Buggy whips anyone?

[cerving]

1983: Commodore 64, monochrome monitor, 170KB floppy drive, Brother dot-matrix printer. Around $1200.
1989: 386SX "IBM compatible" w/1.4 MB floppy, 20 MB HDD, mono monitor w/Hercules graphics. Around $1200.
1994: Pentium computer, 500 MB HDD, VGA color monitor, CD-ROM. Around $1100.
2000: HP laptop, laser printer. Around $1300
.
<other computers>
.
.
.
2019: Thinkpad, 16 GB memory, 500 GB SSD. Around $1300.

That $1200 in 1983 would be about $3000+ today; it was a bit more than one month's salary (for me) back then.

TRS-80...

 

[ksaves2]

TRS-80...

Yeah,
I used to build from parts in the old days but that was old and now it's new. If one doesn't want to build, have someone else do it for them. Kurt

 

[Claviusbase1]

Mine too!



Same here, through the school bookstore. Math co-processor upgrade with dot-matrix printer and 1200 baud modem. Word, Excel and Autosketch...




It was small, but it was color!

My Commodore 64....

 

[rharshberger]

I happen to turn pens as a hobby and fountain pens are quite alive in that hobby. Having said that, it can be ego/elitist at times, but they even still make dip pens. I have one fountain pen I made and I'm not a fan, but some people pay big bucks for well made fountain pens.

To add my item to the list, I think the point and shoot Polaroid instant camera is pretty much a non-starter now-a-days. I spent my childhood seeing/hearing the 'flash, pop, zoo-woo-ooo-oooh-ahh-zing' that my mom took to every school performance I did. She was a hard-core instant picture mom and while I wasn't a fan at the time, I love the things she captured back then. Regretfully, the technology they used fades over time. Obviously this instant-photo technology has been replaced by the smartphone/DSLR world where you get crazy high resolution pictures with your phone or similar electronic device. I find it interesting that it is very rare that people get pictures printed/developed at the high quality their phone cameras can take. Now its all on the device or forwarded to someone's email. I guess that means photo-albums are also moving the way of the dinosaur in most households.

Hopefully this thread takes off. Seems fun to remember the things that are uncommon today and to also see the things that stuck around (the revival of vinyl records for instance).

Sandy.

Sadly, the Polaroid concept is not dead Fuji makes their Instax and other manufacturers have versions as well.

 

[kenstarr]

Caveduck mentioned the pushbutton light switch. I removed this one on a remodel recently. Built like a tank! I plan on installing it in my house... wherever I can convince my wife to let me. The brass cover plate will put a hole in your foot if you drop it. Heavy beast!

 

[rharshberger]

What about things that are obsolete, gone and you'll never miss them? Like Iomega Zip drives.

Stacker compression software....

 

[Steven]

RC builder's kits. Now everything is based on ARFs.

 

[Steven]

True musicianship and singers.

 

[Funkworks]

Arcades and VHS/game rental stores.

 

[kenstarr]

Back when I was a kid I remember borrowing a VCR so we could watch Charlie and the chocolate factory. Adventureland video had VCR's you could rent as well.

I miss the old fashioned meat locker at Smiths Brothers Market. They shut down a few years ago.

Also miss the V&S variety store across the street.

 

[gb1113]

I was sad when a local A&W tore down its drive-in canopy.
View attachment 490564
But man would I like to see a new 50's themed drive-in inspired by this, where instead of rollerskates, the waiters and waitresses would use somekind of electric scooter, monowheel, "hoverboard", Segway or other similar contraption. Just making a 50s vision of the future live, using current tech.

The small southern MN town I live in still has (at least as of October this year) a drive-in located across the road from an in-town lake. Nice location - good enough food - good root beer.

 

[Alan15578]

[OK this post got big, but it was fun to write]
Dirt roads impassable in rain

There is much that I could add to the list...

I can assure you that those dirt roads still exist in Iowa.

How could you forget the outhouse? It was a terrific advance at one time.

The livestock generally had a windmill driven water pump, but the humans still had to use the hand pump in the yard, and a few had a small hand pump in the kitchen.

Steam driven tractors, etc.

 

[Cape Byron]

How could you forget the outhouse? It was a terrific advance at one time.

Outhouses with composting toilets are de rigueur in regional Oz.

