Your Most Disturbing Realizations

[vitanola]

I meant shopping-bags.

Yes, and when Shopping Bags get together in a large group there is danger, grave danger.

 

[Fading Fast]

I am drawn to cemeteries. The place where my natural father is buried, the graveyard behind a country Catholic church, tells the story of much of my genetic stock. The older graves there date from the late 1800s, and are marked with stones engraved in German. Little markers tell of those stillborn or dead in infancy.

It's endlessly fascinating.

Oddly, I, too, am drawn to cemeteries and, on vacation, my girlfriend and I regular visit interesting cemeteries (or even obscure ones, as all are interesting). That's why I totally "get" why it is meaningful to some people to have that memorial for themselves; it is just, for me personally, not something I care about. But, writ large, I feel and understand that vibe, the history, the meaning of cemeteries.

 

[2jakes]

Carl Reiner is still with us, I do believe.

More than any other movie I can think of, IAMMMMW has me seeing the world (literally --how the physical world appeared through my eyes) as it appeared in my early years. The cars, the architecture, the clothing.

And then there's the types of humor and cultural norms. The movie is very much of the period it was made.

I also believe Jerry Lewis is still around. He had a cameo part.
I was making reference to the comedians who played a major part
in the movie.

Also, during my stay in California, I went to visit the
Hollywood Cemetery.
Many familiar stars which I recognized from TCM movies
were there.
I overstayed my visit & the main gate was locked.
I jumped over the fence.
It just happened to be on the corner bus stop.
To say that I “scared the bejesus” out of the folks waiting
for their ride, is putting it mildly. True story!

 

[Stearmen]

I’m seriously thinking of writing a message of some kind inside the metal
somewhere to be discovered in the future.

Not sure what I want to tell them....any ideas Lizzie ?

That's not a bad idea! When I worked on WWII airplanes, we would come across messages written on the metal under inspection panels, we all got a kick out of them. Mostly, they wished the pilot or crew good luck, or they were proud to be working for the war effort. Wish we had cell phones back then, so I could have documented them!

 

[fashion frank]

Getting back to disturbing realizations- I was thinking as I read this site, of how nearly all the clothes, hats, furniture etc of bygone ages was worn out, decayed, thrown out and disappeared and what we have left is a small remnant that luckily survives in good condition. Then it occurred to me that the makers and original owners are ALL dead and gone if we are talking about things from much before WW2.

I hear ya when I'm working on my Model A I think to myself " how many people have touched this steering wheel from the day it was put on in the factory to 83 years later as I'm touching it" ,kinda gives ya the willies ! All the Best , Fashion Frank

 

[2jakes]

When I acquired my 1946 Chevrolet truck, I found a steel/black one cent penny behind the driver’s seat.
My 1934 Schwinn bicycle came with a tank to simulate a motorcycle (popular theme for kids).
Inside the tank, I found a receipt from Piggly-Wiggly store.

 

[Zombie_61]

...I also reflect on my ’39 & ’46 vehicles with the thought that I am merely
a care-taker until someone with the same interests comes along in the future.

I’m seriously thinking of writing a message of some kind inside the metal
somewhere to be discovered in the future.

Not sure what I want to tell them...

 

[2jakes]

 

[ScionPI2005]

^^^^^
I doubt I'm alone in this increasing awareness of the temporary nature of all things. I'm always known that nothing lasts forever, that even the Earth itself didn't exist at one time, and that in some distant future it will cease to exist.

The more people you bury the harder it gets to deny your own mortality. I like preserving old stuff. I like to think that something of me will survive me. But those are just artifacts. No other person is obliged to accord those artifacts the sort of magic I ascribe to them.

On that cheery note ...

Mortality is such a sophisticated concept. It seems like we're raised to know that we are mortal, and we see that around us over time as friends and family get older. Still, it seems to be a concept that we cannot completely get used to, even the more we are reminded over time. However, aging and dying is something countless billions of people have done before us, and something another billion will do after us.

