Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[tonyb]

I’d consider hunting down a vintage kitchen match dispenser because I like such things and I think one would look pretty cool on a little section of wall here. But I also like my utilitarian vintage stuff to be of true utility to me. Otherwise, it’s just for effect. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, but it seems kinda inorganic or something. I have vintage cookware and such that gets used for its intended purpose. Yet I acknowledge that the old bottle opener with the Pepsi advertising screwed to a 4X4 post on the deck is mostly for looks. But if a twist-off cap gives anyone any trouble …

 

[LostInTyme]

Ish Kabbible

 

[LizzieMaine]

Say, anybody seen Sully Mason lately?

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

The Old Man, who went the way of all things in 2015, referred to the refrigerator as “the icebox,” as did his parents and siblings.

He didn’t predate the household electric refrigerator, but his folks did, and I imagine he had some firsthand experience of true iceboxes.

I grew up saying "icebox." That was the word my parents, born in the early '20s, used. I doubt that they ever had or used an electric fridge before the late '40s.

 

[Turnip]

Village inns.

Often having been a public meeting point after Sunday’s church and on several other occasions, negotiation point for farmers and clubhouse for many local societies, most of them faded away with increasing labor mobility and de-solidarization of the communities.

 

[Turnip]

Wage packets, accompanied by those notorious weekly wage packet balls, disappeared here due to common claim and availability of current accounts.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

Church keys…& Falstaff Beer.

 

[LostInTyme]

I have come to realize that my ability to read, and process what I am reading is fading. I used to thoroughly enjoy reading, getting lost in the scenes created by the author, creating my own pictures of the descriptions offered in the text, laughing, or perhaps just smiling at funny situations, crying and feeling bad when the story takes such a turn. These days, I can no longer read and enjoy the books of my youth. I can no longer understand some of the old masters, Dickens, Cooper (for his ultra long sentences), Homer and many others. I still like and read Stephen King, and enjoy his GOOD works, but some of the middle works that I consider to be "phoned in", I can not abide.

I think my ability to concentrate and process the written word has been tainted by watching TV for so many years. Sure, I watch, and have watched more TV than most folks. It's easy to let my mind get lost in the portrayal what others have written, rather than reading what they have created.

In my youth, from the age of about eight or so, until, my early thirties, I enjoyed reading the "classics", but now, they just sit upon many shelves, gathering the dust of my life.

So, in summary, this is one of the things that has disappeared in my life.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^^
I read constantly these days, but mostly in short spurts. Rarely do I devote more than a few minutes at a stretch to any particular reading. I might attribute it in part to living in this online age, this era of so much information being so readily accessible to curious people that we jump around, looking up when and where and by whom such-and-such thing happened that was alluded to in the text we had been reading. In other words, we get easily distracted.

And part of it is laziness, I suppose. And part of it is not wishing to squander any of my dwindling supply of time on things that don’t compel me. And, alas, part of it may be creeping senility.

 

[tonyb]

Got a call last night from a fellow I hadn’t heard from in several months or a year or more. He is in my contact list, so my iPhone told me it was him when the call came in.

I took a deep breath before answering. Just as I feared, he called to tell me that another old friend had died.

Still, it was good to hear from him. His late brother, gone six years now, and I had been close friends. There’s no raising the dead, but there is cherishing our memories.

 

[LostInTyme]

As we all age, so do our friends, relatives, and, even our foes. Our niece, just 55, passed on yesterday. She had lived and lead a life(style) that did not include many healthy or safe choices, in my opinion. So, for the time was allowed, she enjoyed her life.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^
There’s no discounting the role of luck. I’ve known more than a few people who had far healthier lifestyles than mine but died relatively young anyway.

 

[belfastboy]

I’d consider hunting down a vintage kitchen match dispenser because I like such things and I think one would look pretty cool on a little section of wall here. But I also like my utilitarian vintage stuff to be of true utility to me. Otherwise, it’s just for effect. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, but it seems kinda inorganic or something. I have vintage cookware and such that gets used for its intended purpose. Yet I acknowledge that the old bottle opener with the Pepsi advertising screwed to a 4X4 post on the deck is mostly for looks. But if a twist-off cap gives anyone any trouble …

I don't know if any of my uncles brought it home from WW2 but I have a wooden cigarette dispenser made in Japan. It holds about 20 loose cigarettes and with the push of a lever an arm dispenses a cigarette crossways into the mouth of a carved dog's head. As a kid it totally fascinated me almost as much as the real Fox's head on my Aunt's fur stole.

