Our own vintage town

[missjo]

Starting a 1930s themed community

Okay okay, I know im dreaming and probably being totally unrealistic... but what if...

What if lots of people like us, who have a passion for the 1930s/1940s get together, buy a bit of land or a estate and start our own little 1930s themed community?
I may have already talked about this on the forum or someone else may have already started a topic similair to this, if so, sorry!

Anyway, lets get back to dreaming.
Together a few of us buy a bit of land, perhaps with a house on it with some outbuildings, or perhaps our own private island

http://www.privateislandsonline.com/

Once we have a space for our own we can start building or adapting the buildings already there.
The end goal is to have a little village that looks, smellls and oozes the 1930's.
It has a shop or two, a pub, a postoffice/bank, etc.
There are only old vehicles allowed, people wear vintage clothes 24-7 and from the outside everyting looks prewar.
The houses are vintage decorated as far as the visitor could see.
Of course the people who live there wont cut themself off 100% from the present.
Things will look and feel vintage, but wont be entirely.
For instance, if you cant have a job inside the village itself, you will have a job in a nearby town of city.
So in the morning you leave the village, get in your modern car (parked out of sight of the village) to your modern day job, or visiting family or friends, etc.
Everyone in the village who wants to can have tv, internet, modern phones, etc.
As long as they keep it out of sight (and hearing) of everone else.
The village will only be a 1930s illusion, a theme village really!

Everywhere you look it will be the 1930s, but only the nice bits of that era.

Its just a commune, a bit like the amish, some scary survivalist groups, religious cults, etc.
Except of course that we arent as scary and we have much more style...
If they can do it...

So what do you think?
A silly daydream?
Or a real possibility?
How could/should it work?

 

[olive bleu]

A lot of certainly share your vision...check out this thread
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=11673&highlight=vintage+town

 

[missjo]

Cheers!
I knew it!
I couldnt find it... oops

But im reading it now and it seems more like a fantasy idea for the ideal 1930s town.
This thread sort of is ment as a serious experiment.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Like in "The Truman Show" movie, only without the cameras?

.

 

[missjo]

Like in "The Truman Show" movie, only without the cameras?

.

Yes something like that.
Or like living in one of those historical themeparks, like "colonial williamsburg" and those sorts of museums.
It looks old, people act old fashioned, everything what you see is old fashioned.

You get up in your 1930s bedroom, you go to the 1930s cornershop to buy some breafast from a 1930s dressed shopkeeper, you go home to your 1930s kitchen, after eatin you go to your secret room upstairs to quickly check the internet and the latest news, you then get on your bicycle and cycle trough the town, waving at the 1930s neighbours, staring at the nice 1930s car in the square, grinning at the new 1930s radio in the shopwindow that you will buy once you get your paycheck.
You cycle out of town, into the parking lot out of sight of the village.
You get in your modern car, you go to a modern town, to your modern job.
You are social with your modern friends and family, talk about modern news at work, have discussions about modern politics, etc, etc.
Then you get in your car, drive back to the 1930s town and there you get on your bike for the last bit of your journey.
You drive into town just in time to buy some last things from the shop before it closes.
You eat your 1930s meal while listening to the wireless, then you pop upstairs to check your email chat a bit with friends all over the world and then you go to the pub around the corner.
There you walk into a warm room, the fireplace is cosy, the music is vintage, the service is old fashioned and all your neighbourhood friends are there for the perfect 1930s evening

 

[koopkooper]

You see that's exactly how cults begin!!! Seriously, people of certain religious devotions deceide to create a world better then the one they are forced into! Before you know it there are cultural rules and fanatical behaviour.

Bad idea me thinks!

 

[jamespowers]

Well, I just spent the whole afternoon (off and on) perusing the entire 6 month conversation that comprises this thread. It's amazing how the issue of snow has become the make or break, life and death issue. I favor LizzieMaine's formula: snow from a few days before Christmas thru the middle of January. That's when you start not appreciating its charm and start getting sick of it. For those sissies who can't deal with temps below 67, we can have a "winter colony" in the sun belt.
Now, I would like to discuss the issue of which state out little burg should be in. A friend of mine and I many years ago decided to create the Mythical State of Alleghany. It covers the 3 southwestern counties of New York, the western 2/3 of Penna, and West Virginia. It would be the poorest state in the union, but it would have lots of vintage character.
If it's actually near a water fall, we could call it Whatsis Falls. If it's not, then that would be silly. But it should be on a body of water large enough to land Grumman Widgen (the ideal vintage seaplane).
We'll also have to decide on the vintage era stuff we really don't want to include (segregation, polio, Hitler, etc.) and the modern stuff we really don't want to live without (fill in the blank . . .)
OK, next question: will we live in the same year that just keeps happening over and over again? Or will we just start out 60 or 70 years back and go from there? (You see where this leads?) If so, I nominate 1937 or 38, tho there's a lot to be said for the 20's also.
I've had a fantasy for a long time of creating a vintage lifestyle theme park, maybe back in my home area of western New York. This idea is so much fun, and so gripping to the imagination, that obviously some people have asked if there was any seriuousness to it. Well. anyone got about $100 million to get us started? Or ideas to get started on a whole lot less? I'm going to be awake tonight thinking about this!

