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Name two famous things ...........

Mar 29, 2022, 10:04 PM
Avatar for skibum609
skibum609
vip member
Massachusetts

that were created/invented near where you live now or grew up. For me I would say the Inn we used to stay at when we were kids and visited relatives. It was Called the "Toll House", in Whitman, MA And my parents stayed there because we loved the cookies and the other deserts. Their recipe for Toll House cookies is still printed on the back of every package of Nestle's morsels. I play golf at a course nearby. It's called butternut farms golf club. It's so named because butternut squash was first grown on the farm that was there.

comments (56)

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Avatar for Icee Loco (asshole)

The French dip sandwich Gangster rap

Avatar for san_jose_guy
san_jose_guy

For local people, the CalTrain, formerly Southern Pacific Commuter train it was ties the region together, San Francisco to San Jose. You have not been her unless you have ridden on it.

BART is newer, but it does not go that far back.

SJG

Avatar for grand1511
grand1511

Water skis and Tilt-a-Whirls were both invented in Minnesota. (Post-It Notes too!)

Avatar for 48-Cowboy
48-Cowboy

Chhuckwagon beans and Cowboy Coffee

Avatar for san_jose_guy
san_jose_guy

Chuckie Cheese was a local thing.

I think the lore of Jobs and Wozniak in their garage, along with Hewlett and Packard in theirs still inspire people.

SJG

Avatar for DeclineToState
DeclineToState

The neoprene wetsuit. All things Apple (Mac, iPhone, iPad, etc.).

Avatar for Tetradon
Tetradon

Pompous, overcredentialed pricks.

Avatar for san_jose_guy
san_jose_guy

The SOFA arts district, night clubs and some art studios South 1st St.

Also Martha Arts District.

SJG

Avatar for Icee Loco (asshole)

Sjg. Do you have any stories about San Francisco before gentrification? It used to be really sleazy in like the 1990s from what I heard

Avatar for misterorange
misterorange

Thomas Edison's laboratory/factory/museum is about 20 minutes from me, and I used to work right down the street from there.

I once lived in Northvale, NJ a few blocks away from where Major John Andre (of the British Army) was hanged for assisting Benedict Arnold. There is quite a nice memorial at the site. Despite the fact that he was an enemy spy, he was well respected, especially for his bravery in the time leading up to his execution. He appealed to General Washington to be "executed as a gentleman" which meant to be shot rather than hanged. Washington denied the request, but later referred to Andre as "an accomplished man and gallant officer."

Avatar for san_jose_guy
san_jose_guy

San Francisco and San Jose were both sleazy up through the 1970's. There was serious gentrification in the 90's. So today all politics are driven by and corrupted by the high real estate prices. But gentrification really started for the bay area in the 1960s

SJG

tuscl.net

Avatar for georgmicrodong
georgmicrodong

Where I live now: Bourbon. Where I grew up: Beef on Weck.

Avatar for Studme53
Studme53

I could walk to where they invented drive-in movie theater and condense soup (Campbell’s) About a million other things from RCA and all the other industry in Camden NJ. It was a great little city at one time. My dad used to say every man in the city worked 2 jobs because there was so much work.

Avatar for ATACdawg
ATACdawg

Born in Detroit, home of the automobile.

Grew up in Brantford, Ontario, home of Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone. First long distance phone call - Brantford to Paris (Ontario, 9 whole miles, lol), and the home of Wayne Gretzky!

Brantford is also the home of the Zamboni!

Avatar for Tetradon
Tetradon

Fig Newtons

Avatar for Call.Me.Ishmael
Call.Me.Ishmael

Providence, RI, is where the process of plating precious metals onto low-value substrates was invented. That's why it was known for a long time as the "costume jewelry capitol of the world". It wasn't hyperbole. Providence exported costume jewelry around the world.

It's not anymore. That industry was on life support by the late 80s/ early 90s. Mostly dead by the early 2000s. What is still referred to as the Jewelry District in Providence is now mostly nightclubs, restaurants, and expensive condos in renovated jewelry manufacturing sites.

Avatar for Icee Loco (asshole)

Camden was a different world then. I love learning about those old industrial towns. It's hard to imagine the great country we were. I'm jealous of those who lived it

Avatar for shailynn
shailynn

Mr. Yuk sticker. If you’re a child of the 80s you remember those.

