Our Living Room

The entire house is furnished largely in retro, since antiques and old stuff are appealing to us. We especially like small tables and things with drawers. In the living room alone we see an oval gate-leg table where many people have a coffee table (in front of the couch). I have an aversion to coffee tables in the middle of a room. Chalk it up to clumsiness on my part; but I dislike barked shins. This table is quite ornate, with eight "twining vine" legs. It is two feet wide and just under four feet long when opened. Closed, it is a foot wide.

There is a very ornate table in front of a window. It was "found" at auction by my dad many years ago in a much-too painted state. He stripped the table and finished it au naturel wuth Min-wax. It has four curved legs converging on a center post, then splaying outward to their original width. The top is 18" x 30".

The third table sits at the foot of the stairs. It is a 24" round pie-crust table on a fancy post with three delicate legs spreading to a circumference equal to the table top. The top is hinged and can be stored in a vertical position.

The fourth table in this room is a small 2' x 4' drop-leaf that sits at the end of the couch. The legs are spindled and quite delicate, arranged in a trapezoidal array at each end.

Then behind the couch and serving as a divider between the living room and the dining area is an 18" x 66" library table, a very sturdy piece which BBBH had in her shop and which was covered in way-too-many coats of paint, the which I have removed. The object is now bare and unfinished. The debate continues (after two years of preparation). I prefer a natural, Min-wax finish. She prefers an ultra-glossy polyurethane finish. So far, the compromise is a naked table.

The sixth "table" is really a horizontal file cabinet from an old railway station. It sits against the stairwell wall and is the perch for the flat-screen TV. I met it in an antique shop eleven years ago, and such an object with 24 drop-front drawers was a "must have".

On the kitchen divider wall is a sewing cabinet. I have seen several of these in antiques stores, but I believe we have enough of our own!

Finally, next to my recliner from which I write, view TV and nap, and nap, there is an end table on which I keep the remote, the kleenex, the coffee cup, some telephones. Under its top is an L-shaped bookshelf in which to store my current reading material.

Now, if you only knew about the seating, the fireplace and the china cabinets, you could picture this room in your mind's eye!

These tables are pictured on "String Too Short to Tie".

Retrocommunication

Back in the day, there were no computers. The interwebby thing did not exist. Television was a dream in the minds of the vacuum tube inventors. Telephones, yes. They were bolted to the wall, or they stood on a desk looking like, well they defied description The ringing of the phone was an event; and "wires" or telegrams were sure signs of tragic events in the lives of the senders. 89% of today's communications terminology had yet to be created. It may be 92%, but when one makes up statistics, accuracy is not gauranteed.

Pride of possession of a good fountain pen rivalled the pride that the young people today take in their itty-bitty hand-held communications devices. One should know better than to call them "phones" for, while one can use it to make a phone call, few actually do so. It is used for such a host of other tasks that I can only tell you that this old fountain-pen-using troglodyte does use it for phone calls. And for nothing else.

I have a stack of letters which were handwritten with a pen, delivered from one's place of residence to the home of the recipient by the United States Post Office. A first-class stamp cost three US cents. Mail delivery was effected Monday through Saturday, and it was brought to your door twice a day. I know. You are incredulous, unless you, too, can remember the day. Or unless you are so very young that you are thinking, "What do I care about the old poop and his day?"

Retrotech on the Farm

The annual Mid-America Threshing and Antique show was conducted at the Tipton County Fairgrounds this past weekend. This provided an opportunity for collectors and old machinery aficionados to get together for show and swap. The sound of steam whistles cutting the air throughout the day on Friday lured me to the fairgrounds Saturday morning. Couldn't go on Friday: too hot.

The steam powered stationary threshing machine brought back memories from my early childhood; for until I was five years old, we lived in a tiny Nebraska village where our house abutted a huge wheatfield. One of my earliest memories was harvest time, watching the workers bringing the sheaves to the thresher as it stood in the field behind our house, belching smoke as it did whatever it did.

Retrotech in the Shop: Tools

I am not a handyman. Oh, I have managed to provide some home maintenance over the years. I even worked for a few building contractors from time to time. I learned a few things. But I am grateful that I do not have to put bread on the table today using the skills of carpentry, woodworking, masonry, plumbing or mechanics. I know enough about most of those fields to be a danger to myself and any inattentive bystanders; although I can drive a nail or a screw. I can measure a board and cut a pretty straight line.

