Obsolete Occupations

[Dr Doran]

Linc, there is a spritzer WATER delivery service that delivers to SF. The SF Church of Sinatra gets the spritzer water delivered as does my friend Stookey.

How about Escalator Boy? My father did this before WW2. He had to stand at the bottom of escalators at a department store in case ladies fell off them.

The job is obsolete now perhaps because everyone is accustomed to escalators.

He got fired for wearing a "two tone suit" as he calls it (i.e. a suit but the trousers and jacket were mismatched).

 

[Shangas]

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

I don't mean a tram DRIVER. I mean a tram CONDUCTOR. You know, a man who issues, sells, collects and checks passengers' tickets? Helps passengers on and off the tram and stuff like that?

I've never seen one on a tram in years. In fact I don't think I've ever seen one.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

How about Escalator Boy? My father did this before WW2. He had to stand at the bottom of escalators at a department store in case ladies fell off them.

You just reminded me. Another job that disappeared was Elevator Operator.

 

[Warbaby]

And let us not forget Honeydippers.

 

[Shangas]

What the hell is a honeydipper? lol

I don't know if you would call this one obsolete, maybe, maybe not. Certainly the SERVICE that provided this job is still going on, but the job itself is almost dead. Here we go...

Beat cop

I have NEVER seen one. And I honestly wish that they were brought back. Apart from making the streets safer by providing a higher level of police presence, it would make the officers a part of the community and would keep them fit.

Plus, we might be able to hear police whistles again.

Here's another one which I don't think exists anymore, and whose duties have probably been taken over by others in the medical profession, but what about...

Hospital Orderlies?

And on the railroads, I think the occupation of brakeman is also obsolete.

Someone else mentioned the wireless operator, radio-officer or the "Marconi man" as he used to be called, being obsolete on ships. Somehow I don't see how that's true. But while we're on seafaring jobs, I think we can add to that list, the Lookout and the lighthouse keeper.

Apparently SOME places still have these guys, but what about that young fellow known as a soda-jerk?

 

[Selvaggio]

In Australian cities in the 50s it was still quite common for some areas to be un-sewered.

Hence, we had the "Dunny-man" - "dunny" being slang for a toilet (especially one separate from the main house - whose job it was to run the back lanes collecting the dunny cans and depositing their contents in a truck.

It is not a job there is any call for these days! One had to have little sense of smell, be strong and have very good footing to shoulder a full can negotiate a cobble-stoned laneway in the early hours of the morning.

 

[Tomasso]

The apartment building (1929) that my grandparents lived in (which my aunt lives in presently) still has an elevator operator and a switchboard operator (for the house phone). The building also has an automobile turntable in lieu of a driveway.

 

[Atomic Age]

I don't mean a tram DRIVER. I mean a tram CONDUCTOR. You know, a man who issues, sells, collects and checks passengers' tickets? Helps passengers on and off the tram and stuff like that?

I've never seen one on a tram in years. In fact I don't think I've ever seen one.

Oh yeah a machine at each stop sells the tickets.

 

[Atomic Age]

Beat cop

I have NEVER seen one. And I honestly wish that they were brought back. Apart from making the streets safer by providing a higher level of police presence, it would make the officers a part of the community and would keep them fit.

Plus, we might be able to hear police whistles again.



Apparently SOME places still have these guys, but what about that young fellow known as a soda-jerk?

Here in Phoenix we never had the traditional Beat Cop. The city is far to spread out to make that practical.

We have an old fashioned soda fountain here in town called MacAlpine's. They do all the classics phosphates, egg creams, shakes, malts and they make them the old fashioned way.

Doug

 

[Fletch]

He got fired for wearing a "two tone suit" as he calls it (i.e. a suit but the trousers and jacket were mismatched).

It didn't take much to get fired before WW2. Especially in retail.

 

[sixties.nut]

In Australian cities in the 50s it was still quite common for some areas to be un-sewered.

Hence, we had the "Dunny-man" - "dunny" being slang for a toilet (especially one separate from the main house - whose job it was to run the back lanes collecting the dunny cans and depositing their contents in a truck.

Now that must have been an awful crappy job!!!

