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

[Oaktree]

Wondering where they went to. They had a positively huge warehouse and distribution center on the south side of I 80 just west of Joliet, Illinois. Used to offer some pretty strange stuff too.

And yet, it seemed that 25% or more of your order (whatever it was) would come back "out of stock" or "backordered". Agree on the oddball stuff offered. I wonder how much of that anyone ever ordered.
Agree their catalog made for an interesting read.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Shoestring potatoes. Not an order, but they were in every grocery store.

Same with TV. Even in the early days of TV, you could find something entertaining, funny, enlightening, interesting or restful. Today, there is not a series worth watching. I haven't seen a good comedy show or comedian in years; they aren't even on TV any more unless you watch a rerun of Roseann or Carol Burnette. Boston Legal and NCIS went the way of the Do Do. Twenty four hours of contrived news and comment doesn't cut it any more.

Ah, Red Skelton, Johnny Carson, Ed Sullivan, Colgate Comedy hour; we miss you.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Same with TV. Even in the early days of TV, you could find something entertaining, funny, enlightening, interesting or restful. Today, there is not a series worth watching. I haven't seen a good comedy show or comedian in years; they aren't even on TV any more unless you watch a rerun of Roseann or Carol Burnette. Boston Legal and NCIS went the way of the Do Do. Twenty four hours of contrived news and comment doesn't cut it any more.

Ah, Red Skelton, Johnny Carson, Ed Sullivan, Colgate Comedy hour; we miss you.

Ah, Johnny Carson. He was the last of the great late night hosts. His monologs were funny. His guests were intelligent and interesting. I remember Carl Sagan, Truman Capote, Gore Vidal, David Horowitz, and he gave early breaks to famous acts like George Carlin. When Leno took over, he turned it into the starlet of the day and Late Night For Dummies. I'm old enough to remember Steve Allen as host, and Carson carried on the tradition. He was the last.

 

[npalen]

JCWhitney had a wholesale version of its catalog called Warshawsky It was the same catalog with much lower prices on some items but not all. It was named after JCWhitney's founder, Roy Warshawsky.

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

They do... we all pay a high rate and if you aren't on top of it you're cancelled...

Very hard to get insurance now and much harder if cancelled... and the companies know it.

Fire rating based on build is almost non existent...

Spending money on a clay tile roof, now exterior exposed wood, triple pane windows, full inside and out fire sprinklers plus we'll cleared with a fire hydrant in front with 180 psi and a fire station a 1/4 mile away means nothing...

What counts is how close to park and open space!

My brother had to take down a dozen trees to get fire insurance for his place. He has a 1000-gallon tank on the hill above the house, and keeps the chemicals to make fire retardant slurry at the house.

You can buy the Phos-Chek slurry mix in five gallon pails. Home Depot carries it in some of the more fire prone areas. You can apply it with most weed sprayers on an ATV or Tractor.

 

[grsthegreat]

I think you would find property owners very proactive here and in much of Northern CA as in wine country but even vineyards burned with no dense forest.

Private dozer operators saved many but also came under attack by regulators for blazing trails in sensitive wetlands and on public lands.

It takes a permit with public comment to remove most trees and permit is several hundred dollars… just saying.

When all said and done it was 2k for me to have a single backyard walnut tree taken down…

Embers can travel many miles and high wind with low humidity is akin to a tinderbox situation leaving only structural hardening…

That experience effected me when i started to build my house in idaho. I was at the building dept with plans and asked the clerk where i get permit to remove some trees. She just stared at me and asked if they were my trees. When i said yes, she asked me why i want a permit to cut my own trees. Enough said.

thats when i knew i lived in that useless nanny state too long, and i had found freedom.

 

[5030]

Fels Naphtha bar soap and Boraxo in a metal can... Stuff is probably collectable today.

 

[5030]

Albuquerque (including unincorporated areas) is about 1 million population, so not really large in the sense of largest US cities. It’s about 10 miles east/west and 20 miles north/south, making it seem larger than it is because it’s situated in the Rio Grande valley so it’s long and narrow.

I remember driving through there with my big truck and the wind was always blowing the wrong way.

 

[flyerdan]

I was helping the next door neighbor move a while back and they had two bars of this they were going to toss...

 

[TugBarge]

Apparently you can still order Fels Naptha.

 

[Diggin It]

As with some of the websites mentioned, stuff is still out there, but is it in the original formulas?

https://www.amazon.com/Fels-Naptha-Laundry-Soap-Bar/dp/B01N1ZHU12

Robot or human?

Lava® Bar Soap | Heavy-Duty Pumice Soap & Hand Cleaner

The original pumice soap bar, Lava� Bar Soap is a powerful, heavy-duty hand cleaner that cuts through grease and grime. Try the original Lava� Bar today!

www.lavasoap.com

 

[5030]

No 20 mule team Boraxo? Now you went and did it. Had 2 order 2 bars for my wife...lol

 

[ponytug]

A few years back, I checked. The current reported formulation is different from way, way back (no more naphtha due to the cancer hazard), and these days it contains terpenes, e.g. turpentine and orange oil. Same goal, arguably safer ingredients.

I don't know the date of the reformulation

All the best,

Peter

 

[WVH1977]

How about Dynamite?

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

There used to be 2 different (but similar) stink baits that worked (for varmint hunting) better than anything before or since. The first one was labelled "10 Dead Horse" (because it smelled like that). And the other one was called "7 miles of dead fish" (yup, it smelled like it).

Used to pull in coyotes from 2 counties over (not really, but it seemed like it).

 

[5030]

A few years back, I checked. The current reported formulation is different from way, way back (no more naphtha due to the cancer hazard), and these days it contains terpenes, e.g. turpentine and orange oil. Same goal, arguably safer ingredients.

I don't know the date of the reformulation

All the best,

Peter

I guess we will see as I ordered it a little while ago.

 

[jyoutz]

I remember driving through there with my big truck and the wind was always blowing the wrong way.

Springtime is the worst season: dry and windy. I enjoy the other 3 seasons.

 

[jyoutz]

I think you would find property owners very proactive here and in much of Northern CA as in wine country but even vineyards burned with no dense forest.

Private dozer operators saved many but also came under attack by regulators for blazing trails in sensitive wetlands and on public lands.

It takes a permit with public comment to remove most trees and permit is several hundred dollars… just saying.

When all said and done it was 2k for me to have a single backyard walnut tree taken down…

Embers can travel many miles and high wind with low humidity is akin to a tinderbox situation leaving only structural hardening…

I was a situation unit leader on an incident management team for 15+ years. You are correct that wind driven fire brands can ignite structures that are not in a hazardous forest location. But typically, houses with defensible space and reduced fuels are those that fire teams spend efforts on protecting. Those in hazardous fuels locations are too risky to defend because it puts lives at risk.