Old Man's Thought for the Day: things I miss

Appliances that lasted 25 years or more, and that you could could actually have serviced instead of replaced when they broke.

Lettuce?

What happened to lettuce? You can't eat it, or find it?

Coke tastes the same, no?

I miss civility among politicians. I miss sex without having to think about AIDS. I DON'T miss open, constant racism, sexism, and homophobia, and no rights for gay people. At least now people are more careful about what they say, at least to some extent.

Watching the news meant just that; not the latest coverage on that horrid clan that starts with K. Also, I miss real print journalists and broadcasters like Cronkite. One person could report the stories back then. Now we have tag teams of shrill anorexics who mistake yelling and waving their hands for making a point.

I miss news shows that report on facts and events that have happened in complete and grammatically correct sentences.

I miss my sabretooth tiger, Mr. Smitherton.

[quote]Good people running for president

Like Nixon?

Nostalgia is so fucking overrated.

Someone please answer about the lettuce!

Cum tasted better back then.

The Coloreds, Homos and Pretty Little Gals all knew their place.

Antenna TV is going to be showing Carson shows beginning 1/1/16.

The country has been a military dictatorship every day of your life. A sham democracy. Face it. Deal with it.

Asbestos

Outhouses

Horse drawn carriages

Lead paint

Thalidomide

The Ford Pinto

Mexi-Coke tastes like Coke used to, OP.

Most of your list I'm down with, 'tho.

OP, I pretty much agree with you... except the three channels. We may have too many now, but 3 was way too few.

Both Lettuce and Tomatoes are utterly bland and flavorless compared to the way they used to be.

[quote]Mexi-Coke tastes like Coke used to, OP.

They add extra sugar to the bottles they ship to the USA

R17, Stop shopping at Safeway, silly! The lettuce and heirlooms I get from my farm CSA are glorious! You just have to shop around!

I miss my wind-up gramophone

I miss being scandalized by seeing a woman's ankle

I miss my ear trumpet (now where did I put it?)

I miss playing in the dumbwater and the meals cooked by our colored help, LaWanda. Her son Reggie would clip the grass

I miss summertime mattresses out on our second floor sleep porch.

I miss the steamboat coming down the river with newspapers and mail!

I miss hot towels and bay rum at the barbershop

I miss the barbershop quartet and church picnics where I wore my straw boater and striped seersucker, waved to everyone with my snazzy new walking stick and spit watermelon seeds at the lightning bugs.

...the ABSENCE of Rap and Hip-hop.

[quote]I miss hot towels and bay rum at the barbershop

They have these in spades at my barbershop.

[quote]Both Lettuce and Tomatoes are utterly bland and flavorless compared to the way they used to be.

The only type of lettuce sold in the "Good Ole Days" was iceberg -- and it never had any flavor.

What was also without taste back then was the bread and coffee, both of which are far superior now.

American tastes in food are far superior now to the bland crap that was popular in the 60s and 70s.

Oh god my hair.

I miss having to speak in code because if anyone found out you had a boyfriend, they would think you were disgusting and you would lose your job and family.

R25 just LOVED playing the "Pronoun Game"

I miss powdered wigs and VD

Drive-in movies

Movies made for adults.

When Christians were persecuted and fed to the lions.

What parties and fun we had. Their prayers turning into shrieks of terror. Their Amens turning into 'Jesus Fucking Christ I do believe in pagan gods!'

Good times.

The veneer of respectability banks once cherished - now they have the same repectabilty as GM.

I grew up respecting cops - not so much anymore.

My extended family was very close, but disintegrated with the death of two people.

When waitresses smoked ciggies while taking your order and put them out in the uneaten egg yolks.

R29) Yes. I miss the "movie of the week." Some of them had original stories with very good acting. Hal Holbrook in "That Certain Summer," "Lisa Bright and Dark" with Kay Lenz" and several with Martin Sheen. I'm an original score fan, and ABC had some really good composers.

I miss the cardio of a brisk walk all the way to the back of the bus.

I miss being able to watch the news without having to hear about erectile disfunction and yeast infections.

I agree with the three channels thing, although it wasn't really three channels. You had ABC, CBS, and NBC, plus PBS and a handful of independent stations. But what I liked wasn't that there were three channels, as much as the quality of the programming. Series, movies, mini-series, etc.

Quality television.

Prime time game shows.

People were just as pathologically shitty 50 years ago as they are today.

You should have gone to a catholic school. The nuttiness and meanness were mind boggling.

