A web log, an æthereal scrap-book if you will, with a somewhat vintage flavour. News items, occurrences, experiences, thoughts and opinions related to Victoriana through to Fifties Americana can all be found here.
No, not the 1962 stage musical. Not even the 1966 film adaptation. No, this is actually about a forum that I regularly frequent and the not-so-funny thing that has recently happened to it.
The forum in question is The Sheridan Club, a discussion board for gentlemen and ladies like you and me who extol the vintage lifestyle in all its various aspects; who still value the manners and etiquette of bygone times and enjoy confounding the modern world with it on suitable occasions. It was, as far as my understanding goes, originally affiliated with The Chap magazine when it was first created in circa 2004 and drew much of its early membership from readers of that periodical who embraced something of the Dadaist absurdism that it represented. However it later separated from that organ, while still retaining a link to its views and principles, and subsequently begat The New Sheridan Club - a London-based in-person social club that I'm pleased to say still flourishes.
To provide some personal background, I first stumbled across The Sheridan Club back in October 2006 when I was but a fresh-faced youth of 23. My involvement in The Chap movement began around the same period although how I came to find it is lost to the mists of time. However since the age of about 9 I had had an interest in the silent comedies of Laurel & Hardy and Harold Lloyd, as well as the era of the Second World War thanks to my grandparents who were of that generation. Over subsequent years my interests grew to encompass all aspects of the interwar period, until by the time I came to The Chap I had a thorough appreciation of the time (as well as the late Victorian and Edwardian eras). The subversive, absurdist nature of the original ethos of Chappism also appealed and so I became a convert to the cause. Somewhere out of that I discovered The Sheridan Club, requested my membership card and the rest, as they say, is history. My name there – and here – is not my own as Chappist pseudonyms were encouraged, thus my open copy of The Illustrated Sherlock Holmes Collection provided me with the sobriquet I continue to use to this day. Two years later I finally joined The New Sheridan Club, membership of which I still maintain.
The Sheridan Club has therefore played an important part in my life, helping shape me into the man I am today (for better or worse!). It has helped me through some dark times personally and has been a haven from the madness of the modern world, where one could discuss all aspects of Chappism, good manners, fashion tips and shared interests with friendly and knowledgeable individuals from around the globe.
However, as the world sleep-walked ever further into the welcoming arms of Messrs Zuckerberg, Dorsey and Musk et al., so The Sheridan Club forum slowly declined from being a place of multiple daily, erudite conversations to a ghostly shell populated only by myself and one or two other stalwarts. Think of it now as the online chatroom equivalent of The Last Man on Earth. Thankfully the moderator/ site owner continued to pay the bills to keep the old place running, until a couple of weeks ago when things started to go awry and ended with multiple Internal Server Error messages making the site unusable. The host provider has been informed and although I still have hopes that things will be put right ere long, this has now happened too many times in recent years. The fact that the owner does not answer their e-mails does not bode well either.
Therefore I've taken it upon myself to create a new Sheridan Club (but not The New Sheridan Club, for obvious reasons - nor even the New New Sheridan Club!) forum as either a temporary back-up or a new permanent site - depending on what happens - and I would be delighted if you would come over and join me for a chat. Please note that I do not intend for it to replace my ramblings on here (infrequent though they currently are) but rather to supplement it as a place to discuss things that may not quite fit the ethos of this blog or are too insubstantial to make a standalone post.
I do hope you will forgive this blatant promotion but I have long valued my interactions on the forum and would hate to see it consigned to the dustbin of history, so please feel free to step in to The Sheridan Club 2.0!
Since restarting Eclectic Ephemera in March this year I haven't been able to help but perceive a dispiriting trend within the vintage blogosphere - something that I first began to notice a few years prior but which has now reached such a point that I feel moved to record my own thoughts on the matter. It is simply this - there seems to be far fewer active vintage blogs (and by blogs I mean the traditional written "web logs" hosted by the likes of Blogger, Wordpress and LiveJournal) than there once were. So many vintage bloggers appear to have vanished into the æther that it seems as though there are only a handful of us left. My blog roll and reading list of what I call "vintage lifestyle blogs" are now at least two-thirds smaller than they were ten years ago.
This is something that I'm glad to note I am not alone in observing, as fellow bloggers Harlow Darling and RetroCat have both mentioned the fact in recent posts of their own and it is that which has also inspired me to write this post (and I apologise for the stream of consciousness that is about to follow!).
What, then, may be the reasons behind the demise of so many once excellent vintage blogs and the dearth of any new ones? Well I think HD and RetroCat both touch upon the main one in their posts - the inexorable rise of social media sites and apps such as FaceBook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok and in particular the instant, quick-hit, image-heavy element therein that seems to appeal to so many people these days. RetroCat hits the nail on the head in describing this as "rapid consumption" - the internet equivalent of "fast food".
