Terms Which Have Disappeared

[BlueTrain]

Well, that's twenty years and that still sounds like a long time to me. When I was in the army, three years was just a few days short of forever.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Locally owned" is still quite popular in the coastal towns associated with cruise-line tourism, and I'll tell you why. Both Royal Caribbean and Princess Cruises (and probably every other cruise line) are very good about handing out pamphlets when you disembark which let you know which businesses they "recommend" you visit while you're off of the ship. What they don't tell you is that they recommend those businesses because they get a percentage of the tourism profits. So when you see a store or restaurant with a sign that says "Locally owned" (or something to that effect) it means they're not associated with any cruise lines and that they keep whatever profits they make, which is far better for their local economy.

The older I get, the more I believe that honesty is not only morally right, but makes good practical business and personal sense.

For the cruise line, if it put out a list of "local business partners that we (the cruise line) promote [and clearly disclosed there was a revenue / profit share] because they are 'fairly priced,' 'locally owned,' 'represent the traditions of the island,' 'give a discount to cruise ship customers' etc." then there'd be no conflict of interest, no moment of cynical realization for their customers and no posts such as yours.

Instead, by obfuscating it, when it eventually comes out, the cruise ship looks deceitful and money grubbing.

For years, I ran money management businesses and I would start each salesperson or client meeting with, "let me tell you all the faults / problems / things that can go wrong with this product / strategy / investment." After doing that, I'd explain its possible benefits and close by reminding them of the problems / things that could go wrong.

I ran successful businesses that way for decades, had clients and salespeople who followed me from firm to firm and - and this was the most rewarding - got calls from clients or salespeople when something did go wrong who said - thank you, you told me this could happen and I was prepared - didn't love it - but wasn't surprised and, because of your warning, had only invested an amount that was appropriate to the risk.

I felt morally great about being honest, but again, it proved to be good business.

 

[MisterCairo]

More phrases I use because my parents used them:

Once in a blue moon and A month of Sundays.

Rarely and a long time respectively.

 

[BlueTrain]

I certainly wasn't thinking about cruise lines when I mentioned "locally owned." But the fact was, in my hometown in the 1950s, there were already chain stores in town. There was an A&P, a G.C. Murphy, a Kroger and a Leggett's Department Store. There were several businesses that were franchises, including all the drug stores and a Western Auto store. I guess all the gas stations were franchises, too. So the reality was that "locally owned" wasn't actually any sort of driving force in the local business world, in a manner of speaking. Other factors made a much bigger difference. After all, Wal-Mart started out as a downtown main street sort of business. And everything people say about Wal-Mart, people were saying about Sears over a hundred years ago. That's not to say that Sears and Wal-Mart can be compared.

Even now, there are lots of businesses that are still locally owned which you probably call on now and then. Plumbers, electricians, contractors and so on. I don't think too many of them are national "brands." Yet you'd be surprised at the business that have been bought out by big businesses. Funeral homes, for instance, and in some places, hospitals and medical practices. I live in a county of over a million people and there's only one hospital system. They operate several hospitals and also so-called family practices (doctor's offices, in other words). Although it is a non-profit, it's still basically a monopoly.

If I was you, Andy, I wouldn't get sick!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Chain businesses in the Era ran on various models -- some were company-owned but managed locally, like A&P, Woolworths, and such. Of the dime store chains, only Ben Franklin was a true franchise -- a store locally owned but taking advantage of the buying power and advertising capabilities of a national chain. The Rexall drug store chain was a combination of both -- most Rexall stores were independently owned and operated, but Rexall also owned the Liggett's chain directly, and used it as a flagship for the Rexall brand.

Gas stations could be either -- there were company-owned stations managed by a local employee, and independently-owned dealers, which had a contract with the national company to sell its products and display its sign, but were not under full control of that company. The gasoline business being the cutthroat thing that it was, it was not uncommon for a company-owned station to directly compete with a dealer-owned station as a way of keeping the dealer in line.

Western Auto was entirely a franchise operation -- it was a cooperative arrangement of individually-owned hardware and auto-supply stores which grouped under the WA banner to purchase stock and mount joint advertising campaigns, but the head WA office otherwise had no control over what the local stores did, the merchandise they chose to carry, or otherwise how they did business.

Sears had locally-owned catalog outlet stores during the Era, but Wal-Mart, as far as I've been able to determine, was always a company-owned chain run directly from Arkansas. There are no independently-owned Wal Mart stores.

 

[BlueTrain]

Well, here are some more things that have disappeared, sort of.

Main Street: The term is still used but places don't have main streets anymore like they used to. "Main Street" used to be the primary shopping district in towns large and small. The businesses moved out to the shopping center and the mall. What business remained on the old main street became trendy restaurants and little shops selling high end merchandise. Of course that hasn't happened everywhere but in places affluent enough to support them, it has. The parking on Main Street is still awful.

And there were "corner stores" before there were 7-Elevens and gas stations like Wawa. Lum and Abner had the "Jot'em down store and my father actually used that term. There were also "general stores" out in the country that sold pretty much anything the local folks would buy and could afford. They're all gone now, except perhaps for the Vermont General Store.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Our Main Street was gutted by the arrival of Wal Mart in the early '90s, and it's become just as you describe -- an avenue of gentrified restaurants, art galleries, and tourist shops. We do still have an independent new/used bookstore, and one last genuine greasy spoon which stands out like a blob of Crisco in a sea of extra-virgin oilive oil.

General stores, though, are very much still a thing in Maine. Most all the rural towns have them and some of them are pretty impressive operations:

Long ago, I did radio commericals for Hussey's. In a thick Maine accent I'd say "If you can't find it at Hussey's -- you don't need it!" And that was, and still is, quite literally true.