And there was the fucking draft that(I can thank God for this one) I was too young to ever have been a part of.

Yeah me in Vietnam fighting for the highlife of the arms manufacturers, Johnson, Nixon, the Bush family and Folger's Coffee.

Who the fuck was born just to be blown up into a red spray so that other people could get into the right country clubs?

A lot of innocent men.

Sitting outside on the lawn - Fiona Apple brought that one up.

Bridge - a game you were expected to learn

Carting old furniture and clothes up to the family cottage each July

I miss the news being reported...instead of opinion. I miss the fact that politicians were not always allowed to tell one lie after another without ever being stopped and called on it. When Reagan ran he was king of all liars and since then, it's just gotten worse and then worse.

I miss cars that aren't computerized so when you take them in for service a technician needs to work on them. The "motherboard" in my dashboard, when it went, cost me $1900 to replace. And also remember when you could buy a 12-cylinder car that wasn't a $100k foreign model? Those things really flew!

Being able to afford to go to the theater to see grown-up plays (not musicals) with people like Jerry Orbach, Jane Alexander, Julie Harris, Barbara Bel Geddes, etc.

The simplicity of yesterday.

R36, PBS didn't begin service until 1970. There were three channels for some time.

In LA in the 60s, we had CBS, NBC, ABC and local independents KTLA (Golden West), KHJ (RKO), KTTV (Metromedia), and KCOP (Kriskraft) as our VHF stations.

The UHF stations were channel 22 (that all day showed the stock ticker while some guy read the business news), Channel 28, our PBS station KCET, our Mexican station Channel 34 (KMEX), and channel 56, an independent Orange County station.

That seemed like a whole lot.

Movie palaces.

Roadshow movies, with reserved seats, overture/intermission music/entr'acte/exit music, and souvenir programs.

Wearing a jacket and tie to go into town.

Dinner at the country club.

Summer thunderstorms. (No such thing in California, but plenty here where I've moved in Florida.)

"Lightning Bugs"

NBC "Saturday Night at the Movies"

Rod Taylor

Adventure pictures

Decent movie music, with melodies (All movies have now are "sound walls.")

Animated films. (None of this "computer animation.")

Ray Harryhausen movies.

Erudite children's books, written by the likes of E.Nesbit, Robert Lawson, E.B.White, Eleanor Cameron.

Trick or Treating, where kids didn't have to worry about being poisoned.

Rope swings in the woods.

Swimming holes. (Still a lot of these in rural areas, where everyone goes naked, and no one talks about it.)

OP you contradict yourself. You miss the lack of glorification of drugs but you also miss the rawness of early SNL.

Early SNL was all about the glorification of drugs. That didn't stop till Belushi died.

When I was very young we went everywhere at night to go trick or treating.

But razor blades in apples were a huge concern.

Road show movies. I saw them in the paper but was to young to go to them.

Then I was old enough and were they showing SOM in Todd AO at the Rivoli? No they were fucking showing The Stewardesses!!!

In 3D!!! And jesus at that point you didn't need to go into a theater to see it.

You just looked in the gutter at 46th St and 8th.

I grew up about 150 miles from St. Louis, the nearest city. We had TV aerials that were much taller than our houses. No UHF, no smaller independent stations. Only the big three.

We had only one pervert in town and everyone had to make a reservation.

Porn on the big screen

On the subject of television, I miss programming from the early specialty channels like TLC and A&E. TLC (The Learning Channel) was actually educational for a while.

As for A&E (Arts and Entertainment), in the mid-80s, there were theme nights like STAGE on Monday, DANCE on Tuesday and MUSIC on Wednesday. It was terrific.

I recall thinking that television was scraping the very bottom of a very deep barrel when A&E boasted about having prime-time reruns of "The View." Sadly, it continues to get even worse. Do they even claim that the letters "A" and "E" stand for anything now?

"Yesterday when I was young, so many songs were waiting to be sung....."

r8 Nostalgia ain't what it used to be, friend.

I miss: Civility

going to the bank with my grandmother, and reveling being in the BIG beautiful building on hot days(there was even a water fountain)

endless Summers down the shore

running home from church on Sunday morning so as not to miss a beloved kid's puppet and cartoon program(Bertie the Bunyip)

trips into town(on the streetcar) and going to department stores, and then the Automat for lunch

drive-in movies, and even the yucky snacks they sold

family reunions, which were immense gatherings as my grandmother was one of 14 siblings

the oh-so-scratchy mohair/horsehair?/ground glass??? seat covers on my uncle's '55 Ford

those embarrassing commercials on TV done by local merchants

GREAT lemon water ice

the smell of the train set(that didn't work very well) we always under the Christmas tree

my previous house( a cute, little PERFECT 1830's row house, that the new owner "improved." I am SO sorry I ever saw what they did to it. I cried. Philistine!)

