Do you "Adopt" discarded Golden Era Items?

[LizzieMaine]

The other day I dropped in at the local Goodwill, and was surprised to find an utterly gorgeous Royal Model 10 typewriter -- the classic workhorse typewriter of the '20s -- sitting on the shelf, complete with its original leatherette cover, for $10. I didn't *need* a new typewriter, by any means, but the more I looked at this typewriter the more I realized it was a machine that someone had cared for a great deal. There wasn't a speck of rust on it, the paint and the nickel still gleamed, the mechanism had clearly been kept clean and regularly serviced, and all it needed for regular use was a new ribbon. And the more I looked at it, the more I dreaded the liklihood that if I didn't buy it, some ironic "jewelry artist" would come along and take it to chop off the keys for novelty bracelets, while tossing the rest in the trash -- the ultimate fate of most old typewriters you see in thrift stores these days. So, I paid the ten-spot and brought it home.

Which made me think of all the other times I've done the same thing -- brought home some item I really didn't *need* just to keep it from being destroyed. My TV set, my bicycle, my washing machine, my living room chair and couch, many many books, and who knows how many other things all were either salvaged from the dump or given to me on the basis of "if you don't take it, it's going to the junkyard tomorrow." I simply can't walk past an item like that without feeling like it's my responsibility to give it a new home and a new lease on life.

Am I the only one with this stray-cat mentality when it comes to Golden Era items? I somehow think I'm not.

 

[Paisley]

Not me. I can't tolerate clutter.

ETA: I have a low threshold of "clutter." If I don't use it, it has to go.

 

[DerMann]

I would have done the same thing you did. It's an absolute shame for such a beautiful contraption to be scrapped for novelty jewelry.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

"ironic 'jewelry artist'" lol

I adopt many things, but really, I think, they have adopted me. I can't say no sometimes as if they have a hold on me!

 

[ShoreRoadLady]

Oh, yes. I can't say that I've bought too many Golden Era items thus far - I don't have the *room* for everything I want - but I definitely have a "stray cat" mentality when it comes to something that might be historical (however insignificant).

In fact, this is my worst fear:

And the more I looked at it, the more I dreaded the liklihood that if I didn't buy it, some ironic "jewelry artist" would come along and take it to chop off the keys for novelty bracelets, while tossing the rest in the trash -- the ultimate fate of most old typewriters you see in thrift stores these days. So, I paid the ten-spot and brought it home.

There's a staggering amount of this sort of thing going on - not just typewriters, but papers, photographs, patterns, garments, etc. It always makes me shudder when I see it. (The latest travesty was a magazine snippet talking about a woman who uses old pattern envelopes as decoupage for chairs, IIRC.) So yes, I do sometimes want to buy stuff, just so someone doesn't come along and rip it apart!

 

[Vintage Betty]

Nope. Just look at the Classifieds to prove my point. lol lol lol

And yes, I already started to stash stuff for Christmas give-aways to you all. Pretty pathetic. :eusa_doh:

Vintage Betty

 

[Sefton]

Yes, I've got a 1955 Motorola TV sitting in my basement right now. It works although I don't watch TV. Still, it was only $10 and I may find a use for it someday or even a new owner. As long as they promise that they aren't going to use it for target practice or "performance art"....

 

[Brian Sheridan]

I would if I had that kind of luck - all I ever see when I stop by Goodwil or Salvation Army is junk from the 1980's.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yes, I've got a 1955 Motorola TV sitting in my basement right now. It works although I don't watch TV. Still, it was only $10 and I may find a use for it someday or even a new owner. As long as they promise that they aren't going to use it for target practice or "performance art"....

That makes me think of the time someone emailed me to ask if I knew where they could get lots of "old records" cheap -- it turns out they were in some kind of performance-art troupe and some bit they did involved smashing large stacks of 78rpm records onstage. I forget the specifics, but I do remember telling them that it would be a very very chilly day in the nether regions when I gave them the slightest bit of help. If that's art, then I'm Karen Finley.

 

[John in Covina]

It has to do with the idea that some items were meant to be used. Used with some concept of loyalty to the ability of that item to do what it was supposed to do well, plus if it looked good doing it all the better. Well some things are misused, or abused it may irritate people like "us" and the concept of saving an item, an inanimate object from a bad fate is understood by some of us too. Seeing true value where others cannot.

I get that way about Esterbrook Fountain Pens, I will pay a bit too much for one that can be readily restored. If I have one just like it already, it will become a gift and hopefully the rescue takes with the new owner.

There was I think an Ikea commercial about a desk lamp that was tossed out and was on the trash in bad weather. That is when the Ikea guy tells us how stupid we are to feel bad for the lamp. It was true but i don't like my feelings being manipulated by anyone like that.

 

[Luddite]

LizzieMaine ''I simply can't walk past an item like that without feeling like it's my responsibility to give it a new home and a new lease on life.''<<< This is my problem, in a nutshell!

I have a bit of a reputation when it comes to 'rescuing' vintage stuff - it's a family joke that I always come back from the local dump with more than I took. I can't stand to see perfectly functional, and generally beautifully designed and made items being rendered trash by a mere whim of fashion; a need to keep up with what the media says is best. Unfortunately, my wife is very much the same, so our attic, and several garages, are stuffed with random vintage artefacts. And I dare not venture to an auction! All of our children have been wheeled around in a vintage pram, which I bought from an auction to save it from the crusher - long before I met my wife, let alone before we became parents!

