What product from the past do you miss the most?

[Mr. Ected]

Jello 1-2-3


Buc Wheats Cereal


Sears Christmas Catalog


Space Food Sticks


Clackers

[Redstone]

1. Fizzies!

Redstone

[LisaM]

6. But you can get Fizzies!

My mom got me some recently. I think she got them from Vermont Country Store.

[LisaM]

7. Stuff from gas stations, like Dino soap

Of course, I also miss full service gas stations.

Any food made with regular sugar instead of HFCS. Tahitian Treat.

[Redstone]

14. Yeah, I've heard they have them. They were pulled because they used

saccharin as a sweetener, and they couldn't re-formulate them with a different sweetener and have them still work.

I'll have to order some from VCS. Just so my kids can try them.

Redstone

[nuxvomica]

46. IIRC, it was because they used cyclamates

That is the only artificial sweetener that tasted like sugar with no aftertaste but it was taken off the market because it caused cancer in test mice. I think those studies were later deprecated but cyclamates never made a comeback in the U.S.

I loved Fizzies, especially the root beer.

[Rhiannon12866]

47. I loved Fizzies, too...

Root beer or grape...

[Martysbestcatch]

19. Kool Aid has Fun Fizz

They come in fruit punch, grape or lemon flavors. Just like Fizzies and they're sugar-free.

You can also get Fizzies from oldtimecandy.com.



Peggy

[madmom]

55. When I was a kid we would take fizzies and put them under our

dog's tongues and (loosely) hold his mouth shut. Great fun for a kid lol.

[begin_within]

85. We put them on our own tongues.

We only put them in water once. After that, it was directly on the tongue. My favorite was the root beer flavor. I miss those!

[madmom]

97. Mine too, root beer was awesome, lol

[Bennyboy]

2. MR Salty Pretzel sticks...

mmmmm!

[hippywife]

38. I was just thinking about those the other day!

I miss them, too, but with my blood pressure it's probably a good thing that pretzels don't have nearly as much salt on them now as those Mr. Salty pretzels did. They were awfully good, tho.

[Oceansaway]

3. 7 UP (dark chocolate) candy bars...nt

[Bucky]

4. Mountain Dew washback or whatever they called it. It reminded me of what real sugar was

[mwooldri]

60. Washback????

Reading funny comments @ work and having the phone ring to be answered immediately... not necessarily a good combination.

It's "Throwback". And yes I like the "Throwback" version better than the regular one, even though I never ever had the so-called "original" Mountain Dew.

[Chan790]

5. Pond Scum.

It was candy in only the loosest sense of the word. It came in two flavors, Cola and Strawberry and it was a powder like pixie sticks or fun-dip except it resembled pond scum in your mouth. The sensation was similar to corn-starch and pop rocks in combination. It fizzled, it bubbled and it produced a clumpy scum in your mouth. It was awful. It tasted fantastic.

Then we discovered that if you could get a bunch of it in your mouth and swallow most of it dry then chase it with a can of Coke, it was magic. No, we didn't see green fairies. Within a half hour, well...disgusting things would happen involving foam and belching. My friend, Duts (Doots) decided he wanted to go to the movies so right before football practice he did 2 envelopes and drank a full 1L of Coca-Cola. They banned the pond scum from the school commissary after that. It was the most disgusting and miraculous sight I have ever seen...it was like the Mentos trick meets Silly String shooting from a 14 year old boy who is giggling hysterically because it tickles.

[dixiegrrrrl]

74. That was a rememberance worthy of Jean Shepherd.

Nicely described.

[hunter]

8. Dangerous chemicals of all sorts.

Sulfuric acid, lye, potassium nitrate, powdered aluminum and iron oxide, magnesium strips, and all manner of powerful solvents. Our mom & pop local toy store had a very well stocked shelf of chemistry set refills, expensive yes, but the clerks rarely asked what you wanted stuff for and you could always say it was for a science fair project.

Now it's assumed you are making drugs or you are a terrorist.



http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/issues/2007/december/...

[Odin2005]

63. I had a chemistry set growing up in the 90s.

It even had (God Forbid) URANIUM!

