• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

It's 2025. What things don't you miss now that used to be commonplace?

Sitting through television commercials. Thanks to DVRs plus streaming, it's possible to effectively cut them out of your life entirely.

Smog. Not that there still isn't any, but stricter emissions standards mean noticably cleaner air.

Cassette and VHS tapes. Who doesn't love media that wears out as you use it, and has awful fidelity? Sorry, the 80s, but that's one bit of nostalgia I won't fall for.
 
DarrenTR1970 said:
It just occurred to me, I can't not remember a time having a teacher who didn't smoke.
I would go to the main office, and the teacher's lounge would be filled with teacher's on their break, smoking.
Click to expand...
The only time I can remember a teacher smoking was this time in grad school when I went to a guy's office and he was smoking up a storm in there.
 
Gepard said:
Smog. Not that there still isn't any, but stricter emissions standards mean noticeably cleaner air.
Click to expand...
Tell me about it. I remember heading north on the 405 freeway, coming over the crest of Sepulveda Pass and seeing the San Fernando Valley spread out before me -- with a thick brown haze hanging in the air. The city would regularly issue SigAlerts warning people to stay indoors as much as possible because the air quality was so bad. Thanks to California's strict air pollution controls, the air has improved markedly since then. I do miss smog jokes, though.

And while we're on the subject of car-related stuff, here are some features of American cars that I don't miss: Tacky fake wood on the dashboard and interior. Cheesy-looking stamped aluminum wheel covers. Soft, wallowy suspension. Numb power steering with no road feel. Cars so goddamn big you could land a helicopter on the rear deck.
 
Last edited:
The Friendly Jewish Ghost said:
Tell me about it. I remember heading north on the 405 freeway, coming over the crest of Sepulveda Pass and seeing the San Fernando Valley spread out before me -- with a thick brown haze hanging in the air. The city would regularly issue SigAlerts warning people to stay indoors as much as possible because the air quality was so bad. Thanks to California's strict air pollution controls, the air has improved markedly since then. I do miss smog jokes, though.
Click to expand...

I remember flying into Denver in the mid nineties to visit my Mom and Wink and the city was in the middle of one of those inversion layers and driving from the airport to Winter Park on I-70, the city was blanketed in this cloud of smog.
 
DarrenTR1970 said:
I remember flying into Denver in the mid nineties to visit my Mom and Wink and the city was in the middle of one of those inversion layers and driving from the airport to Winter Park on I-70, the city was blanketed in this cloud of smog.
Click to expand...
When we lived on March AFB in California we'd drive to visit relatives in Santa Barbara on the coast. That meant driving thru LA and at times smog was so bad my eyes hurt. I don't miss that at all. Dad's big Fury was big enough to land a Cub on. It sure was quiet and comfy.
 
Driving behind a truck, and getting a nose full of that vile sulfur stink. Same with driving past certain factories. Thank the Maker for anti-pollution laws.
 
Pumpkin Bread said:
Driving behind a truck, and getting a nose full of that vile sulfur stink. Same with driving past certain factories. Thank the Maker for anti-pollution laws.
Click to expand...

That reminds me.
Up until the early/mid 2000s, there was a paper/pulp mill on I-5 and the smell it produced was dubbed the "Aroma of Tacoma".
It smelled like rotting eggs/sulfur.
At one point it was so bad, Bruce Springsteen, who was playing in the Tacoma Dome in the mid-eighties, cut his concert short because the smell in the Dome was so bad it was making him and his band mates sick.
 
DarrenTR1970 said:
That reminds me.
Up until the early/mid 2000s, there was a paper/pulp mill on I-5 and the smell it produced was dubbed the "Aroma of Tacoma".
It smelled like rotting eggs/sulfur.
At one point it was so bad, Bruce Springsteen, who was playing in the Tacoma Dome in the mid-eighties, cut his concert short because the smell in the Dome was so bad it was making him and his band mates sick.
Click to expand...

I used to drive to a city with a paper mill for my job. I would start smelling it about 20 minutes before I got to the city. I refused to live there because of the smell.
 
DarrenTR1970 said:
That reminds me.
Up until the early/mid 2000s, there was a paper/pulp mill on I-5 and the smell it produced was dubbed the "Aroma of Tacoma".
It smelled like rotting eggs/sulfur.
At one point it was so bad, Bruce Springsteen, who was playing in the Tacoma Dome in the mid-eighties, cut his concert short because the smell in the Dome was so bad it was making him and his band mates sick.
Click to expand...

I live in a mining town and when the wind flows just right, you can smell the sulfure coming off the stack. It was far worse prior to the 70's when the stack got built, where the sulfur would hang low to the ground and ravage the landscape killing much of the vegetation in the area. The area got a bad rap and a myth that astronauts were visiting because the area looked like a blackened moonscape. In reality, Apollo 17 astronauts did come here to train, not because of how it looked, but because of the types of rock that could potentially inform them of what to look for on the moon due to impact, and it did help them and we ended up getting a shoutout by one of the astronauts in one of their broadcasts.

So, to tie it back into this thread, I'll say I definitely don't miss the blackened landscape. Mining processes have changed a whole lot in the days since and the two local companies have given back to the community by innovating to find ways to regreen the landscape, a process that is now used worldwide. There are before and after comparisons online and the differences are quite shocking.
 
DarrenTR1970 said:
That reminds me.
Up until the early/mid 2000s, there was a paper/pulp mill on I-5 and the smell it produced was dubbed the "Aroma of Tacoma".
It smelled like rotting eggs/sulfur.
At one point it was so bad, Bruce Springsteen, who was playing in the Tacoma Dome in the mid-eighties, cut his concert short because the smell in the Dome was so bad it was making him and his band mates sick.
Click to expand...

I wonder if that's in the new Springsteen biopic movie.

Kor
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Candlicious Ghost
It's 2025. What things do you miss now that we used to have?
5 6 7
Replies
135
Views
13K
Pumpkin Bread
Pumpkin Bread
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top