My grandmother's cooking(had she been a caterer she'd have made a mint) and my mom's baking.

Hearing the old ladies on the block hollering at us kids for daring to use chalk to draw games and stuff on the sidewalks and in the street

The smell of burning leaves. One dear ol' sweetheart used to sweep almost every day in the Fall, make a small pile of leaves and then strike a match. When they were burned to ashes she'd scoop 'em up. I wonder if that's why she always had the best homegrown tomatoes the following Summer?

The walk home from school which took me by a 19th Century, still-occupied prison. Adults would scare us kids and say if we were bad, the guards would run out and drag us in.

Our first cable channel in LA was "Z" where you could watch the (great) Oscar nominated films, actors, etc

I also remember that early cable's point was no commercials.

Traveling fairs and zoos (1971) / TV test patterns / Big, big Macs / No steroids in sports / Tv programs without 'viewer discretion warnings' / not having so many types of one item to choose from / knowing your neighbors / free range kids / kids riding bikes & being outside / morning tv shows with just 2 hosts / a size 8.5 shoe would fit (no matter the material - made in USA) / young people with causes / music you could sing to & remember the lyrics / top 40 radio stations like WABC / Captain Kangaroo, and other kids shows that weren't trying to sell you something / No anorexic-looking models / kids weren't drugged up, for ADHD, etc / soda in glass bottles

When we had real he-man macho movie stars like Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter! Something a girl could fantasize about!

I miss when people actually had conversations on the phone

Am old (50+) myself; agree with most everything you list but am confused: what is meant by "normal" summers? TIA.

Quality chicken from the supermarket Cherry phosphates The creativity of the 1970s rock Cherry coke from the fountain Mason Mints Mint pastels Devil Dogs Cheddar Waffle snack by Old London

Typewriters

Playing outside

Lazy afternoons daydreaming

Chain stores, restaurants and businesses weren't the norm and different areas still maintained a local flavor.

r60 Cheese Waffies? Are you a Philly guy?

Great post, OP! I really miss the days when talent truly mattered and not who could out whore the other.

And fireflies. I miss fireflies.

I still see fireflies.

Babysitters who really sat on the baby.

I miss wondering why Bill Cosby didn't find me attractive.

Bathhouses (and hot guys and young guys going there)

Backrooms (Man New Orleans used to be a lot sleazier... ditto stripper bars in Austin and San Antonio and other cities)

The "Tracks" bar in DC, and "The Garage" (aka "Gay Rage") in Columbus OH.

This thread is NOT amusing.

Money and Jobs and the freedom to be an adult.

I remember when stores went out of business, they'd have a big sale and you could get some good deals.

Now, they sell their stock to liquidators who don't mark down anything.

Getting handwritten letters in the mail, leaving the windows open at night to catch the first spring breeze.

Standing ovations after a performance were almost unheard of when I was growing up. It was an incredible honor to earn that kind of reaction from an audience. Now it's standard to give them and they aren't the rare accolade that used to be reserved for truly supreme performances. I appreciate being moved by a good performance but the "standing o" has become devalued by being given so widely these days.

I will still take the trade off of living in today's more tolerant society (yes we still have miles to go but have come a great distance particularly in the last 15 years) that is less polite but more inclusive.

.

I miss taking off on our bikes all day, and being told to be home by dinnertime. A nice Sunday dinner, then Wonderful World of Disney. I miss cementing a deal with a handshake. Not having to decifer what people's motives are. I miss not having any responsibility, just being a kid. I miss the excitement of Christmas morning and making a big deal over my birthday. Good music, that first transistor radio- you could take music with you anywhere!

Keeping the fat away just by being a kid, always moving. Who needed a gym in those days? I miss seeing my mother and father dancing in the living room to Bobby Darrin. Walkng a mile to the library with my sister on Saturday mornings to stock up on books for the week. Quality TV. A real neighborhood, where everybody looked out for each other. The slow, lazy days of summer, when the only thing you needed to think about is how much fun you're going to have that day. Pitching a tent in the back yard and sleeping there every night, all summer long. I miss being a child.

[R54] are you from philly? Thanks for the memories

r75 MY pleasure, friend. Yep, I'm FROM Philly, and living IN Philly too.

