Terms Which Have Disappeared

[Stearmen]

Wow...so many...

I still only hear reference to the "drug store". No one calls it the "pharmacy".

Out here, the pharmacy is in the back of a supermarket. The drug store is now a Walgreens store.

 

[Zombie_61]

Interesting. My Dad and Mom were born in 1913 and 1915, respectively. Dad grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Mom grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. Growing up I heard them use the term "icebox" occasionally instead of "refrigerator", and "bathing suit" and "drug store" were common, but I never heard many of the other terms mentioned in this thread until I got older, and then only in movies or on television. Also, "dinner" and "supper" were synonymous references to the evening meal; there was no discernible difference between the two, so I was surprised when I learned many people consider them to be two different meals.

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ the "dinner / supper" distinction did not exist in my world either growing up - was surprised when I learned about it through books in high school.

Oriel window is term you don't hear much as they are an architectural feature that is rarely used anymore (at least in the apartment buildings in NYC since, well, after WWII).

But before WWII, many apartment buildings and townhouses, especially those built around the turn of the century, had oriel windows which, IMHO, are a beautiful architectural detail both from and interior and exterior point of view - they add a lot of character and interest to a room and a building's exterior.

 

[HudsonHawk]

⇧ the "dinner / supper" distinction did not exist in my world either growing up - was surprised when I learned about it through books in high school.

Oriel window is term you don't hear much as they are an architectural feature that is rarely used anymore (at least in the apartment buildings in NYC since, well, after WWII).

But before WWII, many apartment buildings and townhouses, especially those built around the turn of the century, had oriel windows which, IMHO, are a beautiful architectural detail both from and interior and exterior point of view - they add a lot of character and interest to a room and a building's exterior.

I've never heard the term "oriel window", so I had to look it up. We just called them "bay windows", though perhaps an oriel window is a specific type of bay window?

 

[Fading Fast]

I've never heard the term "oriel window", so I had to look it up. We just called them "bay windows", though perhaps an oriel window is a specific type of bay window?

From Wikipedia: An oriel window is a form of bay window which projects from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground.[1] Supported by corbels, brackets or similar, an oriel window is most commonly found projecting from an upper floor but is also sometimes used on the ground floor.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Pharmacy" was common here as part of a business name: "Goodnow's Pharmacy" was an institution here going back to the turn of the century. But nobody ever actually *said* "pharmacy" in talking about the place, it was always referred to as "Goodnow's." More common, though, than "So-and-so's Pharmacy" was "Such and such Drug." Not "Drug Store," not "Drugs," just plain "Drug."

Although chain drug stores were very common in the Era -- United Drug, Whelan Drug, Liggett's Drug, etc -- for a long time the only one we ever had in this area was Rexall, which wasn't even a chain, really, but rather a buying cooperative for independent druggists.

 

[LizzieMaine]

From Wikipedia: An oriel window is a form of bay window which projects from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground.[1] Supported by corbels, brackets or similar, an oriel window is most commonly found projecting from an upper floor but is also sometimes used on the ground floor.

We had one of those in the apartment building I lived in in the '90s. It had originally been a large private house built in the 1880s and was converted to apartments during WWII. And when it was torn down to make way for a Rite Aid, the town's historic preservation committee required them to duplicate the facade of the old house in the new building -- so there's a faux window sticking out just where the old one did. I always wanted to sneak in there and put a life-size cardboard figure of myself thumbing my nose out that window.

 

[HudsonHawk]

From Wikipedia: An oriel window is a form of bay window which projects from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground.[1] Supported by corbels, brackets or similar, an oriel window is most commonly found projecting from an upper floor but is also sometimes used on the ground floor.

The things you learn around here.

My building has what I guess are sort of modern oriel windows, though they are not supported by brackets or anything. But there is a small triangular window protruding from the exterior wall. It forms a point, and you can step into the small bay and you're literally standing outside the walls of the building, with floor to ceiling glass all around you. It's quite a view from the 31st floor where I am. In fact, it's kind of scary. I go stand in it when I need a little adrenaline pick me up.

