The Age of Entitlement

[SHOWSOMECLASS]

We have a, and have had individuals, who are literally once a day EMS calls.
In this regard their issues are, diabetic, huffing paint, alcoholism, (crazy) heart stopped, seeing things, itch, backache and etc.

Sad but true.
Every shift we go.

Some have small children who call 911 for them.
Most of these kids ignore us like its a everyday thing.
Likely because we are there every day.

 

[Shangas]

I wonder if, somewhere out there, like the Walmart site, there's a web page with photos people have gleaned from the Fedora Lounge displayed with disparaging comments about various pictures of ourselves we've posted here . . . "Look at that old-fashioned-looking idiot," "Hey $#^%$ wake up it's 2013 ya know!" or "Nice grandpa clothes jerk." A scary thought for the day . . .

I believe there to be a difference here.

There's a difference in wearing/dressing in a vintage style, and wearing a costume.

It's how comfortable you feel in the clothes and how much it looks like a costume.

If you act naturally, move naturally, and basically walk around like you don't know what you're wearing, then nobody will likely pay any attention.

It's when you feel self-conscious, and you treat your clothes like a stage costume, that you start to draw negative comments. At least that's my take on it.

 

[Benny Holiday]

From my experience, I'd agree with you in 95% of cases Shangas. The other 5% are either obnoxious individuals bred without
manners or jerks out spoiling for a fight. These days I can't be bothered with either demographic.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

I believe there to be a difference here.

There's a difference in wearing/dressing in a vintage style, and wearing a costume.

It's how comfortable you feel in the clothes and how much it looks like a costume.

If you act naturally, move naturally, and basically walk around like you don't know what you're wearing, then nobody will likely pay any attention.

It's when you feel self-conscious, and you treat your clothes like a stage costume, that you start to draw negative comments. At least that's my take on it.

I agree so very much with what everyone has posted and shared, but I also desire to state, if a person is well dressed, most of the public sees that above and beyond the "real vintage look". A clean well dressed person has the public (in my experiences) looking at them as a success and not a failure. Most vintage items or article of clothing you could wear may at times bring a total stranger to ask you how they can buy clothing like you wear yourself. I find it very nice to be asked.

 

[Gregg Axley]

I agree so very much with what everyone has posted and shared, but I also desire to state, if a person is well dressed, most of the public sees that above and beyond the "real vintage look". A clean well dressed person has the public (in my experiences) looking at them as a success and not a failure. Most vintage items or article of clothing you could wear may at times bring a total stranger to ask you how they can buy clothing like you wear yourself. I find it very nice to be asked.

Very true!

 

[filfoster]

I would add the un-original thought that it is usually easier to incorporate vintage style for the things you wear away from the workplace, particularly large corporations with their own cultural 'folkways' and expectations. How I envy sole proprietors or free lancers in the creative industries like graphic design or architectural restoration.

 

[filfoster]

To return to the OP, despite this interesting tangent, see today's WSJ on the statistics of literal entitlement cost/dimensions.

 

[Fletch]

About naturalness in one's "skin"...it sure helps if you know about good fit and can make it happen. This is where the chicken and the egg race down the slippery slope, as it were, where tailored menswear is concerned. A good fit there is getting to be a luxury, even as (and because) the suit is going from daily wear to ritual garment.

With ill fitting clothes you could still feel natural, but only if you were ok with being a slob. See the ratty old pensioner Compo, from the Britcom Last of the Summer Wine. He's dressed basically in tatters and wellies, with a tweed jacket so tight it has to be closed with string, but a more self-confident gent you will not find. Nora Batty would probably melt in his arms if he didn't smell like a ferret cage.

 

[1961MJS]

It's the strangest thing, when I see a guy with a Hell's Angels leather jacket, I assume he must be a biker in the Hell's Angels. I assume that a person in the Hells Angels is up to nefarious deeds. Boy, was I way off. I should assume that his clothing says absolutely nothing about him. Sorta like, like when I see someone wearing a Green Day t-shirt. I assume he likes the band. Boy, was I wrong. Thank God for this thread. How people dress and act says absolutely nothing about that person.

HI

If you'd like to see where there's a BUNCH of money, go to Sturgis for Bike Week (month really). In 2000 our scout troop went to summer camp at Medicine Mountain Scout Camp during Bike Week, Basically see where Crazy Horse is pointing and go the other way. I saw a rough tough biker dude (Sam Elliot clone) wearing a black leather vest (no shirt), jeans and boots. Guess what he was doing? Filming the kids around Mount Rushmore. I saw a 60 year old Biker Babe wearing a black leather vest, black leather pants, and boots playing with her Yorky. If it hadn't been for the fabric (black leather) she would have looked fine in church. I'm NEVER seen so many motor homes and trailers. I talked to a guy from Winfield KS on the trip back home and he hadn't talked to anyone who had DRIVEN the bike further than he did.

So, new cliche, black leather jacket + Harley = MONEY, not necessarily drug selling badness

Later

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

I actually looked at 25 plus pages of the People of Walmart page and more than 50% were in the category of:

1. Look at me I'm different
2. Screw you I'm a bad boy / girl
3. Just won't wear grown up clothing.

Most of the worst stuff isn't sold at Goodwill, they're next door and their t-shirts don't have that stuff on them.

Some were derogatory and the people shouldn't have been laughed at.