My father was a craftsman. He could do more with a pocketknife and a pair of pliers than most guys can do with any tools that might be at their disposal. I let most of my dad's equipment go at auction, but I kept a few handtools, mostly for sentimental reasons. But I still use them from time to time.

I have a crosscut handsaw which may be the first saw I ever used as a child. It is small, easily carried in a handy-man tool kit. The upper ear is missing and has been ever since I can remember. I have a brace and several bits. These virtually never get used. I kept a pair of forceps (dental) which belonged to my maternal grandfather and which my dad used to pull teeth-- mine, from time to time, when I was a child. Squares, wrenches. I regret a little bit that I let all the hand planes go, but I hope someone is giving them the use they deserve.

The most modern of Dad's tools which I have is a 7" electric Skilsaw which I use in preference to my own much newer and very expensive high-end brand name saw.

Retrotech in the House: Audio

I am not an audiophile. I enjoy listening to recorded music, but I do not go into rhapsodies over the equipment on which it is played. I started acquiring my small collection of vinyl in 1952. Any recent additions would have been found at a flea market, for I stopped buying "new" when I started having children. That was in 1957.

I have a so-so amp connected to a couple decent speakers. All pretty retro. But the turntable. Even more out-of-date, and worse, a belt-driven table with an ancient and floppy belt is, frankly, due for the trash heap. Much as I hate going "modern," if I am to continue listening to the LPs I am going to have to get a new turntable. There are times when a self-professed Luddite just naturally proves himself to be a hypocrite.

My mistake was taking the works out of my Victrola and using the cabinet for electronic stereo, circa 1970.

Retrotech in the House: Timekeeping

We have an old Ingraham Nyanza Banjo Clock on our dining room wall. It was manufactured about 1915 by the E. Ingraham Company. This is an eight-day key-wind pendulum movement. The case is 10 inches wide and 39 inches tall.

Elias Ingraham (1805 - 1885) was noted for his clock case designs, for which he held many patents. Following WWII, Ingraham Company continued making clocks, but dropped production of pendulum clocks in favor of electric and alarm clocks.

Our clock, when it is allowed to run, keeps very accurate time. Sometimes during a scrabble game, BBBH will say, "That ticking's enough to drive you to drink." There have been occasions when overnight guests have gotten up in the night and stopped my clock. Such nerve.

You may view pictures of our clock over at String Too Short to Tie, if you wish.

Retrotech in the House: Sewing

Over on String Too Short to Tie, I have posted a sewing story which is accompanied by pictures of an old Abbott Sewing Machine which occupies a decorative space in our home. You may go there if you wish to see pictures. The Abbott was, I think, produced in Ontario in the last half of the nineteenth century. The machine is a work of art. But the seamstress in the house uses a Singer 401 Slant Needle DeLuxe, which while a bit old itself, is still a very efficient machine. The Little Lady, in her younger day, was a sewing instructor and demo operator for Singer. She is still adept at the skills entailed in sewing. But while she has looked at the up-to-date offerings in the sewing machine market, she is satisfied that she prefers sewing to mastering computer skills, hence chooses not to buy new equipment. Besides, I am fond of the old New England motto, "Use it up, wear it out; make it do, or do without." And the current machine is far from being worn out.

Retrotech in the House: Compaq

I am the proud owner of a Compaq Portable Computer. This "portable" was released by Compaq in 1982. It is a nearly completely compatible IBM clone. I purchased it from my son several years after he had moved on to higher technology. He needed the money to purchase a piece of equipment to aid him in the care of his horses. And he no longer need the computer. Neither did I.

I still have this lovely item, which at one time was coupled to an Epson dot-matrix printer, which I also still have. My closets, barns, and even the rooms in which we live, are filled with ancient, nay, even nearly-extinct stuff.

The Compaq processor is Intel 8088 operating at 4.77MHz. RAM 128K, up to 640K; ROM approximately 12K. MS-DOS. Storage via 5.25 floppy drive, 360K. 320x200x16 color monitor!
It came with a padded carrying case, which we use to this day for transporting the spouse's karaoke machine. Nice looking item, too.

This computer sold at three grand and northward and Compaq produced 100,000 of them.