What makes you feel vintage?

[Widebrim]

Driving my '51 Packard 400 Patrician with its huge comorant hood ornament (when the car's running); watching a film noir with Dan Duryea or Richard Widmark in the cast; wearing a vintage suit and a fedora while walking through Chinatown at night; listening to "Yes, My Darling Daughter" or "Sing, Sing, Sing" while cruising down the streets of L.A.; spending an evening at the Cicada Club in downtown, or at Miceli's Italian Restaurant in Hollywood.

 

[MEDIUMMYND]

Being polite to people every day something that is sadly lacking in the world today.

 

[vitanola]

Waking up to the ring of my ironclad alarm clock, bathing in the claw-foot tub, filling the sink with hot water for a shave with a Valet Auto-strop, running downstairs in by dressing gown to shake the stove grate, pur on the oatmeal, make coffee in an old El-Perko and light the gas fire the the dining room, answering the ring of the 51Al desk stand in the hall, tuning in the morning news on the Westinghouse Super-Selective Combination, playing music on the VV-8-35, carrying in the coal, carrying out the ashes, Hoovering the rugs with the old Eureka straight suction cleaner, ironing shirts and pressing trousers with an American Beauty 6 pounder, amd pressing sheets, tablecloths and tea-towels on the mangle, Beating carpets on the line in the spring, cleaning the walls with a wall-brush, well, you get the picture!

 

[Rachael]

my knees. :eusa_doh:

percolating coffee in the morning

 

[VintageRed]

Well, I'm kinda new to the whole vintage scene, but....

Nothing puts me in a time frame better than era specific music. On iTunes, on the radio, there's a station called Martini in the Morning, and it plays all kinds of great old music, from Billie Holiday & Count Bassie all the way up to Michael Buble singing Sinatra standards. It's divine.

Oh, and a really, really, REALLY good hat. One with feathers and detail work. I LOVE good hats.


That does it for me.

~Danielle

 

[WideBrimm]

Driving my '51 Packard 400 Patrician with its huge comorant hood ornament (when the car's running); watching a film noir with Dan Duryea or Richard Widmark in the cast; wearing a vintage suit and a fedora while walking through Chinatown at night; listening to "Yes, My Darling Daughter" or "Sing, Sing, Sing" while cruising down the streets of L.A.; spending an evening at the Cicada Club in downtown, or at Miceli's Italian Restaurant in Hollywood.

Mention a Packard and you're really making me feel vintage! When I was just a kid in the mid 1950s we drove cross country between Illinois and New Mexico in my parents 1950 something Packard. That was the days before the Interstate Highway System so it was mostly two lane asphalt. Only superhighways were Chicago's Eden's Expressway and the Kansas Turnpike! My dad had that Packard for years. Brings back lots of memories!

 

[Widebrim]

Mention a Packard and you're really making me feel vintage! When I was just a kid in the mid 1950s we drove cross country between Illinois and New Mexico in my parents 1950 something Packard. That was the days before the Interstate Highway System so it was mostly two lane asphalt. Only superhighways were Chicago's Eden's Expressway and the Kansas Turnpike! My dad had that Packard for years. Brings back lots of memories!

Glad to hear it, WideBrimm.

Widebrim

 

[$ally]

I get that feeling when I find a great musty smelling old book at a shop. The times I really feel it the most are when I'm Lindy Hopping in historic venue in period clothing. Knowing that long ago someone else did the same dances to the same music on the same hardwood floor, possibly even in the same dress -- it can be a magical feeling.

 

[Matt Deckard]

Hmmm, good question. I think it's events. The big dances and the little get-togethers. Things that are community away from a computer where there is a band and a floor of people dancing.

Cicada Club and The many balls that happen around town. Make me for get to take pics with my cell phone in my pocket.

It's really the romance of that era that drew me to the vintage scene. The propriety of men and women dressing up to some sort of standard. The though of a lady being a lady, I don't know I like the feminine and masculine aesthetic of the past and I think it's coming back in a way... Taking a gal flowers and chocolates and well... stuff like that takes me back, though luckily I'm not back then. Things are so much easier now... yet there are some things from back then that i think we need to bring back.

Okay before I ramble more I'll stop.

