Ever thought about sights and smells that you will NEVER ever experience again? You young readers don't have a clue about this post, but my contemporary buddies will. Well, maybe not my younger buddies.
EXAMPLE 1#
When I was in school mass copying was done by a mimeograph machine. While walking down the isle of an antique shop recently down here called Tina's, I came across this early type of mimeograph. I didn't look at the patent date but this one looked to be in the 30's or 40's by the look of the labeling. But by the time we Boomers were kids and running ass-wild around the classroom one of the finest moments of any day came when the teacher excused themselves to do some copying. They would return with a scented piece of paper that was sheer heaven. The teachers would have the first in the class pass them back and everyone, and I mean everyone would take their newly minted paper and put it to their noses to smell. It was an aphrodisiac of fragrance: indescribable to a non-knower but a rich tapestry of inks and chemicals that was, for us 10 year-olds, something sinful.
The Mary Davis had a mimeograph machine when I started working their, but soon Xerox would come out with a true copying machine. It's too bad, because paper that came out of it didn't smell like anything but, well, paper. More's the pity.
EXAMPLE #2
A long time ago cars used to be models of ingenuity. Kind of like mobile homes and campers? They squeeze every bit of innovation and space to make use of every possible area. Well, cars used to have two really nice features that are no longer used and haven't been for a long time. One useful and discarded feature was the rain rail. This small trough on both sides of the roof caught rain and moisture from melting snow and channeled it to the rear of the car cabin. You could roll your window down for fresh air and not have to worry about getting soaked, unless it was a driving-type rain. Try rolling down your window these days, and you will get wet as well as the inside of your car.
Another lost gem of a design on cars was the vent window. They all had them. This was a small window that allowed the driver or passenger to open the area to direct a small amount of fresh air in without having to open a window. You could actually direct the air as well as determine how much. It was also perfect for smokers to flick the ash or cigarette itself out the opening without having to worry about it coming back into the car through the larger side window.
EXAMPLE #3
Perhaps nothing has changed as much as phones have in my time. Our phone in Seaton was JUstice 5251. I recall one New Year's Eve as children we got together with maybe Barb and Bill Seaton at our house and started calling people with the old Prince-Albert in-a-can routine and made many many stupid calls (where was our babysitter?) and finally the operator called and told us to stay off the phone. When I was working for Uncle Ed on the farm in high school he had a party line. He was hooked up with the Frederickson's down the road, which meant, technically, no phone call was truly private. You always gingerly picked up the phone if you had to make a call to make sure no one else was on the line. Weird, huh?
Phone booths were everywhere. There was one in Seaton, too. Calls were made by putting coins in the slots or you could call your party collect. You talked to a live person, too. In college in the dorm if you got a call from one of the parents whoever was closest to the phone would have to answer and then look for you.
Now we carry our phones, computers, cameras, and games on our belts. Phones as we knew them are a thing of the past.
EXAMPLE #4
Mercurochrome. Around our house it was the first order of business for cuts and scrapes. And when the older brother fell into the clutches of the Wombie and I, he had plenty of cuts and scrapes. So, what was in it? Every medicine cabinet had some in it back in the day. You can't find it now. What was in it was mercury, a substance deemed a poison able to damage the brain, kidneys and developing fetuses. The FDA banned it in 1998 after having declared it ineffective in 1978.
Progress is good, I like it. But if you could bottle a little of that smell from mimeo's that would be progress, too. And the rain rail, and the vent window, those were all good features that made life in a car a little easier. The mercurochrome, not so much. Just think of the things that have gone for good in your life.
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