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Remember those old wind-up trains kids used to play with?
				I had one, and while it made a lot of great noise it kept jumping the track and crashing into the living room furniture. That&rsquo;s because it had just one speed &#8211; way too fast.
				Well, keeping a wind-up train on the tracks has receded into the mists of things we don&rsquo;t have to worry about anymore. No one, absolutely no one, gives or receives them as Christmas gifts.
				Here are some more gifts that &#8211; fortunately or unfortunately - you&rsquo;re not likely to see generating ooohs and aaahs in American homes on a frosty yule morning.
				Stand-up ash tray: In bygone days, you showed that you were a serious smoker with an ash tray on a stand. Positioned next to your favorite living room chair, it clearly marked your spot as the man and chief tobacco puffer of the house.
				Portable typewriter: Whether for Christmas or graduation, this mechanical marvel told the young person in your life that you foresaw a great future of writing pompous term papers and inflated resumes. Go ahead, laugh: few people today could even change the ribbon on the thing.
				Armchair doilies: In an era when the arms of living room chairs and couches seemed to attract every particle of dirt and grease on the block, the doily was your defense. Of course, the living room where they were used was off limits to all but the most distinguished guests, but you still needed doilies.
				Flash camera: Once the eighth wonder of the tech world, and something you could take out of the package and use immediately on Christmas morning, this little camera replaced the broiling hot bulbs in a big pan with a flash cube that was also infernally hot when you had to take it out and replace it.
				Tobacco pouch: Contrarian dads smoked pipes and didn&rsquo;t need the uber-popular cigarettes in festive Christmas cartons. What they did need was a nice leather pouch, with a zipper, in which to keep their aromatic Sir Walter Raleigh.
				Pen and pencil set: Can&rsquo;t afford a $100 typewriter? No problem &#8211; just dash down to Woolworth&rsquo;s and grab one of their many nice flip-top packages of a ballpoint pen and lead pencil. This, of course, was the absolute fallback practical gift, since if you were literate you could somehow find a use for it.
				Portable record player: You couldn&rsquo;t go wrong with the teenager in the house if you gave him or her this little suitcase containing a tone arm and turntable just big enough to carry all over and play those new 45-rpm records by Patti Page. Warning, parents: you might be opening the door of your house to Elvis.
				Toy metal soldiers: Little boys could become generals battling commies with these nicely painted troops that retailed for about 15 cents apiece. The idea was to collect dozens more than your buddy had, thus enabling you to sneer at him every time you saw his paltry 75 or so.
				Princess phone: Appearing in 1959, this sleek and softly colored telephone with a nightlight decorated many a teen milady&rsquo;s boudoir. Of course, you had to arrange with Bell to rent it, since the era of buying your phone was still up there with Mars probes.
				Well, in time my tech-deprived windup train was replaced by a beautiful Lionel electric. Of course, the Lionel coal car could drop its load of fake anthracite in some inconvenient places, necessitating tedious cleanup, but &#8211; hey &#8211; the spirit was there.

Remember When: Typewriters, doilies, metal soldiers were on gift list