Vintage Vestiges of Your Profession

[PistolPete1969]

As a Corrections Officer (read "overpaid babysitter") a LOT of things have changed, not necessarily for the better, IMHO.

We still carry handcuffs and are trained in how to use them. We are also trained in firearms, unarmed self-defense, and the usual "cop" stuff. Our uniforms are more "police" style them military style, like in the "good old" days.

Nowadays there is a feeling amongst the powers-that-be to "Hug-A-Thug" and try to understand them. There have been numerous examples recently where inmates have assaulted officers as well as Upper Management, and they have NOT been touched. Old-school, they would have "slipped in the shower" numerous times. This is merely a reflection of society at-large; a more liberal approach to social problems.

Anyway....I'm off my soapbox. Thanks

Pete

 

[Gutshot]

This made me laugh! I work in a museum, directly with the artifacts, each and everyday. Just last week we added a slide rule almost exactly like this to our collection, leather case and all!!

Was it as pretty as mine?

 

["Skeet" McD]

I feel...I mean "felt" your pain....

As a Corrections Officer (read "overpaid babysitter") a LOT of things have changed, not necessarily for the better, IMHO.....This is merely a reflection of society at-large; a more liberal approach to social problems....Anyway....I'm off my soapbox. Thanks

Pete

And I'll get on MINE! Warning: fftopic: Well...it's been going on for a LONG time now. I grew up in Ossining, NY....the proverbial "up the river," Sing-Sing. That's the cottage industry of my home town, and I too worked there, several summers during college and then for several years before moving up here to Massachusetts. About half the time I was inside the walls with a gang of 10 murders working for me (you don't want to put thieves in your PX) or working in the Pharmacy; the other half I was outside the walls serving as the Purchasing Agent. Point is, I was there....right after the Attica riots. Sing-Sing (oh, excuse me: the Ossining Correctional Facility) was like Alice's wonderland....the guards were unarmed; all the prisoners WERE. The guards were done up in blazers and khakis...but the inmates didn't have to wear uniforms. Nobody had to work--you could if you wanted to, but if you had a work ethic, why would you be in prison? You got 3 squares a day; toilet articles; cigarettes; and a stipend to buy luxury items at the PX. If I remember correctly, the stipend was $1.25 a week....and if you worked, I believe you got something like .50 a day. So there was absolutely no incentive. Once upon a time....the NYS prison system MADE EVERYTHING that was used within it, including the food from prison farms. It cost the taxpayer nothing, and the surplus not needed within the system was sold to further support the expenses. By the time I'm talking about, NOTHING was made in the system...everything was bought from outside, and the items sold in the PX were sold to the inmates at 10% BELOW COST...therefore costing the taxpayer 10% with every sale. There was a full hospital inside the walls with 2 surgical suites...but they stopped using that and sent inmates to the local hospital...and sent them for elective surgeries, to boot. That was 30 to 35 years ago...Heaven only knows what it's like now.

But, if you want to see what Sing-Sing was like pre-Attica, go rent 20,000 Years in Sing-Sing; it was all shot within the walls. The military style discipline remained intact until Attica, 40 years later.

 

["Skeet" McD]

Well: having vented somewhat off-topic...I suppose I should actually contribute to this thread.

I'm a classically-trained singer who specializes in platform song--THAT's vintage right there, like it or not--the last performer who could really make a living giving song recitals was....John McCormack in the 1930s and '40s. Nowadays there's no market for it, really: people who make their career in opera, say, can do a song recital when they feel like it, but specialists are a dead breed. The situation is slightly better in Europe...but not much.

Having said that, much is the same for me: I sing in formal wear; the piano hasn't changed; there's no question of amplification. You walk out on stage, bow, look the audience in the eye and start to howl. Hopefully, they clap. Pretty basic, and pretty unchanged from the "Golden Era." Add to that the fact that much of what I do is period music, classical and popular, and I have a pretty vintage career. One of my all-time FAVORITE memories is singing a recital at London's Wigmore Hall: a beautifully preserved time capsule in which everyone who has been anyone has sung...how I got there, I'll never quite understand. But, as is so true of much of English practice....it was like going back in time. You were treated like royalty....once you got inside! But....there's a photo of me out back among the rubbish tips, leaning against the door CLEARLY MARKED Artiste's Entrance--and you were expected to use it....if you've ever seen the Merchant-Ivory film of Howard's End, you can see the place: it is the concert hall shown in the early part of the film.

 

[Mojito]

The institution I work for encourages the research, preservation and use of traditional tall ship sailing skills, as well as shipwright skills (all within modern SOLAS and OH&S standards, of course).

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

I earned my advertising design degree back in the early eighties. I was among the very last of the generation to hit that profession utterly unarmed for the burgeoning computer revolution. It was all T-Squares and triangles for me. Computers existed, of course but their ability to do graphics was so limited that there was a transition period.

Bottom line is that I worked in the commercial art field for 20+ years and never once learned to use a computer for graphics. I still do not have or 'know' Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark or whatever the latest apps are. I was always the art director or creative director in an agency setting or the owner of my own design firms in other periods. I surrounded myself with talented techies and never had a dull moment in that biz for the wont of no personal computer skills. I actually accomplished much more by being the conductor and idea guy of a team than if I had sat down to personally make each complete design.

In recent years, I have reverted back to my core competencies and actually DRAW for a living. With pens on paper. It's the weirdest thing to behold. I do caricatures as my primary business - and I book over 200 gigs a year! People eat it up and it's fun and as old an approach to art as one can get.

