I’ve talked about this before, My title idea was: Endangered Objects List
Here is my take:
Video Tapes/VCR’s: We still have a VCR. It’s been condemned to the corner of the basement where the stuffed animals (I really want to throw out) are. We have kept it because our wedding video and maybe two videos of our oldest child are on VHS. Last summer for fun the girls checked out some VHS tapes at the library. They will be history by the end of this year I would bet. Remember Beta?
Travel Agent: I have never used one. I drive by a few signs for them but they are now out of someone’s home rather than as a stand alone business. We are not world travelers though and I imagine if you travelled out of the country this would still be the way to go. When I was in high school I thought of being a Travel Agent. I also wanted to be a Stewardess (as in Flight Attendant) and an Attorney for the Mafia. Remember being able to practically walk your guest onto the plane, then watching them from the window and waving goodbye?
The Ability to Disappear: Are we ever really inaccessible? Our grand children or great-grandchildren will probably have tracking devices implanted in them. Not such a bad idea, unless you really do need to escape. I find it hard to go anywhere without having some kind of connection to the hubby or kids. Can you imagine the kind of peace people must have felt before cell phones, Facebook, internet, GPS? Remember Pagers and Bag Phones?
Book Stores, Magazines Stands, and Newspaper Agents: Will they even be printing these let alone selling them on their own? I actually have been collecting vintage books for that amazing library room I am going to have one day. You know the kind with a moving ladder and fireplace? I am hoping hard back books never go away and I don’t really think they will. However, I have not purchased or read a newspaper in many years. I have picked up an occasional rag mag for a long car trip, but I prefer my news electronically. When it comes to personal reading though, please give me an actual book! Remember Encyclopedias? (I still want a set for my future library)
Watches: I have to disagree, I mean pocket watches have made a come-back and I swear I saw something similar to a Swatch Watch the other day at the store. This year all the kids got watches for Christmas and they loved it. However, they are right about one thing. Not one of the kids tells time by their watch- they use their phone/IPod. Do you think they will even know how to tell time by the hands in the future? Remember your first Digital Watch? We looked cool with those boxes on our wrists.
Paper maps: Used more in decorating than for finding anything. Who even updates them anymore? On our way to Florida we did stop and buy a Road Atlas because the GPS kept routing us into heavy traffic. It was fun to use the map, and sadly the kids were fascinated with it. Remember printing out a map from Yahoo and trying to read it while driving?
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| I bet your kids don't even know what this is...... |
Wired phones: We are getting rid of the home phone this year. We didn’t have any phones that were not portable. I love the look of a vintage phone –maybe we can make something else out of them? Bookends? Remember having to ask permission to talk on the phone?
Long distance: I guarantee the kids have no idea what this even means right now. Remember when we didn’t have to know our area code?
Newspaper Classifieds: The last time I looked they took up one page only. My kids have never even seen them or an actual phone book. Remember having your own personal phone/address book? My poor Mom and Grandma had to throw theirs out because I took up so many pages with changes in phone numbers.
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| Try finding a picture of one of these now EXTINCT books! |
Tanning Beds: I would love to have a little color year round. However, I also want to live to see my grandkids. I know in some places they are still popular, but getting more endangered by the month. Remember being orange in your prom dress was a rite of passage?
Fax Machines: Perfect example: Tonight our phone rang. This is very rare. No one even jumped up to answer it because whoever is calling the house phone must not really know us. When the hubby answered it, I heard him tell the girls to turn off the fax machine. (We have one in our basement, where the VCR and ready to be thrown out stuffed animals reside) The girls looked at each other, wondering what the heck he was talking about. What is a fax machine? Every once in awhile he has to fax papers to someone who doesn’t have a printer (see? It’s not that they do not have email, it’s the printer) anyway, he left it on and the kids truly had no idea such a thing existed. At work, I have used the fax machine 3 times in the last three months. Remember special fax paper?
Long Lost Friends: Won’t even be in their vocabulary. They will be able to keep in touch with every single person they ever meet. Remember writing a letter and getting a response in your mailbox? (that square thing at the end of your driveway, kids used to knock over for fun)
Wondering what, why, when, where and how: Will our kids or their kids EVER have to wonder about anything? Or do any kind of actual research by leaving their chair and going somewhere? I used to love to do reports for school. I had to actually use resources and go and find those resources to use. Like leave the house. My best story is the one when my now hubby wins me back by finding a book I needed for a report I was doing. He had to go to three different libraries to find it. Remember having to learn the Dewey Decimal System?
The Evening News: Even now, the kids do not realize that the news is only really on local TV at specific times. They never had to sit through 6 o’clock news before dinner. Remember when you had to watch the news and listen for your school to know it was cancelled?
CDs: I haven’t bought a music CD in well over a year. A book on tape, but not music. Remember stereos and speakers?
Catalogs: We were just saying this year that we remember when we could look through the Sears catalog to make our Christmas list. I used to make paper dolls out of the catalog models and clothes. What will happen to catalog models? Remember going to the mall to buy everything outside of groceries?
Retirement plans: It’s already happening. My hubby is a recruiter and just this week he has seen an abundance of people over 65 looking for full time jobs. Our kids may not even know that companies paid for health insurance at one time. Remember feeling secure about your future?
Mail: When was the last time you got a piece of mail that you couldn’t have gotten electronically or cared about getting? Remember actually using that red thing on the mailbox to send a letter?
Commercials on TV: I haven’t watched a commercial on purpose in a very long time. Sometimes I do catch the kids watching a commercial as though they have never seen one before. Remember when it took an actual hour or half hour to watch a TV show?
PS - Try finding pictures of these things. Well, try it if you want to feel old, if you can find them at all...