What gives you that vintage feeling?

[Matt Crunk]

Old buildings

Eating Nathans Hot Dogs (in the natural casing)

I agree with John. Old buildings really do it for me.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to explore an old four story bank building from the 20's or 30's. The ground floor was renovated and occupied by a business, but the floors above it had been closed off for years and were like a time capsule. Among the abandoned offices I found there were accounting and insurance firms, and a doctor's office - which still had vintage medical equipment in it. It was like all the former tenants had picked up and moved out fifty years before, and left what they couldn't carry behind. I passed by that building just the other day and it looks as if nothing has changed. I thought about stopping in, handing the current first floor tenant one of my business cards (film and video production), and see if I couldn't take another little tour for the sake of scouting locations for a future production.

Oh, and I'm crazy and nostalgic over quality hot dogs too, especially when they're sold off a street cart.

Also making the list . . .
Classic wooden boats
Vintage Automobiles & Airplanes (I learned how to fly in a restored 1938 Piper Cub)
and traditional barber shops (especially those that still offer a hot-towel, straight-razor shave).

 

[scottyrocks]

Driving through Atlantic City a few days ago, and seeing all the streets on the Monopoly game board gave me a nostalgic feeling. Not to mention some of the older, run down sections of town.

 

[Marla]

Wearing NOS vintage clothing. There is just something about putting on something old for the first time, knowing that it felt the same back then.

 

[Asienizen]

Things that give me that "vintage" feel:
1. Every time I put on my A2 HH jacket - I think of all those young pilots from old faded photos.
2.When I would put on my overcoat and fedora to head out into the Minneapolis winters.
3. Smoking my pipes, using my straight razor.
4.Whenever I had the chance to talk to a combat pilot from WW2 and was able to discuss the little details about their aircraft, clothing, music, etc., and get them to the point where they talked as if I knew what they had experienced.
5.Dancing any number of couple's dances, rumba, swing, etc.

 

[m0nk]

When I drink Manhattans or Martinis... while wearing one of my hats...

 

[2jakes]

Things that give me that "vintage" feel:
1. Every time I put on my A2 HH jacket - I think of all those young pilots from old faded photos.
2.When I would put on my overcoat and fedora to head out into the Minneapolis winters.
3. Smoking my pipes, using my straight razor.

With regards to straight razor. Going to the barber shop , I remember that as a kid, the barber would place
some kind of seat on the barber chair to reach my head. After the haircut with the clippers, he would use some kind
of leather strap & stroke the razor and I can still remember the sound of the razor on the back of my head as he shaved.
Plus the smell of all the hair tonics , while the grown ups would listen to the baseball or boxing on the radio. And the people
waiting would smoke , also at the back of the bus too they were allowed to smoke.

 

[Asienizen]

Luckily, there are plenty of places where I live that I can smoke my pipe, in restaurants, barber shops, pool halls, etc.. I always tell myself, "Enjoy the it while it lasts."

 

[2jakes]

Luckily, there are plenty of places where I live that I can smoke my pipe, in restaurants, barber shops, pool halls, etc.. I always tell myself, "Enjoy the it while it lasts."[/QUOTE

2 questions…first , where is the place that you are able to smoke today ? And second , looking at old movies , it appears
everybody smoked everywhere , anytime , men & women. Even a dying soldier in combat , he was given a smoke.
Was the tobacco different , milder or was that just the times ? I do know that there was no filters back then. There's a scene
in "The Big Sleep", Bogie & Bacall where she pulls out a small pack of Chesterfields ,kind of small & fat with no filters.

 

[Shangas]

In older times, it's my understanding that you could smoke virtually anywhere so long as it didn't pose a serious danger to others. Such as in gas-stations, onboard submarines, etc.

Smoking was legal in cinemas, ships, airplanes even.

 

[Fading Fast]

For me.... anything that is not electronic.... no cell phone ...no electronic books... no Ipad no thing like that.


Books...paper books give me the vintage feeling.


Yes, reading paper books make me feel in the past!

