was before the first web browser, and connections were generally via telner and ftp. Search engines were very primitive, WAIS and gopher. And using a 9600 baud modem meant downloads went at about 40 KB per minute. But sometimes I get nostalgic for those days.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

Nexus came out at the end of 1990. The first website went live in August of 91.

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 3 years ago

Oh? Well, it was thirty years ago. I'm an old fart now with a Metamucil addiction, and I have my senior moments. Shortly after getting the TCP/IP access, one of my fellow admins installed software on her Sun workstation to play with it, and my recollection was that it was a browser and it was a brand new thing. But now that I think about it, no, you're right. What she installed was web server software, not Apache but something similar, and put up her own personal web page, accessible from within the workplace.

Thanks for the correction.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

[deleted]

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 3 years ago

> The little burning smudge pots which street crews would distribute around their work zones to warn people to stay away.

I never ran into many of those. Maybe they were already out of fashion by the time I moved from a rural to an urban area.

I like being back in rural country. Another thing I'm glad is gone (for me) is being able to see and smell what I was breathing.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Furienna (3342) 3 years ago

Cameras that you had to load with film!
I could never learn how to change those stupid films, so my father or my sister had to change them for me. 😒

Also, I prefer to listen to music and watch TV shows/movies through streaming services over physical media.
Back in the day, I managed to scratch my CDs ridiculously often.
(I would be fine with audiocasettes though, but I don't bother with them much either these days.)
Since I have both a back pain and a neck pain, sitting up while I watch a TV show or a movie is hard for me.
Thus, I love that some angel invented the tablet and made it possible for me to do that lying down.

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 3 years ago

> Cameras that you had to load with film!

I've got the equipment to develop B/W film and make prints, although I haven't used it in over ten years. You don't even need a darkroom to develop film. (You do need one for prints, although it doesn't have to be perfectly dark.) It was a lot of fun doing that, and I keep telling myself I'll get some rolls of film and play around with it again someday, but if I haven't by now I probably never will. It takes about an hour just to develop the film. Digital is so much easier!

[–] mikethemartian (6708) 3 years ago

Remember the flash cubes?

[–] Furienna (3342) 3 years ago

No, actually.

[–] jriley555 (8117) 3 years ago

inquisitions
old-school serfdom/slavery
world wars
jim crow
no electricity, light, a/c
major infectious diseases w/o vaccines, antibiotics
limited social mobility, access to education
no/slow transportation

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 3 years ago

> major infectious diseases w/o vaccines, antibiotics

I know you're talking about things that are long gone but -- I'm thrilled COVID-without-vaccine is gone. I managed to not catch it and that's a good thing. I'm in multiple high risk groups, so if I had caught it I would have been in big trouble. I'm still shocked they got vaccines developed and distributed as quickly as they did, but when they did become available I got the shots as soon as I could.

[–] jriley555 (8117) 3 years ago

amen. and now the further good news that all vaccines, especially the mRNA ones, are 95% effective against delta. J&J is 80% unless you get a 2d shot, then it too goes up to that range.

[–] jonathan_k80 (6436) 3 years ago

Disco. It still manages to rear its ugly head occasionally even though the genre has been dead for forty years.

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 3 years ago

Oh God ... That was around my high school years. My friends and I hated it, but some of the kids went for it. Every day you'd see a few guys walking the halls dressed in leisure suits. I wonder if they hang their heads in shame when they remember that?

[–] jriley555 (8117) 3 years ago

i never got the hate for disco. it was light fun, had funk, was highly danceable. not that is too be taken seriously, but what the heck, its just a romp on the floor.

plenty of what came after is infinitely worse.

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 3 years ago

> plenty of what came after is infinitely worse.

Good point. I'll take disco over rap any day.

[–] jonathan_k80 (6436) 3 years ago

It was the fact that it was a cheap fad and the recording industry kept pushing it. You couldn't turn on the radio, TV, or go anywhere without hearing it.

When Saturday Night Fever was released in 1977 the fad exploded. The shallow trend-chasers saw pictures taken of celebrities at NYC's Studio 54 and were obligated to emulate this. Everyone now had to be John Travolta. It was nauseating.

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 3 years ago

> The shallow trend-chasers saw pictures taken of celebrities at NYC's Studio 54 and were obligated to emulate this.

I always viewed the Studio 54 crowd with contempt. I don't mean the celebrities, but the ordinary people who went there. I understood why they did. If you were allowed in, you might get to rub elbows with Jackie Onassis and other celebrities. But it meant standing outside and waiting while some twerp selected individuals he deemed worthy to enter, hoping he'd pick you. I would never degrade myself like that.

[–] Boromir (10005) 3 years ago

My ex

[–] Adam60z (3766) 3 years ago

Pay zippers.

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 3 years ago

> Pay zippers.

LOL

I'm grateful for zippers. The alternative would be a button-up fly. When I've gotta go, I've gotta go, and I don't want to waste time working through several steps to get my gun out of the holster and pointed toward the toilet. I'm not ready for the retirement home yet, but I'm also no spring chicken and my bladder control ain't what it used to be.