DinoTech | Imamother

DefyGravity ↓

Tue, May 16 2006, 10:03 am

I've used record players, typewriters (picture an old Underwood typewriter), and manual pencil sharpener.

My father is an avid collector of vinyl, 8 tracks, and old sterios. So unfortunately, I have several record players in my old bedroom, and when we visit, we're lucky if we can squeeze our suitcases in amongst all the boxes of records and stereos. We also have a huge basement that is full of boxes of records and 8 tracks!

didan

Tue, May 16 2006, 11:13 am

B"H

I've used carbon paper, record player, windup clock, manual typewriter, manual pencil sharpener.

We needed carbon paper in school to take notes for friends who were absent from class. It was on the "required" list of school supplies.

A record player my parents have always had, with many old records, and we used that often instead of getting the same ones on cassette.

When we learned typing in school it was on a manual typewriter. I've used an electric one as well, a lot easier than manual. The manual was a whole finger workout. My fingers and hands were charley horse for a while until they got used to it.

A manual pencil sharpener I still use. It's the only kind we have in the house. I don't like electric ones, they don't work as well, and the batteries are always breaking.

seniormom ↓

Tue, May 16 2006, 12:48 pm

This sure brings back memories!

Slide rule -- yes!
Carbon paper -- yes, recently found carbon copies of some of my college term papers! shock

Reel to reel audiotape -- yes!
Record player with vinyl LP or 45 rpm singles -- how about 78 rpm ceramic records, some of which I still have!
Windup alarm clock or watch -- of course!
Wringer wash machine -- never used one, but remember it -- also remember having a washboard at home (anyone here know what that is?!)
Typewriter-electric or manual -- typed all my school papers and early job applications on a manual Smith-Corona portable! (You really had to hit those keys hard, escpecially if you were doing carbon copies.)
Bonnet-type hair dryer -- oh, yes -- with extra large bonnet to accomodate the beer can size rollers!
Manual pencil sharpener -- yes, and it's probably the only thing on this list that's still actually used.

Just to add to the list, does anyone remember:
ice-boxes (not the kind you take to the park for a picnic) Clue: we call the modern ones refrigerators!
stoves without pilots (you had to stick a match, and sometimes your head, into the stove to get it to light.)
two-piece phones (ear-piece is on separate cord and mouth-piece is on a stand--the more modern ones had dials on the base of the stand, the older ones only connected to the operator who the put through the call.)
switchboards where there were dozens of wires that had to be plugged into holes on the wall board in the right sequence in order to put through a phone call.
manual calculators (a.k.a. adding machines) (after you were finished forcefully depressing the buttons you had to pull a lever all the way down to get it to calculate your entries--about the size of a breadbox.)
breadboxes (used on countertop to store bread--kept it fresh longer)
potato boxes (metal box used to store potates; also sometimes onions in separate box)
manual meat grinder (I think they're actually coming back in style in some gourmet catalogues.)

Boy does this makes me sound ancient! Wink

↑ chen ↓

Tue, May 16 2006, 2:21 pm

seniormom, with the exception of the 2-piece phone and genuine icebox with a shissel and a compartment for the big block of ice, I personally remember all of your items and used most of them. My family used to call the freezer compartment of the fridge an icebox. I thought it was because that was where you made the ice cubes. (makes sense, no?)

I used a washboard for years. My mom still has one and on rare occasions I borrow it. Wish I still had my mom's all-iron meat grinder. No one knows what happened to it--maybe it rusted its way into oblivion after 40 years or so. The plastic gears stripped on my electric one. Rolling Eyes

we actually still have our vinyl LP's, and sometimes even listen to them! I have a slide rule but never truly got the hang of using it.

↑ seniormom ↓

Tue, May 16 2006, 2:43 pm

and I thought I was the only dino here! Wink

Chen...either you're close to my age (don't think so) or you come from a family of "savers" like I do. I had the "privilege" of using this stuff because my parents held onto everything much longer than most and were slow to adapt to new "technology".