If it has to be a state then I would say some state in the east coast area then I would say North Carolina, Georgia or Florida. The weather there is much better than where you mentioned.
My thought was that this was more of a separate thing like the Amish for the Golden Era. We could still have computers and stuff like that but they would have to look golden era. Wooden cases instead of that ugly platic and all.
The money would be the sticking point really. [huh]
The winter colony would be for those who like snow. It would be in North Dakota and called Potterville. The rest of us stay in Willoughby.

Regards,

J

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Yes something like that.
Or like living in one of those historical themeparks, like "colonial williamsburg" and those sorts of museums.
It looks old, people act old fashioned, everything what you see is old fashioned.

Hmmm,...now what if it was exactly that,...a theme park sort of thing. Then it would be everybody's job to be thirties people 8 hours a day. Nice work if I could get it.

 

[missjo]

You see that's exactly how cults begin!!! Seriously, people of certain religious devotions deceide to create a world better then the one they are forced into! Before you know it there are cultural rules and fanatical behaviour.

Bad idea me thinks!

Yep!
Except of course its without religion, without strict rules, without fanatical behaviour and with complete freedom inside your own house and very much connected to modern day life outside the town!
I think it should not be compared to a cult, but more to a open air living history museum without the visitors.

I live the retro lifestyle, my friends live the retro lifestyle.
We wear vintage clothes, our houses look vintage, but we have internet, modern jobs, etc.
To me nothing would change at all, except my surroundings.

 

[missjo]

Hmmm,...now what if it was exactly that,...a theme park sort of thing. Then it would be everybody's job to be thirties people 8 hours a day. Nice work if I could get it.

thats sort of my job

 

[Fletch]

Can we have a TV if it looks like this...

and works like this?

 

[missjo]

Can we have a TV if it looks like this...

and works like this?

Yes of course!!
You could also get this one;

Although its a working repro!

You could even get this tv;

Just make sure its out of sight from the street

 

[Fletch]

If I want TV that big, I'll go to the movie house. We will have one, won't we?

I want TV that's only on 2 hours a night, from a station that will answer postcards or even put you on the air if you have talent.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

If I had only won that mega-millions drawing

Maybe next time,...

 

[jamespowers]

Maybe next time,...

Don't forget to buy more next time then.

Regards,

J

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I do want a 1930s-looking hospital, but with 2007 equipment and surgical techniques, please. Thank you

.

 

[missjo]

If I want TV that big, I'll go to the movie house. We will have one, won't we?

Of course!
I think that that would be a great job for one of our villagers with a passion for old movies.
A small village cinema, only one screen, black and white classics, all the villages coming over every weekend.

I want TV that's only on 2 hours a night, from a station that will answer postcards or even put you on the air if you have talent.

tv and people with talent?
What a strange combination, what a great idea!

Im afraid that wont work though, vintage tvs are great but we would need our own 1930s tv station to get us 1930s broadcasts!
Any volunteers?

 

[missjo]

I do want a 1930s-looking hospital, but with 2007 equipment and surgical techniques, please. Thank you

.

The only way to get one of those is to build it yourself!
There wont be a hospital in our village, like in most modern villages.
If theres a accident we call 911 or 999.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I will run the movie house -- Super-Simplex projectors with Photophone soundheads and carbon-arc lamphouses, and 2000-foot film magazines with a changeover every 20 minutes. Movies the way they were meant to be seen!

 

[Parallel Guy]

I think the idea of a 1930s village is sterling, but I think it would only work in one of three ways. It can work in the Field-of-Dreams kind of way: If you build it they will come. Or it works if designed by a committee of people bound to find some way to make money on it . The third option is a very small, very dedicated group of people who feel they have a mission to create a like-vision.

I've often toyed with the idea of what it would be like to create a mock 1940s vacation village where people would pay to relive a specific week or month of that time. Unfortunately, I have neither the missionary zeal nor the Gatesque fortune to do it.