I am not sure if all of my started during my lifetime or not (I was fairly young at the beginning of my lifetime), and some of these things might be still around in some parts of the US
but
we had a coal truck that delivered to a window shaped panel in the front of the house's basement, the driver got out of his truck, and slid open the unlocked wooden panel, and ran the coal down the chute, if we came home from school before Dad got home from work,,,,,we started shoveling the parts that ran over and out into the main basement floor
we had steam radiators in several rooms to heat with (boiler on that coal furnace)
dual point distributors as an ignition upgrade (still around for "antique" cars, lol)
Muscle cars, Pony cars with high output engines and Full sized cars with Big Block engines were still separate classes of cars,,,,,,and every boy from 10 to 60 in my area could tell the difference
pushbutton automatic transmissions,,,,on the dash (dim memory of one on the driver's door?, and/or maybe on the steering wheel?)
starters that were activated by stomping on the starter pedal on the floor,,,,,,,easy as pie to work with, put the truck/car into neutral, stomp on the starter, give it some gas, while holding the brake,,,,,anyone that could start and drive a farm truck knew how to "heel and toe" a road race car, even if he didn't realize it (starting on an uphill was best accomplished by those with 4 feet, one for each pedal),,,,,,,,,mind you, all of this while adjusting the spark lever on the steering wheel, the choke knob on the dash, and anticipating getting up to speed and "shifting" with the overdrive in and out cable (aka known as the "No!!! not that one you idiot, the one next to it that says Choke on it!!!)
hay rakes that you rode on in a seat, when you had the hay lined up with the windrow, you stomped on a pedal, the gears engaged by dogs, lifting the rake tines up,,,,,if the pedal stuck, you got your foot out of the way by parking behind your ear until the thing stopped "activating", then yelled at Dad on the tractor to "go around again" (accompanied by Dad giving you another lesson in "how to look at someone mean")
Roller Skates that we could share,,,,,,,they clipped on the bottom of shoes, and had keys to adjust with (they looked a lot like a manual shoe size tool)
Little electric record players that could play stacked 45s on them, or stacked EP records (33 1/3 records sized like 45s, only with the small spindle hole, and two songs per side instead of one)
Toy guns that resembled the real thing,,,,,,,,,that the neighborhood Cop would take time out to show us how they were "really pointed", knowing that none of us would point them at a Cop or "Army man"
Playing "war games" has meant four different things in my lifetime,,,,,,,first, it was getting all the plastic helmets, guns, hand grenades and the rich kid's bazooka (that really launched things) and breaking up into two teams,,,,,,,,and scaring the heck out of our parents by the inventive sniper nests we created, etc,,,,,then it was Avalon Hill and SPI board games, after Risk and Stratego, of course,,,,,then it was simulations of combat scenarios in the real military,,,,,,and now it is everything from Command & Conquer on a 486 PC and up to the most modern Halo on the tv ads
I am sure there are many more,,,,,,,,but, I am starting to sound like an old person,,,,,,and that is another thing that has changed in my lifetime,,,,,,,I once swore that I wouldn't do this, lol
Rex