Anyway, it's nice to know there's someone who can understand where I'm coming from. (I'm doing an amazing job on the computer, for an old relic, no?!)

cindy324

Tue, May 16 2006, 3:09 pm

Let's see. I def. used LP's. I used to live in Europe so we had one. Used to blast it all the time when I was about 10, heaven help you if you knocked into the table by accident, the whole LP got scratche from the needle sliding over it.

Carbon paper - not so long ago.

typewriter - I had an electric Brother typewriter back in highschool

Wind up watch - yep had one of those , too.

Actually when I was little , we didn't have a washer, but we did have a centrifuge (?) You put the clothes in and it squeezed out all the access water.

↑ chen ↓

Tue, May 16 2006, 3:36 pm

OMG, I can't believe I didn't mention a treadle sewing machine! Not a formerly treadle, now electrified model, but a genuine treadle machine. I used one till I was in HS. wish I still had it--you could work out your legs while you sewed!

My dad was very handy and could fix anything, so our things lasted much longer than most people's.

anyone here use a Wundertopf? (they still sell them in EY).

↑ chen ↓

Tue, May 16 2006, 3:55 pm

maybe they don't have them in EY, or else they have them only in big offices. when they first came out in the US, I thought, "now I've heard everything. how lazy do you have to be to want a machine to sharpen your pencil????"

Now that I am a little older and certain body parts are not as cooperative as they used to be, I can see how such a thing would be useful for a person with arthritis or other disorders of the hand and wrist--or a person with just one hand.

But, the truth is--most users of electric sharpeners are just lazy! manual sharpeners are still being made--unlike treadle sewing machines. (Sigh.)

↑ seniormom ↓

Tue, May 16 2006, 10:35 pm

Chen, please explain...you've got me on this one!

Quote:

anyone here use a Wundertopf?

I completely forgot about the treadle machine! You're right, it was great & it gave much more control over the stitching. This I only remember from my grandmother's house. My mother was more "modern" and had (still has it!) an electrified version.

Also, remember the big Electrolux 3 foot long "tank" vacuums -- pre WWII? My mother still has hers, although I don't think it works too well because after a while she couldn't find anyone to fix it, and it also got too heavy for her to shlep around.

sarahd ↓

Wed, May 17 2006, 12:54 am

I used everything in Chen's post except the wringer washing machine and the slide rule. My parents just threw out their record player, but still have the records. Ummm...we still have a wind-up alarm clock that we use. My father still bangs out his stuff on his portable manual typewriter.

Now for seniormom - Everything except the icebox and two piece phones. My mother had a manual adding machine. It made such a cool noise when you pulled down the lever. I never used a switchboard myself, but remember seeing one when I visited my sister in camp.

When I was teaching in Ukraine, we had a stove with no pilot light. Once I walked in and found my co-teacher close to tears - she was trying to bake a cake and the oven just wouldn't go on......She was horrified when I got down with a lighted match and stuck my hand all the way to the back of the oven. LOL

I have a breadbox, are they so out of date? My mother still has (and uses) her meat grinder. A nut grinder too. Also a chopping blade* with a wooden bowl to make chopped liver.

*I forget what they're called - a rounded blade about 6" wide and 5" high with a handle on top.

↑ chen ↓

Wed, May 17 2006, 5:31 am

sarahd, the blade you're talking about, I don't know what it was called in yiddish, but my grandmother used it to make chopped liver and gefilte fish. It's sold in the high-end gourmet kitchenware places as a Mezzaluna (half-moon, named for the shape.) Grandma would laugh hysterically to see her humble knife so elevated.

breadboxes are also back in the fancy gourmet kitchen places like Williams-Sonoma and the Chef's Catalog.

I'm still waiting to see the toaster we had in my early childhood: essentially a box on its side, with a heating element down the middle. It had two drop-leaf-style panels, one on each side. You put a piece of bread on either side, closed up the panel, left it there for a while, took it out, flipped it around and left there a while longer. If you forgot--the toast burned. OTOH, if for some weird reason you wanted to toast only one side, you could.