Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[ChrisB]

"What are those kids doing out at this time of night?" I asked a fellow bystander.

"The bars are about to close," she replied, "and they're going down to bring their parents home."

Sometimes it's the adults who need supervision.

 

[Harp]

Because, at it's core, the market is what it will always be: a price discovery system that is inherently "chaotic" and volatile. The exchanges - physical or electronic - exist to create a construct around the chaos. That construct has never been and probably never will be able to anticipate and control all the potential chaos.

"All of life is a speculation."---Bernard Baruch
I always held that both outcry and electronic trading could coexist together; naïve of course, yet there was a certain magic.

 

[Fading Fast]

A few years ago as I was leaving work, a fire broke out in a building down the street, which ended up blockading me in my parking lot so I couldn't go home until almost 3AM. So I spent much of the night standing on the sidewalk watching the fire and seeing the night-owls go about their routine. Just before 1, I saw a bunch of kids running down the street, nine or ten years old, entirely unsupervised. "What are those kids doing out at this time of night?" I asked a fellow bystander.

"The bars are about to close," she replied, "and they're going down to bring their parents home."

Quite the barbell - on one end, kids who are driven four blocks to school / on the other, kids walking their drunk parents home from the bar.

Here's the thing, some number of the later kids will be unfortunately sucked into a vortex of disfunction that even their adult selves can't escape and some of the former will have such a well-marked-and-paved runway that they'd have to work hard to mess it up (but some will), but away form the extremes, I wouldn't bet that a randomly selected kid from either group is going to be a more or less successful adult.

I've worked with a lot of people over the years and future success doesn't seem all that correlated to childhood experience despite the studies that show it is. I know the study and evidence is there - from how much having a good breakfast helps you stay focused in school to how living in a house with books increases your vocabulary, etc - and I have nothing but a lot of anecdotal evidence to draw upon, but based on that, I still wouldn't put extra chips on the kids that are being driven everywhere.

 

[ChrisB]

Quite the barbell - on one end, kids who are driven four blocks to school / on the other, kids walking their drunk parents home from the bar.

I've worked with a lot of people over the years and future success doesn't seem all that correlated to childhood experience despite the studies that show it is. QUOTE]

Some will thrive in spite of, or perhaps because of, adversity. You can find flowers growing in the middle of a junk yard.

 

[Fading Fast]

"All of life is a speculation."---Bernard Baruch....

The best training I ever got for "life" was not in school and not even growing up, but was on the floor of the stock exchange and the tumult of the trading floors. Markets are attempts to distill imperfect information about the future - assessing odds and possible outcomes - into present decisions based on potential future outcomes and value.

Even the most anti-capitalist / the most confirmed communist has to do that to have a successful life. Almost every decision in life that is worth anything - what kind of education do I want, should I stay in school longer, is this house a good buy, do I quit smoking, do I replace my car now / lease / buy, do I want to marry this person, should I switch jobs, what medical treatment makes the most sense - is really just a trading decision - knowing how to trade helps one do that better, IMHO.

...I always held that both outcry and electronic trading could coexist together; naïve of course, yet there was a certain magic.

As much as I loved the physical floors and pits and greatly miss the culture and tactility of it, at the end of the day, efficiency and logic should drive market structure and, in theory anyway, advances in technology argue that electronic is more efficient. At a basic level, that makes sense: it's much easier, faster and cheaper to communicate electronically and the "feel" and "look" that is lost was, at best, nothing more than a poker game for day traders - not a price discovery driver of any significance.

That said, what was a problem in physical markets is still a problem in electronic markets - having enough liquidity in periods of volatility for markets to function. The NYSE addressed that reasonably successfully for years with its specialist system. The electronic platforms (and Dodds Frank reform) eliminated a lot of the old answers, we'll see if the electronic markets can survive as they are or will need to build a liquidity construct / provider in the future (I think they will, but it's not sexy to do so, so it will take a crisis to make it happen).

 

[LizzieMaine]

Some will thrive in spite of, or perhaps because of, adversity. You can find flowers growing in the middle of a junk yard.

Yep, they tend to be very prickly, but they're still flowers.

 

[ChrisB]

I see more adults riding bicycles than children, with quite a few riding to work. When I was a kid, I only knew one adult who regularly rode a bicycle to work, and that was considered to be a bit eccentric at the time.

 

[2jakes]

Zenith television.

Once a year the city will pickup bulk items.
This set complete with remote was on the front yard.
This was typical of the television sets which we used to have
growing up.

