are you old enough to remember door to door encyclopedia salesmen?

Question

can you think of any other jobs that have been made obsolete by technology?

Answer 1

I can remember the rag and bone man with his horse and wagon. The ice man. Farmers bringing their harvest into town in horse-drawn wagons. Plowing with draft horses.

Our local bakery sent men out on bread routes in trucks like milk trucks. Watkins spices were sold door to door as were Fuller Brush products.

And doctors made house-calls.

Answer 2

Yes I remember the door to door encyclopedia salesmen.

As for other door to door jobs that have been made obsolete here is my short list off the top of my head

the milkman

the iceman (when we had ice boxes instead of refrigerators)

brakeman (before the air brake was invented for the railroad)

full service gas station where 3 guys came running out to check your tires, clean your windshield, and check your oil

the trolley that used to run downtown

I also miss my Grandmother referring to the living room as the parlor and the couch as the davenport.

Answer 3

OMG, Yes!
My mother bought the whole collection of: World Book Encyclopedia and Childcraft, they even threw in a cheap wooden bookshelf to boot.
Anyhow about a year later the same salesman came a knocking at our door, and he happily asked mom: How handy did the books come to use? My mother being pissed at us kids, and maybe at the end of her rope that day yelled at the salesman, "They came in REAL HANDY; the kids, wrote in them up, cut, torn out pages, and I'm using the last 4 for legs under the couch!"
I swear to god so true Ziggy! ;-)

30 some years back.

Answer 4

I was the door to door salesman for Encyclopedia Britannica. I was in my very early 20's and this creepy, sexually harassing man dropped me off in Simi Valley before it was established. A car would come by much later and pick us up. I remember going to one house so upset that I was crying. They let me give the demonstration just to be nice. I quit shortly after he came onto me at a Christmas party. Sexual harassment was legal back then.

Answer 5

Yes, and door to door Kirby salesmen are a thing of the past too. I just wish Jehovah's Witnesses would follow suit.

Answer 6

I am old enough to remember gas being .78/gal. Were there door to door salesmen back then?

Answer 7

I remember when I was about 3 years old and my mother took me to the window and there was an organ grinder with a monkey and we gave the man change to play the organ..I'll never forget that. It must have been at the very end of that era.

Answer 8

Just barely, and I'm 47.

Television and radio repairmen.
Movie model makers - all CGI now.
Record store personnel
Typists
Newsboys (Extra! Extra!)

Soon to be obsolete -

Music executives
Newspaper pressmen, delevery

Answer 9

I remember them, and bought a set!

Have any of you heard of Fuller Brush Salesmen? Fullers are little friction operated vacuum-like gadgets.

Answer 10

Yep...and I remember the Jewel Tea delivery man, Borden's Milk delivered to your house, vacuum cleaner sales, and the Fuller Brush,,,,,,,