My Hewlett Packard calculator. Back in my high school and college days, we used the slide rule, a/k/a slip stick. I remember the first HP calculator I saw was in graduate school. An undergrad had one. I lusted after it!

Also, I'll have to mention the brifters on my bike. I like 'em better than the stem-mounted friction shifters on my ancient Ross Gran Tour, which is currently residing in the shed in LA.

OK, I'll throw in the bright LED lights which I use on the bike as well.

I'm working on a magazine column about this right now--I started writing for Hot Rod more than 30 years ago, and have worked for several other magazines since. Many of the young editors (warning: Geezer talk ahead) have never sat in, much less owned, a car without air, power windows and locks or remote control. I read a road test the other day criticizing a sub-$11,000 economy car because air con was an OPTION, instead of standard. I have all that crap on my existing cars because that's how they came, but if I had to give it all up, the only thing I'd miss is air conditioning.
I never have liked brifters--I don't even like the word--and don't use them. But when i look at all the throwaway calculators in our car and house, I can't help but think about the first one I saw, back about 1974. It was the size of a city phone book, would add, subtract, multiply and divide, and it cost $125.

Velo Dog--check out this 1970s ad for the then state-of-the-art "small" calculator. And it was $345!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCcgoTc8AQc

I bought a Texas Instruments SR -10 for $30.00 in about 1976. I crowed at the time that I had beaten the system because there was no possible way they could ever get much cheaper than that. A year later it shot craps while it was still under warranty. All that I had to do was mail it back to Dallas and they'd ship me a brand new one. A new, more compact calculator that would do all the same functions cost less than the postage.

Keeping it cycling related, I'm thrilled to have sealed bearings, handle bar tape with a bit of padding, stems that allow quick changes of handle bars, cycling clothing that doesn't smell funky when wet (old wool jerseys sure smelled that way to me), bicycles light enough my wife can hoist them up on the car's roof rack, cycling shoes with Velcro closures, cycling shorts with a chamois that doesn't get stiff and hard, cycling shoes that don't require you to nail the cleat onto them, and brake and shifter cables that don't rust.

+1 I would add integrated shifting and braking without taking your hands of the handlebars, 10 and now 11 speed cassettes for better cadence management and high tech clothing that is both warm, wind resistance, tight fitting and breathable and light weight effective helmets.

I once traded a Hammarlund communications receiver for an early calculator. Not too many years later the calculator was worth about one dollar.

Ice Cream.

Doctors that know how to fix backs and knees. Modern medicine is the ultimate luxury.

Studded bike tires for winter riding. Gortex overcoat and overpants that I can slip on in a minute, yet keep me from either freezing or overheating in cold weather. Aluminum frames that don't rust. Internally-geared hubs with a much larger range than the old three speed ones had. Bright LED lights with no filiments to burn out. Efficient, quiet, hub dynamos.

The good old days: Fifty years ago, it took maybe fifteen minutes to dress for a winter ride, or any other outdoor activity. Riding on ice was like a tightrope walk. Single speeds and three speeds lacked really low gears for deep snow. Bikes rusted like crazy. The headlight was a crappy dim thing powered either by a howling sidewall roller or a bunch of short-lived batteries. Tail lights did not exist.

Non-cycling: Back in 1973, I got a nice pot of money for my first consulting job. It was tough to decide between an HP-65 calculator and a car. I got the car. Good move.

Paul

Stores that are open 24/7, or nearly so.

People used to have to plan. Not that long ago running out of toilet paper or breaking a fan belt after 5pm on Friday meant it was going to be a loooong weekend.

Now, you can roll out of bed at 2am on Sunday and go buy nearly any necessity (and many luxuries) in stores that never close.

So you decide to build a deck on your house. You walk out early Saturday morning and realize you FORGOT TO BUY WOOD. No problem, Lowes/Home Depot/etc will be open by 9am and will have everything you need.

Just a little over 25 years ago I got married on a Saturday in Tulsa Oklahoma. It was a decent sized town. As I was dressing I realized I didn't have the right socks to match my Tux. PANIC!!! Where was I gonna find men's socks on a SATURDAY!?!?!?!

I lost my furnace and water heater in January. Which is a bad time to lose those things in Wisconsin. While I am grumbling about what it cost to replace them, I did re-develop an appreciation for having them.

However as a person who has occasional lower back problems, I have come to greatly appreciate days where I can walk or ride or engage in any number of pleasurable activities and never once even think of my back bothering me.

I'm a SoCal girl, and the first time I ever ran into "Blue Laws" was when my employer sent me to a training school in Texas. I was appalled at the things you could buy, and how many related things you couldn't buy! All the paper you want but no writing tools. Nails, but not hammers. Or something equally ridiculous as these examples. Sure was glad to get back home where I could what I wanted or needed when I wanted or needed it! Even on Sunday night!