[quote]Not having to decifer what people's motives are.

Nor what their spelling meant.

Gino Giants

Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips

I miss when people were adults and glad to be adults. They dressed like adults not like preteen clowns, and they spoke and behaved like adults.

Handwritten letters in the mail...with Polaroids enclosed.

Going out to the movies was a treat and not an expensive chore.

The very start of FM radio: very experimental and unbearably hip--at least in my neck of the woods. DJs would play an entire side of a new LP release at lunch break. Just dropped the needle at the first cut and let it go.

And yes, Coke with sugar tasted better than Coke with high fructose corn syrup. No question.

Could somebody please bring some WB-40 into this thread? From the sound of things, some wheelchairs need lubricating.

As well as some Tampax for R81.

Free tv has never been better. All those broadcast stations now have several channels (including PBS), and most of those old UHF stations now have oldies on their spare channels. Hell, you can watch TV like it IS the 1970s any day of the week. I got rid of cable and I have over 60 broadcast channels. I do not miss my cable bill. Now if only internet were free....

OP: are you me? I feel like I could have written that exact list.

I miss living in a sundown town.

I miss when people kept their blithering religiosity to themselves!

I remember that too! A persons religion stayed in the home and in their church...no one assumed it should be mixed up with politics...or maybe I was blind?

R78

Arthur Treacher's fish and chips. I still have not found the equal. I did see a sign on a place in Atlantic City for it but did not get to find out if it is the last one or something.

That white white fish and that tempura batter...man.

Rax Roast Beef.

Getting an ice-cream soda a the drug store.

Actually talking on the phone with friends, sometimes for hours. Now it's just a quick text here and there.

r88 I think I must have been the very last customer at the Arthur Treacher's on Broadway between 49th and 50th. I thought it would be there forever1

Spy Magazine

MST3K

I miss reading as a 10 year old - threw a blanket on the backyard lawn and read Gone with the Wind. Took nearly all sumer.

Home-made Popsicles. Pies. Nanaimo bars freshly made. Hand made dresses. Ironed sheets.

Running around trying village with other kids gathering 2 pillow cases of hallow'en candy which lasted the full year till next Hallow'en.

Hearing the Beatles "I can't get no satisfaction" by leaning on bedroom window screen and listening to teenagers singing to it - way, way past my bedtime.

Um...you mean the Stones...?

[quote] [R36], PBS didn't begin service until 1970.

It was NET before that. National Educational Television. It was very left wing. I loved it. It was shut down in 1970 and became PBS.

I was 14 years old when Sesame Street debuted in 1969 and it was on Channel 13, an NET station which became PBS a few months later. It was the 4th channel in the NY area For many years. Channel 13 still broadcast a lot of lefty and avant garde stuff for a few years after PBS took over, but then it got mainstream. Though they do still have Frontline.

I watched Channel 13, R94. Wasn't it in Newark?

I used to send my drawings to Uncle Fred Sayles' JUNIOR FROLICS. He usually would show them on the air.

Sales that started at 25% off, then went to 50% off, then 75% off. But the 75% off stuff wasn't very good. The good stuff sold out at 50% off. The only thing that gets discounted that fast nowadays is leftover holiday candy.

Since the Internet, 10% off and 15% off are the big whoop discounts. We wouldn't even go in a store that advertised 10% off. The highest anything decent every gets discounted online is 20% except for department stores. Like Macy's and Kohls.

Everything -- and I mean everything -- went 50% off at the malls the day after Christmas. Now they send stuff to stores like Big Lots before they discount it that low.

There was a hardware store in my UES neighborhood that had great Christmas stuff. Every year, I'd go in and buy next year's cards and decor. One year, I went in the day after Christmas and the new Indian owners were removing all the Christmas stuff from the shelves. "Aren't you going to discount it and sell it?" I asked.

"No. We'll store it til next year." And they did. I saw the exact same stuff the following Christmas. It was their last Christmas. They went out of business that year. Since there were no more discounts and the owners and workers knew nothing about hardware (the previous owners could tell you exactly what you needed when you described the DIY project you were planning) , everyone went to Home Depot on 59th St instead.

[quote] MST3K

On the bright side, there are live versions that tour the country from time to time, one hosted by Joel, the other by Mike.

I've seen the Joel one (their presentation is called Cinematic Titanic) and it was pretty funny.

I miss the days when there were no urinal dividers. Now there's simply no excitement about taking a piss with other men.

