(N/A) Things that have gone by the wayside

Skyrys62 said:
Agree...I was going to mention the same thing. My grandpa and his brother both were clock makers and fixed many a clock for folks too. They have both passed unfortunately, but a quick search around your area might provide a solution if you are interested in repair.
Love the sound of the old school clocks. Not that newfangled sound :raspberry:

kidding, but might be worth the search.
Click to expand...
This ^^. We have my mother's prized 1884 Vienna wall clock. For years it didn't work and was just a decoration. Then we found a clockmaker here in Phoenix -- he's of Bavarian descent -- and he completely and lovingly overhauled it. Now it keeps time to within about ten seconds a month.
 
I only have 2 clocks left from my grandpa. One is an old electric bedside, and the other is a hand made wall clock.
Neither keep perfect time anymore...by quite a stretch. but there is something nostalgic, and almost calming, about winding the spring and setting the hands on that old wall clock.
It's right at least twice a day :)
 
Zeldman said:
40 some odd years ago I took a class to learn how do develop my own film and pictures...... sure wasted my time, didn't I.?? :lol::lol:
Click to expand...

I've sold all of my film stuff except for the 1st SLR I bought myself in jr high using paper route money, my Minolta SRT-201. Just don't have the heart to sell it.

minolta-srt-201-35mm-camera-with-50mm-lens-student-camera-used-2.gif
 
Bill Jennings said:
I've sold all of my film stuff except for the 1st SLR I bought myself in jr high using paper route money, my Minolta SRT-201. Just don't have the heart to sell it.

minolta-srt-201-35mm-camera-with-50mm-lens-student-camera-used-2.gif
Click to expand...


I bought an SLR (an Argus; remember those?) when I graduated high school using graduation gift money from my grandparents. Like you, I'll always keep it for sentimental reasons.
 
Bill Jennings said:
I've sold all of my film stuff except for the 1st SLR I bought myself in jr high using paper route money, my Minolta SRT-201. Just don't have the heart to sell it.

minolta-srt-201-35mm-camera-with-50mm-lens-student-camera-used-2.gif
Click to expand...

I still have my first SLR. No original lens. It broke long time ago and precipitated in me buying a Nikon SLR which is long gone. But Nikon lenses fit this camera.

iE6YNN69U.jpg


I also have a roll of film (Fuji) that i think is unused.
 
Ahh, cameras:

I have this (my first real camera). My dad bought it in Japan when he was going to or coming from Viet Nam back in 1966-7

Minolta7s1.jpg


and this (my first, and only, SLR)

Nikon-FG-Camera-Review-1-of-8.jpg
 
Last edited:
Ken Ibold said:
Party line telephone. Pick it up quietly and listen to the neighbor lady gossip.
Click to expand...
When you were so bored even listening to old women gossip about their neighbors was entertaining.

"Hey, whose on here?!"

"Hang up, we're talking!"

"I know who this is. When I see your mother..."
 
DaleB said:
Pi would be massive overkill, and a total power hog. If I were going to do something like that it would be a PIC with code written in C.
Click to expand...
PIC can't do NTP. :)

But if a pi is overkill then so is a PIC. They still sell CMOS ripple carry counters. Hook one up to a 32khz source and output to the stepper.
Either way -- non-starter, really. I just couldn't bring myself to make it dependent on batteries or (horrors) a wall wart.
Click to expand...
Solar? Falling weights geared to a DC motor/generator charging a super cap?
 
asicer said:
PIC can't do NTP. :)

But if a pi is overkill then so is a PIC. They still sell CMOS ripple carry counters. Hook one up to a 32khz source and output to the stepper.

Solar? Falling weights geared to a DC motor/generator charging a super cap?
Click to expand...
Doing it with what we now consider to be "glue logic" is intriguing. For that matter, one could gut the clock, replace all the innards with a cheap AA powered clock box, and be done with it. They even make those with swinging pendulums.

But honestly I'd rather have a non-working mechanical clock (that I can still set & start during family gatherings) than a soulless abomination.
 
Half Fast said:
Pretty much any shop in school for that matter. I took welding shop. Long gone...
Click to expand...

But hey look here at all of the other options kids have these days. Some sound good, some sound like fun, some even sound educational, and some sound like you gotta be shizzing me.
 
Last edited:
Bill Jennings said:
I've sold all of my film stuff except for the 1st SLR I bought myself in jr high using paper route money, my Minolta SRT-201. Just don't have the heart to sell it.

minolta-srt-201-35mm-camera-with-50mm-lens-student-camera-used-2.gif
Click to expand...