Although far less active than the caricature work, I also receive a steady number of assignments from business people looking for logo designs which have a custom cartoon element or a retro hand-drawn style. As far as logo work, it is somewhat my specialty to design '40s style trademarks. For those types of assignments I still enlist the services of computer graphics professionals, my girlfriend being my favorite among them. But I pride myself on my old fashioned methods and styles and I play it up in my own logo and personal presentation to clients.

 

[Martinis at 8]

...And then there's this:

Isn't she pretty? I just wish I knew how to really honestly use it and do so well. It's a hard thing to learn in this day and age. No one makes slide rules any more and there isn't much information on using them.

Looks like a plastic one. Vintage would have been bamboo or teak. I still have my metal ones, but the bamboo ones are gone I know how to use them. I also have book that explains their use very well. We were required to use them when I was in school and were even tested on their use.

 

[retrogirl1941]

I am a part time cashier at an Ace Hardware. The company dates back to the early 1900s(under a different name). If we allowed to I would wear a repro of a 1940s uniform. But alas we have to wear the modern one but, the one I choose to wear looks like a grocery store uniform piece from the 1950s. Close enough for me. My other job, full time housewife.

Samantha

 

[Harp]

...While the law constantly evolves, it generally does so (painfully) slowly. In fact, I have long felt that conducting legal research is like taking a journey into the past.
AF

Courvoisier; 1840 London; Charles Phillips for the defense-
a One-L find concerning the right to trial and a lawyer's responsibility.
Still provocative.

 

[bendingoak]

My department would have you hide for doing that.

 

[donCarlos]

This made me laugh! I work in a museum, directly with the artifacts, each and everyday. Just last week we added a slide rule almost exactly like this to our collection, leather case and all!!

A friend of mine posseses one slide ruler made from cardboard, which is apparently from the WWII, with schwabach inscriptions and all. That´s a piece of history, the stuff the used to make the first rockets...

To the topic - my profession has no vintage vestiges, except the buildings I rent the apartments at.

 

[Lotta Little]

I'm a secretary. Can I get anyone a cup of coffee? Oh, and you have a call on line two.

 

[scottyrocks]

I'm a teacher. I suppose if I weren't a PE teacher for the last however many years, I'd be dressing like Dr. Jones (or a typical classic college prof) in the classroom - bowtie, sleeveless sweater or vest, tweedy jacket, baggy pleated pants, classically pre-bold look style shirt. Oh, and wingtips. I love wingtips.

 

[der schneider]

I am a tailor. I use a thimble, needles and a 1934 sewing machine. my shearers have plastic handles and are only 29 years old but I have older ones from the 1950's 1870's and some picking tools from the mid 1700's.

I have a lot of vintage sewing gadgets in the shop and a collection of irons from the 1700's 1800's 1900's I generally use a gravity feed iron that is 12 years old but I have used all the oldfashioned ones as well.

I have rices hand sewing silk form the 50's as well as the new silamide that's available now. threads are not as good as they use to be.


the old machines are by far better than anything on the market today.

I have some from the 1900's 1930's 1950's and 1983 I do have a modern machine I purchased new in 2000 but I only use it for knits and stretchy stuff or button holes.

I fanally broke down and purchased a new chair but threads get caught in the wheels.

besides fusing, fabric, glues and other gimmicks i recomend against not to much has changed in my business

 

[Madame_Circa]

I'm a vintage clothing shop owner, so not only do I work with all kinds of beautiful old clothes I also get to control the environment - which means vintage shop fittings as much as possible. Needless to say that my lovely shop ladies and I always wear vintage to work as well - the more glamourous the better!

Nicole

 

[BinkieBaumont]

Madame Circa I was in Melbourne in September for "the Exhibition" and tried to find your shop, unfortunately I was at the wrong end of Gertrude street!!! ( I have since been informed) it was a bit dodgy their! and lots of odd people from those tower blocks!

 

[Madame_Circa]

Sorry to miss you, Binkie....you're quite right. Gertrude street is still a bit, err....interesting. Hope to catch you on another visit? We're near Brunswick Street.

Nicole

 

[CopperNY]

my position in law enforcement was only created in 1930, so there's not much history that i've ever seen (no pics, archives, etc.) that i've ever seen.

but, my education is in psychology and i live close to Utica,NY. the Utica Lunatic Asylum was once one of the premier treatment facilities of the 1800's:

birthplace of the infamous "Utica Crib", a wooden casket-like enclosure for those that refused to stay in bed:

the most famous resident was Congressman Gerrit Smith, an outspoken John Brown abolitionist, who was "disappeared" to the asylum after the Harper's Ferry Raid.

(more pics and history: http://newyorktraveler.net/the-old-main-or-utica-lunatic-asylum-ny/ )

 

[topango]

Banking and suspenders

Do I remember correctly, that only bankers of an attained "rank" should wear suspenders?

 

[MrNewportCustom]

The beauty of being an engineer is that math has changed very little. I've got a number of engineering texts from the 20-40s that look almost exactly like the ones I bought new in school. I will say I've got one from the turn of the last century that discusses straw and hair as insulation for boilers, so... yeah some things have changed.

And then there's this:

Isn't she pretty? I just wish I knew how to really honestly use it and do so well. It's a hard thing to learn in this day and age. No one makes slide rules any more and there isn't much information on using them.

I have a metal Pickett slide rule and an instruction booklet. Me and numbers don't get along very well, so I don't use either. But I did take a little time, years ago, to try to learn how to use it. I got addition down fairly well.

Mine is yellow with a black leather case. The booklet is paperback with a green cover.

As for my profession, I drive a stakebed truck. I'd love to drive a vintage truck, but I like air conditioning; and some of our trucks have CD players, thank you.


Lee