Having received some comment on the immediately preceding “blog” [we hate the cacophonous, gagging sound of that noun and would aesthetically prefer “mini-essay”) we will happily conclude the subject with some additional extinct phenomena from our fictionalized antique store (“Curiosity Shop”).
[Food]
An institutional eating establishment, “Horn & Hardart,” was a popular eatery, more frequented for breakfast and lunch, perhaps, than dinner. In an era (the 1940s) when mechanically selected activities were virtually non-existent, the well-known establishment featured the unique ability to select from a wide variety of comestibles, each viewable through a small glass window and accessible upon depositing coins in the respectively indicated price. The sandwiches, small cooked dishes, or pastries thus accessed were then carried to a table to be consumed by the patron. This process of obtaining selected meals was quick and pleasant. In addition to the novelty of accessing food, from main course to dessert, these institutional restaurants were famous for their cooked vegetable dishes, served from a special, well-attended counter; many patrons chose to select meals entirely consisting of a selected variety of such delicious vegetables. An excellent quality of coffee, as well as tea, and milk, were obtained from spigots, activated by the deposit of coins.
In later years, due to its decline in business, the facilities were converted to rentals for celebratory events such as weddings, and other group occasions. This item of memorabilia, as in the case of roller rinks, is represented by photographs.
Other memorable eatable extinctions included “mellorolls”, (rolls of ice cream, served in round wrappers, creamsicles, flavored ice pops containing an ice cream center, popsicles, two attached thin ice pops, the Charlotte rouse, wrapped yellow cake, topped with whipped cream, and a maraschino cherry, and warm roast peanuts, sold in small paper bags; all of the latter, sold by sidewalk vendors.
[The Brooklyn Dodgers, Ebbets Field]
The “Brooklyn Dodgers,” despite its advertised geographic designation as representative of one of the five boroughs of the State of New York, was a well-known resident of Ebbets Field. However, it singularly eclipsed its significance as a major league baseball team and was, remarkably, in this era of finite media communication, popularly transmogrified into a cultural and patriotic symbol of the Nation. In addition to being the first major league baseball team to accept a black athlete, viz., Jackie Robinson, a combination of the ubiquitously romantic conception of the team and the perceived celebrity of the nationally advertised players (Pee-Wee Reese, Gil Hodges, Duke Snyder, Jackie Robinson, and others), together with a popularized nuanced conception of “Brooklyn,” morphed the team into an American icon. An example was a 1940s movie whose scenario was set in the Second World War, in the theater of the Pacific. A tense night scene saw a soldier admitted forward by a sentry, based on his response, “Duke Snyder” to the shibboleth-like question: “Who plays center field for the Brooklyn Dodgers?”
It figuratively broke the hearts of Brooklyn residents, young and old when considerations of finance motivated the celebrity team’s painful change of venue to Los Angeles.
[Wooden Desks, Inkwells, Dipping Pens]
School desks in the relevant period were constructed of wood with an attached seat and featured in the top right corner, glass ink wells with a closable metal lid. Pens, dipped into the inkwell, for writing were wooden handled with an attached nib. Penmanship, at best was somewhat scratchy and inkblots were ubiquitous accompaniments to the most diligent of writers; despite which the hapless student was graded on his penmanship. The advent of “Fountain pens,” (whose ink was supplied by the lifting of a small strip of metal, located on the side of the body of the two-piece pen (pen and matching pen cover), exerting pressure on a small rubber bladder, the ink supply reserve) were the writing implements of adults and not a schoolboy phenomenon. The latter, unfledged, catalog of humankind was for many years, unhappily relegated to the use of a wooden, metal-tipped version of the primitive goose quills used by our white-wigged colonial fathers.
The use of the later developed, cleaner, and more navigable, ink retaining ball-point pen, was initially forbidden at primary schools. Later years saw the development of stylish and attractive “roller point” writing implements with, if desired, artistic design facilities.
[Pocket knife, handkerchiefs, small address book, tie pin]
In addition to the high, cacophonous clang of coins (now, virtually of little practical utility) a man’s trouser pocket was traditionally a requisite and necessarily accessible storehouse of ubiquitous utility. Often, in addition to a man’s multi-purpose wallet, the latter, a tenant of a chosen back pocket, his side pockets were the repositories of vitally necessary implements, like keys, handkerchiefs, and, often, a small pocket knife to sharpen wooden pencils, cut string, and cardboard wrappers, perhaps, eat fruit or idly whittle. One jacket pocket might efficiently carry a small, alphabetized address book for convenient reference and another a plastic comb for rapid and furtive utility, preceding social encounters.
A utilitarian tie clip or a “tie tac,” of heterogeneous value and design, although not carried in a man’s pocket, was a “retro” necessity in the perception of the proper style of the time. While ties are still worn, although, currently less stylistically mandated, tie clips have followed the dodo bird’s path to complete extinction.
[N.B. The phenomena referenced in “The Old Curiosity Shop” 1 and 2 are all either no longer existent, replaced by “improvements,” or digitalized.]
-p.
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