 

[BobHufford]

Zenith television.

Once a year the city will pickup bulk items.
This set complete with remote was on the front yard.
This was typical of the television sets which we used to have
growing up.

That was probably made close to where I sit at work. My company's headquarters is in the old Zenith plant in Springfield, MO.

 

[2jakes]

^^^^^
Nice jeans!

 

[Zombie_61]

Zenith television.

Once a year the city will pickup bulk items.
This set complete with remote was on the front yard.
This was typical of the television sets which we used to have
growing up.

My in-laws had a Zenith television very much like that one, but the remote control was the big obnoxious Space Commander Six Hundred:

Those four big buttons sticking out of the top made a loud "click" noise every time you pressed them.

With regards to putting television sets and such at the curb for pick up, that happens regularly in our neighborhood regardless of whether or not the city is scheduled to pick them up. Most of the time they're gone by sunrise the next day, and if they aren't they'll usually stay there for a week or so until the city (or someone) does finally remove them.

 

[Fading Fast]

My in-laws had a Zenith television very much like that one, but the remote control was the big obnoxious Space Commander Six Hundred:

Those four big buttons sticking out of the top made a loud "click" noise every time you pressed them....

My grandmother had the B&W TV version of that remote (and her TV was not a piece of furniture, just a free standing TV on a very rudimentary metal stand) which had just two buttons:

• One for on/off which also turned the volume up as each click took the volume up a notch and, then, after three or four higher levels, the next click shut it off - so the TV always got loud for a moment before you shut it off.
• One for channel changing and this was cool in that as you clicked it, the channel knob on the actual TV rotated as if you were manually changing the channel

And, yes, they were loud clicks as, I believe, they operated on sonic or high frequency sound to "communicate" with the TV. When my grandmother passed away, we put her TV in small bedroom in our house which allowed me to watch TV as I wasn't allowed to watch my Dad's TV - the only other one in the house. It is on that (about) late '50s B&W TV that I watched all those '60s TV shows, classic cartoons, discovered "Star Trek" and saw all those old classic movies on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

It's odd, but had my grandmother not passed away when I was young, I sincerely believe I would not have seen those shows and movies and, probably, not be a fan of all of them to this day.

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^^^
Nice jeans!

The hairstyles also stood out a bit, so of the period.

 

[HudsonHawk]

My grandmother had the B&W TV version of that remote (and her TV was not a piece of furniture, just a free standing TV on a very rudimentary metal stand) which had just two buttons:

• One for on/off which also turned the volume up as each click took the volume up a notch and, then, after three or four higher levels, the next click shut it off - so the TV always got loud for a moment before you shut it off.
• One for channel changing and this was cool in that as you clicked it, the channel knob on the actual TV rotated as if you were manually changing the channel

And, yes, they were loud clicks as, I believe, they operated on sonic or high frequency sound to "communicate" with the TV. When my grandmother passed away, we put her TV in small bedroom in our house which allowed me to watch TV as I wasn't allowed to watch my Dad's TV - the only other one in the house. It is on that (about) late '50s B&W TV that I watched all those '60s TV shows, classic cartoons, discovered "Star Trek" and saw all those old classic movies on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

It's odd, but had my grandmother not passed away when I was young, I sincerely believe I would not have seen those shows and movies and, probably, not be a fan of all of them to this day.

We had a little black and white on a wire stand that sometimes worked. We got a console TV when I was in the 7th grade, and it was color. Awesome. We only got four channels, but it was awesome. And *I* was the remote.

But the first remotes I remember from friends and relatives was wired to the TV.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I never had a TV with any kind of a remote until the 1990s -- now I have three different remotes to run various ancillary devices.

First TV I remember us having was an aged tabletop Admiral, but in 1967 my uncle, thru one of his many "deals," got us a round-tube Philco color console. I promptly cracked the safety glass by throwing a telephone stand at it, for reasons which have faded in my memory. Possibly I was annoyed by Williams starting Lonborg on two days rest, but what choice did he have? Or maybe I just tripped. Anyway, for the next fifteen years that we had that set, it had a Liberty Bell-like crack on the safety glass. Otherwise, for a bottom-of-the-line TV it produced an excellent picture, and once pulled in Mason City, Iowa during a sunspot flare.

We squeezed every bit of life we possibly could out of that set, and even after it died it remained in my mother's living room as a stand for the cheap Western Auto tabletop set she'd gotten to replace it. I always wanted to restore it one day, but that day never came, and finally it ended up going to the dump.

