That it should happen in our lifetimes

[rolanni]

Steve 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.

Comments

This is embarrassing

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

What was an Ayrab? Tossing it at google wasn't helpful. I had to toss pin boy at it, too, but that got me an answer.

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

well, I still have an insurance man for my car insurance and household goods. I can call him if I have an accident and he files all the paperwork, arranges for an inspector, whatever.

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

The bread man is also gone. I suppose there is still coal delivery, though my grandparents had one of the last coal furnaces I knew of. Ash collectors? My grandfather actually had an ash can -- may have been part of the trash.

Actual barbers are becoming endangered.

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

Actually, the milk man still exists. We get a weekly milk delivery:)

[windrose.livejournal.com]

At Christmas dinner this year, I wound up talking with some cousins about our grandmother, and all the changes to the world she had seen in her lifetime. She was born in 1904, and died in 1998. That's damn near 100 years.

secretary

[peanut13171.livejournal.com]

In my large company, "secretary" is now "adminstrative assistant". It means someone who can put together spreadsheets, graphs, and powerpoint presentations for their bosses, most of whom are older and not very proficient with Excel, Powerpoint, database programs. Most (not all) bosses are in their late 40's or older and so many are still not very computer savvy. They can do email and very basic word processing function, but other than that, they're hopeless.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

In addition to the milk man and the ice man, there was the bread man and the vegetable man. My father's mother had milk delivered in glass bottles to her house well into the 1980s, and continued to lament the retirement of the vegetable man who'd made twice weekly deliveries until the late 1970s.

Door-to-door selling has pretty much died out, but I can remember the Fuller Brush man and his brethren stopping by our house. And telex operators are surely an endangered breed in these days of faxes and e-mail.

[6-penny.livejournal.com]

A scissor grinder that went door to door. The last time I saw one was in the early 80's in South Orange, New Jersey.
Shops that did umbrella repairs.
Shops that sold fountain pens AND repaired them
invisible menders
Womens shoes that had a mix of widths between the heel and the rest of the shoe: I used to take a AAA with a AAAAA heel!

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

Actually, getting anything repaired these days seems to be difficult. It's often "cheaper" to just go out and buy a new thing. (I say "cheaper" because I'm not counting environmental costs:(.)

Re: This is embarrassing

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

What was an Ayrab?

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.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I've got an insurance guy, too, but I write my bi-annual checks to MetLife and mail them Away. The current insurance guy says that when he first came on, there were still a few of the "old fellas" with the "old accounts" who still went out every week and hand-collected that buck or two from each account.

I don't get that kind of service...

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Actually, the milk man still exists. We get a weekly milk delivery

Really? That's welcome news, actually. Do you happen to live in a large city-or-suburb?

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

She was born in 1904, and died in 1998. That's damn near 100 years.

Talk about having been born in whole 'nother world...

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

My ghod; I haven't seen a telex in years.

I do remember, when I was a Young Person just starting out as a file clerk, that it was proposed to me that undertaking the training to become a switchboard operator would be a Smart Career Move.

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

I live in the suburbs of Washington DC. The dairy is in MD, actually.

Do you think that makes a difference?

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

6_penny got to the scissors grinder right before I was about to post about the knife sharpening man who used to drive his truck around my neighborhood on Long Island, ringing his bell. Even then, my mom said such businessmen were disappearing.

I think, also, the local candy man is disappearing. When I was a kid, we used to go to this little mom-and-pop candy shop called "Dibs" where you could get candy, comic books, cigarettes, that sort of thing. You don't see places like that anymore. I think they even had a soda counter. These days, the equivalent, I think, is 7-11 and other convenience stores like that. Gone are the days.

Not all secretaries are status symbols

[masgramondou.livejournal.com]

For really busy CxO type folks a secretary to act as a screener (and scheduler) is critical. Otherwise the CxO gets swamped with people who want to sell him things, ask him stupid questions etc. etc.

Same goes, for that matter, for a receptionist/switch board person for smaller companies. And it has been an observation of mine that good salespeople cultivate both secretaries and receptionists and thereby get access that in theory they probably shouldn't get.

Library Card Catalog filer

[patknuth.livejournal.com]

I don't think they're all gone yet, but they're certainly dwindling. My first library job was filing the subject cards in the University of Missouri - Columbia card catalog. When the Library of Congress changed a subject heading, I also pulled complete card sets, whited out the now incorrect subject heading using liquid paper and typed in the new one (using a special typewriter roller with a card slot to hold the card in place) and then re-filed the whole set. I had a colleague who still used an electric eraser to remove incorrect headings instead of the liquid paper. There are those who mourn the passing of the card catalog, and I agree with some of their arguments, but not having to file catalog cards.... priceless.

Now I think what a difference an mp3 player would have made for that job. The Sony Walkman for cassette tapes existed, but it was too expensive for me. Four years later, I bought a generic "personal stereo" for $10 with Christmas money, but I was in a different job by then.

[liveavatar.livejournal.com]

There are still beat cops. In San Francisco for sure, since I just saw an article in the Chronicle about how the mayor was asking for an increase in beat cops in a particular district.

In Oakland and Berkeley too, though these days they're more likely to ride a bicycle than go on foot.

[readinggeek451]

I'm on Long Island, and I actually saw a knife sharpening van drive by one day a few months ago! It was a shock; I'd never seen one before.

Shoe repair guy is a dying breed.

[doushkasmum.livejournal.com]

We still have street sweepers (Australia), they are employed by the council and drive a large truck with rotating brushes on the bottom. I can get fruit and vegetables home delivered too, but I order them on the net!

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

ooooh, I think the IBM typewriter repairman is a creature of the past.

Gas pump jockeys are very endangered except where legislation protects them. (Washington State -- no pumping your own gas there -- I guess pump jockeys are like spotted owls.)

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

This seriously bothers me. I had to hunt pretty hard to find someone who would re-sole a favorite pair of shoes, for instance.

When I related this story, my mother stared at me like I was an alien and said, "Why didn't you just buy new ones?"

"I like these," I said. "I don't want to throw them out, I want to keep them."

(To which my dad nodded, since he too would rather keep shoes than buy new ones.)

I did eventually find a leather repair shop I could get them re-soled at, but that place is gone now. I don't know where I'd get a good pair of loafers repaired now.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

We don't have a candy-man, but we do have an ice cream truck that still comes by every week. You can hear the music playing from quite a distance. And it's still played on a... mmm. I've forgotten the name of the instrument. -_-

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

Where do you live? I've got two shoe repair places within spitting distance of my house. Send 'em down here and I'll take them in for you:) (It might cost an arm and a leg, but they could be resoled.)

I'm beginning to think I live in Nirvana here, which I had not really considered given that political climate around here is quite a bit more conservative than I'd like. But there are many things to recommend about my neighborhood/suburb:)