Porn movie theatres. I miss them. There was something fun, exciting and the way it should be collectively sharing the sexual experience with other men, straight and gay, jacking off together and watching another guy receive a blow job sitting beside you.

[quote]Quality television.

Sometimes, nostalgia is a form of mental illness.

I don't know what universe you are from, but television in the 60s and 70s was utter dreck, full of cheesy sitcoms and censorship.

Television has never been better than it is today. The writing is so much more sophisticated and more is expected of the audience.

Yes, you looked better, but TV did not.

What r100 said, with one reservation: *dramatic* television is much better today. As for the rest of TV, that wasn't on BITD, so there's no point in comparing.

Production values are much better, as is the quality of the image. But much of the material is still dreck, endlessly derivative, and playing to the lowest common denominator. And then there's reality television: who placed this curse on us, and when (if ever) will it ever end?

I remember when either our local NET (thanks to an earlier poster; I had forgotten about NET) or PBS station showed Jules and Jim serialized across several Sunday afternoons. Complete with nudity and gorgeous cinematography. It played a few weeks with no complaints and then our local newspaper did an article about the nudity and all of the religious bigots tuned in so they could complain. People are weird.

R97, I agree! However there was something so delightful about the conceit of the show, the successor riffing gigs don't really hold my interest as much.

With its handmade feel, it was a perfect antidote to the polished vapidity of Hollywood produced TV. I particularly liked the way they took stock sci fi character types (mad scientists, robots made from spare parts) and presented them in a bargain basement way, but gave each one a unique and complex personality all the same. It's actually rather touching. MARY!

Daytime game shows that were filled to the brim with gay public personalities.

Old datalounge threads could be opened in tabs. One refresh and everything updated. On Saturday nights the webmaster rested and all the NAMBLA, scat, PNP, and Lladro trolls came out to play.

Coked-up sluts would take a break to snark on Hollywood waiters/actors and other posters would identify/confirm lousy lays.

Commercials for K-Tel Records. Not only did the covers look like the proverbial freak out scene from the movie of the week, but the songs covered every top ten hit.

Short shorts on men and boys being the norm.

R108, I'm bringing the 5" inseam back.

OP

I would also add watermelon and tomatoes. Remember when ALL tomatoes were "heirloom"?

"When good people ran for President" How old ARE you? 200?

I miss the smell of unburnt raw gasoline, and getting 8 mpg in my 1969 Ford LTD station wagon.

I miss normal weather, a competent work force (young people now are generally shitty workers), and the occasional horror story like the Zodiac killer. Today, ISIS, global warming, overpopulation, random violence, Ebola, missing planes, every week sucks. Oh, and move out of China. That toxic dump is gonna blow.

R108 - You can still find short shorts today on some men

[quote]I agree with the three channels thing, although it wasn't really three channels. You had ABC, CBS, and NBC, plus PBS and a handful of independent stations. But what I liked wasn't that there were three channels, as much as the quality of the programming. Series, movies, mini-series, etc.

American TV ALWAYS had too many commercials.

[quote]Decent movie music, with melodies

I often would stop by a record store on the way home and buy the soundtrack album.

I don't think I've done that in 20 years.

[quote]Getting handwritten letters in the mail

Dear Christopher/Julian/David,

Just a short note to thank you for such a lovely weekend. Your mushroom soup! The hearty casseroles with crusty bread. Pears poached in red wine...the open log fires. That jolly jaunt into the village in your station wagon. It was all absolute heaven!

Blah! Blah! Blah!

[quote]I will still take the trade off of living in today's more tolerant society (yes we still have miles to go but have come a great distance particularly in the last 15 years) that is less polite but more inclusive.

I agree.

& believe it or not there will be people waxing lyrical about life in 2015 in about 20 years time. Mark my words.

If the planet is even here in 20 years! One day it's gonna blow or burp up a toxic Fukushima mess and wipe out mankind. Or nuclear war will be triggered and kill everyone in one day.

[quote]If the planet is even here in 20 years!

BAN THE BOMB!

Bless you, R115.

Da-da-da-daddah-DAH.

And another one for R120 and R115. I can almost see the two Puerto Rican women walking up West Broadway. And that painting!

R85 you miss living in a racist town? That's what sundown town means? I miss when people were open about their bigotry so others could easily turn away from them.

I miss television shows were the parents were smarter than the children.

I'd like a cucumber that tastes like a cucumber. Cucumber salads were so good.

Prime rib in restaurants . Yeah, I know, chain restaurants probably have prime rib. But a nice prime rib in a non-chain restaurant. And lamb. Not rack of lamb, but sliced lamb that isn't cooked with garlic and oregano.

