My sister and I took my daughter to MoMA last month. While in the room with all the furniture the kiddo found a display case containing an Olivetti. "Auntie come see this. It is a typewriter." Mistaking the look on Auntie's face as lack of knowledge the kiddo explained, "They used these instead of computers in the olden days."

It does entertain me when my little sis feels older than dirt. And to my six year old typewriters, records (really big cds) and horse and buggies are all from the same era: the olden days.
Amy | 03.18.08 - 12:49 am | #

Yesterday, I might have decried progress - right up until I saw Abigail Adams and her children get their arms sliced open and the small pox inserted.

That said, I do love to dig out my old mixtapes.

Also, I only made it to page 3, so I don't know if this was on there, but I miss the printed dictionary. We don't even make our paralegal students buy Black's - they can get legal dictionaries online.
3under5 | Homepage | 03.18.08 - 8:07 am | #

Some of those things, like smoking on planes, haven't been around in this country for a while. Other things like tie tacks and suspenders, have a great formal/nostalgia factor that may extend their lives.

But wristwatches and analog clocks? That makes me sad. I have a job where a watch is absolutely necessary, so I suppose I'll just be more and more charmingly retro.
Tina | 03.18.08 - 9:23 am | #

I'm never giving up my analog wristwatch. And apparently people who give up watches then often don't know what time it is and want to - as witness the number of times I get asked what time it is.

I'd add: writing checks. Since I started paying everything on line, I write maybe five checks a year.

(We haven't given up our landline - every time there's a power outage, I'm reminded why.)
Karen | 03.18.08 - 10:02 am | #

Karen, not only have we not given up our landline, but we always make sure we have an old fashioned corded phone plugged in somewhere for power outages.

I still have an analog wrist watch. I was amused recently as my 3-year-old started trying to understand how to tell time. We've been working with a digital clock and an analog clock at the same time ("when the little hand is on the six..."). But my watch has no numbers on it - only small stones at 12, 3, 6, and 9. Son is VERY confused.
Marsha | Homepage | 03.18.08 - 11:34 am | #

I totally remember using carbon paper in elementary school and middle school when someone was absent, so that they would get a copy of our notes. Ah, the olden days!
marnie | 03.18.08 - 11:45 am | #

Oh, man, marnie, I was just reminded of using one of those stencil thingie machines, the ones that printed out in purple? I'm totally blanking on what they're called. But I remember the smell. And I last used one in the mid-1980s.

Marsha, we have an old-fashioned corded phone too, in addition to our cordless, for the same reason - I wish I remembered how long ago I bought it. I suspect something like 1985. And I've always thought two things I'd have insisted on for pedagogical purposes if I'd had children would have been an analog clock (I can't imagine how you'd teach "It's a quarter to two" without one - not to mention try to learn to tell time in foreign languages) and shoelaces.

My parents didn't get a touchtone phone until some time in the late 1980s, if I remember right, so there's precedent for my Ludditism.
Karen | 03.18.08 - 12:15 pm | #

Oh, and Marsha, I get confused my own self because my "good" watch (a huge man's EOS watch - I have a love of huge watches) only has the 12, 3, 6 and 9. Thank heavens the Timex I wear in the shop has all the numbers so my brain doesn't shut down in the face of trying to tell what time it is!
Karen | 03.18.08 - 12:17 pm | #

I don't have kids but I am always surprised when I am in a home with kids and there is no landline. I would think that one should have a landline for emergencies.

When I first started teaching in 1994, we still had the mimeograph for copies. The fumes from that machine may be the reason I went to law school.
KR | 03.18.08 - 12:24 pm | #

In my parents house we had an old black rotary phone in our den - the kind that weighs more than your TV set. It was a true ophone company phone - the kind that you got installed by Ma Bell with your service way back when. I wish I'd taken it when we sold the house, but i think I left it for the new owners. I loved to play with the rotary dial on that thing.
Marsha | Homepage | 03.18.08 - 12:26 pm | #

But, why not just look on your cell phone for thet time? And then text it to me. :)

We too have a corded touch tone phone in our house. Actually, we have 2. This house and the last house we've owned were both prone to power outtages. And, since my wife is often on-call, we need to make sure that no matter what, we can be reached.
PJ | 03.18.08 - 12:27 pm | #

I think the list is wrong about "E-mails written with the formality of letters" - I actually receive a lot more of those now than I did in the early days of email. For business purposes, I think the printed letter is more likely to be replaced by the formal email.

