Things you remember that today's youth will never know.

Slots in medicine cabinets for those disposable blades!  (Borrowed from the other thread)
 
Those typewriter erasers with the wheel and brush.
 
 
 
 

Black & White TV.
Ice Boxes with real Ice to cool them!
Non-Plastic Outhouses!
Kodak Box Camera's.
Leaded Gasoline at 29.9 cents!
Nickel Candy Bars.
Mimeograph Machines
Rotary Dial Telephones.
Phone numbers that started with letters - BR549!
Long Neck Glass Milk Bottles with paper caps.
Mail Man Bags.
Party Lines
5 cent Saturday Matinee's in black and white starring Lash Larue, Hopalong Cassidy, Rocketman and the Lone Ranger plus others.
Beer in tin cans with no pull tabs.
Girls with their cardigans on backwards - Buttoned up the back for easy access!
Cloth Diapers
Washing machines with wringers on the back of them.
Crystal Radio sets wired to Bed Springs for better reception.
Raleigh Cigarettes with coupons.
Vacutex Blackhead remover and White Cloverine Brand Salve ads in Comic Books! 
 

Phone booths
Those tiny US Mailboxes that used to be on phone poles.
Pay bathrooms
rollerskates with metal wheels

Having to walk over to the TV to change the channel
Having to memorize your friends phone numbers

TVs and Radios having to warm up and then fiddling with the horizontal and vertical hold controls a couple of times until it stabilized the picture. Vacuum tubes glowing inside. What the "dial" or the U meant on a tv. Conelrad/CD triangle markings on the radio dial. Radios that took "A" & "B" batteries before the transistor sets.
 
That smelly stuff that you coated a Poloroid B&W picture with.
 
The Dr's office experience with white enamled trays, cabinets full of scary instruments, White coats on Dr's and starched white uniforms on nurses complete with the hat...reflector on a headband. Getting your throat painted with an idodine swab for a sore throat. Getting a shot with a very dull needle that's been sterilized thousands of times on the end of a glass syringe.
 
That thing hanging behind the bathroom door that was supposed to cure everything.
 
Sanitary belts
 
Lawn Darts
 
Shortwave radios
 
Unsealed food and medicines without nutriton facts
 
8 tracks, open reels, and shellac 78rpm records
 
The sound of the changer mechanism on your record player.
 
Cigarette vending machines.
 
Theater's having an organist playing b4 the movie started.
 
Cans of food stamped with the price in blue ink and the amount individually keyed into the register.
 
Paregoric sold in little bottles on the shelves.
 
Waking up on saturday mornings to watch cartoons and go out to play at noon just in time to hear the air raid sirens
 
Duck and Cover while were at it.
 
Do they still make canvas notebooks? Do students actually practice cursive anymore?
 
Changing the ribbon on a manual typewriter
 
Carbon paper
 
Buying carbide in a can at the hardware store for a lamp
 
Console tv/stereos
 
Stores and places w/o air conditioning and places that have it advertising the fact they do
 
Wooden phone booths inside public places and an old Bell logo outside the place advertising the availability of a pay phone.
 
The sound of a teletype machine, selectric typewriter/printer, or daisy wheel printer
 
 
 
 
 
 

Politeness.

Re Dawn's comment about vacuum tubes.  Every hardware store used to have "tube testers" where you could check if yours was still alive or dead just by plugging them in, and they were free.  In my dad's TV & Radio repair business, I, at ten years old, was the Chief Tester, meaning I was the one who carried the box a half mile to the store, and plugged each one in.
 
Re Dawn's comment about TV's and radios and their controls -- don't forget your brother, standing outside and slowly turning the TV antenna until you get the best picture you can -- "Little more, Johhny.  Little more...little more...that's it!   Stop.  Oh, darn, too far, back one twist!" 
 

Fill 'er up with Ethyl
 
Full service that was really full service
 
A remote that clicks... (I still call it the clicker someties)
 
The phone in your home didn't belong to you
 
Vacuum bags are becoming a thing of the past.
 
 

making covers for our school books using brown paper bags
 
milk not only being delivered to your house, but in glass bottles
 
5 and dime stores where a lot of items actually sold for 5 and 10 cents  
 
Mar52's roller skates with metal wheels, and a skate key you needed to keep them on 
 
Early drink vending machines required some physical effort,  where you opened the case, and pulled the drink out of it's socket, or in the case of those old cooler types, you slid the bottle along those two metal bars 

Cigarette machines.....I saw one a few months ago in a liquor store.  First one I had seen in years.  The price- $10.00

having to put a penny or dime on the record player arm to keep it from skipping 
 
blowing into an atari cartridge to get it to work
 
red pistachio's for bar munchies, hell, bar munchies themselves
 
actually having to do maintenance on your car (setting points/adjusting carbs)
 
going through the full service lane while on a date to make it a special event spending 5 bucks for a half tank of gas
 
pay phone hacking
 
the hiss and pop of playing a record album
 
the cool as hell power meter on the front of your new pioneer cassette player in your car 
 
a song cut in half and started again on the next track of an 8 track player

Milkman coming to your home, with milk that had real cream on top.
Having to wear dresses or skirts to school.  No jeans or pants allowed.  
Reel to reel tape recorders, that you could splice the tapes.
Always shopped downtown, no Malls or Super Stores
Getting our first TV (black and white) with hardly any channels
The Dentists drill that really sounded nasty, and really smelled when grinding out a cavity.
Garter belts to hold up nylons.
When Elvis on TV first couldn’t be seen swiveling his hips.
Board oiled floors at school.
Inkwells at school.
Teachers were able to spank children.

