Material Things of Which the Younger Generation Has No Idea

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Encyclopedias.

Letters that you write with like a pen or pencil to people you know.

This isn't material, but knowing things without needing to consult your phone.

My father bought me the Columbia Encyclopedia when I was eight, in 1969.

The single greatest reason why I did so well in school, despite getting thrown out of class all the time.

Putting vinyl records on decks and pushing them in reverse with the stylus down, listening for hidden messages. "If Mars invades us . . . " was one on a Bob Dylan record.

Ah yes the good old days, LOL.

I still HAVE a set of encyclopedias, and I LOVE 'em!! I have to be careful, though, cuz they're from 1973!! LOL There's a picture in there with a computer, like what we talked about before, the size of a ROOM!!

When I was a kid, we had a different set, that my mother bought second-hand, and there were 2 missing----one of which, was "Q"; so, don't ask me anything about the Quakers! LOL My mother used to "punish" me, when I was litle, by making me read the encyclopedias (read: "Sit still, and shut-up" LOL); but, what she DIDN'T realize, is that I was extremely HAPPY to do so----so, it was no where NEAR "punishment"! !

Somebody mentioned the continuous-feed computer paper..... They had that kind of paper, when I was first learning computer programming (early 80s), and I can remember looking-through all that mess, for a missed semi-colon----UGGGGGGH!! Those were the days of BASIC, FORTRAN & COBOL (I think somebody already mentioned those).

I envied those who had the Encyclopaedia Britannica!

Ok a change from those brainy memories; how about the small plastic containers of ice cream with the little wooden spoon shaped like an 8.

Or the triangular milk cartons with a straw to poke in.

Camcorders where you insert a small tape inside of them to record on, and then put that tape into a bigger VHS tape and inserted into a VCR to play it.

I think the triangular milk cartons and 8-shaped ice scream spoons still exist.

Especially in schools.

I used to only see these things either in school or in summer camp.

You rarely see them outside of school or camp contexts.

It's understandable for one to believe they are a product of a different time.

Scrubbing boards for washing clothes. I hated them because you can bruise your knuckles on the ridges.

Gas lamps. That's all we had. No electricity.

Fiber mattresses. Heaven forbid there was a tear in the mattress because those fibers were excruciatingly itchy.

On Saturday mornings we had to sift through the burlap bag of rice and take out the black ones by hand.

Foot-pedaled sewing machines.

Metal pressing-irons that were heated over a fire for pressing clothes.

Metal bucket for carrying water. People in the village had no plumbing. There was a standpipe in the street which the government turned on at the most inopportune time, like 2AM Wednesday morning.

Outhouses. I hated them because of the snakes. We also used newspapers for wiping back then.

In the window of Ascot Cinema they used to have dramatic stills of the movie that was playing to entice you to come in to watch it. I'm sure those photo stills must be worth a fortune today.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Pet_rock.jpg/330px-Pet_rock.jpg

Here's one even I find hard to believe- Pet Rocks, yes people actually paid money for rocks, with eyes, and little pedigree stories.

Yeah, those little, wooden, "8-shaped" spoons still exist. I don't think I've EVER seen a "triangular" milk carton?

I STILL have a "foot-pedaled" sewing machine----unless you mean a TREADLE sewing machine:



Mine is more "modern"----even though, it's probably, around, 40 years old!

My mother had one of those irons you heat in the fire----and, washboard (for washing clothes), and a wringer-washer.

Yeah, I HATED outhouses, cuz there was always a WASP'S nest in there!! My family didn't get indoor plumbing 'til the mid-seventies.

Oh, yeah, I was always baffled by "pet rocks", as well!! LOL I used to LOVE to collect rocks, as a kid----and MINE were WAAAAY better than THOSE----and, I certainly didn't have to pay for 'em!!

Oh----GOOD JOB, Chappy, in putting a link in your post!! Now, next time, when you want to put a PICTURE of something, click on the VERY LAST icon----it's a SQUARE with a mountain and sun, in it. That way, the picture will appear IN your post----as opposed to having someone click, on it!!

GOOD JOB!!

The "original" form of social media known as My Space.

We're you born in Trinidad, RedRobin? My wife is from there.

I loved my mum's Singer, she couldn't use it but I remember making lots of perforated paper on it.

I remember when big food stores [supermarkets] started here in Scotland you handed the checkout operator money for the transaction and your change was dispensed from a machine at the end of the booth into a dish. Also, I remember going to a fancy department store that had just the one cashier covering the many floors. She sat in a wooden booth on the ground floor and pipes delivered small tubes holding the account/cash sent down to her by salespersons all over the shop. She would process the payment and send it shooting back [using compressed air] to the relevant shop counter sometimes several floors above.