Another slice of Americana will soon slide into history with the demise of the beloved comic strip ‘Little Orphan Annie.’

Why is the strip being pulled? Steve Tippie, vice-president, licensing  new markets development for Tribune Media Services, said that the number of newspapers carrying Annie has diminished over the years.

The decision was reported yesterday in the Wall Street Journal.

“It reached a point where the costs of paying an artist and a writer a decent salary for high quality work plus the production costs of preparing the strip for distribution outweighed the revenue from syndication,” said Tippie.

The comic strip first appeared in 1924, and Sandy, Annie’s dog, made his first appearance in 1925. The cute redheaded character went on to inspire a radio program, a Broadway musical, several movies–and at least one popular rap anthem. Jay-Z’s 1998 song “Hard Knock Life.’

How sad – Dagwood and Snuffy Smith may not be far behind as newspapers struggle to stay afloat.  Here are a few more pieces of our history that are fading away without so much as a nod:

Barns that urged you to “See  Rock City” ”

50-cent pieces (do they still make them?)
individually wrapped sugar cubes

merthiolate/iodine – we used to add it to baby oil for a homemade suntan lotion sure to breed cancer!
Cartoons, newsreels and serials along with a movie
Glowing vacuum tubes in radios & TVs
Glass soda bottles with tops you had to pry off (still available on Cokes from Mexico, which also still have sugar instead of corn syrup)
Church keys and the beer & soda cans that needed them – I still have one I use to pry off paint can tops
White sidewall tires
Hood ornaments
Rubber boots that went over your shoes and you had to buckle those little buckles
Cheap-plastic transistor radios
Hard black-plastic telephones with rotary dials that took an effort to push around with your finger
Flashbulbs, especially the golf-ball sized ones
Fiesta dinnerware, the red ones of which were radioactive
Brown-glass bleach bottles
Green stamps (or plaid stamps, depending on where you shopped)
Ice picks
Cigarette vending machines. Chesterfields sold in the machine for 23 cents and when you put in a quarter, the package came out with the 2 cents change bound in it.

Just thought of a few more:

The Marlboro Man
Home delivered – Milk, eggs, laundry
The sprinkle tops people used to put old Coke bottles to make them into water shakers for ironing. (Does anyone still iron?)
Chiclets

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And sadly, Cabooses on trains with the guy who always waved at you!