Vintage Things That Will NOT Disappear In Your Lifetime

[BlueTrain]

Musical instruments generally are long-lived as a certain kind of instrument and in some cases, individual instruments have very long lives, being cherished and used for generations. I suppose drums are the oldest kind of musical instrument. Yet some instruments really aren't as old as all that, being of more recent design.

It is also interesting to me, speaking only of Western music (not country & western), how certain genres of music use certain instruments and almost never others. For instance, I've been especially interested in Central European folk music for several years. Apparently pianos and drums are rarely used in that sort of music. But accordions and harmonikas are not commonly used in American folk music, perhaps because the origins pre-date the development of those instruments. Yet the old-style zither is, but in the form of an autoharp. Guitars seem to be universal, though, as well as the double-bass and the electric bass guitar that replaces it sometimes.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It certainly can be. Nonetheless, the Fenders are going nowhere. It's one of the supreme ironies of rock and roll rebellion that you'll struggle to find a body of people more conservative about their 'tools' than electric guitar players. Plenty refuse even to acknowledge the possibility of improvement much beyond 1959.

There are people in the antique radio-tv business who make a point of saving the defective "bumble-bee" style capacitors they remove from sets they fix -- and when encountered, such capacitors are *always* defective, they were the most unreliable components ever manufactured, and were frequently leaky even when new. These defective components are then sold for embarassingly ridiculous money to electric-guitar cultists, who insist that these caps produce the only "authentic" sound in vintage instruments. If you're working on a late '40s/early '50s TV set, you can often fund the cost of the restoration thru selling off the defective capacitors, with their magic voodoo powers, to guitar collectors.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Yummy old-fashioned peasoup. Hopefully!

 

[Edward]

There are people in the antique radio-tv business who make a point of saving the defective "bumble-bee" style capacitors they remove from sets they fix -- and when encountered, such capacitors are *always* defective, they were the most unreliable components ever manufactured, and were frequently leaky even when new. These defective components are then sold for embarassingly ridiculous money to electric-guitar cultists, who insist that these caps produce the only "authentic" sound in vintage instruments. If you're working on a late '40s/early '50s TV set, you can often fund the cost of the restoration thru selling off the defective capacitors, with their magic voodoo powers, to guitar collectors.

Voodoo is the word. Seriously... Most electric guitar players are still amazed by fire.

 

[2jakes]

Browning automatic rifle.

 

[scottyrocks]

I've had that happen to me. Fortunately the TSA agent laughed when I joked, "What do you think I'm going to do with these, manicure someone to death?"

On my way to Puerto Rico in 2011, I had inadvertantly left a 3/8" ratchet drive in my carry-on backpack. The x-ray machine showed it, and the agent pulled it out. I was surprised to even see it there.

He told me the only way to not lose possession of it was to put it in my checked bag which was, of course, already checked.

In frustration I said something like, 'What would I do with that - over-tighten someone's nuts?' I thought it was kind of funny, but I was a minority of one.

With no other recourse, they confiscated it. I still miss that ratchet <sigh>.

 

[vitanola]

There are people in the antique radio-tv business who make a point of saving the defective "bumble-bee" style capacitors they remove from sets they fix -- and when encountered, such capacitors are *always* defective, they were the most unreliable components ever manufactured, and were frequently leaky even when new. These defective components are then sold for embarassingly ridiculous money to electric-guitar cultists, who insist that these caps produce the only "authentic" sound in vintage instruments. If you're working on a late '40s/early '50s TV set, you can often fund the cost of the restoration thru selling off the defective capacitors, with their magic voodoo powers, to guitar collectors.

I do this regularly.

 

[Edward]

On my way to Puerto Rico in 2011, I had inadvertantly left a 3/8" ratchet drive in my carry-on backpack. The x-ray machine showed it, and the agent pulled it out. I was surprised to even see it there.

He told me the only way to not lose possession of it was to put it in my checked bag which was, of course, already checked.

In frustration I said something like, 'What would I do with that - over-tighten someone's nuts?' I thought it was kind of funny, but I was a minority of one.

With no other recourse, they confiscated it. I still miss that ratchet <sigh>.

Always best to assume airport security have no sense of humour and are actively offended by anyone else displaying signs of one. Especially in the US, in my experience.

