Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[jamespowers]

Excellent point. I'm not "downtown" anymore, so I don't see them in buildings as much as I did 15yrs ago.
But there aren't many left, certainly not on a bench or a stand like you'd see in movies from the Golden Era.
When I was a kid, there was one in a gov't building downtown. That was the early 70's, and he'd probably been doing it since he was a kid.

There is one over in San Franfreako right on the sidewalk. It is a small stand but the guy does a great job. We also have them in certain department stores as well---Nordstrom's comes to mind. I have had a few done there too. You can also get them done at any of the local cobblers too. You just have to look around here.

 

[Wally_Hood]

We still have several bootblacks in Philadelphia. Train stations, shoe makers and the better hotels mostly but a few mobile that show up in office buildings and street corners.

Good grief. That reply sure fell in a worm hole.

My son was in the Search and Rescue program for a while, and in the store where he purchased all his gear and uniforms was a shoe shine service. It was very expensive but the shoes gleamed.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Bubblers on the sidewalks downtown. I think we only have one left.

 

[Zombie_61]

Bubblers on the sidewalks downtown...

"Drinking fountains" to us water-conscious California folk.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I think they're called that just about everywhere, but here.

"Drinking fountains" to us water-conscious California folk.

That's another one that's on the wane is regional dialect.

 

[Zombie_61]

...That's another one that's on the wane is regional dialect.

Do you really think so? I would think such colloquialisms would become more widely known because of their use on the Internet in blogs and forums such as this.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I see your point, but I think the fact that things like the internet and television have made non-regional dialect so prominent and the fact that people relocate so easily nowadays, has caused the language to become more homogenized.

I think my own generation is one of the last to really have the noticeable "Milwaukee" accent. My parents' is even thicker than mind. As soon as I moved to this area, people asked where I was from originally. Now my brother and sister, and people their age lack it completely. My brother, oddly enough, almost has a Canadian way of saying things, such as 'aboot.' Wonder what that's all about.

Do you really think so? I would think such colloquialisms would become more widely known because of their use on the Internet in blogs and forums such as this.

 

[Zombie_61]

I see your point, but I think the fact that things like the internet and television have made non-regional dialect so prominent and the fact that people relocate so easily nowadays, has caused the language to become more homogenized...

I think I understand what you're saying. It's not the words and/or phrases that are disappearing, it's their association with a particular region or locale that's becoming less distinct because more people know about them and are using them now. Yes?

 

[BigFitz]

Steel hubcaps.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

More or less, not to mention that the generic midwestern style dialect is what they use on all the TV shows and such, so that's a lot of what people are exposed to. They spend more time watching TV programs than actually interacting with people in their neighborhoods.

I think I understand what you're saying. It's not the words and/or phrases that are disappearing, it's their association with a particular region or locale that's becoming less distinct because more people know about them and are using them now. Yes?

 

[HudsonHawk]

More or less, not to mention that the generic midwestern style dialect is what they use on all the TV shows and such, so that's a lot of what people are exposed to. They spend more time watching TV programs than actually interacting with people in their neighborhoods.

That, and certain dialects and accents get stereotypes in TV and film, whether they are appropriate to the setting or not. Films like Forest Gump come to mind...from rural Alabama but speaks with an exaggerated Virginia accent, because people outside the region simply view it as "southern".

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's as much a class-driven thing as anything else: part of being part of the Great American Homogenous Middle Class is having a Homogenous Middle Class Accent. Up here, members of the GAHMC are some old wicked spleeny about the way they talk -- if you sound like you're "from" anywhere, you obviously aren't the right kind of person.

 

[Stanley Doble]

You are right about the accent thing. It jarred me the first time I heard a professor lecture with a southern accent. As a northerner from Canada, my only exposure to southern accents was from TV and movies and they never portrayed a southerner as an educated person. No doubt there are millions of educated southerners but you wouldn't know it from TV and movies.

Canada hosted millions of Scotch immigrants in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The Canadian accent you hear may be the faint trace of a scotch burr.

 

[HudsonHawk]

You are right about the accent thing. It jarred me the first time I heard a professor lecture with a southern accent. As a northerner from Canada, my only exposure to southern accents was from TV and movies and they never portrayed a southerner as an educated person. No doubt there are millions of educated southerners but you wouldn't know it from TV and movies.

Canada hosted millions of Scotch immigrants in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The Canadian accent you hear may be the faint trace of a scotch burr.

As a Southerner, who has a strong natural accent, it bothers me too. Which is why I dislike when people play on that stereotype. Larry the Cable Guy springs to mind...a Midwesterner who uses a fake accent and the worst racial and social stereotypes to get a laugh.

As for accent origin, it was the Scots and Scots-Irish who settled much of the southern US, and you hear that in most Southern accents as well. It's really only the Virginia and coastal regions of the Carolinas where you hear that English, non-rhotic accent most often associated with Southern aristocrats.

 

[jamespowers]

"Drinking fountains" to us water-conscious California folk.

Drinking fountains to people everywhere else you mean. the term Bubbler reminds me of a toilet.

 

[Gregg Axley]

So Tom's town has toilets on the sidewalk?
Doesn't that cause privacy issues?
All we have down here is heat and a river.

 

[sheeplady]

So Tom's town has toilets on the sidewalk?
Doesn't that cause privacy issues?
All we have down here is heat and a river.

In the Netherlands they have urinals on the sidewalk in many cities. And, yeah, people use them.

 

[jamespowers]

In the Netherlands they have urinals on the sidewalk in many cities. And, yeah, people use them.

True but they are enclosed and you can't see in.

 

[Gregg Axley]

True but they are enclosed and you can't see in.

In the winter time is that what they call "ice castles?"

 

[Zombie_61]

...They spend more time watching TV programs than actually interacting with people in their neighborhoods.

I'd guess comments like this started soon after radio became the new form of home entertainment. "Look at them all sitting there just listening to that darned radio; they hardly talk to each other any more." Sadly, it's gotten worse as the technology for personal entertainment and communication media has evolved, especially with the younger generations who can't conceive of a time before texting and video games.