Thursday evening conversation group at Northern Spirit Manor recently started like this somebody said, "The handkerchiefs we tie-dyed on Tuesday are too nice to use" and somebody else said, "I wouldn't mind blowing my nose in a handkerchief like that." Then the question was asked, "Does anybody actually use handkerchiefs anymore?"
We concluded that most people seem to have settled for paper tissues. Somebody wondered out loud if men still put handkerchiefs in their suit jacket pockets and we figured fancy folding a handkerchief for a jacket pocket is pretty much a lost art but maybe that's just because none of us remembers how to fold one.
Two weeks before, the conversation group facilitator had brought in a selection of products she figured hadn't changed much in 50 years. All the Thursday night regulars had a look at her carpenter's square and Swede saw, a can of Comet and a can of Kiwi shoe polish, a hand egg-beater, canning sealer, Thermos brand thermos (is there any other brand?), outdoor mercury thermometer and dust pan. Everyone agreed that all these items had changed not at all, or very little, since 1960. Some designs and products are good enough they don't need improvement and useful enough that we keep on using them.
So having recently looked at items that are still in use almost unchanged in 50 years, tonight we decided to list things, like handkerchiefs, that seem to have gone out of fashion. Some of the things on our list have disappeared all together and others are still around, but their popularity has significantly declined. Here's what we came up with.
Bread and milk delivery, starch and bluing, drive-in movies, vinyl records and turntables, curlers and hair ribbons, galoshes, bowties, hula-hoops, coal, battleship linoleum, nylon stockings, women's hats, shoe shine boys, ice boxes, wringer washers, wood cook stoves, earmuffs, bloomers, washboards and outhouses.
Of course we stopped to reminisce about these items as they came up. Coal got us thinking about coal chutes and iceboxes got us thinking about ice delivery. Nylon stockings led to a discussion among the women about garters and how much we don't miss them. The men wisely sat by and just listened during that discussion. One of the participants remembered working as a shoeshine boy. Bow ties led to a friendly dispute about whether Don Cherry is a good entertainer or just plain obnoxious.
We debated whether women's hats have really gone out of use. Those of us at the table remember the day when a woman wouldn't go to church without one and we know the women at the table wouldn't think of putting one on now. Clotheslines we thought should come back into use more, because we like the way the clothes smell when they come in off the line. Outhouses, on the other hand, we are happy to be rid of and that might also have something to do with smell.
An hour later as I sit writing this little summary, Ann Hutsul, one of the participants in the group, has rolled up to my office door and suggested I add, typewriters, nib pens, India ink and blotting paper to the list. So I type them into my computer. And on a roll now, she adds Toni hair perms, chamber pots and pails and dippers for drinking water. And the list grows when we start a list on a Thursday evening it gets hung up on the wall in the dining room so that when anybody thinks of another item that belongs on the list they can add it.
This list could keep us going for a long, long time and if you like to reminisce like we do, it might keep you going for a while too. What products or services do you remember that don't get used much anymore? Coal oil lamps, suspenders, dressmakers, shaving mug