Girl I know once went on holiday to Israel. Gonig through securty on the way home, the guy in front picked his bag up after X-Ray and said to the security guy "Oh, you didn't find the bomb, then? Ha ha"

Security: "Bomb, sir? Oh, no. I'd better take another look."

Security proceeds to open bag, and tip all contents out all over the floor.

Security "Nope, no bomb in there sir. But you'd better clean that mess up before you miss your flight."

Pre 9/11, though. These days I gather it's not only in the US where using the word 'bomb' alone is enough to get you a few days in the big house.

 

[2jakes]

I recently took the train to California.
There was no security check.
Terrorists have bombed trains and busses before.
Why would security be so lax on Amtrak or intercity busses
compared to airplanes?

 

[Zombie_61]

Always best to assume airport security have no sense of humour and are actively offended by anyone else displaying signs of one. Especially in the US, in my experience...

If they're airport police, I'd agree; they do tend to maintain a demeanor of "authority" as most police officers do. But my wife and I have found most TSA agents to be a bit more relaxed and friendly as long as a person poses no clear threat to anyone or exhibits "unusual" behavior.

Several years ago my wife and I were traveling to somewhere, and with my back problems I chose to wear a pair of boots that were easiest to remove and replace while going through airport security. The boots were made by Harley-Davidson, and because my mind was focused on comfort and convenience I paid no attention to the various metal accents with the Harley-Davidson logo on them that were attached to the boots. It was only as I was removing them at the airport that it occurred to me they might pose a problem, but by then it was too late to do anything about it. Sure enough, as they were passing through the x-ray machine the conveyor belt stopped, and a youngish female TSA agent with a stern look on her face approached me and asked, "Are those your boots?" As I admitted they were, my first thought was, "Uh-oh, here it comes..." To my surprise the agent smiled and joyfully said, "You should see them on the x-ray! With all of the metal lit up, they look wicked!"

On the other hand...

...Girl I know once went on holiday to Israel. Gonig through securty on the way home, the guy in front picked his bag up after X-Ray and said to the security guy "Oh, you didn't find the bomb, then? Ha ha"

Security: "Bomb, sir? Oh, no. I'd better take another look."

Security proceeds to open bag, and tip all contents out all over the floor.

Security "Nope, no bomb in there sir. But you'd better clean that mess up before you miss your flight."

Pre 9/11, though. These days I gather it's not only in the US where using the word 'bomb' alone is enough to get you a few days in the big house.

...there are certain things you just don't joke about in an airport or airplane, and buzzwords like "bomb", "explosive", "hijack", and/or anything along those lines will usually result in some form of official and generally unpleasant response.

I recently took the train to California. There was no security check. Terrorists have bombed trains and busses before. Why would security be so lax on Amtrak or intercity busses compared to airplanes?

My sister worked for Amtrak several years ago as what they refer to as an "Onboard Services" employee, but what most of us would call a "host/server/attendant". She liked the job and most of the people she worked with, but had a rather negative opinion of the way the company was managed. I won't go into details, but I was left with the impression that the people who worked on the trains knew what they were doing for the most part, but that the middle- and upper-management didn't.

 

[2jakes]

^^^^

Ice!
They provided a cup of ice for the soda water during the meals.
But middle & upper-management needs to take measures to
install an ice machine.

It was so uncivilized to drink a warm Dr. Pepper in the middle
of the night.


Nit-picking for sure !

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I recently took the train to California.
There was no security check.
Terrorists have bombed trains and busses before.
Why would security be so lax on Amtrak or intercity busses
compared to airplanes?

Don't give them any ideas.

 

[BlueTrain]

If you're old enough, you may recall there were a number of airplane hijackings for a while in the distant past, along with a few planes that were blown up in mid-air. While it's possible to blow up a train or bus and get the results you want, you can't hijack a train or a bus. I guess you could a bus but I don't know that it's been done. And if something goes wrong, it won't fall a thousand feet. I think that was the original point of view as far as security in transportation goes. Some airlines used to arm their pilots but that was before my time.

One reason so-called terrorists blow up things the way they do is because they lack the means to drop bombs out of airplanes the way we do. But when we do that, we don't call it terrorism.

