... And I Thought We Couldn't Do Without Them

Discussion in 'Gadgets & Tech Talk' started by Richard Lee, Jan 25, 2015.

  1. Richard Lee

    Richard Lee Veteran Member
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    I mentioned earlier briefly in another post, my daughter was relaying to me earlier a discussion she was having with her friends about things they will miss in the future (because they will become obsolete) - CDs was one of the items she mentioned (she also mentioned books which I think are here to stay for a while yet), but it got me thinking...

    She and her friends are looking forward - being young this is their limitation. I thought it an interesting thought experiment to try and think back of the things that I though I would really miss of would be indispensable in my future, that now I just think (to borrow a term from her time) meh!

    Obvious ones that came to mind was telephone boxes - mobiles killed them; cassette tapes for recording songs (illegally) off the radio to play in the car (my kids cringe when I tell them that - sitting there all day Sunday taping the top 40 off the radio with a microphone pointed at the radio speaker - with DJ over talking, static, mum calling us for dinner, loo flushing, volume jumping and dropping song to song etc). Music system/stereo player/stack system.etc, that black plastic and metal box, covered in orange and green lights in a faux mahogany MDF unit with smoked glass front that I saved up for a year for - that could even record cassette to cassette and stack 5 LPs.
     
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  2. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    One of the things that I most loved (and still miss) was those huge old wooden stereo consoles, where you lift the lid and inside was a radio and phonograph, and on each end were two large speakers, all incased in a beautifully carved wood frame.
    I know that our sound systems have developed so far beyond that now, but in its day; that was the epitome of sound systems.
    How I loved to play my old record albums, turn the light down dim (or even just light a candle) and just lose myself in the sounds of the music, as I sat cross-legged on the carpet in front of the stereo.

    For a while, we had one of those hanging lamps that hung from the ceiling by a chain, and this one was the most awesome one ever ! ! It had flashing colored lights, and they flashed in synchronization with the music.
    I have never seen another one like that; but I loved the changing colors as the songs played and the lights added their dimension of color to the music.
     

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  3. Pat Baker

    Pat Baker Supreme Member
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    I still have cassets and an old walkman to play them on. I want to get one of the new gadgets to move the information from the cassets to the hard drive of my computer. When we talk to the much younger generation what we used to play music on they look at us like we have lost are minds. My grandson keeps asking me why I have a boombox still when I can play all the music I want on my phone.
     
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  4. Richard Lee

    Richard Lee Veteran Member
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    Yes music is a strange one. In the 1980s it went the other way - anyone remember those giant ghetto-blasters we carried to the park, they got bigger and bigger year after year - until suddenly they went out of vogue and we all reverted to Sony Walkmans :)

    Yvonne - some of the cabinet work in those old TV and music centers was amazing - they were real beautiful parts of the furniture. The 80s/90s stack system ruined that I guess - everything was about LEDs and CD multi-disk players. I remember when my gradfather died - I had all his old furniture in my garage for years - all burnished walnut, inch thick. Heavy as heck, but I couldn't get a penny for it - I couldn't give it away!

    Up until I moved to Thailand I have an old Singer sewing machine - built into a cabinet that cleverly opened up to make a sewing table and mini work bench and storage units.It had a wheel to crank the needle by hand if preferred or a plug. A light had been added later. It dated from just before the war - was incredible heavy - but beautiful. I used it often to make the kids costumes and take in trousers etc (and I had zero domestic training when I grew up!) - my 15 year old has a modern sewing machine that has about 100 different settings for stitches, automatic button holes and so on - I wouldn't be surprised if there was a setting to make an espresso on it! No way can I hope to use it - way to complicated for me to spend the time doing so. Gave that old Singer away - couldn't even sell it on Ebay - miss it now I can tell you, wish I'd shipped it!
     
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  5. Ruth Belena

    Ruth Belena Veteran Member
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    I was typist for many years and I learned to touchtype on a manual typewriter. I still miss the ping at the end of a line, the sound of the carriage return and the keys hitting the paper on a roller. What I don't miss is changing the ink ribbon and having to use tippex, but I still have a fondness for the old manual and electric typewriters I used to use.

    One thing I really don't like is using a touch screen keyboard, so I do hope that laptops and desktop computers will always have a physical QWERTY keyboard.
     
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  6. Val Carey

    Val Carey Veteran Member
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    Been there, done that. Hard to believe but I still drive a car with only a cassette player in it. Luckily I still have enough home recorded tapes to feed into it.

    Ours wasn't carved, it was a beautifully veneered roll top, a spectacular looking piece. But Mum threw it out as 'old fashioned' and it was replaced by a very ordinary small combination radio record player that I was only too happy to throw out a decade later. All a matter of taste I guess.