But I'm glad to hear the death knell of AOL CDs. Although I have friends who will have to find something else to use as coasters.
Marsha | Homepage | 03.18.08 - 12:40 pm | #

I haven't read the list yet, but playlists beat mixtapes every day of the week in every way. As someone in their twenties, I know what side of this blog's bell curve I'm on, but a lot of the things mentioned above still get used. There's an analog clock on my wall, etc. But still, playlists are the good kind of progress.
Jordan | Homepage | 03.18.08 - 12:59 pm | #

I'm pretty happy the daughter (6) can use a record player. She even cleans the record before playing.
bill | Homepage | 03.18.08 - 1:20 pm | #

Typing Pool still exists at my firm--not only do we have a document production department, but first year associates no longer have their own assistants, but a pool "service center."

Full-service gas also still kicks around, at least in NJ, where stations cannot, by law (at least as of a couple of years ago) offer self-service.
Matt | Homepage | 03.18.08 - 1:24 pm | #

We do not have a true landline (internet phone), which is great and a real money saver 99.5% of the time--except for power outages when it's awful (and we rely on spotty cell service). I always curse it when we lose electric, but then the power comes back and the savings seems appealing all over again. It would drive me insane to exist with cell phone only.

Re: typewriters, I've now been in several book jacket meetings where there was serious discussion about whether young readers can even identify a manual typewriter . . . let alone find it an appealing image. There have been a few notable typewriter covers for older teens lately (such as Gabrielle Zevin's MEMOIRS OF A TEENAGE AMNESIAC), but I think fewer for much younger readers.
JSG | 03.18.08 - 1:36 pm | #

Jordan - I love - LOVE LOVE LOVE - my playlists on my iPod. But, a mix tape was made with a purpose. You had 30, 45, or 60 min per side of a casette tape to really say what you wanted to. Much more effort.
PJ | 03.18.08 - 1:38 pm | #

"Oh, man, marnie, I was just reminded of using one of those stencil thingie machines, the ones that printed out in purple? I'm totally blanking on what they're called. But I remember the smell. And I last used one in the mid-1980s."

Karen, do you mean mimeograph machines? It cracks me up in Fast Times when the teacher hands out the tests and they all automatically sniff it.

I'm an analog clock/watch fan as well and will be till I die.

PJ, you're so right about mix tapes. They had to be so carefully constructed. I just found a whole bunch of old ones as I was cleaning out a closet and I'm very, very tempted to download the songs to make a playlist but I'm not sure I want to spend that much money on songs I don't really like anymore. And yet? Loathe to get rid of the tapes. It's a conundrum.
Meghan | 03.18.08 - 1:45 pm | #

OK, I just ended up on Wikipedia and I'm mixing things up - apparently the mimeograph (according to them) was the black ink one, and the other one was the ditto machine (the purple ink one with That Smell). I do remember having to type stencils and being petrified of making a mistake!

I think I probably still have my electric typewriter somewhere in the basement. It boggles my mind to think I finished up my Master's thesis the night before it was due ON THE TYPEWRITER, i.e. without writing any drafts of the ending first. Amazing.
Karen | 03.18.08 - 1:57 pm | #

Jordan - I love - LOVE LOVE LOVE - my playlists on my iPod. But, a mix tape was made with a purpose. You had 30, 45, or 60 min per side of a casette tape to really say what you wanted to. Much more effort.

It takes the same amount of time to select the songs, but you can assemble and burn a mix CD in less time than it takes to record two songs to tapes. I'll still make the occasional mix CD for friends, but I've refined my method. Now I'll dump a bunch of possible songs in a playlist and listen to them on random for a couple days. I've found very interesting list arrangements I wouldn't have considered. And sometimes I find that a song I love doesn't work anywhere in the mix and has to go.
bill | Homepage | 03.18.08 - 2:04 pm | #

OK, now that I've actually found the list itself rather than just the article, duh, how many people here are old enough to remember film strips in school? I'm also remembering that I used to remember how to feed and run a film projector when I was in elementary school and have no idea how it would work now.

