Things you could order over 50 years ago that you can't order now !

[buckeyefarmer]

There are gas stations everywhere. I have yet to see one with an electric car charger as an option. Are these stations forbidden, as a franchise, to offer that?

One gas station I visit has a row of chargers.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Lindane was something that we used to buy at the local feed and seed. The stuff worked better than anything we have today.​

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It used to be a great shampoo for crabs too. Then they found out that one exposure to lindane doubled your chance of brain cancer, and the stuff is fiercely persistent.

 

[BravoXray]

It used to be a great shampoo for crabs too. Then they found out that one exposure to lindane doubled your chance of brain cancer, and the stuff is fiercely persistent.

Gee, I never saw crab with hair!

 

[ultrarunner]

Phisohex (sp) is another one that was the hospital standard for many years…

 

[tallyho8]

Another one you can't buy is Benzedrine inhalers. Benzedrex inhalers used to have benzedrine around 1950 but too many people started using them to get high.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Maybe it's already been mentioned but Chlorodane. Years ago building I had business in got termites. I called an exterminator who was checking everything out and I said I still have some Chlorodane. He said then you don't need us! That's the best there ever was.
My Dad would put it in a watering can and go all around our house foundation. We never saw an ant, spider...any bug in the house.
I don't think it was that dangerous either.

 

[ultrarunner]

Yes… it was the goto for termites for decades.

Still made but not sold in the United States.

My Pest guy said still legal for fire ants but no registered product available…

 

[Oaktree]

Phisohex (sp) is another one that was the hospital standard for many years…

That name sounds familiar, wasn't it some sort of face-cleaning solution to fight acne? I had it pretty bad as a teen, pretty sure it was something I'd tried.

 

[ultrarunner]

Physiderm might be what you remember?

 

[ponytug]

Maybe it's already been mentioned but Chlorodane. Years ago building I had business in got termites. I called an exterminator who was checking everything out and I said I still have some Chlorodane. He said then you don't need us! That's the best there ever was.
My Dad would put it in a watering can and go all around our house foundation. We never saw an ant, spider...any bug in the house.
I don't think it was that dangerous either.

Effective, definitely. Safe... not so much in my book;

"Like other chlorinated cyclodiene insecticides, chlordane is classified as an organic pollutant hazardous for human health. It is resistant to degradation in the environment and in humans/animals and readily accumulates in lipids (fats) of humans and animals.[6] Exposure to the compound has been linked to cancers, diabetes, and neurological disorders."​

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlordane ​

It is particularly toxic to fish, with an LD50 (lethal dose to kill half the population) of 22 parts per billion.

All of the related molecules, heptachlor, nonachlor, aldrin, dieldrin, and endrin are also banned. They preferentially accumulate in fat, and then whenever the fat is metabolized, e.g. during fasting, or illness, they gets released in the body. That is probably why it is a neurotoxin, accumulating in the fat around nerve cells.

I don't miss the Shell "No Pest" strips either.

All the best,

Peter