It is not a job there is any call for these days! One had to have little sense of smell, be strong and have very good footing to shoulder a full can negotiate a cobble-stoned laneway in the early hours of the morning.

or least he be; slipped in, dipped in, or tripped in...... uhh were was I going with this?lol

This edit required me to add three characters, this is them.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Fireman (Railroad)
On the steam locomotives he kept the fires stoked and monitored the water level of the boiler.

And on the railroads, I think the occupation of brakeman is also obsolete.

The job of brakeman still exists. On some railroads they're now called assistant conductors.

. But while we're on seafaring jobs, I think we can add to that list, the Lookout and the lighthouse keeper.

Also add coal trimmer to the list. The coal trimmer was stationed in the coal bunkers and his job was to transfer the coal to wheelbarrows for distribution to the stokers.

 

[Warbaby]

What the hell is a honeydipper? lol

Honeydippers were the guys with scoop shovels and big buckets who came around once or twice a year to scoop the poop out of your outhouse and haul it away.

When I was a kid I lived off and on with my grandparents who lived in the country. Water came from a pump and the outhouse was at the end of a covered and trellised walkway off the back porch (no going out in the rain - quite civilized). I got to see the honeydippers in action a couple of times, and as a kid, found it all really fascinating. I did not, however, want to be one when I grew up.

 

[Dr Doran]

That's grody.

 

[miss_elise]

Honeydippers were the guys with scoop shovels and big buckets who came around once or twice a year to scoop the poop out of your outhouse and haul it away.

When I was a kid I lived off and on with my grandparents who lived in the country. Water came from a pump and the outhouse was at the end of a covered and trellised walkway off the back porch (no going out in the rain - quite civilized). I got to see the honeydippers in action a couple of times, and as a kid, found it all really fascinating. I did not, however, want to be one when I grew up.

there would still be guys that come around to empty your septic tank if you live somewhere not on the sewer lines. Probably with a big truck of some description

 

[tonyb]

Let's see ...

Within a mile of where I sit at present are two shoe repair shops and a clock and watch repair. (I stopped in there today, coincidentally, to ask if an old watch of mine is worth repairing. The shop is beyond cool, as you might expect.)

I know of a small-appliance repair place and am acquainted with a blacksmith and a custom furniture maker. There's no shortage of woodcutters around here, and finding someone to repair your antique wooden boat ain't much of a challenge. My brother, shortly before his sudden and unexpected demise, had entered into the band instrument repair trade. He was good at it, from all accounts. It was his plan to do that -- fix up old trumpets and clarinets and such -- well into his old age.

None of this is to dispute the underlying point I believe the original poster and others are making, though. Certain occupations that were once commonplace are now so unusual as to seem almost quaint. Their practitioners now serve niche markets, mostly. But there's now something like 6 or 7 billion people on the planet, so even a niche audience can still be sufficient to fuel demand and attract new generations of craftsmen. That clock and watch repair shop certainly appears to have a backlog of work, even in this down economy. And the people working there are hardly elderly.

Come to think of it, I once worked in an office in a 1929-vintage building, next to the space occupied by a business called Horological Services (a fancy name for a watch repair shop). The old-timer who ran it, George was his name, smoked heavily and spoke in some vaguely Eastern European sounding accent. He and I got along well. He has since gone the way of all things, and his business went out of business on his death. And my office there? A small newspaper. Now there's an industry teetering on the edge of obsolescence. I fear I have little more than hope that the industry finds ways to turn around its sinking fortunes. And hope don't pay the bills.

 

[D Yizz]

When I was in the third grade, around 1981, I had a bad ankle sprain. My mother took me to an old lady that felt it around, determined there was no fracture, rubbed it and twisted it and in less than 2 minutes it was fixed. Today, I'd probably be confined to a cast for several weeks because that occupation doesn't exist anymore. By the way, she charged the total of one dollar.

 

[Atomic Age]

Another one that is slowly but surely vanishing, Pay phone installer and repair men. As of 2006 there were less than 1 million pay phones across the U.S. and that number was dropping. I couldn't find any numbers on it more recent than that.

Doug

 

[sixties.nut]

chad counters are on the decline, Florida's holding their own though.

 

[Fletch]

I knew Florida was chad conscious, but I didn't know they sold it at counters. lol