Retro-extremists? What are we called?

[Pompidou]

The only thing giving yourself a label does is obligate you to rules nobody else has to follow - makes life unnecessarily complicated. It'd probably be easier to just wear a hat or buy an old dress because you want to, and leave it at that. I don't know what I am. I get called a lot of things. I won't start worrying about it until people begin agreeing about what to call me. So long as nobody can quite put a finger on it, I believe I'm doing something right. It's been said that disdain of authority and being boxed into a role is a hallmark of the current generation, and that's one hallmark I do support wholeheartedly.

 

[reetpleat]

Old Man is how I describe myself too. A lady (from another country) made a comment about how I dress the other day when I dropped my kids off a daycare. I told her that I get my fashion ideas from 80 year old men sitting on park benches!

The funny thing is, most old guys often wear stuff from the 70s, when they were last buying clothes for business. But the way they hang on them, the ever present ties, the high waistband and belt all make them look pretty darn vintage anyway. Sadly, many old people are starting to look pretty shabby as they don t shirts and shorts.

 

[Feraud]

It's been said that disdain of authority and being boxed into a role is a hallmark of the current generation, and that's one hallmark I do support wholeheartedly.

Disdain for authority? While voluntarily shackled 24/7 to their cellphones? I don't think so..

 

[LizzieMaine]

Some people box themselves into the role of "rebel," without ever actually rebelling against anything meaningful.

 

[jamespowers]

Some people box themselves into the role of "rebel," without ever actually rebelling against anything meaningful.

See my tagline below

 

[Undertow]

1.A villiage/downtown/pedestrian-oriented/non-suburban community. All business was transacted in the downtown area, there were no shopping plazas/malls/big box stores. Our downtown had three grocery stores, a drug store, a hardware store, a clothing store, a radio/TV shop, a post office, a lunchroom, and a bank...

Grew up in a very similar "neighborhood"; Beaverdale in Des Moines. Everything you mentioned above was present plus a Masonic Temple, men's clothier, two churches, sandwich shop, cobbler, etc. If they would have left the light rail alone, we would have had a street car running to downtown Des Moines, too. You didn't have to drive anywhere. Everyone walked.

2. A manufacturing/industrial based economy. Most people worked in blue-collar jobs...Very few people I knew growing up were college educated or oriented, and those who were were generally professionals of some sort.

I grew up in the 80's, so by then most everyone worked elsewhere in the city. You had federal employees, nurses, government clerks, military, etc. or lots of service sector folks. Lots of blue collar; anyone else was a "yuppie" if they had a white collar job.

3. Families were concentrated in neighborhoods. It was very common for three generations of a family to live on the same street...if there was a conflict, your family obligations *always* came first, and this was never questioned.

Yep! Everyone but my "uppity" uncle lives within three blocks of each other, although I've moved to the suburbs (and still hear about how "far away" I am, 10 minutes away). And yes, family first is a motto smashed into our heads from birth. Always, no matter what. Blood is thicker than water and you take care of each other. Always.

4. Mainstream religion was a heavy influence. In our town it was non-evangelical Protestantism..."Bible thumping" was considered crass. Proselytism of any kind was considered extremely offensive -- your faith was your own business, and wasn't discussed in public.

We were all Irish Catholics at my school, or anyone going to public school was protestant. No one talked about it, but we all knew it. In my school, we went to church at least once a week, or more if there was a holiday. Even the Masons worked with the Catholics in purchasing land adjacent to the church so they could build a lodge. It was better the Masons than out-of-towners. We all got along together pretty well, the Masons and the Catholics.

5. Most men had served in the military, and awareness of the military was taken for granted in every family...Kids usually belonged to the Boy or Girl Scouts, and took the patriotism seriously. Authority was respected -- there wasn't the modern belief that all authority is adversarial.

Heck yes. Most men over 50 had fought in WWII or Korea, and men my dad's age were likely in Vietnam, or at least had family in the wars. Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts were considered "lame" by then, but I was in them nonetheless (and loved it!).

6. Sex was not discussed in public...

I still can't imagine anyone in Beaverdale publically discussing sex, although there's been a lot of new blood in the area. [huh]

7. Thrift was a way of life. Buying on credit was a mark of irresponsibility, one step up from going to a pawnshop, and conspicuous consumption was condemned as "showing off." You were taught that there were things you could have in life, and things you couldn't, and the sooner you learned the difference the better.

Pretty much. You only purchased what you needed, and that was only after you couldn't make do and mend, or find it on the roadside during "Spring Cleaning" in the 'burbs. Granted, that may have just been my family and my friends' families, but we were all broke in the '80's.

So yeah, I guess that's why I relate to much of this discussion. I grew up in a blue collar, old fashioned home, with old fashioned grandparents and an old fashioned community. I took it for granted then, but I kinda yearn for it now that I've seen the madness that is "modern culture".