 

[Fading Fast]

We had one of those in the apartment building I lived in in the '90s. It had originally been a large private house built in the 1880s and was converted to apartments during WWII. And when it was torn down to make way for a Rite Aid, the town's historic preservation committee required them to duplicate the facade of the old house in the new building -- so there's a faux window sticking out just where the old one did. I always wanted to sneak in there and put a life-size cardboard figure of myself thumbing my nose out that window.

I'm a fan of historical preservation, but that sounds like a kooky / odd solution. Keep the building or let it go and make the new building conform to current code; replicating the old front sounds forced. How does it look / feel?

 

[Fading Fast]

The things you learn around here.

My building has what I guess are sort of modern oriel windows, though they are not supported by brackets or anything. But there is a small triangular window protruding from the exterior wall. It forms a point, and you can step into the small bay and you're literally standing outside the walls of the building, with floor to ceiling glass all around you. It's quite a view from the 31st floor where I am. In fact, it's kind of scary. I go stand in it when I need a little adrenaline pick me up.

I was put up in a corporate apartment for a company relocation years ago and it was one that had nearly floor to ceiling windows (basically, the wall was a window) on the 20th (I think) floor in one of those ultra-modern apartment buildings. I got a bit of vertigo just standing next to it and looking out so I can only image what "walking into" the thing you described would feel like.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Although chain drug stores were very common in the Era -- United Drug, Whelan Drug, Liggett's Drug, etc -- for a long time the only one we ever had in this area was Rexall, which wasn't even a chain, really, but rather a buying cooperative for independent druggists.

We had a Rexall, and of course being in Florida, we had and Eckerd. My grandmother always insisted on going to the mom and pop drug store in Ybor City, Tampa's "Latin Quarter". She was a large, boisterous, red-haired dirt farmer, but for whatever reason, she never trusted a doctor or pharmacist who didn't speak Spanish.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I was put up in a corporate apartment for a company relocation years ago and it was one that had nearly floor to ceiling windows (basically, the wall was a window) on the 20th (I think) floor in one of those ultra-modern apartment buildings. I got a bit of vertigo just standing next to it and looking out so I can only image what "walking into" the thing you described would feel like.

The building is literally the last building on the edge of downtown Houston, so if you're looking out the windows on one side of the building, all you see are the next buildings. But on the other side, it looks out over the rest of the city, and it's a nice view. Luckily, my office and the "triangle of death" face the open view. It's a nice view during the day, and it's pretty cool at night to be in the building with the lights off and look out. We keep a chair in the space, and you can sit in the chair at night, and it feels like you're just floating.

 

[MisterCairo]

We say bathing suit regularly in our household as both sets of grandparents used it while my wife and I were growing up, and have supper as the evening meal. The Royal Canadian Navy certainly has the traditional breakfast/dinner/supper distinctions being piped.

"Hands to breakfast", "Hands to dinner", "Hands to supper".

I gather supper is also a "Canadian" thing, President Obama used it as a gag during the gala dinner he hosted for PM Trudeau a few months back (Obama's brother in law is Canadian, and he regularly visited Burlington, Ontario and area, my hometown).

 

[Fading Fast]

The building is literally the last building on the edge of downtown Houston, so if you're looking out the windows on one side of the building, all you see are the next buildings. But on the other side, it looks out over the rest of the city, and it's a nice view. Luckily, my office and the "triangle of death" face the open view. It's a nice view during the day, and it's pretty cool at night to be in the building with the lights off and look out. We keep a chair in the space, and you can sit in the chair at night, and it feels like you're just floating.

That sounds outstanding. Your office must be coveted by your co-workers.

I worked for Merrill Lynch in the Bank of America Tower in NYC that also did the floor-to-ceiling and side-to-side window thing (the exterior walls are about 80% windows, all office interior walls are glass and no tall obstructions are allowed on the floor anywhere). The view and affect were incredible, but I will never forget the first year we moved in and several months later we had the first snow storm of the season: it felt as if you were standing inside a snow globe. It was absolutely fantastic.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm a fan of historical preservation, but that sounds like a kooky / odd solution. Keep the building or let it go and make the new building conform to current code; replicating the old front sounds forced. How does it look / feel?

