Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[LizzieMaine]

The house-flipping craze of the early 00s was deadly to older houses here. Most of our housing stock is pre-war (much of it pre-WWI), and as soon as the it's-dough-let's-go boys got going, the market was flooded with small 1900-1920 houses in working-class neighborhoods that had been gutted and given the whiter-than-white/stainless-steel kitchen/presdwood-bathroom-vanity treatment as part of the first wave of local gentrification. I was lucky enough to find one that hadn't been so ruined, but it is very rare to find another.

 

[tonyb]

A body-and-fender guy of my acquaintance was fond of saying “you can hide an elephant under white paint.”

The darker colors show dirt and imperfections (wavy panels, for instance) much more than the lighter colors, white especially.

Shortly after we bought this 1977-built house I painted the entire interior, in straight white semigloss in the kitchen and living room and main hallway upstairs and everything but the bedroom in the downstairs unit. That’s been five-plus years ago, and it still looks fresh.

The previous owners, whose enthusiasm for DIY was exceeded only by their ineptitude, had a half-dozen or more different colors on those walls, and on the faux-brick face on the fireplace and the popcorn ceilings. They were also big on textured wallpaper. Painting it all the same white has those many and varied textures complementing rather than fighting one another.

The previous owners were also heavy cigarette smokers, and sloppy painters, so the place felt dirty and dingy even when freshly cleaned. (Tobacco smoke-stained popcorn ceilings are just the worst.)

I wouldn’t do the same to a pre-War house. I’m a believer in working with what I have, and not trying to make it something it isn’t. In my book, so many remodels amount to throwing good money after bad. I see people drop mountains of dough into remo’s when paint (and flooring, perhaps) would have gotten them 90 percent of the way there. In the “before and after” shots I often prefer the “before.”

 

[tonyb]

... The other thing I just shake my head at is when these older houses are renovated into an open plan where the living, dining, and kitchen are all combined into one big entertaining space. And the kitchen is full of fancy equipment: professional ranges with a pot faucet and wok burner, wood-fired pizza oven, indoor grill, etc. If any of this gear is ever actually used to do any real cooking, their entire open plan is going to covered with a patina of cooking oil in short order.

Open kitchen shelving, which has been a craze for a few years now, is kinda stupid. Anyone who keeps infrequently used small appliances out on counters or large platters and such atop kitchen cabinets or the fridge knows how grimy and greasy they get between uses. You gotta wash ’em *before* using ’em. If a person wishes to show off his or her dishes and whatnot, get glass cabinet doors.

 

[Harp]

The house-flipping craze of the early 00s was deadly to older houses here. Most of our housing stock is pre-war (much of it pre-WWI), and as soon as the it's-dough-let's-go boys got going, the market was flooded with small 1900-1920 houses in working-class neighborhoods that had been gutted and given the whiter-than-white/stainless-steel kitchen/presdwood-bathroom-vanity treatment as part of the first wave of local gentrification. I was lucky enough to find one that hadn't been so ruined, but it is very rare to find another.

MSN front page the other day featured a story about Maine having the lowest crime rate in nation,
neighborhood shown aerial view, quite lovely house architecture. What gentrification would do to
home prices therin would be a crime.

 

[LizzieMaine]

One reason our crime rates are low is because there are a great many crimes that go unreported. I've had my car broken into and robbed half a dozen times in recent years, usually by punks looking for drug money, but I never bother to report it because our police department won't do anything about it. I did report it last year when some pud shot out my car window with a pellet gun, but they still didn't do anything about it. I guess that's one way to make the statistics look good...

 

[tonyb]

I nearly weep when looking at real estate sites in San Francisco. Edwardian era and post WWI houses that still have their polished gumwood 3/4 high wainscoting, built-in bookcases and sideboards, coffered ceilings, and carved newels and bannisters. All recently painted white. Not that this is anything new. The 1877 house that became the California Governors' Mansion in 1903 has 12' high panelling and carved moldings all out of solid rosewood on its main floor. In 1911 The wife of newly elected Hiram Johnson had Gumps of San Francisco redecorate the mansion in the then popular Colonial Revival style. All that polished rosewood was painted light grey.

The other thing I just shake my head at is when these older houses are renovated into an open plan where the living, dining, and kitchen are all combined into one big entertaining space. And the kitchen is full of fancy equipment: professional ranges with a pot faucet and wok burner, wood-fired pizza oven, indoor grill, etc. If any of this gear is ever actually used to do any real cooking, their entire open plan is going to covered with a patina of cooking oil in short order.

I cringe when I see post-War post-and-beam MCM houses with tongue-and-groove vaulted ceilings painted white. Sure, it makes for an “airier” feel, but dang, it’s already an open-plan with lotsa windows, floor-to-ceiling walls of windows, in many cases.

