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Post by whatagain on Dec 11, 2021 23:47:22 GMT
Chastity belts. The perfect definition of machism failure.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 14, 2022 19:37:56 GMT
I loved juke boxes -- scanning the list for music I wanted to hear, watching the mecanism find the record (that was so amazing!) and seeing the record slide into place.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 18, 2022 11:49:19 GMT
I remember when most women really did wear high heels in daily life and made all of those holes in the linoleum floors. And yet if one of their children had done such a thing, they would have been spanked.
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Post by mossie on Mar 18, 2022 15:35:01 GMT
My fondest memory of stiletto heels is when we were required to surface a live platform at a mainline station. When a train arrived the ladies were losing their shoes as the heels sunk into the freshly laid macadam.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 18, 2022 15:39:53 GMT
That's cruel, Mossie! Wearing tasteful low heels, I attended the funeral of someone I hated. The ground was soft and I could feel myself sinking because of the heels and feared I'd be pitched into the grave screaming, "Take me instead!"
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Post by bjd on Mar 18, 2022 16:25:10 GMT
Along with long dresses, high heels are an item I have managed to avoid in my life. I did have some low (and tasteful!) ones but since I have always walked a lot, I didn't wear them very often.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 7, 2022 17:03:01 GMT
My grandmother had two or three irons that she would put on the coal stove to heat up when it was ironing day. Of course, that was when I was very small. As soon as she got an electric iron, I don't think she ever touched the other ones again.
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Post by Kimby on Jul 7, 2022 17:44:28 GMT
"Fill 'er up, with ethyl!"
Anachronistic in two ways. Full service is almost non-existent these days...
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Post by onlyMark on Jul 7, 2022 18:16:02 GMT
Most petrol stations in Spain still have an attendant to fill up the cars. Not on motorways though.
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Post by patricklondon on Jul 8, 2022 5:02:42 GMT
My grandother had two or three irons that she would put on the coal stove to heat up when it was ironing day. Of course, that was when I was very small. As soon as she got an electric iron, I don't think she ever touched the other ones again. My mother hung on to a couple of those and used them (wrapped up in an old cloth) as bed-warmers. Occasionally there'd be a thump in the night as one got kicked out of the bed.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 8, 2022 5:59:37 GMT
Yes, they were used as bed warmers too, but the ceramic brick was better.
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Post by casimira on Jul 9, 2022 1:03:31 GMT
Watching Wimbledon on the TV, I recall when tennis balls were pure white. No fluorescence.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jul 9, 2022 7:47:57 GMT
I recall when the finals were mostly between Americans and Australians. Todays ladies final is between Tunisia and Kazakhstan.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 9, 2022 8:58:37 GMT
I remember the rows of pay phones in certain public areas and the old men who would check the coin return on every one of them.
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Post by casimira on Jul 9, 2022 16:08:52 GMT
I remember that too. Now, instead of payphones they check the parking meters that do take cash and give change.
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Post by Kimby on Jul 10, 2022 19:31:59 GMT
I remember parking meters. As opposed to "pay stations". I liked the ones that gave you a free 15 or 30 minutes for simply twisting the knob, so you could run quickly into a shop or the post office without risking a ticket.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 30, 2022 12:52:56 GMT
Changing typewriter ribbons was something that one always tried to put off as long as possible. And there was no way not to get your fingers dirty no matter how careful you were.
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Post by mich64 on Aug 1, 2022 0:05:37 GMT
I used to use these plastic/rubber finger covers. They were supposed to be used for something else, I can not seem to remember why I had them but I remember they worked really well with the typewriter ribbon!
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 1, 2022 0:56:02 GMT
I think those finger covers were for counting money. Clever Mich, to use them to keep ink off your fingers when changing the typewriter ribbon.
Talking about typewriter ribbons reminds me of all those skills which we've accumulated throughout our lives which we no longer have call to use. Pretty much anything to do with typewriters, for instance -- carbon paper, Wite-Out, how to roll in an envelope, etc. -- has gone by the wayside. I have not been called upon to run a mimeograph machine for a very long time, either.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 15, 2022 16:34:40 GMT
When I was little, we called the refrigerator the icebox. I wonder how long certain obsolete terms persist before being replaced by the correct contemporary term.
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Post by patricklondon on Aug 15, 2022 16:50:05 GMT
My Aged Ps still had an old icebox in the attic that didn't get cleared away until they moved out in the 1980s. Come to think of it, I can just remember that they had an old meat-safe over the cellar stairs, which would have been the coolest place in the house. I don't know when they got their first actual refrigerator. My blog | My photos | My video clips | My Librivox recordings"too literate to be spam"
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 15, 2022 17:12:38 GMT
There was a hanging cheese cage in my grandparents' cellar, since it was a very cool and protected place. But they gradually stopped using it when they got a refrigerator.
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Post by bjd on Aug 26, 2022 7:07:01 GMT
Yesterday I was at the supermarket in the area with detergents and stuff like that. A lady asked me whether I had seen the starch. I must have looked dumbfounded because she repeated the question. I finally said I had no idea where it was and didn't think it still existed. She told me she was "only 83" but still used it to starch doilys. "So you don't use it then?" "Even my mother didn't use it," I answered.
Good Lord -- starch and doilys! She told me she uses it twice a year and it helps keep the dust off them.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 26, 2022 8:27:47 GMT
My grandmother could have opened a doily boutique she crocheted so many of them and even more when she entered the retirement home. On the plus side, she was never at a loss when she needed to give a small gift. And she made all sorts of different sized doilies so they had different "values."
I still have 4 or 5 stashed away in a drawer.
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Post by biddy on Aug 26, 2022 22:22:07 GMT
LOL - I have occasionally bought spray starch which is still available I believe.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 26, 2022 23:11:55 GMT
I *want* spray starch, but I want the kind that I think is called "sizing".
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Post by htmb on Aug 27, 2022 0:33:20 GMT
I have both spray starch and spray sizing in my bedroom closet, along with my iron and ironing board. They haven’t been used since I retired six years ago.
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Post by bjd on Aug 27, 2022 6:22:38 GMT
What is "spray sizing"?
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Post by htmb on Aug 27, 2022 13:49:41 GMT
Not sure of the ingredients, but it’s a very light spray that gives a little body to the garment while also making it easier to iron. Like an extremely light-weight starch.
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Post by casimira on Aug 27, 2022 15:28:14 GMT
Maybe someone could help me figure out what type of apparatus was used to smoke food items like fish (herring, eels in particular) and meats before the advent of the more modern day "smokers".
My father used to smoke mostly seafood and for the life of me I can't remember what method he used.
There was a huge concrete and stone fireplace outdoors and I'm thinking maybe he used it for this purpose.
I was 9 years old when he died so specifics are a tad foggy.
I do remember how much my mother hated it when he did a huge batch of whatever it was.
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