This weekend, my son and I stayed in an old & old-fashioned but very clean hotel somewhere in the NW part of The Netherlands for a sailing regatta. In our room, there was something I hadn't seen in ages - and my son spotted it for the first time in his life: a light switch cord above the bed with a small 'glow-in-the-dark' knob at the end to make it easier to find the cord in the dark. He was over the moon! "Oh, that's a nice gimmick! I want one above my bed!"

I realised that I hadn't seen a cord like this in ages! Modern (Dutch) houses don't have that high-just-under-the-ceiling switches anymore. Hence my question: why are they gone? And secondly: what else do you remember, that's gone now... but certainly worth having in your home?

Menno