Vintage professions you'd like to see come back.....

[JohnnieT]

How about an old fashioned Tobacconist? Nowadays all I see are "smoke shops" here in Washington. A "smoke shop" here is really just a head shop that happens to sell cigarettes. You can't buy a pack of Lucky Strikes without choking on the incense. Even the better shops with a good cigar selection still carry hookah pipes and cheap knives. I'd really like to see the return of the tobacco stand, staffed by someone who knows what the heck they are talking about.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I'm sure someone mentioned this, but what about Milk and Coal delivery.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

We especially need some good sports cartoonists -- cartooning in itself is a dying art, but sports cartooning is almost completely dead. There's no one today who comes anywhere the genius of Willard Mullin.

One of the great cartoonist/illustrators of the period was Winsor McCay, the creator of Little Nemo in Slumberland. who was also quite a prolific editorial cartoonist.

 

[Geiamama]

I'm sure someone mentioned this, but what about Milk and Coal delivery.

I would love that to come back!

My grandfather owned a dairy and he used to deliver all the milk on the back of his cart. I used to help him with the machine that put the milk into the tiny little bottles for schools. And you know he could carry two FULL churns on his back!!! That amazes me to this day.

I tried to have my milk delivered here but they would only deliver once a week (I mean what use is that?!) and they don't use glass bottles anymore just plastic cartons. So I didn't bother. It's no fun if you can't collect the little foil caps!

 

[David Conwill]

Do you burn coal at home, Tom?

-Dave

 

[John in Covina]

How about an old fashioned Tobacconist? Nowadays all I see are "smoke shops" here in Washington. A "smoke shop" here is really just a head shop that happens to sell cigarettes. You can't buy a pack of Lucky Strikes without choking on the incense. Even the better shops with a good cigar selection still carry hookah pipes and cheap knives. I'd really like to see the return of the tobacco stand, staffed by someone who knows what the heck they are talking about.

Down by us we have some fine Cigar stores with cigars and pipe tobacco as the primary sales.

 

[scottyrocks]

I'm sure someone mentioned this, but what about Milk and Coal delivery.

We also had a seltzer truck and a soda truck (Hoffmans). The seltzer bottles had the spigot on top and the glass was thick and all scratched up from continual extended use.

 

[Feraud]

I think there is one remaining seltzer water delivery guy working out of either Manhattan or Brooklyn.

 

[MissMittens]

I think there is one remaining seltzer water delivery guy working out of either Manhattan or Brooklyn.

Slightly off-topic, but does anyone know if there's a home machine to make seltzer?

 

[scottyrocks]

I think there is one remaining seltzer water delivery guy working out of either Manhattan or Brooklyn.

Feraud, evidently theres more than one 'claiming' the title:

http://www.villagevoice.com/bestof/2008/award/best-old-school-brooklyn-seltzer-man-691264/

http://www.givemeseltzer.com/archives/2009/09/nytimes_article.html

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/449779

http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2009/06/seltzer-man.html

Theres probably more but thats as far as I wanna research it right now.

 

[Feraud]

Good to know there is more than one service delivering seltzer.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

That's a negatory, Dave, Natural Gas here.

Do you burn coal at home, Tom?

-Dave

 

[David Conwill]

That's a negatory, Dave, Natural Gas here.

Same here, but a coal fireplace remains in my living room, and I occasionally toy with the idea of getting the chimney re-lined and trying it out.

-Dave

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Just make sure to have everything checked out. Chimney fires are scary. Trust me!

Same here, but a coal fireplace remains in my living room, and I occasionally toy with the idea of getting the chimney re-lined and trying it out.

-Dave

 

[Bourne ID]

The watchmaking profession is alive and well (I noticed in the first few replies that "watchmaker" or horologist was something several people missed.) I wanted to do something that wasn't so corporate and kept craftsmanship alive, so I went to school for watchmaking. I now have two certifications under my belt, and work for a high end jewelry store in KC.

It's mostly "high end" these days though... working on Rolexes, Breitlings, and other expensive Swiss luxury brands which are too costly to simply be thrown away when they need service, and which still utilize mechanical movements.

That is the coolest thing!~ I had no idea you could go to school for watchmaking! I think that must be great fun, I'm jealous.

 

[59Lark]

Watchingmaking, maybe I should have appreciated opportunity to learn the trade, the chap that offered was the last of two brothers, whom his father and uncle had gone from nova scotia to new england and had worked at Waltham watchworks and learned their trade and gone back and had up to three stores in nova scotia with the name their family name AUBE and he was the last and he was in his late seventies when he offered . But the small parts scared me and i am still dont like working with spring loaded items today as i fix sewing machines, image how much watches or clocks would have scared me. The work of fixing things is a dying trade but a rewarding one, yesterday I fixed inthe morning two singer featherweights one from 1948 and one from 1951 , took a brand new machine made in asia, removed the light and motor, installed a heavy cast iron flywheel and greased and oiled it well, put in a running stand, a table with a large motor on it and ran it for hours flat out to loosen or wear it in so the amish girl that is getting it today for a late birthday gift wont find it so hard to pedal in her treadle cabinet. I am the only sewing machine dealer in Canada that still sells new treadle sewing machines . 59LARK

 

[HadleyH]

Not a profession but a game! Croquet --- you don't hear much about it nowadays, but it was very popular in the past.

Alexander Woollcott, who led the Algonquin Round Table of media celebrities in the 1920's and 30's, was very fond of it!.In the 1920's, Alexander Woollcott and a few of his pals purchased Neshobe Island, eight acres in the middle of Lake Bomoseen in Vermont. There, Harpo Marx among others, spent a considerable amount of time in the 1920s and 1930s playing croquet, as did other members of the round Table, like George Kaufman.

Of course they were not the only ones who loved croquet

Mr. Hearst and Marion Davies

Shirley Temple and Orson Welles

Producer Darryl Zanuck.... no idea what's he is doing there

 

[Kahuna]

I love playing croquet. A summer isn't complete without several games played with friends on our 60 year old croquet set. It's nice playing with a set that has such a long family history and such good memories attached to it.

 

[martinsantos]

Fine set! Liked a lot!

Not a profession but a game! Croquet --- you don't hear much about it nowadays, but it was very popular in the past.

Alexander Woollcott, who led the Algonquin Round Table of media celebrities in the 1920's and 30's, was very fond of it!.In the 1920's, Alexander Woollcott and a few of his pals purchased Neshobe Island, eight acres in the middle of Lake Bomoseen in Vermont. There, Harpo Marx among others, spent a considerable amount of time in the 1920s and 1930s playing croquet, as did other members of the round Table, like George Kaufman.

Of course they were not the only ones who loved croquet

Mr. Hearst and Marion Davies

Shirley Temple and Orson Welles

Producer Darryl Zanuck.... no idea what's he is doing there

 

[LocktownDog]

Croquet, panama hats, gin & tonics, good music, pretty companions .....

Where's summer?