Agree completely on paper books, especially old books bought at a used book store - the feel, the smell and the little surprises you find in them such as a gift inscription (" to Julie from Dad Xmas 1942" - which reminds you how much more books were valued before we became a wealthier and "disposable" society) or an old letter left in a book (I found one once in a book where a houseguest had sent the book as a gift and described the fun time he had at the farmhouse he visited - I felt more than nastalgia, more than a vintage feel, I felt like I had time traveled - wonderful moment). Also, old movies can spark that feel as can train travel (with a little imagination, even in new trains, you can get a sense of Godlen era travel).

 

[scottyrocks]

Was the tobacco different , milder or was that just the times ? I do know that there was no filters back then. There's a scene
in "The Big Sleep", Bogie & Bacall where she pulls out a small pack of Chesterfields ,kind of small & fat with no filters.

The fact that one could smoke cigarettes anywhere was just a reflection of the times. There was a combination of lack of knowledge and lack of caring that kept many bad habits thriving. It wasn't until the ceasing of advertising, especially on TV, and later on, large taxation, that the numbers of people smoking dropped off significantly.

 

[John in Covina]

A guy that repaired airliners told me that the pressurized planes would have smudges on the outside where the tars and nicotine leaked out of the plane. They used it to see where the leaks in the cabin were.

 

[Asienizen]

Luckily, there are plenty of places where I live that I can smoke my pipe, in restaurants, barber shops, pool halls, etc.. I always tell myself, "Enjoy the it while it lasts."[/QUOTE

2 questions…first , where is the place that you are able to smoke today ? And second , looking at old movies , it appears
everybody smoked everywhere , anytime , men & women. Even a dying soldier in combat , he was given a smoke.
Was the tobacco different , milder or was that just the times ? I do know that there was no filters back then. There's a scene
in "The Big Sleep", Bogie & Bacall where she pulls out a small pack of Chesterfields ,kind of small & fat with no filters.

Where do I live? Where do proprietor's have the choice to allow smoking or not? Take a quick look at my profile and you'll see.

 

[Edward]

There's a nightclub in London that recreates the 1930's Cotton Club of Chicago. It's only on once a month, but that's enough to live a fantasy for a few hours. Zoot suit, two tone brogues, fedora and a wonderful necktie imprinted with images of Toulouse Lautrec's sketches of 19th century cancan scenes.

Sounds like the Black Cotton / Lady Luck.... not sure where they are regularly these days - last I heard they were in Volupte (lovely venue, but lethally expensive. Some good burlesque and cabaret nights, but the quality can be very hit and miss at times, and it is always pricey). A good cabaret night, or a "vintage" club where everyone makes an effort, or the Ace Cafe on certain nights, or a good jive night that draws the hardcore rockabilly crowd... Any of those. My thing isn't so much pretending it's still the past, though, as pretending that it is now and some of these things never died...

2) Going to the drive in movie with my speakers. Invariably someone will ask about them and the kids/adults nowadays don't even know what they are. But it is nice to sit there in my chair with a soad and some snacks and listen to the movie the way they should be.

Mike

Specific drive-in speakers for the car? Not clear myself, but drive-in cinemas are culturally alien over here...

2 questions…first , where is the place that you are able to smoke today ? And second , looking at old movies , it appears
everybody smoked everywhere , anytime , men & women. Even a dying soldier in combat , he was given a smoke.
Was the tobacco different , milder or was that just the times ? I do know that there was no filters back then. There's a scene
in "The Big Sleep", Bogie & Bacall where she pulls out a small pack of Chesterfields ,kind of small & fat with no filters.

