Write about the gone world
Oct. 6th, 2007 11:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pseydtonneI would like to start a new meme: provide at least two paragraphs about an object that has gone into obscurity. I'm not talking about "I think it's under the couch at mom's house but dang if I know". Please discuss an item or event you had once thought was ridiculously commonplace and would now require two paragraphs just to conjure a good image. Maybe the object is still readily available but only in one town, or perhaps it's something made obsolete a long time ago.
I will start by talking about tomato pie. Utica seems to be the home of this stuff that looks like a knock-off of Sicilian pizza. In fact some people call it "sheet pizza", although it's not pizza because 'pizza' is the Italian word for beak (describing the Neopolitan slice's shape) and these slabs are squares. There is a starchy base with a veneer of tomato sauce and a dusting of Romano cheese on top.
This is usually served cold. Some convenience stores in Utica sell slices wrapped in cellophane and sit them in stacks on the front counter. Often they'll sell them next to a plastic box with a hot lamp keeping bags of cashews warm. I'd get one of each and head on my way.
Since these slices are cut from a baking sheet, there are three kinds of slices: corner, edge and inner. I'm the weird type who likes a corner slice: it has more rigidity so you can hold it with one hand. These beasts can be sloppy and the sauce often slides off in chunks. You can tell when children have been eating tomato pie because they get red-stained oil on the corners of their mouths and divots of red on their shirts.
I never thought I'd miss tomato pie. It seemed like the most low-rent thing when I was a kid. It was the macaroni and cheese of my world: guilty pleasure, comfort food, almost devoid of nutritional value.
A couple of you still live in Utica and likely cringe when you think of this stuff. I understand.
What got me thinking about this? A couple years ago I went searching for information about S&H Green Stamps and came across this great entry. I was captivated, as I was too young for Green Stamps. I just remember that someone in Utica got sent to jail for running a business that traded different kinds of stamps.
I think maybe this was the same guy that wrote a pamphlet on how to wire your own phone lines within your house and got busted for that. I'll have to check with my mom. Yes, the "phone company" was a powerful monopoly in those days and they called dibs on the wiring they'd do inside your home. Yes, really. When you wonder why I have no interest in giving Verizon or AT&T my money ever again, this is the crap I remember.
Recently I'd been sorting my bookmarks. I am building a single bookmark file that each of my machines can use and eventually have it push updates to the other boxes. The first step was to gather all the old bookmark files from about ten browsers and sort the contents into logical topics. There are way too many times I've hit the "bookmark all tabs" button and wound up with a folder of semi-redundant entries. If I'm lucky, the folder has the date for a name; if I'm not so lucky, I have a folder named for the first item in the stack. Obviously it took me a couple hours to sort this beast and I'm still not done.
I found the link to that Green Stamps blog entry but found it didn't work. I went to the root web page, which was still up and had simply changed its filing scheme. I typed "green stamps" into the page's search bar and found some other fascinating pieces along with the Green Stamps entry. The woman writes well and gives a compelling tale of life in 1960s Texas.
Reading about pecan cracking and deep freezing is mind-blowing to a Yankee like me. I had never thought about nuts still in their shells and hanging from trees until this June, when I went to a farm in Australia near the Whian Whian Rain Forest. The farmer was originally from Long Island and escaped America to the hippie part of New South Wales near the Queensland border. He had nuts falling off trees and hand-cranked nut crackers attached to wooden boxes. He also had a shack house with a deck that faced a pond on this 80-acre property. I still remember that moment as the most relaxing of my entire visit to the other side of the world.
We all have stuff we've forgotten isn't around. Perhaps it's good riddance, but we should still recall why we're glad they're gone. Help me remember, won't you?
I will start by talking about tomato pie. Utica seems to be the home of this stuff that looks like a knock-off of Sicilian pizza. In fact some people call it "sheet pizza", although it's not pizza because 'pizza' is the Italian word for beak (describing the Neopolitan slice's shape) and these slabs are squares. There is a starchy base with a veneer of tomato sauce and a dusting of Romano cheese on top.
This is usually served cold. Some convenience stores in Utica sell slices wrapped in cellophane and sit them in stacks on the front counter. Often they'll sell them next to a plastic box with a hot lamp keeping bags of cashews warm. I'd get one of each and head on my way.
Since these slices are cut from a baking sheet, there are three kinds of slices: corner, edge and inner. I'm the weird type who likes a corner slice: it has more rigidity so you can hold it with one hand. These beasts can be sloppy and the sauce often slides off in chunks. You can tell when children have been eating tomato pie because they get red-stained oil on the corners of their mouths and divots of red on their shirts.
