Mental Floss:
Even though I’m fairly ancient, I’ve never seen a Model T outside of a classic auto show. So I realize that there are many things that have been obsolete since the elastic waistband was invented and would confound anyone under age 70. But what about some common items that have come and gone within the last 30 or so years? See how many of these you recognize, and how many of them would puzzle your kids or grandkids.
Interestingly, while I have heard about all of them, five of them I’ve never actually seen in real life (#2, 4, 6, 8, 10). How about you? And which ones would your kids not be able to recognize?
I have a sake key and used to put S&H stamps into the little books.
Never seen a milk shoot or tube tester.
*skate*
Sigh. I’ve seen (and used) them all. Didn’t use the milk chute for milk though, but it was a great place for storing gloves.
Seen ’em all. Don’t think I ever used a skate key, though, and in Los Angeles, we just left our milk bottles out by the back porch door.
I still own and use a church key! Best thing to open cans of hershey’s chocolate syrup 🙂 Yes because some of us still get it in cans! And some of us still do it and are under 40!! 😉
I’m 28 years old and primarily grew up in suburbs near or around LA, Miami, and Houston.
Things I had never heard of or seen before:
45rpm record adapter, self-service tube tester, milk chute, green stamps, typewriter eraser
Things I’ve been aware of but haven’t seen in-person:
Skate key, motel room wall-mounted bottle opener
Things I have seen before and would recognize:
Church key, pull tabs, fotomat booth, no-draft window
At age 63 I have seen, owned, used every one of these.
no milk chute — remember the tube tester with affection and Heathkits
All but the milk shoot I’m afraid. There must be a generational line, I just turned 50 this year.
I know what a skate key is but I probably wouldn’t have recognized it from the photo. And I had no idea what a milk chute was. All the rest I’ve used. I have a wall-mount bottle opener installed in my recording studio.
When I was little and the TV was acting up my dad would let me help him take out all the tubes and we’d bring them down to the TV repair shop and test them all on the machine. I still have vivid memories of twisting the handles on the long scroll with the specifications for which settings and socket to use for each type of tube. I loved doing that.
At age eighteen, I’ve only heard of two of them. The pull tabs are still fairly common in the UK (I have a tin of sweetcorn with one on just in front of me), and I recognise the Fotomat booth from an early Photoshop icon. (Think I saw this on a post on Sebastiaan de With’s site).
interesting that it’s called a “Church Key”. I didn’t know that. We just called it a bottle opener. 🙂
I’ve seen all of them, and like others, used all but the milk chute for their intended purpose.
I’ve seen all but two of these in their listed form.
I’ve never seen a bottle opener in a motel, but I sure as hell have seen a few outside NYC delicatessens, mounted next to the security gate frames. Because they weren’t licensed to let you open your beer while you were still in the store.And the milk chute is an odd artifact. Reminds me a bit of the sealed-off dumbwaiter in my first tenement-building apartment.
Have not used Fotomat booth, though did use other drop-off & pick up services, no green stamps, nor milk chute. The hotel I stayed in this past weekend at the Casino has a beer bottle opener in the room.
Used the ‘church key’ to open 48 oz cans of Avon brand apple juice. (remember those Jim?)
“the Casino has a beer bottle opener in the room.”
In Canada, right? 🙂 Every hotel we stayed at as a kid had the bottle opener. First time staying in a US hotel, I was confused when I couldn’t find it. 🙂
I remember well.
Now I know 65 is old! The only thing I’ve never actually used, but have seen, was the tube tester. Should add Azar’s Big Boy!
I’m almost thirty, grew up in the Chicago metro area suburbs and now live in the city.
I wouldn’t be able to recognize the 45 record adapter before reading this article without seeing it in context.
I know what a skate key is because I loved the book “Eloise” as a child, and she was always losing hers. I had a plastic pair of Fischer Price roller skates with the same exendible construction, but it used a ratcheting system that didn’t require a key.
I’ve used church keys off and on for various tasks, strangely enough, usually in Lutheran Churches, where they’d buy huge cans of juice to make punch or broth for soup because it was more economical for a large group.
I have never seen a tube tester, my dad was a software guy, not a hardware guy, and we never had a bad tube in any of our tvs, not even the small black-and-white portable set with knobs that eventually took up residence in our laundry room.
Pull tabs still exist today in a far less injurious form on certain products, the sharp tin being replaced with a small piece of adhered Mylar.
Never seen a fotomat booth. Sounds familiar, but my mom despised glossy coatings, and usually went to a fancier place to get her film developed.
My Aunt and Uncle have a wall-mounted bottle opener in their finished basement next to a huge fridge filled with nothing but beer. They even placed a little cup underneath to catch the spills and caps. Brilliant.
I lived in a Victorian house when I was in my preschool years, and it had a milk chute and laundry chute. It may have even had a dumbwaiter. I didn’t know what it was called, though, the milk chute. It was just another neat place to hide.
No-draft windows? I always wondered what those little corner windows were for! My parents never used them. Many of our cars had them.
I’ve never seen a green stamp of the kind shown here, but our local grocer had a holiday promotion with a very similar implementation.
I’ve never seen a typewriter eraser before. I think I’ve only used a typewriter once in my life.
No milk chute. Our milkman came into the back porch and put the bottles into the refrigerator (and took away the empties). Our order was flexible: leave enough to have N full quarts after the delivery.
Pull tabs (which arrived on the scene during my lifetime) cut a LOT of feet. The current system in which you infect yourself by pushing the micro-critters into the content is much better.