Things you miss....

Some friends of mine and I were having dinner and were reminded of things we missed from our childhood, primarily because of the restaurant were in. Not so much being a child but more about places and services that didn't make it in today's penny-pinching corporate economic structure and the things we had but our kids won't/don't. Here are some of the things we came up with feel free to add your own or comment on these.

• Soda Fountains Though they weren't as wide spread as they were in our parent's day we had a couple in town here, unfortunately they are nigh on extinct now. It was nice to get a made right in front of your eyes Vanilla/Cherry/"Insert your favorite flavored syrup here" coke.
• Quality Fast Food No it's not an oxymoron, at one time I remember being able to go out to eat for less than $10/person, have "good food, prepared fast", sit in a clean restaurant, use a clean restroom, be treated like a person not ignored or have my food slopped to me like an animal, and actually looking forward to coming back to the same place on the future. Though there are still some places that provide this level of service they are few and far between and tend to be "seasonal", aka when Manager A is at work things are good, on Manager B's shift things aren't so great.
• Full Service Gas Station w/Mechanic Sounds like an odd thing to miss from childhood but these were almost like "Luxury Spa's" for you car. You could leave your car with an "attendent" to be "pampered and primped" while you went inside to a small clean space loaded with sundry goods (mostly of them of the candy and cola variety), speak with a friendly character. Exchange funds and pleasentries and be on your way. These used to be on nearly every corner, now you could drive for days and never see one, which is sad because the best part about these places was that if you had any car trouble the attendent could usually identify it ahead of time or fix it in the case of an emergency. Which leads us to the next point.
• Simple Cars that run and are easy to fix Most likely the reason joe mechanic at the Full service gas station could fix your car was because it was a relativly simply engineered machine. The parts were readily available and of "standard" sizes. You didn't have to have three degrees or special training to fix them, nor did you have to have expensive machinery or tools. Though I love the extra's and additions the car manufacturers have made in the recent years, I sometimes ask the question is the price for those luxuries too high.
• Cokes in glass bottles This was simply one of life's little treasures, on a hot summer day there was nothing like walking or riding your bike down to the service station and drinking a coke (not "new coke", or "coke classic", or "vanilla coke" TM...ect) out of an ice cold glass bottle. Yes, it actually tastes better. Better yet was spending the day with your friends searching for glass bottles that you could return for a nickle each and actually earning yourself an ice cold coke in another glass bottle. To you it was a treasure hunt, who knew you were actually helping to clean up the neighborhood.

That's enough to get you started, please stop and think a minute, and share what you come up with.