Thread: Are you retro?

Originally Posted by fpessanha

And my cat!

Funny you should mention that. All my cats are retro!

I guess I'd have to call myself retro-mixed. Recrectic? Retroclectic? Ow, now my lips hurt and I'm starting to talk like Scooby-Doo. Well, if I'm in the basement I type on a 50-year-old Royal manual; in the attic, on a computer (with Mac OS X, of course!); on the main floor I scribble in a quasi-legible longhand, with a ballpoint these days but my fountain pen once it's fixed. Pick your floor, pick your century.

~Rich

Originally Posted by jockeys

A lot of my friends seem to think I'm obsessed with old-tyme stuff, but the truth is I'm just obsessed with having BETTER stuff.

Originally Posted by fpessanha

... I feel that a Retro lifestyle is a lot more than using old stuff. It's using old stuff if it's better than new stuff. ...

I'm Retro, as I said before... but only if it's worth it. ... But one needs to react to a consumerism dominated society, right?

Very good points; this tends to be my attitude as well.

Originally Posted by Sunbane

Firstly, I really like the esthetics from the beginning of the 20th century - the art Noveau movement in particular. ...

Yup, that's a factor too. For me Art Nouveau and the designs (related, I think) of William Morris, Craftsman and Mission furniture, and Elbert Hubbard's Roycrofters have a particular appeal. And I like the way a lot of old machines seemed to combine beautiful design with a kind of clarity about their machine-ness, as it were. An old Royal or Underwood typewriter, for example, or a Model T Ford or a 60-year-old farm tractor: they have elegant proportions and lines and at the same time don't try to hide the fact that they are machines; you can open them up and see what they are about.

Originally Posted by Sunbane

... and then there's the whole development in the political and intellectual areas. But it's kind of funny how I (who is not a political conservative by any stretch) can be very conservative about items and crafts!

I hear ya! And even thinking of our members who are politically and socially conservative as well as retro, I don't expect (if I may presume to say) that any of them want, any more than I do, to revive such things as the religious and racial prejudices that were taken for granted a couple of generations ago.

Originally Posted by timberrr59

Being retired now, I am working on making my second million dollars. I never made the first million!

Now that gives me an idea ... since I'm not retired yet, I'd better get started on my third million. Something sure happened to the first two--I haven't seen them anywhere!

~Rich

I wouldn't call myself retro - well, not exactly. I like to think of my "style" as "timeless" (or at least that's what I strive for). The things I lean towards look and work as well now as they did years and years ago.

Take the ac/dc album "Back in Black". It's almost 30 years old, but it sounds as relevant now as it did then....I look for things with similar qualities.

Jordan

Originally Posted by jnich67

Take the ac/dc album "Back in Black". It's almost 30 years old, but it sounds as relevant now as it did then....I look for things with similar qualities.

Back in Black sure does stand the test of time. Also it's the second best selling album of all time, world-wide. Amazing to think about.

Retro.....Not really

I started shooting cowboy action, then had to learn reloading, then had to learn bullet casting...etc, etc... I don't feel a need to become the best at anything new, my enjoyment comes from learning the new task at hand, becoming proficient and then moving on and adding another NEW thing to my life. My current new interest is str8's and learning all I can about their use and history.


I have this mental problem, I think to much. Therefore I am always looking for a new challenge, a different way of doing things than the "normal." As the world, in general, falls for the slick marketing campaigns of the Mega-conglomerates of our World-wide community, who are more interested in their own profit, than the good of the community or even their own company, I enjoy the challenge of swimming against the tide, so to speak.


Through bad diet, use of artificial sweeteners, (over)use of over-the-counter meds, and constant bombardment of my body with antibiotics, I developed some health issues and have moved my diet as far from modern as possible. Eliminating ALL soda and artificial sweeteners, and moving to a more natural, unprocessed diet, I have managed to lose 60 pounds, and eliminate my dependence on medications, and have never felt better in my life.


Do these things make me "retro"...I don't think so, but I do enjoy many retro and timeless tools, clothes and activities.

The America of my childhood from 1949 was superb in so many ways -- a lady chance met at a Walmart put it well, ' People didn't bother you unless you committed a crime of violence -- people just left each other alone [to do as each pleased]!'

