Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[Inkstainedwretch]

Also vanished, (thankfully), is "The Negro Motorist's Green Book," a guide for African Americans who had to make lengthy motor trips, advising which routes to take to avoid trouble, where they could get gas, food and lodging without being harassed. It was published from 1936 to 1966, when the Jim Crow laws were abolished.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Our station, built in 1917. When passenger service was terminated on the Maine Central in 1959, it was remodeled into a new City Hall to replaced the one demolished for a parking lot. That ended in 1996, when City Hall moved to the outskirts. It was revived for passenger service in the late '90s for excursion trains, and there was some talk of re-linking it with Amtrak for the Boston run, but that came to nothing, and the excursion service ended in 2015. Only tenant now is a hipster nightclub/restaurant called "Trackside." The rail line itself is still active for freight, mostly raw materials being shipped to the cement factory, and the line runs directly thru many backyards in that part of town.

The main historical distinction for the building is that it's where, in 1941, President Roosevelt caught a train back to Washington after coming ashore here following his secret meeting with Winston Churchill in Newfoundland over the terms of the Atlantic Charter. There are still quite a few reisdents over 85 who'll tell you how they stood around the station waving as the President was helped to his coach. It's the last time a President visited us.

This is in Eagle River, the next town over from where we have our vacation cabin, North Woods of Wisconsin. Last passenger service was 1960: it was essentially a branch line run from Monico Wisconsin, north to Watersmeet Michigan. The train connection in Monico would get you to Green Bay, Milwaukee, and Chicago. Total trip from the Windy City to here was about 12 1/2 hours.... over a distance of about 350 miles. Not exactly high speed service, but in the day you could book Pullman sleeper or parlor car accommodations, and the trains boasted diners and a lounge car- at least until the mid- 1950's.

The semaphore device is actually a Sanborn train order board. Trains proceeded on train order up here, and the Chicago and North Western- ever cash strapped- made their own out of light rail. Last freight ran through here about 1980, and the tracks were pulled in 1982.

 

[Zombie_61]

I've previously posted this in the Vintage Roadside thread, but since the current conversation is about railroad stations...

This is the Southern Pacific Railroad depot in my home town of Whittier, California. On the left, as it looked in 1896; on the right, as it looked in 2009 (and how it looks today) after restoration and preservation. Built in 1892, it was closed down in 1967 due to changes in the Southern Pacific Railroad's routing. The building was occupied by various industrial tenants (I used to turn in aluminum cans for spare cash there in the late 70s) until the mid-1980s when the land it sat upon was scheduled for development. The building was eventually moved to it's current location a few miles southeast of it's original location, restored, and repurposed as the City of Whittier Transportation Center (whatever that is).

 

[Fading Fast]

Like Zombie_61, these were previously posted in the Vintage Roadside thread, but now also seem appropriate here.

The good news, this train station is still running and quite active, but that is because it is on the Mainline of the former Pennsylvania Railroad's track from Philly to New York.

Amtrak and N.J. Transit keep these four tracks quite busy today as it is part of the (I'm pretty sure) busiest rail corridor (Washington to Boston) in the country. I grew up using this station and commuted to work in the mid-'80s from here until I made enough to afford a ridiculously small apartment in NYC.

In the '70s and '80s, the station was falling apart (despite being quite busy) and was dangerous as, like so many other inner cities, New Brunswick had its problems back then. I went by it in the '90s and it had been renovated and clean up - similar to what many cities were doing - and am told by some old friends that it's still being kept up nicely.

Early 1900s


Closer to present day (my guess, late '90s, but hard to tell)

 

[2jakes]

Pinball machines:

.
Last time I saw them were at convenience stores.
Not anymore.

 

[2jakes]

The incredible architecture of these old train stations - from the behemoths in the big cities to the incredibly impressive ones like this ⇧ in the smaller ones - tells us how successful and important train travel was for a period.

That is an insanely beautiful station. I've been in a decent number of airports - and a few have some interesting and even uplifting architecture (in spots) - but none compare to the presence, elegance and thoughtfulness of that ⇧.

 

[Fading Fast]

Appreciate the lift . I am not the aggressively adventurous type, but would like to take a hot-air ballon flight at some point; hence, quite a chuckle at your picture.

 

[Fading Fast]

Pinball machines:

.
Last time I saw them were at convenience stores.
Not anymore.

Two outstanding pictures. I love the exhibit one's full glory and the miniaturized "realism" of the single machine.

It's funny, a year or so ago, I was meeting a friend in a different neighborhood and walked by a - I kid you not - pinball arcade that was new, but had pinball machines out of the '40s - '70s and early video machines (the stuff that was popular in the '80s). Then, the next day, I caught an article that said the Hipsters (of course) were getting into the "retro" games and stores like the one I saw were popping up.