Avatar for misterorange
misterorange

@georgmicrodong "Beef on Weck"

Never heard of that before, but I looked it up and it sounds fucking great!

Bourbon? Well that goes without saying.

Avatar for misterorange
misterorange

@Call.Me.Ishmael

Although I've only been to Providence one time in my life, it was for WaterFire. That was fucking awesome. Better than St. Patrick's Day in Chicago.

Avatar for MackTruck
MackTruck

Me for dumpin loadz in basements.

And da light bulb

Avatar for motorhead
motorhead

I just recently moved to Dayton, Ohio

At one time Dayton was known as the invention capital of the USA. There were more patents per capita than anywhere in the USA. Charles Kettering held 186 patents

It all began with National Cash Register - NCR

Oh, and don’t forget the Wright Brothers

Avatar for nicespice
nicespice

Church’s Chicken and Frito Pie (or just Fritos in general)

Hooray fatty food and San Antonio

Avatar for shadowcat
shadowcat

The Spruce Goose and the Queen Mary Long Beach CA.

Avatar for Muddy
Muddy

I had to look it up but Long Island. MRI, Mag Lev

Avatar for gammanu95
gammanu95

First artificial nuclear reactor.

The skyscraper.

Back when Chicago was great. No surprise, the modern democrat party fucked all of that up, too.

Avatar for gammanu95
gammanu95

@ATACdawg - the first automobile was invented in Wisconsin (steam-powered engine). The first internal combustion engines, including automobiles, were made in Europe. Detroit cannot claim those.

Bell invented the telephone in the US. The first use of the telephone was while Bell lectured in Salem and his students listened in Boston. Nearly 26 miles, 17 miles than the false claim it was performed in Cana-duh. Make America Great Again. Don't worry, we'll let Cana-duh take credit for curling and poutine. For now, eh?

Avatar for skibum609
skibum609

We also are home to Howard Johnsons (Quincy), Dunkin Donuts (Quincy) and modern rocketry was invented here. To be fair we also invented America in 1776.

Avatar for Longball300
Longball300

Superman, Rock and Roll and Golf Balls...... and the first indoor shopping mall.

Avatar for shadowcat
shadowcat

gammanu95 - ATACdawg is correct. Source brantford.ca. I spent a week on a farm near Brantford many years ago. It was also the home of the Cockshutt tractor company. I drove a restored one while I was there.

Avatar for crosscheck
crosscheck

Skibum- So funny, when I saw the thread title, Toll House cookies (Whitman) was the first thing I thought of. I'll also add the first night baseball game (Hull).

Avatar for gammanu95
gammanu95

No, ATAC is not correct. It is not at all surprising that Canada would try to steal the history of the phone -as Brazil does the airplane- since they are both second-rate countries.

poynter.org

atlasobscura.com

salem.org

Avatar for shadowcat
shadowcat

Well after further research I'm not even sure Bell was the inventor of the telephone. :)

Avatar for ilbbaicnl
ilbbaicnl

Makes sense, fried chicken and frito pie explain how John Hagee can get enough caloric intake to scream continuously yet still weigh 400+ lbs. Does Pastor Hagee secretly get dances with nicespice?

Avatar for viking2012
viking2012

"Superman, Rock and Roll and Golf Balls...... and the first indoor shopping mall."

Dude! You're from Cleveland?

clevelandtraveler.com

Avatar for ElDuderino_AZ
ElDuderino_AZ

Miranda rights came from a case about an arrest in Phoenix.

Avatar for ElDuderino_AZ
ElDuderino_AZ

Oh...two famous things. So Miranda rights and Ping golf clubs.

Avatar for gammanu95
gammanu95

What about fried chicken coated in frito crumbs? It's too obvious, someone must have done it already.

Avatar for ilbbaicnl
ilbbaicnl
  1. "Cheese" sauce that's 99% some unknown type of dubiously-edible oil.
  2. Saying anything you bought at a convenience store is "from eh rabs".
Avatar for viking2012
viking2012

"Thomas Edison's laboratory/factory/museum is about 20 minutes from me, and I used to work right down the street from there. "

Edison was born less than 30 miles away from where I was born but I never had the chance to meet him. Mainly because he died long before I was born.

Avatar for ATACdawg
ATACdawg

@gammanu:

The issue of Boston vs. Brantford as the home of the telephone has long been debated. Clearly, the first voice transmission from one room to the adjacent room occured in Boston. However, the development of the telephone as a practical means of communication occured in Brantford, as did much of Bell's preliminary work involving the deaf.

