Are You a "Serious" Collector? The Categorization of Fedora Loungers.

[Amy Jeanne]

I LOVE small-town history! I mostly enjoy the Philly/South Jersey/Delaware small-town history because that is where I'm from and I identify with it, but I love OTHER small town histories, too. I enjoy the short home movies that pop up on youtube and historical website devoted to certain towns. Love them. I'm more interested in small-town history than the big picture, I think.

 

[sheeplady]

I much prefer to read about far off places to that...

That's the most amusing history I've ever read. lol Did you make liquor out of the potatoes?



One of my pet peeves is when people say there "is just no history" in parts of North America. Which seems to be code for "we don't consider history to start until white people got here." One of the things I can say for my rather poor country education is that our study of local history didn't start with the colonies, we actually studied the Iroquois Confederacy and even studied the time period before that was formed.

 

[Flicka]

That's the most amusing history I've ever read. lol Did you make liquor out of the potatoes?

Yup, traditional Swedish vodka ('brännvin') is made from potatoes. When laws were first passed regulating home-distilling (in the 18th century), the farmers objected and said that if they weren't allowed to make vodka, then what would the pigs eat? They would feed them the left-overs from the vodka making, you see, and if they couldn't make vodka, the pigs would have nothing to eat. Because, clearly, pigs can't eat fresh potatoes (unlike Swedes).

 

[Marcus]

I'm a combination of these two:

Period-Specific Fashion Connoisseurs: Period-specific fashion collectors who possess or strive to possess above average knowledge and understanding of vintage fashions.

Period-Specific Reenactors: Those who have an interest in period-specific fashion solely for use at re-enactments

As much as I'd love to lean more towards an immersion lifestyle...it's just not in the cards right now. A goal of mine is someday re-decorate my home in a more 30's-40's look, but until my VERY active kids are older...I don't even want to attempt it. Between being active with our son's football team, coaching his Rugby team and going to our daughter's riding lessons/shows...vintage attire after work and the weekends is not feasible. I do want to try and wear more at work...which has a very loose dress code, but not a full suit.That would just be out of place completely.

So with that, I say I'm a combo of those two categories, because we usually don't dress vintage until a specific event is going to happen. That can range from a "reenactment" type scenario, i.e. LA Air Raid...to just going out on the town with friends. Granted when we go out its because the event has some sort of vintage flavor to it. I come from a military reenactor background and I've always tried to get all the details right. This leads to the next category of fashion connoisseur. Due to my reenactor background, I do in fact strive to possess above average knowledge and understanding of vintage fashions. Whether it's Class A's, dungarees, Feldblusen or it's belted back, peaked lapels or union tagged suits...the attention to detial and learning the subject matter approach is the same. So by default, my reenactor approach to vintage clothing has made me a connoisseur. I even do the shopping for my wife and now I know what bias-cut, ruched, sweetheart and bolero refer to.

Am I an expert...no way, but I like specific looks and do what I can to learn what they are and how to attain them. I've learned alot in the last 3 years of seaching and finding vintage clothes. Its just like many things in life...time and money.

 

[scottyrocks]

It's all that talk and hot air that speaks volumes about a person.

Amen.

 

[scottyrocks]

Try eating it for four hundred years.

Actually, apparently it makes you come up with IKEA.

lol

 

[sheeplady]

Yup, traditional Swedish vodka ('brännvin') is made from potatoes. When laws were first passed regulating home-distilling (in the 18th century), the farmers objected and said that if they weren't allowed to make vodka, then what would the pigs eat? They would feed them the left-overs from the vodka making, you see, and if they couldn't make vodka, the pigs would have nothing to eat. Because, clearly, pigs can't eat fresh potatoes (unlike Swedes).

I literally snorted out loud. Did the laws pass? Did the pigs starve? Is it still illegal to make liquor in Sweden? (It is illegal in the US to run a still, you can make beer and wine at home, however, but not "hard" alcohol.)

So much for me not being interested in other people's history. Suddenly I care about the pigs and vodka of Sweden in the 1700s.

 

[scottyrocks]

Pigs. Turnips. Potatoes. Vodka.

Ikea.

'What is Sweden, Alex.'

 

[DeaconKC]

Flicka, thank you for a wonderful smile at the end of the day

 

[jamespowers]

Vintage Hoarder.

