An experience

[happyfilmluvguy]

Whenever the lounge is in a group, in a place, at a certain time, you sometimes get the feeling you're in the past, or at least around some nicely dressed folks. But has there ever been a time where you were not around any member of the lounge, and still had this feeling of time travel? There have been times when I am sitting somewhere on my own, and feel as if I were in a movie or just taking another walk in the 40's.

I once walked past a newstand in Hollywood, and tried taking a peak at the movie times, and the owner said no peeping and said "it's only 50 cents". I said, "I'd get it if I had 50 cents", and walked away. This could easily be an everyday event or even a scene from a movie during that time, or taking place. This feeling comes anytime, and anywhere.

Whenever I go to Hollywood, I usually eat a place called "Molly's Charbroiled Burgers", a food stand off of Hollywood Blvd, right down Vine St. This place has been around since 1926. Sitting at the counter in a high chair asking for a pastromi sandwich, and seeing others sit beside me, even though they may not be dressed ready to take a trip through time, still give this unearthly feel of being in a situation or place, sixty, seventy, or even eighty years ago, without the help of others dressed alike, or a place that has a classic atmosphere.

I remember a lounger, someone with a vintage car, who wrote they had just gotten a burger, were sitting in their classic car, Glenn Miller's Moonlight Serenade playing over the radio, and they almost felt as if they had just jumped back.

Has this feeling or even thought crossed your mind? Where you were in a place that was NOT filled with vintage alike, or even vintage atmosphere, and felt as if you were sitting there that same instant in another time?

 

[Sefton]

I take the train to work everyday from a station near my apartment and the station is over 100 years old and virtually unchanged. The only modern bits are the electric ticket vending machines. When I'm waiting for my train and listening to the warning bells for oncoming trains I get a feeling of the past then. This feeling usually only lasts until someone's cell phone rings though...

 

[Gray Ghost]

Sometimes, I take the train to Florida. I usually get a room on the train and either take my meals in the room or go to the dining car. I get that feel of being transported back in time. I love to hear the conductor yell "All Aboard".

Gray Ghost

 

[John in Covina]

I need the Time Bandits map!

There are places that have a feeling of being out of time, and with the right push or the right alignment of the planets, you could just step back in time.

Here in Los Angeles, Union Station is one place that feels like it's on the cusp of the step back.

Being inside the Neathercutt Museum and San Sylmar over in Sylmar is magic too.

Those places that have held on and did their best not to change are to be celebrated and when posible, protected but still used and enjoyed.

I haven't been to "The Old House at Home" McSorleys Ale house in NYC since 1980 or 81, so I can't say for today, but back then it was like a portal to another time.

"I am the eyes of Nostradamus, all your ways are known to me."

 

[SaraBell]

I once had a Marilyn Monroe moment involving my dress and a vent...I doubt I looked quite so glamorous though...:eusa_doh:

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

I'm more referring to having no vintage or classic help to get this feeling. Though I guess a classic atmosphere could count. Has anyone ever been in a certain place that's not vintage oriented and has gotten this strong feeling? Walking down a street in a large city is one of the places that you can get that feeling. Even if you enjoy walking through the old town of a city, like parts of Downtown LA and Chicago, or New York, San Fransisco, Atlantic City, Las Vegas, when you are not admiring the architecture, or the atmosphere, it's just another day in the life and suddenly, you are struck with this feeling that you could as well be walking down Second Ave in 1943. I guess it could be hard to remember this, because it's only for a split second. Maybe I'm the only one. When I walk around parts of my neighborhood, I could imagine having been doing the same thing another time. There were plenty of times that I was having this occurrence and a classic car drove by, and I could just wave at the driver like they were my friend. It's interesting anyways.

 

[Lady Day]

I had this feeling today.

I was on the bus after soing some light shopping, and there, in an alley as we passed by, was a street fair. It was a bout a block long, booths, kids food, people laughing and cheering. Had a real old time feel. I just smiled to myself and said, "Man you gotta love this city."