[begin_within]

86. I miss my old chemistry sets.

I never did anything dangerous with them, but I tried to learn how to make firecrackers and smoke balls, though I never did. I learned a lot from those sets.

[nolabear]

9. Mexican Jumping Beans. Keane Big-Eyed Children paintings.

Okay those not so much.

[Common Sense Party]

33. I loved jumping beans.

Until they stopped jumping.

[newcriminal]

88. I just bought my girls jumping beans this past weekend.

[MorningGlow]

10. Confession

I bought my son clackers this summer. He was overjoyed. They're everywhere on Olvera St. in downtown L.A. (Hooray!)

[carlyhippy]

11. I missed all your objects, well except for the buc wheats

I loved space food sticks, the peanut butter ones, jello 1-2-3 was the best!

[HopeHoops]

12. Op-Yop.

Fortunately, I still have mine.

[pink-o]

13. Love's Fresh Lemon body scent.

It smelled just like a cut lemon, no weird synthetic aroma (although it was probably made from asbestos and DDT--it was the 60s, after all)

I never wear perfume because everything modern seems to turn sour on my skin, no matter how clean it starts out. And the lemon scent is the provenance of the very young, I think (which obviously I'm not anymore!)

[Z_I_Peevey]

35. Was that the product that had a large plastic lemon

as a lid/bottlecap? God, everything in that line smelled great.

My cousin Vicky had every product with those lemon tops...I thought she was the coolest chick ever.

[RobinA]

50. The Big Lemon Cap

was Lemon Up shampoo. Available from Vermont Country Store, but I don't know if it's the same.

[PassingFair]

58. They still make that:

http://www.99perfume.com/nf/LOVE%27S_FRESH_LEMON_Perfum...


I've seen it at BigLots recently.

Really inexpensive, too.

[tigereye]

78. yeah, that was nice!

[Auggie]

15. Kronenbourg 1664

French beer. Aparently not available in the U.S. anymore.

[lazarus]

16. ye gods how I loved Buc Wheats

the Sears Wish Book was nice, but that was just once a year. Buc Wheats was every morning.

And whatever happened to Lemon Coolers? Remember those cookies?

[Xipe Totec]

17. Common sense nt

[hippywife]

39. ...

[Liberal_in_LA]

18. clackers hurt! 35-40 years later I remember the pain.

[kentauros]

20. Lawn darts!

Really though, what I miss the most are "whirlies" :

http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000069

[cherokeeprogressive]

26. Lawn Darts were way cool!

http://www.lawndartparts.com/

[kentauros]

27. I don't think we ever had lawn darts

but it seems like some neighbors did.

I just remember a clip from Survival Research Laboratories showing them launching their parking-lot dart with one of their catapults. It went several inches into the asphalt

[Inchworm]

21. Evil Knievel Motorcycles

My grandson and I could play for hours with one of these!

[Generic Brad]

22. Jolt Cola

[cherokeeprogressive]

23. "All the Sugar, and Twice the Caffiene"

[Skip Intro]

24. Oh, I miss the Sears Wish Book, for sure. Also, Quisp Cereal. Little flying saucers cereal...

One of my faves as a kid. There was an orchestrated rivalry between Quisp and Quake cereals (both Quaker products). But how can you beat little sugary flying saucers for breakfast!

[dixiegrrrrl]

75. Dollar General down here sells Quisp cereal.

[Sweet Charming Dem]

93. I see Quisp in the grocery stores. Same packaging too.

[Lucian]

25. Lead, asbestos, and mercury-filled thermometers.

[Curmudgeoness]

45. Mercury thermometers were great, especially when they broke

and you played with all those gray balls that rolled everywhere. Ah, the fun we used to have.

[m00nbeam]

28. Jarts

[vixengrl]

29. Pepsi Kona with Salsa Rio Doritos.

Doritios has done other formulations of salsa-rifficness, but the Salso Rio, which was contemporaneous with Pepsi Kona, was probably the tastiest iteration. Together, they were an epic snack combination, almost on a par with "a case of lager and Halloween candy". (Nothing actually beats a case of beer and a bowl of Halloween candy, though, for sheer gustatory recklessness).