I'd also like to thank the person responsible for the spelling correction in the subject header.

We HAVE a micro, but I rarely use it for anything except reheating coffee and maybe an occasional leftover. I'd miss it for the coffee, but otherwise I could to without it easily. And if my wife and daughter didn't insist that a man my age needs a cell phone, I wouldn't have one of those.

I'm from Northern Calif., and I had the same experience in the late '60s when the Army sent me to Missouri. Oddly, in the San Francisco area in those days you couldn't buy meat after 6 p.m. or on Sundays (probably a butchers' union deal; it never occurred to me to question it), but almost everything else was OK. In Rolla, Mo., they stretched paper over the toy racks in stores on Sunday so kids wouldn't be tempted to play on the Sabbath. Playgrounds were closed, too, I think (I was 20 and didn't have kids, but I remember seeing locked gates). There were some weird tool restrictions, too, like that hammer thing. Apparently the nails were OK because you might need them unexpectedly, but hammers weren't because that meant you were planning some work. Or something; I don't know. In California as well as Mo., most businesses closed at 5:30 or 6 p.m.; it was a huge deal at Thanksgiving when the downtown stores (no malls then) started staying open until 9 on Thursdays and Fridays "for your Christmas shopping convenience." About half of all stores, including big ones like Macy's and the few chain groceries, were closed or had limited hours on Sundays, too. I remember my mom rushing to get milk by 2 p.m. so we'd have it for Monday breakfast.

Can still remember when our company went to computerised invoicing. The staff could not get their heads round it and did not trust the computer to do it right. The old method of handwritten invoicing and pricing was a known method and the staff just could not get their fingers working properly. They could not understand when they typed in a 9 digit number for a head gasket- the invoice came out for a door panel at 5 times the price. They did not understand operator error and that they had made the error.

Within 6 months and they had corrected the operator and were getting it right- Till the day when the computer failed for the first time. Then it was "Emergency" hand written invoicing and they had forgotten how to write- and how to add up.

All that has changed now with the computers going down at least twice a week and we keep a stock of a months worth of blank invoices for the situation that we have been told will never occur.

And as to doing a stock check with the "Old" Cardex system- That would be impossible nowadays.

Know how you feel. I have a cell phone and carry it at the insistence of my wife and daughter. What I don't tell them is that the battery will last a week without charging it up- but I only remember to charge it about once a month.

And Microwaves- 20 years ago I bought a big old second hand one. Not for cooking but to sterilize soil for the show plants I was into. It was only at a later date I found out how much easier it is to make porridge or scrambled eggs in one of these new fangled easy ways to burn food.

Kids who have grown up and are doing well as independant adults. Plenty os parents can't say this. bk

+1,000 on the garage! I live in a small condo on the 3rd floor of my building and had to wait a year until one came up for sale in my development (garages were sold separately when the place was built, rather unusual). I love not having to take my bikes apart in the bathtub.

Here's my first post, because I couldn't resist. Chalk. I'm a college professor and love the blackboard, but some classrooms don't have them anymore because 'smart boards' and powerpoints are the new thing. I was once team teaching with a colleague who sent our students home because the computer was down, and he couldn't give a lecture without powerpoint. I told him that I could barely give one with. To keep it to cycling. I've always had clunky bikes. I just got a bike which I think the world of, a 2009 Specialized Sirrus Sport. I've seen all the comments about how awful Sora components are, but I think that the thumb click shifting is really smooth and terrific.

I dread the day they get rid on manual transmissions on cars. There's just something about manually shifting a car that makes me feel so much more in tune with my car, the road, and the other vehicles around me. And don't even get me started about sports cars with automatic transmissions - pure blasphemy!!

And how I fondly remember my parent's old "three-on-the-tree."

Fingernails across a blackboard - the easiest way to get the students' attention!

Did someone pull the cord on the disconnect in the garage? If they do that, then the motor will turn but the door won't go up. You have to manually reset the device so it engages the worm gear.

Traffic lights. In 1994 the San Fernando Valley suffered a nasty earthquake. All of the traffic lights were non-operational for 2 days or so in a community of just under 2 million people crisscrossed with roads of all kinds. The anarchy at the intersections was harrowing to say the least. Once the traffic lights were restored, everybody realized that traffic lights are a societal luxury. Ranks right up there with the toilet and sliced bread.

I don't have one either. It moved out with one of my roommates and we never replaced it. Don't miss it at all, I drink multiple hot chocolates every day (during the many cold months of our year) and I didn't even know how much better it felt to make them on the stove.

I think moderation and self-denial are underappreciated luxuries. I'm reminded of this every time I have a stressful day/week and my appetite seems to double.