35 things that were once common in my lifetime but are now extinct (or effectively extinct)

1. Smallpox
2. The TV Movie of the week. (On networks at least)
3. Lawn Darts
4. American Bandstand and Soul Train (how do kids today know when Saturday morning is over?)
5. Weekly World News
6. Hai Karate cologne
7. Five and dimes
8. Red dye #2
9. Junior High
10. Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Plymouth and Mercury Motors
11. PDA's
12. Candy Cigarettes
13. T-tops
14. Quaaludes (in the US)
15. Banana seat bicycles.
16. Leaded gas
17. Marathon candy bars
18. Howard Johnsons restaurants (effectively extinct)
19. Postum (I think my grandmother passing away is what finally did this in)
20. Heathkit kits
21. Camelot, Musicland and Tower Records.
22. DDT (I thought they had banned this well before I was born, not so)
23. New Coke
24. Pull tab drink cans
25. Chi-Chi’s Restaurants
26. The basic four food groups as the basis of healthy eating
27. Non-flatscreen monitors
28. Driver’s Ed classes in public high schools
29. Carnation Instant Breakfast bars and squares
30. Super Elastic Bubble Plastic
31. Montgomery Ward
32. Zima
33. Mademoiselle Magazine
34. Sear's Catalog
35. The after-school special. (How will kids today learn that tolerance is good and drugs are bad?)

Plus 15 things that surprisingly still exist, are in production and are commonly available

1. Pinball machines (although only one manufacturer is left)
2. Stuckey’s restaurants
3. Typewriters and dot matrix printers
4. Toughskins
5. Highlights Magazine (Gallant is an ass)
6. Drive-in theaters
7. Members Only jackets
8. Telegrams
9. The American Top 40 radio show
10. VCRs
11. Bonnie Bell Lip smackers (but do they still have the Seven-up flavor?)
12. Power Rangers
13. RIF – the Reading is Fundamental program
14. Shrinky Dinks
15. Roller rinks (Although, if they don’t have everyone wearing quad skates, the people not skating crowded around the Space Invaders machine, and a soundtrack consisting almost exclusively of disco and Journey, then they are dead to me.)

3 obscure british originals of not so obscure eighties songs

Villa Alegre

Villa Allegre was my favorite PBS show as a kid but it has completely disappeared from public consciousness to the point that this is the only clip that has ever turned up online. It was sort of of a bilingual Sesame Street type show but had a much mellower vibe. I'd especially love seeing the closing credits again.

I'm not really sure what they were thinking.



Addendum:

Upon request from my only reader (Hi Jennifer) I've researched this clip and determined it comes from a CBS Schoolbreak special (The Cracked Magazine of after-school edu-tainment) from 1984, "Ace Hits the Big Time". A link is below if you wish to watch the whole thing. I prefer to remain context free.

http://youtu.be/QjsSgp9kFe4

The companion to "Why Won't Cathy Eat Breakfast?", "Why Not Snack?"  Sadly, Mike's issue isn't as mysterious (and he doesn't have a narrator talking smack about his family) but is still more than a little weird.

Sorry about the quality,  this is the only place I've ever found this film

http://www.avgeeks.com/wp2/why-not-snack-1973/ 

This question has haunted me for the last year.