For my A to Z Challenge theme I will be posting items that are no longer with us or are close to becoming extinct.
These are great items to use if you are trying to set a time period in your story or to stay away from if you want your story to be timeless.
I'm not that old really, although the older you get the younger the ages you've attained seem, ages you thought of as ancient in your teens and twenties; so take my profession with a grain of salt. That being said I lived in an area that had Home delivery from the local dairy long after Home delivery had stopped in most places. I know that you can get groceries delivered but this was different. We had a lovely metal box on the front step. At night we would put the empty milk bottles in the box and the milkman would replace the empty bottles with full glass bottles of milk. We could order additional milk, butter and eggs by leaving a form in the metal bin.
My mother loved Hydrox, the original, yes original, chocolate creme filled cookie, created in 1908 (Oreo was in 1912). She kept them in the freezer and was devastated when they disappeared. They have come back and gone away again during my lifetime. I remember that everyone who came over to my house had never heard of Hydrox cookies.
Handwritten letters. In 2010 the US Postal Service survey showed that the typical home received a personal letter every seven weeks. In 1987 that was once every two weeks. This did not include invitations or greeting cards.
Hair Bands or Glam Metal Bands. There were a proliferation of bands with big hair and make-up in the 80's. A few examples are Cinderella, Motley Crew, Twisted Sister, White Snake, and Poison. I've never found a guy who spends more time on hair and make-up than me attractive. I spend no time on hair and make-up so that left out all the guys in a hair band.
HONEY BEES This is a very serious issue. The Honey Bee is important to us being able to sustain life and produce food. Their numbers are declining, no plummeting due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Sadly the reason for CCD is unknown. I wish I could tell you to plant a pot of flowers or stop using pesticides on your lawn - which we should do anyway- but without knowing the cause there is nothing we can do but pray that money is going to help research this serious issue and that they will come up with an answer soon.
Sorry to end on a sad note.
Happy Writing!
Great post! I'm a Brit and have never heard of Hydrox cookies (or biscuits, as we call them) - sounded very industrial to me, as in "He used Hydrox to strip the paint off the walls"!
ReplyDeleteMy sister and I started writing handwritten letters to each other once I moved away. It's so much nicer than e-mailing.
ReplyDeleteI love letters! I recently started writing them to people, just because they are so much fun and mean a lot.
ReplyDeleteHi Kat - I don't know Hydrox cookies either .. and hardly know Oreos - except I think they're here now. We had milk home deliveries, and even here we can milk home deliveries ...
ReplyDeleteLetters - now they are another matter I've always written loads of letters and still do .. and when my mother was alive .. I wrote out literally hundreds, probably thousands, mostly the same but with lots of news and notes to each person .. because then they would generate a letter back to my mother .. it really helped keep her in the flow of things .. she could talk, though was confined to bed. It made a huge difference to her and to me .. Hence Positive Letters ...
Cheers Hilary
We had milk delivery through the 80's and part of the 90's while my kids were little. It was great to be able to put a list of additional items out the night before delivery. With three kids, we sometimes ran out of milk more often than other times. We could also order ice cream and even bread and other staples, if we needed. Super service. I wish we had that now!
ReplyDeleteOh, Gal, I remember the milkman leaving us Guernsey milk that tasted horrible; wearing a headband, while pretending I was Patty Duke; eating Hydrox cookies by the handful; and writing letters to penpals. We have honeybees pollinating in our yard. I often wonder how far away there nest is.
ReplyDeleteThe View from the Top of the Ladder
Take 25 to Hollister