20 Once-Everyday Household Items from the 1960s That Are Largely Obsolete Today
A nostalgia trip through the things many Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario homes used to have
THUNDER BAY – LIFESTYLE – Peek into a Canadian living room or kitchen from the 1960s and you’d see gadgets and furniture that defined daily life—most of which have disappeared or gone niche.
Here are 20 once-common items you rarely find in homes now.
Communications & Home Office
-
Rotary-dial telephones (and party lines) – Twisting a dial and sharing a phone line with neighbours has given way to smartphones and private connections.
-
Telephone stand/“gossip bench” with message pad – Dedicated furniture for the house phone is long gone; notes live on mobiles.
-
Printed phone books (White & Yellow Pages) – Doorstep directories have been replaced by online search.
-
Manual/electric typewriters with carbon paper & correction fluid – Word processors and cloud docs retired the ribbon, carbons, and Wite-Out.
-
Rolodex/address books – Digital contacts and CRM apps made the wheel of business cards a relic.
Entertainment & Media
-
Black-and-white CRT console TVs – Big wooden cabinets with picture tubes gave way to flat-panel colour screens.
-
Rabbit-ears and rooftop TV antennas with rotors – Cable, satellite and streaming eclipsed fiddling with reception.
-
Hi-fi console cabinets (radio/turntable built into furniture) – Streamers and compact speakers replaced the living-room “stereo furniture.”
-
Reel-to-reel tape recorders – Cassette, CD and digital audio pushed out spools of magnetic tape.
-
8-track cartridge players – Briefly king of in-car and home listening; cassettes then CDs ended the run.
-
8mm/Super 8 home movie cameras & projectors – Phone video and digital camcorders replaced film reels and pull-down screens.
-
Slide projectors (Kodak Carousel) – Family slide nights became digital photo galleries and TV casting.
-
Flashcubes for Kodak Instamatic cameras – Single-use flash blocks vanished with film’s decline.
-
TV listings magazines – On-screen guides and streaming menus replaced print schedules.
Home & Kitchen
-
Electric can openers mounted under cabinets – Counter space and multipurpose gadgets made these rare.
-
Metal ice-cube trays with pull levers – Automatic ice makers and silicone trays took over.
-
Stovetop percolator coffee makers – Drip, espresso and pod machines dominate (percolators survive as retro novelties).
-
Milk delivery boxes and returnable glass bottles on the porch – Dairy’s have long displaced daily doorstep dairy.
-
Wringer washing machines – Automatic washers made hand-feeding laundry through rollers a memory.
-
Household ashtrays and cigarette stands – With smoke-free homes and public places, the living-room ashtray disappeared.
Why it matters
These objects weren’t just gadgets—they shaped habits, rooms and routines.
Remembering them is a reminder of how fast technology and lifestyles change in Northern Ontario, from communication to entertainment to how we shop and cook.
