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 having so much fun wracking my brain for items that have existed in my life time. I hope you are enjoying these items as much as I am.
As I sit here at night crafting these lists my husband is watching TV and my kids are, hopefully, sleeping. I remember being so impressed with myself as a kid when I could stay up all the way until the TV went off the air. Yes, the TV would go off the air. They would show a waving american flag and say good night. Then you would get static.
Ticker tape (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticker_tape) was the earliest digital electronic communications medium, transmitting stock price information over telegraph lines, in use between around 1870 through 1970. It consisted of a paper strip that ran through a machine called a stock ticker, which printed abbreviated company names as alphabetic symbols followed by numeric stock transaction price and volume information. The term "ticker" came from the sound made by the machine as it printed.
Paper ticker tape became obsolete in the 1960s, as television and computers were increasingly used to transmit financial information. The concept of the stock ticker lives on, however, in the scrolling electronic tickers seen on brokerage walls and on financial television networks.
Ticker tape stock price telegraphs were invented in 1867 by Edward A. Calahan, an employee of the American Telegraph Company.[1]
Ticker tapes were constantly generated and created a lot of waste which was why they were a great idea to use as streamers for parades. Even though the ticker tape is no longer with us we still have ticker tape parades, usually using shredded documents in place of the ticker tape.
The Thing. No this is not the B horror movie, I am talking about the Volkswagen Type 181-sold in the US as Thing. I loved this car. As a teenager it was the most fun car I had ever driven in. You could fold down the windshield, take off the doors,and it was a convertible. I had a lot of fun in this very utilitarian vehicle. It was only sold in the US from 1973–74. It was designed for the German military and was sold to the public in many countries with different names but it had the shortest run in the US. I rarely see these around but when I do I am instantly a teenager driving around the back roads of Vermont sans top, windshields and some times doors.
I cannot continue this walk down memory lane without discussing TWA. The first boy I had a crush on in high school, his dad was a pilot for TWA. I remember this because he got to take a lot of cool trips and he knew how to scuba dive our freshman year.
Trans World Air- TWA was founded in 1930 and declared bankruptcy in 1992 and was purchased by American Airlines in 2001.
The letter T might not be a good letter to start the name of your airline. Here are a couple more failures.
Tower air (1983 -2000)
Trump Shuttle (1989 - 1991) Not everything he touches turns to gold.
Tamagotchis by Bandai. These little electronic pets were all the rage when they came out in 1996. If you did not feed and care for your pet it would die. I was shocked to learn they came out with the new version below in 2004. I remember them being super popular and then gone. Although I was luckily too old for them myself and didn't have kids who wanted them, I heard about them from the parents at work and it was the must have item and then they seemed to just disappear. Maybe all the pets were dead and parents refused to buy new ones. Better to test your kid on a digital pet than a real one.
Tokens, subway. I haven't lived in NY for a long time but I was saddened to learn that tokens for the subway and bus have been replaced by cards. Yes, the cards are more convenient but there was something so cool about the tokens. C'est la vie.
It is late and the tv will keep showing thousands of things all night. It is time to drag myself away and go to bed.
Happy Writing!
I remember Tamagotchis! It's possible I still have mine somewhere...I didn't know they had come out with a newer version, either.
ReplyDeleteThe new one seems to have a lot better graphics than the grey dots that made up the first version.
DeleteThat car is AMAZING!
ReplyDeleteIt was so much fun. Practically indestructible. Not the best heating, definitely a summer car.
DeleteTamagotchis were literally the coolest thing ever.
ReplyDeleteWow it sounds like you really loved yours.
DeleteLoved the ticker tape image. I hated those Tamagotchis. One of my kids lost hers on the beach and became hysterical thinking it would die unattended. There went that beach vacation.
ReplyDeleteOur ruined vacation was the lost blanket. I don't know how we lost it but we had a lot of crying and sleepless nights, no naps, and trips back to all the places we had been, even the airport.
DeleteI thought any kid with a Tamagotchi was a spoiled kid. Now, I see it was just training for texting on a cell phone. lol
ReplyDeleteIt seems like kids are getting them younger and younger.
DeleteThat was like tumbling into a time pit. Wow! So many cool memories of images I can remember in my lifetime. I had forgotten all about The Thing.
ReplyDeleteArlee Bird
A to Z Challenge Co-host
Wrote By Rote
The wonderful world of past "T"s! This was great. It's pretty amazing that enough ticker tapes were generated to use in parades--because those parades weren't tiny. Wholesale slaughter of of our leafy friends. :) Great image you've chosen.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know there's been a car called Thing--maybe because, as you say, it was called something else in Canada. Looks pretty darned cool, though.