And I also remember clapping chalkboard erasers together outside to clean the dust out of them.
Karen | 03.18.08 - 3:07 pm | #

I still haven't found the list, Karen. I thought it was just the article. I am going back now, later in the day and more caffeinated, to try this again.

While we're talking nostalgic communication - the first summer my husband and I were dating and were home from college - away from each other - was the last summer that I didn't use e-mail as a regular communication tool. We actually have "love letters". And they've got so much more personality than old e-mails, with little drawings in them - a couple typed, but mostly handwritten on scratch paper when we were supposed to be working boring summer jobs. I'm really glad to have a few actual letters. (Even though in re-reading them recently we were both a little embarrassed (and amazed) by our youthfulness.)
3under5 | Homepage | 03.18.08 - 4:02 pm | #

Ah yes - filmstrips. To hell with the ditto smell - the smell of the filmstrip burning when it gets caught too close to the light in the machine is one of my most enduring elementary school memories.

Bill, with the mixtape, the hard is what makes it good. Yes, I can do a playlist and burn a CD, but having only 30 minutes (and who remembers retaping a whole tape to try to shave a second or two off between each song so as not to cut off the final song on the side), and having to think about "sides" and never being able to randomize.... you had to be really careful about what you chose and how you put it together to create flow and send the right message. It's too easy now. Easy is fine, but it's why people don't attach serious romantic thrill to getting a playlist. Getting a mix tape from your boyfriend is the kind of thing that Broadway lyricists write poignant songs about for puppets to sing.

I'm aware that playlists are easier to use, offer many more options, and I do love them and use them often. But it's not the same. Easier isn't always better. Often it's less meaningful.
Marsha | Homepage | 03.18.08 - 4:06 pm | #

It's amazing how many of these bring a clear sense memory to me - like I can still feel the way that old, black rotary phone in our den used to dial so smoothly, but the phone was so heavy. The smell of mimeograph paper when our multiplication test quizzes got handed out, the fun of punching out the holes in the sides of printer paper, paper sharpener shavings falling on the floor at the front of the classroom, my first wooden tennis racket...

And seriously, kids don't need to learn to touch type in school anymore? That's really sad. I hated it, but I still thank my mom for making me take typing in high school. It made my college life - and everything after - SO much easier.
Sue | 03.18.08 - 4:31 pm | #

Marsha, the mechanics are easier, but the art is in picking out the songs. There's no reason why you still can't make a 30 minute mix, I'll still make lists of varying lengths. As someone who made mix tapes by stealing music by holding a reel-to-reel tape recorder up to an AM transistor radio (screw you RIAA!), I'm perfectly happy with drag and drop playlists.
bill | Homepage | 03.18.08 - 4:31 pm | #

I will have analog clocks and watches until the day I die. I am unable to tell time by looking at a digital clock. I have to convert it in my head to the visual; 3:35pm becomes "twenty-five to four", etc.
Kristen | 03.18.08 - 4:40 pm | #

I need to re-create as playlists the mix-tapes I made for labor, which I love deeply. I still listen to them in the one car that has a tape player.

Anyone remember the mimeograph machine scene in Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great? Having run off worksheets on mimeographs, it rang true for me as to how much of a pain they where.
Genevieve | 03.18.08 - 4:41 pm | #

I have gone through particularly beloved mixed tapes and purchased itunes of songs to which I am particularly attached.
Jenn. | 03.18.08 - 4:55 pm | #

I'm with bill. You can make a playlist however long you want. I have them for different time periods for different purposes. And Marsha, I have to disagree with you: just because you can make a playlist quickly, does not mean you cannot put meaningful thought into. Just the opposite. Drag-and-drop and randomizing and moving things around lets you put more time and thought into the process. That being said, it's pretty easy to see everyone has memorable mixtapes...not so much in the way of memorable playlists. In that sense mixtapes are definately more meaningful.

On another note (no pun intended), I was actually just thinking about this subject, since I'm finishing up a thesis, when my father wrote his phd thesis (hand written, final copy typed by the department secretary), it took him weeks and months to find sources that are at my fingertips in a matter of seconds. Sure, we've lost many things we've held dear, but atleast academically speaking, it's a great time to be alive.
Jordan | Homepage | 03.18.08 - 5:36 pm | #

Jordan, i absolutely agree about academia, although i agree with Giles - books, especially smelly books, are good.

