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Vintage Interiors

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10,928
Location
My mother's basement
I feel bad for the tiny little town of Pine Ridge Arkansas, which essentially exists solely because of "Lum and Abner." The only attraction there is the Lum and Abner Museum, and when decreasingly few people have any idea who they were, there isn't much else there to attract traffic.

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About this time last year the Roger Miller Museum in Miller’s hometown of Erick, Oklahoma closed permanently.

I took the news hard. I’m a big fan of Miller’s, but it seems there are fewer and fewer in that fraternity. Miller has been gone since 1992, so 26 years now. I was still a kid when he had his greatest fame, in the early- to mid-1960s, and I'm now of an age when those a generation ahead of me are mostly gone, as are many if not yet most of my own.

Still, there was a well-received tribute album released a few moths ago, featuring big names in CW doing covers of Miller's tunes. Some of those performers are themselves too young to have known of Miller when he was alive.

Historic Route 66, the "Mother Road," runs right through Erick, and right past the former home of the Roger Miller Museum. Perhaps the museum operators never consulted the Boys from Marketing, because it seems they failed to reach the largest segments of their potential audience.

But then, maybe Route 66 ain't big kicks anymore, either. I suspect the overwhelming majority of people making their way from Chicago to L.A. these days do so via commercial airliner.
 
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Messages
17,186
Location
New York City
I love this picture. I remember the last of the post offices in little towns in grocery and or hardware stores. My great aunt and uncle ran the PO in their house. There was a heavy door in the living room that went into the post office. Sadly, like both of them, the post office and house are long gone now.

That's a good anecdote. In the horribly named movie (based on the same horribly named book) "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" there is a wonderful post-office-and-general-store combo, but on-line, I could only find this pic ⇩ of the exterior and no interior shots.
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2jakes

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,680
Location
Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
That's a good anecdote. In the horribly named movie (based on the same horribly named book) "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" there is a wonderful post-office-and-general-store combo, but on-line, I could only find this pic ⇩ of the exterior and no interior shots.
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I recall the "wicker" basket on the floor!
Little rounder in size and full of home-grown delicious peaches @ my grandma's.
:p yummy pies !
 

tmal

One of the Regulars
Messages
116
Location
NYS
Looking at there photos of the old parlors/living rooms I noticed how they gave off a different vibe than modern rooms. Eventually, I think I figured it out. No TV! They are designed for human socialization, not for staring at a box. Or is just me?
 

3fingers

One Too Many
Messages
1,797
Location
Illinois
They are designed for human socialization, not for staring at a box. Or is just me?
The radio appears in a lot of living room scenes, but the furniture could be arranged differently since as you said the room is laid out for conversation and listening, not to make it convenient for all seats to be able to stare at the tube.
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,704
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
The idea of the "living room" as we understand it today really didn't even come into focus until the post WWI era -- the 19th century/early 20th century middle-class "parlors" were generally intended for entertaining guests only, not for casual family interaction. The informalization of the American home that swept in with the twenties really created what we think of as the modern "living room," as a place where the family could take off its shoes, unbuckle its belts, kick up its feet and relax at the end of the day without too much concern about decorum.

Once the console radio became a prominent article of furniture in the early 1930s, the chairs tended to be positioned near it for convenience in twisting the dial when an unpopular personality came on the air, but you didn't usually have chairs facing it like you would with a television set. And its arrival did somewhat squelch the art of post-suppertime conversation, at least until "Amos 'n' Andy" was over.
 

3fingers

One Too Many
Messages
1,797
Location
Illinois
Agreed. Pink kitchens always make me feel like the tint control is out of adjustment.
A former coworker of mine bought a little '50s bungalow that had never been remuddled. It was a nice little house but featured not only a pink kitchen including the sink, stove, refrigerator and walls but also a completely pink bathroom. She was most proud of it.
 

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