Wow, I'm getting my rose-colored glasses prescription filled TODAY!

I miss walking into a gay bar and having a fighting chance of fucking whoever I want.

Saturday weddings. People would get all dressed up and cars would be decorated. When anyone saw a car decorated for a wedding driving down the street other drivers would honk their horns and flash their lights. We were all strangers but it was something everyone did in our city. This seemed to die out around the early 1990s.

R127 - You still have a fighting chance of fucking guys in the bar - it's just that now, those guys also look like you. Ewww. . .

I miss the great music magazines: CREEM, Rock Scene, Circus and Trouser Press. Picking up distant tv channels late at night.

Sunday spaghetti dinners at my Grampa's house in Little Italy. Everything fresh, hot and homemade.

Gardens.......everyone in our neighborhood had a backyard garden. Didn't have to hunt for great lettuce and tomatoes.

Tomato and Provolone sandwiches on fresh Italian bread, with a cold bottle of orange Nehi pop.

The original TV Guide

Lunch couters in Grant's, Kresge's, Woolworth's, and Murphy's.

Greatest fountain Cokes and malted shakes.Cheeseburgers and fries. Hot fudge sundaes and banana splits.

Sleeping through the night!

Having a bowel movement.

I miss the days when nobody thought that Kale was actually food.

Kale was food, but it was Japanese food called kombu

Kale used to be seaweed?

I still miss the old DL. When I come here to peruse new threads/responses, I'm stuck in a never-ending herky-jerky scrolling exercise that ends up taking so long that I stop looking and check out my other websites.

Seaweed = nori

Me too. This new format still sucks. Whoever designed it needs to give their money back.

It was so much easier to find threads and see the newest posts.

R140 I'm with you on that one. I thought something was wrong with my tablet until I realized it only happens on DL.

For some reason, I am also frequently blocked from posting on my tablet, but not on my laptop. Don't get it.

Speaking for myself, but I'm sure for many others, I spend less time here. I do miss the old DL.

R120: I'm sorry, but that sounds like circus music. And I don't say that as a compliment.

[quote]I'd like a cucumber that tastes like a cucumber.

Who ever TASTES a cucumber? That is not what the Lord created them for!

And do you think for even a second, R144, that I give a shit?

I like you, Old Man. Thanks for sharing your wisdom.

R146 You are so almost adorable when your defensively crotchety.

When "(my) defensively crotchety" what, R148?

You are.

(I'm not adorable when I misspell words.)

[quote]Just a short note to thank you for such a lovely weekend. Your mushroom soup! The hearty casseroles with crusty bread. Pears poached in red wine...the open log fires. That jolly jaunt into the village in your station wagon. It was all absolute heaven!

I'm thinking they probably went shopping for fall knitwear in the village.

I miss when winters were actually cold, and summers weren't endlessly hot, and there weren't 100 year floods every two or three years, and mega-droughts every decade, and storms were more gentle...

[quote]I miss when winters were actually cold

Let's trade places.

I miss good, quality food that tastes good. Chicken a la King, Shepherd's pie, refreshing Jello salads. Nowadays all you find is this weird Oriental and Moslem food that upsets my stomach.

I live in a Southern California community of 100,000+ people, and we no longer have ANY gay bars here. In the 1980s there were five, and all did extremely well. I guess it’s easier to hook up online these days than to venture out into the community and go cruising the bars. How sad.

Gimme a bar anyday. At least you can see what your getting. And it's easier to detect a nutball.

I miss having perfect-enough vision. Now in my 37th year, I can no longer deny that I need glasses.

The little link that DL attaches to user posted images now, the one with Joan Crawford? I thought for five days that it was the boy from Mask, that movie with Cher.

Wrong link.

Joan Crawford? I thought it was Carrot Top. I really did.

I, too, miss the old days when Data Lounge was so much easier to navigate.

Is Muriel trying to frustrate everyone just because she can?

Thalidomide babies. Used to be all over the place, and now the only one is on Datalounge.

Clean air (SF smells like a forest fire. I fully expect to see a hurricane in my lifetime at this rate of global warming).

[quote]I miss being able to copy/paste from DataLounge. The Quote tag is now useless to me.

Is that a problem for phone users? As you can see, I have no problems doing copy/paste using Ctrl+ commands.

R78, I went to an Arthur Treacher's in Barberton, Ohio about four years ago when I went there for a family wedding.

Yes, travel to Barberton, Ohio just for Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips!