The earliest TV remotes actually worked by sound waves, not by infrared or visible light. The control unit had a little chime inside that produced tones at the high end of human perception, rigged to a sensor unit inside the set. The problem was that other devices -- a telephone bell, for example -- also produced sounds that had overtones capable of activating the sensors. You might be watching such a TV only to have the phone ring and the channel suddenly change on you. You can see why this system didn't catch on.

 

[ChrisB]

Zenith television.

Similar to the one I inherited from my great aunt, but with manual controls only. Actually, I have never purchased a TV for my own use!

 

[2jakes]

As a kid, our television was black & white with 3 channels and no remote.
My grandmother bought at the five & ten
a transparent rainbow plastic sheet which
was taped to the front screen and meant to give the illusion of watching in color.

I recall Gene & Roy westerns and Charlie Chan mystery movies this way.
I thought it was weird but I never
told my grandma & hurt her feelings.
I loved that woman so much.

We never had the "remote" style televisions.
I was the designated channel changer, rabbit-ear antenna adjuster and
the horizontal & vertical control.
I could name every show and what
time they came on.
Cigarrette and beer commercials was the
time to run to the kitchen for snacks.

As a teenager, I had to fight to watch
"Spin & Marty" on the Mickey Mouse Club
show. My sisters preferred "American Bandstand" with host Dick Clark.
With five sisters, I didn't stand chance.

Saturday mornings started with the
station wheel signal of Howdy Doody Show. My favorite was the "Andy Devine Show". These early morning shows introduced me to '30s Buck Rogers, Our Gang/ Little Rascals, Max Fleischer's surreal cartoons
and my favorite...Laurel & Hardy!

Game shows were very popular in the evening until the scandal.
Sundays, something called Omnibus with Dave Garroway (not sure of the names)
was great . My favorite was a documentary on Abraham Lincoln.

I was not much into " comedy shows"
with the canned laughter. It was insultingly annoying!
With the exception of the "Andy Griffith Show".
Mr. Don Knotts made it bearable!

 

[vitanola]

My parents bought one of the new, "Ultra Slim" General Electric 21"sets with the 110 degree picture tube when they married in 1958. It featured a wired remote control, but the thing positively ATE picture tubes, and after the set was four or five years old the circuit boards began cracking.

At least twice a year in my childhood the chassis had to "go in for repair" for three or four weeks at a time.

My grandparents kept their 1949 Admiral console in its Bakelite cabinet. THAT set was reliable as all get-out. It seemed to need service but once every couple of years. I rebuilt that set in 1982, new condensers, replaced the drifted resistors and replaced the very dim 12LP4 picture tube. The set still works.

I keep the set in my record room. In the Library I have an RCA Berkshire that I was lucky enough to pick up seven years ago but have not had the time to restore. The set is a BEAR, with four chassis (two of which are missing) and a 20" projection television. SOMEDAY...

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ Vitanola, that Bakelite TV is incredible, absolutely incredible.

My dad bought a 25" Magnavox color TV in 1964 "table top" model as he wasn't going to "pay up for fancy cabinetry." Hence, for the next, I kid you not, 25 years, a big hunk of slowly corroding metal sat in our den on a table or counter - and it weighed about the same as a Volkswagen. While it needed service every five or so years (until the last ten when it just kept working until it just dropped dead one day), that thing stood the test of time. And yes, like many kids of that era, I was the remote control (and even an occasional extension to the rabbit ears before he bought an antenna for the roof - wow, did reception improve when that happened).

 

[tonyb]

As to vintage things that have disappeared ...

The come-to-you TV repairman. Remember him? He set up his big mirror in the living room and everybody got the hell out of the way while he pulled the TV away from the wall, took the back off, and fiddled with it.

I don't recall ever in my now moderately lengthy adult life having a TV set repaired, let alone repaired by a person who came to the house.

Another vintage thing that has disappeared ...

Expensive consumer electronics of just about any description, TV sets included. Look at what a new "full size" color TV set your folks back in, say, 1966. A month's pay or more, for us working-class stiffs. In our neighborhood, a new color TV was a BFD. It kinda elevated a family's status for a week or so. Now, a TV of a similar screen size can be had for what a working schmo earns in a day or two. A great big 'un, a TV on a scale almost unimaginable thru our 1966 eyes, might cost what you make in a week or so. You CAN spend a whole lot more than that, if what you want is the latest technology. But you can get last year's latest technology for a whole lot less.