 

[LizzieMaine]

See my tagline below

Exactly. I'd actually like to see some real rebels. You've got all these college kids standing around holding up signs when they should be storming into brokerages while swinging whips, knocking over desks, chasing away the staff, and calling down the judgement of Gehenna on the Board of Directors. But no, they might end up in the jug, and how would they be able to update their Facebooks?

 

[LizzieMaine]

So yeah, I guess that's why I relate to much of this discussion. I grew up in a blue collar, old fashioned home, with old fashioned grandparents and an old fashioned community. I took it for granted then, but I kinda yearn for it now that I've seen the madness that is "modern culture".

That's what a lot of people are missing in this whole discussion -- we're not trying to create a subculture or a fantasy world or a Never Never Land. We just don't intend to let go of our native culture, because we don't see any particular reason why we should. The people constantly badgering us about the need to "keep up with the times" are the real sheep. Keep up with the times? Why?

 

[jamespowers]

Exactly. I'd actually like to see some real rebels. You've got all these college kids standing around holding up signs when they should be storming into brokerages while swinging whips, knocking over desks, chasing away the staff, and calling down the judgement of Gehenna on the Board of Directors. But no, they might end up in the jug, and how would they be able to update their Facebooks?

Or tweet some incomprehensible dreck.

 

[jamespowers]

That's what a lot of people are missing in this whole discussion -- we're not trying to create a subculture or a fantasy world or a Never Never Land. We just don't intend to let go of our native culture, because we don't see any particular reason why we should. The people constantly badgering us about the need to "keep up with the times" are the real sheep. Keep up with the times? Why?[/QUOTE]

So then you can buy the garbage they produce today; think like everyone else so they don't have to actually listen to you because you are just a carbon copy; listen to stupid and ridiculous reality shows that lower your IQ, and make you into a better sheep. Baaaaaaaaaaaa!

 

[SGT Rocket]

Some people box themselves into the role of "rebel," without ever actually rebelling against anything meaningful.

I'm rebelling against rebelling, and I'm accomplishing this by sitting back and just doing nothing.

 

[jamespowers]

I'm rebelling against rebelling, and I'm accomplishing this by sitting back and just doing nothing.

Sounds very vintage.

 

[Angus Forbes]

Some people box themselves into the role of "rebel," without ever actually rebelling against anything meaningful.

This is called "rebel without a clue."

 

[John in Covina]

Fashion Reactionaries!

 

[sheeplady]

So then you can buy the garbage they produce today; think like everyone else so they don't have to actually listen to you because you are just a carbon copy; listen to stupid and ridiculous reality shows that lower your IQ, and make you into a better sheep. Baaaaaaaaaaaa!

That's kind of an insult to sheep. I'm offended.

 

[jamespowers]

That's kind of an insult to sheep. I'm offended.

True. Those sheep in Animal Farm were pretty tough.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Well, there's sheep --

and then there's SHEEP --

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Senator Jack- are you still reading?

I just spent the last two hours reading this for the first time. This kind of dialogue, and defense of it, is what attracted me to the lounge long ago and I wish there was more of it.

To the fellow who said he calls himself "old man," I call myself an "old lady" despite the pejorative and unsexy connotations for a woman in 2012. (We're all supposed to look like grotesque [thanks to mad science] 21 year olds.)

I spent a lot of time with my grandmother as a child in the late 60-early 70s in a town stuck in the 40s and 50s and later visited her in 70s-early 80s Miami Beach. She was my role model and to this day she is my inspiration because I loved her so much and the life she lived and shared with me. Adding to that I always loved the styles of the conservative 50s and 60s and even the early 70s because they resonated with me and still do. 2012 feels like a creepy uncle who keeps trying to kiss me. I want to dodge it as much as possible, not because I have an aversion to new but because statistically speaking, most anything new is not in alignment with who I am as far as style and substance.

I don't walk around with an MP3 player because I like to hear what's going on around me.

I love my black and white TV on the rolling cart because I think it's visually appealing and most of my favorite shows are in black and white anyway.

My house is a time capsule because it's my castle.

For me I view it more as sharing an appreciation for values and styles of a bygone period that aren't present today. It's not about vintage for the sake of old. I don't like something simply because it's vintage or antiquarian.

I also have a "vintage" inspired blog, and it doesn't have any hints of irony which I think makes it unfashionable as far as retro blogs go. I don't care.

 

[LizzieMaine]

2012 feels like a creepy uncle who keeps trying to kiss me.

This, hands down, is the single best comment ever posted in the history of the Lounge.

 

[Peregrine]

Sad though it may sound, if you wait five years or so, 2012 won't seem quite so bad!