Back to Haunt You 

Stuff that faded from the scene... or was replaced by something easier, faster, cheaper

• Hoffman table-top TV: State-of-the-art in 1952, perfect for watching Howdy Doody.
  
  
  
  
• White Front - A fledgling Wal-Mart in its day. White Front is just one of a long line of household-name retailers to go defunct. Along with the demise of the dime store (Woolworth, W. T. Grant, J. J. Newberry) there were defunct drug stores (Rexall, Thrifty, and Sav-On--more below) as well as former going concerns Montgomery Ward, Western Auto, Alpha Beta, Mayfair, Big Bear, the Akron, the Boys, Hudson's, and Zachary All.
       Although defunct on the West Coast, Piggly Wiggly is still around. Thankfully, our culture hasn't become homogenized to the point that there isn't a place for a store named Piggly Wiggly.
  
  
• The backyard incinerator - Standard equipment on SoCal homes into the '60s.
  
  
  
  
  
• Milk home delivery. Newer homes had a receptacle built into the wall, so Mom could retrieve the bottles without leaving the kitchen. As pictured, the milkman wore a spiffy white outfit on his predawn rounds. Milkman was a valid occupation, not a menial job.
  
  
  
  
  
• The Good Humor man. The pedophilia craze would make a scene like this impossible today.
  
  
  
  
  Present day ice cream truck.
  
  
• Gas station attendant. Typically a friendly guy from the neighborhood. He would stride up to your car with "Yes ma'am, what can I do for you today!" Men actually made a living doing this. Gas stations had (clean!) restrooms.
       Each gallon of gas was noted with a crisp ding! from the pump, much like the correct answer on a quiz show.
       For extra measure, every car that pulled in announced its presence with its own jaunty ding! by driving over the black tube in the driveway, sending a pulse of air that activated a bell inside the station. You can see the tube draped across the driveway in the picture below.
  
  
  
  
  
• Phone booths. They were everywhere. By today's standards, a civilized way to communicate. You conducted your business in private.
  
  
  
  
  
• Osborne Computer - Clunky and bulky, with feeble computing power, this machine was a status symbol. Also noteworthy as one of the last computers to use the CP/M operating system, at the time thought to be the likely standard.
       The machine was an improvement over the original "pocket" calculators that would only fit in a very large pocket.
  
  They could only add, subtract, multiply and divide. All that for $200 (a jillion in today's money). They sold so fast stores couldn't keep them in stock.
  
  
• Old basketball uniforms. Do old school players envy the guys now with their baggy oufits?
  
  
  
  
  
• Clunky $3,995 "brick" cell phone. The first cell phones were strictly toys for the elite, or for dudes who seriously wanted to make a big impression. Having one meant you were a mover and a shaker.
  
  
  
  
• Stern librarian. Libraries were once quiet as tombs. Should you thoughtlessly raise your voice, the librarian was sure to give you a good shush! Asking a kid to tone it down these days invites a vicious outburst from the parent.
  
  
  
  
  
• Movie theater usher. They showed you to your seat with a flashlight.
  
  
  
  If you acted up during the movie, they would come down the aisle, train their light on you and warn you to keep quiet. After that, out you went! Today, however, there is too much risk of violent retaliation.
  
  
  
• "Lowly" jobs that paid a living wage.
  
  
  
  School bus drivers, school janitors and cafeteria workers were respected members of the school staff. Mr. Russet, my school bus driver, was a happy-go-lucky guy with three kids. His job afforded him a middle class lifestyle. Economies of scale and cost efficiencies are all well and good but should we welcome the downsizing of our culture?
  
  
  
• Night speed limits. There was this old concept that you should go slower at night. Sorta like the one that you shouldn't follow any closer than one car length for every ten miles per hour of speed.
  
  
  
  
  
• Tonsillectomy - In the 1950s virtually every kid had their tonsils out, whether it was medically warranted or not.
  