 

[Two Types]

Sweden: I know very little about the country, except that the Swedes have produced some amazing - and underated - music in the last couple of decades: International Noise Conspiracy, The Legends - being two that immediately spring to mind.

Maybe it was all the turnip and potatoes.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Sweden also produced some wonderful jazz and dance bands in the 1920s and '30s

Helge Lindbergs Orkester -- Minns Du? (1930)
(Do You Remember?)
vocal by Hilmer Borgeling

[video=youtube;Jhke1ushMuw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jhke1ushMuw[/video]

One of Sweden's contributions to popular song during that time was Tändsticksparaden (Match Parade) written by Karl Wehle. It was recorded by numerous bands throughout Europe, including an English version by Jack Hylton. This version, also from 1930, recorded in London for the Swedish market, is by the Charleston Serenaders, a pseudonym for various Swedish bands recording for the Columbia label.

[video=youtube;5k2kGggjQO8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k2kGggjQO8[/video]

Georg Enders och hans Orkester -- Maskerad (1930)

[video=youtube;3ci8yhnzy2s]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ci8yhnzy2s[/video]

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

Yes. Sorry for jumping on the Offtopic but I have this Cd Box Svensk Jazzhistoria- Hot Epoken. It's very cool. Maybe it sounds a little "earlier" than my usual taste because they always were a few years behind the development in the USA.

 

[The Lonely Navigator]

I would probably fit best in the 'Period Specific Full Timer'. My only 'modern gadgets' are my laptop and my cellphone. I choose not to have a land line only because it is cheaper for me to have a cell phone and I don't care to pay for an unlisted number. I do use a modern washing machine though, only because the apt building (old building made into apts.) has its own little laundromat.

I would really like to get things 'turned over' as far as reasonably possible to either vintage or vintage-like in my life.

 

[Edward]

I would probably fit best in the 'Period Specific Full Timer'. My only 'modern gadgets' are my laptop and my cellphone. I choose not to have a land line only because it is cheaper for me to have a cell phone and I don't care to pay for an unlisted number. I do use a modern washing machine though, only because the apt building (old building made into apts.) has its own little laundromat.

I would really like to get things 'turned over' as far as reasonably possible to either vintage or vintage-like in my life.

That's my ideal, too - the aesthetics of the past without needlessly cutting myself off from the conveniences of the present. I hear you on the landline front - I only still have one because it's still the cheapest way of having a decent web connection at home.

 

[scottyrocks]

When I was living by myself, my motto was 'the simpler, the better.' No land line because I barely need one phone, never mind two. I am fine with what is now considered to be an ancient picture-tubed 'box' TV. I don't need cable but I had basic service because network television is, for the most part, so bad. I had a simple, small car. The computer keeps me in touch with places like this, but it's an old one, two op-systems out of date, but it gets the job done. Basically, I don't need the latest and greatest anything.

I still try to keep things as simple as possible, but its tough with other people in the house who 'need' iphones, flat-screen TVs, macs (twice the price of comparable PCs), xboxes, and the like. There is talk here now of getting a kindle. Not my thing.

 

[Edward]

When I was living by myself, my motto was 'the simpler, the better.' No land line because I barely need one phone, never mind two. I am fine with what is now considered to be an ancient picture-tubed 'box' TV. I don't need cable but I had basic service because network television is, for the most part, so bad. I had a simple, small car. The computer keeps me in touch with places like this, but it's an old one, two op-systems out of date, but it gets the job done. Basically, I don't need the latest and greatest anything.

I still try to keep things as simple as possible, but its tough with other people in the house who 'need' iphones, flat-screen TVs, macs (twice the price of comparable PCs), xboxes, and the like. There is talk here now of getting a kindle. Not my thing.

I hear you (especially on the lack of Mac love ). Give the Kindle a go, though, if one of your people gets one. Mine will never replace a "real" book, but for the sheer quantity of stuff I can get for free or virtually nil, it's one of the greatest travel companions ever I had.

 

[scottyrocks]

Okay, my wife is kind of set on one, so I guess I'll be able to discover its virtues.

 

[Flicka]

I love how I got this thread side-tracked on Sweden.

I hear you (especially on the lack of Mac love ).

Don't need a car. Don't need a tv. Don't even need a freezer (didn't have one for several years). But I NEED my iPhone and my MacBook. PCs? Bah. Not part of the same market.

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

Yes, but it was neccassary to let some steam off the discussion.

Why so serious, collectors?