Basic ignorance of the health dangers. The habit getting more expensive and limits on where one can smoke have been triggers to get a lot of people to stop, but the reason fewer and fewer people don't start in the first place is that we simply know how bad the risks are today. I smoke a pipe myself, but very irregularly - if I thought for a minute it was becoming a habit I'd knock it on the head completely. I spend time in China, and it's a measure of how normative the smoking ban has become here that it still takes me by surprise every time I see people smoke inside over there. Even that is changing, though - smoking sections are becoming the norm there now, which is the first step. I prefer it myself - on the occasions when I do take the pipe out with me, I like stepping outside with it rather than remaining indoors. It's been a godsend too when it comes to work residentials with students. I've even once or twice used the pipe as an excuse to excuse myself and step outside with no intent of actually smoking. The best thing, though, is coming home from a gig or a night out and not stinking like an ash tray. In the Far East and in Africa too you don't see these sort of restrictions on smoking, mostly because there is less awareness of the health issues (also why the tobacco companies target that art of the world hard). That will change over time. I suspect it's only a matter of time before it changes in Beijing, for one. Not sure what the position is in Japan (seems sometimes like every Japanese kid between 18 and 30 you see in London is practically a chain-smoker).

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's also a myth that "everybody" smoked. The peak of smoking in the United States was the early sixties, when approximately sixty percent of adults used tobacco. That's over half the adult population, but it's a far cry from "everybody." Another fact is that the majority of regular smokers were male -- about eighty percent of the adult male population smoked, but the percentage of adult women who smoked regularly peaked at about forty percent, and then not until the mid-sixties.

Another interesting angle is that cigarettes were smaller, so for someone to be a "pack a day" smoker in the Era meant something quite different from what it means today. The standard cigarette of the era was 70 mm long -- and without a filter that usually meant allowing about 25mm for the butt, so you were only getting about 50mm of the cigarette per smoke. Today, with 100mm cigarettes being the standard, about 75mm of that is tobacco. I'll leave someone else to do the math, but suffice it to say that the "pack-a-day" smoker in 1937 was smoking quite a bit less than the "pack-a-day" smoker of today.

 

[Fletch]

Older folks in the '40s and before didn't smoke so much - especially cigarettes, which had been illegal in many places before 1920 (they were thought to tempt the young).

Women especially didn't smoke until well into the '20s - in fact it took an all-out Lucky Strike campaign to change that. My ggms, both born around 1875, were staunchly anti-tobacco.

 

[Matt Crunk]

I don't smoke. I have never smoked cigarettes (though I do enjoy a good cigar on rare occasion, and I don't mind pipes). I grew up in a household where both parents smoked and I thought it was a disgusting habit that never appealed to me. About the only place I've ever found smoking attractive is in old movies, where it's almost obligatory and part of the character's persona. However, here in my part of the country (the Deep South) smoking is still allowed in many public places. Some of the more progressive cities have laws against it, even in bars. But in many smaller towns, smoking inside a store or workplace is still completely at the business owner's discretion.

In my opinion, having a smoking section in a restaurant is about like having a peeing section in a public pool.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A guy that repaired airliners told me that the pressurized planes would have smudges on the outside where the tars and nicotine leaked out of the plane. They used it to see where the leaks in the cabin were.

When repairing an old television set or radio, you can tell at a glance if the original owner was a smoker -- the inside of the set will be covered in yellow tobacco-smoke goo if it was in a smoker's house. TV sets that spent part of their lives in bars are so thickly covered in the stuff you can actually get sick from handling them.

 

[Matt Crunk]

Speaking of smoking in old movies, we're currently in production with a film noir comedy short set in the late 1940's. One of the main characters needs to smoke, and I have to acquire the props. What brand available today best matches what would have been smoked in that era, or would at least look correct onscreen?

By the way, I've heard that if an actor on a Hollywood production is shown smoking on camera today, it by law has to be an herbal cigarette and not real tobacco.

 

[John in Covina]

Speaking of smoking in old movies, we're currently in production with a film noir comedy short set in the late 1940's. One of the main characters needs to smoke, and I have to acquire the props. What brand available today best matches what would have been smoked in that era, or would at least look correct onscreen?

By the way, I've heard that if an actor on a Hollywood production is shown smoking on camera today, it by law has to be an herbal cigarette and not real tobacco.

For the vintage look it would be a non filter cig. Camel no filter, Lucky Strike, perhaps Pall Mall, or Chesterfield. An alternative if a man is to go with cigars or a pipe for some characters.