Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[LizzieMaine]

Lizzie, that $149.00 in 1954 would be about equal to about $2,000 today. And as nice as the inside of the TV looks, I recall vividly that having the TV repairman come to your house (like a doctor!) was a way of life back then. Tubes burned out like nobody's business. The vertical hold would go bananas, or the horizintal, or both. Old TV's are nifty artifacts, but really a modern TV is an infinitely better value than the old ones were.

Ah, but there's the point -- when it broke down it *was* repairable. If you want to go value-for-value, the JVC monitor that went south on us at work cost us about $2000 -- and after only five years of use, it's gone. Pffft. Dead. Unrepairable. I've got a word for that, and it isn't "value."

The fridge, on the other hand, I would imagine is like iron. But what about the insulation level and energy efficiency?

You'd be surprised. I was curious about that myself and kept track of how long it was on and off for an average month, and then calculated based on its rated wattage, that it used about 675 KWH a year. That's less than half of what the average modern fridge, with all its doodads, will use, and even less than a modern "Energy Star" unit.

As long as the door seal is tight, you won't have any problems with insulation loss. And door seals can be replaced if necessary. The compressor is heremetically sealed in a permanent oil bath, and has never, and will never require service. All I've had to do with it since I've owned it is replace the thermostat, which cost me about fifteen dollars and half an hour of time. In 1989.

 

[Viola]

Oh, fridges. My parents are in a rage about their fridge. Who can blame them, it's a piece of junk. They bought it because they needed a fridge, as one tends to, but it's garbage and it has been since we bought it (new, and a cheap model) a few years ago.

I've got my eye out for a vintage fridge AND a vintage electric stove for them. I would want one for me too, of course, but I'm moving overseas next year and they don't pack well.

I couldn't care less about dishwashers but I would really like a stove/oven that worked. Ours at the moment is a stove with one burner. And no oven. I could tell you what I've said about it, but not on the Lounge.

Fortunately, I still have hope; this is a good city for '50s appliances in good condition, and the absurd yet delightful for vintage enthusiasts - the old ladies from certain neighborhoods who had "upstairs" kitchens for showing and "downstairs" kitchens in the basement for cooking (really! Would I make that up!) both full of meticulously cared for vintage stoves and fridges, one set just only "pretty dang clean" instead of Like The Way We Bought It. Sometimes they've just started using the upstairs kitchen since they don't trust their hip replacements on the basement stairs.

Unfortunately for my parents, when they needed one, they really needed one, they didn't have time to look around for a good deal. And, they really didn't get one.

 

[ThesFlishThngs]

And that repairman thing is not so horribly vintage, really. During my 70s childhood, my family owned an Otasco store (folks in the mid south might be familiar, though it's long gone now), and I still remember being a wee tot, going with my dad on his repair rounds. The shop sold everything from appliances and electronics to furniture, toys, car parts. A couple times a week, my dad would drive around, even to the next town ten miles away, to repair washing machines, dryers, televisions. He had the tubes and testers and all that. I suppose most times there wasn't even a charge, it was simply customer service. Imagine......

 

[Carlisle Blues]

And my '36 Sunbeam mixer keeps whipping up a mighty froth.

......a mighty froth of denial ......lol lol lol

 

[LizzieMaine]

And my '46 Zero fan blows a mighty gust.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

And my '46 Zero fan blows a mighty gust.

lol lol lol lol lol

 

[skyvue]

During my 70s childhood, my family owned an Otasco store (folks in the mid south might be familiar, though it's long gone now)

Being from Oklahoma, where the company was founded, I remember Oklahoma Tire and Supply Company (Otasco) quite well.

 

[Foofoogal]

I have been thinking hard about this thread. On a personal level it is less about coffee pots or how junky they are or not as much as hanging on to the familiar.
The tangible is something we have control over much more than the rest.

 

[Ethan Bentley]

TV broadcasts where almost everyone in the nation would be watching, sure seemed like it anyway.

 

[Smithy]

Milk bottles and the local milkman. It's now all that tetrapack stuff from the local supermarket.

 

[Ethan Bentley]

Milk bottles and the local milkman. It's now all that tetrapack stuff from the local supermarket.

Ah yes I remember the local Milko (non-pejorative), we used to use him until he started bringing the milk at 08:00 or later in the morning.