 

[Zombie_61]

I wonder how people who used to work for Montgomery Ward would feel about this thread. Or, with the rumors of their impending demise, the people who currently work for J.C. Penney and/or Sears. Nothing lasts forever, but I can remember a time when most people would have thought you were crazy if you suggested any of these retail chains would one day cease to exist.

 

[Fading Fast]

Doing my best not to make this political, but I think the failings of Amtrak (which I use all the time on its Northeast Corridor line and love) is one of gov't policy as our gov't doesn't have a clear vision for what it wants Amtrak to be nor is it willing to subsidies trains the way it does - directly and indirectly - cars and planes.

Trains are transportation and if the gov't subsidizes cars and planes at a much higher per-traveler rate (and it does), then train travel will always be at a competitive disadvantage (which it is in the US). Additionally, the gov't basically forces Amtrak to keep running its very unprofitable long-distance passenger service and, then, complains when Amtrak loses money.

We subsidies long-distance car and plane travel so why not trains? Or conversely, the gov't could let Amtrak shut down its unprofitable routes so that it might be profitable. I prefer the former, but either make sense - what doesn't make sense is what we have now where the gov't forces Amtrak to provide a money losing service and then complains when it loses money.

Over the years, Amtrak has had some very smart leaders who have all left, IMHO, because of the above conundrum which they have all identified but which Congress won't let them solve. With a few exceptions now and again, the train crews are professional, nice and try hard, but they, too, know they are working for an addled gov't agency with a (at best) confused business model.

 

[Fading Fast]

I wonder how people who used to work for Montgomery Ward would feel about this thread. Or, with the rumors of their impending demise, the people who currently work for J.C. Penney and/or Sears. Nothing lasts forever, but I can remember a time when most people would have thought you were crazy if you suggested any of these retail chains would one day cease to exist.

My first job on Wall Street was working for an "old-line" brokerage house that had been in business as a partnership since 1905 and almost never fired an employee as the employees were "part of the family." The view at the firm was you had a job for life unless you did something really stupid or egregious to get yourself fired.

When I was hired in '85, most of the employees had worked there their entire lives and planed to work there until retirement. Only because I was new and had a fresh view, I could see the company was struggling and wasn't competitive as firms - even in '85 - needed to attract more capital and invest in technology to survive but this company wasn't doing that. I'm over simplifying, but the point holds. And in '89, the company, basically, went bankrupt.

To Zombie's question - two out of three employees couldn't image the firm going out of business / it just was beyond what they could believe was possible. A third got it and knew it was in trouble, but right to the end, many just couldn't believe it would happen.

I image, with all the history of firms failing over the last three decades, the employees at Sears, etc., get it - I can't believe they are like the ones at that old firm I worked for. Back then, we hadn't gone through thirty odd years of old / big name companies failing, but by now, I can't image too many people have faith in almost any company surviving forever let alone ones that are well-known potential bankruptcy candidates.

 

[BlueTrain]

In some ways the business world is in the same position it was in 1900. That was the era of the super rich (first time around). There were new business that were changing the ways people shopped and one of them was Sears, Roebuck. Maybe they should have kept Roebuck! Anyway, there were lots of new companies starting up around then and on through the next 20 or 30 years. Some became very big fairly soon and got the organizational problems worked out a long time ago, like General Motors. To think the government thought GM dominated the auto industry at one time. News, including news about business, tends to be sensationalist and things are not necessarily as they seem.

Large corporations do not control things as much as is sometimes claimed. And an industry does not necessarily control the market, although that's hard to see at times. Sometimes even entire industries almost disappear because of technological changes. The savings and loan industry, if you can call it that, is a thing of the past. I also worked in photofinishing for about 25 years, another industry that has virtually disappeared.

 

[Edward]

Certainly true that you can't take too much for granted: I remember when Woolworths and British Home Stores seemed unassailable.

 

[Harp]

Browning automatic rifle.

Shave-and-a- haircut, three-bits. Gentle squeeze.
Spent a tour as an adviser with the Greek Army and the BAR was still used-and a crew-served weapon. Spent most of my time busting up BAR teams.

 

[BlueTrain]

The National Guard was still using M1s and BARs in the 1970s.