Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[Turnip]

I remember well how expensive it was and how long it took to send a little birthday present parcel for some friends by standard mail to USofA.

A recent order from US took four days to be delivered, including customs, at standard (no) shipping costs.

 

[Fifty150]

Not really purple, but a lilac. Crushed velvet. Tailored for me in Detroit, with a matching hat that had a peacock feather. One of my favorite suits. It matches any gold chain I want to wear. I keep it in a garment bag in the back of the closet. The girlfriend hates that suit. She's insecure. Everytime I wear it, she fumes because of all the other girls that look at me. And there it was, in the back of the closet, that I found my old camera. A real camera. 35mm film. Actually, there were 3 cameras. A Kodamatic and a Polaroid. When I first got into "the fish business", it was customary and ordinary to take instant photos of that day's freshest fish, so that you could show the clients a visual menu of what you had for sale. In a box of things I didn't want to throw away. Like my beeper. Back in those days, only doctors and fish mongers had beepers.

Sadly, instant cameras, film cameras, and beepers have all disappeared. Replaced by a smart phone with selfies, and text messaging.

 

[tonyb]

Breakfast and lunch only joints, the little eateries that opened at 6 a.m. or earlier and were buttoned up for the day by 2 p.m. They haven’t disappeared entirely, but they are getting to be rare birds.

 

[Turnip]

I remember one of those in New England, ideal opening hours for sleepless jetlaggers from Europe, where I had the very best walnut cookies ever, large as beer coasters, never before or after had I better ones. Even the coffee has been fresh and strong.

 

[Fifty150]

opened at 6 a.m. or earlier and were buttoned up for the day by 2 p.m.

On The Left Coast. Financial District. We follow NY market hours. Some people in finance are in the office by 2 AM (5 AM in NY), for "premarket trading". That means that they close down a bar, go to work, and manage your money while they are drunk. The closing bell is at 1 PM. Very few restaurants are open for dinner in The Financial District. Most are really early morning, and lunch only.

 

[Haversack]

little eateries that opened at 6 a.m. or earlier and were buttoned up for the day by 2 p.m.

One of the places near San Francisco I was thinking about when writing about where you can see cowboy hats and boots worn for use and not fashion has those exact hours. The Farmers Den on Crows Landing Road does breakfast and lunch. Nothing fancy but solid food, friendly service, and photos on the wall of the local high School's rodeo team. Its one of those places its fun to stop at when we have friends from overseas, (Europe especially), for exotic/authentic American cuisine.

 

[tonyb]

One of the places near San Francisco I was thinking about when writing about where you can see cowboy hats and boots worn for use and not fashion has those exact hours. The Farmers Den on Crows Landing Road does breakfast and lunch. Nothing fancy but solid food, friendly service, and photos on the wall of the local high School's rodeo team. Its one of those places its fun to stop at when we have friends from overseas, (Europe especially), for exotic/authentic American cuisine.

For several years I took a meal most weekdays at a place on East Jefferson Street in Seattle called Debbie’s Cafe. There was a Debbie, who often ran the place singlehandedly. Breakfast and lunch only. Eggs and bacon and hamburgers. Heart attack on a plate.

Debbie shut the place down when marital difficulties had her headed back home, to New Bedford, Mass., if I’m remembering correctly. The space was taken over by a vegetarian bunch, who played up that it was no longer Debbie’s greasy spoon. Snooty little twerps.

Another of my favorite joints out that way was the sort of place we used to call a coffee shop. The interior furnishings looked to date from the 1940s or early ’50s. When its little commercial district got “saved” the new owners gutted it and put in a faux-British pub — an “ale house,” they called it. Makes me wanna cry.

 

[Fifty150]

Crows Landing is almost halfway to Los Angeles. Most people in San Francisco have never heard of Crows Landing. But as you are in The Central Valley, where California's real economy is, you'll find all sorts of farmers and ranchers. Being a resident of San Francisco, I have a lot of family and friends out in what we call "The Valley". Farming and ranching are the way of life.

I shop at Farmers Markets in The City. One of the vendors actually saw me and recognized me out in The Valley. Weird. Surreal. Over 100 miles away. She saw me in a grocery store, and said, "aren't you my customer in San Francisco?" I had to ask, "What are you doing here? Why are you buying produce? Don't you eat the same produce that you sell to me?"