LD

 

[LizzieMaine]

I get this on my street all the time, especially during the summer. Hardly anybody in the neighborhood has air conditioning, so on hot afternoons everyone's out on their porches or their doorsteps, kids are playing in the street, somebody's got a radio going with the ball game -- and you have no sense of it being the 21st Century.

 

[katiemakeup]

Living in your head... yes this happens to me a lot. Maybe because we wish it so much or think about it often that we propel ourselves there. Often fleeting, for just a moment~ always looking to recapture that brief experience. Sometimes you think you are a character in a novel or a figure from a movie still and even though it's oddly out of place for the others around you, you couldn't help but to feel right at home.

 

[Jack Scorpion]

I was on a bus once in LA and this elderly black man boarded. He was decked head to toe vintage dress, from spectators to pants belted above his belly (he was a large man), to suspenders and a large clasp-type suitcase. He came aboard wiping his forehead with a handkerchief. I helped him off the bus by taking his suitcase for him. Defininitely a blast from the past, even if the blast was just him.

I was taking a Southwest flight out of Nashville once. Before we took off, the pilot came out to coach and played a full song on a harmonica while dancing around with the stewardesses. Well, I don't know if that felt like timetraveling, but it definitely felt weird.

Going to Chef Edwards BBQ in Oakland used to feel vintage, because it only had counter seating. Any place with only counter seating and the cook/server right on the other side still does it for me. I wish there was a place by me right now just like that.

Eating a steak dinner at windowless Taylor's Steakhouse in LA Koreatown is still very oldtimeylike. Having a drink at LA Koreatown's HMS Bounty Bar and Restaurant is very oldtime Hollywood.

I've always wanted to go to a Horse race. I imagine them quite keen on time traveling themselves.

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

I was taking a Southwest flight out of Nashville once. Before we took off, the pilot came out to coach and played a full song on a harmonica while dancing around with the stewardesses. Well, I don't know if that felt like timetraveling, but it definitely felt weird.

This sort of happened to me once on an aircraft too. It was either they were telling jokes, or the captain or stuart started playing an instrument, and then everyone (or almost), started singing in unison with the music.

This is that kind of situation you will never experience again, and it was soo funny and fun at the same time! Kind of like an airborn version of the scene from "It Happened One Night". If only they had started taking requests, I'd probably request "The Man on the Flying Trapeze".

 

[Benny Holiday]

Timeless summer

I often get such a feeling in summer, when the sun is hot, and the day's a real scorcher, and the cicadas are singing their distinctive song in the trees. It is somehow reminiscent of the timeless Australian bush, the heat and the sounds of summer together, the scent of hot eucalyptus leaves . . . It feels like the summers long before, the summers of my parents' generation in the 40's and '50s, the summers of my childhood in the late 70's and early 80's riding my bike and swimming in every pool in the neighbourhood with my friends all mixed together.

It can take me back to my childhood or the awful memory of the hot summer when my Dad passed away all in the same instant. It can take me back to family roasts on hot Christmas Days twenty-five years ago or make me feel like it's only a year or two ago. Some hot summer days seem to be without time. Seeing old family photos from the Golden Era, my Grandfather in his undershirt and wide-legged trousers, my young parents and aunts and uncles dressed in their summer clothes, comes to my mind on some hot days and makes me feel like I'm part of those pictures too.

 

[John in Covina]

Old stuff!

Eating a steak dinner at windowless Taylor's Steakhouse in LA Koreatown is still very oldtimeylike. Having a drink at LA Koreatown's HMS Bounty Bar and Restaurant is very oldtime Hollywood.

I've always wanted to go to a Horse race. I imagine them quite keen on time traveling themselves.

****
Musso & Franks was like that the last time I was there and standing out front of the Frolic Room is like that too.

Taylors, YES! Culottes of Beef (Baseball Steak) Rare with a char!

Dan Tana's on Santa Monica Blvd is very old timey.

If the Horse Races interest you, then you'll like Santa Anita! I do so hope the details come together for that event in Jan 2007!

I like the feel of going to a Buca Di Beppo's for the family atmosphere, and with that it has a timelessness to it.