Had a neighbor try and pawn off a cassette player on me the other day and to that I said "No Thanks!". I had weaned myself off of cassettes years ago and tried to get rid of my old collection of tapes but there were no takers.
What happens to such technologically obsolete but still functional items? Nobody wants them. Although this lady's cassette player is in pristine condition only a 'throwback guy' would want it, you know, those guys on Craigslist that keep the old technology alive.
And they probably get all their stuff for free.
Dig- if you were such a person, you would be innundated with objects from the past. Land line telephones. Film cameras. Stereo receivers. CB radios. Scanners. VCRs. But probably not old vinyl, which has become prized by hipsters who use old albums to create mixtapes. (Is that the correct word?)
Vintage clothes are collectibles and I really wish I had some of the old clothes that I used to wear. You just can't find that stuff anymore.
I'd love to drive some of the cars I used to own, but that's the realm of car collectors, which I am not.
The list goes on. Eight track tape players. Amplifiers. Equallizers......
Imagine carrying these around.
Jon Tyson- Unsplash.com
Furniture. How about that? Like clothes, they don't make the kind of furniture that used to be made. It was sturdy stuff back then. But, some of it was pretty ugly, I gotta admit.
You couldn't preserve food from the past but if it had been possible you'd find that some of it was pretty good. Certain items had more flavor. But lab coat-wearing chemists came along and swapped out the real ingredients for some synthesized, altered, and adulterated 'foods approved for use by the FDA' that were cheaper to make and damn if you couldn't tell something was off.
But purists, thank God for them, wouldn't stand for that. Health food stores started showing up and the food and drink has gotten sooooo much better.
Entertainment-wise, amazing. So much to choose from now, new and old. If I 'miss' the old TV commercials from the 60's, I can watch them on You Tube! It was a far different mindset back then. Media is preserved forever but everything else other than cars seem to be relegated to the dustbin of history. I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet, maybe it has, but somebody somewhere is going to open a 70's museum.
Hipsters and Millennials on a road trip might pull off the highway in Ohio or something and swing into an expansive parking lot, pay the entrance fee, and wander through the rooms of a typical 70's house. Or better yet, they'd enter a compound. An actual operating 1970's village with period re-enactors milling about!
"Look- Mom- over there! What's that man doing?"
"He's recording a CASSETTE"
"And that woman over there- what's she holding?"
"A film camera. She's taking a picture"
"What's that rumbling sound?! I'm scared!"
"That's just some Glasspack mufflers, on a 70's car"
"Oh"
This hypothetical family wanders the grounds until they tire. There is so much weird stuff to look at. The first growl of a stomach triggers the urge to eat. Mom pipes up.
"Do you want to eat at the 70's cafe over there, hon?"
(husband) "Yeah, uhm, sounds 'adventurous'. Kids?"
(guarded) "Uh, okay....."
"Good. Let's go!"
Upon arrival they peruse the menu.
(Mom) "It's decided, then?
(Dad) "Yes. I think we're all agreed. Waitress?"
Waitress comes over.
"Yes?"
(Dad) "Swansons Salisbury Steak TV dinners for everyone!"
"What would like like to drink with that?"
"I'll have some percolated coffee, she will have Lipton iced tea, and the kids want grape Kool- Aid"
"Coming right up!"
Can't you just wait to dig in?