You would think that CA & WA would be almost like being in the same place. Seattle and San Francisco are almost identical. Both are bike friendly and have reasonable public transportation. The waterfronts full of tourist traps. Chinatown. Hipsters.

As a cyclist and motorcyclist, I realize how different California & Washington are.

 

[tonyb]

Crows Landing is almost halfway to Los Angeles. Most people in San Francisco have never heard of Crows Landing. …

Maybe I should get a new mapping app. Mine says Crows Landing is 93 miles from San Francisco and 294 miles from Los Angeles.

 

[Fifty150]

Or you get in the car, drive to Crows Landing, and then say, "Man, this is almost halfway to LA. What are we doing here?"

 

[Haversack]

But as you are in The Central Valley,

Nope. Potrero Hill. Been here about 25 years. Was living in Oregon. Girlfriend/now wife wasn't going to leave The City so moved here. Grew up in Sacramento though. Family has been kicking around the State in one form or another since the late 1840s, mostly in ranching or mining.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

How about a theme for a sub-thread, "Crimes which have disappeared"?

Here's a first entry, payroll robbery. Once was a time that when payday came, workers lined up at the payroll office and got their pay in cash. That made the payroll office or the truck carrying the cash to the office a tempting target.

I suppose with the democratization of retail banking, paydays came to mean a check and not an envelope full of bills. There was a time when only the middle class and wealthy had bank accounts. That's an era long passed. I remember as a child (60 years or more back) my father's paychecks (he was a machinist in a steel mill) were deposited by my mother into a checking account.

You might have to go back before WWII to find large businesses who paid their employees in cash.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
I’ve worked for some fly-by-night operations. One occasionally paid with cash in an envelope, along with a stub showing deductions. But at least the deductions actually got sent to the IRS. I assumed the company didn’t quite have enough in the accounts to make payroll that day but with the day’s cash receipts they paid the small staff on the scheduled payday and in so doing kept them from walking out.

Another outfit somehow overlooked that part about sending payroll deductions to the taxing authorities. This displeased me. The taxing authorities weren’t amused, either.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The owner of the radio station where I spent the entire year 1985 never sent in a red cent of the money he deducted for my Social Security, with the result that my SS record for that year shows my earnings as zero. He was dead by the time I found out what had happened. Lucky for him.

 

[Turnip]

Paper wage bags have been usual at this end until late 50s of last century, as well as wifes catching their beloved hubbies at the factory gates on payday to keep them from squandering everything in the next pub.

 

[Harp]

The owner of the radio station where I spent the entire year 1985 never sent in a red cent of the money he deducted for my Social Security, with the result that my SS record for that year shows my earnings as zero. He was dead by the time I found out what had happened. Lucky for him.

Talk to your congressman and both senators. The IRS should be able to verify income for 1985
and congressional correction to Social Security record is governmental responsibility.
If you filed taxes, any employer chickanery is a federal obligation to address.

 

[tonyb]

The owner of the radio station where I spent the entire year 1985 never sent in a red cent of the money he deducted for my Social Security, with the result that my SS record for that year shows my earnings as zero. He was dead by the time I found out what had happened. Lucky for him.

I had the same thing happen to me. I got the annual notice from Social Security showing no contributions the previous year. I contacted Social Security, showed them W-2s and paycheck stubs. They corrected my records and, I assume, went after the employer. That fellow avoids me, likely on advice of counsel. And his doctor.

 

[Zombie_61]

The owner of the radio station where I spent the entire year 1985 never sent in a red cent of the money he deducted for my Social Security, with the result that my SS record for that year shows my earnings as zero. He was dead by the time I found out what had happened. Lucky for him.

Hey, no earnings, no taxes, right?

 

[tonyb]

The owner of the radio station where I spent the entire year 1985 never sent in a red cent of the money he deducted for my Social Security, with the result that my SS record for that year shows my earnings as zero. He was dead by the time I found out what had happened. Lucky for him.

I believe Harp is right in that if taxes were deducted from your 1985 pay and there’s evidence to that effect (your own tax return for that year, for instance) Social Security would correct the record in your favor. That’s my experience.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Looks like an excavation of the bottom drawer of my desk is in order. I know I have a couple of W2s from the early 80s in there, maybe there's more.