[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by atomicomatic

I was going to chime in on this thread, so I thought I should reply to this post first.

Whether something is "ugly" is in the eye of the beholder. There are plenty of people who wouldn't touch anything in this thread with a 10 foot pole. I saved most of my furniture like I saved most of my appliances. People look at you funny when you go "I don't use new things."- and I don't. I iron my clothes with a 1961 Sunbeam, watch TV occasionally on multiple pre-1970 TV sets, and live around Jetson's era furniture. I saved one of my chairs from the trash, which the guy responded "I was going to pay someone to haul that off." After shampooing the original green fabric and polishing the brass tipped tapered legs, it looks as good as when it was new in 1960. Here recently I came across an abandoned postwar flat-roofed ranch house, and am hoping to acquire it soon too. The grass is 2 feet high, and it is hidden behind masses of greenery. The original stove and fridge are also inside, complete in all their early 1960s glory.

What bothers me is once the public decides something is "cool", everyone goes crazy. When I got most of my stuff, is was disliked by anyone who cared what others thought. I got plenty of weird looks, but I knew that I was not just saving a piece of history, it was something that would easily last another lifetime. Thanks to TV shows like "Mad Men", this stuff has SKYROCKETED in value. There's a local "mid-century" store that has one chair listed at $700+. It's good in a way, more history is being saved, but disappointing at the same time, people are slaves to society. I've always made it a point to not let anyone else dictate who I am.

I'm sure some people on the forum can relate to some of the things I've said.

I sure can, biggest difference is that I live a couple of decades past that.