  
• Shell No-Pest Strip. A familiar sight in homes and restaurants in the '60s and '70s.
  
  
  
  A rare early example of consumer protection that worked, these were withdrawn from the market amid concerns that they contained a deadly poison. The maker fought requests to attach a warning label. The situation was seen in some quarters as the government overreacting to groundless safety concerns. I had inside information, however: I knew an exterminator who was nervous about being around these even for a few seconds.
  
  
  
• Telescoping gas storage tanks. Once a familiar sight in California. They moved up and down with the contents of the tank. They blended into the cityscape so well that nobody noticed when they disappeared.
  
  
  
  
  
• Movie palaces. Somehow we've convinced ourselves that multiplexes attached to malls are way better than neighborhood movie palaces, part of an architectural heritage that is being obliterated in the name of progress.
  
  
  
  
  
• Hair tonic. Virtually every household in America had a bottle of Wildroot Cream Oil or Brylcreem. JFK favored the dry look, however. That was the beginning of the end. Along came the Beatles with their free-flowing moptop haircuts and that clattering sound you heard was millions of bottles of hair tonic hitting the trash.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Hats. It seems like everyone suddenly quit wearing them.
  
  
  
  In the mid-50s, people even went to the movies in suits and hats. Women wore furs with the heads of snarling critters still attached. They blamed JFK for killing the hat business too, but that's not true. Hats were nearly gone by the time JFK was elected president.
  
  
  
• Hitchhiking.
  
  
  
  The practice of thumbing rides by the side of the road had its last heyday in the 1960s and early '70s. The longhair subculture depended on each other for reliable transportation. Before that, WWII servicemen got around by thumb travel. In those days if you couldn't trust a soldier you couldn't trust anyone. During the Great Depression, it was either thumb a ride, hop a freight, or walk.
       These days the threat of violence is too great for extensive use of thumb travel. (Note: I know, the guy pictured is not traveling in America.)
  
  
  
• Keane. Wildly popular artist of the '60s. Touched off "Is this Art?" debates.
  
  
  
  
  
• Rod McKuen. Wildly popular poet/songwriter of the '60s. A tamer version of disreputable counter-culture poets of the era (Dylan, Ginsburg, etc.). It's an insult to say he's defunct, since he's not entirely forgotten.
  
  
  
  
  
• Harold Robbins. One of the all-time bestselling authors, Robbins is virtually forgotten today. Sexually-charge content was a novelty in the '60s, and Robbins was the most successful practitioner of the genre. Robbins's success encouraged revered authors to try their hand, among them John Updike (Couples).
  
  
  
  
  
• Sav-On drugstores. Sav-On staged a bold comeback after Osco tried to obliterate a name that generations grew up with. It looks as though CVS has finally done the deed.
       Some kids learn nursery rhymes. I learned the Sav-On jingle (sounds like a college fight song):
  
  Sav-On, Sav-On!
  Join the Sav-On hit parade,
  It's fun to serve yourself and save at
  Sav-On Drug Stores, Sav-On Drug Stores
  [boom, boom]
  SAV-ON!
  
  I saw in a movie that radio waves continue to bounce around somewhere in the universe. I guess that means the Sav-On jingle will go on for eternity. But for us Earthlings, it only exists in the minds of the few who are still around to remember. When we're gone, it will be as if it never existed.
  
  
  Casting about for an excuse for poor performance, the brain trust at Macy's wiped out such venerable names as the 150-year-old Marshall Field's in Chicago, Meier and Frank in Portland, Rich's in Atlanta, Goldsmiths in Memphis, Bon-Marche in Seattle, Lazarus in Columbus and Burdines in Miami. The rationale: Look at Wal-Mart and Target. All their stores have the same name. That's the secret of their success!
  
  
  
• Steady job. Between downsizing, mergers, hostile takeovers, consolidation and reorganization, workers are lucky to keep a job for more than a few years. Age discrimination figures to be an obstacle for downsized seniors as employers struggle with the notion that people over 50 retain basic mental and physical functions.
  
