Odd things for the younger generation. As time marches on, more and more things become “Odd” to the younger folks. Hey… sometimes new things seem “odd” to the older folks now… but that’s another entry. Having recently talked with some of the younger generation it’s not odd to see a questioning look on their face when talking about some things from the past. No, I didn’t think I had two heads or was speaking in a foreign language.
Here’s an examples. So if you didn’t already know… a “turntable”… is something used in the dinning room. “45” refers to a gun. 33 and 78… well, don’t have a clue. And records… well, that’s all has to do with sports and stuff. So what the connection between all of these? Someone 33, and someone 78 are coming to dinner, at a special table that turns, one of them has a gun, and they are going to eat a record amount of something…. or maybe the 33 and 78 are the records that they are going to break. I didn’t want to even get into the “arm” and “needle” thing… I could see where that was going.
Here’s a picture… and yes… it played music. …and yes… if it helps to explain it better… this technology was invented by Ben Franklin… and no I never met him… but thanks for the question. Yep, mechanical things from the past do look strange at times.
Here’s and updated version, portable, stereo, with radio.
Made by “Airline”… if memory serves… wasn’t Airline sold by Wards.
Another oddity… the typewriter.
and no… Smith-Corona isn’t a cigar.
It typed directly onto the paper as you typed each word, in fact each letter of each word.
It did not do formatting, correct anything, check spelling, delete anything, move anything, but it did print in 2 colors… black & red… from a cloth ribbon wet with ink, and the striker keys hit the ribbon making a stamp of the letter you wanted on the paper… just kinda like a “type set” printing press… yes, no doubt in some improved version that was developed by… probably Ben Franklin… and no, I never met him. So you had to get it right the first time, no tolerance for mistakes, or you just got to start all over again whit a new piece of paper.
But it was, a marvel of our time.
The printed word… instantly… one letter at time… how odd indeed.
Another oddity. The telephone.
Yes… it had a funny dial that you spun around to “dial” the number you wanted. Yep… it was in two pieces, and even stranger, had wires, and connected into an outlet in the wall. On the plus side: it never went dead or lost signal, you always knew when it was ( wired to the wall), the number & letters were big enough to actually see, and believe it or not, had a dial that lit up… and came in designer colors. My mom’s was pink. I don’t think dad had any say in the matter. I think every house that had a woman in it… well… they had this phone.
Funny thing about old sayings and terms… we still say “dial” this number, and dials have been gone for … 40 years? Well for the younger folks… now you know where the term “dial” came from.
The same applies to the term “ring”… when phones actually had physical bells at rang ( yes , kinda like the Liberty bell only much smaller) … and you didn’t hear music or your favorite song when somebody called you.
And that in itself… “called” derives from the original way to call someone… yelling their name to get their attention.
I guess the words “princess”, “designer colors”, and the “light up dial” were all successful marketing ploys to get the women to buy this phone… and it worked beautifully. The men… they could care less, didn’t want to talking to most people in person, so why would I want to do it on a phone… besides, how could we get to use it anyway… wasn’t it semi-attached to the wife’s head? … all the time! ( LOL)
Now for something new… the “Slide rule”
No, it’s not a rule in baseball about sliding into home plate… although I’m sure they no doubt have rules about that.
Nope, the slide rule was for lack of a better term, a mechanical devise that looked kinda like a ruler with a sliding center strip. By lining up the desired numbers on the strip you could do multiplication and division. Yep, kinda like the Chinese 3000 years ago but without the beads. And no, you couldn’t add or subtract on it, that was still don’t with pencil and paper, or a mechanical adding machine… again based on the Chinese bead thing again.
Yep… lots of “odd” things to the young.
Times change fast. Some of the old mechanical technology…
well… just the idea of how simply it worked… genius!
Just look at what the Egyptian did with what they had to work with!
Okay… I know… the whole alien intervention thing…
you got a point… but that’s another entry too!
