I am about to really show my age. Who out there remembers Traveler's Checks?

I ask because I am currently on holiday in Greece, which triggered memories of the first time I was here. I was somewhere deep into my teenage years, traveling with my Aunt Susan and my cousins Catherine and Michael.

For all you youngsters, Traveler's Checks were, at the time, the safest way to travel with “cash.” Let's say you wanted to travel with $500. Instead of cash, you’d head to Thomas Cook, order your Traveler's Checks, sign them in front of the cashier, and again when buying something. Every store or restaurant accepted them. In fact, I don’t recall a single retailer turning one down on that trip to Corfu. They were safer than cash because they required a matching signature and a piece of ID to be cashed. But decades later, not only have Traveler's Checks gone the way of TV antennas and Diners Club, but you also no longer require cash of any physical kind to travel. I came on this trip without a single euro (although a little local currency is not a bad idea; I just wasn’t that organized) and instead used Apple Pay backed up by a couple of credit cards, just in case they needed me to insert a card or if I somehow failed to charge my phone.

This got me thinking about…

12 Things We No Longer Use and What Has Replaced Them

1. Alarm Clock

Who out there remembers this baby? Most people use their smart devices or phones as their alarm clocks. I mean, when was the last time you had to call the hotel operator to schedule a wake-up call?

2. Checks

Sure, a few places and people still use checks (hello, Robert), but between all the various electronic instant forms of payment, I honestly can’t remember the last time I wrote a check. It was probably to pay my taxes, but even the government has now adopted electronic payments.

3. VCRs, CDs, Laser Disks, Sony Walkman, Cassette Tapes

I am throwing this into one giant pile of retro technology, right beside the brick cell phone. Yesterday’s mind-blowing tech is today's landfill. Between Netflix, Spotify, or any other place you are watching or listening, most of us don’t need that old plastic milk carton filled with old records (see the milkman below). Although, for the audiophile, records will always be nostalgically omnipresent.

4. Landline

Nope. I don’t have one anymore and haven’t for years. It’s right up there with the payphone and the pager. We don’t need it, unless, of course, you’re a drug dealer. Everyone reaches me on my cell, which, in a way, makes me too accessible, but that is why Apple invented the Do Not Disturb mode.

5. Maps

Again, I have a few old-school friends who came of age in the Nixon administration who still swear by their old reliable, fold-out and impossible-to-fold-back maps. These are the same folk with their Fodor’s Travel Guide weighing down their knapsacks. I am guessing in areas with no Wi-Fi signal or if your phone battery is not adequately charged, they might come in handy in a pinch. But seriously, when Google Maps decided they were going to record every street on the planet and hand us that info free of charge in a user-friendly app, you have to ask yourself when was the last time you had to pull into a gas station to ask for directions?

6. The Milkman… (and the Milk Box)

My milkman’s name was Joe (not featured in this photo). Yup, I still remember his name. Joe delivered milk in bottles, butter, and freezies in the summertime to the house. He placed them directly into the milk box at the side of the house—which was for those too young to remember, a crate-size compartment that connected the outside of the house with the inside and was big enough for a ten-year-old to climb into when locked out of the house (true story). A feature, I guess, is not built into today’s new homes concerned about personal safety. Now, you go to the milk; it’s not coming to you.

7. Fax Machine

Are you old enough to remember when this technology was revolutionary—staring at the thing in awe as it took seven minutes to spit out a printed piece of curled-up correspondence? Now the only place I know that still uses a fax is my pharmacist when needing to renew my prescription with my doctor. And I have a feeling that it’s the doctor’s office, not the drugstore. Between emails, DocuSign, chats, and voice notes, the fax machine can sit beside the VCR.

8. Rolodex, Address Book, Filofax

I remember having a Rolodex sitting on my desk, and the bigger and fatter it was, the more successful you were deemed to be. Or my Filofax—I carried that thing as if it were a life-sustaining appendage. In it was my entire world with every single person I might know (Rolodex was mostly business), plus the complete schedule of my life. And God forbid I lose that thing. Now, there is an app for this that uploads and shares between all of my devices.

9. Encyclopedia

We had a set of the World Book Encyclopedia growing up, strangely absent the S and L. This is how we found out stuff, researched a school paper, or wanted to know something that we didn’t want to ask our parents. This was our Google or ChatGPT. Although I guess there was better fact-checking with Encyclopedia.

10. Postcards

I have to admit I just bought a couple of postcards on this trip, almost just to mess with a few family members’ heads. But prior to that, I can’t remember the last time I sent a postcard. It is now mostly selfies or photo carousels on Facebook or Instagram, bragging and annoying friends and strangers alike that I am on vacation and they are not. I have to say, let’s bring back the postcard, if for no other reason than to pleasantly surprise someone with a piece of mail that isn’t a bill.

11. A Handwritten Letter

This is something I am a little nostalgic for, like its poorer cousin, the postcard. So in writing this post (sorry I can’t handwrite it to all of you), I will now make more of an effort to communicate in handwritten letters.

12. Photo Album

Now that most of us are no longer shooting our photos on our Kodak Instamatic cameras and taking our film to get developed at the Photo-Mat to get that second set of prints for a dollar, we have fewer prints. Our photos are digital, not paper.  My old photo albums with the little photo squares or sticky plastic sheets sandwiching precious memories seemed like a lifetime ago. In fact, the last photo album might have been my wedding album, and folks, that was another lifetime ago. Instead, there are professionally printed photo books you can make and order straight from your laptop. And these photo books will not lose their stickiness.

So, there you have it! A trip down memory lane and a nod to how far we've come. While I do miss Joe the Milkman and the excitement of unfolding a giant map only to never fold it back the right way, I can’t say I’m nostalgic for lugging around a brick cell phone or waiting for my VCR to rewind a movie.

As we embrace the future, let's also appreciate the past—warts and all. Next time you use Apple Pay or ask Siri for directions, take a moment to thank those obsolete items for paving the way. And maybe, just maybe, send someone a postcard or a handwritten letter, and watch their jaw drop in surprise! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go charge my phone. You never know when you might need to make an emergency purchase of Fodor's Guide to the Galaxy.

What about you? Any relics from the past that you miss or are glad to see gone? Drop your comments below, and let’s reminisce together!