  
  
  Patty Smart managed to stay on the same job 50 years.
  
  Update March 31, 2008: Aloha Airlines is kaput. A company that would keep the same person employed for 50 years probably deserves to go belly-up. They obviously are not up on modern management theory (employees are the one expendable asset).
  
  
  
• Doggie Diner. A fixture for decades in the San Francisco area. Best dogs ever.
  
  
  
  
  
• Orange groves. A culture says a lot about itself when it decides that suburban sprawl is better than orange groves.
  
  
  
  
• Santa Clara Valley fruit orchards. Silicon Valley was once known as the Santa Clara Valley, home of vast fruit orchards. Between Southern California's orange & avocado groves and Northern California's fruit & nut production, there was more than enough to satisfy our country's needs. Now they are imported green from obscure third world countries and taste like a feeble imitation of the real thing.
  
  
  It was probably wise to squander these riches since there are no longer enough bees to sustain major agriculture. Besides, aren't vast housing tracts, freeways, and shopping malls better?
  
  
  
• Bygone brews. Scores of old trusty standbys for millions of beer drinkers are now consigned to that megabrewery in the sky: Hamms, Falstaff, Pfeiffer, Country Club, Schlitz, Olympia, Rainier Ale (aka "Green Death"), Ballantine Ale, Jax, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Blatz, Blitz, Rheingold, Burgermeister ("Burgie"), Lucky Lager, Stroh's, and Dixie.
       Just because a product has been around 100 years doesn't mean it deserves a place today! It's commercial Darwinism. Only the bland survive. Besides Bud, Miller, and Coors, how many beers do we really need? I understand Rheingold has made a comeback.
  
  
  
  This is the Hollywood Freeway going past the Brew 102 brewery. When I was a kid, I marveled at that giant tank of beer. Note the telescoping gas tank.
  
  
  
• Conventional baby names. In the movie "Splash!" Tom Hanks asks the mermaid played by Daryl Hannah what her name is. They are standing on a street corner in New York City. She glances up at the name of the street. "Madison!" She replies.
  
  
  
  That's where it all started. Madison went from being a wacky name in a movie to now being the third most popular name for a girl. That was the beginning of a trend to give kids imposing unisex surnames for first names: Taylor, Spencer, Morgan, Leighton, Faulkner, Bennett, Riley, Barclay, Jordan, Quinn, Nelson, Bronson, Logan, Harper and so on.
       Back in the day a kid named Madison would have been ridiculed. Now it's kids with names like Nancy or John who are scorned. "Where'd you get that weird name?"
  
  
  
• Cute imports. Before anyone had heard of Toyota, Datsun (Nissan) or Honda, our family was an early adopter of Volvo. Fellow Volvo owners gave us friendly waves. We were like our own little club.
  
  
  
  This is the Hillman Minx, one of a tide of models by Peugeot, Citroen, Borgward, BMW, MG, Austin-Healy, Sunbeam, Vauxhall, and Renault among others. Carmakers are returning to the cute import era with the Mini-Cooper, Toyota Yaris, and the Nissan Cube.

They're Back 

Somehow they came back (for the time being at least).

Why gum of all things? As a kid, Blackjack chewing gum was my favorite. There was Beeman's pepsin gum (said to relieve heartburn) and Clove gum, totally defunct, kaput, out of the picture. Now they're back.












Playboy Club. After receding like Hefner's hairline, the Club has come back, opening a swank new branch in Las Vegas. Playboy clubs had their heyday in the '60s and '70s as a hangout for sporty groovers, or conventional corporate guys who aspired to the swingin' lifestyle championed by Hugh Hefner, the ultimate Sporty Groover. In the clubs, these groovy dudes could get a taste of the Hefner lifestyle first hand.

