Here's a good question: If you could travel to and live in any point in history (besides modern day) what time would that be? Another version of the question would be: What was your favorite era, that you wouldn't necessarily have to live in?
Mine would have to be either mid- to late-1950s to early- to mid-1960s. The fifties were hard to hate, but got a little excessive by the end of the decade (car fins, rocket cars, "future" inspired themes and clothing).
The early sixties were a mature, more down-to-earth version of the fifties, with great looking cars, and less excessive clothing. Society started to go downhill after 1964-65 IMHO... ;D
I think I could definitely handle living in the early sixties. My iPhone-dependent sister could not, however... ::)
Good choice, early 50s to about 1962 - pre -Beatles. Nothing better in the US from my point of view, I lived it, remember it well.
I was born in 1957 so I was pretty young through the 60's. I would have liked to be 5-7 years earlier. I would have enjoyed the late 50's and the 1960's a lot more! Especially 1969, I had some older friends that went to Woodstock, I was wishing I could have gone. It is not too far from where I grew up in Connecticut!
Quote from: TelePlay on January 08, 2018, 05:09:46 PM
Good choice, early 50s to about 1962 - pre -Beatles. Nothing better in the US from my point of view, I lived it, remember it well.
That's true, I didn't factor The Beatles in there... :o
I was thinking of avoiding the Hippie Invasion in '66 or shortly before.
I would like to visit the late 1950s when I was born, but not live there. Just visit to see the 1950s cars on the road once more, taste the food, watch the TV shows, hear the music and use the telephones and then come right back to 2018 after I'd had my fill. I remember what it was like before central air conditioning was widespread, smoking was far too common and in your face and there were no computers, CDs, DVDs or cable TV. Those are just a few of the things I would miss.
As my mom, who's 88, says "it was NOT a simpler time." She lived through all that and then some and she says we have it a lot easier today than it was back then. Mom's family has a joke they like to tell about my six-year-old uncle Joe, the youngest of the family, coming home and declaring he wanted a "mode like Trish's" meaning a modern day toilet like at Trish's house across the road.
Good conversation starter. Do I get a time machine than can bring things back?
In collecting antiques (but not phones) I seem to gravitate to 1900's through 1920's -- lots of cool stuff & have always liked art nouveau.
Good conversation starter indeed,
I'd like to have been born in the mid 1930's, growing up in America just after the Great Depression. Just a few years later, America would be forced into WWII... a terrible time for our nation, in one sense, but one that united the nation in another, and winning the war, made our nation even stronger than it was prior to the war.
After the war, came the Baby Boom. Ike would build the roads that would connect America from east, to the west, and developers would build our suburbs...that a lot of us still live in to this day.
The jet-age era came to be after the war as well, which inspired futuristic designs in nearly every product, including our Trains, Planes and Automobiles, and possibly even our beloved telephones.
It certainly wasn't a perfect time period, but it would have been my ideal time I'd like to have lived through, if God would have given me the choice.
Blessing to you all,
David
I think post WW2 through to 60 something would pretty much be what most of us would like to see again (or for first time). I would love to go back to 50's 60's for phone related reasons, particularly to see pre-electronic switching CO's & PBX's again. But I also have little interest in working again so I would like to see it, maybe stay for awhile but would certainly want to have booked a round trip back to the present!
Terry
I was born in 1970 but have always felt there was some sort of mistake and I should have been born in 1870.
Quote from: jsowers on January 08, 2018, 07:10:37 PM
I would like to visit the late 1950s when I was born, but not live there. Just visit to see the 1950s cars on the road once more, taste the food, watch the TV shows, hear the music and use the telephones and then come right back to 2018 after I'd had my fill. I remember what it was like before central air conditioning was widespread, smoking was far too common and in your face and there were no computers, CDs, DVDs or cable TV. Those are just a few of the things I would miss.
As my mom, who's 88, says "it was NOT a simpler time." She lived through all that and then some and she says we have it a lot easier today than it was back then. Mom's family has a joke they like to tell about my six-year-old uncle Joe, the youngest of the family, coming home and declaring he wanted a "mode like Trish's" meaning a modern day toilet like at Trish's house across the road.
I was going to add to my previous post that, yes, it had great cars and nothing electronic so all communication was done at an ice cream social, sock hop, prom, high school events or by way of the party line telephone. The cars had a feature not found on today's aerodynamic designs, triangular vent windows that would rotate near 180 degrees to capture air at speed, and anything in the air, and direct it right at the driver - worked well on hot days in black cars before air conditioning was put into cars. Houses were the same way. Shut the windows during the day to keep the heat out and open them at night to cool it down for the next day. But, as I remember it, 90-100 wasn't that bad since it was expected and we learned to live with it. Garden hoses were a great relief. Simple times where life had a personal, deeper aspect and the clock ticked a lot slower for everyone (no FedEx, fax, or 2 day priority mail).
