Things from your childhood that no longer exist

[Otter Mii-kun]

We all see certain things come and go. In fact, it's so much so that many things we were familiar with in our early childhood either no longer exist, are no longer true, or have changed dramatically to the point of non-recognition today.

Here you can share some of your memories of things from your childhood that no longer exist today.

I'll start off with some notable things of my past that are since long gone:

• Analog broadcast television: In the good 'ol days, before cable penetration became widespread, nearly everybody got their television shows with an antenna, mounted either on top of the TV set in the form of 'rabbit ears', or mounted outside on the roof on on top of a pole on the side of the house. Analog broadcasts that could be picked up in this manner were the norm until last decade, when countries, including the US, transitioned to all-digital broadcasting. I miss the reliability of analog signals-I'd rather put up with a snowy picture and crackling sound than a picture that gets blocky and breaks up and stuttering audio. Of course, sadly, with the upcoming spectrum auction that our overgrown federal government is pushing in the name of "improving mobile phone reliability", broadcast television (in digital) might not last much longer period.
• Traditional oldies radio format: These days, there's many a "classic hits" station around, but back in the day, such stations played music from the golden age of Rock and Roll: namely the 1955-75 period. Over the past decade or two, stations began phasing out older music, first eliminating everything from pre-British Invasion, and then adding late 1970s, 1980s, and even 1990s entries to their playlists. These changes are done supposedly to cater to younger demographics. I miss hearing the music of acts such as Buddy Holly, The Everly Brothers, Chubby Checker, and Elvis Presley's earliest hits.
• Gasoline-powered full-size school buses: When I first started going to school, districts, including mine, still had some gasoline-engined buses. Those with automatic transmissions (namely, the Allison AT540/545) made a distinctive whine during acceleration. These days, the only buses out there that aren't diesel are powered by propane autogas or compressed natural gas (CNG). The last manufacturer to offer gasoline engines in full-size school bus chassis was General Motors, who pulled out of the full-size market in the early 2000s after spending the past decade supplying chassis exclusively to Blue Bird, and in turn, pulled out of the medium-duty truck market entirely in 2009.

[Neo Emolga]

80s kid here. Ugh, I will NOT miss analog broadcast television. EVERYTHING always looked like it was in a blizzard of static.

Cassette/VHS Tapes: Remember these? I remember not being able to skip songs on a cassette tape (without fast forwarding and guessing), and having to get up and flip the tape over when about the fifth song was over. Also, tapes were notorious for jamming and then having to wind up the tape after it got all tangled in the player. As a bonus, VHS tapes were almost the same, and you had to rewind when you were done watching the movie. Plus they were pretty big and clunky.

Floppy disks: The REAL floppy disks. We had an old computer that played very basic games like Pac-Man, Hard Hat Mac, Centipede, and stuff like that off of these. They entertained me for many hours, but man, those games were tough and brutal for a kid my age. And a lot of them were never-ending and just kept getting harder and harder until it became impossible.

Rotary phones: We had one or two I think. Apparently, you can still buy them if you're into that vintage kind of stuff, but it took like a whole three minutes to dial in someone's number, and it was easy to mess it up.

Apparently, you can still buy most 80s things if you really badly want them enough (Fireball Island Board Game for $300 on Ebay! XD). Ah, the internet.

[Sou]

Hmm, some things that I remember fondly that dont exist anymore today?

Well, aside from the things already listed (some of them anyway), I've got to say:

Casette Tapes/Players: These were available in the early part of my childhood. I remember having a small collection I would put into my then Casette player for mostly music. I also had ones that came with disney books that would have someone read the story. I remember really liked them, but I think I enjoyed my Disney music ones more.

Saturday Morning cartoons: Oh man, every saturday growing up I would get up early to watch certain cartoons I just loved watching! There were a bunch of different channels/stations that did it too. I think the one I watched most was Kids WB and I think the other was Jetix? I cant remember exactly, but it was how I caught episodes of Pokemon, Yugioh, Shaman King, Sonic AM, Bobby's World, BeetleJuice, Animaniacs, Ducktales, you name it.