This Wasn't Supposed to Happen 

San Diego's Giant Dipper is saved from defunction

Somebody screwed up. The Giant Dipper was supposed to be demolished for routine development that doesn't mean much to anyone. The Dipper, on the other hand, looms large in the lives of many. It was my first "rolley" coaster. I blew my paper route money riding the stupid thing. (What happened to paper routes? That's how Warren Buffett started.)
     Whoever was in charge of pushing the development through, for getting the politicians in line, fell down on the job. Concerned citizens jumped in and saved the Giant Dipper. Now it would be hard to find someone who thinks development was a better idea.

These Are the Good Old Days 

...if you say so...

Since things began to go defunct, it seems like the dramatic improve-
ments in our lives have come at a cost. I'm sure the quality of life in America is better now.

That's what they keep telling me.

Related Links 

Ansel Adams' Lost Los Angeles Found - a photoset on Flickr

Unbelievable collection showing long gone LA.

Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection

Search for more images of long gone LA.

The Obsolete Computer Museum

Stroll down 54k memory lane.

Defunct Gas Stations

Once a familiar site on the American Landscape many of these old Texaco stations stubbornly live on as rusted venues for various enterprises.

The Bad Fads Museum

Browse through the fun and fascinating fashion, collectible, activity and event fads of the last 100 years.

Loyal Nanaimo Bathtub Society

Defunct bathtubs put to use. Bathtub parade: July 26. This year's race: July 27, 2008.

Beer Haiku Daily

A simple poem each day to celebrate one of life’s simple pleasures.

Hippie Museum

A look at the '60s hippie subculture and the era's defunct idealism.

What A View! Home of the Outhouses of America Tour

My boyhood home had an Outhouse. I assumed they were defunct by now. Not according to the Outhouses of America Tour, the most comprehensive collection of Outhouses, Outhouse trivia, folklore and Outhouse facts.

Is California Paving Paradise?

One out of every six acres developed in California since the Gold Rush was paved over between 1990 and 2004. Most of it was agricultural land. Read the report to see if there's any hope of saving what's left.

Highway Page

This site covers the design and history of highways, mainly in southern California.

Are people having babies now just so they can give them fancy names?

With the arrival of Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline Jolie-Pitt, let's review this latest batch of star baby monikers.

We Welcome Your Comments 

"Everything I have is obsolete. That's the point."
--Dita Von Teese, burlesque performer and lingerie designer

Rialto Theater, Joliet: The picture is for illustration purposes only (beautiful architecture). No harmful intent.

Night speed limits: It's nice to know they are still around in scattered locations. I hope they make a comeback.

Thank you all for your cheerful comments!

Webcodes Great lens RufusQuail, very interesting 5*. Posted July 21, 2008

Feo Amante

After taking your memory lane trip, ending with a table full of dweebs blabbing on their cell phones was classic. It caught in my mind as another (soon to be) antiquated past time, like a photo of kids stuffing a phone booth, or an audience full of 3D paper specs. I don't know what will replace it, but future generations will mock it.

Posted June 25, 2008

Liz

I enjoyed your site but I had to stop halfway through. The movie palace you pictured is the Rialto theater in my hometown of Joliet in IL. Since your site is about things that are now defunct the Rialto wasn't the best choice. It is no longer used as a movie palace, but it still shines in all it's glory. It's used for concerts, plays, musicals, weddings, charity events, andalot more. When swing dancing was making it's comeback a few years ago a swing dance with a live band was held on a regular basis in the rotunda area.

Just thought you'd like to know that while sometimes things change, it doesn't make them defunct.

Posted June 20, 2008

yourbounty The pictures were a great addition. I really wonder what my grandchildren will see in their lifetimes. Thanks for a great lens. Your Bounty Posted May 31, 2008

beachbum_gabby I really like these compilation. Mesmerizing the past. :) Posted May 28, 2008

 

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Obsolete Slang 

My parents were fond of cute slang expressions that have faded into oblivion. I don't remember many of them, so I created this list in case someone wants to contribute.

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