The transistor came available for the general public in the late 60s, the IC followed close behind. AM/SW tube radios, tube TVs and vinyl records were state of the art. I remember my college room mate converting over from building tube amplifiers to transistor amps that hissed. The exception would be The Google of today for back then, the library was always a painful research experience yielding partial information - but who cared back then. Life was living it, not having stuff.
It wasn't a simpler time but it was a safer, more friendly time with people still enjoying the relief and prosperity that came about after the war ended. Many of the advancements that came from the war effort were made available to the public, growth was substantial on all fronts and every year there were better improvements to life. And on the most part, no drugs, diversity, violence and flagrant lawlessness. It was hammock time under two large shade trees, Normal Rockwell Americana, what many refer to as the good old days regardless of personal comfort and lack of silicon based electronic devices.
But, that's me impression of living in a upper mid-west small town. I'd go back if I had some plutonium for the flux capacitor in my 1951 Ford 2 door Custom sedan and stay for a summer, or two.
Agreed John. Time was slower, no instant communication. Mom would kick us out of the hopuse after breakfast and we would be out all day. She had no idea where we were and did not have to call every hour. If we were at a friends house and di something wrong we would get a smack from his mother, then she would pick up the phone, a554 on the kitchen wall, and call our Mom so we got hit again when we got home! As long as we were home when the streetlight came on for dinner everything was copastetic! Nobody locked their front doors or thier car doors. people on the streets gave friendly greetings. Much nicer & simpler.
It is fun to think about returning to an earlier time when design of products was much less encumbered by legal and regulatory constraints. I remember when the 5 mph bumper law and emission controls effectively destroyed automotive art as we knew it (early 70's). However, the 50's & 60's suffered from very serious pollution and discrimination issues, and many people died in that era of much less safe factories and cars and the primitive healthcare tech then available. I think I'll stay right here, while admiring the technology and engineering of the past.....
Great conversation starter, Christian! I will admit to thinking I would have greatly enjoyed working at the Indy WE plant in the 50's making 500s and the company-family culture they promoted.... Those days are gone, and I was born too late to participate......
My favorite decade from an industrial design standpoint is the 1930s. On a separate note, I've always considered the Kennedy assassination the beginning of the modern era.
Wow, I really sent everyone down Memory Lane, didn't I? :o
I do agree, that the simpler times 50 years ago also came with simpler safety technology. I guess I'll stay right where I am because of that!
Mid 50's to Mid 60's.
D/P
Quote from: Dan/Panther on January 10, 2018, 12:32:18 PM
Mid 50's to Mid 60's.
D/P
(http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=6020.0;attach=164382;image)
Okay...here's the "Time Machine" someone ordered....sign here please!
I'm surprised it let me attach a 9 meg PDF file but...it did!
Click the link just above the attached (text) picture below.
Terry
Terry;
That slide show brought me close to tears.
In 1957 I was 8 years old and we were traveling to California from New York. My Dad's brother was in the Border Patrol at The Brownsville Station, Texas, we had traveled there to visit coming west.
In 1959, on Veteran's day, He drowned in the Gulf Of Mexico while Fishing. I inherited his birthstone ring after my Dad passed in 1989, I wear the ring EVERY day.
D/P
Great story Dan. Would have been sad to lose your uncle when you were only 10. Old enough to know him and then he was gone. I remember all of my aunts and uncles fondly.
My wife and I did a BIG road trip in 1984. Vancouver to San Francisco, across the northern states to an ATCA phone show in Illinois, up into Ontario at Niagra Falls, through to Quebec, down into Maine and all the way down the coast to Florida. We were heading to Key West but were getting behind schedule and unfortunately decided to turn around at Key Largo. Then Around the gulf visiting friends in New Orleans, continued around to Brownsville Texas then all the way along the south to San Diego. Then up the coast to Vancouver. 15,500 miles worth in 10 weeks. First time I ever killed off a new car warranty by exceeding the 12000 miles instead if the 12 months.
Terry
The slide show reminded me of many the cars I said I wanted to see if I took a visit back to the 1950s and 60s. That first picture has a 1951 Plymouth Cranbrook 2-door sedan exactly like my dad's. I rode home from kindergarten in 1963-64 many times in that old Plymouth. I still remember the smell of dad's Marlboro cigarettes and listening to the radio in that car. It still worked after all those years.
I had two uncles, my grandfather and my dad, all of whom owned 1951 Plymouths. They were very dependable cars. Not much on styling, but rock solid on engineering. My dad always always talked about the standard electric wipers, which were a first in the low-priced field. Other cars had vacuum wipers for years afterward, some until the mid-1960s. They were terrible.
I also was reminded of my aunt's 1957 Ford and my uncle's 1956 Oldsmobile and another aunt and uncle's 1955 Ford station wagon. We have home movies from the 1950s of Thanksgiving at my grandmother's and my dad captured a lot of the cars in the driveway as relatives arrived, and that footage is priceless.
The slide show also reminds me of when downtown was where everyone shopped. That's where you went to find everything. We even went to other cities at Christmas to see their decorations and shop in their big stores. None of that is there now. We still have a downtown, but with small merchants for the most part.
Terry, thanks for posting the slide show.