Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[Bugguy]

I was responding to a comment 2jakes made in another thread and I was thinking about the premiums my mother got for making a bank deposit. That led to my favorite... S & H Green Stamps.

Being of Czech lineage and every stereotype of a cheap Bohemian, I grew up in a Chicago neighborhood of like souls. We would occasionally go door to door soliciting contributions for the Boys Club Band. Our worst year - collectionwise - was the year we asked for donations of S & H Green Stamp books. The response was take my money, take anything, but I'm not giving up my Green Stamps. We really did get some great stuff for all those books.

 

[3fingers]

My mother collected green stamps. The nearest redemption store was in the town where my aunt lived so trips to redeem the books coincided with visits to her sister. I recall her always choosing something practical and none of the things I would point out.

 

[Bugguy]

DDT... it had a unique smell all its own. I think it was my nasal membranes mutating. Pic's from the late 60's Korea - I was the fool taking pictures of my co-workers and breathing the gas. Obviously, the only remedy that cut the taste was alcohol.

 

[Fading Fast]

Air-conditioning box units that really work have disappeared. I've had store clerks and several air-conditioning experts (like the guy who sold us the three new units we put in during our recent apartment renovation) swear up and down that the new units are better, "more efficient" and make the room as cold as the old units, but that is a bald-faced lie.

Growing up, AC box units could freeze you out of your room. They worked - you turned them on and, in less than a minute, really, really cold air came blasting out and even a large room was comfortably cooled quickly. Also, if you wanted, you could get the room into the low 60s even if it was in the 90s out. And they just worked - unless something broke, you turned them on and they blew cold air - period.

Today, the units are fussy and weak. They take longer to blow cold air, the air is not that truly chilled air of old and they "cycle off" more frequently. And forget about getting the room into the 60s if its in the 90s - they can't do it. Also, if it's in the 70s or 60s outside (but the room is warm or stuffy) the old units would still blow cold air, now the new ones "sense" the outside temperature and won't (leaving you in a warm stuffy room).

I'm sure the new ones are more "efficient" in their energy use, which is a meaningless measure if they are also worse at doing their job. Who wants a home run hitter whose swing is more efficient but hits fewer home runs? Maybe it's that they can't use Freon - but I've been told the new gasses are "better -" uh-huh.

My last two pieces of evidence. I moved into an apartment in the early 90s that had (according to the super) two '60s era ACs that he said the landlord would let him replace if I wanted him to, but he suggested I keep the old ones as they work so much better. And they did. Those old Fedders units were a pure joy - blew cold comfortable air whenever you wanted it. A friend that I made in the building had the new units and her apartment was never as comfortable as mine in the summer. And, last example, the building I live in now has a small gym in the basement with two old Friedrich units (look '70s-era to me) that blast out cold air with a passion that no new AC ever does.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The latest thing in 1939. The casing was wood, in a "fine walnut veneer," in the style of a radio cabinet of the day. One can speculate on what a constant stream of moist air did to that "fine walnut veneer."

 

[Fading Fast]

The latest thing in 1939. The casing was wood, in a "fine walnut veneer," in the style of a radio cabinet of the day. One can speculate on what a constant stream of moist air did to that "fine walnut veneer."

According to the handy dandy internet inflation calculator that $150 price was the equivalent of $2700 today, but it probably worked better than the ones do today as well.

 

[3fingers]

According to the handy dandy internet inflation calculator that $150 price was the equivalent of $2700 today, but it probably worked better than the ones do today as well.

I bought a small window unit for our upstairs bedroom a few years ago since there is presently no ductwork going up and not many options for installing it. I gave less than 150.00 for it brand new. It works in a satisfactory manner for what we want, but when it quits there is no repairing it.

 

[Fading Fast]

I bought a small window unit for our upstairs bedroom a few years ago since there is presently no ductwork going up and not many options for installing it. I gave less than 150.00 for it brand new. It works in a satisfactory manner for what we want, but when it quits there is no repairing it.

This is a fair point as the new units I'm complaining about are cheap as heck versus what they used to cost. I've bought window units for about thirty years now for various apartments I've lived in and, over those thirty years, the price never really went up. They've always cost about $250 - $350 for a decent one - which means they've gotten much, much cheaper over that time. And, yes, if one breaks out of warranty, you toss it and buy a new one.

That said, my complaint is that you can't buy an "old-style" good one even if you want to pay more - all they make today are garbage units. The fancier ones have some more features (digital blah, blah blah so that you can have your air-conditioner pre-heat your oven when you're on your way home from work), but they are no better than the cheaper ones at truly cooling the room.

 

[3fingers]

The refrigerants used today are far less efficient at transferring heat than R12 and R22 were. The amperage required to run the new ones is a fraction of the old, but I would agree you just can't get the arctic discharge temperatures we used to expect.

 

[Stanley Doble]

If you do get your hands on an old unit and it works, you can carefully take off the outer casing, clean the insides, and oil the bearings on the fan with synthetic motor oil. If you do this every couple of years there is a good chance it will outlive you. Keeping dust off the coils, and off the fan really increases cooling and eases the load. A vacuum and a soft paint brush are usually all you need, plus some spray cleaner and a rag for the fan.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Uniformed bellhops at hotels, often with the pillbox cap with a chinstrap like the "Call for Philip Morris" kid. You still saw a few of them when I was young in the '50s.