 

[Sooner Boomer]

Town boulevards

 

[EvryThngIsAOk]

time and temprarure number you dialed for the current time and temp. TV channels that signed off with a Prayer and the national anthem, cheap reliable used cars.
my

 

[alexzogh]

In some locations around the country, where you are too far from the nearest Big-box hardware/lumber store, one can still find the local hardware store. They are a bit more expensive because they have to be to stay open, but there's still some of them out here in fly-over-land......... [snipped]


Brad

Moved to Virginia earlier this year, and was super excited to find my closest hardware store had been in business for over 100 years and still looks the same - tin roof and all! They get every dollar I can spend there before I resort to Homedepot or Lowes. I'm like a kid in a candy store going through all of the wooden drawers to find things. My wife just nods her head and laughs... It's also a bit of a prognosticator for the future for me. When they start carrying or promoting something (field boots, fire logs, mosquito traps, etc...), I've now learned I will likely need whatever they are selling pretty soon.

 

[prfesser]

Town boulevards

Murray KY still has boulevards. In fact we lived on Sunset Blvd for 6-7 years before moving to our current address.

 

[jqavins]

mined diamonds - lab-growns are now indistinguishable and can be made larger in more quantity

Probably here to stay for the foreseeable future. Lab grown corundum gems (sapphire, ruby, etc.) have been available in higher quality that dirt grown ones for a long time, fifty years or close to it. The dirt grown ones still have a thriving market, commanding much higher prices than the lab grown ones for inferior stones.

 

[prfesser]

Two of these had me scratching my head:

Aren't most recreational astronomers still using Newtonians?

Most of the cheap reflectors today are modified Newtonians: concave primary and flat diagonal secondary. The cheap ones have a (cheap) spherical primary instead of paraboloidal, and a "correcting lens" near the eyepiece which is, according to many accounts, not terribly satisfactory.

The vast majority of the big Dobsonian-mount scopes are classical Newtonians.

 

[boomtube-mk2]

I really, really miss two-stroke motorcycles. Especially modified ones with expansion chambers and clip-ons and rearset pegs and solo seats and fork braces and cut-down guards...

You mean like this;
Sadly it was never available in the U.S.; though a few were smuggled down from Canada.

 

[Peartree]

I doubt we'll see any stores carrying a new Commodore 64 any time soon, but not far from here, in the town I grew up in, they still make, and sell, buggy whips.

https://hillsideharnessltd.com/product-category/whips/

 

[NateB]

I doubt we'll see any stores carrying a new Commodore 64 any time soon, but not far from here, in the town I grew up in, they still make, and sell, buggy whips.

https://hillsideharnessltd.com/product-category/whips/

I'm sure I could find buggy whips pretty quickly too thanks to the Amish communities around NE Indiana.

 

[Cape Byron]

You mean like this;

Sadly it was never available in the U.S.; though a few were smuggled down from Canada.

Be still, my pounding heart.

 

[David_Stack]

Be still, my pounding heart.

There's always the Suter MMX 500

http://www.suterusa.com/mmx-500/
I actually owned the sleeved-down version of the Gamma, the RG400 Japanese marker model crafted to comply with their displacement-based tiered licensing arrangement. I sold it to buy my TZR that I posted the photo of previously. I preferred the TZR. The Gamma had more power, but the TZR was a scalpel on the road.

 

[Cape Byron]

There's always the Suter MMX 500

Isn't there a rule against posting porn on the forum?

That's just... insanely what I want.

 

[Cape Byron]

I actually owned the sleeved-down version of the Gamma, the RG400 Japanese marker model crafted to comply with their displacement-based tiered licensing arrangement. I sold it to buy my TZR that I posted the photo of previously. I preferred the TZR. The Gamma had more power, but the TZR was a scalpel on the road.

I do remember borrowing a friend's RG250 for a week or so and returning it with a new set of footpegs. It was the right thing to do, considering I ground quite a bit off the originals...

 

[NateB]

The last 2 stroke I rode was an early 2000 YZ125 while we were working safety at a motocross track. During open practice, I finally braved a double after several laps. I landed it, but crashed when the shock bottomed out. Of course, I fell on the wrong side and burned my leg. After picking the bike up and having a 10 year old on an 85 nearly jump over me (I was off the track, so the flagger let him ride) I decided my motocross career was over.

 

[BigMacDaddy]

BYOBs are all over NJ, blue laws are only still around in a small number of areas (most notoriously Paramus).

Nice to drive on RT 4 and RT 17 on Sundays when there is no traffic...

 

[David_Stack]

Isn't there a rule against posting porn on the forum?

That's just... insanely what I want.

Not sure about a Wayne Gardner, but I think you can get a brand new Mick Doohan replica from Arai to go with it…

 

[Sooner Boomer]

Why would anyone want a buggy whip? I mean, Windows is bad enough...