installing and setting points in a car ( ignition points and condensor )

LIghting the pilot on your stove
 
The choke in a car
 
Pumping the gas pedal to get it started
 
window wings in the front windows of cars
 
 
 
 

Soft Drinks only available in Glass Bottles.
Civil Defense Outposts for spotting planes.
Air Raid Drills
Waffle Irons that you heated on the stove.
Wood Burning Kitchen Stoves.
The Fuller Brush Man.
Telegrams and Telegram Delivery Boys.
Ticker Tape machines.
Computer punch cards.
After market White Walls for your tires.
Carbide Cannons
Web strap seats in Airplanes.
100% wooden snow and water skis.
Pressure Cookers that actually blew up.
Transistor Radios.
UHF TV's
Leather Football Helmets.
Round, oil filled Road Construction Lamps
 

29 cent pack of cigarettes with a penny change taped on the pack out of a vending machine.
Paper gallon milk cartons
4 cents for 1st class postage
vacuum tube TV's that had to warm up
penny candy
watching man step on moon for 1st time live

viewmasters - I remember a slide in particular of a dinosaur diorama that I  thought was cool
 
Drive Ins - though there are a few left 
 
TV test patterns - indicating shows were off the air

I live in an area that we still can get milk delivery in a glass bottle!
 
As a note to the demise of typewriters, I spent many years working as a computer technician for my local community college. I had a student intern working with me once when we were in a office that still used a typewriter because certain State forms HAD to be done that way. My intern commented about "that typey thingee"  when he heard the click click of a keyboard.

Everything that happened before last year!

Pulling into a gas station and asking for "three dollars worth"  Then having the attendant wash your windshield, check your oil, your radiator and your battery water.

Sadly, being able to travel the city (Philadelphia in my case) at anytime of the day or night on the buses, trolleys and subway, without fear for your personal safety.

Church Keys for can openers (before pop-tops or pull-tabs)
 
Horse meat in the meat markets glass case
 
Waiting for the radio (and tv) to warm up before you could hear/see anything
 
C-Rations at army surplus stores 
 
Fluid Drive (Chrysler products)
 
Bobcat pins, Wolf, Bear, and Lion badges (Cub Scouts BSA)
AIR EXPLORERS BSA
 
Junior Drivers Licenses (age 14 in Indiana for many years)
 
Watching airburst Atomic Bombs in Nevada from 100 miles away
 
 
 

Watching as they filed two-by-two into the ark.

BackAlleyBurger


the hiss and pop of playing a record album

Vinyl's actually experiencing a bit of a resurgence right now...I wouldn't write it off just yet.
 
Brad

Oiling Dirt Roads to keep the dust down
Covering counters in retail stores with sheets at closing time.
Sears Catalogs
Pup Tents made out of Waterproofed Canvas.
Marching from one Cemetary to another on Memorial Day in our scout uniforms. (Now Veterans Day for those who don't remember)
Running boards on cars.
Having to swim naked in the YMCA Indoor Pool. No suits allowed.
The Railway Express Agency. (Had my fireworks shipped in on the REA)
Carling Black Label - 50 cents a quart.
Curb feelers on cars.
Buster Brown Shoes and Radio Commercials. "Hi, I'm Buster Brown - I live in a Shoe!"
White Bucks
Madras Shirts
Coming home after school to watch American Bandstand with Dick Clark and learn the latest dance moves. (In B&W)
Inner Tubes in Tires
Hitchiking was safe and people picked you up
People stopped to help people with car trouble
Cars were 100% metal!
Fireworks were legal most everywhere.
Storm Windows had to be put up and taken down.
People didn't lock their doors.
Bicycles only had 1 gear.
No Bicycle Helmets.
No Seatbelts or car seats.
Women wore hats & gloves to Church.
No Car Air Conditioning or House AC.
ALL Nuns wore Habits!
ALL Nuns carried rulers as standard equipment!
Every School Principal had a paddle.
Many homes had Coal Chutes & Bins and coal furnaces
Schools provided school supplies and sporting equipment.
Football Helmets had no facemasks. Baseball players wore no helmets.
Golf shoes had metal spikes.
Flight Attendants no longer wear hot pants and boots

Girls had to wear swimming caps when in a pool, but boys didn't.
 
hitchhiking
 
busses that were connected to overhead wires. 

mar52
 
busses that were connected to overhead wires. 

I Philly we called those "Trackless Trolleys"

This group sounds old.
 
Running around town looking for discarded soda bottles to get the three cent deposit. For you youngsters out there, glass soda bottles were washed and reused.

paper dolls
 
Do they still make those balsa wood gliders, Jacks, Tiddly Winks, Pick up Sticks?
 
 

mar52


paper dolls

Do they still make those balsa wood gliders, Jacks, Tiddly Winks, Pick up Sticks?

 
You'll have to ask JoeRogo where he gets his paper dolls, but while they are harder and harder to find each year, the balsa wood planes are still around.  http://www.guillow.com/