I miss being able to comment on the usability issues of the forum software without being BANNED for several days. Seriously, that's fucked up.

R164, I'm on a laptop. Try as I might, I cannot select text. And just for saying that fact, I'll probably be banned again. Sigh.

German restaurants. There were a lot of them around in my area when growing up. They're all gone. Even the ones in my old NYC neighborhood nicknamed Germantown are gone.

I miss being able to copy and paste urls from google image to make a link on my mobile phone. No more url on Google image mobile. No more links. Can't even click on the image to go to the page.

All I get on google image now on my mobile phone is images. No description. No url. No ability to find out anything about the image.

[quote] I miss when winters were actually cold

Come to eastern Long Island. Winter will freeze your ass off. And you'll shovel plenty of snow.

oh wow. A cucumber sex joke. What could be more funny, except a sex joke about meat?

I will NEVER miss people who say "crusty bread" instead of "bread", because they will never go away.

We have one German restaurant around here but it's is seldom open. I guess they only open when they are having a good day?

George Wallace. Now all we get is clowns like Donald Trump.

R166, go to the beginning of the text you want to select. Hold down the shift key while you use the right arrow key to highlight, then do Ctrl and C. Go to where you want to insert the text and do Ctrl V.

I envy the facility of the new young with the many current devices.

I miss the longer moment's thought.

I feel sorry for the kids' permanent poor skin art, revolted by those on the middle-aged, and sorry for myself that I will not live to see them no more.

I can copy/paste and select text again! YAY!

The past is the future!

Great Shakes

I live in northern Jersey and what I miss most is autumn.

The smells, the air and the colors. Damn the colors of the leaves were so wildly beautiful.

And the crisp chill of the morning air...god how it made you feel alive.

It was my favorite season. I don't even remember the last year when there was an autumn.

It had to have been at least 30 years ago if not more.

My dad was a sucker for any new gimmicky snack food or cereal. He brought home Great Shakes from the grocery (My mother hated shopping). It wasn't very good but my mom kept that shaker with the snap on top because it was so useful for shaking up and mixing small bits for cooking. It was still in the kitchen when my father died in 2003 (she died in 1995). So it was kept and used for nearly forty years! Wish I still had it.

Look, kids! Bugles! Lucky Charms! Cereal with freeze dried blueberries!

Aawww that's so sweet dear r179

R128. Wow, thanks for the memories. Anyone getting married in my neighborhood was a very deal in the '60s and '70s. You waited around to see the bride or groom leaving the house. It had a great of excitement for the wedding party and onlookers alike. Now of course, who the hell knows your neighbors enough to care? And now gays can marry so you have to lock up the children for fear they will be scarred.

I am 56 and I miss the following

Real Poppers

Wearing my Izoid Polo shirt that framed my 20 year old body back in 1980 just perfect

Small cans of Crisco ( non butter flavored) sitting conspicuously on night stands

The smell of Halson I-12 and Z -14 cologne on the dance floor

After Dark Magazine

AH MEN Clothing catalogs

My Calvin Klein Jeans with a 32 inch waist ( sigh ) that cost me 37.00 in 1979 which was an outrageous price for jeans then

The excitement and preparation of going out to the bars

My friends who have left this earth, be it AIDS, Drugs, Accidents or Other Issues

My innocence and the joy of exploring new sexual boundaries

Dancing at the Saint on opening night

Being on the dancefloor and screaming with joy when any Diana Ross song was played

Are you joking R178?

[quote] Old Mary's Thought for the Day

Fixed that for you.

We LOVED Great Shakes in my house! Between these and Carnation Instant Breakfast, it's a wonder I grew to 6'0" tall. I suppose I drank them between meals so I didn't "starve to death" which seemed possible at the time!

R179 returning. The talk of Great Shakes and Carnation instant breakfast reminded me of something called Body Build, which was another just -mix-with-milk concoction (probably also from Carnation) that was supposed to help develop bulk and muscle. My 8th grade English teacher "tactfully" suggested that I try it because I was being bullied (not as much as kids are these days though). In front of the whole class, she suggests this...sheesh.

Oh, and now the talk of breakfast products that make you bullyproof reminds me Apple Jacks...

New Kellogg's Apple Jacks!

Great for breakfast, great for snacks!

Cinnamon toasty, apple tasty,

A bowl a day keeps the bullies away!