 

[BlueTrain]

"A blob of Crisco..." A priceless gem of the English language.

I'm from West Virginia. Wal-Mart cannot be blamed for the decline of many of the small towns that I'm familiar with. Likewise, Hillary Clinton cannot be blamed for the so-called war on coal. There were at one time bustling villages that somehow managed to support more than one bank during the heyday of the coal boom which largely ended probably in the 1970s, perhaps later. One small town, Matoaka (named after Pocahontas) was described by my father as being so busy on a Saturday night, you couldn't even walk down the street. It's not like that now. There were little coal camps around every curve in the road that have likewise disappeared, rather like the lumber industry in Maine. In 70 or 80 years they managed to dig most of the coal out of the ground. So far, there are no trendy restaurants or high end shops to take up the slack.

I forgot to mention something else that has disappeared: one-room schools. They were still being built in the 1950s in some places, believe it or not.

The one business that outlasts all the others in towns that are sick and dying is the liquor store.

 

[LizzieMaine]

My mother attended a one-room school in the mid-40s, and her memory of it is primarily one of how utterly cold it was. There was a stove for heating and it could be red hot, but the opposite side of the room was like a refrigerator.

I had one up on her. I attended subprimary and first grade in a *two* room school.

 

[ND1SU]

The first time I felt old, I was 40, and talking to a young man of 19. In our conversation, I used the phrase "rotary-dial telephone", to which he responded, "What's that?" I think I had a few hairs instantly turn gray....

Then there was the time I was talking to a young woman (20 years difference between us), during which I used the phrase "mutually assured destruction". I got a big blank look, and the response, "What's that?". I took a few minutes to give an impromptu lesson in Cold War geopolitics.

 

[BlueTrain]

When I was little, "four-eyes" was not exactly a complimentary term, to put it mildly. That form of insult seems to have disappeared since so many more people now wear specs. One of my boyhood friends, though, wore very thick glasses and so did his father, who was a linesman for the power company. They both looked rather rough and they weren't the type you would mess with, glasses or not. "You can't hit a guy with glasses." That was an expression that wasn't true, you know.

And speaking of telephones, was anyone here ever on a "party line?" It was even in the first line of the dialogue on the old Lum and Abner radio show. The phone rings twice (or whatever) and Abner (possibly) said, "Why, Lum, I believe that's our ring!" I also recall coming home from school one day, probably in 1962 or 1963 and my step-mother (my mother died in 1959) asked me if I noticed anything new in the living room. It turned out that the phone had been fitted with one of those new-fangled spiral cords instead of the plain, straight one it used to have. I never noticed it.

When you go to vote, you used to be able to vote a "straight ticket." I don't think that's possible anymore, not where I live. Party line made me think of that.

The first car a kid might get was invariably a jalopy. When did you last hear that term? I hope I spelled it correctly.

 

[LizzieMaine]

My neighborhood growing up was all party lines, and my mother had been one of the operators. She was up on all the town gossip.

If you wear a monocle, do kids in the street call you "three eyes?"

 

[BlueTrain]

I thought you'd enjoy that one. But if you wear a monocle, people call you mein Kapitän, accompanied by a clicking of the heels.

 

[MisterCairo]

I live in a county of over a million people and there's only one hospital system.

I live in a province of 14 million people, and there's only one hospital system!

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Speaking of main streets in my little town if you were a Mom & Pop business that existed 20 years ago, you still exist. The only exception is if the owner want to retire like a lawn & garden repair shop did a couple of years ago. If you started your business less than 20 years ago & you lasted more than 5 years, it is nothing short of a miracle!

 

[kaiser]

The older I get, the more I believe that honesty is not only morally right, but makes good practical business and personal sense.

For the cruise line, if it put out a list of "local business partners that we (the cruise line) promote [and clearly disclosed there was a revenue / profit share] because they are 'fairly priced,' 'locally owned,' 'represent the traditions of the island,' 'give a discount to cruise ship customers' etc." then there'd be no conflict of interest, no moment of cynical realization for their customers and no posts such as yours.

Instead, by obfuscating it, when it eventually comes out, the cruise ship looks deceitful and money grubbing.

For years, I ran money management businesses and I would start each salesperson or client meeting with, "let me tell you all the faults / problems / things that can go wrong with this product / strategy / investment." After doing that, I'd explain its possible benefits and close by reminding them of the problems / things that could go wrong.

I ran successful businesses that way for decades, had clients and salespeople who followed me from firm to firm and - and this was the most rewarding - got calls from clients or salespeople when something did go wrong who said - thank you, you told me this could happen and I was prepared - didn't love it - but wasn't surprised and, because of your warning, had only invested an amount that was appropriate to the risk.

I felt morally great about being honest, but again, it proved to be good business.

I work in technical sales and take a very similar approach to selling my products as well. I as well always point out the limits, and weaknesses of our products. Never took the " It is the best thing since sliced bread" approach.

 

[ND1SU]

And speaking of telephones, was anyone here ever on a "party line?"

I am just old enough to remember being on a party line, in a very rural area.

When you go to vote, you used to be able to vote a "straight ticket." I don't think that's possible anymore, not where I live.

You can still vote straight ticket in Indiana.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

It's the only way you can vote in the Indiana primary. It is optional in election voting.
HD

 

[Stearmen]

I think they have that out of order! Should be, Cold Beer, Shotguns and Wedding Gowns.

 

[MisterCairo]

^^^

I've been to a shotgun wedding.

Note - not a good idea to say to your nephew (with your sister there) "hey, that's the church your parents got married in. You were there..."