oh, antiquated world

stowed away in the school where i work, i found this tiny box of "consumer sequential cards" from 1978. i'm certain they were once a helpful manipulative for determining the order of things, while facilitating discussion about real world skills. but now, they are just really interesting photos of common scenarios that don't really happen that way anymore. they'd probably just confuse a lot of kids today, so i'll post them here instead:

going to mcdonald's for breakfast:


along with the many, many advertisements for hashbrowns, check out the uniforms! and, of course, the styrofoam packaging. this one is not really that odd, just old-fashioned. just wait.

calling from a pay phone booth:


i can't recall the location of any glass phone booths anywhere anymore. i don't know if you can tell from this photo, but a phone call in 1978 was 20 cents.

waiting while a gas station attendant provides full service:




she waits while the attendant squeegees the windshield clean, in her red pacer, with the same door handles as the similarly red amc spirit that we had around the same time. my memories from this era are fuzzy if anything, but i do remember those door handles. i don't remember ever having an attendant provide car service, unless you count some experiences in the past few years when i've turned into a gas station and not realized that was the process for that station. what do you think she was listening to on the radio? i think it was the carpenters.

buying a coke out of a vending machine:


i love this photo. the orange pants are perfect for it. we drank bottled coke when i was young so these cans look strange to me, especially that someone actually used their index finger to open the can. sidenote: i remember that in elementary school if we won a contest or something, the prize was always being able to walk into the teacher's lounge and buy a tiny bottle of coke out of the vending machine. awesome.



this part is especially weird now. after you drink the coke, you throw the can in the garbage, where it will probably land on a pile of styrofoam egg mcmuffin containers.

selecting ice cream at baskin-robbins:


i think he is taking a number?


this scene really does remind me of childhood. one of my brothers used to pick me up from kinder care and take me to baskin robbins sometimes. remember the clown cones?

my favorite part is here:


my initial thought was, "he took his ice cream cone to school? and his school had pink desk chairs!" then i realized that he is probably still at baskin-robbins, and they offer school desks as seating. i don't think the baskin-robbins in the greenwood park mall had school desks, but they probably had a lot of people dressed like this guy.

have a wonderful week!