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

[JasperFrank]

Every Mom and Pop grocery store sold balsa wood gliders and rubber band powered prop airplane toys. We would modify these into much larger two and three propeller bombers.

 

[/pine]

Every Mom and Pop grocery store sold balsa wood gliders and rubber band powered prop airplane toys. We would modify these into much larger two and three propeller bombers.

We used to make them into jets...using those big bottle rockets taped to the fuselage...we would mash the tops so the report didn't ruin the planes...

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

M80s and cherry bombs, may have already been mentioned. They were powerful. M80s worked underwater because some kids in school would light & flush down commode.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Preparation H with real shark liver oil in it that worked instead of today's version with corn oil.
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One weird thing is that Preparation H is great for removing bags under your eyes. Use the cream, not the ointment, and let is sit under your eyes for an hour. Bag-B-Gone. Makes you feel like a real S*** Face.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

TV was always in the background... Dad would unwind after work with the evening news.

These days it can be weeks or even months without the TV on... and now commercials which never bothered me certainly do... the shear volume of commercials...

I'm the same way. The TV goes for days without getting turned on. They say that elders sitting in front of a TV is a great way to rot both your mind and your body, leading to early dementia and physical disability.

 

[SouthernSky]

Anyone remember Edmund Scientific? I ordered all the time. Once ordered a weather balloon.!

I used to order from them as well. All kinds of cool stuff. You can see some of the stuff now at www.scientificsdirect.com but it is not the same. It is run by the people that bought out Edmunds.

There was a place in Chicago on Milwaukee Ave that sold similar product but can’t remember the name. I used to bike 7-8 miles there as a kid to get there.

 

[JasperFrank]

We haven't watched, "over the air," or cable TV in over 15 years. What ever we want to watch is usually available live stream via the internet, or Netflix DVD.
The wife had cable, included in her rent, when she lived in-town, and it was 150 channels of nothing worth to watch.

50 years ago, I think we were a bit more unified as a culture, since there were only four networks and everyone was seeing the same stuff at the the same time. The UHF channels were fun, as they never ran first run content.

 

[flyerdan]

I remember the Edmund scientific catalog. If I recall, it was rather specialized and high end, American Science and Surplus has a lot of similar, as well as other items for pretty low cost that will keep a bodger occupied for days.
I seem to remember from back in the 60's a catalog from Allied Electronics or Allied Radio, it went on to become Radio Shack.

 

[Oaktree]

We haven't watched, "over the air," or cable TV in over 15 years. What ever we want to watch is usually available live stream via the internet, or Netflix DVD.
The wife had cable, included in her rent, when she lived in-town, and it was 150 channels of nothing worth to watch.

50 years ago, I think we were a bit more unified as a culture, since there were only four networks and everyone was seeing the same stuff at the the same time. The UHF channels were fun, as they never ran first run content.

We recently removed the OTA channels from our cable line up, replacing it with a package that contains ~50 "cable channels" (ie-Discovery, History, etc.). This was mainly a cost-cutting move...^%¥@# "broadcast tv fee" cost more than the tv package itself! We found that other than a handful of CBS shows, we rarely watched it anymore, though my wife does miss "local" news (keep in mind that the nearest tv market is 100+ mi. away, too far to pick up off air...we tried). Some interesting shows there we'd never seen before. We really like "North Woods Law", which is set right here in N.H. We do have Paramount+ which has most of the CBS shows we'd be likely to watch. The Roku channel has a lot of good stuff too.

As far as unified culture, yeah, maybe so but the seeds had already been sown. Anyone remember the "generation gap" from the Vietnam war era? Boomers vs their parents generation? VERY real in some cases.
Certainly the internet has been a double-edged sword...allows connection between like-minded people half a continent away. Downside is that it enables those with extreme views (largely political, but in other areas as well) to not "need" to associate with anyone who doesn't share their outlook on life. Not a good thing long term.

 

[JethroB]

Fire sprinklers are there for one purpose. To save people. They are not intended to save structures. In a big structure fire, the water from sprinkler systems (assuming they work) does more damage than the actual fire normally.

Don't forget they (sprinkler systems) have to be inspected annually.

We had to install a sprinkler system in our industrial freezer at work to make insurance carrier happy. 120 x 120 x 30 ft high building kept at 10 below zero storing up to 2 million pounds of chicken. It was interesting how they designed it. The overhead sprinkler lines couldn’t be charged with water since it would freeze, so the lines were charged with nitrogen gas. A drop in the nitrogen gas pressure would trigger the water to then flow in. Seemed pretty complex.