I remember the Sears Wish Book well. In lieu of actually writing out a list for Santa, I would cut out a collage of the things I wanted when I was little and paste them into a magnificent display, a picture being worth a thousand words, at least, I reckoned. This would also apprise Santa of the price and permit him, or his proxies, to provide me with a haul valued to the general equivalent factor of my "goodness".

(Even when I believed in the Claus, I was certain he'd pretty much out-sourced both "naughty and nice" surveillance and toy-making to corporate contractors, as a result of noticing that no one I knew ever received toys that even plausibly were made by elves. I had a complicated theory involving the emergent needs of diversification owing to the steady increase in population. No lie. I was disabused of the reality of Santa when I was about seven, but already had a model of his operations in place in my baby-brain that would have shamed many a conspiracy-theorist for complexity and internal logic.)

[Manifestor_of_Light]

30. Junket and the little crank machine.

Really loud Popcorn Poppers from Fisher-Price. It's a push toy.

http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=10&e=product&pid...

I had one that Mom said drove her nuts, sounded like a machine gun so she gave it to the maid so her kids could drive her nuts.

I would have been the right age for this in 1957, the year it was introduced.

Get off my lawn you whippersnappers!!

[bif]

44. You can still buy Junket

http://www.junketdesserts.com/

[Forkboy]

31. Spirograph

[HughBeaumont]

80. +1,000

Except the fucking gears would always slip and ruin my awesome drawing. Or the cheap pens they packed with it would lose moistness, run out of ink and tear the paper. Other than that, it was rulin'.

[begin_within]

87. I had the Super Spirograph

the exact one shown in your picture. I started with the regular, then I got the Super, then years later I got a travel-size one. The one I wanted that I never got was the Motorized Spirograph. Spirograph was my favorite toy during my childhood.

[Art_from_Ark]

91. I got a Spirograph for Christmas 1969

I used it for a week straight with the denouement coming on New Year's Eve-- I made all sorts of designs with that thing for about 6 hours straight, from right after dinner until they rang the bell on TV to welcome in the new decade. After that, the Spirograph went into my closet, where it stayed until who knows what happened to it.

[Common Sense Party]

32. Planter's Peanut Butter and Boo Berry cereal

At least, I haven't seen this in the U.S. in thirty years. Maybe it's still sold somewhere.

[Mr. Ected]

34. I think I've seen Boo Berry on the shelves here in Georgia

...and Quisp for that matter. I'm going to have to pick up a box, and see if its formula has been changed from the glory days...if they've added HFCS, I think I'll cry.

Otherwise, I'll buy.

[Common Sense Party]

36. Really? Let me know how it is.

That Planter's looks recent, too...but I'm guessing it's only sold outside the U.S.

[PJPhreak]

37. These...

Creepy Crawlers...



Wacky Packs...



CARtoons Magazine...

[RobinA]

51. Creepy Crawlers

and their girlie version - Fun Flowers. We played with them for HOURS at a time.

[Initech]

40. The Sony Watchman

[mwooldri]

61. Definitely obsolete now....

Since there's no digital tuner, and those converter boxes are bigger than the Watchman itself... I suppose you could get it going in a museum but it alas is no more for daily use.

The "portable tv's" that you have today are more for sitting on your lap, like a laptop computer - and some have DVD capability too. I'm sure they will be made obsolete in a good few years.

[pgodbold]

41. Hai Karate

[bif]

42. Stroh's beer

It's been shit ever since it left Detroit.

[WinkyDink]

43. The transistor radio; ad-free MAD; albums; original toys/games (Mr. Potatohead, CandyLand, etc.);

pre-1967 D.C. comics.

[Rhiannon12866]

48. Anybody still see Kraft Spaghetti Dinner?

I can't seem to find it around here and it was my favorite. My aunt used to send it to me from Denver...

[sinkingfeeling]

72. My local IGA has it.

[Rhiannon12866]

49. Oompas candy!

In a candy shell, half peanut butter, half chocolate... The closest I've found is M&Ms peanut butter...