 

[tonyb]

…

As a kid it totally fascinated me almost as much as the real Fox's head on my Aunt's fur stole.

I don’t object to fur garments and trimmings. (Which is not to say that I’d approve of the killing of endangered or threatened species, unless one was contemplating me for his dinner.) But those fox head stoles always gave me the creeps. I can’t recall seeing one in recent decades, and I hope never to see one again.

I don’t deny the contradiction inherent in that, especially considering that I don’t find objectionable deer and elk (and bison and …) mounts. And cattle horns and skulls are okay by me, too. But the lovely missus won’t have it, so this house is a taxidermy free zone.

 

[LostInTyme]

My Mom had a scarf type thing that was made of two or three stone martins, whatever they are (were). I think they're almost extinct now. Anyway, they had heads and paws as I remember. We didn't think anything was wrong with it at the time. It was just a piece of fashion for ladies.

 

[belfastboy]

^^^^^^^
I read constantly these days, but mostly in short spurts. Rarely do I devote more than a few minutes at a stretch to any particular reading. I might attribute it in part to living in this online age, this era of so much information being so readily accessible to curious people that we jump around, looking up when and where and by whom such-and-such thing happened that was alluded to in the text we had been reading. In other words, we get easily distracted.

And part of it is laziness, I suppose. And part of it is not wishing to squander any of my dwindling supply of time on things that don’t compel me. And, alas, part of it may be creeping senility.

I have a modest library and lately I have begun to reread many of the books there instead of buying new. At my advanced age it is really like reading them again for the first time. The fun is anticipating the ending to discover if it is how I remember it accurately.

I don’t object to fur garments and trimmings. (Which is not to say that I’d approve of the killing of endangered or threatened species, unless one was contemplating me for his dinner.) But those fox head stoles always gave me the creeps. I can’t recall seeing one in recent decades, and I hope never to see one again.

I don’t deny the contradiction inherent in that, especially considering that I don’t find objectionable deer and elk (and bison and …) mounts. And cattle horns and skulls are okay by me, too. But the lovely missus won’t have it, so this house is a taxidermy free zone.

My wife comes from northern Alberta and she brought 2 fur coats with her (along with the Tshirt that proclaimed..."I survived 30 days of minus 30")on the move to the west coast. Hasn't worn them in decades, partially because of the weather but mostly due to the angry looks thrown her way by the many progressives here on the Left Coast.

As a kid I was enthralled at my aunt's fox head.....it was a delicious combo of the weird, exotic and to a kid, exciting. I think I hunted the stole with my bow & arrow.

 

[LostInTyme]

I think I hunted the stole with my bow & arrow.

Belfastboy 59

HA! An easy hunt for a youngster. Were you successful? Always a poor marksman, I had help in qualifying for my marksman badge in the US Army. I passed with the help of some sharpshooters next to me on the firing line. But that's a story for another time, in another place. That said, I was never able to kill or hit any animal I aimed at.

 

[belfastboy]

I think I hunted the stole with my bow & arrow.

Belfastboy 59

HA! An easy hunt for a youngster. Were you successful? Always a poor marksman, I had help in qualifying for my marksman badge in the US Army. I passed with the help of some sharpshooters next to me on the firing line. But that's a story for another time, in another place. That said, I was never able to kill or hit any animal I aimed at.

No, I had a BB gun that as a preteen would wander the neighbourhood with my buddies (they had their guns as well) looking for things to shoot.

I never hit anything....mostly I missed on purpose as I couldn't bring myself to shoot a little bird. I did put an arrow through my neighbours basement window though....really caught crap for that miscue!

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^
Had our parents known what my brother and friend and I, prepubescents all at that time, were doing with .22s when they were at work and we were at our after-school leisure, they would have skinned us alive.

I strongly argue against what has come to be called “helicopter parenting.” Kids gotta make their own mistakes and suffer the bumps and bruises that go along with that. But I also strongly argue against leaving firearms and ammunition readily accessible to children and others with child-like judgement.

 

[belfastboy]

H

Village inns.

Often having been a public meeting point after Sunday’s church and on several other occasions, negotiation point for farmers and clubhouse for many local societies, most of them faded away with increasing labor mobility and de-solidarization of the communities.

Here in both Canada and the US, smaller towns that are still largely homogenous and still have an active church(s) the local cafe is still a type of community centre. You want to know something about the community or catch up on gossip talk to the cafe's server.