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Time Warp

AdrianLvsRocky

One of the Regulars
Messages
238
Location
Wales, UK
Hi all - hope you all had a great Christmas.

I spent Christmas Day over my brother's. He's a paramedic and often tells great stories about the people he's met and the places he's been etc. and I thought you ladies in particular would appreciate the one he told me at Christmas.

He had a call out to a lady in a house in the middle of a town centre. It's not a huge town but it's fairly busy with your average bunch of shops. We live in South Wales so most towns are all the same with the same old chains of shops.

Anyway, he got to the front door which looked like your average, every day front door but when he opened it and stepped through he said it was like stepping back in time.

He had walked into what was essentially a 50s diner. It had red leather booth seats, beautiful mirrored walls with old Cadbury's and Coca Cola adverts, a big chrome counter with a coffee machine and cake stands. There were photos covering the walls of the original Italian owners and their families. Everything was spotlessly clean with towels covering most of the equipment.

When he went upstairs to see to the lady she was there with her brother who lived with her. My brother asked about the diner downstairs and they told him that it had been a family business for decades but as they were unmarried and had no children they just closed it down when they got too old to manage it. They had just cleaned up and locked the door in 1995!

I think this is so sad in one way but so exciting in another. Imagine walking into a place where nothing has really changed since it first opened. I expect this sort of place is much more common in the US but it's extremely rare to find somewhere like this in the South Wales valleys!

So, my question is, if you could open a door into a "time warp" where and when would you go? A clothes shop, a bar, a grocery store?
 

martinsantos

Practically Family
Messages
595
Location
São Paulo, Brazil
Something similar ocourred in my family. The father of an uncle was very interested in music, and had a listening room for decades. He died in begining of 80s. His sons did not touch anything, ever an old hat behind the door.

When i visited the place there was a HUGE collection of audio-amplifiers, the main being two Western Electric from 30s. And the best and biggest collection of prerecorded open reel tapes I ever saw! To be there was, at least to me, a kind of time warp.
 

Akubra Man

One of the Regulars
Victorian turn of the century pre-WW1....a town Doctor's home/office. Small town medicine at the turn of the century seems to me to be a very interesting profession and time to be practicing . Note: I am not a physician nor have I gone to medical school.
 

subject101

One of the Regulars
Messages
223
Location
Mennoniteborough
I'd like just a single day during the 40s decade!

First, I'd go to a 40s air base and I'd try to fly all the planes I always liked, p-38, b-24, Corsairs, Catalinas, Beech D-18... (I'd have to learn to fly first I guess)

Next, I'd go straight to a car lot and I'd try all those long 40s cars, Buicks, Cadillacs, Oldsmobile, Chevy...

Then, I'd indulge myself with some high fat 40s food for dinner. A 40s classic diner would be fine, a big hamburger, hot dogs, banana splits...

Finally, I'd go for some swing music. I'd like to catch a big band playing live or a closed harmony set like the Andrew Sisters.
 
Messages
10,883
Location
Portage, Wis.
It happened to us. The place had been a pharmacy since 1865 and they literally kept just about everything. Bottles, advertising, prescription pads, you name it. Not to mention the building, built in 1853 was beautiful, 3 stories, with what had been on oyster bar during the turn of the century, in the basement. The upper apartments had clawfoot tubs and matching sinks, the 3rd floor had original wallpaper. And the storefront itself had tile floors and a tin ceiling. The place was spectacular.
 

W-D Forties

Practically Family
Messages
684
Location
England
I would go back to Liverpool in early 1940. I would walk around one of the worlds greatest seaports in all it's glory, see all the big commercial and troop ships unloading before heading back out into the Atlantic to brave the U boats, see all the grand Victorian, Deco and Edwardian buildings in town, the dense and crowded back to backs in the slums, the rush and swell of humanity.
Drink it all in before the Lufftewaffe bombed it all to bits and the 'town planners' finished the job 20 years later.
 

LinaSofia

A-List Customer
Messages
475
Location
Brighton, UK
I've always dreamt of going back in time just for a day or so to see what it was like! Ever since I used to stare at the old pictures in my grandmother's photo album for hours when I was younger. I'd love to go back to 20s high society in Paris or London for a bit of a party! And I'd have to go back to my native Stockholm in the early 50s.
I'd just love to understand how ordinary people thought about things, especially women, I'd love to know if they were as demure as the photos suggest! Did they ever get angry about having to do the washing up.... :D
 

MissMittens

One Too Many
Messages
1,628
Location
Philadelphia USA
We live in South Wales so most towns are all the same with the same old chains of shops.

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda I chi am bob yn yr ty chi!

Ie, fy'n siaraid Cymraeg :D Maen tad fi yn genni o' Abertawe yn 1920

*As this is an English board, probably should have included the translation. Rough, but something like Happy New Year to you and everyone in your home (traditional Welsh New Years greeting). Yes, I speak Welsh, my father was born in Swansea in 1920 (the largest City in Wales at the time)...long time before being attached to U.S Forces in the big one
 
Last edited:

rue

Messages
13,319
Location
California native living in Arizona.
Hi all - hope you all had a great Christmas.

I spent Christmas Day over my brother's. He's a paramedic and often tells great stories about the people he's met and the places he's been etc. and I thought you ladies in particular would appreciate the one he told me at Christmas.

He had a call out to a lady in a house in the middle of a town centre. It's not a huge town but it's fairly busy with your average bunch of shops. We live in South Wales so most towns are all the same with the same old chains of shops.

Anyway, he got to the front door which looked like your average, every day front door but when he opened it and stepped through he said it was like stepping back in time.

He had walked into what was essentially a 50s diner. It had red leather booth seats, beautiful mirrored walls with old Cadbury's and Coca Cola adverts, a big chrome counter with a coffee machine and cake stands. There were photos covering the walls of the original Italian owners and their families. Everything was spotlessly clean with towels covering most of the equipment.

When he went upstairs to see to the lady she was there with her brother who lived with her. My brother asked about the diner downstairs and they told him that it had been a family business for decades but as they were unmarried and had no children they just closed it down when they got too old to manage it. They had just cleaned up and locked the door in 1995!

I think this is so sad in one way but so exciting in another. Imagine walking into a place where nothing has really changed since it first opened. I expect this sort of place is much more common in the US but it's extremely rare to find somewhere like this in the South Wales valleys!

So, my question is, if you could open a door into a "time warp" where and when would you go? A clothes shop, a bar, a grocery store?

Gosh that's wonderful. Sad, yes, but so neat to have seen it :)

This is such a hard question because I would love to see an 1800's plantation in real time, a moment on the Titanic before the chaos started, anytime anywhere during the 40s, etc. The list is long.....
 

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