Oh, and I still have my father's Voightlander Vitessa T that he bought when he was stationed in Europe. It's a really nice split image rangefinder.

9387484104_71421b2784_c.jpg
 
I remember when Subaru mounted the spare tire on top of the engine.....

4630325855_7eb845d28b_z.jpg
 
Matthew said:
I think you can still find these:

56755_articleimage_original.jpeg


xray_5.jpg


DarlingMonkey.jpg
Click to expand...


The widow of the gentleman who came up with those three ideas was my neighbor in MD. He was quite a character, probably the only jewish supporter of the Aryan Nation and the KuKlux Clan :-0 After he died, the patents and trademarks ended up in decades of litigation which pretty much depleted the fortune he had created by selling sea-monkeys, real monkeys and 'invisible goldfish'(guaranteed to remain invisble).
 
mscard88 said:
Do a search, companies out there that sell movements even complete grandfather clock kits. At least there used to be, maybe they’ve gone by the wayside too. :(

Maybe @Timbeck2 knows of something, he’s a woodworker.
Click to expand...

All I made was clocks with simple quartz pendulum movements. I don't know where to get parts for a grandfather clock anymore.
 
Graphic car accident movies in school driver's ed?

I remember one in particular, produced by the Ohio State Police. The narrator would talk about Johnny or Jane driving too fast, or whatever, then switch to the serious voice and say, "And THEN it happened!" Then there would be pictures of smashed bodies through windshields, caught in trees, and other pleasantries.
 
FastEddieB said:
One such was “Mechanized Death”. There was one other, but the names escapes me now.

I still remember an image where a pipe load had shifted forward, crushing the driver. It was quite graphic.
Click to expand...

Signal 30? That was one of the two when I went through Driver's Ed in 1974.
 
Matthew said:
Graphic car accident movies in school driver's ed?

I remember one in particular, produced by the Ohio State Police. The narrator would talk about Johnny or Jane driving too fast, or whatever, then switch to the serious voice and say, "And THEN it happened!" Then there would be pictures of smashed bodies through windshields, caught in trees, and other pleasantries.
Click to expand...

Yes, weren't those great.??
 
Matthew said:
Graphic car accident movies in school driver's ed?
Click to expand...
While I was growing up my dad was a California Highway Patrolman. The CHP magazine was always on our living room coffee table (my dad also drew the monthly safety cartoon that appeared in that magazine). Each issue was jam-packed with graphic -- though in B&W, fortunately -- accident photos.

Yeah, those publications had a real effect in making me a very cautious driver.
 
Ryanb said:
Remember when you could call a certain number and an automated voice would tell you the current date and time? There used to be one for the city by CenturyTel (now CenturyLink) many years ago.

‘It is Tuesday September 18 @ 3:14pm Eastern Daylight Time’

Of course this was back before the days when everyone had a mobile computer in their pocket.

Is there still a number that will give you this information? Don’t ask me how I thought of this.

<digging through my memory archives on a slow afternoon>
Click to expand...
Until the current admin pulls funding, NIST at 303.499.7111
 
Shepherd said:
I still belong to a dial up Bulletin Board.
Click to expand...

Ooh, bulletin boards. I remember dialing those on the rotary dial phone, getting a connection, and connecting the handset cord to the back of a 300 baud modem to push data. I could type faster than the 300 baud modem could handle the data.

Once, I called one of the local BBS numbers and someone answered. "Hang on a minute and I'll hook you through to the BBS." Guy was running a BBS off of his home phone line.
 
Shepherd said:
I have my own tube tester. :cheers:
I even get to use it, a couple times a year. :cornut:
I even REMEMBER how to use it. :happydance:
Click to expand...
One of my former neighbors was, probably still is, a tube collector. I don't know how many he had, but he kept some of the more rare and elaborate tubes in a glass case. That was a LOT of glass.

We had an old B&W TV that we took with us when we moved to Germany (Army brat) - pretty sure that was the TV we watched when Neil and Buzz landed at Tranquility Base. We got the TV rewired to work on their power (230/50 (?)) and watched the '72 Olympics terrorism live while we were living over there. When we moved back, we got a new TV (color) and the old one became mine...if I could get it working again. Somehow, when it had been converted back to US power, it never worked again, so I took it apart. I remember wrapping tubes in paper towels, putting them all into a grocery sack, and riding my bike to Radio Shack. After figuring out what tubes were dead, and pricing replacements, and smelling that a transformer was also burned up and needed replacing, and then doing the math on whatever I made mowing lawns, I figured I'd have to live without a TV for a while.
 