[HughBeaumont]

82. I KNEW Peanut Butter M&Ms reminded me of something.

Thanks.

[Skittles]

52. TV sans "reality" shows

[Capn Sunshine]

53. Oh dear god in heaven, how I miss those days

Reality bites.

[Skittles]

54. sometimes when I am surfing I fear for America

these shows are filled with badly-acting people and it's all I-I-I and ME-ME-ME - WTF is wrong 1) with the people on these shows and 2) with the people who actually enjoy WATCHING this fucking garbage?

[Terra Alta]

59. agreed!!!

Reality shows are the dumbing down of America.

[sinkingfeeling]

70. +100

[tigereye]

79. that's all that's on - ugh.

[MilesColtrane]

56. I really miss this. Wish they'd start making it again.

[spinbaby]

57. Herbal Essence shampoo

The dark green stuff they sold in the 70s. It actually smelled like herbs, not flowery and fake like the stuff under the same name today.

[Mr. Ected]

62. Remember Ayds Appetite Suppressant Candy?

I remember my mother eating them by the boxful and then inexplicably disappearing in the bathroom for inordinate periods of time.

[woo me with science]

66. I just remembered how those things tasted and felt in your mouth.

Uck.

[AtomicKitten]

64. Jello 1-2-3 is teh awesome. nt

[woo me with science]

65. High dives.

Not sure that counts as a product, but I have fond memories of the terror of being up there and the satisfaction of finally jumping in.

[BlueIris]

67. Orville Redenbacher's Sour Cream N' Onion microwave popcorn.

Whhyyyyy did they stop making this ambrosia? I miss it like I miss childhood. It was childhood.

[hayu_lol]

69. Food that had flavor...

unlike today's sawdust and other muck.

[HEyHEY]

68. Beemans gum

[HughBeaumont]

81. Still made.

A few retro-candy places have them here in Ohio.

[sinkingfeeling]

71. I don't know if this is still made or not.

[begin_within]

89. Once my sister took the foil off the top, because she thought that's how it worked

Of course we had popcorn everywhere.

[Graybeard]

73. Kent----with the Micronite filter.

As if the tobacco in the cigarettes wasn't enough to kill you, the so-called "Micronite" in the filters was asbestos!!!

[pacalo]

76. A few that came to me right away...

http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-chewing-g...

[pgodbold]

77. The KLH table radio

[tigereye]

83. turkish taffy - but apparently you can buy it again...

It was so much fun to hit really hard on the table.


http://www.candyfavorites.com/shop/bonomos-turkish-taff...

[HughBeaumont]

84. Ooooohhh, I LIVE for threads like these . . .

Donuts Cereal -


Wacky Wafers -


Sky Bar (THIS version, not the way-too-heavy-aftertaste new crap)


Sno Caps (see above. I'll still eat them, but the older Sno-Caps were better than Nestle's bastardized version)


JC Penney Christmas Catalog (oh, the JOY of circling hundreds of pictures of shit you wouldn't get . . . ahhh, childhood . . .)


Atari 2600 (need I say more?)


Micronauts (interchangeable robots and their vehicles. One of the best toys ever)


Girder and Panel Building Sets


Mad Magazine . . . back when it was well-drawn, clever, biting satire and not the completely unreadable mess it is today.

[begin_within]

90. I loved Jell-O 1-2-3, but

when I made it, the layers never came out equal. The bottom layer was always much larger than the top 2, so it was disappointing because it never looked for me like it did on the package.

[Art_from_Ark]

92. Plasticast

It was a kit for making acrylic paperweights

[Mr. Ected]

94. Puffa Puffa Rice!!

And on a completely unrelated note...Electronic Football!

[raccoon]

95. Fountain pens with ink cartridges. Well, I don't exactly miss them, because I have some.

But if something happens to them, I guess that's it....

People will have to pry them from my cold dead hands....

[Paper Roses]

96. Squeeze tube of Prell shampoo--original 1950's scent.

Same with Breck.

No strange fruity, citrusy (sp?), earthy scents like most of today's shampoo.

[NoPasaran]

98. DDT

It may have been bad for the planet, but it sure kicked insect ass!