One of the guys at my dad's job said that his kid came home from school one day all bruised and battered. When asked what happened he said that he had decided to take on a much bigger and older bully. The kid figured he'd be able to take the bully because he'd been eating Apple Jacks every day for a week. The dad said he was thinking of suing Kellogg's. Back then, it was a joke. Now he'd go ahead and do it. And win...

Thanks for the hug R180!

I miss piss

Having lots of department stores to choose from. As long as I remember we had K-mart, Zellers, Bi-Way, Bargain Harold's, Woolco, Sears, The Bay, Eaton's. Now all we have is Walmart and The Bay.

I miss Frederick & Nelson.

[quote] Small cans of Crisco ( non butter flavored) sitting conspicuously on night stands

It'll do you proud every time!

I miss the days of the Empire, when one could just pop off to India for a game of croquet and chuckle at the silly natives marvelling enviously at European exceptionalism.

You go R182!

Johnny Carson show is going to be aired at 11:00 every night. It will be on the Antenna Channel (CW). I didn't know I had it. It is among a whole bunch of channels that show old tv shows. All In the Family, Three's Company, etc.

Not sure when it starts. Probably fall programming.

R193 see R12. It starts in January,

Going outside.

Are you me, OP? Couldn't have put it better myself

Maybe OP just needs to buy organic lettuce and beef.

But I regret never having tasted original Coke.

Oh look the 2015 thread bumper is back.^^^^^^^^^^^

They miss the threads of 2015.

"But I regret never having tasted original Coke. "

Just have one in Europe or Mexico !

I miss our family's summer vacations to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Erections.

I miss my Mom.

I'm 51 and I get what OP is going on about

Emptying my bladder in one continuous powerful stream with very little dribble afterward.

R205 At about what age does this break? Thanks for the warning...

Finally a 2015 bump I like.

My friend Stevie used to get the best coke.

sigh

A time when there weren't camera phones everywhere and thus a reasonable expectation of privacy. Everybody has become a creepy voyeur. It's like the fucking Lives of Others out there. Those cameras will be the ruin of society.

OP you said you miss 'Waiting for Things'

You mean besides death.

Lawn darts

I miss my ass 🍒

I miss: video arcades

Dollar movie theater features

Rollerskating (not blading)

Pontiac Trans Am

Knees.

[quote]At about what age does this break?

The more you drink and the shittier you eat the sooner this will happen.

R200 I did have Coke in Italy. It was definitely better than American Coke.

When air travel was a pleasure rather than an ordeal.

R217 When was that? The 60s?

Perhaps the 1860s, r217. Flying has never been a pleasure. Just less annoying by far. R217 types Wears Suits to Fly.

Regarding flying, I always hear people complain about the service but I've never had any issue with flight attendants or TSA agents. What makes it miserable for me are the neurotic, tightly wound passengers who are clearly terrified of flying but force themselves on planes anyway and act like insane cunts. My last flight, some fat, red faced old nutjob in a tacky polo shirt screamed at me because he erroneously thought I was trying to cut in front of him while exiting the plane. How he possibly thought I would squeeze past him is a mystery for the ages.

Why doesn't American coke have the original ingredients but European and Mexican coke does?

Sports players being regular fellas with heart who get £500 a week full-time and who frequent the local pub of their team, instead of being high-performance athletic model robots paid millions to party on private yachts and make algorithmic plays in the most boring games you’ve ever seen. This would mean turning back the clock at least to the late 1970s-80s, or the total collapse of international sports canals designed to help oligarchs launder money.

R221 I think European/Mexican coke is the same except for cane sugar instead of HFCS. No?

I miss when Donald Trump wasn't fat.

I miss when boring bitches like R224 didn’t feel the need to change the subject of every conversation to Donald Trump, even when they can’t figure out a clever segue to do so.

Especially when you haven't done anything to change that state of affairs, R225.

My teeth.

Bruce Jenner's penis

I miss having shared conversations about enjoyed TV shows and movies. Now everyone is watching something different, and people such jaded critics about characters, plot etc that there’s nothing left to enjoy. It’s almost like people watch things now looking for reasons to dislike them—or to show others they have exquisite taste because they hated it and it didn’t live up to their high expectations.

I miss sex and a loving relationship.

What did OP mean by lettuce? Did it once taste different?

He meant "lettuce be the one to turn to," R231, like this ad for ABC when their shows were making lots of lettuce.

I miss playing board games.

Whatever happened to class?

[quote] Whatever happened to class?

Harvey Weinstein happened.

[quote]I miss playing board games.

You can play lots of board games online, for free. And when the lockdown is over, there are lots and lots of board game groups and even conventions out there.