In 2007, I launched on this site a column called Lets' Bring Back -- which has since celebrated hundreds of forgotten-yet-delightful fashions, pastimes, objects, and personalities.
From zeppelins to sealing wax, from turbans to typewriters, from Auntie Mame to the Ziegfeld Follies, Let's Bring Back has covered a lot of ground. Special editions of the column included a wildly popular Mad Men edition and the crowd-pleasing "Culinary Delectables" edition, among many others.
This week, Let's Bring Back made its official debut as a book -- and in honor of its release, I've compiled some of the most popular items mentioned in the column over the years.
I hope you enjoy revisiting these things, and let us know what you'd like to bring back in the comments section below!
Let's Bring Back ...
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Charles Elk said on 8 Monday 2010 am30 1:51 am: It would be nice to see people dress up when they went out. I never experienced the era but it seemed a lot classier. My blue-collar grandfather even had a suit, tie, overcoat and fedora to wear when he and my grandmother would go out. Too often I see denim and ball caps worn out to restaurants. The least a man could do is take off the hat. Average people have very little class left these days. |
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While still fun, over the years, it increasingly feels like one just drives from one Walmart to another. Towns are increasingly similar. You see lots of boarded up "main streets" and the same plastic soulless chain restaurants, stores, and hotel/motels everywhere with people dressing the same and going out to similar places and listening to the same songs. With a lot of effort and research you can still have fun, but its kinda sad how many places have lost their sense of individual character. I think people would be surprised to learn just how many towns don't even have non-chain restaurants these days. Its really sad to roll into a town and ask all the locals what the best restaurant is only to repeatedly be told its Applebees.
My husband and I began having formal family dinners 30 years ago. We may not always be dressed to the nines, but we always bring our best manners to the table. We always have a main dish, a few vegetable dishes or salads, and potatoes,bread or pasta and always home-made desserts (no take-out or fast food). I have collected sets of dishes over many years (some expensive, most not) and it has always fascinated our granddaughters. Now they ask for specific sets when they come for dinner and they always warn their friends about their manners before they are invited, and they never have to worry about how to behave in someones home. We have tablecloths and napkins, full sets of silverware (such as salad forks and soup spoons) and glasses (NO PLASTIC ON THE TABLE), and we use proper serving pieces. We talk, we listen, sometimes we bicker, but mostly we laugh and have a good time. It's so important in todays world to have a refuge of peace, love, and dignity. My husband and I are actively working to make that happen for the whole family and hopefully at least one of them will provide the same for their generation.
Most people cannot afford the rates that a hotel would have to charge if it had an ornate building with a large, pleasant lobby. Rail travel would not be affordable if trains had dining cars.
These things made some economic sense when the world was slower.
Today, the world is too fast to have any time for things that do not contribute to the bottom line.
The trend is toward utilitarianism, and there is no place for comfort, style, or refinement.
We now have how many channels? And how many of them have anything worthwhile?
And by the way - the hat looks good on Don Draper....on Donald Trump is would look much much worse.