I never thought I'd miss tomato pie. It seemed like the most low-rent thing when I was a kid. It was the macaroni and cheese of my world: guilty pleasure, comfort food, almost devoid of nutritional value.
A couple of you still live in Utica and likely cringe when you think of this stuff. I understand.
What got me thinking about this? A couple years ago I went searching for information about S&H Green Stamps and came across this great entry. I was captivated, as I was too young for Green Stamps. I just remember that someone in Utica got sent to jail for running a business that traded different kinds of stamps.
I think maybe this was the same guy that wrote a pamphlet on how to wire your own phone lines within your house and got busted for that. I'll have to check with my mom. Yes, the "phone company" was a powerful monopoly in those days and they called dibs on the wiring they'd do inside your home. Yes, really. When you wonder why I have no interest in giving Verizon or AT&T my money ever again, this is the crap I remember.
Recently I'd been sorting my bookmarks. I am building a single bookmark file that each of my machines can use and eventually have it push updates to the other boxes. The first step was to gather all the old bookmark files from about ten browsers and sort the contents into logical topics. There are way too many times I've hit the "bookmark all tabs" button and wound up with a folder of semi-redundant entries. If I'm lucky, the folder has the date for a name; if I'm not so lucky, I have a folder named for the first item in the stack. Obviously it took me a couple hours to sort this beast and I'm still not done.
I found the link to that Green Stamps blog entry but found it didn't work. I went to the root web page, which was still up and had simply changed its filing scheme. I typed "green stamps" into the page's search bar and found some other fascinating pieces along with the Green Stamps entry. The woman writes well and gives a compelling tale of life in 1960s Texas.
Reading about pecan cracking and deep freezing is mind-blowing to a Yankee like me. I had never thought about nuts still in their shells and hanging from trees until this June, when I went to a farm in Australia near the Whian Whian Rain Forest. The farmer was originally from Long Island and escaped America to the hippie part of New South Wales near the Queensland border. He had nuts falling off trees and hand-cranked nut crackers attached to wooden boxes. He also had a shack house with a deck that faced a pond on this 80-acre property. I still remember that moment as the most relaxing of my entire visit to the other side of the world.
We all have stuff we've forgotten isn't around. Perhaps it's good riddance, but we should still recall why we're glad they're gone. Help me remember, won't you?
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no subject
Date: 2007-10-07 02:06 pm (UTC)how about automobile window cranks, then? i associate them with vinyl seats (superheated by the sun, they were the automotive version of napalm: once they were hot enough to burn, they’d also be hot enough to stick to your skin). i remember when power windows were a luxury option in and of themselves; then they became part of a luxury package, and now i’d be surprised if you can buy a new car without power windows, even in the most stripped-down configuration.
i still miss them every so often, when i turn the car off without remembering to roll up my window.
-steve
no subject
Date: 2007-10-07 03:09 pm (UTC)I won't forget having to park the car at work one weekend in May of 2002 (at the indoor garage) because the driver's side window stuck in the down position and we had a freak snow storm.It cost $334 because the servos that move the window come in a case with the window.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-09 06:56 pm (UTC)It doesn't bother me at all. I figure should my car ever end up in a lake - I'll have an easier time getting out of my vehicle.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-09 06:59 pm (UTC)My family wasn't rich growing up - hell, we're still not rich. My Mom grew up on a farm for goodness' sake.
Despite all that - by the time I came along - everyone in my family had a record player. I used to love playing with it has a kid although my Mom wasn't too happy when I scratched up her favorite record!
An attempt
Date: 2007-10-09 11:49 pm (UTC)Re: An attempt
Date: 2007-10-10 05:55 am (UTC)Items I may or may not write about: Checker cabs, payphones, brass manual elevator control panels, ski bindings with cords, crisp print (from a letterpress or daisy wheel), computer front panel switches, punch cards, OpenVMS, glass gallon soda bottles, milk delivery boxes, Times Square porn theaters, hackers with $2 bills.
I'd be more inclined to write, but I'm not sure my tendency towards elegies is healthy.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-11 04:46 am (UTC)I grew up at the tail of punch cards. I remember they would use leftover punch cards in kindergarten as tally cards and scrap paper. I ate a couple because I'm a frickin' pica.
I have a 433 MHz Alpha box which I've been thinking about installing VMS on for the sport. The last time I used that OS was 1994 and I barely figured it out.