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Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

MisterCairo

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,005
Location
Gads Hill, Ontario
The thimble, and soon others, from Monopoly:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/monopoly-thimble-1.3985796

Booo, hisssss....

monopoly-no-thimble.jpg
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
32,962
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
The original thimble had "FOR A GOOD GIRL" embossed on the side. That disappeared by the 1960s. I don't remember anyone actually wanting to be the thimble.

Another "lost" token is the lantern, which was included in the $3 "White Box" Monopoly sets of the 1930s, and is rarely found with the original green celluloid insert intact. It was dropped by the end of the 1940s, and seems to have been completely unmourned.

The earliest Monopoly sets, those sold by Charles B. Darrow before Parker Brothers bought him out, included no tokens at all. The game players were expected to furnish their own from random small objects found around the house, which is the origin of the odd "random" designs of the playing pieces included in the Parker sets. Many old sets are found with old buttons for tokens.
 
Messages
12,422
Location
Germany
Candle-stick phones.

The old days, when basic daily things were more or less real craftmanship.

Like making copies:
As teacher had to make a whole class-set of copies with these old-fashion manuel copy-devices with crank and these colour-liquids. ;)
 

BlueTrain

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,073
Where I grew up, it was the people on the other side of town that had everyday things made with real craftsmanship. We just had ordinary things that were old when I was born. Old but not antique by any stretch of the imagination. Our floors were covered with roll lineoleum, which I doubt is even available any more.
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
32,962
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
Yup, a lot of our stuff was cheap Sears and Roebuck furniture, mixed in with random items that were new when Grover Cleveland was president. They might be considered "fine antiques" now, but it was just junky old used furniture then.

I don't think I've ever bought a "new" piece of furniture in my life. Why would I when there's so much perfectly usable stuff out there to be scavenged?
 
Messages
10,560
Location
My mother's basement
Yup, a lot of our stuff was cheap Sears and Roebuck furniture, mixed in with random items that were new when Grover Cleveland was president. They might be considered "fine antiques" now, but it was just junky old used furniture then.

I don't think I've ever bought a "new" piece of furniture in my life. Why would I when there's so much perfectly usable stuff out there to be scavenged?

You all are talking ordinary working class America. It pretty well describes the furnishings in the homes of my people.

I have a fondness for what I call (to the irritation of some people) "junktiques." It might be 20 years old, or it might 120 years old. And the "antique malls" are given over to it almost exclusively these days.

It's the sort of stuff that might have been found in my people's houses, but they would have acquired it as hand-me-downs or found it in the classified ads in the daily paper. Its vintage or provenance, whatever it may have been, might have interested them momentarily, but they wouldn't have paid extra for it.
 
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2jakes

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,680
Location
Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
There's two shops that cater to antiques.
One has original old stuff and the other shop has mostly modern repos (reproductions made overseas).
One thing these "repo" shops have that reminded me of my grandmother was hand-soap.
The soap is not made by large or well known brand companies.
The scent of these soaps reminded me of the times when my grandmother would have a large pot
in the back yard where she made her own soap.
Another thing was my mother would use the material from flour sacks to make dresses for my sisters.

When I read about Lizzie using clothes line to dry her clothes, I recall when not only my folks,
but everyone did this in the neighborhood. I don't see this today in my neighborhood.
Although I still do it sometimes on some jeans.
 
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lolly_loisides

One Too Many
Messages
1,845
Location
The Blue Mountains, Australia
IMG_0060.JPG
Everybody in my part of town has a clothesline. It's just the way things are done.
Almost every home in Australia has a rotary clothes line (this is my backyard). I don't understand why anyone would turn their nose up at them (apart from snobbery). As my father in law says, "There's nothing shameful about clean clothes"
 
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Messages
10,560
Location
My mother's basement
View attachment 67852
Almost every home in Australia has a rotary clothes line (this is my backyard). I don't understand why anyone would turn their nose down at them (apart from classism). As my father in law says, "There's nothing shameful about clean clothes"

There's a metaphorical expression about "airing one's dirty laundry," the meaning of which is pretty straightforward.

Clothing hanging on the line isn't dirty, but I fear that too many people take it as a sign of poverty rather than thrift. So yeah, classism seems the likeliest culprit.

Clothes dryers are more convenient, and can be had cheaply enough. And many are the not-poor people in this increasingly specialized society who send out their laundry.

Maybe if we found a way of turning line-drying laundry "artisanal" or something, we'd see hipsters and the Whole Foods crowd take it up. Hell, there would be magazines devoted to that very topic. We'd see handcrafted clothespins made from certifiably sustainable materials, with a portion of the proceeds donated to charities.
 

basbol13

A-List Customer
Messages
444
Location
Illinois
View attachment 67852
Almost every home in Australia has a rotary clothes line (this is my backyard). I don't understand why anyone would turn their nose up at them (apart from snobbery). As my father in law says, "There's nothing shameful about clean clothes"

All I know is when I was a youngster, when my mom would "do" the laundry and hang the clothes out to dry, when the wind would pick up and being down wind of the clothes line the smell coming off the newly cleaned clothes was indescribable. How can you define the word "clean" it's like trying to define "honor" you can't. The only way to describe it is to take a whiff as they say one whiff is worth a thousand words. Keep using the clothes line.
 

ChiTownScion

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,240
Location
The Great Pacific Northwest
All I know is when I was a youngster, when my mom would "do" the laundry and hang the clothes out to dry, when the wind would pick up and being down wind of the clothes line the smell coming off the newly cleaned clothes was indescribable. How can you define the word "clean" it's like trying to define "honor" you can't. The only way to describe it is to take a whiff as they say one whiff is worth a thousand words. Keep using the clothes line.

I fondly remember that freshness as well... but pity the poor housewife back in the Era in a place like, say, Altoona, PA: division point on the Pennsylvania Railroad and home of their Juniata Shops, where they manufactured and repaired their steam locomotive fleet and had several roumdhouses, back shops, and large freight classification yards. That bituminous coal created soot and cinders by the ton in that city, and I am certain that hanging out the laundry had to be a nightmare.
 

Inkstainedwretch

One Too Many
Messages
1,037
Location
United States
In the mid-50s my father had a Dictaphone Dictabelt Recorder in his office. It recorded on a red plastic belt that was almost rectangular when folded flat. The belt slipped over two fat spindles in the device that spun it as you recorded. It was strictly a business device, with poor sound quality and only a few minutes of recording time. Its advantage besides simplicity was that unlike tape or vinyl, you could just slip the belt off the spindles, put it in an envelope and mail it. Perfect for business purposes. My brother and I had great fun recording obscene messages on it.
 

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