Jeff Jarvis continues a Terry Teachout post on “Vanishing America” – everyday things that are disappearing from our lives. Among them;
Fax machines. I have one, but I rarely use it more than twice a month, both ways. Typewriters. I disposed of my last one ten years ago. Newspapers and magazines on paper. Local hardware stores. Christmas cards
I really noticed a drop off in Christmas cards this year. Though, I shouldn’t admit this, most of the things they list I do still use. Going to the post office to mail packages, corded phones, knobs on public washroom sinks, bar soap, aerosol cans, bank tellers, cassette tapes, ice cube trays, modems..
That’s probably not surprising, considering my rural lifestyle. I will add one thing I no longer use, that I didn’t see on any lists;
Any others?
I sold my 20 year old Oracle turntable a while back.
I still have all my vinyl albums but not turntable to play them on.
Not even Fox News? Didn’t they just recently get “on the air” up North?
My dream has always been to own a Hardware store out in the country somewhere. You know, cracker barrels around the Ben Franklin stove, dog laying in front of the stove.
With all of the big box stores nowadays, it is a vanishing dream.
Fox News is on digital cable and satellite in Canada, so the vast majority of homes don’t get it and would have to pay a premium for it.
Why shouldn’t you admit that you still use some items that have utility? It doesn make you a hick,yaknow.
I loved the creaking wooden floors of my old neighbourhood hardware store. I loved the fact that you could purchase any item, one at a time, not in prepackaged sets of six or twelve. And the owner could climb a ladder and eventually find any item under the sun. Nostalgia is a wonderful thing, but not practical.
I still assiduously patronize my local samll time hardware guy, only 10 minutes closer than the Cheapo-Depot.
Reason: I can actually find people (the old plumbing guy is encyclopedic, so’s the electrical dude, and the lady at the counter knows more about cleaning products than my mom) to HELP me with useful information in less than 30 minutes. I can get in and out of there in less than 40minutes with my what-its.
And believe it , or not, I often end going to him *anyway* after an unsuccessful foray into the Depot where I couldn’t find what I wanted.
Sorry for missing you with a Christmas card Kate, next year I’ll send you one! It is probably because it is so “retro” that I continue to do it, complete with handwritten notes. That and the fact that the majority of my addressee’s are older relatives who watch for the mailman like hawks every day. As much as I rail against Canada Post for their bad corporate culture, at the local level, across thousands of rural communities, the postmaster or postmistress are key parts of the local fabric. Badly addressed mail still gets to the right person.
Email is quick and easy, but because a hand written note is rare, those who receive them really appreciate them. Doesn’t make it any easier to convince my kids to write their thank you notes to their grandparents though.
I didn;t read the article so it may have been mentioned but growing up everybody had screen doors, now they seem rare.