Retro Accessories- how retro are you?

I wear a lot of cardigan's - not sure if that's retro or just saa-aaad.

Oh yeah good on you benz boy for reminding me, I have a zenit slr which I pretend to use (never actually get round to it).

i like older stuff, houses, furniture, tools, stuff with character. i hate buying new stuff, except clothes. i cant bear old clothes unless they've always been mine lol. i hate technology, computers and digicams and mobiles depress me. yes they're handy but i like old fashioned social interaction, community spirit, great british 40's spiffiness. i would if i could live in this country any time, evAr, before 1950 and be blissfully happy.
so yeah, retro spills over into as much as possible. i still have modern technology but i can do without it, its only because theres no such thing as an 80s mobile for your pocket lol.

oh, food, i like that new btw.

While I like retro stuff I don't try to live a retro life. In fact I find anyone that does a bit of a mental.

do old clothes, last trip to SF i went with
an empty case and bought that much i was nearly
at baggage limit, bought new kecks though.

I wear a lot of brown

Hmmm... what kind of 'blew up' are we talking here? Big bang/flash/smoke while it was on (or being switched on)? Or just refuses to do anything? and what make/model is it?

Used to fix TVs and computers, but programming is a lot easier and cleaner, and pays better... ;D

Sometimes common components blow up, sometimes wierd things that are unique to a make blow up...

MWF, me and my mates will scare you then... LOL

I have a generic-retro-non-era-specific thing going on, always have done. I always likedold tat, even when I was a little kid I thought my cousin's hand-me-down Dinky and Spot On toys were far cooler than my shiny new Corgi and Matchbox Superkings cars.

And so I grew up same way.

Now "my time" was the mid-late 80s and early-mid 90s. I won't drift off into reminicing too much here, but basically I have always been a goth - dead 80s - but came to this via punk and always been into psychobilly too. Already a mix of modernist and retro stylings there. I have to say its far easier being the guy at the goth club with a quiff than the guy at a Meteors gig with long black crimped hair.... You'd thikn it was "alternative vs. Mainstream" but certainly back then there was a lot of fighting between the various sub culture groups and it was hard to mix.

Anyway, I digress...

I used to never buy anything new. Everything was something of a non-era-specific-retro style, furniture, radio, hifi, TV, even my VCR used to be an old Fergason Videostar...

I did have some modern / high tech stuff but I always kept it hidden.

My wife soon put an end to that!

A lass I knew once said "coming to your house is like stepping into the 1940s" LOL.

Someone else once likened it to the set of "Rising Damp" LOL.

But I have mates who really live it. A mate of mine has an upright washing machine and dries his clothes by wringing them through a mangle and then hanging them on one of those airer things which comes off the ceiling. He has a vintage B&W TV set with a 405 line converter box hidden in it, and his CDs are played through a wired addaptor into a vintage radiogram. He has no double glazing, no central heating, etc etc. He has no freezer so he buys fresh food every couple of dayts which he cooks using recipees from an old cookery book from the post war period. Hes also a lot thinner and healthier than I am. However, he does not have a wife...

I used to live like that but now I accept "retro styled" items into the house - often under the sufferage of Mrs K... rather than the genuine article.

I also have a lot less tat. I used to have like 4 or 5 valve radios in one room... 3 or 4 old clocks, a couple of vintage valve hifis... Man you could hardly move for my junk.

But it wasn't a true retro style, because (a) a 1950s or whatever house wouldn;t be stacked with junk that way, they'd have one tea service, one radi, one clock not a pile of them. And (b) my decor was definitely following the 80s / 90s gothic style not any period style (dark red walls and Cramps / Patricia Morrison posters up)

The new house is more conventionally retro where I can get away with it, but with modern appliances and comforts, we use period colours and the like and keep things laid out like a house not like a junk shop. Its probably a more mature version of my older habits.

I still can't say Ikea without spitting. I still prefer to buy furniture and the like from antique stores, junk shiops, markets, etc. but at least my appliances are 21st century. Also I have a mobile phone which has all the features, I have an up to date computer, iPod, PVR, widescreen TV, etc.

I have mates who only wear genuine 70s clothes or genuine 60s what ever their period is. Theres a network of people and places you can still buy new unworn clothes from back in the day. For example there was a department store closed in Bradford a few years back and they still had stock in their back rooms going back to the 1950s. I know people who were stocking up then for sure.

I've had my share of charity shop buys but I draw the line at seeking out genuine period 1970s Airtex Y-fronts... But I really respect people who do. I fear them also because I know the mania. But I reckon someone has to. I'm kinda proud to know some of these people and call them friends, as well as freaks.

I have one of the original 70's bell ring type dial phones, and also a big, huge chunky modem for the same! both of which work! I'll try to get a pic of them asap!

I have loads of other stuff knocking around aswell, including an original BMC 'genuine replacement unit' stickered 'goldseal' A series rocker cover!