Throwback Thursday and a Little Nostalgia

by Skip Cohen

Throwback Thursday doesn't always have to involve old photographs. I thought it would be fun to tie in old concepts and products from the past. Check out the four products below and tell me what happened to them...

• Whatever happened to Harvey Wallbangers? It was the drink in my twenties - Orange juice, vodka, and Galliano. And, every bar you were in had that long, tall bottle of Galliano. In my own first liquor cabinet, it was like the jewel in the crown!
• Where did Cold Duck go? If you're a connoisseur of fine wine, then you've already stopped reading this post! LOL Cold Duck was a cross between champagne and any flavor Boone's Farm, but it was the drink to have plenty on hand for New Year's. I was shocked to find it's still made and available.
• Does anybody remember the Seven Up candy bar? It was chocolate and in a brick with seven different fillings — like seven small "Chunkies" in different shapes, each with a different flavor.
• What made it so cool to put baseball cards in our bike spokes? Even more retro, how many of you have a huge bag of clothespins hanging somewhere near your washing machine?

• Who remembers party lines? Okay, this is where my younger readers stare in disbelief. We didn't have our own private phone line. Often, you'd have at least one other family on your line. You'd go to use your phone, and it was like picking up an extension. You'd hear somebody else talking, but they were in another house. (Note: I found the classic message above on a website called "Grant's Telephone Classics." Just click on the banner for a trip down Memory Lane.)​

Then, there were expressions and definitions that changed...for example, a troll was just a character in a children's book or an ugly doll. The "mailman" walked your street. You had a paperboy who delivered your paper on his bike. And speaking of bikes, I won a "three-speed English Racer" in a Cleveland Plain Dealer contest that was the greatest bike ever! 

Now go back to just the last 10-15 years...I found my old Palm Pilot the other day. And I can only laugh over how cool it was. Then came my Blackberry; again, it was slick. I was crushed when I lost my Blackberry while at IUSA in Nashville. I immediately hit the Verizon store in Nashville and paid top dollar for a replacement.

Feel free to add your memories from your own walk down "Nostalgia Lane"; if there are enough of you, I'll publish another post with your additions.

Happy Throwback Thursday!