I do not mean to denigrate the playlist - just to exalt the mixtape. As you say - we all have beloved mix tapes - we know who made them for us and why, we all remember making them painstakingly, what we were trying to say... I don't know that we're yet at the point where people feel that way about playlists.

Often a mix tape was not only about saying something but also about introducing a friend to new music. Now we simply tell them to download certain songs from iTunes, rather than feeling a desire to share it in a specific order or grouping. I have a few tapes I love - a tape from a friend wanting to introduce me to Canadian music, a 3-tape set called "Blues Roots." I, for one, have a set of 4 tapes to introduce people to modern a cappella music. I've mailed those tapes around the world. Never bothered to do that with a play list. No one ever asked me to.
Marsha | Homepage | 03.18.08 - 6:36 pm | #

As Samuel T. Cogley, attorney-at-law, said to Captain Kirk, "the law is in books!" (Court Martial, Season I, Episode 20)
The Pathetic Earthling | 03.18.08 - 9:23 pm | #

Why wouldn't the need for shoehorns remain constant?
Adlai | 03.18.08 - 11:03 pm | #

I think I've heard that because kids use computers from a young age, there's not seen as much a need to teach typing in school. Also, again because of computers, less need for the kind of absolute typing accuracy that used to be prized.

I've heard it predicted that the idea of "clockwise" as a direction will fade; not that people won't use it, but that they won't connect it to the motion of the hands. (Except for the few of us in this thread who will always wear watches.)
Tina | 03.18.08 - 11:14 pm | #

Marsha, if you set up a modern a cappella playlist, I would definitely download it!
Genevieve | 03.18.08 - 11:40 pm | #

I have shared CDs composed of playlists with some folks. And I do think about the order of songs on CD-length playlists.
Jenn. | 03.18.08 - 11:43 pm | #

Why would anyone give up analog wristwatches? What an odd thing to suggest. Pretty much everyone I know wears an analog watch. What are you going to do, pull out your blackberry every time you want to know what time it is?
Ella | 03.19.08 - 9:59 am | #

Tina, I sure hope the notion of clockwise itself doesn't disappear; if it does, how will I explain to people the difference between the "inner loop" and the "outer loop" on the DC beltway?? ("The one that gives you the wicked awesome view of the Mormon Temple" doesn't have the same utility.)
Russ | 03.19.08 - 10:04 am | #

Ella-I, as well as most people I know my age, pull out my cell phone when I want to know the time.
Jordan | Homepage | 03.19.08 - 11:40 am | #

My husband hasn't worn a watch for decades, as far as I know - I think it started because he didn't want to risk breaking a watch in the cabinet shop - when he needs to know what time it is, he used to check his pager back in those days, and now he indeed does check his cell phone.
Karen | 03.19.08 - 12:05 pm | #

There are digital watches, you know....

Russ, clockwise and counter-clockwise could be replaced by "lefty loosey, righty tighty."
Marsha | Homepage | 03.19.08 - 12:09 pm | #

It's just occurred to me. There are entire generations who probably do not know what fingernails on a blackboard sound like. To them I say: Lucky you!
Karen | 03.19.08 - 12:30 pm | #

Uh... okay, I just realized I'm assuming schools have all switched over to those whiteboard things. Maybe they haven't... must check.
Karen | 03.19.08 - 12:31 pm | #

My kid's school definitely still has blackboards (some whiteboards too, but every classroom seems to have blackboards).
Genevieve | 03.19.08 - 12:32 pm | #

I look at my watch all the time, and can barely find my cell phone at the bottom of a bag that constantly overflows with work, random notes from the older child's school, a pacifier or two for the younger child, sunglasses, keys, etc - and by the time I find it, the cell phone has usually lost its charge anyway.

I guess what I'm saying is, I'm old.
Ella | 03.19.08 - 2:29 pm | #

Yeah, what Ella said. Why face the hard, depressing truth that your purse is a disaster zone when you can simply pull up your sleeve a little?
Anonymous | 03.19.08 - 3:21 pm | #