Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[AtomicEraTom]

I don't wear my shoes in the house, well my work boots, especially. I have slippers. I don't mind people wearing shoes inside, though the rubber soles to track in way more filth than I do with my leather soled shoes.

 

[Shangas]

It's a Chinese custom to leave shoes at the door. You wear shoes outside, to protect your feet. Your house is supposed to be clean enough that your feet don't need protecting.

And, it's bad form to track crud in all over the house...

 

[vitanola]

Leather soles are also easier on antique carpets than rubber soles. The leather sole slides against fibers of the pile, polishing it, the rubber sole tugs against the fibers of the pile, fraying and then wearing them.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

It's a Chinese custom to leave shoes at the door. You wear shoes outside, to protect your feet. Your house is supposed to be clean enough that your feet don't need protecting.

And, it's bad form to track crud in all over the house...

That is also a custom in India & Pakistan as well as several other nationalities.

 

[Wally_Hood]

It's a Chinese custom to leave shoes at the door. You wear shoes outside, to protect your feet. Your house is supposed to be clean enough that your feet don't need protecting.

And, it's bad form to track crud in all over the house...

Many years ago I was an exchange student in Japan, where the custom of removing shoes before entering a house is prevalent. I used to do the same thing for a while when I returned home. Now, after a long day at work I regularly kick off my shoes when I get home.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Yeah, but try to find a place that serves good pork chops and mashed potatoes. Someday I'd like to open an exotic "American" restaurant specializing in my own native cuisine.

As for fortune cookies, I used to write them. And for source material, I cribbed a lot of ideas from the Book of Proverbs. That's faux-Chinese by way of ancient Hebrew by way of working-class New England white girl. Who says the "Melting Pot" is dead.

Reminds me of the packets of Hawaiian brand Chinese style mustard, made by the Allied Old English company of Passaic New Jersey, I used to get with Chinese takeout here in small town Canada in the seventies. It always used to make me laugh.

 

[rocketeer]

Just how do you define 'Vintage things' what date is the cut off? Things that have passed on in my lifetime? 78RPM records, 45 RPM and 33, Cassette tapes? And whats coming? CDs?
If you are a 50s collector does that 'vintage' description stop at 1959 and antique be up to 1949?
With old cars and wine it is easy. Veteran cars have a certain cut off date 1904? Vintage, after that up to 1930 I believe. The worst is of course, Classic. Meaning once upon a time 'Of enduing style and appeal' a dictionary quotation.Now Classic can mean, the worst car ever made or simply something boring and mediocre but classic because it was made ?? years ago.
Wine on the other hand, If I have a 1992 vintage claret or even if I am asked what wine I have in my storage rack, I say "I'm afraid I only have a Chateau de la Cour St Emilion from the vintage 2005.

So just for fun, what vintage things have disappeared in my life time in the last 10 years? Heres a short list of mine, some may be still in production but no longer mainstream.
Tubed TV's, 35mm camera's? Antiques limited to being 100 years old. How about words? Being replaced all the time with abbreviations!
OK its a bit controversial, especially if you are a lover of things old, and with it, Vintage Classic and Antique criteria. But age marches on.

Just a side note: I own/have owned.
A2 WWII leather jacket, my opinion, Classic design, new or old.
1963 Wurlitzer juke box. Nothing special to look at compared to a Bal AMI Continental
2005 Suzuki Hayabusa Motorcycle, Classic supersport motorcycle.
BSA 1964 A65, Mediocre British twin motorcycle.
1960 Austin Mini, a Classic in its own right.
1970 Château Lafite Rothschild, bottle of wine. Won this in a competition, to scared to drink it when I found out the value. A classic by virtue.
2008 Australian white. Awful supermarket wine but still vintage.
1960 Cadillac. Nice but really just an old car, dumbed down version of its 1959 brethren.

Oh my God, that lot will get everyone thinking I'm a troll or whatever the word is.
Johnny

 

[LizzieMaine]

When I first posted this thread, what I had in mind was things that were in everyday use in the Era that you've seen in everyday use in your own lifetime, but are no longer in mainstream everyday use. Of course, one's own definition of The Era differs from person to person.

For me, it's things like general-interest national magazines, vent windows on cars, yellow stop signs, home economics classes, radio stations that play music from turntables, World War I veterans, Woolworth stores, pitchers who can go the distance, people who serve Veg-All unironically, and, as I noted in the very first post, those flaming torches that look like bombs they used to use to mark road excavation pits.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Just how do you define 'Vintage things' what date is the cut off? Things that have passed on in my lifetime? 78RPM records, 45 RPM and 33, Cassette tapes? And whats coming? CDs?

For the record, just like antique is defined as being more than a hundred years old, something can be considered "vintage" that's more (than) twenty-five years old.

 

[rocketeer]

For the record, just like antique is defined as being more than a hundred years old, something can be considered "vintage" that's more twenty-five years old.

Hey thats great! it means anything can be vintage but sorry, I don't think that the 25 year age gap is a good mark,oh and yes I knew the antique thing, thats abused on any TV show about old stuff. Personally I don't think any of this classic vintage thing was all that common in modern context prior to internet and eBay days.
Vent windows on cars? They must have disappeared mid 1970s? Woolworths? they only disappeared a couple of years back so does that make my £2.50 electric kettle a collectable(it was bought on the last day, and I still have the receipt haha) Do you remember Woolworths high counters and those large crack'd glass effect lamps they had up to the 1960s
Yes it does vary from era to era depending on your age, so I guess my Cassette tapes and CDs may be in with a chance.

 

[LizzieMaine]

When I say Woolworths, I mean the original American Woolworths -- the downtown stores with bare wooden board floors soaked in linseed oil and the long, narrow, glass-covered counters. Those were long-gone in most US towns by the early '70s, with the shift to mall locations, and the whole chain went out of business in the US in the mid-90s. So it's been a while.