Later Y'all

 

[Son_of_Atropos]

HI

If you'd like to see where there's a BUNCH of money, go to Sturgis for Bike Week (month really). In 2000 our scout troop went to summer camp at Medicine Mountain Scout Camp during Bike Week, Basically see where Crazy Horse is pointing and go the other way. I saw a rough tough biker dude wearing a black leather vest (no shirt), jeans and boots. Guess what he was doing? Filming the kids around Mount Rushmore. I saw a 60 year old Biker Babe wearing a black leather vest, black leather pants, and boots playing with her Yorky. If it hadn't been for the fabric (black leather) she would have looked fine in church. I'm NEVER seen so many motor homes and trailers. I talked to a guy from Winfield KS on the trip back home and he hadn't talked to anyone who had DRIVEN the bike further than he did.

So, new cliche, black leather jacket + Harley = MONEY, not necessarily drug selling badness

Later

Was the guy in a biker gang or was he just a middle age man having a mid-life crisis? Sounds like the later instead of the former.

 

[Gregg Axley]

Sounds like he was with the Good Neighbor Sam gang.
I work with some like this, who know about their bikes, but prefer to ride them only in pretty weather.

 

[1961MJS]

Was the guy in a biker gang or was he just a middle age man having a mid-life crisis? Sounds like the later instead of the former.

Unless you know what the "colors" mean you can't tell the difference. Well, according to a guy I know the worst way to find out is to take their picture, if they destroy you and your camera, they are in a bike gang.
[huh]

Later

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Unless you know what the "colors" mean you can't tell the difference. Well, according to a guy I know the worst way to find out is to take their picture, it they destroy you and your camera, they are in a bike gang.
[huh]

Later

The Original One Percenters.

 

[Rathdown]

In SoCal there are also the Hessians, Nuggets, and Satan's Slaves, all of which were around in the immediate post-war era.

 

[sheeplady]

Was the guy in a biker gang or was he just a middle age man having a mid-life crisis? Sounds like the later instead of the former.

They say that in the U.S., middle aged bikers are more educated than the average population at the same age (I read that someplace, so I don't remember the specifics.)

I've never met a biker who was older than 40 who wasn't polite and gentlemanly to me, even if they were covered with tattoos and leather. In fact, I'd wager that the bikers I've met in that age bracket are nicer than the general population. When I was in college, I remember a biker couple (driving a hog) that saw me loading groceries into my car. They stopped and the gentleman helped me to load the several containers of cat litter I had in my cart.

If I had a choice in approaching a "biker tough looking dude" and a "regular" boomer for help, I'm choosing the biker. Maybe it's because I'm a female, but I wouldn't even have a problem going into a "biker bar" anymore than a regular bar.

 

[Red Diabla]

They say that in the U.S., middle aged bikers are more educated than the average population at the same age (I read that someplace, so I don't remember the specifics.)

I've never met a biker who was older than 40 who wasn't polite and gentlemanly to me, even if they were covered with tattoos and leather. In fact, I'd wager that the bikers I've met in that age bracket are nicer than the general population. When I was in college, I remember a biker couple (driving a hog) that saw me loading groceries into my car. They stopped and the gentleman helped me to load the several containers of cat litter I had in my cart.

If I had a choice in approaching a "biker tough looking dude" and a "regular" boomer for help, I'm choosing the biker. Maybe it's because I'm a female, but I wouldn't even have a problem going into a "biker bar" anymore than a regular bar.

Eh, bikers run the gamut in manners same as anyone else. I've stopped for people stuck on the side of the road who were shocked that anyone stopped at all, for they'd be passed by many a bike. There's still a lot of leftover misogyny in some realms of bike culture which is sometimes very, VERY uncomfortable to deal with. And at biker events you still get drunken idiots who start fights for no particular reason. In the end, they're just people like the rest of us: you get the good ones and the bad ones. Usually though, if you're polite to them, they're polite back. Like most people!

RD

 

[Baron Kurtz]

zactly. One makes assumptions about people, but in the end they're just people. The clothes are ultimately a façade, a part of the mask we present to the world, from which nothing of lasting value can be gleaned, other than the fabrics and construction of the clothes (if you choose to look). Were anyone to meet me - or you - on the street, they certainly wouldn't guess my occupation (unless, like, I was a welder, wearing a welder's mask and apron, with a flaming oxy-acetylene torch in my hands), my habits, desires, virtues, faults or failings. They would simply see some clothing, and a man hiding behind them.

 

[sheeplady]

Eh, bikers run the gamut in manners same as anyone else. I've stopped for people stuck on the side of the road who were shocked that anyone stopped at all, for they'd be passed by many a bike. There's still a lot of leftover misogyny in some realms of bike culture which is sometimes very, VERY uncomfortable to deal with. And at biker events you still get drunken idiots who start fights for no particular reason. In the end, they're just people like the rest of us: you get the good ones and the bad ones. Usually though, if you're polite to them, they're polite back. Like most people!

RD

Of course there are bad people in any "group" (and I can imagine the culture has some misogyny, although I wouldn't have experienced that because I am an outsider to it). But I would say that overall they're a good group of people. Most groups of people are good groups (with a few notable exceptions).

I've seen super educated and upper class individuals get drunk at events and start fights. Actually, I can't think of a single "group" of people I haven't seen get into drunk fights at least once in my life. I've even seen quite a few teetotalers get into knock-down drag-out fights without the excuse of alcohol. Although alcohol helps to loosen the gears quite a bit.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've even seen quite a few teetotalers get into knock-down drag-out fights without the excuse of alcohol.

I can remember some Methodist rummage sales where the fur really flew. "What do you MEAN selling that for twenty five cents! I gave you that for your BIRTHDAY two years ago! It cost me TEN DOLLARS! You UNGRATEFUL OLD BAG!"