Obsolete Occupations

[Warbaby]

NPR looks at some occupations that no longer exist:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124251060

 

[Lone_Ranger]

My grandfather talked of doing two of them. When he was a boy, he delivered ice. And, he was a typesetter, eventually working at the G.P.O. in Washington, DC.

We actually still get our milk delivered. The dairy is about 10 miles from here, and if you go to the supermarket, the milk comes from the same dairy.

 

[Fletch]

My dad was a printer's devil as a kid. He melted down type slugs and made pigs for the Linotypes. He had a sack of sprouted potatoes near the metal pot - dip one in and it took the scummy ashy stuff off the top of the molten metal, then you could pour a pig.

 

[David V]

My dad's first job after the Army was as a typewriter repairman.

 

[Chainsaw]

My Grandmother's probably one of the last of her skill set in north America.
She learned her trade in England after the war. I can't tell you how many names of hockey players, cops, even astronauts had their names embroidered by her. Now they have slow computers, and fast employees to screw up whatever perfection the devil has made.

I got a plethora of other cards to play here, but I ain't want to monopolize the the threads. The maidens get vexed, or something.

 

[Atomic Age]

My dad was a teletype repairman in the Air Force in the early 1950s.

My mom worked for the Telephone company. She worked on the the elimination of the word prefix telephone exchange IE "Klondike" (KL)5-5555 in the early 50s in the Phoenix area. She said everything was done by hand on 3 x 5 file cards. The women would write all the info on the card, issue it to a technician, and when the work was done, they would bring the card back and it would be filed as completed. They had women doing that because they thought they had better hand writing than the men. They were probably right.

In Phoenix the first two numbers of my mom and dad's phone was 27, so their exchange was Brentwood (BR).

Here is another profession that is on the way out, watch repair. I heard the other day that the sales of wrist watches have fallen off almost 60% from 2003. Why wear a watch today when everyone has a cell phone with the time on it.

Doug

 

[4spurs]

lONGSHOREMAN

When was the last time you saw a longshoreman with a hook? I used to see the everyday as a kid, no more.

 

[Atinkerer]

The Iceman Cometh, we ran.

When I was a little kid, they still had to deliver ice to all the grocery stores, and fish stores, etc.

I can remember one time a friend of mine talked me into steeling some ice off the back of an ice truck. It wasn't very hot out or anything, so I asked him why we were doing it? He told me it was "so we could suck on the ice", of course. Ok.

Well, when the iceman was busy, we ran over and stole some chunks of ice off the sawdust covered floor in the back of the truck. It wasn't quite the satisfying treat I was hoping it would be. But for me it has become a treasured memory of another world and time.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Ship's Radio Officer
While not completely gone, this occupation has dwindled considerably with the advent of satellite communications.

Plasterer
This trade had gone the way of the Dodo when drywall replaced lath and plaster construction of interior walls

Theatre Usher
Though it's been more than ten years since I last saw a movie in the theatre, even then I don't seem to recall the presence of ushers.

TV/Radio Repairman
Another occupation which has been rendered obsolete by the disposable society where even your fancy plasma screen TV is designed to be replaced rather than repaired. Once upon a time almost every town had a Fix It shop where all manner of household appliances were repaired.

 

[Atomic Age]

TV/Radio Repairman
Another occupation which has been rendered obsolete by the disposable society where even your fancy plasma screen TV is designed to be replaced rather than repaired. Once upon a time almost every town had a Fix It shop where all manner of household appliances were repaired.

Interesting that you bring this up. My Grandfather was a Tinsmith, starting in the 20's clear through the 50's. I have his business ledger book, and in it he is doing things like repairing a hole in a metal bucket, or making new blades for a push lawn mower. People didn't just throw things away in those days.

Another one is Shoe Repair. There was a time when people would have a pair of shoes completely re-soled. Today its just thrown away.

Doug

 

[Viola]

I had a pair of shoes re-soled last year. By a turkey. I was immediately admonished that I don't I know to go get my shoes fixed where apparently all the old people in my area go.

I'm never going back to where I went but I will continue to live the dream of getting my boots resoled.

 

[Shangas]

I know of at least one cinema in town which still has flashlight-wielding ushers.

Obsolete occupations?

What about streetcar conductor?

Or a tram conductor or a trolley conductor or what-have-you.

