Our own vintage town

[Diamondback]

Have any idea how difficult it would be to start up a B-17 or a PBY Catalina without 'em? If you did, you might reconsider...

 

[jamespowers]

Have any idea how difficult it would be to start up a B-17 or a PBY Catalina without 'em? If you did, you might reconsider...

I meant no to the no self-starters ordinance.

 

[LizzieMaine]

How about only allowing cars that'll start if you roll them down a hill and pop the clutch?

 

[jamespowers]

How about only allowing cars that'll start if you roll them down a hill and pop the clutch?

Sounds like an experience I had with my 57 Chevy. However, all clutch cars can be started that way if the battery dies. lol
I don't know about codifying such a thing though.

 

[vitanola]

Have any idea how difficult it would be to start up a B-17 or a PBY Catalina without 'em? If you did, you might reconsider...

But they haven't yet been invented.

An Anzani "W" or an OX-5 starts just fine by itself.

 

[Shangas]

Does our vintage town have a bakery? I just made a double-batch of shortbread cookies which are, if I say so myself...excellent! If there's a bakery in town, I might volunteer there once a week and help out.

...I wonder what kinds of food would be served in vintage restaurants, cafes, bakeries, delicatessens, butchers and so-forth? What would the diet of our Vintage Town be like?

And where would the food and drink come from?

 

[vitanola]

Well, in our fantasy town, we would doubtless have a dairy, named "Producer's" or "Milmont". I picture a great building with an arch-truss roof and walls of yellow or brown glazed structural tile about a mile west of town.

Each morning at four-oh-six the delivery wagons would leave on their daily rounds.


In my real town, most folks purchase gallon jugs of a milk-like substance at the Wal-Mart. We, however, often drive for some of our Amish friends, and so every second day we take delivery of a couple of quarts of fresh whole raw milk (from Jersey cows) the occasional roll of home-churned butter, and a half-dozen freshly laid eggs.

Just now, we are helping Jonah and Marthy with seasonal canning in the afternoons, and will bring home a larder full of goodies for the coming winter. Marthy is a great pickler, but this year she tried a couple of my old recipies for Chow-Chow, Mangoes (a pickle which has naught to do with the tropical fruit) and curried Sinjboontjes.

 

[W4ASZ]

Is the overall concept of the Vintage Town to have only vintage things within its corporate limits, or is the consensus that it should be more of a reverse Potemkin village with hidden, more modern features ?

I'm enjoying all of this.

 

[Mr Vim]

Well, my artist friend had to go out of town for a month or two, not sure when she will be back. She does say that if she gets a chance, she will continue drawing the Vintage Town but I'm not sure how likely that is, I hope I did not get anyone's hopes up only to dash them to pieces.

 

[Shangas]

"YOU'RE A MONSTER! How DARE you build up this little boy's hopes and then SMASH all his dreams to pieces!?"

- Grandpa Joe - "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".

I'm sorry, your line just reminded me of that quote. I'm sure any illustrations that come will be wonderful.

 

[Mr Vim]

What a classic film that was, I actually looked it up on IMDB when I read that.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Does our vintage town have a bakery? I just made a double-batch of shortbread cookies which are, if I say so myself...excellent! If there's a bakery in town, I might volunteer there once a week and help out.

...I wonder what kinds of food would be served in vintage restaurants, cafes, bakeries, delicatessens, butchers and so-forth? What would the diet of our Vintage Town be like?

Here's a description of what one such establishment might look like.

"Vecchia was not a caterer, he was The Caterer of Zenith. Most coming-out parties were held in the white and gold ballroom of Maison Vecchia; at all the nice teas the guests recognized the five kinds of Vecchia sandwiches and the seven kinds of Vecchia cakes; and all really smart dinners ended, as on a revolving chord, in Vecchia Neapolitan ice cream in one of the three reliable molds -- the melon mold, the round mold like a layer cake, and the long brick.

Vecchia's shop had pale blue woodwork, tracery of plaster roses, attendants in frilled aprons, and glass shelves of "kisses" with all the refinement that inheres in whites of eggs."

Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis (1922)

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Quirky tourist attractions such as a World's Biggest Ball of String, monuments to obscure, eccentric local heroes (preferably one who died in a freak accident), The Seven Wonders of the World reproduced in our town's most famous product, a museum dedicated to the history of salad bowls, or an Eiffel Tower made out of toothpicks.

 

[jamespowers]

Quirky tourist attractions such as a World's Biggest Ball of String, monuments to obscure, eccentric local heroes (preferably one who died in a freak accident), The Seven Wonders of the World reproduced in our town's most famous product, a museum dedicated to the history of salad bowls, or an Eiffel Tower made out of toothpicks.

Those are all excellent ideas. There were tons of these things dotting the American landscape back in the day.
We still have a Mystery Spot around here that gives me headaches every time I go there. lol
We need to add a duck shaped house to that list.

 

[jamespowers]

Is the overall concept of the Vintage Town to have only vintage things within its corporate limits, or is the consensus that it should be more of a reverse Potemkin village with hidden, more modern features ?

I'm enjoying all of this.

Only vintage with a minimal amount of modern hidden.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Come to think of it, there is or was an Eiffel Tower made out of toothpicks on display at the Western Trails Museum at the Knott's Berry Farm theme park.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Only vintage with a minimal amount of modern hidden.

Indeed. If we're just a vintage veneer on a modern core, we're nothing but a theme park.

Maybe what we need for those who insist on modernity is a theme park outside town -- call it, oh, "The World Of Tomorrow," and charge a steep admission to get in. Or even better, let them in for free and charge them twenty bucks a head to get out.

 

[jamespowers]

Indeed. If we're just a vintage veneer on a modern core, we're nothing but a theme park.

Maybe what we need for those who insist on modernity is a theme park outside town -- call it, oh, "The World Of Tomorrow," and charge a steep admission to get in. Or even better, let them in for free and charge them twenty bucks a head to get out.

The World of Tomorrow. lol
$20 to get out sounds fine to me. lol I would pay. lol

 

[vitanola]

Here's a description of what one such establishment might look like.

Veccia's is great, but how about a confectionary operated by another Italian immigrant, say a certain Mr. Gulliermo De Rose, called, perhaps "De Rose Arbor"?

 

[Mr Vim]

I wanted to make up for not having pictures from my artist friend and luckily my uncle was passing through my hometown in Illinois. The town has not changed since at all and for that I am very thankful. It was actually named by Abraham Lincoln. Yes... that one. And in so many ways I wish I could be back there living. Ah well.

Take a look at some of the photos. First up is the town hall.

The post office:

Watson's drug, still privately owned:

The road into town:

And the other direction:

What my hometown is famous for... corn.