As far as the automobile goes, I misspoke a bit. Not the first automobile, but the introduction of production on an assembly line was what I had meant to say.

Avatar for skibum609
skibum609

Speaking of automobiles, whenever we ski Sugarloaf Maine, we drive through Kingfield Maine where the Stanley Brothers invented the Stanley Steamer automobile. The Museum is pretty cool. On the way home we got to drive by a statue of telephone in Island Pond Maine. Why you ask? Last plaece in the country with party lines, which they had until the early 1980s.

Avatar for Studme53
Studme53

Cool. Telephone party lines in New England reminds me of The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming

Avatar for magicrat
magicrat

The Wright brothers were from Ohio but as everyone knows, the first flight was in North Carolina.

Avatar for whodey
whodey

The most important would be professional sports starting with the first professional baseball team in 1869. I can't even imagine what life would be like without professional sports, but we would probably be more productive as a society.

Benadryl allergy medication would be another prominent invention that has brought relief to millions of people. Preparation H is another local medical invention that has brought relief to many.

Local toy company Kenner also brought us such notable toys as Play Doh (originally made to help clean soot from coal burning stoves off of wallpaper) and the Easy Bake Oven. They were also the company that made the Star Wars action figures after other toy manufacturers were convinced that action figures based on a sci-fi movie wouldn't be profitable. They bought the rights to the Star Wars toys for $100,000 just before the movie was released and sold $100 million worth in the first year.

Avatar for From978
From978

Spreadsheets At one point, the company I worked for had a few unused offices, so we leased them to a small startup named Lotus. They went on doing mysterious things for several months, until one week the parking lot filled up with Ferraris, and the next week they were gone. The product was 1-2-3, and they sold it to IBM

Avatar for gammanu95
gammanu95

ATAC- I posted links to bolster my arguments. Please do the same if you cannot acquiesce.

Avatar for ATACdawg
ATACdawg

OK game. You asked for it.

HISTORICA CANADA TEAM BOARD OF DIRECTORS OUR STAFF EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES Alexander Graham Bell conducted the world’s first long-distance phone call, 13 kilometres between Brantford and Paris, Ontario.

Date: Thursday, August 10, 1876 Month: 08 Day: 10

“The First Long Distance Call“: “On February 12, 1877, Bell made the first long-distance phone call in history from the Lyceum in Salem to Watson at the Boston Globe in Boston. The phone Bell was using in his demonstration was what he called his 'Long Distance' telephone.Feb 12, 2015

As you can see, the Canadian version preceded the American one by six months!

Need more?

July 1874: Alexander Graham Bell conceives the theoretical concept for the telephone while vacationing at his parents' farm near Brantford, Canada. Alexander Melville Bell records notes of his son's conversation in his personal journal.

10 August 1876: Alexander Graham Bell makes the world's first long-distance telephone call, one-way, not reciprocal, over a distance of about 6 miles, between Brantford and Paris, Ontario, Canada.

9 October 1876: Bell makes the first two-way long-distance telephone call between Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts.

So, I will grant you the first two-way long distance phone call,

Avatar for ATACdawg
ATACdawg

But not the first long distance call!!

Avatar for san_jose_guy
san_jose_guy

There is still the legend of Steve Wozniak in that Homebrew Computer Club, meeting I think at Stanford, and the Imsai 8080, and the guy who made it play a song with just some relay clacking in it.

And then there is still the farce of William Shockley going on about racial correlation to IQ, and making a fool out of himself and out of Stanford.

SJG

Avatar for viking2012
viking2012

Question for the creep... did you eat some lettuce in solidarity with the workers while you were locked outside the library yesterday in honor of the Cesar Chavez holiday?

Avatar for san_jose_guy
san_jose_guy

TheeOSU, is Ohio famous for Night Saints like you?

SJG

Avatar for viking2012
viking2012

One thing we do know, Cali is famous for psychotic fuckheads like you, no question about it!

Avatar for san_jose_guy
san_jose_guy

^^^ At least we don't have this one Ohio super creep.

SJG

Avatar for loper
loper

Marshmallow Fluff.

Avatar for Dave_Anderson
Dave_Anderson

Butternut Farms or Nut Butter Farms?

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