This links to my next theory on why classic blogs might be declining - a generational shift. Now on the face of it this might seem at odds with the whole vintage blogosphere ethos, inasmuch as those of us (of any age) with an abiding interest in vintage would - if we dip our toes in the online world at all - tend to be the sort who gravitate to the more traditional media such as blogs like these. But in line with the decline in traditional bloggers comes the thought that the next generation - the teenagers and those in their early twenties who, although they may well be genuinely interested and enthusiastic about vintage, are much more tech-savvy and have, dare I say it, been brought up like so many of their generation on instantaneous online gratification - are generally less interested in writing long or even middling posts about their lifestyles, their vintage finds, their thoughts and feelings on the subject; preferring instead to simply post picture after picture, "tagging", "liking" and thumbs-upping" all and sundry - they are the so-called "influencers" that HD and RetroCat so rightly mention.
I have seen a similar situation affecting another once-thriving but now seriously under threat corner of the internet - the online chat-room. Now almost an extinct species, the chat-rooms I still visit that were once teeming with interesting discussion almost all lie largely silent and dormant as everyone seems to have migrated to the behemoth that is FaceBook, with the rise in modern technology - specifically smartphones - aiding this move away from the traditional online media. In either case there sadly seems little that one can do to stem the tide, except to keep plugging away making regular appearances in the forlorn hope that it inspires others to engage in online conversation of more than a few letters and symbols. Of course every now and again one of the younger generation comes along who will embrace these older internet ways and it is up to us to encourage them where we encounter them in the hope that they will inject new blood into what is fast becoming a dying art form.
A further thought in a similar vein is the simple fact that as people age (sorry to have to bring it up, but there it is) they do change. Their views may alter over time; their likes and interests change and evolve to the point where they may no longer have the desire to follow a certain lifestyle. New paths may open up for them to explore, and who are we to begrudge them that? Family life, work commitments, or other changes in personal life may all conspire to alter someone's personality to the extent that they don't want to blog about their lives any more or if they do they do so through more modern social media because of the aforementioned instantaneousness and ease of use.
The other thing I have noticed, which may be in part linked to the above but which in fact I do feel has more to do with other factors, is the apparent decline in friendly camaraderie and interaction that used to so characterise the vintage blogosphere. Looking back to when I - and many others - started blogging 11 years ago it seems to me that we were writing in a much more positive and upbeat style, as well as commenting freely on posts, linking to each others' blogs and generally making encouraging noises to one another. Now I'm not saying this has stopped being the case entirely, nor do I mean to shame anyone into feeling that they're "not doing enough" - far from it! However I cannot get away from the fact that there does seem to have been a drop off in online interaction between remaining bloggers and while the reasons outlined above are likely involved I am given to wonder if society as a whole may not be playing a part as well.
No-one can deny that we have seen massive social as well as technological changes in the last decade and, sad to say, some of them (especially the former) have not always been positive. In the four years alone that this blog was on hiatus there have been some sea changes throughout the world, the ripples of which will have been felt by all and sundry. We only have to look at the current Covid crisis and the deplorable situation in America to note but two recent areas of massively negative social upheaval. How could one not expect that to have a wider influence on people's interactions, views, health and happiness? Who would want to blog about, say, 1930s fashion, or a classic film, when the world is in such a mess? Even when we do, it would be unreasonable not to expect some negativity to make its way - even subconsciously - into our posts.
That, however, is what I created Eclectic Ephemera for and although I still find myself at times wondering if I ought to put this place to bed once and for all I do genuinely enjoy stretching my writing muscles on here in combating the all-pervading media negativity with vintage-inspired items that interest me (and, I hope, by extension, you the readers) and I hope to be able to continue doing so for a long time to come, instant social media or not. I also hope and look forward to reading many an absorbing vintage blog both old and - hopefully! - new, with the fervent wish and belief that tomorrow will be a good day and that with everyone's help the vintage blogosphere will continue to flourish.
***What are your thoughts on the state of the vintage blogging scene? Let me know in the comments below.***
As interesting and amusing vintage-inspired news items seem rather thin on the ground at the moment (I've said before that they can be like buses - none for ages then two or three come along at once) I thought I would post a link to an article about the next best thing - amusing and interesting British cultural traditions.
"It is commonly observed, that when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather; they are in haste to tell each other, what each must already know, that it is hot or cold, bright or cloudy, windy or calm."
So wrote Samuel Johnson, the great author and lexicographer, in issue 11 of The Idler on Saturday 24th June 1758. Two hundred and fifty-two years later and it is funny, yet somehow reassuring, to see that nothing has changed. Many observers, both British and foreign, have since noted that we as a nation seem strangely obsessed with what the weather is doing. It has become something of an international joke that all we seem to talk about is the climate. Now thanks to the survey mentioned in the article, we can see that not only is it actually true, but also why we do it.
Yes, we do it to be polite! What's the one safe topic of conversation that you can introduce at any level and with anyone you meet? Why, what the weather's like, of course! I do so love how these findings have sought to explain this curious little characteristic of British life and I hope it has given anyone from abroad reading this some insight into one of the many peculiar traits of the British people.
So, what's the weather like where you are?