That said, after seeing the store and reading the article on back-to-back days, I haven't seen or heard much more about the putative revival since.

 

[tonyb]

Many years ago I procured a pinball machine to present to a friend on his birthday. We got the thing for nothing -- gratis, not a dime, nada, free.

This was at a time when the places that had pinball machines were either going under or replacing the things with amusement devices that occupied less floor space and were less prone to breaking down.

And pinball machines do indeed break down. My friend's then-girlfriend (they're married now) became quite adept at fixing the thing.

Now there's a pinball museum in Seattle's Chinatown.

 

[Fading Fast]

...My friend's then-girlfriend (they're married now) became quite adept at fixing the thing....

A woman who can fix a pinball machine is a keeper - shows she's the real deal.

 

[2jakes]

A woman who can fix a pinball machine is a keeper - shows she's the real deal.

Once knew a redhead who rode a Truimph Bonneville in California.
A real cutie who could not only work her bike but protected me when the going
got rough.
I think of her now & then when I cruise the backroads.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Interesting fact -- pinball was illegal in New York City from 1942 to 1976. Mayor LaGuardia really really really really hated pinball machines for their connection to gambling and racketeering, and he liked nothing better than to go down to the warehouse and smash up a few.

 

[2jakes]

And now...the rest of the story....

 

[tonyb]

Interesting fact -- pinball was illegal in New York City from 1942 to 1976. Mayor LaGuardia really really really really hated pinball machines for their connection to gambling and racketeering, and he liked nothing better than to go down to the warehouse and smash up a few.

In Seattle, the pinball machines that paid nickels were extinct before I arrived there, in 1968, so I have no experience In that regard.

I recently came across, in a box containing numerous small pieces of memorabilia, a couple of City of Seattle amusement device brass license plaques, from 1958 and 1961. These plaques were procured from the same place where I got the pinball machine, lo those many years ago. Now they are affixed to the walls here at the new place -- one in the bathroom, one in the bedroom -- with brass screws.

It was a serendipitous find. I had forgotten that I have them.

 

[Fading Fast]

Interesting fact -- pinball was illegal in New York City from 1942 to 1976. Mayor LaGuardia really really really really hated pinball machines for their connection to gambling and racketeering, and he liked nothing better than to go down to the warehouse and smash up a few.

I'm not going to mention his height or a Napoleon complex, nope, not going to mention it.

 

[Fading Fast]

Once knew a redhead who rode a Truimph Bonneville in California.
A real cutie who could not only work her bike but protected me when the going
got rough.
I think of her now & then when I cruise the backroads.

I'm not kidding at all - those are the keepers. Girly-girls are fine for what they are, but a woman can fix a machine, help put out a full-on fire and will jump right into a street fight if needed.

If we were ever attacked, there'd be no her hiding behind me, my girlfriend and I'd be back to back, guns blazing 'till we both went down* (all metaphorical as neither of us own a gun).

*And my money says she gets in more kills than I do.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm not going to mention his height or a Napoleon complex, nope, not going to mention it.

He also hated -- and banned -- slot machines, organ grinders, burlesque shows, and artichokes. A Freudian would have a field day.

 

[Fading Fast]

He also hated -- and banned -- slot machines, organ grinders, burlesque shows, and artichokes. A Freudian would have a field day.

Slot machines - stupidest gamble ever (It's a machine that you put $1 in and get 83 cents out of - at best), but a fool and his money...so no reason to ban.

Organ grinders - thank you Fiorello

Burlesque shows - banning sex stuff is one of mankind dumbest long-term, futile efforts

Artichokes - to use Millennial speak: WTF?

 

[LizzieMaine]

It was an effort to break the back of "the artichoke racket." Artichoke sales in the mid-thirties were dominated by a mid-level hood named Ciro Terranova, the "Artichoke King," who had cornered the market in the vegetable. LaGuardia hated Italian gangsters as much as he hated organ grinders, and for much the same reason -- he hated anyone who perpetuated Italian stereotypes. So he banned the display, sale, and possession of artichokes in the city until Terranova was broken, after which the ban was lifted.

Proclaiming the ban from the back of a vegetable truck at the Bronx Terminal Market, early in the morning of December 21, 1935. “I want it clearly understood -- no thugs, racketeers or punks are going to be allowed to intimidate you as long as I am mayor of the City of New York.”

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ I have not a scintilla of doubt that what you say is so, but am amazed that someone could, did and made money cornering the artichoke market. At a certain level you have to applaud man's ability to turn a buck, even illegally. Really - corning artichokes - amazing.