Thread: Are you retro?

Since most of us are shaving with open razors, I thought it would also be interesting to see if people here are leading a "retro" lifestyle as well.

It would be hard to define what a "retro" person truly is, but let's say that a retro oriented person would...

...have their hair/beard cut and styled in an old style.
...dress in old style clothes.
...get vintage furniture instead of new.
...fit kerosene lamps in their home instead of electric ones.
...prefer to drive a vintage car over a new one.

I'm definitely heading more and more for a retro slant on life, being very interested in the victorian and edwardian eras. I still dress in modern clothing, but I already have an unhealthy kerosene lamp obsession going.

No to all of your questions

Guilty of all the above, just look at the avatar which is in fact myself. House full of kero lights, cook on a wood stove.Untill a few years ago I used to get about in a 1921 Dodge buckboard. Ride a horseback, hunt with a muzzelloader and use a pen and ink when on rare accasion I put pen to paper. Get all gussied up in victorian era clothes when I go out.

Cheers

Gordon

I wouldn't say that I'm retro, but, aside from my computer hobby, I would say I have a lot in common with an old man. Shave with straights, smoke a pipe, sip dark beers, enjoy good whiskey etc etc.

This will pretty much sum it up: Just the other day, my girlfrind was saying how she loved the snow because it is pretty. I, on the other hand, don't really like the snow because I have to be up and out before the sun is up, while it's cold and snowing, and drive in the dark on snow covered roads. I did, however, conceede that I wouldn't mind the snow if I would sit inside in a comfy chair, in front of a fireplace, with my slippers on, smoking a pipe, with a nice glass of liquor, reading a good book, with a big ole' hound dog to keep me company.

Yes to all of the above (except, of course, kerosene lamps - they're a non-starter in an urban apartment). I like swing dancing, zoot suits, and spend more time polishing shoes than watching TV. I own, and wear, morning coats, dinner jackets and dress coats.

As for your definition of retro, I think I would prefer "conservative" in a non-political way. I.e. preserve what is worth preserving because it is superior to its modern successors. Like a DE vs. a cartridge razor.

I prefer an eclectic approach to hobbies and habits. I shave with a straight, but do realize the old ways weren't necessarily the good ways. Medicine and dentistry come to mind as good examples.

I said "retro" but I actually consider myself "post-modern". This means that I don't have a television but I am almost physically attached to the Internet ... wait, maybe I'm a Borg!

I consider myself post-modern retro as well. I still wear an 80's leather jacket and a wide brim hat, but also wear modern cuts too. A foot in both worlds you might say.

X

In the site survey I put myself down as being "retro" and had my doubts about being such. But after reading the other posts concerning this status, scratching my head and other parts of my anatomy which I will not mention; I believe that I may be classified as being somewhat beyond being just plain old Retro. You see, as I sit here listening to the Eagles and Giants go at it and getting more than an ocassional whiff of my homemade beef stew cooking away in cast iron, I look around my hidey hole sanctuary and count five kero fired lamps plus extra chimneys, a retro lava lamp, one middle age Plott hound sleeping on the couch (Mr. Bingo is my bear hunting hound dog and best buddy), three vintage open razors I am presently working on, a nice vintage Certified/Sanitary 144A barber shop strop, forty plus tobacco pipes, one hookah for an ocassional cool flavored smoke, an eight day westminster chime wind up clock, two vintage aneroid barometers and outside the door an old Mercedes turbodiesel station wagon which I much prefer to drive over any other horseless carriage I have tried in recent years. Inside my bathroom there reside three or four mugs/scuppers, various styles of double edge razors and the current razor which I shave with when I am feeling lucky; the doc put me back on Plavix and aspirin, so I must be extremely careful not to bleed myself out while trying to get that wonderfully close shave which we all aspire to. I take my doc's advice seriously and intend to delay as long as possible that giant yard sale my wife will be having after I go to That Great Barber Shop in the Sky. After considerably more scratching an mulling over the subject at hand, should I change my site name to "Really Retro Rick" ???


Wishing All An Exceptionally Happy New Year;
hope to be around more in 2009.

Rick

Put me down as a neo-luddite. I pick and choose. I obviously use a computer or I wouldn't be on this forum. While we have a TV, we don't have cable and where we live, there is no TV without cable. I like flush toilets and hot running water. Electric lights are nice. I would never consider returning to pre-antibiotic medicine. While I haven't had a good bleeding in a while, it was tonsorial and not medicinal.

When the power goes out, I have bees wax candles, which I can light, if necessary, with my flint and steel kit. Whale oil lamps are too modern for me. I am a pipe smoker and I prefer to light with kitchen matches. I smoke Samuel Gawith's Full Virginia Flake, which has been in production since the 1790s. I am a fountain pen colector (pre-1930) and specialize in wet noodle nibs. I also collect dip pens and I am a Spencerian Penman. I like vests and antique pocket watches hung on a single Albert with a locket. When I had a darkroom, I made negatives with my 4x5 field camera and made my own platinum printing paper. I prefer gallusses to a belt - nice button-on, "Y" braces, with no elastic (or just a small strip in back). I like band-necked shirts with starched collars. I like bow ties. Not clip-ons, I tie my own. I want to get pince-nez eyeglasses, but my wife won't let me. I like bowlers, fedoras, and Homburgs. I want to find a nice silver-handled waliking stick. My heroes are Louis Madarasz and Mark Twain. I listen to Leon Redbone.

That's all I can think of for now.

Dave