OBSOLETE Jobs that have DISAPPEARED!

Want more Memory Mountain? Check out the inspiring stories at youtube.com/@MemoryMountainSports!

I started pumping gas at my neighborhood Texaco station at the age of 12. I held that job to the age of 18. That job bought me my first Honda trail bike...my first motorcycle and my first car. It also provided the money for my movie dates. It was one of the best times of my life.

The local NEWSPAPER REPORTER is largely a thing of the past. A modest-sized newspaper would have one or even two dozen reporters, more photographers, and editors. Then there were all the ad and classified salesmen, pressmen, and newspaper delivery people. Today, most of these jobs are either gone, or a mere fraction of what they once were leaving communities largely uninformed about what’s going on around them. Could be one of the most significant loses of all.

In the 1970s in my rural small town we had a 'party line' which means the entire street shared one phone line, I would often pick the phone up and hear my neighbors talking. As a kid this was more than fun

OH BOY here it goes. Doorman, Wash Room Attendant, Street Sweepers, Ice Man, Coal Man, Rags and bone man, Mobile Knives and Scissors Sharpener, Fuller brush Men, Door to door Vacuum Salesman, Drive in Burger Joint with car service. If I think of more I'll let you know!

There used to be a milk and egg man that delivered these items when I was a child. Once I had chest congestion and a doctor made a house call and gave me some pills to treat it. Back then it was like living in Mayberry. Even though I lived in a fairly large city many people left their houses with the doors unlocked and didn't worry. People used rakes and not noisy blowers to get up leaves. A few even used mowers without engines. When you went to elementary you started off the school day with the pledge of allegiance often under a portrait of George Washington.

Mobile TV repairmen were a thing back then. The "Tube Jockey" as we call him would stock enough spare parts in his truck to fix your TV set. ( most failures were vacuum tubes that just plugged into the set ) Console TVs weigh about 100 lbs so removing it to his shop was a last resort.

My mom was a whiz on the old IBM Selectric. She was also trained in shorthand.

The photo retoucher. Many think there was no photo retouching before Photoshop existed, but prior to digital retouching it was done by hand on the negative, slide, and print. Done with dyes and inks and very fine brushes and a magnifying glass. A true art form in itself, but as the customer it was very expensive to have done because it was so labor intensive for the retouching artist.

The shoe repair shop (shoe maker/cobbler) is a thing of the past, as is the tailor shop when most suits were individually tailored. Then there was the bread man. I remember as a child my mother having bread and pastries delivered. And then, of course, there was the traveling salesmen. Watkins and Fuller brush come to mind, but there were also encyclopedia salesmen, Vacuumed cleaner salesmen, etc. Doctors also made house calls back in those days.

In the 60's, we not only had a milkman, we had a bread man that came around with all kinds of baked goods which were always a treat. Jelly rolls were always the best. The job for kids that has pretty much disappeared is newspaper carrier. I always had money in my pocket from delivering newspapers from the age of around 8 until I got my first job at 14 managing the newspaper branch office.

Nothing like watching a few of these videos to make you feel old. 👵 What a nostalgic ride down memory lane, some days I wish I could go back to simpler times.

Another that you missed --- the "Ice Man" --- the guy that delivered cubic foot sized ice blocks to homes to be placed into "Ice Boxes" before refrigerators were commonly available in the 50s

My late mum was a telephone switchboard operator, firstly for the Royal Air Force based in Germany after WW2, then in the UK for the GPO (General Post Office). She was the first ever supervisor in the first direct dial telephone exchange in Sheffield before leaving to become a mum (to little me) in 1963. RIP mum, 1932-1991.

When I was in college in West Palm Beach, Florida in the early 70s, I got a job at a residential hotel for seniors over on the island of Palm Beach as an elevator operator. The hotel still had a manual elevator and the elderly residents loved getting on the elevator and watching me close both the cage door and main doors, and then deliver them to the second or third floor. I loved the job because there was lots of downtime and I was allowed to bring my books and study between the occasional trips.

What's never mentioned in these types of videos is the old "ding-ding" when you pulled up to a gas pump. There was always a wire that stretched across the ground.

I was talking to someone in line at the grocery store about how sad it was now we have to wait for the woman to ring up our items and then beg them for us. How back in the day they used to have 'bag boys'. They would bag your groceries, pushed the cart out to the car and put your groceries in your trunk. Now that was service!

I am 76 years old, and my parents had home delivery of Dairy products, Milk, Cream, Butter, and Eggs at six houses in five states for the 19 years that I lived with them. In all those years we NEVER had milk delivered in round bottles, the quarts were in square bottles and 1/2 Gallons were in rectangular bottles all of them were sealed with foil caps. And the Dairies provided insulated 'Milk Boxes'. The pix in your video of milk trucks all appear to be from the 1930s or '40s. My parents continued home delivery until the late 1970s. I still have their last "Milk Box" from the 'Atlanta Dairies'.

Speaking of typists…the invention of carbon paper had already put a lot of them out of work. Before that, every document that you needed a copy of had to be retyped for every copy you wanted. Big companies had ‘typing pools’ that just typed out copies all day.

I wish there were some gas stations where you could get service like the 50s. We had one nearby into the 80s. I know gas is expensive but I’d gladly pay a little more to know my tires were aired and oil checked. When we’d go on family vacations I remember my dad stopping at them and checking everything was ok.