Just watching 2001: A Space Odyssey and remarked to myself

[PCIntern]

that even that visionary Stanley Kubrick could not have conceived that Bell Telephone, Pan Am, and Howard Johnson's (in it's then-corporate presence) would not exist...and they dissolved for all intents and purposes years ago. The corporate environment, for those of us born in the early 50's and before has undergone an almost complete shift/change/eradication.

I find myself thinking more and more about brands which no longer exist: Delsey toilet tissue, Snow Crop OJ, Turkish Taffy, Beech-Nut gum, and many more.

[SoFlaJet]

1. I used to love Bonomo's Turkish Taffy

I tried to find it and it is gone-good thing though PC-could you imagine the damage it would do to our fillings and caps?

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

3. i loved it in vanilla.

[KharmaTrain]

2. 1968...A Different World

Every so often I throw 2001 on...or one of the cable channels will show it. Seeing it in Hi Def is well worth it.

I joke with my kids about the "deprived" childhood I had in the 60's and 70's...only 4 or 5 TV channels, no cellphones or puters, music on records you had to go to the store to buy, etc. I see the space station, that was pure Sci-Fi in '68 as Science Fact now. Even better is the new Steven Colbert "nodule". :rofl:

I have mixed reactions of missing the sights, sounds and brands of my childhood...but then I think, what's in a name? In some cases there was a lot of integrity and pride, but our society (or at least our corporate leaders) decided that short term consumption trumped product loyalty or quality. "Always the lowest price" even if that price destroyed our main streets and factories.

Many days I wonder if people could accept to going back to where there was less selection but better quality...where there would be a main street vs. a mall...a corner market vs. a supermarket. Could those use to the convience adjust?

Cheers...

[PCIntern]

4. I'll tell ya,

what I miss is going, for example, to a Howard Johnson's anywhere and having the Tendersweet Fried Clams or the Ho-Jo 3-D (the forerunner of the Big Mac - but MUCH better ), or having the guy at the gas staion check the il and the air pressure of the tires, or going to a movie, such as 2001, and being able to buy a candy bar for less than $3.50 and popcorn for less than $7.00, or get an electronic or auto parts catalog thru the mail which provided hours of fascination, or a thousand other things which are gone forever.

[skepticscott]

5. Brands come and go

It's just the way of things. We lose some things we like, but we gain some new ones. There was no Apple back then, no Sierra Nevada, no Whole Foods, etc.

And just be glad you're not living in the future of Demolition Man, where all of the restaurants are Taco Bell.

[IDemo]

6. Or where a person has to resolve arguments with a badly outdated Encyclopaedia Britannica

[mdmc]

7. Sweet Orr

I live in Newburgh NY. Our cities rich history adds many items to your list - coldwell lawn mowers, sweet orr jeans, an automobile manufacturer that's name escapes me..

[zeemike]

8. Kracker Jacks...with peanuts and a prize

That is what I miss the most.
I was always hoping that the prize was on the top so I would not have to wait to see what I got.
And bubble gum with a baseball card.
And when you only had a penny a gumball.

[PCIntern]

9. No more boxes of Cracker Jacks? Really?

wow, am I out of it...

[mockmonkey]

12. They still sell Cracker Jacks n/t

[PCIntern]

13. Good1 I thought I might be going nuts...

well, maybe I am but at least they're still selling CJ's!!!

[zeemike]

19. Do they? I have not seen them in years.

Do they still have a prize?
That was important to me as a kid.

[sammythecat]

18. nevermind

Cracker Jacks are still with us. All is well.

[Sal Minella]

10. Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold Medicine -- made going to work possible

when you had a terrible cold that would make working impossible otherwise.

Then it disappeared, poof, and the marketing geniuses at Alka-Seltzer replaced it with multiple flavors of fizzy tablets that have all the medicinal effect of Kool-Aid.

[TuxedoKat]

15. I loved the taste of Vick's Formula 44 Cough Syrup

but they seem to have replaced it a cherry-flavored version. Yuck.

[Golden Raisin]

11. The bittersweet nostalgia

of realizing all that has ceased to exist from our youth is somewhat assuaged by the fact that we've lived long enough and are still here to see and appreciate these cycles --- the old vanishing and the new arrivals. Hell, I've gone from transistor radios to IPods. There's a fun series of books (published by Taschen) called "The Golden Age of Advertising" each covering a specific decade. "The 60's" is like taking a trip back in time. Nothing but color advertisements (Madison Avenue) for big-name products, most gone now --- these are the kind of ads that would have been full-page color spreads in 'Life' or 'Look' (speaking of the dear departed).

[Sal Minella]

17. The handsome young (male) doctors in their white coats, soothing their "T-zones"

with Camel cigarettes! And then that was outlawed, so the tobacco companies turned to product placement in movies -- handsome/beautiful young characters stuff cigarettes into their mouths as though this is a normal and accepted aspect of life for all young people.

[SlingBlade]

14. It's full of stars

[edhopper]

16. True

but as far as space travel, he and Clarke envisioned a world that we are still decades away from. Even though the technology was there for it to come to fruition.