My dear old ma’s humble little mid-century house has a Roman brick fireplace with an elevated hearth and on a couple of walls honest-to-goodness wood veneer paneling, original to the house. A friend and I impressed upon her not to paint it, to resist any suggestions she “update” the place.

 

[tonyb]

The house-flipping craze of the early 00s was deadly to older houses here. Most of our housing stock is pre-war (much of it pre-WWI), and as soon as the it's-dough-let's-go boys got going, the market was flooded with small 1900-1920 houses in working-class neighborhoods that had been gutted and given the whiter-than-white/stainless-steel kitchen/presdwood-bathroom-vanity treatment as part of the first wave of local gentrification. I was lucky enough to find one that hadn't been so ruined, but it is very rare to find another.

Last time we went house shopping we walked through a perhaps 70-year-old house that had been similarly gutted, stripped of whatever style and character it might have had in favor of “builder grade” everything — doors, floors, counters and cabinets, every damn thing. Vinyl windows, etc. It almost hurt to think what was lost to those “improvements”

That’s been a little more than five years ago. By now, I’m sure, the carpets have paths worn into them and the cabinet doors are loose on their hinges and the hollow-core interior doors have dents and gashes where they’ve met up with a hand truck or vacuum cleaner.

 

[Harp]

One reason our crime rates are low is because there are a great many crimes that go unreported. I've had my car broken into and robbed half a dozen times in recent years, usually by punks looking for drug money, but I never bother to report it because our police department won't do anything about it. I did report it last year when some pud shot out my car window with a pellet gun, but they still didn't do anything about it. I guess that's one way to make the statistics look good...

Sorry to hear this. In Chicago they steal the car and sell it to a chop shop; often murdering the vehicle owner....

 

[Seb Lucas]

The house-flipping craze of the early 00s was deadly to older houses here. Most of our housing stock is pre-war (much of it pre-WWI), and as soon as the it's-dough-let's-go boys got going, the market was flooded with small 1900-1920 houses in working-class neighborhoods that had been gutted and given the whiter-than-white/stainless-steel kitchen/presdwood-bathroom-vanity treatment as part of the first wave of local gentrification. I was lucky enough to find one that hadn't been so ruined, but it is very rare to find another.

Yes, one of my pet hates is the needless and artless modernisation of perfectly good houses so that they can look like even second person's idea of good taste. I once owned a 1927 apartment that had been untouched. It had black marble in the bathroom. The kitchen had metal cabinets. Left it all despite protestations from others that it would look so much better with an Ikea makeover.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Sorry to hear this. In Chicago they steal the car and sell it to a chop shop; often murdering the vehicle owner....

Around here chop shops aren't so common, because we all drive the cars until they fall completely apart.

We don't get many murders here, but the ones we do get tend to involve lobstermen fighting over territory or people strung out on drugs, like the one last year who beat an elderly woman to death with a snow shovel after stealing her debit card. Drugs -- whether illegal or legal -- are a real plague here, and a lot of it tends to get swept under the rug because we wouldn't want to put people off from coming up for the summer...

 

[Turnip]

What will have disappeared during my lifetime, hopefully, are Ford passenger cars with combustion engines in Europe.
They announced to invest 1 Billion bucks into a German assembly plant and to swap their entire passenger car portfolio to electrical powered engines by 2030.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

When was the last time anyone cautioned you not to accept any wooden nickels?

 

[Tiki Tom]

More than a few young people are betting that driver’s licenses will soon be a thing of the past, with self-driving cars and all.

 

[LizzieMaine]

But how will The Man hassle groups of kids on the street if there aren't any drivers' licenses? "AWRIGHT YOU PUNKS LEMME SEE YOUR FACEBOOK PAGES?"

 

[Zombie_61]

More than a few young people are betting that driver’s licenses will soon be a thing of the past, with self-driving cars and all.

Maybe, but The Man will still require every legal citizen carry an official I.D. card so they can still keep track of us.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
i’m getting the Bill Gates tracking chip implanted tomorrow along with my COVID shot.

 

[Touchofevil]

^^^^^
i’m getting the Bill Gates tracking chip implanted tomorrow along with my COVID shot.

Already got it as an over fifty year old educator who has been teaching onsite all year. It is a great addition as the implant act as a GPS device and I never get lost anymore. It also tells me my current weight, when I will have my next bowel movement, the current time, the local weather forecast, as well as what is currently on tv.

 

[LizzieMaine]

When you get a breast biopsy they put a chip in the suspicious mass so that they don't have to check it again. So far I haven't picked up any suspicious signals.

 

[Tiki Tom]

My wife got her COVID shot/chip implant yesterday. Strangely enough (or maybe not so strange), her chip seems to be tracking ME.

 

[Turnip]

Hmmm, think I don’t really want to know what exactly has been implanted during my colonoscopy last year......sitting on my metal garden chair I sometimes get tuned to Radio Yerevan at specific weather conditions...