Vintage professions you'd like to see come back.....

[AtomicEraTom]

Signage is a rare art these days. The artwork was fantastic back then.

Sad, Tom. Here in Dover we have a railcar diner in early 50's style, although they butchered the exterior horribly, and a mom+pop diner that still has the original 1947 signage. It's a shame. Every time I drive by an old building with vintage signs still attached, makes me want to save them somehow. SIgnage is a lost art

 

[Chas]

It's still there. Will post a couple of pics of a friend's corset shop signs she just had done. They're fantastic.

 

[scottyrocks]

I remember a number of years ago when I first saw strip malls that had new fronts and signage installed. The new stuff was all the same -identical lettering - colors, font, everything. I guess what they saw as beauty in newness and uniformity I saw as the removal of all character. On top of that, stores that I could recognize instantly by the size, shape, style of the lettering or symbols on the sign now had to be read because everything looked completely alike. Im glad to say that that practice has reversed itself. Generally, when strip mall stores redo now, they maintain their sign logos.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Speaking of signage, I miss wall dogs -- the guys on scaffolds who painted giant signs on brick walls. Every time I see a bare brick wall I think of how much better it would look with an ad for Uneeda Biscuits or Fletcher's Castoria on it.

 

[David Conwill]

Sad, Tom. Here in Dover we have a railcar diner in early 50's style, although they butchered the exterior horribly, and a mom+pop diner that still has the original 1947 signage. It's a shame. Every time I drive by an old building with vintage signs still attached, makes me want to save them somehow. SIgnage is a lost art

In nearby Saginaw there is a fellow who rescues and restores vintage neon signs. They just recently re-erected a giant dripping faucet from a defunct plumbing supply store. It joined a restored apartment store sign in a city parking lot downtown that is becoming a quasi-official neon-sign park.

-Dave

 

[Machine Ager]

Although we have a few.. they are hard to find ... Classic Cocktail bars that play proper jazz and lounge music.

Seems everything has gone hip hopish even here in Austin......

 

[geet83]

A compass adjuster would be welcome in my industry. I work on ships, and one would use an adjuster to correct a compass for errors. He would "swing ship" and create a "Napier's Diagram" to show the degrees of error at different compass headings. Not many of these left.

 

[Jish1969]

In the Navy we Quartermasters adjust for error every day while on deployment by using fixed landmarks and compass error workbooks. Its a little work but fun if you love your job, hehe...

 

[AtomicEraTom]

The bars in nearby Portage are all slum-like to say the least. In at least one that I know of, even the rowdiest, toughest people won't go in alone. It's constant fights, police calls, people doing Cocaine off the bar. Just nuts.

They just opened up a classier establishment downtown, called the Corner Pocket. Very nice place. You see people coming out in dress clothes (it actually has a dress code, unheard of here). It's just a very nice change of pace from the other establishments downtown.

Some friends of mine were complaining just tonight about the dress code, and the prices (4.50 for a beer) and I told them that it will keep the trash out of there. They failed to understand why anyone wouldn't wanna drink with the rowdies.

Although we have a few.. they are hard to find ... Classic Cocktail bars that play proper jazz and lounge music.

Seems everything has gone hip hopish even here in Austin......

 

[W-D Forties]

We still have places like that here:

Hahahaha! Just everything you need for your shotgun wedding!

 

[MissMittens]

Ye Olde Diner here in town

 

[WineGuy]

A Good Shoe Shiner & Stand!

I've got a great shiner at the men's shoe department in Nordstoms in the Garden State Mall in Paramus NJ...but that's a half an hour drive for me plus parking time. I've got another great shiner at Newark airport which I travel out of once or twice a year... so I can only get a great shine once every few months.

 

[scottyrocks]

It hasnt really gone away but Id like to see receptionists come back. I mean the real live telephone receptionists that actually answer the phone, and ask how they may help me, and not those recorded voices that tell you to press 1 for this, or 2 for that, and after you do, you have more choices to press 1 and 2 for. I dont know how many times I have, after hearing that calls are recorded for quality and training purposes, that I cant stand dealing with recordings and would rather talk to a real human being when I call.

 

[Geiamama]

I can't remember their job title but the people at the cinema, normally women, who used to sell icecream and popcorn from trays they hung from around their necks. As a child, running down the steps to get ice cream in the little pots with flat wooden spoons, was the favourite part of going to the pictures.

 

[Fletch]

In the US we know them only as "Albatross Ladies."

He: Do you get wafers with it?
"She": 'Course you don't get any bloody wafers with it.

 

[Geiamama]

In the US we know them only as "Albatross Ladies."

He: Do you get wafers with it?
"She": 'Course you don't get any bloody wafers with it.

lol lol I'd forgotten that sketch! I won't be able to think of them as anything else now lol lol

 

[Atomic Age]

Actual professional motion picture projectionists. Not just some kid to goes up into the booth, presses the button and walks away until the buzzer tells him the movie has stopped!

Doug

 

[LizzieMaine]

We still have them here -- I'm the chief projectionist and I have two others on staff. We're a one screen theatre, running 35mm changeovers, and there's *always* someone in the booth. And yes, patrons *do* notice the difference.

I've been in and out of projection booths since I was fifteen -- and learned from my uncle, who'd been doing it since the nitrate days. We have his copy of "Richardson's Blue Book of Projection" up in the booth right now.

 

[RadioWave]

Also, vehicle mechanics who can work on a car without 'plugging it in'.

Mechanics who are considerate and competent alone would be a great comeback. There are still some good guys out there, but I've driven my car out of mechanic bays a couple of times needing to tighten lug-nuts and latch the hood properly, in addition to wiping grease smears off of the paint and interior. I once got an estimate for a state-inspection (NY loves its laws) that required my car to get new rear brake-drums. I can assume the high price they presented was in regards to the undoubtedly difficult retro-fitting process that would entail, as my car was equipped with 4-wheel disc rotors. This is why I do all of my own autowork.

I've spent some time out on Shelter Island, where a combination diner/convenience store/pharmacy still stands. It's a very nice place, if you're ok with ferries being your only means of leaving the town.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dr_hood/4796382588/

An automat here-and-there would be pretty cool too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat

 

[MissMittens]

We still have them here -- I'm the chief projectionist and I have two others on staff. We're a one screen theatre, running 35mm changeovers, and there's *always* someone in the booth. And yes, patrons *do* notice the difference.

I've been in and out of projection booths since I was fifteen -- and learned from my uncle, who'd been doing it since the nitrate days. We have his copy of "Richardson's Blue Book of Projection" up in the booth right now.

What exactly do you do, if I may be so bold as to ask, Lizzy? I had read that you write liner notes for classic recordings, and your writing talents are shown daily on the board with your "What are you listening to?" threads, but evidently, you do far more than that.