THE LONG GOODBYE

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The long goodbye
Updated 5d 6h ago | Comments 100 | Recommend 34 E-mail | Save | Print |

A QUARTER-CENTURY OF CHANGES

The Nation's Newspaper turns 25 on Sept. 15, 2007. To help celebrate, we'll revisit those years with 25 lists over the next 25 weeks. If your choices differ, let us know in the comments section below.

Times have changed for Michael Jackson (No. 24 below) and vinyl records (No. 5) since he released Thriller 25 years ago. Today, we look back at 25 years of other changes in our lives. Some things are still around (No. 4), some not (No. 6). Disagree with our picks? Tell us at usatoday.com, and we'll post yours.

Sylwia Kapuscinski, Getty Images
1 Indoor smoking
The workplace once had clouds of secondhand smoke and first-rate smokers. You could even puff away in the rear of jets. Attitudes have changed, forcing smokers outside, rain or shine.

Chris Pizzello, AP
2 Service stations
It's easier to find chips and a hot dog than free air or somebody to clean your windshield as service has transformed into convenience shopping and self-serve fill-ups. Want fries with that?

Alexander Zemlianichenko, AP
3 The Soviet threat
The United States' Cold War rival ended with the stroke of a pen in December 1991. The "evil empire" was undone by internal changes, the desire for independence by its satellites and economic pressures.

Handout
4 Typewriters
The computer keyboard on your desk used to be a thundering, hulking device. The electric model sank the manual, only to be trumped by a revolution in technology that continues to this day.

Henry J. Koshollek, AP
5 Vinyl records
Music used to be big. Literally. Before palm-sized CDs took over, songs were embedded in vinyl platters the size of hubcaps. And then there were 8-tracks and cassettes. But that's another story.

AP
6 New Coke
Introduced in 1985 as a replacement for Coca-Cola's flagship brand, New Coke is considered one of marketing's all-time duds. New Coke evolved into Coca-Cola II before being discontinued in 2002.

7 Carbon paper
If you worked with typewriters, you're familiar with the flimsy, filthy filament. To make copies, you'd need a sheet of this purplish-looking stuff. Type "good riddance." In triplicate.

8 Betamax
Betamax was the most popular video format in the early 1980s. By the end of the decade, VHS was king. What happened? Some say Betamax's limited recording time was the culprit.

D. Kevin Elliott for USA TODAY
9 Phone booths
Don't tug on Superman's cape — especially when he's been trying to find a place to ditch his Clark Kent duds. The bulky boxes with a phone inside have gone away for the most part. Sorry, Clark.

10 Leaded gasoline
The EPA phased out leaded gas in the mid-1990s, citing threats to the environment and public health. Lead was blended into gasoline to boost octane levels and enhance engine performance.

11 Rotary dial phones
Imagine your cellphone, only stationary and way bulkier, with a numbered wheel that you had to spin seven to 10 times or more, depending on your call being local or long distance. Oy.

Handout
12 Videos on MTV
Before reality shows and the like filled its airtime, MTV forged its identity with wall-to-wall videos and the veejays who loved them. OK, who misses 1984's 99 Luftballoons by Nena? Anyone?

Handout
13 Baltimore Colts
One of the NFL's cornerstones ended its stay in Baltimore with a whimper in 1984, hitting the road for Indianapolis. The Colts' Marching Band lived on, even after the Ravens took the field, till 1998.

14 Oldsmobiles
The last Olds rolled off the assembly line in April 2004, signaling a shift in the U.S. auto marketplace and marking the end of a renowned brand. Also deceased: Plymouth (2001) and AMC (1987).

Getty Images
15 Civility
It can be rough out there — whether on TV, radio, the Web or at sporting arenas. Today’s discourse has plenty of “dis,” and it can be pretty “coarse,” too. And whatever happened to thank-you notes? We could go on.

Handout
16 'American Bandstand'
The TV dance show, a sensation in Philadelphia in the 1950s before going national on ABC, survived countless shifts in musical tastes. Bandstand ended its run in 1989.

Michael Madrid, USA TODAY
17 Beverage pull tabs
Once, to open a beverage can, you'd pull a metal ring from a can, creating a tiny blade you'd rediscover walking barefoot. Tabs that stay attached to the can did away with pull-tabs.

Chris Ocken, AP
18 West African black rhino
At 12 feet long and 3,000 pounds, the rhino might appear indestructible. Last summer, it was "tentatively declared as extinct" by the World Conservation Union. Blame illegal poaching.

