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Are you anachronistic?

Tirvine

ancient grey sweatophile
As I read the thread on phrases you'd rather not hear, it occurred to me, it's largely about the era in which you came of age. Born in the late 1940s, it is clear to me that I am a walking anachronism. I speak a largely different language. It has rules. I enjoy and, more importantly, observe, the conventions of bygone eras. In addition to, obviously, shaving with soap, brush, and something other than a multi-edged cartridge, I use a fountain pen, cook from "scratch," whatever that might be, and dress in the same clothing I wore in 1959. I read books of paper with hard covers. I listen to records, and I go to the symphony, ballet, and opera. My life (but for the iPad) looks much as it might have about half a century ago. I know how to tie a bowtie (the same way you tie shoes). I know how to iron my shirts and pants. I know how to wash and dry a sweater. I even know how to darn, and I have a darning egg.

How about you? Are you an anachronism? Why do you think you are or aren't?
 

luvmysuper

My elbows leak
Staff member
I'm 10 years or so younger than you are.
While we all have a tendency to look back with rose colored glasses, I think I'm a pretty mixed bag.
I am nostalgic about tools, TV, movies, books, music and some clothing habits - but I thoroughly embrace breaking technology.
I love gadgets and I love using them.
I enjoy my TV, movies, books and music on the most modern devices.
All my old music, movies and TV shows are on a network drive that I can watch on different 4K OLED screens.
I read books on a Kindle paperwhite.
I enjoy the things of old, on new devices.
 
Late 70s here.

Keeping a household should be the quite the same for everyone (cooking, ironing etc.) but some techniques get lost. While I can sew enough to fix a button or rip I wouldn’t know how to darn at all.

I prefer natural materials for clothing and shoes but also have some modern functional fabrics for certain occasions.

I stream my music (CD‘s are gathering dust) and movies. Books are either paper or on my kindle. I do collect and use stuff that is functional and pleasing to the eyes (fountain pens, mechanical watches, pocket knives, DE razors).

I don’t do Social Media, messenger services, online games or such. In my private life I get by with a dumb phone and an iPad. I believe that this enhances my quality of life. On the other hand if I see classic media coverage about those topics I sometimes feel like a dinosaur….
 
Thanks for reminding me that I'm well beyond my "use by" date. Born in the mid 1940s, and anachronistic in many areas.
- married 53 years to the same woman.
- Since college always washed, dried and ironed my own clothes. However, I don't cook unless it's eggs or a microwave meal.
- only wear jeans, pocket tees and flannel shirts. Hated having to buy/wear a dress shirt, slacks and tie for a wedding last year.
- prefer 40s, 50s and 60s music, with the exception of some early punk and Celtic punk from the late 80s to mid-00s.
- prefer silent films, along with Hollywood b&w films made before 1960.
- I don't wear any jewelry, although I have a 1961 Bulova watch for those rare occasions I need one.
- I have a cell phone, but kept on airplane mode in a drawer. Anyone trying to reach me has to call my wife or email me.
- No social media or internet presence except for B&B.

On the non-anachronistic side, I do prefer a desktop pc. We've had them since the early 90s, but since 2007 when my wife went laptop, I have been building my own and upgrading my desktop as needed. As most of my games are over 10 years old, I don't need to do a lot of upgrading, and I'm still able to use my full version of Office 97, even with Win10.
 
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I am a card-carrying member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, but that's another thing altogether. That being said I do like to time travel through different eras. I have a collection of manual typewriters, black iron sewing machines, and film cameras among other things. I use vintage razors almost exclusively. My musical tastes seem to have stopped in the mid-70s when I got out of college. I try to educate myself on newer music from time to time with mixed success.

On the other hand I spend way too much time on this laptop.
 
I am all over the place.

I am a good cook but also a very competent UberEats orderer. My 2 favourite guitars in my collection are 5 years old and 50 years old. I like old music (60s-80’s mainly) and new music. I can iron and sew on a button, but send my dress clothes to the dry cleaner as I am lazy. I wear a 35 year old Omega watch and also an Apple Watch.

Lastly, my two favourite razors are 90 years old (Gillette) and 2 years old (Wolfman).
 
film cameras among other things.

I still have my Konica Powershot G5 that I bought in the early 1970s when we were first married. I couldn't afford a SLR at the time. I haven't used it in years, but I really enjoyed shooting infrared slide film with a yellow lens back then. My wife wasn't too happy with slides of our kids looking green when I forgot to change the film. We still have a framed photo on the wall, of the Belle of Louisville taken in the early 70s, with the red paddle wheel and logo changed to gold. It was taken on a bright sunny day, but it looks like night with clouds still visible.
 