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

Plutooooo
Okay it still exists but now it's a poor little dwarf planet. :(

Little kids TV shows NOT USING 3D ANIMATION
I know these still exist, but whenever I'm flicking through channels it seems like everything aimed at little kids is 3D animated. They made a famous Australia cartoon "Bananas in Pyjamas" into a 3D animated thing not that long ago and it just spoils it completely. o_o Pics in spoilers.

Spoiler:

They're creepy now o_o

5c lollies
Good luck...

I love those rotary phones! My grandparents had one when I was little and I always wanted to be the one to dial. Though I would always take too long or mess up. xD

We still used floppy disks (but the latest not so floppy version) when I was in high school! o_o That makes me feel so old.

We only phased out analogue TV here in 2013, I think. xD It sucked for a lot of people because old TVs can't pick up digital signals without buying an extra box which is about as expensive as a new TV anyway. xD My poor little box TV got sent to the garage. :(

[Steel Lunpara]

You know, I barely qualify 90's kid, but I was still somehow stuck using...
Dial-Up Internet
I had this mess until around 2006. I can still imitate those horrible noises it would make every time it booted up perfectly, and I still remember all the arguments my family had about who gets to use the phone when, and what times everyone has to stop so someone can use the internet.

It was a dark time.

[Neo Emolga]

You know, I barely qualify 90's kid, but I was still somehow stuck using...
Dial-Up Internet
I had this mess until around 2006. I can still imitate those horrible noises it would make every time it booted up perfectly, and I still remember all the arguments my family had about who gets to use the phone when, and what times everyone has to stop so someone can use the internet.

It was a dark time.

Bleh, so many horrible, HORRIBLE memories of AOL and dial-up crappiness. It was the worst, you had to sign in to use the internet, and that took about four minutes, and if you were lucky, you actually made it to a very slow, bogged down browsing experience. You could be in the middle of an online game, and get booted randomly. Oh, someone wanted to use the phone? Surprise!

"Oh, you were online?" - Dad after picking up the phone and hearing garbled, static nonsense.

"Well, I was online!"

So, we had to get a second phoneline, or no one could call us if someone was on the internet. But yeah, imagine closing the internet, and then suddenly remembering you forgot to check something. Well, you could waste yet another four minutes signing back in again. If you were lucky.

AOL also booted you for inactivity. Playing an online game made it seem like you were inactive to AOL, so we had to download this thing called Icyhot just to make AOL think we were active so we could play online games without being kicked off.

GOOD RIDDANCE to dial-up internet. What a nightmare.

[Noblejanobii]

Dang it Frost took the one I was going to do.

I do remember record players from a kid. They weren't that big but my mom used to play them all the time. Now they're just on a shelf somewhere.

Also, you know it's bad when you say VHS and people your age look at you like "WTF you talking bout?"

[Dragon Master Mike]

DAMN IT SARAH I looked at this thread and the first thing I thought was "PLUTO!" You stole my planet XD

Wii and DS Lite
Technically they aren't GONE, but the internet service is shut down, so that's pretty important. These were the last two nintendo consoles that I owned, and I got so much use out of... well, I got so much use out of the DS. I liked the Wii but I didn't actually use it enough to justify owning it.

Poleroid Cameras
Again, not technically gone, but people really don't use them anymore, and even if they wanted to the film costs like $20 for 8 shots. When I was a kid my grandpa had a poleroid he used to be always taking pictures with. Really, Poleroid cameras died before my childhood, but I always remember my grandpa using one. Actually, I don't even think I'm spelling poleroid right.

[Noblejanobii]

@Dragon Master Mike
I still have and use my Wii, DS lite, and Polaroid camera. I can buy one at target for like $30 and get film for about twenty shots for $15. And I know many people who still use this stuff too. In fact, there's a girl at my film camp who has been taking pictures with one this entire time.

[Dragon Master Mike]

@Dragon Master Mike
I still have and use my Wii, DS lite, and Polaroid camera. I can buy one at target for like $30 and get film for about twenty shots for $15. And I know many people who still use this stuff too. In fact, there's a girl at my film camp who has been taking pictures with one this entire time.

When I said Wii and DS Lite I was more referring to the fact that the internet is gone so you can't use them like you used to be able to. From time to time I still pull out my gameboy color and play it. As for the Polaroid, that's actually pretty cool. I like the old photograph look you get with polaroids. I actually have one but I don't use it because the film is just too expensive.