19 Hand-crank car windows
Before your car was controlled by electronics, you could get a brisk workout just opening the window for a little air. No fingertip controls here, thank you. Crank, two, three. Repeat.

Tim Parker, Reuters
20 Home run kings
Roger Maris got a record and an asterisk in 1961 when he passed Babe Ruth's season record. He's been passed by Mark McGwire (70) in 1998 and Barry Bonds (73) in 2001. More asterisks to come?

Lennox McLenden, AP
21 Hair bands
The music: bad. The hair: worse. In the late '80s and early '90s, the mix was magical for bands such as Poison, Ratt and Cinderella. Some continue to tour, testing the endurance of leather pants.

Roberto Borea, AP
22 The afternoon newspaper
Remember the kid on the bike who never quite reached the porch with your afternoon daily? He moved on, as did lifestyles and the media world. City afternoons became lonelier for newspaper readers.

23 Transistor radios
Before iPods, the handheld music-delivery system of choice was the transistor radio. The transistor tuned in to whatever your local radio station was dishing out. It's the very definition of "quaint."

File photo
24 Michael Jackson
The Jackson 5's lead singer evolved into, well, the "King of Pop," selling gazillion of copies of 1982's Thriller. Sales slowed as various accusations and trials came. Today, he is believed to reside in Bahrain.

Handout
25 Checker cabs
The iconic yellow Marathon cab — you know, like the ones in the movie Taxi Driver — stopped being produced in the early 1980s. The last Checker cab in New York City was retired in 1999. So it goes.

Reported and written by USA TODAY’s Robert Fleming. Photo research by Mike Tsukamoto.

Next week... greatest sports stories.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Michael Jackson
Posted 6d 4h ago
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Comments: (100)

wayne5600 wrote: 1h 59m ago
How about $2.00 gasoline, baby moon hubcaps, when the local paper printed how your elective officials voted on bills the previous week, parents controlling their kids in stores and restaraunts, and the old family diner (still some but disappearing quick).

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dawny79 wrote: 4h 14m ago
If anyone wants a hand crank car window, rent a car from Avis at DFW! true story - I got a car with manual windows AND locks just 3 weeks ago!

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cincinnaticousin wrote: 6h ago
If Bush keeps up his megalomaniacal imperialism, you'll be able to take #3 off the list. I wanted a better, more peaceful world for my granddaughter, but it seems that is not to be. I can't believe they made us believe that "duck and cover" drills in school would protect us should there be a nuclear explosion...it boggles the mind.

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LadyJo wrote: 8h 25m ago
Add this:
the morals and manners of our youth, and the responsible parents that should be teaching them.

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prone2kaos wrote: 13h 20m ago
I will miss the black rhino and manually cranking my car window (power windows tend to stop working after a while). Everything else on the list probably needed to go away - it was just time.

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heyguru wrote: 1d 7h ago
Good article, just hated to see your only reference to MTV was a rancid, meaningless Nena video. The original station was incredibly ground-breaking, and even though I was a 30-something at the time it left it's mark for decades to come (artists, influence). Unfortunately music turned a bad corner sometime in the 90's, and very few videos are fun or worth the time anymore, with the music being the most non-musical of my lifetime, by a country mile. That's a shame....MTV was actually a heck of a medium while it lasted, and created some huge stars that otherwise would still be back-alley players.

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Panda444 wrote: 1d 8h ago
I enjoyed reading this article which brought back many memories. I'm so glad that some things have changed, particularly the rise in user generated content. This has given the average person a voice that can be heard, thanks to the Internet and online versions of the newspapers.

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jsmorg1 wrote: 1d 8h ago
What's with the soda pull tabs? Never heard of it.

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CarolinaRock wrote: 1d 9h ago
Sales of vinyl were up last year, but I wouldn't call it a come back. About a million total units of new vinyl sold. I keep up with the market since I buy records. I only bought one new vinyl record last year, the rest were used. I bought about 50 used vinyl records last year.

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terrylee45 wrote: 1d 10h ago
i miss the weekly cash paydays,banks that would call u if the check came in early so u could come in and cover it before they sent it back=instead of cashing checks immediately and holding the deposit even if they both come in together. i miss tv shows with full 39 week seasons instead of the new 3 new 5 repeat 3 new for a mere 13 week if you.re lucky they last that long. i miss the press staying out of mudslinging on political candidates,even to the point of ruining political careers in the hopes of ratings instead of staying on the real problems of society. i miss seeing people dressed up when going out instead of the casual look =read slob
and i miss when employers cared for their employees and showed courtesy and respect for their customers. and most of all i miss people who felt that we could change things and make it better. Oh, and i miss single income households most of all.

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