Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[1mach1]

The most annoying packing material I have ever encountered involved a pretty specialized (and expensive) laboratory fixture. It was wrapped in shrink wrap, placed in a crate, then the void space filled in with that expanding foam insulation that comes in the can.
It took all day just to unpack it.

:eusa_doh:
I hate that stuff.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Service comedies. Movies making laughs out of the routines of military life had been hugely popular since World War I, remained so thru World War II, and were still a screen staple into the sixties. Dumb recruits, conniving corporals, scheming sergeants, weaselly second lieutenants, hardboiled colonels -- all the stock characters were there. Just about every popular comedian or comedy team made at least one such picture over their careers, and service comedies were very popular on television for over twenty years. At a time when just about everyone had either served in the military or was directly connected to someone who had, these pictures and programs found a ready and enthusiastic audience.

But there hasn't been a truly great service comedy since "Stripes" and "Private Benjamin" more than thirty years ago. There have been a few -- Major Payne, the Steve Martin remake of Sergeant Bilko, etc. -- but none have made a particularly deep impression, and those that do appear are few and far between. Instead, movies with a military setting are expected to be some mixture of grim, harsh, and reverent -- and you absolutely aren't allowed to laugh. If the generation which survived the most devastating war in modern history could laugh at the Army, why can't people today?

 

[HudsonHawk]

If the generation which survived the most devastating war in modern history could laugh at the Army, why can't people today?

I'm guessing you know the answer to that, and this is just a rhetorical question?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Pretty much. Not only couldn't you make a picture like "Buck Privates" today, but you would be actively attacked for even suggesting it.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Pretty much. Not only couldn't you make a picture like "Buck Privates" today, but you would be actively attacked for even suggesting it.

This is another discussion, but I get really annoyed with the jingoism being shoved down my throat at every turn. I love my country dearly. But I have no use for the showy displays of whooping and hollering or demand that I stand and salute every show tune some bearded backwood philosopher finds suitably stirring.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I can remember when the organist played the "Mexican Hat Dance" at the seventh-inning stretch. I miss those days.

 

[2jakes]

I can remember when the organist played the "Mexican Hat Dance" at the seventh-inning stretch. I miss those days.

They still do @ our local Spurs games in Texas...

:cheer2::cheer2::cheer2::cheer2:
...... Go Spurs Go !

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Service comedies. Movies making laughs out of the routines of military life had been hugely popular since World War I, remained so thru World War II, and were still a screen staple into the sixties. Dumb recruits, conniving corporals, scheming sergeants, weaselly second lieutenants, hardboiled colonels -- all the stock characters were there. Just about every popular comedian or comedy team made at least one such picture over their careers, and service comedies were very popular on television for over twenty years. At a time when just about everyone had either served in the military or was directly connected to someone who had, these pictures and programs found a ready and enthusiastic audience.

But there hasn't been a truly great service comedy since "Stripes" and "Private Benjamin" more than thirty years ago. There have been a few -- Major Payne, the Steve Martin remake of Sergeant Bilko, etc. -- but none have made a particularly deep impression, and those that do appear are few and far between. Instead, movies with a military setting are expected to be some mixture of grim, harsh, and reverent -- and you absolutely aren't allowed to laugh. If the generation which survived the most devastating war in modern history could laugh at the Army, why can't people today?

I think you've answered your own question in the first paragraph. There's a saying among veterans that "if you weren't there you really can't speak about it," and the decline of service comedies, I believe, reflects that viewpoint. In the '40s through the '60s, thanks to World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the peacetime draft in between, there was a much larger percentage of the population who "were there" than today, even with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and thus a more receptive audience. Also, chances are that family members of those who served were themselves veterans as were many of the actors, writers and directors of these movies.

Guilt feelings over the way Vietnam veterans were treated have, to some degree, been hardwired into our culture which influences the way movies with a military setting are now portrayed.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think you've answered your own question in the first paragraph. There's a saying among veterans that "if you weren't there you really can't speak about it," and the decline of service comedies, I believe, reflects that viewpoint. In the '40s through the '60s, thanks to World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the peacetime draft in between, there was a much larger percentage of the population who "were there" than today, even with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and thus a more receptive audience. Also, chances are that family members of those who served were themselves veterans as were many of the actors, writers and directors of these movies.

