Things you could order over 50 years ago that you can't order now !

[Jstpssng]

I have one on my nightstand still working.

It's amazing that it has lived this long. You must have it on one of those Holistic diets or something.

 

[/pine]

You could never buy a WWII jeep in a crate. That never happened. No one has ever experienced buying a jeep in the crate in parts covered with jelly. It was a con-man that sold info on how to go to USA Military actions that posted the ads in the back of Popular Mechanics ads that just sold you a guide on how you could go to a USA Military auction in the 60's. No one ever bought a MIL Spec jeep in the way it was advertised. No One EVER bought a WWII jeep this way. Olive Drab Unicorn? The Truth behind the WW2 "Jeep In The Crate"

I believe the part about being $50...but take that out of the equation and a lot of this story is a big myth...
There were lots of surplus jeeps sold after the war and individual vehicles rarely made it to US surplus auctions...most were sold to businesses or individuals that could buy stacked railroad cars or multiple railroad cars of the jeeps...it was those entities that then sold them individually at surplus auctions (not sanctioned my the US military and not for $50...)...

 

[Jstpssng]

I always found the internet and online shopping destroying Sears, and JC Penny as semi humorous in a slightly twisted way.

You had a store chain, which built itself as a mail order catalog enterprise, which then branched out to brick and mortar where they stocked the more popular items from the catalog, but which still had their catalog.

The the internet move started, and they still had their catalogs, and brick and mortar stores. The internet ate into their mail order sales so the got rid of the catalog division, and moved to just brick and mortar.

If they had only had a modicum of foresight, and actual intelligence: They could have moved their catalog, (it was already in HTML, and it would have been pretty straight forward), to an online presence they would still be world class enterprises.

I've always felt the same thing. It's too bad because in the day they were a good store. I believe that another mistake they made was when they bought K-Mart.

 

[JasperFrank]

"If they had only had a modicum of foresight, and actual intelligence: They could have moved their catalog, (it was already in HTML, and it would have been pretty straight forward), to an online presence they would still be world class enterprises."

The collapse of SEARS is quite the amazing story. They had all the mechanics in place to be Amazon. I remember getting the catalogs, and they were like DREAM books, cause you could buy just about ANYTHING if you had the money.

 

[bullbreaker]

Wasn't that long ago but how about Heathkit stores. And Curtis Mathes TV 's ?

 

[JasperFrank]

I built a heath-kit stereo amplifier from one of their kits in the early 70's. Learned electronic schematics and how to solder. In my mid-life, 1980's to about 2003, this turned out to be a very important skill in electronic repair. Then surface mounting became the norm and I couldn't deal with that. Components were too small, and too packed together on the bus for my shaky hands to work with.
I applaud folks like Louis Rossman, that on Youtube shows how you work with the tiny components and surface mounted chips. I just don't have the hand control anymore, to do anything like this.

 

[stuckmotor]

I believe the part about being $50...but take that out of the equation and a lot of this story is a big myth...
There were lots of surplus jeeps sold after the war and individual vehicles rarely made it to US surplus auctions...most were sold to businesses or individuals that could buy stacked railroad cars or multiple railroad cars of the jeeps...it was those entities that then sold them individually at surplus auctions (not sanctioned my the US military and not for $50...)...

Something similar happened after WW1 with army wagons. My great grandfather and his brothers bought a box car load. One of them hung around the farm unil my grandfather sold it in the 1970s or '80s. I don't think it ever made it overseas.

 

[JasperFrank]

My grandfather was able to buy a decommissioned Sherman Tank with out the terrent as mil surplus. Some how he put a plow on it. So it was a cheap caterpillar tractor. I remember that this thing was so smoky, you had to know the wind direction or you would get asphyxiated.

 

[hosspuller]

Ammonium Nitrate in 50 pound bags.

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

A little more than 50-years ago, but you used to be able to buy, dynamite, caps and. Fuses, at the local lumberyard/farm and ranch supply.

 

[stuckmotor]

A little more than 50-years ago, but you used to be able to buy, dynamite, caps and. Fuses, at the local lumberyard/farm and ranch supply.

There was a hardware salesman in my mother's family. The story I heard was that the former kids play house in his yard was at one time used as a dynamite storeroom.

 

[lman]

A little more than 50-years ago, but you used to be able to buy, dynamite, caps and. Fuses, at the local lumberyard/farm and ranch supply.

My dad used to buy dynamite to blow stumps. They didn't always go the right way but nobody ever got hurt.

 

[ultrarunner]

I believe the part about being $50...but take that out of the equation and a lot of this story is a big myth...
There were lots of surplus jeeps sold after the war and individual vehicles rarely made it to US surplus auctions...most were sold to businesses or individuals that could buy stacked railroad cars or multiple railroad cars of the jeeps...it was those entities that then sold them individually at surplus auctions (not sanctioned my the US military and not for $50...)...

A friend had two surplus from the 1940's and both military that were offered and bought by a municipality.

His father bought them circa 1960 for the ranch... one had extra spring packs and originally set up as a hot shot fire fighting vehicle with small water tank, pump and hose...

Another friend is s collector and has all three "Jeeps" in mint authentic livery as they say... Bantam BRC, Ford and Willis...

I think.the Ford is most capable but Bantam invented the Jeep and the only manufacturer to deliver a prototype to the military on time for evaluation...

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

my granddad had half track. The bought it figuring it would handle the obsidian flats that cut the sidewalls out of the tires on the trucks. My memories of it, consist of it throwing the tracks a lot.

 

[ultrarunner]

Incandescent light bulbs in a plethora of sizes and cheap...

 

[dodge man]

I had a Heathkit when I was about 10 years old. It basically had a bunch of transistors, resistors and such mounted on a board. They were wired to a set of springs on each side. You could then take a bunch of wires and make different things. There were directions to make a intercom, radio, Morse code etc. Then take the wires loose and build something else. The pic isn’t the exact one I had but similar concept.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I'll never forget my old Erector set...do they still make these?