What gives you that vintage feeling?

[GHT]

The sight, sound and above all, the smell of a classic steam train. I could play "Brief Encounters," all day, if I had this to play it with.

 

[Zombie_61]

One of the things that used to give me that vintage feeling was driving my Volkswagen Beetles. I've owned three over the years--a 1961, 1966, and 1963 (in that order)--and the smell of the leaded gasoline (when I first started driving, at least), having to sit and let the engine warm up (you have to make sure the oil is flowing properly with an air-cooled engine), going through the gears as I made my way around town...wonderful!

These days, I get a little of that feeling when I'm listening to "The '40s on 4" on the XM satellite radio in my truck. They play mostly music from the 1940s, but occasionally slip in a 1930s number or two. The first time I listened to the station was several years ago, and it must have been December 8th or 9th because they did the entire broadcast--music, commercials, and short news briefs--as though they were following up on the December 7th attack on Pearl Harbor. It was a brilliant bit of programming that gave the listener(s) a taste of what those days must have been like. Sadly, they haven't done that since (not that I've heard, anyway), but I keep hoping.

I don't dress vintage (unless you consider Levi's jeans vintage ), but I do own one fedora (so far)--an Akubra Federation IV that I bought in 2008. I've only become a "hat wearer" in recent years, but I do get "that feeling" every time I put it on; not wearing it, mind you, but there's something about the simple act of placing it on my head that has a very familiar and comfortable feeling to it, as though I've been doing it my entire life. It's probably a carry-over from a past life (if you believe in such things...and I do).

 

[GHT]

These days, I get a little of that feeling when I'm listening to "The '40s on 4" on the XM satellite radio in my truck. They play mostly music from the 1940s, but occasionally slip in a 1930s number or two. The first time I listened to the station was several years ago, and it must have been December 8th or 9th because they did the entire broadcast--music, commercials, and short news briefs--as though they were following up on the December 7th attack on Pearl Harbor. It was a brilliant bit of programming that gave the listener(s) a taste of what those days must have been like. Sadly, they haven't done that since (not that I've heard, anyway), but I keep hoping.

This may have been mentioned on another thread, WW2 perhaps. The UK Television, Channel 4, are doing a program called: D-Day, as it happens. It's as though we go back to D-Day, but with today's communications. You get to see archive footage, from both sides, interspersed with commentary, and computer graphics. Here's the link, but whether they let you open it on your side of the pond, depends on whether they have set it up for sale to other countries.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/d-day-as-it-happens/4od

It is available to you, http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?72266-Experience-D-Day-In-Real-Time&p=1639354

 

[stevew443]

I had to purchase a "new" car this past weekend. I was led to a 2003 Mercury Grand Marquis that had only 50K miles on it that was garage kept and in immaculate condition. I now find that there is nothing that gives a vintage feeling more than slipping into the front seat of a full sized 2 ton vehicle with a V8, rear wheel drive, full leather bench seat. I have not driven a full sized car since 1970, and driving this Merc just takes me back to the days of inexpensive gasoline, powerful engines and a level of luxury that is not available in small cars. Granted the car I now drive is not a vintage vehicle, but that vintage feeling is there, and when dressed for work, in nice clothing, tie and fedora, I am taken back to days long gone.

 

[Stewart Field]

I try to live vintage every day, from shaving with my straight razor while listening to my '40s favorites to pulling my trench coat and fedora from my coat stand. If I had to pick one item above all the others it would be this:
hearing my 1937 Western Electric pierce the tranquility with the sound only a vintage phone can make.

 

[nulty]

What I ascribe to a feeling, is hopefully a sense of personal values that hopefully lend to behaviors. I like to believe that the folks from my grandparents generation( b. 1899-1925) actually did exude an attitude about life and their place in the world that came from the experience of 2 world wars and the Depression all occurring in their younger formative years. They were hard people yet incredibly hospitable and generous. They would welcome my friends as their own. They kept to their own business and expected the same of others , they didn't judge without expecting it in return and they backed what they said with honesty and most times a sense of gallantry and grace. They were regular folk who never bemoaned their status and they defended what and whom they loved without prejudice, whether right or wrong. It was this sense of these people in my life that gave me a love for the time they lived. This developed into the clothing and the collecting . Now all these years later I still get juiced when I come across an authentic piece from back in the day..but I realize it's not in the having or the wearing that gives me that vintage feeling. It's when I know I've hit the mark, when I've acted in a way that I would imagine my Grandad acting or one of my uncles. Or when I play with my own Grandchild and hope I can pass onto him a sense of value and worth in himself and his time on earth...even if he doesn't wear a fedora ( which he does ) that ties it all together for me....

 

[Zombie_61]

This may have been mentioned on another thread, WW2 perhaps. The UK Television, Channel 4, are doing a program called: D-Day, as it happens. It's as though we go back to D-Day, but with today's communications. You get to see archive footage, from both sides, interspersed with commentary, and computer graphics. Here's the link, but whether they let you open it on your side of the pond, depends on whether they have set it up for sale to other countries.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/d-day-as-it-happens/4od

It is available to you, http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?72266-Experience-D-Day-In-Real-Time&p=1639354

I apologize for neglecting to thank you for bringing this to my (our) attention. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be available for viewing here in the U.S., but it may eventually become available on DVD so I'll keep an eye open for it.

Back to the main topic, I thought of another thing that gives me a vintage feeling. This is the post office in my home town:

Opened for business in 1935 (the photo was taken in 1940), except for the installation of some modern electronics and such (cash registers, security cameras, an "automatic" front door and ramp for disabled access, etc.) the building has gone largely unchanged through the years. Every time I walk into the building I imagine how it might have looked in the 30s and 40s with the customers dressed more formally as they conducted their business, and it puts a smile on my face.