    I bought one of those on eBay. Then I moved before I had time to use it and all the cassettes (except the ones I kept in a box in the car ) got 'stored' and accidentally thrown out with the Op Shop things. I set about buying old favourites on CDs off eBay so haven't needed the whizzbang gadget after all.

    2nd that hope. I'd be lost without a 'qwerty'.
     
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  7. Von Jones

    Von Jones Supreme Member
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    Several years back my mom and I went to a neighborhood thrift store and found this. I just had to have it $9.99 plus tax. I ran to an ATM and withdrew the money and came back. The clerk told me that someone else offered more money for it but they had already put it on hold for me. Everything worked except for the record player which was located below the radio. Every once in a while I'll turn on the radio. Oh, I have had it since the 1980s. There was a description that it was one like on the Dick Van Dyke show. I was so tickled. My God it was heavy but my mom and I got it into her van. We laughed all the way home. IMG_20150128_092046.jpg IMG_20150128_091829.jpg
     
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  8. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I love that, Von ! ! You were lucky to get it for that price. I have seen a few of those oldies at thrift stores; but they are just too heavy for me to try and bring one home and get it into the house. I would have to re-shuffle the lving room to fit it in here anyway; but that would be okay.
    Then I would go looking for one of those old-fashioned ceramic planter lamps they used to have on top. Some were a black panther, usually with a chain, and there were swans,ducks, and sometimes a prancing horse, and they had a place you could put a small plant (usually an artificial one).
    image.jpg
     
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  9. Von Jones

    Von Jones Supreme Member
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    Yes, that's a very nice piece. I really have to contain myself when I see pieces like these when I'm thrift shopping. I bought a trash to treasure book where you can tell if a piece has collectible value. I haven't had any luck so far but I do keep looking.
     
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  10. Mal Campbell

    Mal Campbell Supreme Member
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    My ex-husband??!! I really thought I would miss him, but, you know, here I am 35 years later, and I'm so glad I went for the new model! Of course, the "new" model is now 59 and we've been married for almost 30 years!
     
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  11. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    This picture was just one I looked up online to show as an example of the old tv console planter lamps.
    You seldom see these in thrift stores anymore; but I always like to look and you never know what you will find there. One of my favorite pieces (long since losst along the way) was a beautiful ceramic Cinderella carriage. It wasn't a lamp, it was a clock, but it was a beautiful piece that could go on a dresser, television console, or on a mantle, wherever a person wanted to put it.
    One way that I have found to price things at thrift stores is to use either your iPad, or smartphone. The iPad is kind of large unless I take an enormous purse, and the iPhone is small; so it is a toss-up for me which one is the best. But if you look the item up on ebay, and search by price, from high to low; you can usually get a fairly good idea of what the item is worth as a collectible.
    I have been thinking of using the Kindle Fire for this, since it is larger than the iPhone, and smaller than the iPad.

    Here is what my horse and carriage clock looked like, except mine only had one horse pulling the carriage.

    image.jpg
     
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  12. Kevin Matthew

    Kevin Matthew Veteran Member
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    I'm loving this topic! Especially the pictures of the old stereo and the TV light... When we moved to a new house outside of San Francisco many years ago, the owners asked if we would like to keep their huge blond wood 1950's television/radio/record player. I think they probably just didn't want to have to move it since it was so heavy, but we jumped at the opportunity. I've dragged it across the continent twice at this point, and still LOVE it...

    One of the things I never thought I'd miss is a clock radio I had for many years sitting beside my bed. It was a Sony EZ-something, and to set the alarm all you had to do was turn two giant knobs on the front. One was for hours, and one was for minutes. You could set it in about 3 seconds. Funny, I have all kinds of cool technology like an iPhone alarm, but I still miss that old Sony.
     
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  13. Richard Lee

    Richard Lee Veteran Member
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    Yeah lots strange what we miss. I had a small portable TV. Black and white with a dial for tuning. It also had a built in alarm (horn or turn on the TV). It had a connector that allowed it to be wired to a car battery (crocodile clips), and was my company on many camping trips. The dial allowed me to tune into channels my normal TV could not (great little signal amplifier built in I guess). Got rid off it years ago - and would be useless today with digital sound and TV signal. Now my phone has digital TV built into it!
     
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  14. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I still have a clock radio, but it's not as easy to set as the old ones. The first alarm clocks that I had though, required winding, and they ticked quite loudly. I found it to be relaxing.
     
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  15. John Stone

    John Stone Veteran Member
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    One of my relatives used to have a railroad station wind-up clock with a pendulum that made quite a loud noise. Once you got used to the noise it was sort of relaxing, like music or a metronome. I'm sure they're still around somewhere, but probably quite expensive for an authentic one. Maybe adding that sound to a digital clock would be a good seller!
     
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