Top 25 Things We Wish Would Make a Comeback...

[Jack T. Chance]

I stumbled upon this article last year, forgot about it for awhile, and just finally tracked it down again, so I can share the nostalgia with all of you...

Top 25 Things We Wish Would Make a Comeback

Just to recap for later reference, here's what the list gives us:

1. The Far Side (or, on my own personal list, Calvin & Hobbes! )
2. In-Store Lunch Counters (I definitely agree with this one! I remember the days when K-Mart and other big department stores, and also Woolworth's and other "five and dime" stores, had either a CAFETERIA or a decent lunch counter, not a McDonald's or a Subway, like you see in today's Wal*Marts. They just aren't the same thing. While my mom would go spend 2-3 HOURS shopping in K-Mart, my dad and I could go have a decent lunch without even having to leave the store! Those were the days... )
3. Easy-to-Open Packaging
4. Hydrox Cookies (these actually made a comeback late last year! Wal*Mart had them available in "limited-edition" 100th Anniversary packaging! We'll have to see if they continue to be offered going forward.)
5. Pleasurable Air Travel
6. Phone Booths (How's Clark Kent supposed to change into Superman, people? )
7. Day Games During Baseball Playoffs
8. Full-Size Spare Tire
9. Cursive Writing
10. McDonald's FRIED Apple Pie!
11. 45 RPM Vinyl Records
12. Milkshakes made with MILK
13. Gas Station Attendants (AKA Full-Service)
14. Drive-In Theaters
15. Jell-o Salad
16. Chromed Metal
17. New "Harry Potter" Books
18. Train Travel
19. Screaming Yellow Zonkers!
20. Vent Windows (on cars)
21. Howard Johnson's (the restaurant chain, not the hotel chain)
22. Lard in Pastry
23. The Use of Vowels
24. House & Garden Magazine
25. Grape Nehi Soda

So, lot of good stuff on this list. If you click the link and go to the original article, you can read more about each of the items on the list, including where you can still find McDonald's FRIED Apple Pies!

Thoughts? Comments? Insults?

On second thought... keep the insults to yourselves.

[Shpepper]

I'm spoiled. There is still a Drive in Movie theater here where I live. It's only open in the summer time but we still have one.

[tropicsgoddess]

I'm spoiled. There is still a Drive in Movie theater here where I live. It's only open in the summer time but we still have one.

I have a drive in movie theater 20 minutes away from me and it's open year round with an indoor and outdoor flea market.

[Jack T. Chance]

According to the article... or rather, a site linked to in the article, there are still a little over 400 drive-in theaters nationwide. However... the site in question hadn't been updated in AGES when I last looked at it, so I have no idea if their list is still accurate.

[Dark-Star]

I am SO with you on #1, especially Calvin and Hobbes. It really makes us fans sad that Watterson put down his pencil and is basically living like a hermit, especially at a time when comics in general are going south on all counts. Otherwise we will all be waiting for a VERY long time before another person like him shows up in the comics scene.

[mattm04]

I have a full size spare on my 02 Chevy TrailBlazer. I once rode in a car with one of those "doughnut" tires on. Didn't feel safe above 30.

[Caveat Emptor]

Just to recap for later reference, here's what the list gives us:[list=1][*]The Far Side (or, on my own personal list, Calvin & Hobbes! )

YES! Unfortunately, BW wouldn't do it unless he had more or less 100% control, and Gary Larson is almost the same. The copyright infringements just became too much.

[*]In-Store Lunch Counters

I remember KMarts having their own, but no Woolworth's (the only ones I saw before they went belly-up were in plaz....er, "strip malls")

[*]Easy-to-Open Packaging

http://www.collegehumor.com/picture:1899066

[*]Phone Booths (How's Clark Kent supposed to change into Superman, people? )

We do, strangely enough, have a few in the halls where I work. I'd take pictures, but they don't allow cameras inside the complex.

[*]Full-Size Spare Tire

One of my pet peeves is how many idiots use those compact ones as a "regular" wheel, but then again it's not *my* suspension that's going to be shot...

[*]Cursive Writing

I still write in Cursive, what do they mean it has to come back?

[*]McDonald's FRIED Apple Pie!

Baked = NOT the same.
Baked = Yucky.

[*]Gas Station Attendants (AKA Full-Service)

Go to Joisey...

[*]Howard Johnson's (the restaurant chain, not the hotel chain)

Oh yeah. Memories there

[*]Grape Nehi Soda

They brought it back about 20 years ago, then it disappeared again...

[PepperElf]

I had a Grape Nehi... I think it was in Great Lakes about 13 years ago or so. It wasn't bad.

But... #2 and 4? Move to NY state.

My favorite grocery store (Wegmans) has it's own cafe (free wifi too), and their own brand of fake-oreos (basically the same thing as hydrox cookies). Even the Target here has a lunch counter. (they also have a starbucks, but that's right next to the lunch counter & not part of it)

[Jack T. Chance]

I had a Grape Nehi... I think it was in Great Lakes about 13 years ago or so. It wasn't bad.

But... #2 and 4? Move to NY state.

My favorite grocery store (Wegmans) has it's own cafe (free wifi too), and their own brand of fake-oreos (basically the same thing as hydrox cookies). Even the Target here has a lunch counter. (they also have a starbucks, but that's right next to the lunch counter & not part of it)

Well, as the article I linked to mentions, Hydrox are the ORIGINAL cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, predating Nabisco's Oreo by some 4 years! EVERYTHING else, INCLUDING Oreo, is actually a knock-off!

As for that Target lunch counter, unless it's a really old store, dating back to the 1980s and never "upgraded" since then, I imagine it's like the snack bars that the Targets have down here. They're not bad, but they're essentially serving fast food and thus they still can't compare to the lunch counter at a Woolworth's store (my hometown used to have a Woolworth's, and their lunch counter was awesome!) or the cafeterias they used to have in the K-Mart stores.... and come to think of it, I think the oldest Sears in the area used to have a really good cafeteria, as well. Most of the big department store chains did that sort of thing back in the '70s and '80s... Sears, Montgomery Wards, K-Mart... those were the days.

[infinitemonkies]

Phone booths? Payphones in general are a dying breed.

I'm delighted to read that records are starting to make a comeback.
High fidelity = yay! I may actually go back to buying music

[Giggle Goose]

I guess I'm too young (23) for a lot of that stuff, but most of it sounds pretty cool My parents talk about it all the time.

But I think I could do without lard in pastries....and what's a Jello salad? ()

[Reyneth]

[*]Milkshakes made with MILK

I can find these just fine at the ice cream store where I used to work (and my uncle owns) and the one my best friend now owns. I can't wait for Fresh Peach ice cream at my uncle's - Strawberry Peach milkshakes are the BEST.

I, too, miss Calvin and Hobbes. BW apparently lives in the area and a local bookstore is one of the few places that an autographed collection book can be found, although I haven't been there to see for myself. The back cover of one book where Calvin is rampaging down the street is local street, complete with popcorn store.

[Ljt09863]

my store sells Grape Nehi.

[edible_hat]

In Australia, gas stations are divided between 2 or 3 big players and a bunch of independents. It's been predicted that the next thing the independents will do is bring back full service. It increases costs (wages for more people) but some people will be happy to pay more for petrol if it means someone else pumps it for you.

[Noo_Noo]

Ummm, I think #10 still exists in the UK, or did when I was working there a couple of years ago...