I still have an ancient black rotary phone in my hall. It will no doubt outlast me.

The reverse effect is when you're so old you don't realize those sounds aren't around any more. Then I read an AskMe yesterday wondering about using 2 carriage returns for a paragraph break and until I read the responses, it never occurred to me that the problem was the term "carriage return."

Now that I finally have a decent cell phone, I really should get rid of my land line (which isn't even a land line, but digital), but one thing that bothers me is not being able to use my Western Electric rotary phone anymore. I'm annoyed with myself about that.

Yes, I thought that about the 'carriage return' question, OR. The question reminded me of The Typewriter Song.

The only ones out of these that I've experienced in real life are the rotary phone and the typewriter. A dial-up modem connecting should probably go up there in a few years.

I still have an ancient black rotary phone in my hall.

I remember those from my grandparents' home: black, chunky, and amazingly heavy. I remember hefting it one day and thinking that you could knock someone out with the receiver, and ever after I waited in vain for one noir character to conk out another with the telephone receiver.

I've heard all those sounds except the gas station bell, which I only know from movies. I don't remember the flash cube sound, though my dad was an avid photographer so I'm sure I've heard it a zillion times. I do remember flash strips (or whatever they were called) with the long row of minibulbs.

My then-six-year-old niece asked for a manual typewriter for Christmas last year. Her parents found a nice vintage typewriter and gave it to her on a refurbished desk along with lots of office supplies. She LOVES it.

One of the best gags in "The Muppets" was the dail-up modem sound - and the adults cracked up, but the kids in the audience didn't get what was going on.

I miss the gas station bell - until I read this, I didn't really notice that the age of self-service took them away.

Count me among those who love Western Electric rotary phones. I have one which my brother got me for Christmas about 10 years ago. It works like a charm - great speaker in the earpiece, too. But I no longer have a landline. So we just put it on the guest room dresser, where I refer to it as the "house phone." Unfortunately if my guests are calling, no one is ever at the front desk.

I've heard the gas station bell within the last few years when I visit my sister in Jersey, last last bastion of full service gas stations. All of these were common when I was a kid. I learned to type on my mom's 1927 Royal Portable which didn't have shift-lock or a number one key.

I know people who use the dialup modem as their cell ring tone.

You guys are making me think I must have heard the gas station bell as a kid (especially since we made loooooong annual road trips: from Texas to Florida to Maine to Texas), but I can't remember ever hearing hearing it except in old movies and TV shows. Perception is a funny thing.

YEah, in NJ where I grew up and where my parents live, they still have the gas station bell.

These are all pretty obvious, though - what about the more obscure sounds that have vanished, like the rhythmic noise of a mimeograph machine as the handle was cranked, the sound of the teacher writing with chalk on a blackboard ... ?

How about the particular sound of a screen door slamming? Modern houses are all sealed tight and air-conditioned and no one ever leaves a door or window open.

Even the beep-boop-beep of the 1st push-button phones is rare. I have a red Western Electric wall phone. I think there's still emergency dial tone, though I haven't had a land line in quite a while, maybe I should hook it up as the Bat Phone.

How about static on the radio or tv? You don't get it on tvs with cable, or digital radio.

So, how many years before my son waxes nostalgic about the Tivo sounds, or the sound the Wii makes when it's idling? or the Tetris tune?

the sound of the teacher writing with chalk on a blackboard ... ?

My TA wrote on the blackboard the other day and it was kind jaw-dropping. It's such a great sound - I had forgotten the clicking each time you start a new stroke.

How about static on the radio or tv?

They include a little of that in the channel-switching video in the link. The "feedback" sound you don't get, though. The whistling one I mean.

How about the particular sound of a screen door slamming?

One of my absolute favorites. My summer camp had dozens of screen doors with indifferent springs that made great, lazy bangs when they pulled themselves shut. It's the sound of summer.

the sound of the teacher writing with chalk on a blackboard ... ?

Until a few months ago, my wife still wrote on a chalkboard. Her room was finally upgraded, and she was so happy. No longer will she come home with chalky hands, and chalk dust on her clothing.

We still have a record player, and I bought more vinyl last week. I'll be proud to teach my son about vinyl (and cassettes!). We also have an old typewriter, and two metal typewriter desks.

I'm amused by how many old-style items are still present in graphics. There's a rotary phone in a new baby book we bought recently. And there's the floppy diskette on Microsoft Office 2010, still a graphical big of short-hand for "save file."

Fun fact: my father doesn't really know what that is. Trying to talk him through saving a file, I had to describe the floppy disk icon.