To hear these broadcasts, dial (303) 499-7111 for WWV (Colorado), and (808) 335-4363 for WWVH (Hawaii)
 
WWV, WWVH and WWVB in Fort Collins were the basis/back end of the entire American spy program.
 
Timbeck2 said:
The one we had to watch was "Red Pavement" or something like that. Pretty graphic.
Click to expand...

We jokingly called it, "The Highway Runs Red" or "Pavement, Bloody Pavement"..... I think the newest car shown was a '55 Chevy.

Teenagers.... what can ya expect.??
 
Zeldman said:
We jokingly called it, "The Highway Runs Red" or "Pavement, Bloody Pavement"..... I think the newest car shown was a '55 Chevy.

Teenagers.... what can ya expect.??
Click to expand...
All I remember was the narrator: "Johnny wasn't wearing a seatbelt and wasn't paying attention. He was on his way to pick up Suzy for a night at the movies...and THEN IT HAPPENED!"

I think we saw 2? I am pretty sure we had to watch more than one.
 
Noah Werka said:
What about words?

Mergatroyd...

Do you remember that word? Would you believe the email spell checker did not recognize the word Mergatroyd?

Heavens to Mergatroyd!

The other day a not so elderly (I say 75) lady said something to her son about driving a Jalopy and he looked at her quizzically and said "What the heck is a Jalopy?"

He never heard of the word jalopy!! She knew she was old..... but not that old. Well, I hope you are Hunky Dory after you read this and chuckle.
About a month ago, I illuminated some old expressions that have become obsolete because of the inexorable march of technology.

These phrases included "Don't touch that dial," "Carbon copy," "You sound like a broken record" and "Hung out to dry."

Back in the olden days we had a lot of 'moxie.' We'd put on our best 'bib and tucker' to' straighten up and fly right'.
Heavens to Betsy! Gee whillikers! Jumping Jehoshaphat! Holy moley!

We were 'in like Flynn' and 'living the life of Riley'', and even a regular guy couldn't accuse us of being a knucklehead, a nincompoop or a pill. Not for all the tea in China!

Back in the olden days, life used to be swell, but when's the last time anything was swell?

Swell has gone the way of beehives, pageboys and the D.A.; of spats, knickers, fedoras, poodle skirts, saddle shoes and pedal pushers...AND DON'T FORGET.... Saddle Stitched Pants.

Oh, my aching back! Kilroy was here, but he isn't anymore.

We wake up from what surely has been just a short nap, and before we can say, Well, I'll be 'a monkey's uncle!' Or,
This is a 'fine kettle of fish'! We discover that the words we grew up with, the words that seemed omnipresent, as oxygen, have vanished with scarcely a notice from our tongues and our pens and our keyboards.

Poof, go the words of our youth, the words we've left behind. We blink, and they're gone.

Where have all those great phrases gone? Let's all go to the beach Saturday"...

Long gone: Pshaw, The milkman did it. Hey! It's your nickel. Don't forget to pull the chain. Knee high to a grasshopper.
Well, Fiddlesticks! Going like sixty. I'll see you in the funny papers. Don't take any wooden nickels. Wake up and smell the roses.

It turns out there are more of these lost words and expressions than Carter has liver pills. This can be disturbing stuff! ("Carter's Little Liver Pills" are gone too!)

We of a certain age have been blessed to live in changeable times. For a child each new word is like a shiny toy, a toy that has no age. We at the other end of the chronological arc have the advantage of remembering there are words that once did not exist and there were words that once strutted their hour upon the earthly stage and now are heard no more, except in our collective memory. It's one of the greatest advantages of aging.

Leaves us to wonder where Superman will find a phone booth...

See ya later, alligator!

Okidoki

WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE FABULOUS 50'S...NO ONE WILL EVER HAVE THAT OPPORTUNITY AGAIN...WE WERE GIVEN ONE OF OUR MOST PRECIOUS GIFTS:

OUR MEMORIES

Noah W
Click to expand...

I can tell you where all those phrases have gone. Rural Oklahoma.

Almost everything you said us still fairly common vocabulary in these parts, including Heavens to Mergatroyd.

I'm 35 and use them myself, and know where most of them come from.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top