Melbourne, where I live, is one of the few cities on earth which still has a fully-functional tram system, and yet throughout my entire life, I've never ever seen a permanent conductor on any tram. We occasionally have transport-inspectors who hop on and check tickets, but that's very very rare.

Punishment Master

Probably just as unique as it is obsolete, but for 30-40 years, my uncle was an English master at schools in Malaysia and Singapore. During his teaching-career, he also held the post of "Punishment Master".

As you can imagine...that meant that it was his duty to flog naughty children with a bamboo cane. Certainly an interesting job that my uncle had.

Hope people don't mind this one as well, it goes much further back than the 1920s and 30s...in fact it goes back another hundred years before that. But the occupation of link-boy is another interesting historical job that nobody has anymore.

If you've never heard of a link-boy, he was a young lad who wandered around dark streets at night carrying a flaming torch (the "link") and it was his job, for a small fee, to guide night travellers to their destinations, in an age before the widespread introduction of streetlamps.

For something a bit more recent, how about the telegram-boy? It was the job of this lad to deliver telegrams from telegraph-offices to houses and shops nearby when a message came in for someone in town.

Another classroom-related "occupation", but we also don't have ink-monitors anymore, an ink-monitor being a boy or a girl whose job it was to wander around the classroom filling up inkwells.

 

[Atomic Age]

What about streetcar conductor?

Or a tram conductor or a trolley conductor or what-have-you.

Where I live, Phoenix, Arizona, they have just put in what they call a "Light rail" which is basically a way of saying its a street car, though it probably travels a little faster than a old street car. They do have drivers.

Doug

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Knocker Up
Despite the salacious-sounding title, back in the days when few people had clocks or watches a Knocker Up was employed to knock on people's doors or windows as a wake up call in the morning. Sometimes the job devolved upon the local policeman walking his beat, but more often than not people would subscribe to the Knocker Up's services who would awaken the customers on his route.

Song Plugger
At one time the bread and butter of the music industry was sheet music rather than records and many music stores and department stores employed a song plugger who would play the music for customers on the piano. Joe Sanders of the Coon-Sanders Nighthawk Orchestra originally worked in a Kansas City music store as a song plugger which is where he met Carlton Coon who came in one day to buy accessories for his drum set.

 

[Fletch]

Punishment Master

Probably just as unique as it is obsolete, but for 30-40 years, my uncle was an English master at schools in Malaysia and Singapore. During his teaching-career, he also held the post of "Punishment Master".

As you can imagine...that meant that it was his duty to flog naughty children with a bamboo cane. Certainly an interesting job that my uncle had.

In the US some schools used to have a position called "dean of discipline" or some such, who did little or no teaching but was simply an enforcer. It went away, either because having an authority figure who was feared but not respected - not really part of the school community - did not work so well, or perhaps, began to stop working.

In the Cold War years it got a little out of hand, with good students sent home for things like wearing bangs or chewing gum between (not even in) classes.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

In the Cold War years it got a little out of hand, with good students sent home for things like wearing bangs or chewing gum between (not even in) classes.

Obviously subversive Reds then. lol

 

[anon`]

What, no sympathy for the buggy whip-makers?

I dunno about shoe repairmen... there are at least three competent places to have that done here in Portland that I know of, and this isn't even that big of a metro area.

Lectors are still very much in use as well, if not so much in the US. It's cigar factories that are lacking.

 

[JimWagner]

It's not a 30's occupation of course, but mainframe systems programmer is pretty much obsolete. I was one before we were called such and our mainframe will be going out the door about a year before I retire in 2012. Some occupations don't even last one career, let alone one lifetime.

 

[Sincerely-Dee]

I have to say that Milkmen, Theatre Ushers and Plasterers are still common enough occupations around where I live.

We also happen to have a television/radio repair shop within walking distance and our old tv ended up there around 3 times until we finally chucked it out.

I sent a pair of shoes to the cobblers to have the leather fixed, forgot about them for a few months, finally recovered them to then realise I was never going to wear them again.

I don't know about ink-monitors but we had a system in primary school whereby a few of the children would turn up earlier to sharpen all the pencils and checked the pens still worked and it was a highly-guarded privilege.

We also had an ice factory that closed down either last year or the year before. They delivered ice but as it was so close my mother preferred to get the ice herself to spare the delivery costs.

 

[Lincsong]

I don't see spritzer salesman. [huh]