13 Things that Are Disappearing from America
1. Outhouses
By the 2000 Census, the number of Americans who lacked indoor plumbing was down to 0.6%.
2. Yellow Pages in print
3. Movie Rental Stores
4. Phone Landlines
According to a survey from the National Center for Health Statistics, at the end of 2007, nearly one in six homes was cell-only.
5. Ash Trees
In the late 1990s, a pretty, iridescent green species of beetle, now known as the emerald ash borer, hitched a ride to North America with ash wood products imported from eastern Asia. In less than a decade, its larvae have killed millions of trees in the midwest, and continue to spread.
6. Cameras That Use Film
7. Hand-Written Letters
In 2006, the Radicati Group estimated that, worldwide, 183 billion e-mails were sent each day. Two million each second.
8. Personal Checks
According to an American Bankers Assoc. report, a net 23% of consumers plan to decrease their use of checks over the next two years, while a net 14% plan to increase their use of PIN debit.
9. Honey Bees
Perhaps nothing on our list of disappearing America is so dire; plummeting so enormously; and so necessary to the survival of our food supply as the honey bee. 'Colony Collapse Disorder,' or CCD, has spread throughout the U.S. and Europe over the past few years, wiping out 50% to 90% of the colonies of many beekeepers -- and along with it, their livelihood.
10. Analog TV
According to the Consumer Electronics Association, 85% of homes in the U.S. get their television programming through cable or satellite providers.
11.News Magazines and TV News
12. Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs
Maryland's icon, the blue crab, has been fading away in Chesapeake Bay. Last year Maryland saw the lowest harvest (22 million pounds) since 1945.
13. Incandescent Bulbs
Before a few years ago, the standard 60-watt (or, yikes, 100-watt) bulb was the mainstay of every U.S. home. With the green movement and all-things-sustainable-energy crowd, the Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb (CFL) is largely replacing the older, Edison-era incandescent bulb.
Other Thursday Thirteen participants are here
theteach
35 comments:
Losing the bees is frightening..
I'm doing my part to keep honey bees and hand written notes alive! But then again, I do love fountain tip pens! ;)
Go bees go!
Not playing this week, but wanted to comment. What a great way to do TT. I love it Teach. A wonderful history lesson if you will. Have a great day. Big hug and lotsa lovies. :)
I miss handwritten notes. I do try to keep them alive though. :)
I dunno about giving up my land line. First, I don't like the idea of putting all my communication eggs into one basket, so I would not feel comfortable giving up my land line for IP phone. SEcond, this here is hurricane country. The cable and the cell phone will probably both go out during a storm, but a good old non-cordless land line will still be active because the phone lines are buried. I think it will be a while before someone can convince me to give up the land line!
Blogless Thursday tomorrow!
Tink *~*~*
My Mobile Adventures *~*~*
I knew about most of those, but not the poor ash trees. Ash furniture must be really sought after now.
I miss drive-inn movies too.
I could do the same TT ! a lot of people here don't even have a fix phone anymore and only use their cell phones.
do you know what i miss out of those thirteen the most????hand written pen pal letetters, you are probably much too young YOUNG, to remember pen pals all over the world via the written word, i guess that is why i blog and make you laugh about your husband sitting in the only warm room he can find in your house
I used to have a pen pal in Malaysia. It was so cool to get his letters on foreign paper and he had the neatest tiny hand writing.
I've got a Thursaday 13 post at my blog-
http://www.lovetheeclecticlife.blogspot.com
It's on superstition... : )
I always feel so nostalgic when I read a post like this...but I must say I miss the outhouse least of the 13 you've listed. ;-)
Losing the outhouses is fine by me, Mary! hahaha!
I sure hope our Blockbuster is not going away anytime soon. Count me in as a cell phones only household, owning a film camera, and still using checks. Ha! I made the statistics :o)
Great one for TT! Mine's up too hope you can drop by.... Have a great thursday!
Sad to lose the Bees and hand written letters.
It's sad to see some of those go but I can't say I'm sorry to see the outhouses go
I'm still a check writer and have a home phone. Glad the outhouse is almost gone. Happy TT
Wow-I love this TT, even though it makes me sad-b/c all of these things are good things. (Well, maybe not the light bulbs.) I miss handwritten letters...and the honeybee thing-that's a serious one!
My comment just went poof!!! Duplicate error it said but its not even there.
Anyways, GREAT post Mary I loved your list, what fun.
Come back, honey bees, go away, land lines.
You reminded me I owe a friend a letter, Mary. I am one of those killing off that old art by forgetting all the time (does blogging count as some form of personal writing?).
no crabs? Uh-oh!
I still write letters.
I got rid of our landline.
Wow, my whole childhood is disappearing before my eyes!
Great idea for a TT, and guess what I'M BACK :)
I do my part to keep handwritten letters in existance, I pen pal.
Hugs, I've missed being able to comment.
awesome post I am using 90% of those including Ash trees but excluding the outhouse
Cool list...I still have an analog camera and might never give it up...
Interesting list today! I don’t miss most of those things (though I remember them all). I do miss hand-written letters. I still enjoy receiving a hand-written letter to savor and enjoy … and I love writing them too. Actually, I still write a few personal checks by hand each month as well, though the check payment service offered by the bank is so handy that I use it to pay most of my regular bills.
Hugs and blessings,
Those all give pause to think - the bees, the trees, the crabs - very sad.
No matter how much emails take over the world, "thank you" notes should always been written on paper. Cool list.
Well, I can't say I'll miss the outhouses at all...but the blue crabs? Nooooooooo, you're kidding me. I hope the Alaska King Crab is still harvested a lot!
You have hit the nail on the head, Mary. My children are giving up their land lines; our friends are losing their bees. But those fluorescent light bulbs--if they could just make them dimmable!
Some good news and some not so good news on that list. The bee thing is pretty scary though.
That many emails? No wonder sometimes Yahoo loads so slow!
and places to get film developed!!
Great post and oh so true! :)
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