Gone.....for Good

"Wedding Night Virgins".    Yup, it is hard to believe that circa 1950's it was actually the thing to do. That's right....Marry a virgin...It was a whole big deal back then.  The wedding night was so important. How I wish I had known that now, but 3 wives later I guess it is too late.  My first wife spent so much time in the bathroom getting ready that by the time she got out,,,,,,,,,,, I was sound asleep...That is completely true and I should have realized then it was doomed.

I am so happy things are different today....How archaic things used to be.

       "Vinyl Records"...   sure they are still in use somewhat today, but the reality is they are gone..Oh how I miss the skipping of the needle, the warping of the record, the constant changing of the needle, etc.    Hard to imagine that today we have everything right on our smart phones, computers, Pandora, I pods and whatever.... Another thing that has been replaced by newer technology.

Sometimes I wonder if we are going forward or backwards ?

      "The unanswered Phone"     Just think back to rotary phones.  I remember as a kid having one and they were all one color....Black.....  Talk about rotary phones and then lets talk about the first answering machines.  Do you remember the little tapes that were in them ? Having to rewind it every time you received a call ?

     

It's almost amusing to think about stuff like this today...Part of not being able to reach someone years ago was pretty good, especially if you were cheating on your spouse or girl friend..(or boy friend).  Forget about it today...We are prisoners of our smart phones and surely would never leave home without it. Who is not reachable today in seconds?

"Typewriters"     How I love this one.  Just think about the typewriter when you were a kid. How they had progressed and finally became somewhat portable, until of course the electric typewriter came into being.

I don't know about you, but I love looking at pictures of old typewriters and seeing what we use now.  Actually, who in fact does type today ?  I am typing this now on my computer, but most of the time I use my speech to text app on my smart phone... I am just waiting for the next step which will make everything look ancient.
      I would really like to thank the folks who wrote Going, Going, Gone....Vanishing Americana by Susan Jonas and Marilyn Nissenson.  It is such a fun book that I really look at quite often.  The book is pretty old by now, and I would love to see an updated version of it....I have made comments about several of the subjects in the book, and it might be one of the few things that I really can't make fun of.

This is a first for me. In fact here is a picture of the cover.....Just fun...In fact it is sort of the type of fun that I hope you find in reading CRaPUSA....
      But I certainly do hope that we can preserve some things ?????  I am not sure what, but I am sure there are some. Maybe like edible panties ????   Or real live juices that are not made from concentrate.   There must be plenty. Just saying.
     

    
     
    
      
      
     

Gone......The End....Finished......Bye....

Don't be sad. Everything at some point ends. I usually write about things that piss me off, or bother me, or upset me, or make me wonder, but right now after a few too many drinks I have to concentrate on other stuff. I am thinking about things that are not Ridiculous, not cynical and certainly not pathetic...... Actually, all they really are.....................are gone.........or almost gone......

         There are so many things in this category that I thought I would write about it every now and then.  It really is something we don't think about every single day, but holy shit, when we do we say, "What The Fuck"   that doesn't exist anymore....It seems like only yesterday there were phone booths everywhere and on every block in the city.. You put your dime or quarter in it and dialed your number. You never gave a second thought about the smell in the booth as that was part of the charm...There was no speaker so you jammed about 2 or 3 of your friends in there to hear the conversation... There was, however, a handful of cellphones around then....But try to find a phone booth now.

       The Automat in NY was another great institution. (check out this blog all about it...  http://crapusa.blogspot.com/search?q=AUTOMAT  )   This was wonderful growing up in NY. I would love when my parents took me there...Put some nickels , dimes, or quarters in the slots and out came the food...This was the treat of treats....

        Can you imagine how much fun it was doing this ?  Oh well, another wonderful thing gone.

    
   Drive in Movies....What boy or girl couldn't wait to get to the Drive In to make out.  Maybe we didn't get laid then, but we certainly made out and made the windows fog up.  How many of you remember that ?  How many of us learned how to become the best kissers in the neighborhood thanks to the Drive In..........RIP dear Drive In Movies.

        Bathing Caps......Who doesn't remember seeing their mothers wearing these ugly things in the summer if you were lucky enough to be by a pool or lake ?  Actually, this is one thing that I think is wonderful that it is gone.

      

We all worked back in the day. Actually there were plenty of jobs and no-one ever blamed any political party for anything.  Either in school, work or wherever there was this thing called carbon paper.  I guess that is because there was no computer or anything electrical to copy stuff. We had no scanners or copiers to use.   Oh, the good old days of having that fucking black ink from the carbon paper allover your hands....Yuk.......Anyway gone is carbon paper.

      Ah....The good old national pastime....Baseball....... Does anyone remember when a baseball player signed with one team and retired still playing for that same team ?   Oh, the good old days of loyalty when players played for the love of the game.....That is also gone.

      Blue Laws ????? Anyone remember that ?  Not so long ago when you couldn't shop on Sundays and especially buy any alcohol beverages....  I even remember there were no baseball games on Sunday night.....That has certainly changed.

      What about being able to beat the shit out of your kid ?  Can't do that anymore.

      Anyway, hope you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane about shit that is no more.....If you think it was fun, please let me know and I will do this every now and then..  I have to admit and give credit to this wonderful book called Going, Going , Gone....It has a bunch of stuff that is no longer around......
      As I type on my keyboard I think of fountain pens with bottled ink......How did they manage spell check back then ?