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I still have my Konica Powershot G5 that I bought in the early 1970s when we were first married. I couldn't afford a SLR at the time. I haven't used it in years, but I really enjoyed shooting infrared slide film with a yellow lens back then. My wife wasn't too happy with slides of our kids looking green when I forgot to change the film. We still have a framed photo on the wall, of the Belle of Louisville taken in the early 70s, with the red paddle wheel and logo changed to gold. It was taken on a bright sunny day, but it looks like night with clouds still visible.
I used to love shooting infrared film, color and black & white. Yeah, not the best film for flesh tones!
 

Old Hippie

Somewhere between 61 and dead
Reminds me of a friend who had a dark-blue windbreaker with the letters W and T and F on the back in large white letters.

He used to show up on TV reports from crime scenes with all the other dark blue windbreakers with "POLICE," "ATF," "FBI" and so forth.

He never got questioned over it. He'd just walk through looking like he had business.

O.H.
 
I am an anachronism in my way of thinking.
Though quite openminded (I visit nude beaches, for example), I am rather attached to two things that seem to be slipping away from Western civilisation, which worries and pains me.
These being Reason and pride of the enlightened way of thinking the West used to cherish.
Young people are without anchor and roots and are not even aware of it.
They sure consider me someone from the past, but I fear they will regret it one day.
 
As I read the thread on phrases you'd rather not hear, it occurred to me, it's largely about the era in which you came of age. Born in the late 1940s, it is clear to me that I am a walking anachronism. I speak a largely different language. It has rules. I enjoy and, more importantly, observe, the conventions of bygone eras. In addition to, obviously, shaving with soap, brush, and something other than a multi-edged cartridge, I use a fountain pen, cook from "scratch," whatever that might be, and dress in the same clothing I wore in 1959. I read books of paper with hard covers. I listen to records, and I go to the symphony, ballet, and opera. My life (but for the iPad) looks much as it might have about half a century ago. I know how to tie a bowtie (the same way you tie shoes). I know how to iron my shirts and pants. I know how to wash and dry a sweater. I even know how to darn, and I have a darning egg.

How about you? Are you an anachronism? Why do you think you are or aren't?
I have a darning egg, too. I never knew what it was, though, until once I had small holes in a couple of dress socks, so I looked up how to darn socks on YouTube (which I do use for how-to instructions). Lo and behold there was that wooden egg! I finally learned what that wooden egg on a stick was for.

I prefer paper books, but I do have a lot on the Kindle and Books apps on my iThing, because they were free via Formed.org. I like the soap and brush and DE or straight razor, fountain pens, and I prefer to cook from scratch, although I don't do it often enough. With the recent Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys, I've made plenty of turkey stock for soup. I like homemade soup. I have records, but my record player spins so fast that if it were possible for the record to fly off, it would likely take my head off. I have no plans to have it repaired. I wear a bowtie occasionally to Mass, for which I must also iron my shirts. Am I an anachronism? I know I don't move with the modern currents. I'm the oxbow lake left behind as the meandering river moves away.
 

Tirvine

ancient grey sweatophile
I have a darning egg, too. I never knew what it was, though, until once I had small holes in a couple of dress socks, so I looked up how to darn socks on YouTube (which I do use for how-to instructions). Lo and behold there was that wooden egg! I finally learned what that wooden egg on a stick was for.

I prefer paper books, but I do have a lot on the Kindle and Books apps on my iThing, because they were free via Formed.org. I like the soap and brush and DE or straight razor, fountain pens, and I prefer to cook from scratch, although I don't do it often enough. With the recent Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys, I've made plenty of turkey stock for soup. I like homemade soup. I have records, but my record player spins so fast that if it were possible for the record to fly off, it would likely take my head off. I have no plans to have it repaired. I wear a bowtie occasionally to Mass, for which I must also iron my shirts. Am I an anachronism? I know I don't move with the modern currents. I'm the oxbow lake left behind as the meandering river moves away.
You sound delightful to me, but yes, the millennials would find you an anachronism. However, once introduced to those things, they seem to like them, too.
 
Yep, me too.

Write with fountain pens, wear suit and tie when possible, shave with a SR, like my paper books, LP's and CD's but I'm not against technology either, so for instance I live in a small city, so CD'S and books availability was always an issue at least for my taste, so streaming and Kindle are a blessing.

There are something's that are okay just for nostalgia, like film cameras, but the convenience of not running out of film is a really nice feature. Some people like printed photographs, but I'm fine with a digital frame because we had already run out of space with all the frames.

Social media is there but try not to use it. Guess as we grow older the youngsters say we get grumpy, but we just don't have time to deal with nonsense.

Where I am really an anachronistic is that I try to make my kids read instead of just watching the movie or series version, but that is really a lost art.
 
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