1) Our population was 154,000 and there was plenty of everything for everybody.
2) The Cities everywhere, and The South with her gracioousness, were safe even for children to roam freely -- every adult was like a parent or a big brother or sister to a child.
3) Fireworks and all such expressions of liberty were accepted along with anything else which was fun -- I never knew anybody to be hurt by Firecrackers --- we freely bought Cherrybombs and M-80s with Mom & Dad right there, starting at age six, as I recall. People and even small children were not ideiots, after all. The overall IQ level of folks was much higher, in large part because they needn't wast so much brain time on trivialities and complexities of a society today turned into virtually one great factory, at least in timbre and tone -- though one can still get away and one can still find peace at home! We children were lightinhg candles at age four or five, which is when Dad's friend gave me my first Chemistry Set -- and I was buying Wood Alcohol at the drugstore soon afterwards (for alcohol lamp, naturally) and anything else wanted. At age 11 Dad's friend at Chicago's Stanzi Scientific Company was selling me any labware or chemical needed -- including those boyhood delights of Oxidiser & Reducers.
4) There were a lot more unique things around -- like the Flouroscope at the shoestore where a small boy could see into the bones of his feet!
5) We never ate drugs or poisons, though Mom told us that the coloured children broke plaster off the wall to chew on for the minerals and got sick from the lead paint. No child I know would have dreamed of eating anything like that -- and I decided permanently at age 4 that 'Mud Piies' were not at all what they were apparently cracked up to be!
6) Words like honour, honesty, pride, dignity, virtue, virility, lady, gentleman, and Mr, Miss, or Mrs were normal terms, and it was often heard that, 'America is a free country, isn't it?'
7) All the races were much happier than today -- though naturally everybody experienced some heartaches; it has become the Marxist ideal of making everybody upset about how badly they are oppressed in order to instigate class warfare and the permanent revolution. Bad idea to have made league with atheistic Communism over the Danzig corridoor and that Roosevelt's mass shipment of war materiele to England as 'Lend-Lease' (a tactic that same government had cried out against to make Great Britain pay reparations after the War amongst the States, for simply selling merchant ships which could then be fitted with armament at home). And the Oil Embargo against Japan -- would America tolerate that from Iran, Iraq, or Saudi Arabia, for an extended period?
8) The American South of 186o was about the ideal civilisation for me, with gradual development of antibiotics and those advances genuinely good for mankind. Steam & hydro power and the telegraph were perfectly adequate -- provided our population had remained stable at the level of that year -- what would that have been, would 45-50 millions of inhaabitants have been far from the mark? The only place for a gentleman to find room any more seems to be, once again, 'Go West young man!'

Brooks A. Batson, NP
Veneta, Oregon
For The Union'' (Oregon State Motto, 1857)
'He Who Transplanted Still Sustains' (Connecticut State Motto, 1776)

I used to be a trooper in the South Australian Mounted Police, hunt with a flintlock, carry a colt dragoon, used to drive a 1921 Dodge buck board into town to pick up horse feed, cut my own chaff, cook on a wood stove, house is set up with kero lights, kero fridge [ back up for power failures] wear Victorian era clothing for best, write with a pen, use out dated language. Believe in being independant, and take responsablility for mine own actions. Make nearly all my own repairs, shoe my own horses and minor vet work. Miss the days of the old British Empire, read Kipling, my supervisor at work seems to think I am on loan from a previous century !! Am oft times accused of being a luddite.

Cheers all

I'm going to have to go with Jockeys on this one. Some old stuff is either just plain better, or suits my purposes and tastes better.

For me, it's SR's, some cars, many tools.

I don't feel that this makes me retro. To me, being retro is active choice of a selected time period.

Everyone I know thinks I am retro.Just because I shave with a cut throat, smoke pipes and rollies, ride a Z900, don,t own a car or a mobile phone, have wood heating and tank water. I,ve thought about it and I remembered once I called into see my dad on the farm, he was sitting on the tailgate of the ute having a cuppa and a smoke, I said " ah just like the good old days pa " and he replied " yeah the good old days that weren,t so f*****g good " made me think that the term post modern retro is spot on. We get to choose all the good stuff from the past and now and do not have to put up with the crap.

There are good and bad points being retro. The house I'm writing this from was built while America was still one of our colonies. The table is about 400 years old. I inherited most of my furniture rather than chose it. When my mother lived in this house water came from a well rather than a pumping station. The upkeep on the house in terms of repairs and maintenance is an ongoing project that is never complete.
To be honest,for the most part I prefer contemporary things. Old stuff requires a lot of time, money and effort. I do ride a 25 yr old motorcycle but have a modern one as well. If you buy good quality shoes, suits and things like that they don't really date that much. My last new suit doesn't look much different from one I bought 30yrs ago. Mind you, Levis jeans have changed for the worse.
I certainly appreciate modern plumbing, sanitation and medical facilities.
In terms of shooting muzzle loaders, sadly they are the only type of pistol you can legally own in the UK.