In the twenty years since they did it I've never really stopped to talke a close look. I'm still angry about being disposessed -- the whole thing was a scam job, they got permission to demolish the building by buying off the Code Officer to say it was an unsafe structure. And this Code Officer had been a friend of mine, and had visited my apartment many times, and he *knew* that this was a lie. But Out Of State Money talks.

I didn't take it lying down. I skulked around in the night with a bucket of wheat paste, a paint brush, and posters reading STOP RITE AID and papered the town with them. Didn't help.

It was a great apartment -- a six-room railroad flat on the second floor with the living room at one end and the kitchen at the other, and a big open porch on the back with room to hang a hammock. $475 a month, which wasn't as cheap as it sounds (I was making $15,600 a year) but it was less than ninety feet from the building where I worked and I could be at my desk fifteen minutes after the alarm clock went off. I still have dreams about the place.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I gather supper is also a "Canadian" thing, President Obama used it as a gag during the gala dinner he hosted for PM Trudeau a few months back (Obama's brother in law is Canadian, and he regularly visited Burlington, Ontario and area, my hometown).

THat makes sense from my perspective. My family on both sides came to the US from Halifax in the 1890s.

 

[Fading Fast]

In the twenty years since they did it I've never really stopped to talke a close look. I'm still angry about being disposessed -- the whole thing was a scam job, they got permission to demolish the building by buying off the Code Officer to say it was an unsafe structure. And this Code Officer had been a friend of mine, and had visited my apartment many times, and he *knew* that this was a lie. But Out Of State Money talks.

I didn't take it lying down. I skulked around in the night with a bucket of wheat paste, a paint brush, and posters reading STOP RITE AID and papered the town with them. Didn't help.

It was a great apartment -- a six-room railroad flat on the second floor with the living room at one end and the kitchen at the other, and a big open porch on the back with room to hang a hammock. $475 a month, which wasn't as cheap as it sounds (I was making $15,600 a year) but it was less than ninety feet from the building where I worked and I could be at my desk fifteen minutes after the alarm clock went off. I still have dreams about the place.

Did they literally bribe him illegally or was it some kind of political "contribution" or some other "legal" machination?

And the apartment sounds outstanding - I understand your anger.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I never knew for sure -- I never spoke to him again after that. What most likely happened is that the company made some kind of "contribution" to some town fund or other in exchange for "favorable consideration" and the condemnation of the building was simply something to put down on the paperwork to make it all legal.

This was a town known for flatbacking itself for any corporation that wanted to come in -- they did the same thing earlier for Kodak, and did it in a spectacularly big way with the MBNA credit-card operation. Both those outfits left town after gratifying themselves, but Rite Aid, at least, is still there. That particular store, in fact, is one of the top stores in the state for being robbed by heroin and oxycontin addicts...

The most frustrating thing was that the street level of the building was already storefronts -- there had been an A&P grocery store there for years, and when that left the space became a neighborhood drug store/newsstand type of place, and there were also storefronts for a travel agency and a Christian Science Reading Room. But Rite Aid wanted something to fit its corporate space requirements, so not only did six apartment tenants get disposessed but two other business tenants got knocked out as well. Nobody ever stuck up the CS ladies at gunpoint looking for oxycontin.

 

[HudsonHawk]

That sounds outstanding. Your office must be coveted by your co-workers.

It's a so-so space, but I have to admit I have one of the better views on the floor:

 

[BlueTrain]

In the downtown business district in my hometown, which was about three, maybe four blocks long, some businesses were either chains or franchises. There were two drug stores, which I think were Walgreens and Rexall, an A&P, a G.C. Murphy and a Western Auto. There was also a Leggett's. Everything else was, I guess, independently owned, and included a couple of lady's shops and a couple of men's shops, an office supply store, a bakery, and so on. I think the Western Auto store might still be in business but I'm not sure. Everything else is gone.

Not everything went out of business, however. Some stores relocated just a few blocks away because even then, in the 1950s, parking was considered a problem. But for the men's and lady's shops, I don't think they exist anywhere these days to any great extent. There are still men's shops and lady's shops, mostly chains, and I think they are still relatively small, like Brooks Brothers (don't shop there) or Men's Warehouse (don't shop there, either).