 

[BellyTank]

I call it "Rescue".

I love clutter.


B
T

 

[Flivver]

I'm afraid i'm also an adopter...my house offers positive proof!

I think most of my friends see me as the president of the local "Vintage Item Rescue League". They tend to save interesting stuff for me that they would otherwise discard. But, I only take items that fall within my areas of interest, to try to keep it all to a "dull roar". However, I have many areas of interest!

This has netted me quite a few good items over the years including some pretty nice vintage radios and phonographs as well as many stacks of great old magazines.

When I was a teenager, and just starting to collect radios, I would go through the neighborhood offering to mow a lawn or wash a car in return for "an old radio that you might be planning to throw out". Since this was in the 1960s, I was able to acquire many desirable 1920s radios using this approach.

 

[Lulu-in-Ny]

If that's art, then I'm Karen Finley.

lol lol lol
Nicely put.
I think I'm going to have to find a way to work that line into a conversation...

 

[Fletch]

What! Don't you do The Yam?

lol lol lol

Now in all seriousness - I, too, rescue old stuff. 18 years living in an apt bldg full of senior citizens helps. Here's some of the swag I've liberated from our Recycle Room:

-classic rickrack/cardboard suitcase (not even moldy!)
-Webcor Holiday Fonograf (suitcase model, ca. 1950)
-large group photo of a State Militia unit at Camp Smith, NY, ca. 1942
-10" acetate aircheck of Frank Sinatra and...uh...some actress whose name escapes me doing a sendup of Private Lives on Your Hit Parade in 1943
-Jane's Fighting Ships, 1978 edition
-and the best one-day haul EVER: a Selmer model 22 alto sax, Carl Fischer tenor sax by Buescher, and a run-of-the-mill German violin with bow, all in their original filthy dirty cases!

 

[BegintheBeguine]

LizzieMaine, that's a touching story. And a great one-liner about art; you have the most stealable quotes.
I have a high threshold for clutter. Up the the ceiling in some rooms. The 10 beautiful pairs of shoes not in my size? Into the Shoe Museum. I wondered, who owned these shoes? I answered, some girl like me, working a couple jobs, going out many nights, and with excellent taste!
Craft projects, I'll adopt them and finish them or if they're finished I'll display them.
Books, magazines, dishes, barware, furniture: someone has kept them all these years. Their heirs can't stand the sight of them but I can. Gimme!
I'm now on the lookout for clothing hangers with names of old stores.

 

[Hamilton_Honey]

Guilty as charged...

I'm definitely in the rescue camp as well.

My latest is a lovely side chair with a needlepoint seat that was in a pile (yes a pile) of furniture at a local "thrift" store for $15 no repairs needed even! It the kind of thing one might use with the sewing machine cabinet. I'll try to get some before and after pictures. It just needs a light surface refinishing. It even has a lyre in the back, so perhaps it was meant for a music room at some point.

Lizzie, if you haven't become irrevocably entangled with the typewriter, would you consider sending it to a loving home? (For an appropriate adoption fee of course). I've been keeping my eyes open for one, but no luck over here yet..

 

[Miss 1929]

My latest is a lovely side chair with a needlepoint seat that was in a pile (yes a pile) of furniture at a local "thrift" store for $15 no repairs needed even! It the kind of thing one might use with the sewing machine cabinet. I'll try to get some before and after pictures. It just needs a light surface refinishing. It even has a lyre in the back, so perhaps it was meant for a music room at some point.

Sounds just like my dining room chairs! Post a pic...

 

[DavidVillaJr]

a Selmer model 22 alto sax, Carl Fischer tenor sax by Buescher

:rage: :rage: :rage:

Man, I've been waiting YEARS for an opportunity like that!!!

Closest I've ever come was the stack of LP's I got for a buck at a garage sale. BIG stack, mebbe a foot or foot and a half tall, almost ALL in PRISTINE condition - save the outer sleeves, lots of wear on them....

dv

ps. Sefton, who is that in your avatar? I should know him, but I can't get my brain to cough up a name...

 

[Foofoogal]

LizzieMaine ''I simply can't walk past an item like that without feeling like it's my responsibility to give it a new home and a new lease on life.''<<< This is my problem, in a nutshell!

I am a dealer by default only as in I had to go into business. I have an internal struggle between not being a hoarder lady like on tv but as a child being no.9 of 11 depression era parents I cannot throw almost anything away.
The cleaning up of an item and finding it far outweighs the pleasure of selling it.
I like to think of myself as a treasure hunter/mrs.haney with elegant decorator/artist Lucy/June Cleaver mix thrown all together. I adore beauty and find it in almost everything vintage.
This is my latest obsession and it will not fit me even close but I am having dreams about this dress.
http://www.etsy.com:80/view_listing.php?ref=sr_gallery_18&listing_id=11638045
It is beyond devine. I yearn to see this type of workmanship in the local stores. Yesterday I went to the shopping mall. The trash clothes looked either hoochie mama or old lady polyester looking or maternity. What is up with that?
Like you Lizzie I do believe it it the quality we see in stuff.