 

[3fingers]

Uniformed bellhops at hotels, often with the pillbox cap with a chinstrap like the "Call for Philip Morris" kid. You still saw a few of them when I was young in the '50s.

Another similar thing no longer seen is porters on trains. I am just old enough to remember train travel before it became mass transport as cheaply as possible. I have enjoyed train travel in more recent years, but it is a far cry from what it once was. Even on cross country trains the level of service is minimal by comparison.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Likewise uniformed ushers at your local motion picture theatre. This is not entirely a loss to be mourned from the workers' point of view -- I have on my shelf at work the operations manual for our theatre circa 1945, and it includes a section on how to disinfect and delouse the uniforms, "preferably on a weekly basis." Oh that glamour.

 

[Fading Fast]

There seems to be an ongoing job elimination process that is usually blamed on capitalism (more profits / less labor) and / or automation, but I think something else is also going on.

First, yes, as profits get squeezed (usually the catalyst), companies look for ways to save costs - less workers is one big one - but companies always want profits, so the idea that companies just randomly fire people for profit or meanness doesn't really make sense as they'd never hire them in the first place if they didn't help add to profit.

Second, yes, automation is part of it, but well before digital ate the world, positions have been going away - movie ushers, gas station attendants, bellhops, etc.

And those roles say something, they are all high-touch service positions that once seemed important, but over decades we - as a culture - have become used to doing without that high touch and doing more things for ourselves: think about everything that is now self service, think automated operator.

That's why I think part of the job elimination story is a cultural change story - we've evolved to more of a DIY culture where we want or at least accept less personal interaction; hence, a lot of once-necessary jobs aren't needed or wanted anymore.

I don't fully understand it and don't claim that a cultural shift explains it all - it's just part of it, IMHO.

 

[LizzieMaine]

You have to wonder about the ultimate result of that process -- a society of automatons, plugged into their own private bubbles of reality, with no meaningful interaction with or responsibility to other flesh-and-blood human beings. Utopia, if you're Benito Hoover. Pass the soma.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

The biggest threat to low paid, unskilled jobs is A.I. These 'small' jobs may not be rewarding, glorious or easy but they do allow a large number of poorly educated people to earn some kind of living. Slave driving enterprises like the Amazon warehouses are already using robots to perform a lot of the tasks that were until recently, done by human workers. As artificial intelligence contraptions evolve & replace human jobs, it's unlikely the western world will ever know full employment again, which poses another problem about what to do with the unemployed & unemployable. Did somebody mention Soylent green ?

 

[Lean'n'mean]

a society of automatons, plugged into their own private bubbles of reality, with no meaningful interaction with or responsibility to other flesh-and-blood human beings.

Isn't that what we do already ? Isn't that what we do already ? Isn't that what we do already ?

 

[LizzieMaine]

The biggest threat to low paid, unskilled jobs is A.I. These 'small' jobs may not be rewarding, glorious or easy but they do allow a large number of poorly educated people to earn some kind of living. Slave driving enterprises like the Amazon warehouses are already using robots to perform a lot of the tasks that were until recently, done by human workers. As artificial intelligence contraptions evolve & replace human jobs, it's unlikely the western world will ever know full employment again, which poses another problem about what to do with the unemployed & unemployable. Did somebody mention Soylent green ?

This is why I refuse to use "self checkouts" at stores unless there's no other option. I'd rather interact with a person any day of the week over a frigging machine that shines a monitor camera in my face and speaks in a metallic robot voice. It's like doing business with a Dalek.

 

[3fingers]

There seems to be an ongoing job elimination process that is usually blamed on capitalism (more profits / less labor) and / or automation, but I think something else is also going on.

First, yes, as profits get squeezed (usually the catalyst), companies look for ways to save costs - less workers is one big one - but companies always want profits, so the idea that companies just randomly fire people for profit or meanness doesn't really make sense as they'd never hire them in the first place if they didn't help add to profit.

Second, yes, automation is part of it, but well before digital ate the world, positions have been going away - movie ushers, gas station attendants, bellhops, etc.

And those roles say something, they are all high-touch service positions that once seemed important, but over decades we - as a culture - have become used to doing without that high touch and doing more things for ourselves: think about everything that is now self service, think automated operator.

That's why I think part of the job elimination story is a cultural change story - we've evolved to more of a DIY culture where we want or at least accept less personal interaction; hence, a lot of once-necessary jobs aren't needed or wanted anymore.

I don't fully understand it and don't claim that a cultural shift explains it all - it's just part of it, IMHO.

It's odd. In the same world where we seem to be more willing to accept less in some areas, the ability to do many things for ourselves is in decline. I don't have any answers for why this is so, but it is something I have observed.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It seems like the things we're being encouraged to do for ourselves are related to consumption rather than production. Wonder why that is? Watch "The Matrix," especially the scene with the vast battery farm of human beings sealed in tubes providing energy to service the machines. The consumption-driven society is the machine. We're nothing more than the batteries.