The world is changing so quickly we hardly notice anymore when some changes take place. For those of us over 70, many things have quietly faded from our lives. For example, when is the last time you saw … ?

— Clothespin bags. Sure, you still might see clotheslines in backyards. However, you seldom see the clothespin bags which used to hang from nearly every set of clotheslines. Some of those bags were plain; others were made from colorful fabrics to resemble little dresses. And they all held the wooden clothespins that held the laundry to the clothesline.

— Sprinkler bottles. In the days before steam irons, a sprinkler bottle was a necessity. (If you don’t know why, ask your great-grandma.) In fact, our second-grade class made sprinklers as Christmas gifts for our mothers. The few pop cans available at the time had a cone-shaped top with an opening which resembled the mouth of a pop bottle. After enthusiastically consuming the contents, each student painted a pop can, decorated it with a colorful decal and stuck a sprinkler head in the opening. Mom loved it. Well, she said she loved it.

— Flash bulbs. The electronic flash has been a great benefit to professional and amateur photographers alike. I remember having to pop in a flash bulb for each indoor shot and recall as well the unusual aroma the flash bulbs released as they fried and bubbled.

— Corn cobs. Now that combines shell the kernels from the cob as the corn is harvested, you don’t see many corn cobs. Back when corn was picked and stored on the cob, cobs were often found piled high on a farm yard after a shelling project. Among other things, the cobs provided fuel for heating and cooking and a great nesting place for rodents. I remember both.

— Steering wheel knobs. Also known as spinners, these knobs were attached to a steering wheel to make steering easier. In the days before power steering and bucket seats, a young male driver had to keep his right arm around his honey and a spinner made it easier to drive with the left arm. Good times!

— TV lamps. In the early days of television, homemakers often placed an attractive (or not) lamp on top of the TV set. The lamp provided soft room lighting which did not reflect in the TV screen or otherwise interfere with viewing an often-lousy black and white picture. Oma Gelder’s TV lamp featured a color photographic transparency of Holstein cows in a pasture, backlit by an electric bulb.

— Console radios. These days some radios can fit in your pocket. There was a day, however, when radios were larger than many of today’s television sets. Those furniture-quality wooden cabinets with their vacuum-tube chassis and massive speakers produced excellent sound despite the audio limitations and inherent static of the AM band. Before my family acquired a television set I often sat in front of a tall, wooden console RCA radio and listened to the Lone Ranger, The Great Gildersleeve and other great radio shows.

— Salves. When I was a kid our medicine cabinet contained two miracle drugs which helped heal minor rashes, burns, cuts, scrapes and other “owies” active kids might suffer. Watkins® brand cow teat salve came in a big red, black and gold tin. It was a thick, brown ointment with a medicine-like odor. The other, Cloverine® brand salve, came in a smaller black and white tin. It was a lighter, clear ointment with a sweet scent. I’m no doctor but, doggone it, I believe both worked. (I must admit to a prejudice, however. As a youngster, I sold Cloverine® salve to neighbors and relatives to earn money and prizes.)

— Adding machines. There’s a calculator function on most cellphones these days and many calculators can be tucked in your pocket, but you don’t often see an honest-to-goodness adding machine. Most of these bulky, mechanical contraptions could add and subtract — that was it.

So which life conveniences will change next?

Will Rogers said it decades ago: “The only thing that I can tell you about the future is that it is going to be different.”

Arvid Huisman can be contacted at huismaniowa@gmail.com. ©2025 by Huisman Communications.