 

[VintageRed]

It's really the romance of that era that drew me to the vintage scene. The propriety of men and women dressing up to some sort of standard. The though of a lady being a lady, I don't know I like the feminine and masculine aesthetic of the past and I think it's coming back in a way... Taking a gal flowers and chocolates and well... stuff like that takes me back, though luckily I'm not back then. Things are so much easier now... yet there are some things from back then that i think we need to bring back.

Okay before I ramble more I'll stop.

I can agree with that sentiment. I'm sure it's been said around here many times before, but it's very easy to romanticize a period of time that we haven't had to endure the hardships of. However, I definitely think there's room to integrate some of the wonderful ways of the past into the modernist thinking of the present. People had a certain sense of pride about them and it screamed of class and distinction. While I was guilty of many a morning class at college in my flannel PJ pants and a hooded sweatshirt, I find as I get older that I wish I had photos of myself as a young girl in smart and stylish outfits that smack of propriety. Imagine the horror!



~Red

 

[Mike1939]

What makes you feel vintage?


Being on the trail in a wilderness area with pre 1950 gear and clothing.

Dressing to the nines and wandering through the streets of San Francisco, stopping at various watering holes for liquid refreshment.

Pounding the keys of my 1941 Royal typewriter.

A cocktail party with swinging music.

Simply dressing for the day each morning.

 

[lindylady]

Listening to my jazz and doo-wop albums at home, watching TCM, entertaining friends with home-cooked food and serving cocktails

 

[LizzieMaine]

Carrying film shipping cans that are older than I am up three flights of stairs.

 

[Inky]

Most importantly, using the manners that my family taught me.

Dressing in vintage clothing, obviously It makes me feel connected in some way to those that have come before me.

Doing my hair, learning and struggling.

Sitting at my 1930's dining room table and wondering about all the meals eaten there, and the same goes for using my dishes and kitchen items.

Teaching my previously not interested in vintage items husband all about the pleasures of living vintage (he loves his new safety razors!)

 

[HadleyH]

To listen to music from the 20s and 30s, watch movies from the 20s and 30s, read books about people who lived through the 20s and 30s, the vintage thing happens in my mind , it's all an inside thing that makes me feel vintage.
But... sometimes wearing gloves, or an old coat or a hat, gives me that vintage feeling too! I don't know, it's hard to explain.

 

[$ally]

Things are so much easier now... yet there are some things from back then that i think we need to bring back.

I agree. I don't ever long to live in the mid-1940s during a world war, serving my family canned goods for dinner. However, there are some aspects of the time; the music, dance, artists, writers, architecture, furniture, house wares, cars, clothing -- the style, that I love to have around me.
When I perform a USO camp show re-enactment (with a troupe) for veterans, I really feel it. It's so wonderful to see their faces light up and watch them sing along. To be approached afterwards and be thanked for reminding them of the fond memories during difficult times. I enjoy their stories best of all. There is nothing better than listening to someone older and wiser share their first hand life experiences.

 

[filfoster]

What makes me feel vintage?

1. Draft card and driver's license
2. Memories of steam locomotives (N&W ran steam through my town until 1960)
3. The mirror
4. Memories of the great 40's and 50's cars I grew up with
5. Programmed from childhood disdain for most PC things.

 

[Lily Powers]

*Wearing gloves with a dress.
*Manners
*An apron
*Vintage step-through bicycle + skirt and saddle shoes for a ride to the market = a dreamy, wistful feel of vintage.

It's hard to explain, but if anyone understands, it's fellow Loungers: it's not that I try to project a vintage feel for others to notice, it's that what I do or wear triggers something inside that's comforting and feels like "home" in a way.

Viva la vintage!

 

[Anachronism]

my haircut
wearing articles of clothing i've made myself
and good shoes

 

[filfoster]

War Time!

I agree. I don't ever long to live in the mid-1940s during a world war, serving my family canned goods for dinner. However, there are some aspects of the time; the music, dance, artists, writers, architecture, furniture, house wares, cars, clothing -- the style, that I love to have around me.
When I perform a USO camp show re-enactment (with a troupe) for veterans, I really feel it. It's so wonderful to see their faces light up and watch them sing along. To be approached afterwards and be thanked for reminding them of the fond memories during difficult times. I enjoy their stories best of all. There is nothing better than listening to someone older and wiser share their first hand life experiences.

What did you think of "1940's House", the PBS production of the family who chose to live 'authentically' in that time, in London?