Vintage Interiors

[tonyb]

I feel bad for the tiny little town of Pine Ridge Arkansas, which essentially exists solely because of "Lum and Abner." The only attraction there is the Lum and Abner Museum, and when decreasingly few people have any idea who they were, there isn't much else there to attract traffic.

About this time last year the Roger Miller Museum in Miller’s hometown of Erick, Oklahoma closed permanently.

I took the news hard. I’m a big fan of Miller’s, but it seems there are fewer and fewer in that fraternity. Miller has been gone since 1992, so 26 years now. I was still a kid when he had his greatest fame, in the early- to mid-1960s, and I'm now of an age when those a generation ahead of me are mostly gone, as are many if not yet most of my own.

Still, there was a well-received tribute album released a few moths ago, featuring big names in CW doing covers of Miller's tunes. Some of those performers are themselves too young to have known of Miller when he was alive.

Historic Route 66, the "Mother Road," runs right through Erick, and right past the former home of the Roger Miller Museum. Perhaps the museum operators never consulted the Boys from Marketing, because it seems they failed to reach the largest segments of their potential audience.

But then, maybe Route 66 ain't big kicks anymore, either. I suspect the overwhelming majority of people making their way from Chicago to L.A. these days do so via commercial airliner.

 

[Fading Fast]

I love this picture. I remember the last of the post offices in little towns in grocery and or hardware stores. My great aunt and uncle ran the PO in their house. There was a heavy door in the living room that went into the post office. Sadly, like both of them, the post office and house are long gone now.

That's a good anecdote. In the horribly named movie (based on the same horribly named book) "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" there is a wonderful post-office-and-general-store combo, but on-line, I could only find this pic ⇩ of the exterior and no interior shots.

 

[2jakes]

That's a good anecdote. In the horribly named movie (based on the same horribly named book) "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" there is a wonderful post-office-and-general-store combo, but on-line, I could only find this pic ⇩ of the exterior and no interior shots.
View attachment 150266

I recall the "wicker" basket on the floor!
Little rounder in size and full of home-grown delicious peaches @ my grandma's.
yummy pies !

 

[2jakes]

Family in parlor. Bisque doll too!

Tuning radio. 1920s

 

[2jakes]

self portrait with her parrots

 

[Fading Fast]

"Saturday Evening Post" cover from 1949:

 

[tmal]

Looking at there photos of the old parlors/living rooms I noticed how they gave off a different vibe than modern rooms. Eventually, I think I figured it out. No TV! They are designed for human socialization, not for staring at a box. Or is just me?

 

[3fingers]

They are designed for human socialization, not for staring at a box. Or is just me?

The radio appears in a lot of living room scenes, but the furniture could be arranged differently since as you said the room is laid out for conversation and listening, not to make it convenient for all seats to be able to stare at the tube.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The idea of the "living room" as we understand it today really didn't even come into focus until the post WWI era -- the 19th century/early 20th century middle-class "parlors" were generally intended for entertaining guests only, not for casual family interaction. The informalization of the American home that swept in with the twenties really created what we think of as the modern "living room," as a place where the family could take off its shoes, unbuckle its belts, kick up its feet and relax at the end of the day without too much concern about decorum.

Once the console radio became a prominent article of furniture in the early 1930s, the chairs tended to be positioned near it for convenience in twisting the dial when an unpopular personality came on the air, but you didn't usually have chairs facing it like you would with a television set. And its arrival did somewhat squelch the art of post-suppertime conversation, at least until "Amos 'n' Andy" was over.

 

[Fading Fast]

 

[vitanola]

 

[Fading Fast]

This supermarket looks a bit nicer and bigger than the ones where I grew up, but it has the same overall feel and that cash register looks spot on to the ones I remember as a kid in the late '60s/early '70.

 

[Fading Fast]

 

[LizzieMaine]

There were two dominant kitchen schemes in the pre-WWII era: cream and green and red and white. Unless you could find a way to combine them both.

Those snazzy countertops are the same linoleum that's on the floor. Efficient!

 

[Fading Fast]

There were two dominant kitchen schemes in the pre-WWII era: cream and green and red and white. Unless you could find a way to combine them both.

I know mid-century is all the rage today - and I appreciate it - but I prefer the '20s and '30s kitchen aesthetic.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Agreed. Pink kitchens always make me feel like the tint control is out of adjustment.

 

[3fingers]

Agreed. Pink kitchens always make me feel like the tint control is out of adjustment.

A former coworker of mine bought a little '50s bungalow that had never been remuddled. It was a nice little house but featured not only a pink kitchen including the sink, stove, refrigerator and walls but also a completely pink bathroom. She was most proud of it.

 

[2jakes]

meatloaf with Hunt's!

yummy!

 

[2jakes]

It's been done before. Not sure if it's
a recreation or otherwise.

But I love it!

 

[vitanola]

View attachment 163682
It's been done before. Not sure if it's
a recreation or otherwise.

But I love it!

That is a colorized version of an office scene photograph which was taken in 1902, in the Detroit offices of Richmond & Backus, better known as "The Detroit Publishing Company".