Guilt feelings over the way Vietnam veterans were treated have, to some degree, been hardwired into our culture which influences the way movies with a military setting are now portrayed.

That's basically what I was getting at, yes. There is such a vast division now between the classes of people who actually serve in the military and those who have no actual contact with it at all that military service and everything that goes with it has become this culturally-untouchable thing. The shallow reverence with which today's popular culture views military service makes it impossible to see any possiblities for humor in it.

It'd be an interesting experiment to rerun "Sergeant Bilko" on cable and see how long it takes someone to complain that it's offensive to The Troops.

 

[ChiTownScion]

This is another discussion, but I get really annoyed with the jingoism being shoved down my throat at every turn. I love my country dearly. But I have no use for the showy displays of whooping and hollering or demand that I stand and salute every show tune some bearded backwood philosopher finds suitably stirring.

:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[Harp]

Hotel letterhead correspondence stationery is all but gone. 5 years ago i stil saw it, but no more.

The Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas offers letterhead stationery.

 

[skydog757]

I can't remember the last time I saw a hotel, restaurant, or bar/tavern give out matchbooks with their name/address on them. I used to casually collect them (I lived in Las Vegas for four years) and I had a bunch of 'em. Some were pretty fancy. I'd also get them from tourist attractions elsewhere (Sun Studios, Stax Records, etc), they were a free souvenir. I just kept them in a large brandy snifter, I didn't really display them. After I got married and moved I kept them in our attic area. I later discovered that my wife had been using them to light her cigarettes with (she doesn't smoke around the house much, so I didn't notice that she was using them). My collection was pretty much depleted by the time I caught on. 'Sigh'; I guess you can only collect just so many things.

 

[Bugguy]

One more vintage thing thats struggling to make a comeback...



If you're interested Kentucky I-65 Ex 86 two hours ago! I just had to buy 1/2 tank and take a picture.

 

[jamespowers]

One more vintage thing thats struggling to make a comeback...

View attachment 21704

If you're interested Kentucky I-65 Ex 86 two hours ago! I just had to buy 1/2 tank and take a picture.

That would work for me. Gas was 77 cents a gallon when I started driving though.

 

[Stearmen]

That would work for me. Gas was 77 cents a gallon when I started driving though.

It was .25 for regular and a whooping .35 for Ethyl, and full service! It was fun to pull up to a station on a motorcycle and have two attendants put a quarter worth of gas in my tank. The wise crackers would ask if they could check my oil and wash my windows. Who would have thought, less then $2.00 for Christmas?

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Marathon $2.21 in midIndiana today. We are always higher priced that many surrounding areas.
HD

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Marathon $2.21 in midIndiana today. We are always higher priced that many surrounding areas.
HD

You need to come up north. In Valparaiso gas is under $1.99.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That would work for me. Gas was 77 cents a gallon when I started driving though.

I remember the outrage when regular went to 50 cents a gallon, but when it hit a dollar people were just "yeah, whatever." We had a big poster in the front window breaking down that dollar, showing that our profit margin was about four cents a gallon, along with a sheet of WW2 ration stamps captioned "HEY IT COULD BE WORSE"

 

[jamespowers]

It was .25 for regular and a whooping .35 for Ethyl, and full service! It was fun to pull up to a station on a motorcycle and have two attendants put a quarter worth of gas in my tank. The wise crackers would ask if they could check my oil and wash my windows. Who would have thought, less then $2.00 for Christmas?

25 cents?! Were dinosaurs still roaming the earth?

Not less than $2 here. $2.35 last time I looked.

 

[jamespowers]

I remember the outrage when regular went to 50 cents a gallon, but when it hit a dollar people were just "yeah, whatever." We had a big poster in the front window breaking down that dollar, showing that our profit margin was about four cents a gallon, along with a sheet of WW2 ration stamps captioned "HEY IT COULD BE WORSE"

Yes, It could be worse.