Top 25 Things Disappearing From America

[Jeff Wrangler]

I remember getting into trouble with my aunt right after she got the first in home phone we had ever seen...back then you could dial your own number, hang up fast and it would ring! We did it over and over...we were a simple lot and easily entertained! 

I don't remember that, but I remember party-line telephones. 

And telephone "numbers" that had letters in them: EX5-5555.

And when we went to visit my grandmother, if my mother wanted to telephone my aunt, whose phone number was in the same exchange as my grandmother's, she only had to dial the last four digits of the number.

[David In Indy]

We might be going to drive in during the eurobrokies gathering!

You still have drive-ins in Europe? You're lucky Kelda. Drive-ins are quickly disappearing over here. At least they are in my part of the country. I miss them. They were a lot of fun.

[David In Indy]

The last time I was at a drive-in was when I lived in Evansville. Starlite Drive-in was about a 15 minute drive from my house, across the river in Henderson, Kentucky. It was located way out in the country on highway 60, with lots of woods all around it. It was beautiful. I think we saw Con-Air and Casper the last time I was there. I don't know if Starlite is still open or not.

[Kelda]

Id never even seen a drive in i didnt think they existed in europe but apparently there is one in Brussels.

[David In Indy]

Id never even seen a drive in i didnt think they existed in europe but apparently there is one in Brussels.

Well I hope you all decide to go to the drive-in! You'd have lots of fun... especially if you go with a bunch of brokies!!

There's something magical about sitting outside under the night sky watching a movie with your friends. I know that probably sounds a bit corny, but it's true. I really do miss those drive-ins.

[Penthesilea]

You still have drive-ins in Europe?

We barely had them to begin with. I don't know about other countries, but drive-in theatres always were a rarity in Germany. I just checked Wikipedia, it says at their hayday there were about two dozens drive-ins in West Germany (60 million people), and only one in East Germany (twenty million people).

Today, there are only five drive-ins left in West Germany, but oddly they opened new ones in East Germany after the iron curtain fell, and some of them are still in use. Most people in Germany have never been to a drive-in theater and know them only from US movies. I guess the movies are the reason they became (relatively) popular in East Germany after the iron curtain fell. Everything which was percieved as typical West (meaning the Western world) or American was highly desirable back then.


So even if drive-ins are on the decline in the US, I bet you still have much, much more of them than we have.

We were lucky and had a drive-in in the next bigger city. Of course my parents never-ever would have taken their kid anywhere in the evening (what a shocking thought ). But when I was a teenager, we went on our own. I remember the bad sound of the loudspeaker you would hang into your window.  And I remember making-out in the backseat more than any movie

[Jeff Wrangler]

I don't suppose anybody will miss outhouses. ... 

[Artiste]

There are still some party telephone lines in the USA! But now rare ?

[David In Indy]

My grandmother had a party line. I remember picking up the phone and eavesdropping on the other party's calls. My grandma would get REALLY mad when she caught me doing it! She could tell who the incoming call was for, by the way the phone rang. It rang differently for each party.

And I might be telling my age here, but when I was VERY young, our phone number was Lincoln 5-1126. When I was 5 or 6 years old, it changed to 545-1126.

And grandma's was something like (long distance operator) Bramble #-#### Ring 2. I don't remember her full phone number anymore, just the Bramble and ring 2 parts. lol

[CellarDweller]

I don't suppose anybody will miss outhouses. ... 

ya think?