 

[Trenchfriend]

It feels kind of curious. My older typewriter from Chemnitz was made in 1931/32. Surely, the guy (or girl), who assembled this nice little typewriter in the end, was a selected, well-experienced worker.
Maybe, he or she was middle-aged, at this time, maybe in his or her late 40's or early 50's. If he or she was in solid health-condition, probably living further 20 or 25 years, he or she lived until the mid 50's. So, the person, who got my typewriter in his hands, disappeared circa SIXTY years ago.

This is a curious feeling, somehow, as the time-distance of 60 years would like to touch you.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think a lot about the workers who built my Plodge. The Canadian Chrysler plant in Windsor, where it was built, wasn't yet unionized in 1941, and Chrysler Canada was actively working to suppress the UAW organizers who were employed at the plant. They had to meet secretly to plan strategy, all the while avoiding the company goons who were trying to root them out. Whenever I work on the car myself I think about the conditions under which it was built, and I admire the courage of the workers who put it together.

 

[2jakes]

I doubt I'm alone in this increasing awareness of the temporary nature of all things. I'm always known that nothing lasts forever, that even the Earth itself didn't exist at one time, and that in some distant future it will cease to exist.

Literally.
I know of two locations where vast lands have completely disappeared
over a period of time. And it was not entirely man-made.

Folks today will never know how it was unless they were there.
Same thing would apply to the working conditions of the past.
Nearest thing is some one telling us about it.

 

[handymike]

I recently did jury service and realized that most of the Telephones in the building had been removed.

Seems really hard to find a phone booth these days. Another sign of the times.

 

[Fading Fast]

I think a lot about the workers who built my Plodge. The Canadian Chrysler plant in Windsor, where it was built, wasn't yet unionized in 1941, and Chrysler Canada was actively working to suppress the UAW organizers who were employed at the plant. They had to meet secretly to plan strategy, all the while avoiding the company goons who were trying to root them out. Whenever I work on the car myself I think about the conditions under which it was built, and I admire the courage of the workers who put it together.

All the above makes sense to me - and those who fought and won better conditions for the workers are heroes - but do you also think about the few singular brains that created the technology and processes that made the Plodge? No committee of workers created the idea, the fresh concept, the original thought that brought the car and car-building into existence.

Yes, without the workers, it wouldn't have been made - and kudos to them - but without the genius and intense toil of a few independent thinkers, the concept to make it wouldn't have existed - kudos to them, as well. Every automobile assembly line worker - despite all the horrible things he did - owes a bit of hat-tipping to the insane and brutal Henry Ford and, the not-insane and very impressive, Adam Smith - without them, no auto-assembly jobs would probably exist to for which to demand better wages.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A man with an idea and no way to bring it into execution is simply a daydreamer.

 

[Fading Fast]

A man with an idea and no way to bring it into execution is simply a daydreamer.

And no daydreamer - no jobs to fight for better wages.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Without our brain and muscle, not a single wheel can turn.

 

[Fading Fast]

Without our brain and muscle, not a single wheel can turn.

I agree, but somebody has to invent the wheel and the plan to make it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Somebody had to hew the stone to make the wheel. Somebody had to fell the tree that rolled down the hill that inspired the idea to hew the stone to make the wheel.

Point being, there isn't a single idea in the history of humanity that was totally original. Every single idea was inspired by the work of someone who came before. There are no Lone Geniuses. Henry Ford built on the ideas of R. E. Olds, who built on the ideas of 19th century carriage manufacturers who learned about precision-parts manufacture from the railroad industry who picked it up from farm-equipment manufacturers, who learned the techniques of 18th century gunsmiths, and so on back to the collective discovery of metalworking by prehistoric man. All invention and all human progress is a collaborative effort building on a common pool of collective knowledge.

 

[2jakes]

I recently did jury service and realized that most of the Telephones in the building had been removed.
View attachment 47613
Seems really hard to find a phone booth these days. Another sign of the times.

I've realized that doing jury duty today is embarrassing.
Not able to sit for long periods, especially in a cold jury room
without having to interrupt the trial to be excused to go to
the restroom every fifteen minutes.

Worse still, is having to admit this at the start of the jury
room selection, especially if it’s a young pretty clerk!

Same applies to hospital gowns.
My sincere admiration to all the lovely nurses
who have made me feel it's ok, even though
inside of me, I still feel embarrassed not wearing
much in front of them!