If you are in an application, use the command/ or menu item to show fonts. It should bring up a window of your fonts. In the left hand column there is a "recently used" font item.
Check out this page so you see what I mean--->link

Perhaps this will help as a work around to what you are used to from the OS 9 environment.

In Appleworks you can create styles of the text formattings which you use most and then they are available in the styles section of the Format menu. You can specify font, size, style etc.. I admit that the Appleworks Help can be confusing to use but type in styles and it has sections to explain how to create styles and use them. One easy way is to open documents with formatting that you frequently use. There is a way to create new styles based on the text highlighted in a document. Give your styles names that are easy for you to understand and your most commonly used formats are a dropdown menu away.

You can do something similar in Photoshop. You can create Tool Presets in Photoshop that are available from a dropdown menu in the tool pallet when you activate the text tool. Again, the Photoshop Help files can explain how to create and use the presets.

I know it can be frustrating to have learn a new way of working and it also takes time to stop and setup things up, but you may discover that you become an expert user with the new process and look back and wonder how you ever got along without this before!

Ciao!