 

[LizzieMaine]

For that matter, I get the feeling the waxed-paper milk carton (which became common in the late thirties) is becoming endangered as well -- we used to get two quart cartons stapled together with a little thumb-grip carrier when we wanted a half-gallon, but I havent seen that in decades.

The original style of flat-topped carton, with the flip-top stopper, is long gone, but does anyone remember the cartons that closed with a foil seal? You'd crack open the top and have to strip the seal off before you could fold out the spout to pour. Very frustrating to fiddle with first thing in the morning.

 

[John in Covina]

TV broadcasts where almost everyone in the nation would be watching, sure seemed like it anyway.

*****
This made me think of an interesting phenomenon that I have noticed. Of all of my friends, I am one of the few that does not have either cable TV or satellite TV service! I depend on Open Air (Broadcast) TV and use an antenna to receive all of my TV. (Personally I don't need hundreds of channels, I would not get anything done!) But about once a week someone asks if I have seen show X which is on a "pay TV" station only and I say no I don't have cable or satellite service.

The look on their faces is as if I said "I don't breath air."

Here in Covina I can get in all the local stations of the national broadcasters (ABC, CBS, NBC, Etc.) so in English about 30 TV stations, 6 of which are PBS (Public Broadcast System) that carry most of my favorite programs. There is a ton of foreign language programs which even as a non-speaker can also be entertaining. (If they are showing a movie in Spanish but I have seen it a million times like the Leathal Weapon series I don't need English to know what's going on.)

 

[Ethan Bentley]

Some interesting points there John.
I read last week that, in the UK over 1million or (approximately 16% of the UK population) now have Sky HD (high definition (1080p) satellite service). In 2010 Sky (BSkyB - Rupert Murdock) will launch their
3D TV Service!
I feel like I'm living in the Jetsons.

Mrs. B's folks have Sky HD but still I struggle to find something to watch amongst the hundreds of channels. I tend to just watch Zone Horror (B Horror Movies) and re-runs of "The Crystal Maze". Still, the picture is very nice .

 

[John in Covina]

For me cable or satellite simply does not represent enough of a value to justify the expense.

 

[cmalbrecht]

You guys are just kids. I remember when Fred Meyer was just a little downtown drugstore and Marlboros came with red or ivory tips and no man worthy of the name would touch one. Piggly Wiggly was a new and exciting (huge we thought) self-service super market.
Then came the war. Wow. Stores and movie houses open 24/7 (although the term hadn't yet been invented). Buses and streetcars running all night long. I thought the whole world lived that way.
Buttermilk. All you could drink for a nickel...
But all in all, I think life is easier today. I remember my mother hand-washing clothing in a galvanized tub and hanging it out to dry in freezing temperature. And yes, the wood stove. I'm ashamed to say that half the time I avoided bringing in wood and my poor mother would have to do it.

 

[John in Covina]

Real Silver and it's not your fillings.

Dimes, quarters and half dollars were made of silver, pennies were copper and paper money was Silver Certificates. I still remember how stunned my dad was when we moved off the silver to clad coins and the paper money was just Federal Reserve notes. I have a United States note issued during the Kennedy administration, but don't recall the actual story behind that switch.

 

[Diamondback]

Story behind the "United States Notes" is JFK was moving to pull the plug on the Federal Reserve--depending on who you believe, he may or may not have actually finished the paperwork on an Executive Order but never got a chance to move it off paper and into reality. And because going much farther is as much economics, politics and psych-of-power (which tacks dangerously close to politics), that's all I'm going to say, especially since I'm uncertain about the validity of some of the claims about JFK's proposed reforms and possible plans myself.

Besides, going too far into this one gets dangerously close to the Tinfoil Brigade... where it's difficult to separate truth from paranoia and outright lies.

 

[Lady Day]

TV broadcasts where almost everyone in the nation would be watching, sure seemed like it anyway.

Or when TV stopped broadcasting. When the flag came up, and the Star Spangled Banner started to play, you knew it was time to go to bed.

I also remember when TV channels DIDNT watermark their broadcasts. Stupid lower right hand corner icon crap. :rage:

I still hate that.

LD

 

[Cigarband]

I also remember when TV channels DIDNT watermark their broadcasts. Stupid lower right hand corner icon crap. :rage:

I still hate that.

LD

That icon is called "The Bug", which I find appropriate.