What gives you that vintage feeling?

[Chasseur]

Many things:
(1) Visiting and photographing old buildings
(2) Going to classic diners, cafes, bars and restaurants with good friends
(3) Listening good music from the era
(4) Outdoors hiking, stalking or shooting in traditional gear with an old *** on a crisp morning.

 

[flat-top]

Snow/winter. Holidays (again. Fall/winter).

+1
And I found a new one as well--I just returned from the Jesery Shore. I took a walk down the boadwalk early in the morning whilst listening to some old music on my ipod. Everything was still closed and the beach was mostly empty The whole place felt lost in time.

 

[Kishtu]

Using my two vintage sewing machines (not, obviously, simultaneously) - one is a hand crank Singer and the other is a big electric cabinet Frister and Rossman. The Singer belonged to my next door neighbour's mum and she had sewing lessons for her 21st birthday using it.... 65 years ago....
.. and now I sit in the front room of my little granite cottage using it to sew up dresses made to original CC41 patterns which my late other half's grandmother gave us.

 

[Flicka]

Cooking old-fashioned food or baking something either from an old cookbook or from a recipe handed down to me from earlier generations. Walking around areas built in the 30s and getting a whiff of the optimism of when it was new and the future still unwritten is another time when I almost feel transported. I also used to get that feeling a lot when me and my ex were out with our sailing boat for weeks at a time in the archipelago outside Stockholm and we had to make do without electricity or running water (our first boat was actually built in 1943).

 

[Gingerella72]

Using my colored Pyrex bowls and milk glass salt and pepper shakers.

Using cold cream to remove make up.

Simply living in my house which was built in 1935....take out the modern furniture, kitchen appliances, TV and computer and it looks just like it did back then (was barely touched/updated over the years, which is both a good and bad thing).

 

[Amy Jeanne]

Reading old magazines. They can take you back to a very precise time period for a few hours and I love it.

 

[green papaya]

walking through old historical city cemetaries and seeing some famous names of people towns, schools, streets and other places are named after

old pioneers of the west

when I see those old graves & family plots, I think back to those old days and what it must have been like over 100 years ago

 

[Kahuna]

I've been writing a book for my family on the occasion of what would have been my mom & dad's 100th year on earth so I've been reading the diaries of my mom & grandmother. It really sets me back in that time period. An entry about my mom & dad's trip to California from Pennsylvania in 1943 has this passage, "We bought ½ pound cheese, ½ pound baked ham, a quart of milk, a package of potato chips, a dozen buns, a dozen macaroons & a quarter pound butter - all for $1.27." How times have changed!

 

[St. Louis]

Those diaries sound like such a treasure.

I had a great accidental vintage moment the other morning. My electric coffee grinder bit the dust some time ago, and I never bothered to replace it because I usually buy ground coffee anyway. Imagine my chagrin when I opened a container of coffee & discovered that it was still in the bean. Fortunately I have a wooden coffee grinder (mostly for show) in my kitchen, so I thought, why not? It worked perfectly, though it didn't grind the coffee very fine. I wonder if there's some way to make it grind finer? (Maybe put it through twice?) I am certainly not going to replace my electric one now.

Anyway, it was a great workout, too. Makes me realize how many vintage activities actually use up more calories than their modern equivalents -- like dialing my old rotary phones.

 

[Smithy]

There's a few things which spark the feeling for me:

- Classic cars
- Old buildings and interiors
- Music
- Watching a club or school cricket match at an old ground with matching cricket pavilion - there is something so timeless about the scene, and it also fills me with nostalgia from my cricket days
- My best mate's gentlemen's club which dates from the 19th century. Going to lunch, dinner or a function there is like stepping back in time
- Books - a good book is like a passport to another age

 

[John in Covina]

The ultimate would have to be walking into a big old Art Deco dancehall with an 18-piece Big Band rockin' the rafters and seeing the floor full of jitterbuggers tearing up the floor.

Yeah babyyyy!!!!

pick the right night at the cicada club in LA and you're there.

 

[John in Covina]

Old buildings
Driving in rural and desert areas in Southern California can really feel like the past is alive.

Writing with a vintage funtain pen.

Getting together with fellow Loungers at the Queen Mary event. (see events section)

Parts of Rt 66.

Eating Nathans Hot Dogs (in the natural casing)

 

[fortworthgal]

Being at a large WWII hangar dance, everyone in period clothing, live band, B-17, open hangar, and rain outside.

Also:

Cooking and baking period recipes, preferably to period music. Also reading old, half-forgotten novels

Using cold cream to remove make up.

Both of these work for me as well.

 

[this one guy]

Photographing old farms, buildings, cars, trolleys, ships, etc. with black & white film, keeping out any modern references.

 

[splintercellsz]

Going to vintage Car Shows, and wearing/owning/seeing items that were created during my Grandparent's younger days.

 

[vitanola]

The stove-pipe coming down, covering everything with soot!

 

[1930artdeco]

There are times-when I can find the time-that I use my speed graphics to take B&W pics. My goal is to make them look like the 40's pics.

Mike

 

[Sir RBH]

Steam Trains.. Last weekend we went on the Severn Vally Railway.. A wonderful day out.. Plenty of soot in the eyes!!

 

[David Conwill]

Downtown Detroit. Especially at night.

 

[Doc Smith]

Hearing the sound of multiple radial engines, slightly out of sync, and tipping back my fedora to search the skies for Yankee Lady, our local flight-worthy B-17.