That it should happen in our lifetimes
Sunday, January 20th, 2008 11:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rolanniSteve and I were talking last evening about the jobs that had existed during our lifetimes which exist no more. Here's a partial list, in no particular order:
1. Lamplighter
2. Ice man
3. Pin boy
4. Ayrab
5. Tinker
6. Insurance man*
7. Milk man
8. Secretary**
9. Street sweeper
10. Beat cop
What occupations and jobs have vanished from the world around you?
_________________
* Back in the Day, the insurance man would come to the house weekly, and collect his quarter or half-dollar. Yes, was the legitimate insurance man.
**Actually, secretary seemed to almost die out as a job,the reasoning being that the boss could type his own dern letters if only he was given a computer. Then corporate thinking came back around to the realization that the status of having a live person to do all that silly paperwork for you was priceless, so the occupation has enjoyed a minor renaissance.
1. Lamplighter
2. Ice man
3. Pin boy
4. Ayrab
5. Tinker
6. Insurance man*
7. Milk man
8. Secretary**
9. Street sweeper
10. Beat cop
What occupations and jobs have vanished from the world around you?
_________________
* Back in the Day, the insurance man would come to the house weekly, and collect his quarter or half-dollar. Yes, was the legitimate insurance man.
**Actually, secretary seemed to almost die out as a job,the reasoning being that the boss could type his own dern letters if only he was given a computer. Then corporate thinking came back around to the realization that the status of having a live person to do all that silly paperwork for you was priceless, so the occupation has enjoyed a minor renaissance.
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Re: This is embarrassing
Date: 2008-01-20 06:26 pm (UTC)An Ayrab (also called a "street Ayrab") was a guy, with a horse and a wagon. They walked up and down the alleyways of Baltimore calling out the names of the stuff they had for sale: "STRAWberrrEEES" for instance, which was sung with a far different inflection from "WAHmelUN."
Ayrabs were independent business people, most of them were black, and they were licensed by the City of Baltimore. The horses were kept in a stable downtown.
There were also trucks with amusement rides mounted on the back -- mini merry-go-rounds, ferris wheels and whips -- that would go up and down the alleys.