The idea behind the thread is things that existed in the Golden Era -- defined here as the 1920s thru the early postwar era -- and that survived in regular everyday use down to some indefinable point in our recent experiences.

As for me, I don't consider anything "vintage" that post-dates the Eisenhower administration.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Interestingly enough, as a vintage toy collector, the "Golden Era" of toys is roughly the period from the '50s through the '70s . The '80s were the beginning of the Made in China dreck that you find at Walmart today, and from the '20s through the '40s toys were actually more expensive back then than they are now, as attested to by the recollections of many who grew up during the Depression so they weren't really part of many people's nostalgic memories like they were from the '50s through the '70s.

 

[1961MJS]

...As for me, I don't consider anything "vintage" that post-dates the Eisenhower administration.

Hi Lizzie

I agree with you, but I was born in 1961. My son thinks that the 1980's are vintage, but then he's 25. I miss Woolworths.

Later

 

[rocketeer]

The idea behind the thread is things that existed in the Golden Era -- defined here as the 1920s thru the early postwar era -- and that survived in regular everyday use down to some indefinable point in our recent experiences.

Ahh Now i get it a bit better, though I too was not born until 1959.
I have been around old stuff for years, and recognised things as collectable for the same period though the means of obtaining these things has changed.
There are still many things that are still around from the era's you describe, the electric sewing machine is one example that like a car has changed only in its design and gained a few improvements and lost some reliability in the search of cost savings.
Though they are still made, Action Man(GI Joe), and slot cars, have made way for Playstations for war and racing games. My son had all my old cars including the fabulous James Bond Aston DB5, but when the playstation came out they went back into my 'old stuff' box. As for toy cars(Corgi Dinky etc) and model kits, they are now almost exclusively aimed at adults markets. Dont forget toy guns that look like the real thing. I had lots but have never used a real one in anger.
Non toys, a mangle for wringing washing and a good old glass washboard for you to do the old mans socks.
So that then is my contribution.

 

[HardBoiledMarlowe]

Just a side note: I own/have owned.
A2 WWII leather jacket, my opinion, Classic design, new or old.
1963 Wurlitzer juke box. Nothing special to look at compared to a Bal AMI Continental
2005 Suzuki Hayabusa Motorcycle, Classic supersport motorcycle.
BSA 1964 A65, Mediocre British twin motorcycle.
1960 Austin Mini, a Classic in its own right.
1970 Château Lafite Rothschild, bottle of wine. Won this in a competition, to scared to drink it when I found out the value. A classic by virtue.
2008 Australian white. Awful supermarket wine but still vintage.
1960 Cadillac. Nice but really just an old car, dumbed down version of its 1959 brethren.

Oh my God, that lot will get everyone thinking I'm a troll or whatever the word is.
Johnny

I just have a quick thought on the 1960 Cadillac. While it is essentially the same mechanically as the 1959 model, I've always been of the opinion that from a design standpoint, it is far smarter, clean and forward-looking. The the over-sized opulent fin and taillight structure on the 1959 models, while indicative of the time period's excess, seem to jut out of nowhere and disrupt the overall aesthetic of the vehicle.

 

[HardBoiledMarlowe]

7 Furniture Pieces and Home Accessories That Are Going Extinct

On a more appropriate note, this thread reminds of this interesting article. http://www.stylelist.com/2012/03/26/decorating-trends-furniture_n_1378883.html.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I always liked the look of the '59's better, personally. I thought the high fins made it look like a rocket. They are actually my all-time favorite car. I can see why people like the subdued look of the '60. I guess I just like the fifties excess!

I just have a quick thought on the 1960 Cadillac. While it is essentially the same mechanically as the 1959 model, I've always been of the opinion that from a design standpoint, it is far smarter, clean and forward-looking. The the over-sized opulent fin and taillight structure on the 1959 models, while indicative of the time period's excess, seem to jut out of nowhere and disrupt the overall aesthetic of the vehicle.

 

[Stanley Doble]

One thing I don't think has been mentioned, and I hope nobody misses, is the bender or binge drinker. This was especially common in pre prohibition times but still went on in my childhood.

Some men would start drinking and disappear for anywhere from a week to 6 weeks and stay drunk all that time. In the end they would turn up, broke, and looking and feeling like hell. They would sober up and go back to work and not touch a drop for 6 months, a year or more then away they went again.

I don't know anyone who does this and have not heard of it for years but have the impression it was not uncommon at least into the forties. Any comments?

 

[jamespowers]

I always liked the look of the '59's better, personally. I thought the high fins made it look like a rocket. They are actually my all-time favorite car.

I agree. In fact, one of the vintage things that have disappeared is the ability to tell one year vehicle from another. They all look Jellybean---the same. As opposed to:

If you can look at this and hate it then I can't help you.
That and the 1958 Buick are my favorites:

Even the stationwagon was sleek:

 

[LizzieMaine]

It still goes on around here -- all those bottles of Five O'Clock Gin and Allen's Coffee Brandy you find in the gutter aren't being served at distinguished cocktail parties, and with drugs added in it's even worse. And the glamorization of college binge drinking is just starting a whole new generation off on the same foot.

In the Era they had things like the Keeley Cure, where binge drinkers would be locked up and *forced* to drink at regular intervals until they couldn't stand the sight of the stuff. Film comedian Buster Keaton -- who went on a horrendous bender in 1933 and came out of it married to a woman he didn't recognize -- was one of the most famous graduates of the Keeley program.

One vintage thing you don't hear so much about anymore is "Temperance," the idea that avoiding alcohol altogether or taking it only in extreme moderation is the best way to live. Generally if you don't partake of "social drinking" nowadays people look at you funny.