Almost gone but not dead yet

Travel agencies
Paper telephone books
Rolodexes
VCRs
Audio cassettes
Personal letters
Pinball machines
Newspaper stock tables
Seesaws
The LP record
Telephone booths

What did not exist when I was a child

Technology

The Internet
Personal Computers
Video Games
DVDs
Color TV
Fax machines
Email
Cell phones
Digital video recorders
CDs
MP3 players
Digital cameras
Microwave ovens
Camcorders
Pocket calculators
Answering machines
Voice mail
Smoke detectors
TV remote controls
GPS
The computer mouse
Flat screen TV
HDTV
Plug-in phone jacks
Commercially available robots
Digital clocks
Set-top boxes
Satellite phones
DNA testing
Human genome sequenced

Medicine

Anti-depressant drugs
Bypass surgery
Soft contact lenses
Laser eye surgery

Material Culture

Stick-on stamps
Post-Its

Media

Cable TV
CNN
24-hour TV
Fox TV Network
Movie ratings
American Idol

Travel and Transportation

Amtrak
Car seat belts
Child car seats
Hybrid cars
SUVs
Bike helmets

Companies, Stores, and Brands

Amazon.com
Facebook
Starbucks
Microsoft
Google
Apple
EBay
Diet Coke
The Gap
Home Depot
Borders Books

Software Development

Databases
Java (programming language)
Ruby (programming language)
Visual Basic
HTML
JavaScript

Business and Finance

The Euro
NASDAQ
ATMs
Paypal
Debit cards
Floating currency exchange rates
Competition for local and long distance phone service

Sports

Baseball playoffs
New York Mets as champions
Designated hitter in baseball

New York City

The Metrocard
63rd & Lexington subway station
McDonald's
An African-American mayor
A Jewish mayor
Battery Park City

World Politics

US-China diplomatic relations
Israel-occupied West Bank

US Politics

Electoral votes for Washington, DC
The vote for 18-year-olds
US Congress televised

Fashion

Designer jeans

Culture

Women in high corporate positions
Casual Friday
Department stores open on Sunday
Liquor stores open on Sunday
Bottle deposit laws
Recycling
Earth Day
Indian casinos
Atlantic City casinos
Martin Luther King Day
Punk rock
Disco music
Hiphop
Rap music
Reality TV
Snowboarding
Skateboards
Rollerblades

At the Supermarket

Microwave popcorn
Disposable diapers
Seedless watermelons
Nutritional labels

Pandora's Box

Crack cocaine
AIDS
School shootings

Other

Zip codes
800 phone numbers

What I remember that has gone

I was born in 1957 and have lived in New York City for most of my life. This is a list of things I remember that are gone.

Material Culture

Carbon paper
Typewriters
Dial phones
TV antennas on top of houses
Mimeograph machines
Super-8 film
Stamps you needed to lick
Clothespins

Media

The Long Island Press
The New York World-Telegram
The New York Herald Tribune
Afternoon papers
TV station late night signoffs where they would play the National Anthem, then the screen would go blank
The 45 RPM single
Video rental stores
The Ed Sullivan TV show
Cigarette ads on TV and radio

Travel and Transportation

The gracious experience of flying
Flying with no security check
Highway rest stops with restaurants, not fast food places
Free maps at gas stations

Companies, Stores, and Brands

Woolworth's
Brentano's
Sam Goody's
Alexander's
Gimbel's
Korvette's
Schaefer beer
Chock Full O' Nuts coffee shops
Digital Equipment Corp.

Technology

Floppy disks
Computer punch cards
Minicomputers
Lotus 1-2-3
The Wang word processor
Adding machines

Business and Finance

Paper stock certificates
Fixed exchange rates
AT&T's telephone monopoly

Sports

The American Football League
Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics in the same year
A heavyweight boxing championship that meant something

New York City

The subway token
The 15 cent fare
Gum machines in the subway
The Automat
Airline offices on Fifth Avenue
The Board of Estimate
The Board of Education

World Politics

The Berlin Wall
The USSR
Communist Eastern Europe
The Cold War
Apartheid
Yugoslavia

Other

Using quarters to do the laundry
Milk delivered in bottles
Elevator operators